Originally Posted by
knope2001
Yesterday's news is playing well in the local MKE media:
(1) There has been rather little specifically bemoaning of the loss of the hometown airline. A lot more wording along the lines of "Milwaukee's hometown airline is now a part of Frontier Airlines", as opposed to "Milwaukee's hometown airline is dead".
(2) There have been lots of statements along the lines of "little will change" and "implementing the key parts of Midwest into Frontier" were made.
(3) The tails of Frontier seem to be receiving a positive reception -- several newscasts even played part of the welcome-the-badger commercial, and the newspeople remarked positively.
(4) For several years, nearly every bit of Midwest Airlines news was framed with the AirTran buyout, the TPG buyout, and AirTran's subsequent growth here. Pretty much nobody framed the news this way.
(5) The quick news on local sponsorships and brandling such as the Midwest Airlines Center was a key move done correctly. Report after report from various local sources has mentioned this, and it is something of a reassurance to the community.
(6) As stupid as some think the cookies are, they are a touchstone to the "old" Midwest...their inclusion has been universally mentioned in local and national media. I just hope they spring for the EZ-bake ovens on the Airbus to make sure they are warm cookies. Don't underestimate that ifference.
Anybody who reads my posts for long knows that I can be highly critical of how the media has treated Midwest Airlines for quite some time. There's an incredible ability to spin information by how it is framed and the word choice used. The spin we've seen them put on yesterday's news is remarkably favorable, in general.
I hope they're able to keep that up. It's not something the old Midwest was especially good at.
Good analysis. Part of what's happening here, in my view, is that the general public sees a brighter, stronger future with this brand. I think that Midwest, for years now, has been viewed as a local, vulnerable brand on its last legs.
The new brand provides an infusion of excitement and hope for the future. The new ad campaign is a contrast to the rather stale and predictable YX advertising campaigns of the last 10 years.
We'll see where this goes, but I think both the general public and frequent travelers feel that this new airline is becoming a bigger player on the national stage than Midwest ever was.
Who would have thought that MKE would ever have two decent sized hubs that are both growing?! (at least for now...)