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Am I the only one getting a sense of déjà vu and thoughts of the 1997 British Airways – project “Utopia” – tail fine debacle?
The work undertaken by Newell and Sorrell, was at the time described by CEO, Robert Ayling, as being “a corporate identity that will enable [it] to become not just a UK carrier, but a global airline that is based in Britain” and the airline should better reflect the international image of the UK as “friendly, diverse and open to other cultures.”
By 1999, BA had repainted around half its fleet (170 aircraft) in its new colors but, Ayling then announced a review of this process. The aircraft already repainted would keep the new designs, but the remainder of the fleet (still showing the original design from Landor) would receive a variant of Concorde’s Union Flag design – still used today. The final aircraft with a “Utopia” tail was retired in 2006 and the total cost of the failed rebranding was estimated at £60 million.
Jenni Romaniuk of Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has long advocated the importance of brands being distinctive. Distinctiveness is looking like you and not like others so people can easily identify that something is from your brand. She breaks it down into specific codes / elements like: logos, colors, characters, typefaces, sonic & audio and slogans & tag-lines. When used continuously and consistently they become distinctive brand assets (DBAs) and serve as mnemonic devices that trigger instant brand recall – shortcuts or patterns to recognition (heuristics).
Mark Ritson has said that you shouldn’t mess with your distinctive brand assets for 30 / 40 years, but sometimes – Team GB – maybe you should never mess with them?
#Marketing #BrandStrategy #DontMessWithMyDistinctiveBrandAssets