When I routinely crashed my jet in the 1987 hit game, Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer,
Chuck Yeager used to offer me his personal brand of feedback.
Lately, I’ve been thinking back to
Chuck’s snide analysis of my stick skills, and wondering if we couldn’t enlist
the salty old test pilot to give American Airlines a speed-of-sound kick in the
pants.
I have no love of commercial airline travel, and usually
resign myself to buying the cheapest ticket that meets my schedule
requirements. Plug me into Yahoo!
Farechase
and I accept my fate. Perhaps this online
shopping scenario is one reason why American Airlines appears to have given up
entirely on their brand.
Really, they’re not even trying anymore. Recently a work colleague was bumped to a
next-day flight by email notification.
As I was waiting around for my own delayed flight, I happened to get a few
extra minutes (oh, well, 45 of them) to stare at their logo on the wall of the
gate area. My read was not flattering:
Funny how you won’t even find this logo in the header
graphic of the American Airlines website,
perhaps indicating a curious internal lack of confidence in their identity
(though it is in the bottom right-hand corner… hmm).
Like most airlines, American Airlines has had considerable
marketplace turbulence over the past decade.
Along with United, they had the ill fortune of having two flights used
as weapons in the September 11 attacks. The
story is part of America’s
cultural fabric now, and I wonder if it’s possible that American Airlines’
spirit simply hasn’t been able to recuperate from the tragic plot. United, on the other hand, seems to have
managed to right itself, and one may wonder if Hollywood’s leveraging the heroic tale of
United Flight 93
has somehow helped the brand recover.
Oh, but American Airlines!
Who are the whiskey delta
brand managers who have not risen to reinvigorate your brand? Yes, you were maliciously misrepresented
in the “Path to 9/11” mini-series,
but if you don’t file a new flight plan soon, you’re destined to go down in
history
as the second airline with America
in its name to hit the hangers permanently.
And where might American Airlines look for inspiration? How about the newly emerging Delta. As the very first line of the sober SS+K commercial
intro says: Nowhere is it written that an
airline lives forever. Humble plays well.
Consider the subtle upgrades to the logo, too:
In a fit of post-bankruptcy ecstasy, Delta has not only gone
great distances to stress their Phoenix-up rebirth, but they’ve also tapped
Modem Media to create a Web 2.0ish new website hungry for traveler
contributions. They’re backing up their message of change by
reaching out to people who can help them change.
Come on, American Airlines, fuel-up and fly. You’re dangerously close to living out
Jester’s quote from Top Gun:
“That was some of the
best flying I've seen to date - right up to the part where you got killed.”
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I look at the logo and see sleek, composed and confident. When I see Delta's, I think plain (not simple), loose (not roomy) and ordinary (not confident).
The thing is, though, I'm not going to fly one or the other based on this logo. And, I don't know that the logo influences the reason why I'd choose one over the other.
I, along with MANY other fliers, will choose the airline with the best rates, first and foremost. Then, I'll choose the one with the best service. You just admitted to being pissed off by AA's service.
Sure, Delta's somewhat redesigned logo may indicated a redesign of their workings and such, but I don't know that people pass over AA because the eagle instills fear, and the "A A" reminds them of WTC, and the letters can be grossly interpreted as "no leg room."