American Airlines Group
Background Summary:
- American Airlines, Inc. (AA) also known as “American” is a major US airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. It is the world’s largest airline when measured by fleet size, revenue, scheduled passenger-kilometers flown, and number of destinations served. American together with its regional partners operates an extensive international and domestic network with an average of nearly 6,700 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries.
- American Airlines is a founding member of Oneworld alliance, the third largest airline alliance in the world and coordinates fares, services, and scheduling with alliance partners British Airways, Iberia, and Finnair in the transatlantic market and with Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines in the transpacific market. Regional service is operated by independent and subsidiary carriers under the brand name of American Eagle.
- American operates out of ten hubs located in Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, Chicago–O’Hare, Philadelphia, Miami, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Washington, DC–National, Los Angeles, New York–JFK, and New York–LaGuardia Airport. American operates its primary maintenance base at Tulsa (OK) International Airport in addition to the maintenance locations located at its hubs. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is American’s largest passenger carrying hub handling 51.1 million passengers annually with an average of 140,000 passengers daily. The company as of 2015 employs over 113,300 people. Through the airline’s parent company, American Airlines Group, it is publicly traded under NASDAQ: AAL with a market capitalization of about $25 billion as of 2017.
Evaluation of the Product:
“The new American has arrived”
- American recently changed its look on the outside to reflect the progress they’ve made on the inside, revealing its new logo and the refreshed exterior of their planes. Now, they’re taking the next step in their journey to create the new American. With the legal close of our merger with US Airways, we’re one step closer to bringing you a stronger airline that offers greater schedule options, access to more destinations around the globe and a modern and fuel-efficient fleet.
- On January 16, 2013, American launched a new rebranding and marketing campaign with FutureBrand dubbed, “A New American”. This included a new logo replacing the logo used since 1967. American Airlines calls the new logo the “Flight Symbol, incorporating the eagle, star, and the letter “A” of the classic logo.
- American has dramatically changed in the airline market, such as adding new routes, code sharing with other airlines, and even changing their Domestic and International Food Menus creating then a completely brand and becoming more competitive when it comes to marketing and labeling.
- American also has changed policies and procedures after the FAA also changed its policies because of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
“Current Advertising: Because Great is What We Are Going For”
- “Going for great” addresses “the great progress we’ve made” since the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, says Fernand Fernandez, who in December became vice president for global marketing of American in Fort Worth, Tex., after overseeing marketing for US Airways.
- The theme also “alludes to the fact we’ve only just started” on the road to greatness, he adds, and that “we’re not necessarily there.”
- The improvements the campaign shines a spotlight on include new aircraft, Marketing Director adding that: American “is taking delivery of one new airplane every week.”
- The ads also describe “the ways we help our customers stay entertained and productive,” he says, like Wi-Fi, onboard entertainment and those lie-flat seats.
- “For us, it’s a bold commitment,” he adds, “a commitment to improve the customer experience.”
- The campaign is being concentrated in the three big markets for a number of reasons, Mr. Fernandez says. One reason is that the Los Angeles and New York markets are “highly fragmented and highly competitive,” he adds, and “we want to make sure we have a share of voice.”
American Airlines New and Old Logo
You have done some good research on American Airlines new advertising campaign. You don’t at all state why they might need to ramp up their advertising. See this from the LA Times last year:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-best-airlines-wallet-hub-20160420-story.html
or
https://lifehacker.com/the-best-and-worst-airlines-in-the-us-1667028259
You might want to try to specifically address some of the issues found by passengers such as on time rates or extra fees in whatever campaign you develop.
What do you think of the new logo? what kind of change is AA trying to make in its image with it? How will your campaign reinforce this?
What are your image ideas? Remember it does not have to be literal.
did you see this disastrous campaign?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/douggollan/2016/09/05/american-airlines-new-ad-campaign-is-memorable-for-the-wrong-reasons/#461ca3bb5df9