Dumbed down airline branding
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 120
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dumbed down airline branding
Many believe that BA "lost it" when it gave up its formal, British image and introduced ethnic tailfins. So why have so many airlines effectively done the same thing by giving up their more formal images in favour of garish, dot-commy, My Little Pony efforts? Capital letters have certainly gone out of fashion..........witness go, bmi, bmibaby, easy, flybe. The whole world is dumbing down and I suppose the airlines are simply going with the flow.
Paxing All Over The World
I think there are a couple of factors at work here.
Firstly, the marketing people like a re-branding exercise as it gives them lots to do and helps to justify their existance.
Secondly, senior managment like a re-branding exercise for the above reason but it can also help cover up other problems, or side-step them, with promises of 'It'll be better after the rebranding". This gives them time to find another job or get closer to retirement!
Thirdly, fashion - pure and simple. Before tailfins we had the full body paintwork of Qantas Dreamtime and many, many others. We have also had the time when engine pods were the focus and started carrying principal colour, accented by a contrasting colour.
Now we have the fashion of The Wavy Line. The horizontal 'cheat' line is vanishing to have a line that oscillates along the aircraft, cutting the natural lines of the machine.
In due course it will be something else as it is merely fashion.
Do I like it? No, I think it a childish waste of management time and money that should be paid to the staff. But, nowadays, all companies are like this. Note that a year or two ago, the oil company BP, threw away a logo established across many decades and replaced with an image that looks like a well known brand of margarine!
Sensible? No.
Stop it? No.
In the last 15 years we have had the fashions of Total Quality Management and then Business Process Re-engineering and so on. Since that all fell by the wayside, now it is the marketing and sales departments turn to spend lots of money trying to revitalise the company. Sorry enterprise that being the favourite word right now.
One day someone will come up with the 'new' idea of building a company by long hard slog. By ensuring that the staff are well looked after, so that they look after the customers, who will look after the company.
Hey! Do you think I can get a job as a managemet guru?
Actually, the problem with my idea is that it can only be measured across a decade of putting in money and hard work. Nowadays, the stock market doesn't like that. Nor do politicians, which is why they adopt the same set of marketing practises. It is no surprise that we do not like politics when they go for the short term win.
Cynical? Yes. I have worked for 22 years in a number of companies, also freelance consultancy. I have done so in this country and others, for British management as well as those of the USA, Germany, South Africa and Hong Kong. There is no differance between them.
This may be particularly bitter as I have just had a VERY long weekend's work due to my client not knowing what they are doing and various third party contractors not having the guts to own up that they could not complete their work in the time previously stated
Firstly, the marketing people like a re-branding exercise as it gives them lots to do and helps to justify their existance.
Secondly, senior managment like a re-branding exercise for the above reason but it can also help cover up other problems, or side-step them, with promises of 'It'll be better after the rebranding". This gives them time to find another job or get closer to retirement!
Thirdly, fashion - pure and simple. Before tailfins we had the full body paintwork of Qantas Dreamtime and many, many others. We have also had the time when engine pods were the focus and started carrying principal colour, accented by a contrasting colour.
Now we have the fashion of The Wavy Line. The horizontal 'cheat' line is vanishing to have a line that oscillates along the aircraft, cutting the natural lines of the machine.
In due course it will be something else as it is merely fashion.
Do I like it? No, I think it a childish waste of management time and money that should be paid to the staff. But, nowadays, all companies are like this. Note that a year or two ago, the oil company BP, threw away a logo established across many decades and replaced with an image that looks like a well known brand of margarine!
Sensible? No.
Stop it? No.
In the last 15 years we have had the fashions of Total Quality Management and then Business Process Re-engineering and so on. Since that all fell by the wayside, now it is the marketing and sales departments turn to spend lots of money trying to revitalise the company. Sorry enterprise that being the favourite word right now.
One day someone will come up with the 'new' idea of building a company by long hard slog. By ensuring that the staff are well looked after, so that they look after the customers, who will look after the company.
Hey! Do you think I can get a job as a managemet guru?
Actually, the problem with my idea is that it can only be measured across a decade of putting in money and hard work. Nowadays, the stock market doesn't like that. Nor do politicians, which is why they adopt the same set of marketing practises. It is no surprise that we do not like politics when they go for the short term win.
Cynical? Yes. I have worked for 22 years in a number of companies, also freelance consultancy. I have done so in this country and others, for British management as well as those of the USA, Germany, South Africa and Hong Kong. There is no differance between them.
This may be particularly bitter as I have just had a VERY long weekend's work due to my client not knowing what they are doing and various third party contractors not having the guts to own up that they could not complete their work in the time previously stated
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: London,Bucharest...wherever...
Posts: 1,014
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Agree with all your sentiments Paxboy...
Re-branding is real money spinner for the jokers who get away with charging for stating the bleeding obvious - get a quote from Superbrand or Landor...basic 'study' is $1 mil plus...
As you say in a couple of years the latest re-branding gimic will be to revive the 'traditional image'...and round and round all over again...
Last 'fad' was ISO 9000...again as far I could see implemented by jokers with large expense accounts...
Re-branding is real money spinner for the jokers who get away with charging for stating the bleeding obvious - get a quote from Superbrand or Landor...basic 'study' is $1 mil plus...
As you say in a couple of years the latest re-branding gimic will be to revive the 'traditional image'...and round and round all over again...
Last 'fad' was ISO 9000...again as far I could see implemented by jokers with large expense accounts...
perhaps I'm doting - at 36 - but it really was fab to see that Qantas 707 of JT in it's original livery, also the BOAC 747 done by BA just before it's retirement. Probably not cost-friendly, but refreshing it sure would be to see a few of yesteryear's colour schemes revived on the odd aircraft.
