Unknown Speaker  0:00  
The CMO said I really think we need to do more research, we need to study this further. I think I might have snapped a little bit at that point. I said, we don't need to do more research. I work with a lot of clients, or would love to have the kind of sense of purpose that Southwest has as a brand. That that you just know who you are. And everybody in the company knows we're not gonna learn anything new by going out and doing more research. All you need to know people in this room already know. We just need to make the right decision.

Blake Howard  0:43  
Everyone, Welcome to a change of brand, the show featuring behind the scenes stories of rebrand glory, drama, or disaster. I'm your host, Blake Howard. And today Season Two takes off covering a change story best introduced with a clip from this home video back in 2009.

Unknown Speaker  1:01  
All right, so give me a stop, clap. Clap, clap, clap they will be there. There you go. Keep that going. 371 Swa the flight attendants on board serving you today. Teresa in the middle. David in the back. My name is David and I'm here to tell you that shortly after take off first things first it's all drinks and coffee to quench your thirst but it's the one another kind of drink then just alcoholic beverages the fee for dollars if a Monster energy drink is your plan data v 3000. You get the whole game we won't take your cash you got to pay for classic if you have a couple 100 That's fantastic. We know you're ready to get to new places open up the van put away your suitcases carry on items go under the seat in front of you but none of us things by your feet. If you have a seat on the road with a zipper going to talk to so you might as well expect it you got to help evacuate in case we need you get on one of them. We're going to research you before we leave our advices put away electronic devices fasten your seat belt then put your trays off press the button to make the feedback raise up sit back, relax. Have a good time. It's almost time to go so I'm done with the thank you for the fact that it wasn't ignored. This is Southwest Airlines welcome

Blake Howard  2:20  
that was Southwest flight attendant David Holmes making the most of his fifth flight of the day. And this is a sneak peek into the brand that so many air travelers love. If you know much about the airline industry you know that Southwest is known for keeping fares low and spirits high. From wrapping safety announcements like we just heard. To know seat assignments to arm wrestling matches to settled trademark disputes by founder herb Keller, which we'll talk a little bit more about. Southwest is notorious for doing air travel its own way and with a much loved brand typically comes a certain resistance to any change. So when southwest change of brand hit the tarmac back in 2014. Many wondered, would it land nice and smooth or get a bit bumpy? For more context in history on how southwest became Southwest and what led up to that change of brand and let's go to brand strategist Tracy Clark for our brief in.

Unknown Speaker  3:29  
Southwest Airlines origin story is so classic. It could be a scene from a movie, a couple of friends, a hotel bar and a cocktail napkin. In 1967, Herb Kelleher and Roland King sat at a San Antonio bar knocking back a few and sketching out a business plan. On that cocktail napkin. They drew a triangle connecting Dallas Houston and San Antonio, a doodle that would go on to become air southwest company that same year, American air travel was hitting its high in the 1960s as people became more comfortable taking to the skies to get across the country and fares became more affordable. The commercial industry was taking off but with one hitch airlines didn't have the power to set their own fares and routes the federal government did. In the fall of 1967 Kelleher filed an application with the Texas aeronautics commission to serve Dallas Houston and San Antonio. However, competitors Braniff, trans Texas and Continental Airlines filed a joint lawsuit against air Southwest in an attempt to prevent the airline from undercutting prices by serving only Texas, and in the process doing an end run around federal regulations. It took four years of legal wrangling with state circuit courts, the Texas Supreme Court and ultimately the US Supreme Court before air southwest could take to the skies. But in 1971, the carrier now renamed Southwest Airlines was finally cleared for takeoff. In 1978, Congress passed a law loosening the reins on the airline industry, giving carriers control have their own routes and fares, and as a result opening up the skies to nationwide competition. Keller has gambled on skirting market regulations by serving only Texas would be a trademark of Southwest Renegades style, branding itself as the love airline in the 1970s. Southwest was known as the low cost carrier with sex appeal. Flight attendants were hot pants and gogo boots and the drinks and snacks they passed out were called love potions and Love Bites. Even airline equipment got into the act, Southwest's automated ticketing dispenser was called a quickie ticket. Get it? Here's an ad from 1972

Unknown Speaker  5:35  
remember what it was like before there was somebody else up there who loved you. There was no such thing as Executive Class service to Dallas Houston and San Antonio with first class leg room, free cocktails for everyone, and a schedule you could depend on. Remember

