American Airline's new livery is here to stay...

[Dillon 2,197]

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/01/02/60000-american-airlines-staff-chose-their-new-logo-drumroll/

[BillW 210]

They should worry more about customer service, being on-time and the condition of their aircraft. Superficial changes won't save them.

[Dillon 2,197]

They should worry more about customer service, being on-time and the condition of their aircraft. Superficial changes won't save them.

 

I agree. I was hopeing they would ultimatly entertain more options for the livery but just like many their new paint has grown on me. The choice that was given set the stage for the outcome, I'm surprised at how close it was. If you ask me the CEO played a slick one here. He didn't give enough options to choose from because he wasn't interested in changing it in the first place. He put on a good show to make employees feel they matter.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

I think they put a vote to employees when there was too many other things going on with restructuring and looming lay-off's, so basically asking employees should we spend millions more dollars on another livery or just move on... Considering people have jobs on the line the livery would be of lower importance to them. The ones who voted to go back to the old logo are more likely the older staff that have been with the airline for quite a while.

 

I think just move on as well, damage is done so more important to get those planes flying rather then what they look like, The new livery would look even worse parked in the desert. 10 years from now if they get things back to profits again maybe then they can reconsider a better branding.

[mwilk 1,106]

As one of those old time employees who is actually effected by this merger, the change in the tail wasn't a big deal. This is my fourth merger in thirty five years. At this point the only thing that matters is whether the checks cash every two weeks. They could paint the planes with purple polka dots. It wouldn't make a bit of difference to most of us.

[skully 1,045]

Interesting dichotomy the whimsical fun of branding the newly merged product by mgmt as opposed to the opinions of the people who keep the planes in the air.

Marketing vs Maintenance.

 

AA has destroyed the greatest airline livery of all time.

For my taste-The classic and the One World schemes are as good as it gets and are/were as good as a livery ever could be.

This new livery looks ok in the front but that tail design is a train wreck. Again, just my opinion.

They picked a poor shade of silver paint too.

[Dillon 2,197]

I think they put a vote to employees when there was too many other things going on with restructuring and looming lay-off's, so basically asking employees should we spend millions more dollars on another livery or just move on... Considering people have jobs on the line the livery would be of lower importance to them. The ones who voted to go back to the old logo are more likely the older staff that have been with the airline for quite a while.

 

I think just move on as well, damage is done so more important to get those planes flying rather then what they look like, The new livery would look even worse parked in the desert. 10 years from now if they get things back to profits again maybe then they can reconsider a better branding.

 

 

I agree but just the same all of what you have said here goes without saying meaning your points are of obvious concern.  What I'm saying here is the haphazard effort of just removing one tail logo for the older one leaving the fuselage the same as the new livery show a great lack of interest in doing it right.  The CEO stated it was too late to do anything about the new Eagle logo so the fuselage would stay the same with the old logo on the tail.  In essence AA would have two logos with that paint scheme.  The planes would look like crap.  Again I'm surprised the vote was close with a choice like that.  If the CEO was serious there would have been two or three real options put forth.  People had some great ideas out on the net for AA to draw from if they were really serious.  Jobs are of great concern but just the same 90% of the fleet has to be repainted anyway unless half the fleet is going to keep the USAirway livery and the other retaining the old AA paint scheme.

They could paint the planes with purple polka dots. It wouldn't make a bit of difference to most of us.

 

 

I highly doubt you all would want your planes painted with purple polka dots (unless it's some special livery for an occasion or company).  Airlines spend millions on livery design for a reason.  People are fickle and a crappy livery would reflect on the airline as a whole.  Great forethought has to be put into how an airline looks.  You can walk and chew gum at the same time.  An airline can invest in it's branding as well as focus on jobs.  An airline that pays little attention to it's presentation says allot about what it could be lacking in other areas. If the competition is looking good doing what they do best you had best be sure you do the same or suffer in the pocket.  The world is based on looks and little else anyway.

[mwilk 1,106]

Dillon,

            You give the travelling public too much credit. There is very little brand loyalty in the airline business. It's based mostly on fares and the ability to get from point A to point B with ease. My guess is that the vast majority of air travelers don't have much feeling one way or the other about how the airplanes are painted.Remember, you can put a tuxedo on a pig and call it Brad Pitt. It's still just a pig in a tuxedo. Service will determine how the "New" American Airlines does, not what livery is on the airplanes.

