Tiger Airways returns to advertising in Australia
Low-cost airline Tiger Airways has returned to advertising with a campaign to mark the troubled carrier’s relaunch in Australia.
The campaign sees the ‘Fly cheaper’ line dropped and Tiger repositioned as “fun, colloquial, honest and real”, according to marketing manager Dominik Gac.
She told Mumbrella: “Now is the right time to reflect our re-launched product, which provides everyday Australians with affordable air travel and enhanced reliability. We have reviewed every aspect of our operation and we believe we have re-launched with a product that better meets the needs of our customers.”
The agency behind the campaign is Smart Melbourne, which recently merged with McCann in a reverse takeover.
The campaign involves press, outdoor, online and airport executions.
The combined agency’s Melbourne MD Simon Burrett, said:
What was critical is to recognise that having a strong discount offering in Australia is, to our target audience, the difference between whether they can actually participate in important occasions or not. For the Tiger flyer, without Tiger to make that trip affordable, they simply can’t afford to go at all.
So the power for the idea is in the motivation to stay in touch with loved ones, to see something different, to have that once in a lifetime trip. In that sense, the brand is an enabler, not just an additional discretionary choice. In the context of a time in which the possibility that Tiger might have disappeared was, for this customer, very real, this strategy had particular salience. From there, it was about making the media spend work harder by making the outdoor messages relevant to their location in as many cases as possible.
Last month, Tim Riches, boss of market research firm The Leading Edge, argued why the troubled Tiger Airways brand had the potential to bounce back in Australia.
That screams of the Jestar marketing strategy!!
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saw one of their ads in Melbourne this week, on the way to Tullamarine. Something like ‘Go and see a real bridge’, with a picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nice. Insulting Melbourne (presumably a poke at the Westgate Bridge) to win back disaffected customers in their biggest market. Very clever indeed.
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Yeah, well the “fly cheaper” gives off a low quality vibe, which would not jibe with their current maintainance problems- the only problem is this new “Go Tiger” doesnt differentiate them from virgin, air asia and all the other budget airlines.
Where is the unique selling proposition?
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Seems very “jetstar” to me….
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Yes Thom, OR the fact that the billboard on the Tullamarine is attached to a very boring looking bridge. Hmm.
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@Thomas – I think it’s Qantas having the maintenance problems isn’t it? These guys were flying too low.
The only real advantage of a low cost airlines is that they are low cost. It’s “Sydney $49.95” that really gets the attention.
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What about “Our prices are too low, but not our planes”
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I think Simon Burrett should check out many of the social media sites aimed at warning people from flying Tiger. Most of the complaints are from people who did rely on Tiger to get them to that wedding, birthday or special occasion . But so many of them never arrived – or had to pay a fortune more to fly a more reliable airline.
If you have to rely on Tiger to get you anywhere for a special occasion – heaven help you – and pay top dollar for someone other than Tiger’s travel insurance.
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or “our prices are even lower than our airplanes”
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‘once bitten by the tiger’:
Boo fucking Hoo. Give me an hour and I can provide links to social media sites bitching about any and every brand in every service industry in the world.
People feel let down, people vent, people get over it, people use them again.
Most of the people who say stuff like ‘I refuse to fly tiger again’ can afford to fly with Qantas or Virgin, and therefore pay more for the extra niceties. So they probably should, given that they most likely go into it with full-fare expectations.
You gotta get it into perspective: tigers customers either fly tiger, or stay home. They don’t have a choice. So from their perspective, tiger isn’t letting them down, so much as helping them get somewhere.
BIG difference to someone who tries to save a few bucks and gets shitty because everything wasn’t just like Qantas.
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In reply to Hmmmmmm… given the shocking customer service and on time performance record of your employer (I assume you work for Tiger or one of their agencies), their poor financial performance and the fact that your major shareholder has written Tiger off as a poor joke and starting their own discount airline in Asia – i think the “Boo fucking Hoo” will be saved for you !
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What do you think of them charging $29.95 to get on the advance mailing list etc?
http://www.tigerairways.com/au/en/stripes.php.
Seems very strange, and I think they’d be better just growing their db like Jetstar/Webjet do, rather than putting people off.
My take – if you’re that value conscious, you won’t splash out. If you’re not, then it’s irrelevant. Handy if you fly a lot with Tiger, I suppose.
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Love the strategic insight….. housed in a truth repeated by my husband only yesterday “I would have gone if Tiger was flying”.
However we don’t like it. The “get there early or lose your ticket” policy, and incredibly cramped conditions in Melbourne terminal are a huge turn off. Clearly there are flying occasions that are discretionary, that the low cost Tiger fulfils. If you want to get to a wedding on time with less stress, you’ll have to pay more.
Folks, is there any chance we can leave the expletives and the snark off the comments? I thought this was about sharing opinions and promoting intelligent conversation about our industry. 🙂
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What if Tiger flew from Avalon Airport again? It’s a much nicer airport than Melbourne, parking is cheaper, it’s a toll free trip down the freeway, and there are no queues. Maybe this would this help improve their reputation?
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Another idea – take the wings off the planes, slap the word ‘Greyhound’ on the side and drive them down the Hume highway… They were flying so low anyway they may as well have been buses…
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How about they spend some off their money paying back customers refunds for flights to Adelaide. I wonder if I send them the interest on my credit card that I have been hit for the alternate arrangements.
Looking forward to your response to an email tiger oh and also the 2k you still owe me
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