Unknown Speaker  6:03  
dubious feminism aside southwest success skyrocketed over the decades, the love team stuck around but instead of straight up sexiness the company toned it down to be known as the carrier that simply loves its customers. Super friendly service, lighthearted advertisements, and generally not taking itself too seriously became the Southwest trademark. Over the years southwest slogans included love is still our field. The somebody else up there who loves you, and famously in 1992 Just playing spark that's playing spelled p l a n e that punny tagline ran afoul of Stephens aviation, who had been using plain smart as its motto, Stevens accused southwest of trademark infringement. But instead of taking it to the courts, the companies took it to the Dallas Sportatorium for an epic battle royale to settle the score. Southwest smokin Herb Kelleher challenge Stevens CEO Kurt killer her walled to an arm wrestling match known as the malice in Dallas.

Unknown Speaker  7:17  
Scott even just won the match. The publicity stunt paid off big time for both carriers. Although her wild out muscled Kelleher he went ahead and let southwest keep the just plain smart slogan, since Stevens aviation received tons of name recognition as a result of the match. On top of that, Southwest netted a reported $6 million in publicity. And no time flat southwest had flown from being a small time player in Texas to America's biggest domestic carrier. The airlines a cent can be attributed to winning the hearts of both customers and employees. But by 2014, pricing pressures increase competition, and the great recession had taken its toll. And with that, it was time for southwest to have a change of brand.

Blake Howard  8:11  
Before 2014 Southwest had an identity mismatch, they had this flamboyant personality yet a really dull visual identity. The previous brandmark was called the takeoff logo and it was simply an illustration of one of their planes. That's sort of like Starbucks having a logo with a coffee cup or Nike depicting a shoe or even Casper just showing a mattress. It's pretty basic. And to further compliment this utilitarian approach, the logo also had an all caps sans serif board mark, something Massimo Vignelli probably would have loved but not the most expressive of choices. The visual identity did have two things going for it however, very unique colors red, blue and gold in an art deco secondary mark with a winged heart. Lippincott was the firm tasked with the redesign. Eventually, they landed a new identity that elevated the heart as the primary logo. And that symbol stands alone, and it punctuates the end of the name and their primary mark. It also became emblazoned on the belly of the plains where they cleverly said, without a heart, it's just a machine. The redesign consider the entire brand experience from planes to snack packaging to uniforms. Be sure to check out the full change of brand for yourself at a change of brand calm. Just click on this episode and scroll down to see the breakdown. You'll also find some of the fun vintage brand commercials that we just shared in the briefing. I had the chance to get the inside scoop from Rodney Abbott, the senior partner and creative director at Lippincott who led the team doing the work. He's originally from New Zealand but ended up in the US for school starting a family and ultimately staying here. He's sort of a lifer when it comes to his tenure, where he is selling abrading His 30th year with Lippincott, let that sink in you young creative go getters 30 years, he's racked up some frequent flyer miles of his own. But before this project, not really with Southwest,

Unknown Speaker  10:14  
I had never flown southwest. I mean, literally until flying down to Dallas. For the kickoff. That was the first experience I had with the airline. I was very familiar with them, just because of their prisons, they're very large domestic airline, so they're all over the country. So I'd seen them around. I always thought, while they really look out of date, they need a refresh. And I knew that people let fly southwest really love southwest. I didn't know more than that I hadn't sort of got into the experience myself to really get a sense of what is it about the airline that kind of makes it special. One day,

Blake Howard  10:53  
they got a call from Southwest about the opportunity to work with the airline. There was no real pitch or competitive process, which is so southwest but kind of unusual for Rodney and his team. There was just an instant connection. And the next thing that Rodney knew, he was on his way to Dallas to kick off the work. However, there was one unexpected layover,

Unknown Speaker  11:14  
we didn't know this at the time, as we got into the work, we kind of got sort of more information. But they had started this process before the other agency and had got pretty far down the road of coming up with with some new ideas. We never saw any of the work that was done. But they had gotten to the point without presenting to Gary Kelly, the CEO, that project kind of didn't go anywhere in the end that they had a second runner. And we were lucky enough to be asked to come in and see what we could do.

Blake Howard  11:39  
How did that make you feel as someone responsible for the work leading the work? Knowing that someone had gone just before you and fell short?