[Dillon 2,197]

Dillon,

            You give the travelling public too much credit. There is very little brand loyalty in the airline business. It's based mostly on fares and the ability to get from point A to point B with ease. My guess is that the vast majority of air travelers don't have much feeling one way or the other about how the airplanes are painted.Remember, you can put a tuxedo on a pig and call it Brad Pitt. It's still just a pig in a tuxedo. Service will determine how the "New" American Airlines does, not what livery is on the airplanes.

 

I agree with what your saying for the most part just the same tell me why airlines spend so much on airline branding if it really doesn't matter.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

I agree with what your saying for the most part just the same tell me why airlines spend so much on airline branding if it really doesn't matter.

 

This day and age people do go online to book flights and will compare prices across a few airlines, the branding you will see would be a 30X30 pixel that shows a logo icon and not much more, they are looking at the price per ticket and shortest travel times, least stop overs, and not much more. The USA is a highly competitive airline market with lower brand ratings compared to other markets.

 

 

The biggest mistake airlines make is changing their branding, if you look at the biggest brands on the planet, companies like Coca-Cola, IBM, General Electric, McDonald's ETC, very rarely or never will they change their brands. Reality is you don't spend decades building a brand only to change it. This is where AA has failed in my POV, They had something iconic and they changed it. Imagine if McDonald's or Coca-Cola did that.

 

I guess it is true they feel their passengers don't really care but I always felt AA was one of the most iconic of the airlines on the planet, now they look bland like most of the others.

 

Winner for brand awareness would go to Emirates, which has the highest branding rating for airlines. Considering they only started in 1985 they have done well to rise to the top. Delta has the top branding in the USA.

 

Edit:

 

Go to this page and click on Airlines in the pull down menu

http://brandirectory.com/league_tables/table/global-500-2012

[LHookins 3,103]

 

 

Imagine if McDonald's or Coca-Cola did that.

 

Um... Coca-Cola did just that.  Incredible marketing coup though.

 

Hook

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

Um... Coca-Cola did just that.  Incredible marketing coup though.

 

Hook

 

Yes this is true but that only happened in the US/Canada market. The rest of the bottlers around the world didn't follow as we still sweeten with sugar today. 

 

USA switched to Corn Syrup sweeteners back in the late 1970's which already ruined the formula before that New Coke fiasco, and that was just a marketing ploy, Reality is Corn Syrup destroyed Coca-Cola before that New Coke campaign anyway so the formula was already ruined.

 

In New Zealand we have Coca-Cola Oceania which still sweetens with real sugar, You can actually tell the taste difference and our Coke tastes way better then in the USA. In the USA you have to get your Coke from Mexico to get the Sugar formula. Most of the world is done with sugar so it is amazing that the USA has the worst formula and they invented the product (go figure). Mass production and cheap sweeteners and lower costs is the American way as that goes before the quality of the product. Coca-Cola is twice the price in New Zealand but the quality is also far superior. 

[mwilk 1,106]

In 1997, US Air changed it's' name to US Airways. It spent $500 million to repaint airplanes, new signage along with a lot of other things. To this day we're still referred to as US Air in the news media.Within 8 years we had been in bankruptcy twice. A rebranding that didn't have the desired effect.

[Stormtrooper 7]

Interesting....there's a reference in the movie 'Planes' about the new livery for American. The aircraft in question says he likes it.

[Luis_KMIA 242]

The only airplanes that won't see it will likely be the outgoing MD-80s and 757s.

 

From a customer service perspective, supposedly Mr. Parker wants to adapt "best practices" from US and AA into the new airline.  My frequent ravel to Latin America gave me lifetime Gold Elite status, which does have nice perks.  But like many of you said, at this point, people want to get from point A to point B cheaply without expecting much in terms of service.  The only comparison I've been able to observe first-hand was the business class from the U.S. to the Caribbean.  AA had a clear advantage in terms of seat comfort and meal quality.  The meals in US were pre-prepared cold meals, reminiscent of the days when meals were free in economy.