A ‘Tail’ of Two Brands

Angry citizens surrounding the capitol building are a common daily sight in Denver, so it came as no surprise when I encountered the usual on my way to a meeting last week. I figured the animated crowd was most likely protesting the new health care bill, but as I got closer, I realized it was a group rallying to save the lovable Frontier Airlines animals that so famously reside on the tails of the company’s airplanes.

Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc., which recently acquired both Frontier and Midwest Airlines, is considering doing away with the Denver-based airline’s popular marketing campaign that features animals such as Flip the Dolphin, Griswald the Bear and Larry the Lynx.

According to a report by Channel 4 News, both airlines have built fierce customer loyalty through their current identities — Frontier as a service-oriented airline marked with animal mascots on its planes and in its commercials and Midwest as a caring company that serves warm chocolate-chip cookies on every flight. As Republic Airways studies a possible re-branding of its entire fleet, the question becomes, how do you integrate two unique brands while retaining the customer loyalty on which those brands were built?

From a PR perspective, the task at hand for the airline giant will require determining the value of each company’s brand, then figuring out how to blend the brands together under one unifying identity.

So how do you decide? In-depth research and solid strategy.

Most brand consolidation efforts fail and fail expensively. Republic Airways needs to begin by researching the marketplace to determine the brand strength and general market opinion of the participating companies. My own research found a strong customer loyalty for the Frontier brand, unmatched by that of Midwest airlines. A closer look at the Facebook fan pages of each airline showed more than 6,000 followers on Frontier’s page demanding the animals stay, and 2,000 on the Midwest page actually complaining about the airline. There is also an entirely separate Facebook group dedicated to saving the Frontier critters which has more than 5,000 members.

This is where good strategy comes into play. To me, when deciding the fate of two brands, if there is an obvious winner, the losing entity would likely just take on the brand identity of the more popular airline.

In reality, one of the reasons Republic Airways purchased Frontier Airlines was probably because of its ultimate brand value. Those little animals have adorned the backs of planes for years and began talking in 1994. They have won critical praise around the country and clearly have a loyal following. My advice to Republic Airways – keep the strong animal brand that is Frontier and add a warm chocolate chip cookie to every flight. 

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/02 at 09:06 AM

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Glad to see Republic Airways took my advice!

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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/13  at  02:33 PM

As Republic Airways studies a possible re-branding of its entire fleet, the question becomes, how do you integrate two unique brands while retaining the customer loyalty on which those brands were built?

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I got closer, I realized it was a group rallying to save the lovable Frontier Airlines animals that so famously reside on the tails of the company’s airplanes.

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Angry citizens surrounding the capitol building are a common daily sight in Denver, so it came as no surprise when I encountered the usual on my way to a meeting last week.

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There is also an entirely separate Facebook group dedicated to saving the Frontier critters which has more than 5,000 members.

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