As a Seattle resident and an admitted travel geek, my algorithm has been flooded this week with newly released details of the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines by Seattle-based Alaska Airlines.

My friends who work for Alaska are thrilled because it means new routes, new planes, and new layover options.

Those of us who fly Alaska are excited because it means expanded destinations and more ways to earn status and redeem miles under the Alaska Airlines umbrella.

Surface-level excitement aside, what caught my eye yesterday was the commentary about the branding strategy: they’re keeping both brands.

This is pretty unusual for airline mergers:

• US Airways was absorbed into American Airlines
• Continental was absorbed into United
• Northwest was absorbed into Delta

And while this article cites some reasons why they’d want to maintain separate branding (some have to do with merger approval)...

It also highlights that the decision to not “pick a lane” or even create a new one can spark immediate complexity:

• Alaska has said planes going to/from Hawaii will be branded and painted as Hawaiian Airlines, so does that mean aircraft won’t be swappable, by day or even seasonally?
• Does the combined airline need to maintain separate apps? Check-in desks? Policies?
• Do the crew need to be issued separate uniforms? Take brand-specific trainings?

As a solo, service-based business, most of these complexities are not anything you would need to worry about.

But say you’re currently straddling the line trying to serve two distinct audiences — there are many things you have to think about not once, but twice:

• Building content for two different audiences
• Building two different pipelines
• Having two different mental frameworks for sales calls
• Packaging and pricing two different service types
• Perhaps two different websites? Even two different Calendly links?

All combined, how much time do you spend juggling vs. actually creating value?

Drilling down to one lane not only grows your authority and profile in that niche, but also eliminates significant complexity.

In sum, try to think of your business as one airline. Not two.

Why? Because complexity sinks profitability.

💡

-Wes