Easter vacation is just around the corner. I'm heading up to Lillehammer, the olympic host of 1994. Emma is flying in on thursday and we're driving up in the evening.

Last week Norwegian.no was rated the best airline website in Europe. The independant review was done by the respected consumer magazine www.dinside.no (roughly translated to"your side/page"). We beat Ryanair, SAS, Sterling, FlyNordic and many more.. The only differentiatiors was our "Low fare calender", which shows all the prices to one destination in a calender format. It's not unique, but it appeals to customers that are price aware.

Other job news; I am speaking at another conference http://www.estrategi.no/konferanse . Estrategi is one of the leading publications when it comes to strategy and the web..

One strategic dilemma that Norwegian has these days is whether to select a focused product promotion strategy or a wide approach. By this I mean;

Focused product promotion is to focus on the core business of selling more airline tickets to our customers. We can still promote 3 party products, but our focus is on selling airline tickets.

Wide approach is becoming more of a travel agency. Doing everything yourself.

It's an interesting dilemma that reminds me of the Amazon.com vs. eToys dilemma. This dilemma ended up with Etoys going out of business, while Amazon.com created a joint venture with Toys 'R Us.

I think the correct approach is to look for strategic partnerships where each party keeps a focus on their own core competency. If you look at Amazon.com today, the entire Toys section is branded with Toys 'R Us. I believe this has proved over time to be the winning strategy. Strategic partnerships where you benefit from the "start-up spirit" and new technology of Amazon.com while the large brandname Toys 'R us brings the experience from the toy industry and the infrastructure.

The good thing about blogging is that you don't have to worry that much about grammer and sentences making sense;)