[Anonymous]

[IanFromHKG]

I was reading an article in Autocar (my favourite magazine) the other day where they were comparing various makes of car and, yet again, making comments about the differences between the premium brands and others, even where competing in the same segment and, more interestingly, from the same group (think Skoda vs Volkswagen vs Audi). And it started me thinking…

BA’s hard product, overall, is rather mediocre (cramped seats, poor IFE, etc) or patchy (superb lounges in LHR, but of highly variable quality elsewhere) and its soft product is wildly inconsistent (some superb crews, some which are very substandard). There is rampant inconsistency too across its different target markets (Club Europe is not a huge step up from Euro Traveller, whereas there is a huge difference between World Traveller Plus and Club World)

I cannot help thinking that its poorer products drag down its brand

Should BA do a VW/General Motors/Daimler-Benz, recognise that different customers are looking for different things, and break itself up into sub-brands? The domestic services could be the Smart Car – cheap, cramped, unsophisticated, but fun. Short-haul could be Skoda – it certainly isn’t premium, but is surprisingly good once you are on the inside. Medium-haul – perhaps that could aspire to be a VW – not overly exciting, but better than the immediate competition and therefore the default choice. And for long-haul – well, let’s face it, I see them currently as being Vauxhall/Opel – favoured by the “fleet” customers who buy in bulk because of the pile ’em high, sell ’em cheap approach, with patchy quality and iffy refinement, despite a few stars in the firmament, but less popular with the more discerning individual punters who prefer BMWs and Mercs (Asian and Middle Eastern carriers)

(Interestingly, the Middle Eastern carriers are doing a BMW – taking their premium reputation, and then cunningly marketing it into new areas and segments (long-haul flights from the British regions), and using that premium to command good prices even at the lower end of the market (1-series and 3-series))

Then, of course, BA could go in for brand rehabilitation. VW Group showed that even with a brand as maligned as Skoda used to be, you can (eventually) make a high-quality denim purse out of a sow’s ear. Long-haul could aspire, eventually, to be Audi – some way short of the BMW or Mercedes cachet but a worthy contender nonetheless

This way, the lower-end products could benefit from being associated with the premium brand – after all, no-one thinks VWs are terrible because Skodas are part of the same group and have the same underpinnings, rather people continue to think of VWs as being ahead of the main herd and Skodas get a boost because people know they are VWs underneath

The acquisition of BMI and the merger with Iberia provide a great opportunity to exploit these brands in the same way that the car companies do

What do others think?

[Note – edited after comments made by Hippocampus below in order to remove some of the more critical comments about BA’s current offering, since criticism was not the purpose of my post. Rather, my intention was to provoke discussion on BA’s brand image and whether it could be improved by sub-branding]

[Hippocampus]

[Deleted on reflection.]

[IanFromHKG]

Thanks for that insightful, detailed analysis, Hippocampus. Always a delight to read your contributions… And, to respond to the later point you edited into your post, it wasn’t a poke at BA, although I realise it could be read that way by the jaundiced reader – rather, it was intended to be a thought-provoking piece about how BA could up its game and exploit its brand more effectively

[Edited to add:] To try to address Hippocampus’s criticism about this being a poke at BA, I am going to edit my original posting to remove some of the more negative comments about BA, as I don’t want my post to be seen as an attack on the airline

[Hippocampus]

How many airlines with a fleet of over 100 long haul aircraft can guarantee a fully flat bed in business class on every long haul flight and the same hard product in business class on roughly 90% of aircraft?

That’s some way above Vauxhall/Opel.

[IanFromHKG]

I have no idea, Hippocampus, but that isn’t the point I was trying to make, nor do I think it is relevant to that point (which was about brand image, and whether it would be to BA’s advantage to sub-brand).

I stand by my comparison with Vauxhall/Opel, which was focused (as I explicitly stated) on attractiveness to bulk purchasers, patchy quality, and iffy refinement among other things – these qualities remain, regardless of how many aircraft they exhibit these qualities on (to address your comment head-on, it simply means they have over 100 planes with bulk purchasers, patchy quality and iffy refinement – I don’t see how that changes their brand image over that which it would have with fifty). There may be a better comparison out there, but that was simply the one that occurred to me as I wrote my first post. Now, if you would like to address the question I posed, rather than picking on my illustrative background for the question, do feel free…

[capetonianm]

I thought Ian’s analysis was clearly thought out, well presented, and makes a lot of sense.

Unfortunately the airline business is unlike any other, for many reasons, and I am not sure that the models he proposes would work.
The motor trade is based on selling one unit to one buyer who keeps it for a period of time. The airline industry has to market each unit (flight) to a wide variety of passengers in different segments and have them making repeat purchases.

Segmentation increases the complexity of operations, and therefore costs tend to rise, and brings along a slew of other logistical difficulties.

[IanFromHKG]

Thanks, capetonianm – nice to see the first constructive response to my post!

I wasn’t at all sure my idea would work, but wanted to explore the idea and get other’s views. I am always willing to be proved wrong!

