Are You Building a Brand or Wearing a Mask?

(originally written for ID Branding’s blog)

While watching the Beijing Olympics this weekend I saw one of the newest adverts from United Airlines, “Two Worlds,” which lives within the family of TV spots they’ve been making for the past 2-3 years now. Perhaps you have seen it; the visual style is certainly memorable.

This whole series United has been running does two things very well: it leaves a strong visual imprint, and it tells a full, endearing story that engages the viewer for the duration of the 60 second spot which leaves them satisfied at the end. This particular iteration of United’s campaign is meant to illustrate the drastically different experience a traveler might have on the new international business class line. While it doesn’t resonate with the same emotional connection as some previous outings (such as the dragon and the rose), it certainly creates the impression of a unique brand with priorities different from those of the competition.

Of course, what those priorities might be are left entirely up to speculation. Perhaps this other new spot, “Heart,” from the same lineup serves to better answer that question:

Now we’re making some headway. Clearly, United is trying to position themselves as a companion to your lifestyle, one that can help you get to what matters most. But is this actually building a brand culture, or is it just creating an external image? There’s no question that these adverts are visually stunning, and they certainly do a fair job of storytelling, but whether they truly express the values and personality of the United Airlines brand is another question altogether.

Not having flown United any time in the past five years, I can’t personally answer this question, but if my experience with just about any other airline out there is any indication, these ads aren’t really telling you a story about who United is so much as trying to forge an association between the brand and your personal priorities. In what sense they are “forging” said association is something I will leave for you to decide.

This seems a prime example of a company taking the first steps toward creating brand culture, but lacking the initiative to follow through with the promise they’ve laid out. It’s a classic case of theory versus practice. In a perfect world, we could see something like this on TV and know that we have just been clued in to the kind of experience we can expect from Brand X, but as jaded victims of marketing archetypes, we are more likely to be suspicious of an attempt to play our emotions against us in the interest of pushing a product. It is my hope that this is not the case, but until I get the chance to fly United, or until I hear from somebody who has recently, I can’t know for sure.

The moral is simple; if you make a promise, follow through with it. Let’s hope that United is doing exactly that.