BearX220

Right instinct, wrong sequence of events. Wise to resurrect one of the most durable brand tags ever; unwise to make it ring so hollow by associating it with the business they've currently got. Fix the airline's culture first, then advertise it as "friendly."

.... often cited as a textbook case of tin-ear advertising: the ad agency announced United was "rising" as it was actually imploding culturally and operationally. Employees said afterwards they were never told to say or do anything different during the "Rising" campaign, making the chasm between brand promise and service experience seem even wider. There's a similar risk with this campaign today.

Right, and God knows the brand's been beaten bloody and needs rebuilding, because they've squandered most of its equity by whoring the United name out to terrible credit card marketing that, ironically, positions the core United service experience as essentially unfriendly -- and urges you to get the Chase card to circumvent it. So they have to overcome that too.

Have something to market first, then market it. They do have some premium hard product enhancements to point to but I think it's actually extremely risky to remind people of the "friendly" flying experience of the '60s and '70s and invite comparison to the very difficult endurance contest United represents for most customers today.

PV_Premier

agreed agreed agreed

if this change comes with a major corporate culture shake up, it will be a great turning point for UA. if not, it will be more hollow BS. my money is, sadly, on the latter.

UA_Flyer

+1

fly18725

I don't disagree with the premise, but I think the argument is a bit hollow considering that until today, the commonly held position on FlyerTalk was that management should have focused on advertising and branding, rather than dedicating efforts to integration and operations.

The Core of UA's Problems: No Innovation, No Creativity

Weak brand that is easily forgettable

Kurt

I see some friendly employees, especially the ones I know here in Denver.

Some crews and individual flight attendants have a lot of personality and even some of that old-time polish and sparkle. I enjoy those flights.

Other crews and flight attendants are not so good. Trying to engage them is difficult. I don't try anymore. Last week DEN-LAS (sCO), a veteran (27-year) flight attendant told me: "I love flying, it's the passengers I hate." Not very friendly! An ad campaign is not going to overcome that attitude, that surely comes across to passengers.

zabes64

I've sort of stayed in the background about a lot of things lately, but I feel it's time to reply on this.

First, yes, bringing back the slogan is a wonderful idea; but to paraphrase what many have said, they can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk. That is going to be the biggest issue I see here, are they ready on all levels to provide the "friendly" service that these ads are going to be talking about?

Second, this goes back to so many things, like the Airbii seat colours, what is the new United brand? I've mentioned this before and I mention it again, as a consumer, I do not understand their brand, their image and they have made it hard for consumers to identify with them.

They ran an ad yesterday for their Credit Card where a guy says I saved $75 on bag fees; my girlfriend who doesn't understand too much about travel said, didn't he pay like $89 to save that $75, didn't he lose $14.. wait why did he only check bags on 1 and a half trips, what about the return flight?

Obviously the change to these ads hopefully will be a positive, and again it's one step back to the path where they learn that pmUA may have done things differently, but they definitely knew their Elite base.

By this time for the past 10 years I had already booked 75 to 100K of travel for the following year... I have 2 trips and 1 was pre Spend announcement and the other is $Zero+Tax ticket, and that is it, because I no longer identify with the brand, I do not trust the systems (ie we all know how to bypass the upgrade queue with RPUs), I do not like baby-sitting my reservations, I don't like having upgrades sold out from under me, and if I have to spend $10,000 for status, I want it to be on an airline that feeds me when I get upgraded on a 2.5 hour flight during snack time, has power in the seats, has wifi on all their planes.

I can only hope that this ad campaign is more than just "Fluff" and that real changes are in the work to fix problems that have continued to manifest themselves over the past year plus. I have too many GS friends and 1K friends that have said they're done, sat next to a GS on an AA flight monday who said he spends 100K a year or used to, he couldn't take it anymore.

pigx5

I like it very much but I really hope they will do something and not just say something.

FlyWorld

I can't believe this.

First, the slogan is so untrue. It's on par with the "customer service renaissance" that isn't happening either. COdbaUA is the most UNFRIENDLY company I've ever dealt with, and, according to published surveys, is amongst the top 10 most hated companies in America.

For example:

http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/04/09/W...3961365523779/

"United Airlines was named the worst domestic carrier ..."

Second, aside from the inconvenient fact that COdbaUA is the very definition of Unfriendly Skies, I can't believe the lack of imagination! For 3 years they've done nothing meaningful in terms of branding and marketing. And, now, 3 years later, the best they can come up with is to pull an old slogan out of the closet and use it again?

Sad. Very, very sad.

BearX220

A lot of us believe branding and marketing are intrinsic to the success of the airline, and find the events of the last two years tragic. But I don't think anyone here has argued that branding and marketing alone, decoupled from the actual customer experience, can redeem a bad airline. UA suffers from operational mediocrity, a demotivated and apparently undisciplined employee base, and an apparently adversarial view of customers, the example being set at the highest levels. Not terribly friendly, no matter what the ads say.

There's a brand tag that's right in line with today's UA experience, right there.

andrewwm

These are the same seats that are on the pmUA 777s, they are not the same seats as on the pmCO 737s. The only thing differentiating them from the pmUA 777 E seats is the seat cover.

And people wonder why the rest of FT has such a low opinion of the UA forum...

bseller

Jeff?? Is that, YOU, Jeff??

bob_the_d

i thought the ad itself was fine.

shrug.

Kmxu

To be friendly to customers, there are many things that UA can do. UA can start from a few things listed below.

1) Reduce the change fees to less than $100 (domestic), $200 (international) and half of these amounts for Premier members;
2) Make the Economy Plus purchase refundable;
3) Allow one free bag for everyone.

...

thegrailer

Is it too soon to bring back the Sunrise Sunset and call it a classic?

kenn0223

Eh, those are all business decisions and I'd say are unrelated to the "friendliness" of United. I really just wish they'd get their staff to be nice and consistently provide their product. Disgruntled crew and ground staff who pick and choose the policies they follow (plus make up their own) and generally have little interest in making the passenger's travel experience smooth and comfortable are my primary complaint with UA. That all said, I end on on their planes every week because of their (and my employer's) business choices in which case the friendliness is irrelevant.