Unknown Speaker  11:48  
Well, it's not the first time that's happened. So I kind of felt like, it's a great opportunity, I was excited that we got the chance to put our ideas out there and to get in front of them with how we thought the brand should show up. It was really positive in that regard. I was always curious. Even now, I would love to see like the work that was done in one side of me wants to sort of understand, like, why I went to what they showed that then got killed. On the other side, it's like I don't know, that's water under the bridge, there's probably a bit of thing never know.

Blake Howard  12:19  
So they brought you in, and the team at Lipin caught what was the main problem they wanted you to solve.

Unknown Speaker  12:25  
It was really a pure of visual refresh of the brand, from the logo to the aircraft to the old communication system for the marketing advertising, it was very focused on brand expression. I mean, as part of the work, you know, we believe strongly that the work has to be founded on some pretty clear creative criteria, and you have to have a strategy, you know, otherwise, we're just putting stuff up there and hoping that something sticks. So we did spend a lot of time Well, I say a lot of time we in a very short amount of time, we spent a couple of weeks really trying to get to understand the brand, diving into some of the stuff that they were able to share from you know, audits that they'd done, and then come up with some criteria and sort of an idea about what we were trying to do. But what what are the key sort of metrics or the ideas that we need to focus on? Who's the audience's that we're really trying to connect with through this work.

Blake Howard  13:19  
In addition to the visual identity, not really reflecting the personality of the brand, some inconsistency and overall looking pretty dated. The airline industry was also changing in competition had grown fierce. Other airlines had found ways to lower airfare fees by unbundling prices, and it was sort of working. It had started to usurp Southwest's ability to claim the lowest overall airfare and in 2008, climbing out of the Great Recession. US Airways, for example began charging for all inflight drinks, including water. Jet Blue shortly thereafter announced it would charge $7 for a pillow and blanket. That same year, American Airlines was the first to break the seal on charging for checked bags. And just a few years later, spirits started charging for carry ons. In this environment, Rodney and the team at Lippincott had to distill more than 40 years of rich history into one modern, compelling identity. At least they were given free rein on how to best solve this problem. But they did come in with a little bit of a bias,

Unknown Speaker  14:24  
we did have a pretty clear idea. We walked in with criteria met with Gary Kelly, Bach Jordan, who led the company and said there are a couple of things that are really important that we don't walk away from that or that we're going to center our focused effort on. And that is, the simple it's going to be hard. And color is really important in the way the brand shows up. So we had that criteria established from the get go. The challenge was that within the marketing team, the CMO at the time, had a different idea and and really questioned whether that was the right symbol, the heart or the right symbol for the brand, and even whether the plane should be going to white so that they reflected the sort of a statue of a grown up airline. This was a time when Southwest was looking to attract you flies like business travelers who would be well served by the markets they fly into. They needed to get younger people flying Southwest, and like new audiences, they really needed to sort of grow in those two areas. And I think there was an assumption within marketing, that meant, we need to start to look like the other guys, you know, even though we're the biggest domestic carrier, we need to kind of look a little bit more professional, like what you'd expect from another airline to fit in and to be credible.

Blake Howard  15:41  
So there's some disagreement on how to move forward, Southwest leadership is a bit divided. And the idea of a major airline, the largest domestic carrier in the US, in fact, solely relying on a cutesy little heart symbol is giving some palpitations, and for others, they're getting a little happy, flutters. Rodney and his team did what you do when you get real stuck, more research.

Unknown Speaker  16:06  
As part of our process, we had sort of a panel if you like, of frontline employees, flight attendants, pilots cloudops, that we would meet with present work to, we would meet with the agency pretty regularly had been doing work for Southwest since day one, obviously, the management team as well, and then the marketing team. So we would try and sort of gather that input from inside the walls of Southwest. And then at same time, we did several batches of research, to qualitative research with existing passengers, customers of Southwest non non customers, and some quantitative research as well to really try to understand what is it about the brand that makes it so special? Like what are the themes that keep coming up. And that's where I think we learned a lot about the importance of color. Within the experience, we learned a lot about how the heart should be used or direction, we got that sort of then translated into how we should use the heart to make sure that we're presenting the right sort of tonality for the brand.

