Personally, I think one of the positive moves that the bmi group has introduced was the bmi brand, because it was taking a very tired old livery & logo, and really bringing it into the 21st century. The aircraft stand out at airports, although the uniforms that were introduced are pretty bland. I do agree however, that getting rid of the name "british midland" was a bad move, because this was a well liked & respected brand in the UK & in markets where they had been well-established.
Very few people, despite the huge publicity campaigns are really aware of what exactly bmi is, and I think it was silly to get rid of the "british midland" name. Recently, when in MCO I showed the UA checkin agent by diamond club card & said I was a member of the bmi frequent flyer programme. She gave me a quizzed look until I mentioned "british midland" when all became clear!
The bmibaby brand has done a lot to get the bmi group back ontrack, and to go for its small profit for 2004. I believe that the company does have a future in the bmi group, but that it needs to know what it wants to be when it grows up. The airline picks up routes as quickly as they drop them & in very few of the cities in Europe where they fly to, is their operation well established or well known.
bmi ought to consolidate their route network with baby. There are plenty of markets in; France, Spain, Portugual & Italy that the two airlines could be successful in - with mainline at LHR/MAN & baby perhaps in the Midlands. Until then, neither brand will be well-established enough! I agree with Lite that AGP for example would be a great market for bmi to try to muscle in on, and this is a popular baby route from all of their bases.