How does Emirates Airlines perform Brand Management?

Emirates is stepping up its precautionary measures onboard its flights and at Dubai airport to ensure the health and safety of passengers and crew during the global coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic.

Emirates Airline

Emirates Airline is the currently the 4^th largest airline in the world. Started in the year 1985 by the Royal family of Dubai, it soon became the world’s leading international air carriers. It carried out its first passenger flight EK600, from Dubai to Karachi, Pakistan in the same year it was born. Initially the airline started with just two aircraft; Boeing 737 and Airbus 300 B4. Now the airline is worth around USD 15.1 billion, serving in over 84 countries across the world. Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 3 is exclusively built for Emirates. This terminal is said to be the second largest terminal in the world in terms of floor space. Owing to its growing success, Dubai has become an international hub connecting people and businesses for all major flights across the globe.

Analysis and Evaluation of Emirates as a Brand

Emirates brand positioning is strongly grounded on providing the best in-class products in air as well as in ground. Catering to their customer’s growing needs is what makes them valued as a brand.

The one thing that they do not compromise is the quality of products and service. The exclusive features, unforgettable services and high quality has formed an identity for Emirates that differentiates them from other brands. In other words we can call Emirates to be a lifestyle brand! In order to maintain this identity, their unwavering focus is on customer experience and day by day Emirates is working its way to make customer service more satisfactory. In fact a major section of Emirates business model is based on consumer centric designs making them one of the successful companies in the aviation industry.

Some of the successful features of its high quality service can be seen in any in-flight service of Emirates. Even at thousands of feet above the sea level, the company provides WiFi enabled passenger cabins, entertainment features in different languages, agronomical seating arrangements, chauffer drives to name a few. It is not only about the physical features but the security and the emotional stability that Emirates seems to connect with. Flying with Emirates is not just about reaching your destination, but every step connects with your emotions, hopes and dreams. The company has managed to tap the humane quality in the customers proving them enough emotional security as a brand would.

In addition to this they are improving their customer experience by partnering with organizations and universities to create new and innovative ways of customer support. They also use various social media channels to connect with customers on an inter-personal level. Other communications include print media, televisions and advertisements.

A company’s organizational structure is equally important to its brand image. The people working at Emirates owes considerably to Emirates success. They invest in educated and trained employees and harness their unique talent in various departments within their organization. They provide proper training to all staff and guidelines of how they should act to provide world class services.

Effective Management Strategies

Kapferer (2008) stated that brand identity is the information an organization sends out to their customers while a brand image is what the customers perceive. This brand image is what differentiates the success of one brand from the other. To improve this brand image Emirates has taken various steps so that the right information is perceived by the clients.

1.      Engaging Tagline

The newest tagline developed by Emirates is “Hello Tomorrow” which aims at global connectivity. Earlier Emirates was known as the travel Lifestyle brand but with changing views, more digitization is included in the company at all organizational levels. It will open way for younger workforce to get more involved with the brand. The tagline is also expected to spark the joining of diverse communities all over the world and make an impact on the society. Emirates is no longer promoting just a product, but making an impact in the world.

Another important tagline launched in the year 2018 was “Fly Better”. This aimed at the customer experiences promising better flying experience than any other airline. The grand campaign had ad director Michael Gracey behind it and was launched along with sponsorships and racing events. Aggressive digital advertising was also carried out to popularize the brand on an international level.

2.      Brand Symbol

For Emirates, the symbol used to represent the organization had a strong image on the customer’s mind. The brand name and logo is written in Arabic Calligraphy using the two major color of UAE’s flag; red and white. The logo is simple and precise making a strong impact on the customer’s mind. Use of red colour promotes self-confidence, prosperity, leadership and reflects vibrancy. White represents peace, purity, nobility and elegance. The outfit of the Emirate crew also uses a similar colour palette of utmost sophistication and elegance. Their outfit comprises of the obvious red and white along with muted beige.

3.      Sponsorship and Events

Emirates has been closely associated with sponsoring various sports and events to improve their brand image. They have invested in various sport events and clubs such as football, golf, tennis, horse racing, F1 racing, cricket and sailing. Sports is an effective platform where they can interact with global audience and display the appropriate brand image that they want to portray. Furthermore, international figures like Jenifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Pele, Ronaldo are some of the people who have endorsed Emirates. This has strongly impacted brand identity and brand loyalty.

Conclusion

The study of Emirates shows how the organization has taken major steps to develop its brand identity and brand image since its birth. Aggressive marketing campaigns, digitization and unbending focus on customer experience have contributed a great deal towards Emirates’ success.  It is interesting to see how methodically Emirates changes its brand identity from a mere travel brand to a Global name, becoming the “Globalista” in the aviation industry.

Lastly the case study may have its limitations from a detailed perspective of literature review. To fill this gap, further research is required which can provide more insight on Emirates as a global brand symbol.

Emirates Rules The Sports Sponsoring Arena

References

Emirates (2016) The Emirates Business Model. Dubai: Emirates.com

O'Reilly L (2012). Emirates Introduces New Brand Positioning Marketing Week.

Farveen F (2018) Emirates Launches New Brand Promise of ‘Fly Better’ Singapore: Marketing