Qantas: the spirit of Australia

Abstract

The key perceptions or the theme of a product is captured in a nutshell by the brand name. If brand names are easy to pronounce, familiar and meaningful, different, distinctive and unusual, then it tends to be easier for consumers to remember that particular brand name. In this age of globalization, it is important to view the brand name from a cross-cultural perspective rather than from a one culture perspective because the more meaningful a brand name is in one culture, the more likely that it will not be very transferable to other cultures due to translation problems. There are certain brands spread across the world that have overcome this hurdle of cross-cultural misinterpretation. These brands have achieved a `heritage' status due to their longevity and sustained customer loyalty in the market. Qantas, the airline from Australia, is one such brand and Qantas as a brand is analyzed from a heritage perspective in this article.

Brands are different from products. While a product is `something that offers a functional benefit' (Farquhar 1989, p 241), a brand is something that `enhances the value of a product beyond its functional value' (Farquhar 1989, p 24). According to Keller (1998, p 42), within the same category `a brand is a product, but one that adds other dimensions to differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need'. Levitt (1980)3 argued that any product could be branded, a view supported by other researchers such as Murphy (1990).4 Importantly, the strategic impact of branding is duly recognized in marketing literature (Aaker 1991,5 19926; De Chernatony and McDonald 19987). Aaker (1989)8 suggested that brands might develop sustainable competitive advantage for firms, in that if consumers perceive a particular brand favorably, then the firm may have a competitive advantage. Doyle (1989)9 even argued that it is important to position organizations as brands in the minds of consumers, in order to achieve and sustain an objective comparative advantage over the competitors. Some attempts have even been made by governments or industries to brand countries such as Germany, New Zealand, Scotland and United Kingdom (Jaffe and Nebenzahl 2001).10