Qantas : Some astute Commentary

[fishers.ghost]

1. WTF! Game on Alan. Let’s talk about the brand, where it was, is, and just who has damaged it.
2. Of all the elements a board and a CEO must manage and protect, surely building and protecting the brand of a company must be their number one priority.
3. Clifford came out swinging on the weekend saying the focus of the board and CEO must be, and is, on the share price and return of capital. But it is the brand that drives the share price, not the other way around. Everything else flows from that.
4. If you followed that logic Jetstar never would have been started and Virgin wouldn’t be spending a fortune relaunching and building the brand. If Virgin can do that, why cant Qantas?
5. Let’s look at the facts. This is marketing and business studies 101.
6. Qantas from the inception of the very first brand surveys decades ago consistently and without exception, year in year out, always lead the pack as the NUMBER ONE BRAND in Australia. This was not just in terms of brand recognition but also in relation to the more significant drivers of financial success in the market place; trust and emotional attachment for the brand.
7. The Qantas brand was pure 100%, 24 carrot, rolled gold.
8. This was Qantas’s number one asset. It still should be. Bigger than all the aircraft and other tangibles combined. Every airline has plant and equipment, but only Qantas had that number one position, the ultimate in brand power.
9. After sitting at number one for decades Qantas is no longer even in the top ten. But worse than that here’s a report from Readers Digest annual Most Trusted Brands survey way back in 2008.
10. ” … the iconic flying kangaroo, Qantas, dropped 47 spots in consumer confidence.”
11. You read right. In 2008 Qantas dropped 47 spots.
12. That massive drop in the brand if quantified in dollar terms is so much more than the net worth Jetstar has added to the Qantas group.
13. 
    So what happened. How did the best, most loved, number one brand in Australia for decades crash and burn. So quickly. So badly.
    There are two main reasons for this. And they have names, the first being Dixon, the other Joyce. The destruction of the brand has zippo to do with the current biffo with the unions.
    1/ When Dixon took over as CEO the Qantas brand was still riding high and proud at number one. It was untouchable. He was seen by many as marketing and PR genius. Yet the destruction of the Qantas brand can be traced back through these exact same brand surveys to having commenced during his tenure. It is no coincidence that this rapid decline coincides EXACTLY with the rise of Jetstar under the Qantas umbrella.
    BA when they held seats on the board warned Dixon an in house low cost carrier would cannibalize the parent brand. Dixon thought he knew better.
    We all know the story. As soon as Jetstar was launched Qantas pissed off many local communities with the haste it pulled out of so many key domestic and international markets and forced people who were used to, and wanted full service, onto Jetstar with an appalling lack of service.
    Everyone knows Jetstar is Qantas. Each and every time people feel ripped off or mishandled by Jetstar, which is often, the knife is dug deeper and twisted further into what is left of the Qantas brand.
    Just ask any of the tens of thousands of passengers forced to fly Jetstar (because Qantas has pulled out) to destinations like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Tasmania, Hamilton Island, Bali or Japan. They don’t blame Jetstar, they blame Qantas.
    2/ From the day Jetstar was conceived fleet renewal and investment in the mainline product ceased almost completely. While Jetstar got an entirely new fleet of fuel efficient A320/A330 aircraft “full fare” passengers on “full service” Qantas were stuck with clapped out, gas gusling, dirty and unreliable aircraft. The new Dallas debacle is a perfect example.
    As you point out Ben, when Qantas could have, should have been renewing its mainline fleet, such as buying 777 as did all of its main competitors, there was no money or motivation as all the focus and cash were thrown at Jetstar.
    Clifford and Joyce had already earmarked the first 787s for Jetstar, meaning Qantas mainline will not be seeing any new aircraft for many years. Just who has been subsidising who?This only serves to compound the destruction of the brand.
    Joyce is now the biggest most vocal detractor of Qantas brand, constantly screaming hysterically that long haul is in serious trouble.
    What would the books look like if Qantas had, as it should have as the premium brand, a fleet of all new and super efficient aircraft while the budget arm Jetstar was stuck with the old aircraft from the current mainline fleet.
    A/ Jetstar would no longer be making money
    B/ Qantas mainline would likely be making money
    C/ Qantas would have a product people expect of a full service carrier and it would be growing its market share.
    No one at Qantas either remembers nor understands these important lessons from history.
    The only player who appears to do so is John Borgettii. You can see he ‘gets it’ by his determination to invest substantially in a full service product, to grow markets such as this morning’s tie up with Singapore Airlines, the business and the Virgin brand.
    He knows where Qantas is vulnerable and it is insightful too that he is branding Virgin Australia as the Australian airline and he is vocal about returning jobs to Australia service his aircraft here.
14. interesting
    Posted June 7, 2011 at 1:14 pm l Well said SoB if only the mainstream media would actually invest some time in being journalists rather than merely being a conduit for media releases, we might actually be able to read the full picture.
15. Archer
    Posted June 7, 2011 at 2:15 pm | Qantas also handed Virgin the biggest free kick by overlooking John Borghetti

The Main Body of this commentary was made by an anonymous poster called SoB in response to Ben Sandilands piece on Joyce trashing the Qantas Brand in front of an IATA audience in Singapore