Airline branding book review: Flying high in a competitive industry – secrets of the world’s leading airline (SIA)

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I’ve been monitoring conversations about Singapore Airlines (SIA) on Twitter for the last couple of weeks. And unlike most tweets about airlines, a large majority of tweets are positive! Here’re two of them:

@thetravelingCMO, Mon 04 May 14:39: Singapore Airlines in coach is like any US carrier’s Business. Well, to be fair, the service is probably better on SQ!
@MikeyFletch, Fri 01 May 18:27: Wow, Singapore airlines is a bit posh, time to fly

How has Singapore Airlines been so successful and well-admired for such a long time? There’s always a an enigma of sorts when it comes to this question. But this latest book by Jochen Writz, Loizos Heracleous and Nitin Pangarkar attempts to answer this very question – and does a pretty respectable job of doing so too!

Discovering the secrets of SIA’s success

The book begins by an overview of the challenges faced in the airline industry and goes on to provide an overview of SIA’s overall strategy. But this is when it gets intriguing. Through many interviews conducted deep within SIA, the authors go on to write whole chapters on three key reasons for success at Singapore Airlines:

1. How SIA achieves cost-effective service excellence (I’ll explain in a bit why that sounds like a paradox)
2. How innovation is sustained in a planned, organized way at SIA
3. How people are managed to deliver the goods (and service!)

Cost leadership and brand differentiation, simultaneously?

“Singapore Airlines has never posted a full-year loss in its history”, the fourth chapter claims. That is common knowledge. But I was more astonished to learn that SIA has one of the lowest operating costs for an airline! I wouldn’t have expected that, given that the airline is the 2nd highest buyer of champagne in the world and offers service levels that “even other airlines talk about”. But as the authors explain, this is exactly what SIA has been able to successfully do.

SIA has managed to integrate elements of a differentiation strategy (with regard to external positioning and service levels) and cost-leadership strategy (with regard to the effeciency of the internal organization). Simply put, SIA invests in all that’s “visible” and tightens the belt “behind the scenes” Smart! Because this is theoretically in conflict with Dr Michael Porter’s models.

The Singapore Girl lives on

Did you know that the Singapore Girl is the only commercial figure in the world famous Maddame Tussaud’s wax museum in London? Now, that’s quite a testimony to breathing life into an airline from one of the smallest nations in the world. Over the year, while other airlines have tinkered with their brand strategy, SIA has consistently based its marketing on the Singapore Girl icon for over 30 years!

The book quotes Batey’s former CEO, Ian Batey, the man who helped concieve Singapore Girl, “She mirrors her Asian heritage – natural femininity, natural grace and warmth, and a natural, gentle way with people.” Personally, if I only read these words, I wouldn’t have been able to wait very long to experience SIA myself!

The book dives deep into a number of fundamental strategies that make SIA a success, and is an enriching read for not just the aviation enthusiast, but anyone looking to learn how to survive in a fiercely competitive business environment. I’d give it a 8 out of 10 rating. It would have gotten full marks if it was a little less textbook-like. But then, you can’t have everything right?

The introduction to the book and a free chapter can be downloaded from the author’s website at www.JochenWirtz.com under the books section (there are also free chapters and other materials on that website).

What do you think? Have you read this book or others like this which explore the successful airline models? How would you compare them with this? Let’s discuss…

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