Blake Howard  17:06  
You know, I'm curious to what was your impression of the existing branding and the brand program at the time, they had very unique colors, but then they had a very ubiquitous, airplane, like very realistic airplane on top of just southwest in all caps, very pragmatic, which is a little disconnected from maybe the experience of flying on Southwest, what was your and your team's take on the existing brand expression,

Unknown Speaker  17:34  
it was very confusing the way they presented themselves. So the airplane that what they call the takeoff logo, which was the plane over the Southwest name was really just used in marketing and advertising, you walked into an airport, or even onto the plane itself. And they had their winged heart logo, which was a different symbol that they were so they were combining both in different places throughout the experience. So that was confusing to customers couldn't tell you what the logo was, they really had no strong recall for the logo, they associated the heart very strongly with Southwest, that's where the color and the stripes on the plane and, and the use of color on the plane was the much more iconic element just for the world in general, because they really did stand out within the airport, you know, you couldn't miss the Southwest plane flying around. One of the problems, there were just the paint on the planes, they almost look like they were sunbleached. You know, like as soon as they came off the line, the color had sort of a flatness to it a chalky appearance. So they just didn't really look fresh, you know, they didn't look like it was a new a sort of like a new airline or a fresh airline or a modern airline, it was kind of a little dusty looking. At one point, we put together some visuals to show to the executives of like, here's the world when Southwest was the current brand expression. When it was created, this is what the world looked like. And these are the other brands that that your customers were interacting with. And see, that was like early 90s. But now look today, all these other brands have moved on, you're still sending this message that says, you know, this is where you fit in the world. And that says a lot about your relevance. So it was just a very simple visual, but it was very helpful for people who don't think about design on daily basis. It's quite stark, the contrast, you know, when you're when all of a sudden you sort of put us the old southwest plane into today's world, how apparently out of date, it was that was one of the many things that we end up having to do just to bring the brand along and the people within the company along because it's a company that has never thought about design or brand. They think a lot about culture and the culture drives the experience and the brand.

Blake Howard  19:55  
As a brand professional expert. I'm sure you would rather work with With an organization that's focused on culture, and customer experience, and then you get to be the hero that comes in and just sort of help with the design side, versus the opposite, where maybe design has been top of mind and excellent and engaging and interesting, yet the experience and the cultures fragmented, that the more difficult challenge, that's a different firm to come solve that problem. When you're

Unknown Speaker  20:23  
in that situation, you have the ability to really make some meaningful improvements. This is all of a sudden, this is a brand that you can really help like, I can use my skills to really help the business, they can do something that they clearly need. That's a really energizing, situation to be in versus you could name any number of great brands out there that have a very design first way of approaching the world. And I think from the outside people like well, that'd be great to work with them. But then there are the constraints that come with that in terms of what you can actually do, how much license you might have in terms of the work. So we had an opportunity here just to try to translate the culture into design.

Blake Howard  21:06  
Okay, when we come back from the break, we hear about the design process and how Rodney in the Lippincott team almost got sidetracked, just like the firm before them with delays and indecision, all that more after the break. Hey, everyone, I want to take a quick minute and give a big old hat tip to match tickets where I work in our producing partner for this show. We specialize in helping growing brands take their identity to the next level. If you need help clarifying your message or standing out in the market, be sure to visit us@matchstick.com That's ma tch sdic.com. Pe and one more quick thing if you are a fellow brand nerd like me, and are enjoying this series so far, be sure to tell a friend or leave us a review. Those really do help others find this podcast. Okay, back to the show.

Okay, so let's dive into the creative process. So you have been given this challenge to refresh the visual identity and create more of a modernized branding program. You've gotten some direction around, let's keep the heart let's keep these colors. You've done some research that affirmed things like color. How did you start to solve that problem visually? What did it look like? What was the first presentation that you made back to Southwest?

