United and Continental airlines designing brand as they prepare for wedding
United and Continental airlines aren’t yet officially hitched, but some are already grumbling about the monogram they’ve selected for their china.
The backlash is a reaction to one of the first compromises reached by the carriers’ chief executives during their April courtship: an agreement to stamp Continental’s stylized globe logo and blue-and-gold color scheme on all jets operated by the new United, which will be one of the world’s largest carriers.
United’s name and its Chicago headquarters will survive the tie-up, but not the “tulip,” the giant Saul Bass-designed “U” that has graced United’s jets for nearly 40 years.
Some longtime United fliers are protesting the move with “Save the Tulip” campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, urging fans of the venerable logo to bombard the airlines’ CEOs with letters and bouquets of tulips.
“Someone needs to make a stand for good communications and good branding,” said Timothy Jasionowski, who logs more than 100,000 miles annually on United. “The tulip is an iconic part of aviation history.”
The final design, unveiled Aug. 11, is the first step in a long and costly process that will define the merged carrier’s look and feel to the world, crucial in a service industry known for fickle customers. But executives are quickly learning that they can’t make everyone happy with a “something old, something new” approach.
United loyalists feeling nostalgic for the “Friendly Skies” now know the agony Houstonians felt upon learning that the merging carrier would be based in Chicago. For Continental fliers, there’s pride and relief in seeing the globe, a hallmark of their airline’s turnaround, made a prominent part of the new United.
“What they do next is what matters,” said Kevin Masi, principal and co-founder of Torque Ltd., a Chicago branding agency. “Rebranding is an opportunity and requirement to communicate to the marketplace.”
Customers will be watching closely as executives reveal the fate of other branding marks and service touchstones at the merging carriers: George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” theme, in-flight Channel 9’s air-traffic-control patter and Economy Plus’ roomier seating for United; Continental’s DirecTV in-flight entertainment and its philosophy of not gouging customers for perks.
Some observers would have preferred to see the carrier forge a completely new identity. “I’m a huge fan of making a clean break, unless you’re planning on replicating the service” from one carrier, said Brett Snyder, president of Cranky Concierge air travel assistance who writes the “Cranky Flier” blog. “I don’t know how you meet expectations from both sides when you’re not really making a clear brand statement.”
Most elements of the new airline’s brand will be kept under wraps until after the deal closes, which should occur by year-end if the merger passes muster with federal regulators.
But some details are trickling out. United’s parent company’s name, UAL Corp., will be replaced by United Continental Holdings. Also gone: United’s navy blue and Continental’s black uniforms for flight-crew members. Designer Cynthia Rowley is creating new looks for most of the merged airline’s 80,000-plus workers.
By borrowing elements from both carriers, United and Continental are breaking with the recent precedent of adopting the name and brand of the larger carrier. Delta Air Lines’ corporate identity and onboard service survived its 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines, while America West Airlines executives dropped their brand for the better-known US Airways after their 2005 acquisition of the struggling carrier.
Continental CEO Jeff Smisek and United CEO Glenn Tilton struck a deal to keep United’s name and Continental’s logo and livery April 15, a week into the monthlong talks that culminated in a May 3 merger announcement, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
“This combination is a true merger of equals bringing together the best of two great organizations,” Continental spokeswoman Christen David said. “Accordingly, the marketing brand combines brands of both companies.”
Rebranding United is complicated by the politics that accompany any merger of equals, especially since the smaller Continental’s senior executive team, starting with Smisek in the CEO role, will largely chart the merged carrier’s course.
Retaining reminders of United’s golden years, like the sans-serif font reminiscent of its look in the 1970s and 1980s, is crucial to winning over United workers, who will make up a majority of the new workforce, aviation consultant Robert Mann said.
But adopting an all-new brand is costly, since every plane, sign and piece of marketing literature bearing a corporate logo will have to be revamped, Mann said. The new carrier also risks alienating customers who assume that little will change with the merger.
“You can’t think of United without ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ and the tulip,” said Jasionowski, who created the “Save the Tulip” campaign with Lori Quarnstrom and Jerry Benzl. The three frequent travelers, who met on FlyerTalk’s discussion boards, have logged nearly 2 million miles combined on United.
Added Quarnstrom: “Let’s face it. That globe is just boring.”
But boring is in the eye of the beholder. Unveiled by New York design firm Lippincott in 1991, the globe mark is a reminder to many Continental customers of their airline’s worst-to-first resurgence under former CEO Gordon Bethune and a proud emblem of the new United’s worldwide network.
“When they put that globe on the tail, I thought it was one of the best marks if not the best mark in the industry,” said branding expert Chuck Carlberg, a principal with Houston advertising agency Richards/Carlberg. Why? “It moves. Not too many logos do that.”
The tulip also carries baggage, another reason some observers prefer the globe as a logo. To United’s detractors, it’s a reminder of the slumping morale and lousy service during the carrier’s three-year bankruptcy last decade.
Coincidentally, a logo that Bass designed for Continental in the late 1960s was also later tainted by its association with the Houston carrier’s turbulent ride under controversial CEO Frank Lorenzo in the 1980s. Bass, considered one of the design greats of the 20th century, also crafted scores of iconic logos, including that of Bell Telephone Co.
“We all love Saul Bass and the sort of ‘Mad Men’ world that those logos came out of,” said Russell Brightwell, executive vice president and creative director with TPRB Advertising in Houston. “But that was about speed and modernity.”
The globe is a better symbol for today’s traveler, he added. What matters most to the business travelers both carriers court is “access: routes, availability and do you have the flights I need.”
Melding the carrier’s advertising may be even more of a challenge than its brand identity. United has one of the strongest brands in the industry. The recent campaigns designed by Minneapolis agency Barrie D’Rozario Murphy have used sophisticated animation to capture the magic of flying.
Continental’s ads, created by Kaplan Thaler Group/New York, are blunter and aimed squarely at business travelers. Their “Work hard. Fly right” message conveys one of the carrier’s hallmarks: the consistency and no-nonsense approach employed by Bethune. Smisek is among the veterans of that era poised to lead the new carrier.
Officials at the merging carriers haven’t yet named their advertising agency and are understandably reluctant to divulge their branding plans or to speak to the brickbats that the new logo and name have drawn from design bloggers and fliers like Jasionowski.
“Our merger with Continental is great news for our employees, our shareholders and our customers, particularly in Chicago, which will be home to the world’s leading airline, connecting travelers to 370 cities with more than 625 daily departures from O’Hare,” United spokeswoman Jean Medina said.
In the long run, the debates over fonts and logos will be meaningless if Smisek successfully builds a global carrier with first-rate service, branding expert Masi said. “If they play that well, deliver on the service well, deliver on the integration from the customer experience, they’ll be fine. That’s really the test.”
jjohnsson@tribune.com
