Uniquely, warmly Bangladesh
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Muhammad Zakiul Islam
This is the new 'Brand Promise' of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited which will be launched today (Thursday) by the Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This renewed promise together with our existing 'Your Home in the Air' is a pledge indicating where Biman wants to go from here.
Branding is an all too familiar phenomenon in the corporate world of today. This art of messaging and connecting customers with the product has assumed greater dimension and has, of late, become more intense and competitive with the globalisation of our times. Biman's product is universal, so it must create a universal demand for its product and maintain a global image for itself. And that image has to be built on the local and home-grown aspirations and precepts.
Airlines have developed different range of Branding for themselves. The British Airways promises civilised service, the smiling and friendly Singapore Girls fly you to places of imaginations, the Lufthansa takes business of flying as a serious matter and makes safety and on-time performance as their goal, while the relatively new entrants like the Emirates and Qatar airways are trying to entice their customers with aerial comfort up and away from the sultry deserts.
The Brand Promise also needs to be built up on some premises. The Brand Gurus call them Brand Pillars on which the lofty promises are to be built and sustained. Our new promise is built on seven pillars and the load is shared evenly by each one.
l Bangladesh: Everything beautiful about the Bangladeshi people, Culture and Destination.
l Culture of Hospitality: Warm, Friendly, Festive and Attentive Care
l Cuisine: Outstanding Taste and Presentation for Bangladeshi Nationals and Visitors as well.
l Team Work: Working together with Respect, Professionalism, Honesty for Common Goals
l Safety: Relentless focus on Safety through Aircraft Maintenance and Operational Procedures.
l Reliability: Consistent on-time Arrival/Departures, Efficient Baggage Handling, Fully Transparent Operation.
l World Class: Become World Class as a Trend-setter and achieve Five-Star Quality through Excellence
The Logo and Livery are an important element of any Brand. While the Logo typifies and identifies an entity, the Livery goes a step further in giving a sense and essence of the subject matter. The Logo should be attractive, eye-catching, purposeful, meaningful and attention getting. The new Logo of Biman is a symbol of speed, dynamism and confidence. And the Livery is a combination of colours -- Green and Red. Together they give the sense of Bangladesh, its primordial scenic beauty, its land, culture and people. A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes. The combination of green and red symbolises our national heritage of peace and serenity, and our natural aspirations of freedom and activity.
The name of the airline is of one other interest that generates both curiosity and enthusiasm. Although the corporate entity of an airline might consist of a combination of words, the present trend is to make it concise so that it easily appeals to the mind and is friendly to the memory. Hence, Saudi Arabian Airlines is 'Saudia', Emirates Airlines is only 'Emirates' and the Singapore Airlines is 'SIA' or just SQ. The flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited are identified such as "Bangladesh 001" and the pilots are simply proud, happy and comfortable with such crisp, yet a clear and telling identity and Call Sign.
Like in day-to-day life, promises will remain mere words unless they are kept. Promises are meant to be honoured. Brands must be lived and behaved. All our men and women in the air and on the ground must live up to the promise of our brand and behave in a manner to uphold the Brand. That is the new Brand of Biman, that is the New Biman.
Air Commodore Muhammad Zakiul Islam ndu acsc (Retd) is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEF) of Biman. He can be reached
at mdbiman@bdbiman.com
This is the new 'Brand Promise' of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited which will be launched today (Thursday) by the Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This renewed promise together with our existing 'Your Home in the Air' is a pledge indicating where Biman wants to go from here.
Branding is an all too familiar phenomenon in the corporate world of today. This art of messaging and connecting customers with the product has assumed greater dimension and has, of late, become more intense and competitive with the globalisation of our times. Biman's product is universal, so it must create a universal demand for its product and maintain a global image for itself. And that image has to be built on the local and home-grown aspirations and precepts.
Airlines have developed different range of Branding for themselves. The British Airways promises civilised service, the smiling and friendly Singapore Girls fly you to places of imaginations, the Lufthansa takes business of flying as a serious matter and makes safety and on-time performance as their goal, while the relatively new entrants like the Emirates and Qatar airways are trying to entice their customers with aerial comfort up and away from the sultry deserts.
The Brand Promise also needs to be built up on some premises. The Brand Gurus call them Brand Pillars on which the lofty promises are to be built and sustained. Our new promise is built on seven pillars and the load is shared evenly by each one.
l Bangladesh: Everything beautiful about the Bangladeshi people, Culture and Destination.
l Culture of Hospitality: Warm, Friendly, Festive and Attentive Care
l Cuisine: Outstanding Taste and Presentation for Bangladeshi Nationals and Visitors as well.
l Team Work: Working together with Respect, Professionalism, Honesty for Common Goals
l Safety: Relentless focus on Safety through Aircraft Maintenance and Operational Procedures.
l Reliability: Consistent on-time Arrival/Departures, Efficient Baggage Handling, Fully Transparent Operation.
l World Class: Become World Class as a Trend-setter and achieve Five-Star Quality through Excellence
The Logo and Livery are an important element of any Brand. While the Logo typifies and identifies an entity, the Livery goes a step further in giving a sense and essence of the subject matter. The Logo should be attractive, eye-catching, purposeful, meaningful and attention getting. The new Logo of Biman is a symbol of speed, dynamism and confidence. And the Livery is a combination of colours -- Green and Red. Together they give the sense of Bangladesh, its primordial scenic beauty, its land, culture and people. A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes. The combination of green and red symbolises our national heritage of peace and serenity, and our natural aspirations of freedom and activity.
The name of the airline is of one other interest that generates both curiosity and enthusiasm. Although the corporate entity of an airline might consist of a combination of words, the present trend is to make it concise so that it easily appeals to the mind and is friendly to the memory. Hence, Saudi Arabian Airlines is 'Saudia', Emirates Airlines is only 'Emirates' and the Singapore Airlines is 'SIA' or just SQ. The flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited are identified such as "Bangladesh 001" and the pilots are simply proud, happy and comfortable with such crisp, yet a clear and telling identity and Call Sign.
Like in day-to-day life, promises will remain mere words unless they are kept. Promises are meant to be honoured. Brands must be lived and behaved. All our men and women in the air and on the ground must live up to the promise of our brand and behave in a manner to uphold the Brand. That is the new Brand of Biman, that is the New Biman.
Air Commodore Muhammad Zakiul Islam ndu acsc (Retd) is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEF) of Biman. He can be reached
at mdbiman@bdbiman.com