Unknown Speaker  22:36  
The very first presentation we had was with the core team. So that day to day client team, we said, okay, look, there's the southwest, we're going to bring you into the tent here a little bit more than we normally would. And we're going to show and talk about a bunch of different ideas. It wasn't polished finished designs, it was just his different ways we could take this, here's different ways we could render the heart use the heart is how we could think about color on the plane. So it was a very workshop kind of environment of just creative is stuff that we've been thinking about and trying to sort of get as much of that stuff out of our own system as possible when we took the work and started to get to the point where we started to go and talk to customers and sort of start to like really tighten up around some ideas. That was when we started to learn more about, like how much heart has too much heart. And it's definitely aligned that you don't want to cross with the heart, it moves very quickly from sort of been this very simple reminder of the kind of experience you get to all of a sudden being the statement of the experience. And that is when things get even for people who will total a Southwest loyalist, they kind of like recoil at too much. And so we learned a lot about that really informed us once we got onto the scale of the heart, on the logo, how the heart has been used throughout the experience and being very like light hearted, not just literally from sort of a humor standpoint, but also being very deliberate and purposeful with how we use the heart we are it gets to show up and what volume, how much volume does it have. That was like a part of the process when it came to the actual like what you now see as the heart and the way it's rendered. It's kind of seems obvious now that looking back at it, but there was this moment when it was just so simple of the colored stripes, or what people really associate the full color of the plane is what they're associated with Southwest and the hearts the symbol, we need to just put these two things together. It's really as simple as that. That was sort of a big moment within the process. And it was probably a couple of months into the work there was we were probably meeting with Southwest it on average couple of times a month. Through that process. I've never met with the CEO of any organization as much as I had with Gary Kelly through that process and his leadership team So they were very invested in the process really, like really committed to the brand.

Blake Howard  25:06  
Do you remember the first time that Gary Kelly or others saw the heart? And you know, the kind of the particular logo lockup that we all think of was southwest today. Do you remember the first time they saw that?

Unknown Speaker  25:19  
Yeah, we were presenting in Dallas, it would have been in October, we kicked things off in June, we had the criteria, sort of mid July, October, we had, essentially the design, I mean, it was crafted and refined after that. But by October, we basically had the idea, what we were convinced was the idea. So I got pins made for the presentation, I didn't tell the client that I had these little gummies simple thing, just these little lapel pins, made up with the heart rendered with the colored stripes, and gave those out to Gary and Bob and ginger, who was in the media at the time as part of that just to kind of be like, because for Southwest, it's all about the people. And so now, you know, every employee gets to sort of be, and we're the Southwest brand, as an ambassador of the brand. So if you want to describe it, but that was sort of a kind of a big moment, because it made it very tangible for the executives in the room. And it made it very personal. As soon as it became a personal thing, then all of a sudden, it was like that idea was sort of the idea.

Blake Howard  26:24  
Okay, let's do a quick check in here, lipid, God has gone through an extensive and collaborative design process with the Southwest team, and had their big pitch moment with CEO Gary Kelly. And everyone was really feeling it and like in the direction. Well, almost everyone,

Unknown Speaker  26:41  
the head of marketing at the time, had other ideas that weren't really aligned with what we were presenting, or sort of the direction that things were moving in. So that created a situation where things took longer to get to where we are now with the brand.

Blake Howard  26:59  
Do you know what was sort of the unlock for the CMO? I believe you said at the time, maybe not as interested in the heart direction was having a hard time with it. Did something finally unlock and click Like was it the type treatment or design mockups that made it feel very professional? He or she thought, oh, wow, this is how the heart could work? Was it just something else? Do you know how they sort of eventually came around?

Unknown Speaker  27:22  
I think it was always a struggle, the very final presentation. So that was an October when we really present that first concept. It wasn't till the end of January that we came in with the final is like the final presentation. Even in that final presentation, there was four concepts that were still sort of in play. And the whole color of the plane was still up in the air. We were pushing hard for our recommendation, which is the design that you see today, the CMO said look and God has their recommendation, I have a different recommendation. And we presented, you know what we thought was right. At the end of that the CMO said, I really think we need to do more research, we need to study this further. I think I might have snapped a little bit at that point. I said we don't need to do more research. I work with a lot of clients who would love to have the kind of sense of purpose that Southwest has as a brand. That that you just know who you are. And everybody in the company knows that we're not gonna learn anything new by going out and do more research. All you need to know the people in this room already know. We just need to make the right decision. And luckily, the other executives in the room agreed and we ended up with the design that you have today. But right up to that point there was still questions around the duration.

Blake Howard  28:45  
With the work up in the air all hanging in the balance. Rodney stepped in and pushed back dismissing the need for more research and almost hitting his breaking point which I get. Think about it. They heard of a failed project that went just before them. Now here they were months into their own design process. They've had countless working sessions and presentations. And here they are in the moment with the landing gear down clearance from the control tower about to land the plane, and someone suggests further delays to do more research and testing. But Rodney, like Captain Sully Sullenberger making an emergency landing on the icy Hudson River was confident. And undeterred.

