From Cheap Flights to Daily Deals, what’s going on Kulula?
If you haven’t been living in a cave for the last year or so, then you have no doubt come across the latest craze in eCommerce, that is, “Daily Deals”. The Groupon phenomenon has swept the world, as well as South Africa when they bought out two local “Copy Cat” sites. Kulula, most noted for their bright green low cost airline, have now gotton on the bandwaggon with the launch of “Daddy’s Deals“, yet another daily deal (Groupon) copy cat website.
So what’s going on Kulula? First you start of with a great low cost airline, which by all accounts, is still great (Except for the regurgitated cheap attempt at comedy by the flight attendants, but off course that’s just personal opinion as last time I flew Kulula I’m sure I actually heard a few people that still laugh about the “Tighten your seatbelt around those gorgeous hips” remark) . Next you branched out into Hotels and Car rental, which I guess would be a natural progression and compliment to the airline. But now, Daily deals? C’mon, this is a bit odd!
Ok, so it’s not branded as Kulula, apart from the little tagline “With love from Kulua” but still I smell a rat. With all the talk recently about the rise in prices of Fuel and low cost air travel along with the growing competition with the Taxi drivers now about to launch their own low cost airline, somethings gotta give, not only could Kulula go out of business but so could any of the other low cost airlines in South Africa. It seems to me that Kulula are looking at some pretty diverse options for new revenue streams with their new Daily Deals site.
So, in the end, who could blame them. Daily Deal sites make a fortune, this is evident by Groupons IPO and world domination, Kulula have a captive market. In fact I first heard about Daddy’s deals after receiving an unsolicited email from Daddy’s Deals, so clearly they are tapping into the fliers database. They have a great onboard magazine which is the perfect medium for advertising such a new company and Genrally speaking, South African’s love Kulula.
Good luck with daddy’s Deals Kulula, I’ll certainly be supporting them as I’d rather see the income from the next random hair removal or beauty therapy daily deal my wife and I purchase on Groupon rather go to a local company.
