Branson: I wish we’d been branded as Virgin Australia ten years ago
Virgin Group CEO Sir Richard Branson has told Mumbrella that he wished the company had rebranded its Australian airline to target business travellers 10 years ago.
Following the relaunch of Virgin Blue and V Australia as Virgin Australia, Branson said the re-branding of a Virgin company was a rarity for the group.
He said: “We’ve very rarely re-launched a company… generally speaking we like to think we get it right at the beginning and we don’t have to rebrand it.
“With Virgin Blue, I don’t think we got it wrong, but I think times have moved on and there’s just sort of this realisation that why let Qantas keep all of that money? It would have been better had we done it ten years ago but we finally realised.”
Following yesterday’s criticism from some commenters on Mumbrella suggesting the airline’s logo was bland, Hans Hulsbosch, the man behind the airline’s identity, said critics must consider every element of the brand and not just the logo.
He said: “Do we take that seriously? Because people have to bitch about something. But what they need to do before they make the call is to look at the total product and what we’ve done. We’ve done this mega job that is more than just a piece of design because if it was just a piece of design, anybody could have done this.”
Good interview. Branson is such great quality – a mega-rich dude who always sounds friendly and approachable.
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Wise words from Hans there.
Then again, maybe he just misunderstood people who were saying ‘It’s definitely a plane logo’. Beware the homophones, Hans.
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Who was looking after the sound for this interview?
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Hi Mark from the internet,
Fair question. That may be the last outing for our crappy old microphone. We’ve now got a shiny new one that saw some action today…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Good move to bring it all back to one brand.. makes great sense.
Great interview, and look forward to hearing more great interviews from the new shiny mic!
James
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I worked on the launch of Virgin America back in 2007. VA’s cabin and price offering were a level above legacy carriers like Continental, Delta and American (and Virgin Blue), but Virgin still seriously struggled to capture market share because Americans are so tied to their points.
It’s surprising that Virgin Blue have taken four years (in another very competitive market) to get to that same level of product and service, when Australians are far more open to trialling a new airline in the first place.
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Virgin Aquatic?!!! Ha ha – Go Dickie!!!!!
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Good interview and all very interesting to hear and be keen to see if this all does make a difference over all. I do like the new add though.
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Virgin submarines!! I love it. He’s too cool for school 🙂
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