Unknown Speaker  29:30  
It also helped that when we had done research, we learned a couple of things through that process. One was that even diehard customers were asking southwest to upgrade and change. But anything new that we put in front of customers, and this is very unusual was better received than the existing way the brand was being presented. And then the other thing we learnt was the heart was critical, like anything based on the heart design performed better than anything else. Like it was just it just resonated more communicated, you know what the brand needed to communicate. So we came in with a pretty strong point of view. But we also had a lot to sort of backup, where we were coming from.

Blake Howard  30:10  
With some bravado and due diligence, they finally got the clearance and approval of the new visual identity. And with that, they were off to the races working with multiple southwest teams and vendors, thinking through everything from paint color to inflight packaging, to airport signage in preparation, all for one big top secret launch event.

Unknown Speaker  30:33  
So we were very quickly meeting with teams, even internal employees managed to sign NDAs to have to sort of be bought in to this whole process. Because the presentation was about end of January, the launch was, in early September, there was a long delay between that decision and what was shown publicly, and it was a lot of stuff to happen, they want to a number of airports, key markets to have new signage put up overnight, to coincide with the launch, they wanted to have a couple of planes painted to support the launch, new advertising created a new website up and running. So there were a lot of different partners and but internally and externally, that we had to start working very closely with so we were involved in a lot of that from, you know, even down to working directly with the 10 suppliers to really figure out the coloration. And to get all that finalized on the specs created for that as we were developing the guidelines and all of the tools and whatever other agencies can need to support their work as well. So it was a lot of implementation planning, like how do we sequence the rollout of what are all the things that need to be done. This is another place where they have great operational capabilities at Southwest. So sort of getting those teams up and running. You know, once you kind of set things in motion, they were moving pretty smoothly. All of that was happening over those six, seven months.

Blake Howard  31:57  
I'm curious, because I think I read about this that majority of employees found out at the public launch, is that how it sort of was conducted? Okay, I want to talk a little bit more about that public launch, because they really went for it. I mean, it was a well orchestrated, coordinated effort with some secrecy, could you tell us a little bit more about it, they snuck a freshly painted plane to land that Love Field somehow was painted elsewhere, and they flew it overnight, you know, tell us more about sort of the covert black ops that were happening behind the scenes for this launch.

Unknown Speaker  32:36  
Firstly, it was incredible that it stayed secret, given how many people had to be a part of it. And all of the different teams involved in putting this together. So the launch day in Dallas, involved a big sort of a show within one of the hangars where Gary Kelly got up and sort of talked about the new brand, at the end of that and sort of ended with a digitally created plane sort of behind him, the old paint sort of peels off and the new designers there. And then right at that moment, the doors to the hangar open up and literally right outside was parked a new plane, right up front, soon, in between getting however many 1000 employees into the space, they had also secretly been able to pull a plane up next to this and sort of have a park there than ever everyone outside, they had another plane that did fly over the airport, I think it was just sort of a testament to the brand itself that people kept it quiet. You know, it's the kind of brand that people care about a lot. And so everybody working on it really wanted to do the right thing. They knew that keeping it secret was important that this was going there was going to be a big fanfare around this. So they respected that, you know, nobody was off taking photos and posting them on social media hub beforehand. So that worked out pretty well. I was a little nervous. Because I although he had done all the color work. And I've worked on other airlines besides southwest. And we've always insisted on seeing not the entire plane but at least like the vertical stabilizer at the back of the plane painted outside. So you can really guarantee the colors are exactly what you want. We had had big sheets of metal painted so that we could view the color. But I had never seen the plane painted until showing up for that event. The color is so important on that plane that it was a little nerve wracking not knowing the fact that I'm not sure it. I'm pretty confident it's going to be good. But you know, there's always a little bit of doubt until you see it. So that was a relief to walk out there when it's in the daylight in Dallas and the sheen was spot on so I could breathe after that.

Blake Howard  34:48  
And around the same time they also launched this ad.

Unknown Speaker  34:53  
This is a different kind of airline. One that invented low fare so everyone could fly One decides where to go next by putting your needs first

Unknown Speaker  35:04  
and knows people are its most powerful fuel. Some say we do things differently. We say, why would we do things any other way? Without a heart. It's just a machine.

