It SEEMED Like a Good Idea

According to InFlightHQ.com, American Airlines recently launched a new web site for women at www.aa.com/women.  The idea was to build relationships with the growing number of women business travelers.  Unfortunately, somewhere between the idea and the execution, things went very wrong.

Instead of being viewed as a positive, the site has been the target of some serious criticism.  It’s being called stereotypical and insulting. 

The lesson?  Be very careful about marketing to selected groups of customers.  Targeting marketing can be very effective, but as AA has learned, it can also backfire if it’s not done well.  According to InFlightHQ, American has used the criticism as a guide to revamping the web site.  But when I tried to look at it I got the following message:  "We sorry, but the page you have requested could not be found.  It may have expired."