Managing Malaysia Airlines - a Fading Brand

Tutorial 10: Identify a fading brand. What suggestions can you offer to revitalize its brand equity? Try to apply the different approaches suggested in the chapter. Which strategies would seem to work best?

Malaysian Airlines, a Fading Brand

Malaysia Airlines has found itself in a crisis having lost 537 people in two global incidents just four months apart. This includes the disappearance of flight MH370 in which 239 people went missing and are presumed dead, and MH17 which a missile allegedly shot down over war-torn Eastern Ukraine killing the 298 passengers and crew (Airsafe.com, 2015).[pic 1]

The brand’s public image has suffered considerably, their failure to respond effectively to the incident have also shed light to the poor service of the company, which have all contributed to their already existing financial difficulties. The brand has made losses of 1.3 billion ringgit for the first nine months of the 2014, compared to losses of 827 million ringgit for the same period in 2013 (Topham, 2015).

Malaysia Airline’s recent tragedies have undeniably stained the reputation and image of the airline company. Hence this essay will discuss the different approaches consisting of reinforcing, revitalizing and adjusting the brand’s portfolio that would be most successful for Malaysian Airlines to revitalize their brand equity.

Reinforcing the Brand

Brand Reinforcement is all about maintaining brand equity; in other words, it is about making sure that the consumers have the desired knowledge to maintain strong, favorable and unique associations of the brand. Reinforcing brand equity involves consistency in the amount and nature of the supporting marketing program for the brand as well as preserving and amplifying the brand’s key sources of equity (Keller, 2013). There is a chance of the reinforcing the Malaysian Airline brand, prior to the disaster Malaysia Airlines did have some brand equity ranking 14th place in the Skytrax Global Airline Rankings 2013, an accolade that recognises service skills (Skytrax, 2013). Malaysian Airlines could fortify these positive associations of service and comfort by applying consistent marketing programs to emphasis on the service and comfort flying with Malaysian Airlines can bring. 

However, it is important to take note that once strong associations are formed they may be difficult to change especially negative word-of-mouth. Hence with the current associations that consumers are seen to now have of Malaysian Airline reinforcing the brand may not at all be helpful. As consumers’ strongest associations of the brand are currently highly unfavourable thus more drastic brand actions are needed for Malaysian Airlines.

Revitalising the Brand

According to Kapferer (2004), in order to revitalise a brand, it is necessary to redefine its brand essence, which will then be embodied in new product or services intended to achieve a new positioning. Hence, Malaysian Airlines can look to the following two strategic options:

Expanding Brand Awareness

As a national carrier, it also has a long history, dating back to 1947, and therefore and is a strong symbol of its country’s national pride. Furthermore, the reputation of Malaysia as a desirable destination – in 2014 and the country’s 27m tourist arrivals (Tourism Malaysia, 2015) has also helped the brand garner significant awareness. However, as discussed negative brand image with its strong and unfavourable associations to safety and service has already influenced consumers to place the brand in their inept set of airlines seen with dwindling sales (CAPA, 2014). Hence without first improving their image, activities aimed at increasing quantity of frequency of usage may not be effective at all.

Improving Brand Image

For Malaysian Airlines, more fundamental changes such as improving the strength, favourability and uniqueness of the brand are necessary. By improving their brand image, they can neutralize the mentioned negative associations and bolster fading and create new associations for the brand (Keller, 2013). A potential solution Malaysian Airlines would be to change their brand elements which could improve their brand image. The airline could simply rebrand the airline by taking the existing company and re-launching it with a new logo and a fresh coat of paint. A similar tragedy happened to Korea Air Line in 1983, killing 269 people. The Korean national carrier decided to alter its name to Korean air and underwent an extensive design overhaul which has helped the brand escape those associations with the disaster, and now have been rated one of the best airlines in the world (Andrews, 2015). Furthermore, due to the widespread of media attention worldwide, the world won’t forget what happened easily, particularly in the Asian market that makes up the majority of Malaysia Airline’s audience, where superstitions tend to play more of a significant role than in Western culture. Thus if Malaysian Airlines were to rebrand it could help the brand convey new information to its consumers and signal that they have taken on a new meaning thus disassociating the brand from its current negative associations.