Blake Howard  35:20  
This story is a great reminder for those of us in the business, as much as we love the art and the craft of branding in order to deliver work at this level, it takes rigor, patience, and research. Even with loads of credibility and experience, even with the heart being a legacy symbol, Rodney in the Lippincott team had to convince southwest executives that this new heart logo wasn't going to break the cash machine. And that's what it all comes down to for those who don't really get brand or design. And change is hard for those executives whose jobs depend on that cash machine humming like to well oil turbine engines. Research can be the oil that suits that creative friction and quells many fears. Even though there were some disagreements at the executive level, Southwest reaped the reward for believing in this work in 2015. Just a year after the launch, they were named the airline of the year and had 125% increase in stock price. The new logo and brand identity resonated with 95% of Southwest fliers, which is incredibly strong and a bit surprising considering beloved brands like this have very protective advocates who don't take to change kindly. The only major criticism I could find on the southwest rebrand was an article from Forbes complaining about the poor timing of the change. It cited the declining arrival or on time performance, and then losing more bags than any other carrier. There was also mentioned that the heart looked a little bit like the new CVS logo at the time. But let's be honest, a heart is a heart CVS didn't invent that shape. Overall, this was a much needed pick me up for the Southwest brand. And as for our friend Rodney Lippincott, he still likes what he sees

Unknown Speaker  37:12  
I'm really proud of the work and still really get goosebumps, you know, seeing the planes and it's exciting to work on an airline, the scale of of it in terms of a canvas for somebody comes from graphic design background, the canvas of a plane, it's just an amazing thing to to get to play with. They've done a great job implementing the program into Southwest fashion, their implementation plan was all about, you know, business as usual. So no additional cost to the business. So the planes, they've got over 700 planes in their fleet. And they're basically every week they're repainting three planes. They start like painting number one, and by the time they get to number 700, it's time to go back and start with number one. Again, it's just a continuous process. And it takes over six years to under normal circumstances. And obviously last year, with COVID was anything but normal for the airline industry. But typically that's how long it would take to get through the entire fleet. So you still see a handful of the older planes still flying around. But it's nice now to see that dominance of the new design that's showing up everywhere.

Blake Howard  38:19  
You know, it's hard to tell the story and not consider the havoc that the COVID 19 pandemic has played on the airline industry. The industry has declined by 64.6% globally, losing 1 billion passengers for the entire year of 2020. US carriers net losses alone toppled 35 billion Delta Airlines the most profitable us airline in recent years had revenues plunge 56% with a profit margin of negative 40%. To compare that to after 911 Delta's revenues only dropped 25% and its margin was only a negative 22%. Southwest has fared relatively well, they've actually expanded their footprint in 2020, even though they have racked up some losses of their own. In fact, 2020 was their first annual loss since 1972, where they lost close to $3 billion. Through federal money, they were able to somehow avoid layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts for 60,000 employees, even playing a role in delivering some of the COVID-19 vaccine shipments, faring pretty well comparatively in one of the worst economic time periods for their industry is a testament to their business operations, and of course, their brand.

Unknown Speaker  39:42  
So things are looking very bright for Southwest, you know, they've stuck to that great service, great experience, great value. You know, it worked for them and 71 when they started and it seems to still be working for them just fine. So I think you know, while they've changed a lot from the way they present them selves. And I think just reflecting who they really are as a brand, and the way they should be seen, they've never lost touch from that, you know where they started, and, and the values that they think are important. And those values have consistently translated into great business results. Even throughout last year, they didn't have to, there were no layoffs within the airline. So they were able to sort of hunker down a little bit, take advantage of the strength of the business, ride it out, but also look for those opportunities to expand and set themselves up for even better things to come. So I mean, it's just totally an incredible business story. But I think the brand refresh help just sort of bring everything into the same picture.

Blake Howard  40:44  
Lastly, rebrands can also make or break careers and as for the CMO who's struggled with the heart direction, they're no longer with the company. Thanks for listening and special thanks to Rodney Abbott, Laura Schultz, Kate Conrad and others at Lippincott for giving us the behind the scenes look. To see more visuals from today's episode, head on over to a change of brand calm and if you liked today's show, share it with a friend. Leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Today's episode was edited by Matt Owen fact checked by Jill Jefferies and written by Pamela Hinman. Special thanks to Tracy Clark for the brief end, and Rachel Jackson for today's episode artwork. I'm your host Blake Howard, signing off

Transcribed by https://otter.ai