Marketing in the News: 346 Funerals and an Airliner that Doesn't Fly
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| Grounded 737 MAX Airliners sit on the ramp in Seattle. |
I have always been extremely interested in the world of aviation.
I am immersed in it daily, and I fully expect a long career in the air. In that
world, one of the largest players of the all is the Boeing Aircraft Corporation,
the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. Odds are extremely high that
you have travelled in a Boeing airliner.
In 2019, the world’s confidence in Boeing was shaken when
their newest airliner, the 737 MAX, ripped the controls from their human pilots
to dive straight into the ground, not once, but twice. Both times, everyone on
board died, for a total of 346 casualties. This airliner has been grounded worldwide,
and Boeing is left with more than 400 brand new, unsellable aircraft sitting in
a parking lot in Seattle, while changes are made to make the plane safe again.
Boeing’s mission is to provide high-quality, efficient jet
aircraft to airlines. For an airliner to be viable for mainstream use, it must not
make the public feel that their life is in danger. Boeing has put intense effort
into inspiring confidence in their riders, down to tuning the colors of the
onboard lights. An airliner with a reputation for pointing straight down at the
earth therefore is a hard sell.
It is currently tough to see future impacts of Boeing’s
attempt to recover from this crisis, but I personally think that Boeing will still
see some success from the MAX. Currently their main marketing push is to
emphasize that this will be “The Safest Airliner in the World”.
Personally, if
I were in charge of the branding and marketing of this airliner, I would strip all
models of their “MAX” designation and make a return to the numerical designation
of previous models, such as the 737-300. This would enable the new airliner to
escape the tainted brand name it was saddled with, and “blend into the crowd”
of the countless other 737 variants in the air right now. This could even be accomplished
without the typical negative connotations surrounding a rebrand after a
disaster, because the 737 MAX has already been given an internal numerical designation
which could be used in the public facing documentation moving forward.
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