By Jane L. Levere

Cathay Pacific's Mark Weinberger can be considered a marketing genius for two reasons. First, he's helped put his carrier, a small, relatively unknown Hong Kong-based airline, on the map in the United States. Secondly, he's done this mostly through the Internet, leading not only the airline industry but the travel industry as a whole in harnessing the marketing and sales power of the World Wide Web.

Weinberger, 45, has been Cathay's manager of marketing communications for the U.S. and Latin America for almost ten years. But his interest in transportation far predates that, going back to his childhood, in fact.

"As a kid, I used to have an interest in trains. I wanted to work on a railroad," he reminisces.

Hoping to eventually work for Amtrak, he created his own transportation major while studying at the University of California at San Diego. Equally vital longer term, he also worked part-time as a computer programmer.

After college, his childhood dream came true: He got a job at Amtrak in Washington, working there for six years as the manager of marketing information. Deciding there was "no future if I stayed in trains," he returned to California, first working for Burroughs (now Unisys), and then for PSA, a West Coast regional carrier that was eventually bought and swallowed up by USAir (now USAirways). In his three years at PSA, Weinberger worked in the MIS department and ultimately oversaw the carrier's frequent flyer program, until PSA was bought out. He left USAir in July 1988, joining Cathay Pacific one month later as manager of marketing communications. The rest is history.

Weinberger's title does not reveal the full scope of his responsibilities. He develops and implements Cathay's marketing programs for both the United States and Latin America. He oversees Cathay's advertising strategy in these markets, figuring out how, where and when it will advertise. He looks after Cathay's relations with AAdvantage, American Airlines' frequent flyer program. He handles all of Cathay's direct marketing efforts. And he is in charge of the carrier's innovative "CyberTraveler" Internet program, which allows individuals who register on-line with Cathay to receive special promotions and discounts.

Weinberger launched CyberTraveler in January 1995, far ahead of other airlines. "We were using e-mail at a time when people thought spam was lunch meat," he jokes.

Interestingly, Weinberger says one of his biggest challenges has been Cathay's lack of name recognition in the United States. "The name Cathay Pacific doesn't say this is an airline. It doesn't say where we go," he explains. "Most airlines have only one job when they advertise. We have the additional job of saying we're an airline and that we fly all over Southeast Asia. We need to convince people that we offer a great product and superior service. It's an enormous burden to overcome."

Another burden for Cathay, as it is with travel suppliers of all sizes and types, is limited marketing funds. Weinberger's answer to these challenges: the Internet.

"We send one million pieces of Internet e-mail to our 200,000 CyberTravelers at zero cost," he notes. "It's turned out to be a tremendous asset to us, day by day a more and more valuable resource. Communication is free and instantaneous. And it's beginning to generate significant amounts of revenue."

Cathay regularly sends special promotions to individuals who register as CyberTravelers. So far, these offers have included the opportunity to buy deeply discounted first and business class tickets to Hong Kong for travel a few days before the 1997 handover, when Cathay's traffic in these classes was weak (since most first and business class travelers who were headed for Hong Kong were already there for the festivities). Both classes sold out.

More recently, in the wake of last fall's crash of Oriental economies-which has severely dampened Cathay's important intra-Asian traffic-Weinberger has created the "All Asia Pass," which entails roundtrip travel between the United States and Hong Kong, as well as unlimited flights among the 17 Asian cities Cathay serves. The price for this pass is $999 off-line, $899 if purchased on the Internet.

"The Internet allows you to take a specific business problem and use a rifle, rather than a shotgun, approach" to solve it, Weinberger believes.

Although the executive admits the revenue CyberTraveler has generated is "tiny, by the end of 1998, $10 million for three years," he does say it has generated over $1 million in free publicity for his airline. "It's made us the airline of reference for activities on the Internet, and this is of tremendous value, especially with the challenge of people not knowing who we are. It positions us as a technological leader, as an innovator," he says. And Cathay is reaping these rewards at a very low cost: according to Weinberger, less than 5% of the carrier's total marketing budget is allocated to the Internet.

Always the innovator, Weinberger has cleverly developed and implemented other strategies to strengthen Cathay's marketing presence. By his own admission, he has "aggressively" pursued Cathay's frequent flyer partnership with American, which regularly puts the Cathay name in front of 30 million AAdvantage participants. He was the driving force behind Cathay's seven-week, $5 million saturation ad campaign in the New York metropolitan area last spring, immediately preceding Cathay's launch of daily Hong Kong service from John F. Kennedy International Airport. The campaign, later reintroduced, used Cathay's traditional green and red color scheme and brushstroke calligraphy with copy that was strictly in-your-face Noo Yawk; for example, one ad announced that Cathay would offer service from "New York to Hong Kong without the schlep."

Weinberger also considers it paramount to maintain good relations with travel agents, a rather unusual tack in the current era of ever-declining commission costs and increasingly antagonistic dealings between airlines and agents. "We've gone out of our way to make every offer commissionable to travel agents," he says. "We're too small to leave them out of anything we do. They're our prime distribution channel, they sell 99% of our tickets. It would be foolish to shoot ourselves in the foot and leave them out. In fact, we encourage people to go to travel agents by not putting our phone number on the All Asia Pass brochure."

What does this marketing guru see on the horizon for the airline industry?

He predicts the greatest changes will come with further solidification of carrier alliances, such as the six-carrier Star Alliance and American Airlines' proposed hook-up with British Airways. (Cathay has not aligned itself with any of these yet.)

"Next year, as the alliances finally come together, you'll see a profound effect on the way airlines deal with travel agents and corporate accounts. Travel agents that deliver will be rewarded handsomely by all airlines in the alliance. You'll see promotions, fares and mileage bonuses," he suggests.

Weinberger also expects these alliances will confer their own "elite" status to frequent flyers on member carriers. "This is an unexploited area with tremendous potential," he predicts.