To your point on segmentation, however, I am not sure that the cost increase would be so great. I deliberately chose the targets of my sub-branding proposal (domestic, short-haul, medium-haul, and long-haul) to correspond relatively closely with segments that BA already has (they just don’t draw a distinction between short-haul and medium-haul). However, if BA were, for example, to designate their 767s as medium-haul, I wouldn’t have thought it would be so hard…

[Hippocampus]

To answer your original question, BA is a network carrier. Short, medium and long-haul all support each other so splitting in them into separate brands only adds complexity and creates confusion.

The point I made about Club World is absolutely valid regarding brand positioning. As I say, there are very very few airlines with a long haul fleet the size of BA’s that can guarantee fully flat beds on every long haul flight and the same product on the vast majority of its aircraft shows a solid reliability and consistency of its long haul business class product that is absolutely part of the brand.

Club World may not have the gimmicks of other carriers but it offers across the entire network one of the most consistently solid offerings out there that guarantees what really matters (a flat bed for sleeping) and the value of that to business travellers should not be underestimated.

I think you also do a great disservice to the various customer service initiatives underway. The introduction of iPads to give senior cabin crew more information on passengers and address customer service issues more quickly being a case in point.

[IanFromHKG]

Thank you, Hippocampus. No disservice to customer service initiatives was intended – if BA is pulling itself up from its current brand positioning in the long-haul sector, then more power to it (although I think it is going to take more than some iPads, personally – first on my own wishlist would be a flat bed that I could actually lie down in as the current offering is 3 inches too short for me).

To counter your argument, BA already operate a form of sub-branding (Club Europe vs Club World vs Club World London City, World Traveller vs Euro Traveller vs UK Domestic).and it doesn’t seem to cause the issues you raise. However, I stand by my assertion that the poorer elements of BA’s offering, IMHO, detract from the bigger brand. Whether re-branding would help that (by freeing up the long-haul segment to move further upmarket) or damage it (by fragmenting the brand) is far from clear to me – but I thought it worthy of discussion, particularly since many other threads indicate that, despite its many strengths, BA’s long-haul offering is widely seen as being some way behind that of the really premium carriers

[Tete_de_cuvee]

Not wishing to digress however Hippo BA needed to get the basics right before the gimmicks. Having a reliable HD IFE system with enough drives should have taken precedence over iPads for CSD/CSMs/Pursars.

Yes the iPad can record the problem and using the matrix recover by offering points however I would prefer the problem not to occur in the first place. Prevention is better than cure.

The latest gimmick currently being trialed, using the ipad, is an onboard concierge service. It should have been rejected immediately. Ask most cabin crew how many times per year they are asked for advice on Hotels or Restaurants in the destination – answer 2 or 3 times per year! And most of the places crew would use downline would not be appropriate for a family or ??. Tripadvisor is perfectly adequate and I doubt if crew recommendations could ever beat the diversity, selection and feedback. The ipad is being used to solve problems which don’t exist.

Get the basics right first.

The BA product can never be regarded as premium as long as it is unreliable and inconsistent.

[Binman62]

On the matter of how many carriers can offer a consistent hard product across the fleet. It is true that BA does this well with CW but the same cannot be said for First which is fast becoming a laughing stock………As I pointed out on a previous post some commentators have stated BA has an excellent Business class product that they market as First!.

Nor is it true of WT+ or indeed WT where product delivery is very patchy due to the extraordinary long lead times for implementation.

In addition the main complaints about lack of consistent hard product are around SQ and CX regional services where the product is variable. However these are regional flights and compared to BA in Europe are outstanding no matter the hard product used.

Etihad, Qatar and Emirates all have differing product on different aircraft however they also tend to route specific and advertised appropriately. Again I wish the same the same could be sad for BA and the hype given to New First when 2 aircraft had the product. This is still a lottery on many routes and unacceptable given the vast difference in quality.

The original post was considered and certainly not a rant from my reading of it. If it would work is another matter but something needs to be done and PDQ. BA may be the reigning Queen across the pond but is a pretender on any other route……..( and given AA new hard products maybe no for much longer will BA have dominance over the Atlantic)

[skyguy79]

Turn bmibaby into BHols ( British Holidays ) and replace WW 737s with BA A320s

BA worldwide into BA Global ( covering all flights over 5 hours )

BA UK /Europe into BA Europa and I mean Europa not Europe with upgraded catering and 1 class which would be Euroclass offering the ex British Midland Diamond Service style meals !

[NTarrant]

Ian I understand where you are coming from and it is quite an interesting thought. I would be interested to know what you would propose as branding, re-incarnation of BEA and BOAC perhaps?

BA has a large network and when it makes improvements or things going down the pan it has an effect on the network. It might be better to focus a branding on core routes. If you look at bus company Trentbarton, its network of services are a multitude of brands. I’m not suggesting that each route on BA becomes a brand, but it may be that with some creative thinking certain style and branding could be introduced on some routes, with dedicated staffing.

[LeTigre]

I think that like all other European carriers, BA will sooner or later be forced to create a ‘BA Express’ short-haul airline to takeover unprofitable routes. However, BA’s brand is quite strong and I don’t anticipate a brand break-up quite so soon.

However, if you are really thinking about a VW model for BA, you need look no further than IAG, which is pursuing precisely that strategy- same group, different brands, same industry.

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