Part 1: Air Asia ‘Childish’ Marketing / Brand Campaign

This is Part 1 of many parts of my brand/marketing review on Air Asia (AK). Similar reviews will be done on Fireflyz, MAS etc in the future.

Part 1

“Now Everyone Can Fly” is indeed a catchy phrase. A theme/brand strategy that differentiates AK from the rest of the field. A strategy that helps AK to drive its penetration into the Malaysian market and later the ASEAN stage. Congratulations AK ok bringing ‘low-cost’ option to the consumers.

Few years down the road, AK starts to annoy me. The fact that they are the sole player of LCC in Malaysia allows them to ‘do whatever they want to do’ in terms of pricing which is a big part of marketing strategy for an LCC. Until recently came Fireflyz into the picture. Fireflyz when they first started does not appear as a direct competitor as they operate from PEN (Penang). The fun begins when recently Fireflyz are allowed to fly from the old SZB (Subang Airport).

The annoucement of Subang airport operations came at the same time as AK were allowed to fly to SIN (singapore). My personal opinion is that the Gov’t were trying to please both parties by giving 2 pieces of different cakes to AK and Fireflyz.

So at this point of time Fireflyz is flying from Subang to Kota Bharu, Penang and Langkawi. This is the time when AK brand team went “Hey…let’s do some ‘Richard Branson ala Virgin’ kind of marketing tactics’ “. They lowered themselves down to a ‘childish’ level of marketing by doing these cheap media and price promotion campaign.

Obviously on the full-page newspaper ad and on their website, they are indirectly referring to Fireflyz (refer Fireflies images on the ads) as well as claiming that Fireflyz is flying “OLD PLANES”! Let’s look at these two points.

a) Firefly images on the ads…

Come on AK. You’re the market leader, a big player with your new airbuses, with your own LCCT. Why lower down your corporate image to the level of “Mine is Better Than Yours” tactical guerilla campaign. Sure it works for Virgin Atlantic and Richard Branson. But that is his style. You’ll be better off utilizing your “Now Everyone Can Fly” theme and highlighting your volume as comparison to Fireflyz limited capacity.

b) “OLD PLANES” claim

Come on AK. Don’t play this game please. It’s fresh in my mind how AK claimed that they should have the rural air service operations in Sabah and Sarawak. The Gov’t granted it and gave AK the rights via FAX. FAX flew ex-MAS Fokkers and Twin Otters serving Sabah and Sarawak rural areas. The service was at the lowest level. Flights were cancelled. Airplanes were not maintained well and were grounded quite often resulting in more flight cancellation. At this point the Govt came into the picture (again) and took over the rights and pass it back to MAS (now operate by MASwings).

And guess what happened to those old planes. It was refurbished to a higher than normal standard level and put back to service either as Fireflyz or MASwings aircrafts. Yes they claimed that it’s OLD PLANES…Guess What? once upon a time these old planes are AK (FAX) planes and they are the one that make it worse.

So please, don’t use this point. This may also creates a bad image of Fireflyz of not being safe. It;s UNETHICAL marketing.

In part two i will highlight more ‘childish’ marketing strategy by AK. I will also share my views if i’m in the AK Brand Team what i will do to gain a better footing against the competitors. My opinions will be based on my past MBA (Marketing) courses as well as my experience with Colgate-Palmolive brand team and my vast knowledge in aviation through years of following the industry trend.

In the meantime here are some ‘Jokes’ i found on AK website. I was looking for some info and i found these errors. They don;t have OLD PLANES but they have IMAGINARY PLANES like AIRBUS 737-300 and they claimed that Boeing 737-300 more efficient than A320? . Yes be careful with Cut and Paste.

to be continued…