On the contrary, I think that there is an influence. But like most branding issues, it's an influence that mostly works subconsciously and can often be measured with appropriate tools; but if the customer were asked to verbalise the influence, they would have a hard time doing so. And it would certainly not be a direct effect. Nobody buys a ticket or other product simply because they like the look of the colour scheme or brand identity. But they often do so because they trust in the values and promises of the brand that is identified and represented by the brand image.

The overall appearance of an aircraft is important in conveying the brand's "personality". It's like it's the aircraft's "uniform". The immediate visual impact of the aircraft should shout "I am a British Airways aircraft". But as the fin is such a big element of that visual impact, having a wide variety of different images on it meant that the eye and the brain had to work a bit harder - and sometimes even at a conscious level - to identify the aircraft as BA. To take the uniform analogy a bit further, it would be like all staff wearing most of the current uniform, but being allowed to choose what tie or scarf to wear with it. Perhaps BearX220 has said it best:-It would have been different if the world image had been, say, only on the nacelles - but then there would have been no point.

The "new livery" is, of course, simply a subset of the whole Utopia scheme - keeping only one fin image from the entire collection. But its impact is huge. The aircraft are now all wearing a consistent uniform, and there is no longer any ambiguity about any particular aircraft. I just wish that the world images themselves had been kept for use elsewhere.