Malaysia Airlines marketing boss: We now have brand awareness to match Coke and Pepsi, why would we rebrand?
The head of marketing for Malaysia Airlines has said that a rebrand and renaming of the troubled airline would have been a “tragically bad mistake to make” in the wake the MH370 and MH17 disasters, partly because of the high levels of awareness that the brand now has.
In an extensive interview with Mumbrella at the Festival of Media Asia yesterday evening, Dean Dacko, the airline’s head of marketing said that prior to the disappearance of the MH370 jet in March 2014, Malaysia Airlines’ brand awareness was “in the low single digits”. But after the double disaster, brand awareness of MAS has risen to 86 per cent worldwide.
After the MH17 tragedy, speculation mounted that Malaysia Airlines would change its name and completely rethink its brand.
“Name recognition is now in the range of Coke and Pepsi. That kind of awareness takes decades and billions of dollars in investment to build. To abandon that, from a commercial marketing perspective would be a tragically bad mistake to make,” he said.
He added that, since so many people have rallied around the brand and embraced the campaign solidarity messages of ‘Fly High’ and ‘Stay Strong’ in the wake of the catastrophes, the airline “would not be honouring that message… and leveraging that as a springboard” if it had rebranded.
Dacko conceded that the airline has a lot of work to do to regain lost trust.
“We need to tell people more about what we’re doing to move forward,” he said.
“We need to continue to show how committed we are as a brand. Time will slowly help us restore confidence and trust. But we have to do more, faster – from a marketing perspective – to support that message.”
“This won’t be about cheap flights to Bali. It will be about images and content that remind people that we’re still strong and healthy, and we’re moving forward,” he said.
The Canadian, who is just over two and a half years into a two-year plus one contract with the airline, said that the company faces budget constraints given financial difficulties and an ongoing corporate restructure.
“You won’t ever meet a marketing guy ever who tells you he has what he needs. In our case, this is magnified to a greater degree,” he said.
“The company’s finances were not in good shape before MH370 or MH17, and are not better since. None of our competitors have anywhere near the same degree of challenge that we have, and our financial resources are nowhere near what we need. So we’re trying to be as creative and as efficient as possible.”
Malaysia Airlines agencies include Ogilvy & Mather, which handles creative, IPG Mediabrands, which handles media, and social media agency Rally.
On the task ahead, Dacko said: “The key thing for us is not to take that trust for granted, and be 100 per cent consistent with what we’re doing. We could negate any progress we’ve made if we’re not authentic. Authenticity is the guiding proposition for us.”
linking their uptick in brand recognition to 2 planes with the loss of hundreds of lives is gob-smacking. Not matter what the intent was, this is an insult to every person that lost a loved one.
ReplyHave some respect for those aboard MH370 and MH17. As a professional marketing person you should know not to be seen to be capitalising on tragedy. True or not don’t brag about the outcome.
Replywhile u agree Malaysians rallied behind the brand, it is to be noted the brand has lots of negatives. While you may argue that the brand has similar levels of recognition as coke or Pepsi, it is for the wrong reason. So even if the decision is to retain the brand, it needs a new identity. Maybe adding a strap line the encapsulates the new philosophy.
ReplyWell stated above. Licking lipstick it is. Brand recognition for all the wrong reasons. I think the next 2 year tenure requires a rethink!Quite frankly they can do a lot with very little money and a sense of urgency would not go amiss
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