Die Welt verändert sich.
Uns fällt auf, dass wir kaum noch zuhören, wenn Unternehmen über sich selbst sprechen. Wir beginnen zu erkennen, dass Märkte aus Menschen bestehen, nicht aus demographischen Daten. Wir fangen an zu verstehen, warum es richtig ist, wenn unser Bauch über unseren Kopf hinweg entscheidet. Wir merken, wie das Internet unser Denken, unser Sprechen und unser Handeln mehr verändert als alles zuvor. Wir sehen natürliche Grenzen verschwinden: geographisch, kulturell, aber auch die zwischen Waren und Dienstleistungen. Wir wollen, dass nicht nur die Produkte, die wir kaufen, gut sind, sondern auch die Unternehmen, die sie anbieten. Wir beobachten erstaunt, wie einige Unternehmen Konventionen missachten und ihre eigenen Regeln aufstellen. Wir wissen, dass sich dies alles auf den Wert von Unternehmen auswirkt. Willkommen in der Welt des Corporate Branding.
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Airline Branding:
Rap or Yodel?
by Hubertus von Alvensleben 23 July 2009
Not long ago a friend of mine put a short video onto Facebook and added the comment, "Cool, this guy, won't see that with Hans Luft :)" ('Hans Luft' is a Nickname for Lufthansa). It shows a Southwest Airlines flight attendant giving a rap rendition of the safety information. Brilliant. I wish I could have seen that live, but I'm pretty sure that Lufthansa don't approve of that sort of thing. It leaves two questions begging to be asked - firstly, is this sort of thing actually beneficial to the brands Southwest and Lufthansa? And secondly, which of the airlines is, at the end of the day, the more successful?
If you visit the Southwest Airlines website, you quickly get a very clear picture of how the company wants to be perceived. After the obligatory "Safety Commitment" that all airlines churn out, I read the following statement: "The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit." Once you've seen the video you have to hand it to them - mission accomplished!
But what about Lufthansa? Would that kind of thing suit their brand too? The answer is pretty obvious, even if you don't know exactly what the Lufthansa strategists are aiming at. Lufthansa represents Made in Germany and Made in Germany represents Lufthansa. And that, first and foremost, epitomises reliability, safety, engineering and cool stainless steel. It's safe to say that Germany does not stand for Customer Service and it certainly doesn't stand for warmth or friendliness - which can all too clearly be seen in this internal Lufthansa brand video. The people are just too perfect, their smiles are simply too friendly. They're creating the illusion of a perfect world, just like that of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing that all and sundry got steamed up over. Do they really believe that a businessman would lie down for a sleep in the Business Class without opening his tie first?
The question that remains to be answered is, which of the two airlines is the more successful? OK, it's always hard to evaluate success, particularly when it comes to airlines. At the end of the day, both companies are very successful - each in their own way. Southwest is a sort of pioneer of cheap air travel in a highly-competitive domestic market, whereas Lufthansa is held to be an untouchable state-subsidised sanctum in the world of international air travel. However, as far as size, aircraft fleet, profits and flight routes are concerned, Southwest Airlines, which was only founded in 1967, is the hands-down winner. It's only when it comes to personnel that Lufthansa, founded back in 1926, finds itself in the overtaking lane with some 30,000 members of staff more than Southwest. But who knows - maybe there's a yodeling attendant among them!
Read: Airline - Identity, Design and Culture, Keith Lovegrove, 2000, teNeues Publishing
© Hubertus von Alvensleben Corporate Branding- legal information
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