Great moments in brand management: Henan Airlines puts photos of its recent crash on its homepage—a crash that killed 42 passengers. The airline has sacked its general manager, and officials from Henan Province have demanded that the airline change its name.
Archive for August, 2010
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Monday, August 30th, 2010Save the Continental Name
Monday, August 30th, 2010
On Tuesday, I posted an interview with Timothy Jasionowski, one of the founders of Save the Tulip. Today, here’s the other side of the debate over the new airline born of the merger between Continental and United. “Muzio Scevola” is the creator of Save the Continental Name. His name is an alias, and it’s not hard to understand why if, as he says, he works in customer service for United. (more…)
Armchair Marketing: Continental Ads
Monday, August 30th, 2010Hypothetical situation: you’re the brand manager for Continental Airlines. Your brand name is just a couple months away from disappearing. Do you keep advertising, or do you go dark?
Well, if you watched Mad Men tonight, you know the answer. This is the ad, which was created in March and aired as recently as tonight.
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Sunday, August 29th, 2010Air New Zealand follows up its naked safety briefing with a new one: crazy about rugby. (Via @witold)
Save the Tulip
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
The battle lines have been drawn. On one side, United loyalists fighting to save the iconic “tulip” logo designed by Saul Bass in the 1970s. On the other, Continental loyalists fighting to save the airline’s name.
Right now, the “Save the Tulip” group on Facebook has 1,635 members. The “Save the Continental Name” group has just 109 members. They are both fighting to overturn a decision that airline executives insist is final.
Timothy Jasionowski is one of the founders of the United group. In this e-mail interview, he explains why United travelers are so attached to the airline’s brand. I hope to have an interview with one of the creators of the Continental group shortly. (more…)
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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010And now for my first-ever post from 24,000 feet as I fly to DFW: this funny livery from South Africa’s Kulula Air is a few months old now, but maybe it’s new to you, as it was to my mother, who sent it to me. Enjoy!
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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010From the Chicago Tribune, there’s this timeline comparing the logos of United and Continental over the decades.
Photos: Chelsea
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
These are photos of the end of an era. Continental is the last major U.S. carrier to serve meals in coach on domestic flights. Starting this fall, there will be none left. Continental will replace free meals with buy-on-board options, reflecting “today’s market and consumer preferences.”
Now, I’m not sure consumers would rather buy a $5 can of Pringles than get a free meal, but still, this decision seems a long time coming. (You can see what you’ll be missing at airlinemeals.net.)
Continental is also the last major U.S. carrier to operate its own flight kitchens. Chelsea Food Services is wholly owned by Continental. At the airline’s Newark hub, Chelsea prepares about 28,000 meals a day for 200 flights—half the total number of flights at Newark every day. (more…)
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Saturday, August 21st, 2010From Popular Science in 1947, a guide to the logos of America’s largest airlines. Of the 13 airlines included, only three still exist today.
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Monday, August 16th, 2010JetBlue just had its best quarter ever, and was just ranked best low-cost carrier by JD Power & Associates. Clearly, this is an airline in serious trouble. AdAge insists jetBlue is in a brand death spiral because of its handling of the Steven Slater incident. Some analysts get some press, including this chestnut: “JetBlue is a brand, whereas the names of other airlines are just that, names.” If anyone knows what that means, please tell me.