An exercise in USAir (re)branding

[FCYTravis]

For a PR guy like me, the "Cool Old Commercial" thread is really intriguing. It points to the passion so many employees and frequent flyers have for the USAir predecessor airlines... and there's a very interesting exercise in branding going on here.

Think about this for a second. I'm 22 years old. I was born well into the USAir era. My very first memories of flying go way, way back to... uh, 1986? I remember climbing down the airstairs of a PSA MD-80 at Burbank, wearing my PSA kiddy wings (that I still have somewhere).

That's 20 years now, and PSA still has a stronger (and very positive) brand image in my mind than USAir, or US Airways, or whatever. And I was in preschool when PSA was merged into USAir!

If there has been *any* marketing or branding going on for US Airways since then, it hasn't worked. That seems to generally hold true across the board - lots of passion for Allegheny or Piedmont... but say "US Airways" and not much of anything comes to mind.

It would, IMO, be worth trying for the new US Airways to work to capitalize on this Heritage ideal even more than they have already.

Introduce "Piedmont Pacemaker Service" on the trans- and mid-con flights out of CLT. Put PSA planes on the West Coast hops. Have Allegheny painted on the RJs and props and 737s out of LGA, PIT and PHL. Cultivate all these still-powerful disparate regional brands - and then market them as collectively making up a national "US Airways" network. "Piedmont Airlines - part of the US Airways system."

In short - US Airways essentially is a bunch of regional airlines that got smushed together. Those regional airline brand names are still strong, even after 20 or 25 years, while the "national" brand is stagnant. Tempe should think about exploiting those powerful regional brands to build an even stronger national brand.

But what do I know, I'm just a Gold Lite sipping Bailey's in 2D

 

[FlyUs]

The brand identity with Piedmont is so strong that Dave Siegel seriously considered changing the US Airways name back to Piedmont.

I got that directly from someone who would know. Meetings were held and the cost to re brand everything was the major stumbling block.

How far it got beyond the meeting stage I can't say but it was discussed in CCY at the highest level.

I don't think this would have worked in the northeast.

 

[AL-PS-PI-AW]

The brand identity with Piedmont is so strong that Dave Siegel seriously considered changing the US Airways name back to Piedmont.

I got that directly from someone who would know. Meetings were held and the cost to re brand everything was the major stumbling block.

How far it got beyond the meeting stage I can't say but it was discussed in CCY at the highest level.

That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard in my life.
:unsure:

 

[phllax]

I think the reason why people remember PSA and Piedmont so fondly is that they had ongoing multi-media campaigns - both on TV, print and with the airline itself. PSA had the smile. Piedmont had the Pacemaker. Both airlines named their planes after cities they served. Both had "signature" in-flight service. Piedmont even had a star of MASH do its commercials. USAir had none of that.

In their position, they didn't need it. If you had to fly to/from or within the NE they were it.

The first USAir commercial I remember was the "Thank You" commercial which featured the 3 shades of rust, so it must have been right before the mergers. The USAir begins with you campaign was actually not a half bad attempt to build brand awareness. I can remember at least 5 commercials (Full song, Mega Bites 767, & father and son in field being the ones I remember the most.) But then you had the 5 accidents. 5 crashes in 5 years became the unofficial slogan thanks to the media. No amount of advertising is/was going to help.

Even after the merger they still had major operations in the East, and were either #1 or #2 at some point before 93 at every airport east of the Mississippi except JFK, ATL, MIA, MEM, BNA, DTW, CHI, DET, MSP.

 

[JAXPax]

Roll out some "Fly With US" ads. Feature front-line employees. Feature management. Feature frequent flyers.

Other airlines have done this, notably United and American in recent years. "I'm John Public and I've flown over 1,600,000 miles on US Airways. And I'd do it all again. Fly with us."

I always thought it was a shame they didn't go further with the "Fly the flag" campaign.

 

[N965VJ]

In their position, they didn't need it. If you had to fly to/from or within the NE they were it.

That and dealing directly with corporate travel departments and travel agents.

 

[ONT_CP]

That and dealing directly with corporate travel departments and travel agents.

It is nice that US Airways/America West can rebrand itself to those who already fly them, they need to do it to those who do not. More commercials showing them vs Southwest and you do not get to rush for a seat... and they need to improve their first class and compare it to a full cattle car... all at LCC rates.

Until that happens, they will not attract many. But until they completely merge, they can not deliver a consistent product... so it is the chicken vs the egg.

 

[CLTBWIDAYSYR]

Tempe (and the old guard at CCY) are forgetting one big thing about good, professional ad campaigns: they energize the employee groups. They help morale. Those two things themselves should be worth finding a decent firm on Madison Avenue.