Sunfish,
Lets look at some facts of life here.
Your marketing genius was asked some questions relating to business and gave some useless hyped response.
Fortunately some discerning members of the media saw this and wrote stories accordingly.
Its almost now as if the attitude is, 'whats that twit Branson going to do next.....sacrifice himself to the Gods?".
Branson's Virgin empire is holding its own in Australia and is hardly setting the relevant industries on fire.
Virgin Blue is making a profit (hard not to domestically in Oz) but their profits and yields are down.
Their share price is over 10% below issue price - and thats in a bull market seeing the Australian Share Price index at record highs!
When questioned about this Branson gave some luke warm response that lacked any real insight.
The
VB low cost model now has some serious competition that is severly hampering
VB's growth and profitability.
Virgin Mobile is very mediocre profit wise and is hardly offering anything remotely competitive.
It's hardly innovative and the other providers are cheaper and more creative when it comes to plans/billing etc.
Virgin Mobile tried to tap into the youth market but failed to realise that the other Telco's were offering great deals with extra handsets, free SMS etc for existing customers for their kids.
Virgin Records is publiclycomplaining because their competition primarily is HMV Superstores that seem to pop up very close to Virgin Stores and offer a larger range.
Virgin Credit cards have hardly anything extra to offer and you have to talk to some patronising schoolkid for customer service that loves to say, "like, I dont know, I'll talk to my supervisor but".
Bare in mind that alot of Virgin Blue groundstaff applied for the Virgin credit card and apparently were knocked back for whatever reason. There's a great advert for them!
And finally if it wasnt for Singapore Airlines buying 49% of Virgin Atlantic they would have almost certainly gone by the wayside after 9/11.
If not then SARS would have finished them off.
No amount of "marketing genius" Sunfish can fix the above mentioned problems, only good old responsible business management and competitiveness which Richard Branson cant always control.
As consumers, Australians dont seem to be concerned with the advertising hype you crave so dearly Sunfish.
We prefer reality, and if we see a good product thats cheaper and more competitive then 9 times out of 10 we'll go for it.
No amount of parachuting, bungy jumping or whatever will change that.
Branson proclaims to "bring on the competition" but after the business is sold they complain about unfare and predatory practices.
As for "cash for comments" Hugo..... do you honestly think in all reality that Virgin Atlantic or Richard Branson has never done this?
No!!
Surely not!!!!
Dont be so damned naive Hugo.
Whiskery - you are absolutely correct.
The Sheikh would actually pay someone else to jump for him!!
Sad though that the most popular footy club in Oz couldnt get an Australian sponsor.
Maybe their price was too high??
Perhaps Richard Branson would like to buy in?????