Virgin Australia completes re-branding with the introduction of Virgin Samoa

Virgin Australia CEO, John Borghetti

"We had a range of different brands that led to confusion for customers, made brand investments costly, and prevented the company from fully leveraging the value of the very powerful Virgin brand," Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti said last month. In past conversations, Mr Borghetti has joked that one only needs to look at the side of Virgin's headquarter building to see the different brands and how the company was a patent lawyer's dream. Virgin has now switched its trading name to Virgin Australia Holdings (from Virgin Blue Holdings) and is looking to apply a new IATA code across its operations, potentially seeing the VA code replace DJ.

Virgin Samoa B737-800

Source: Virgin Samoa

Virgin Samoa is 49% owned by Virgin Australia and 49% by the Samoan Government, with the remaining 2% from Samoan business interests. It operates one B737-800 aircraft, primarily between Apia, Samoa and Auckland, New Zealand. It will adopt Virgin Australia's design but feature the Virgin Samoa name and subtitle of "Airline of Samoa". Its name on the forward fuselage will be accompanied by a palm tree motif, a homage to its former livery (as Polynesian Blue), and engine cowlings decorated with a traditional tatau pattern, which is carried over on the uniform design. "As we now move into an even brighter future together as Virgin Samoa we felt it important to include a respectful reference to our culture and our past,” Virgin Samoa CEO Mark Pitt said in a statement.

Virgin Samoa design detail

Source: Virgin Samoa

Virgin Samoa uniform design

From 07-Dec-2011 Pacific Blue and V Australia also adopt the Virgin Australia name and branding. Pacific Blue aircraft will adopt the new look while V Australia's five B777-300ERs transition slowly due to the small fleet size and high utilisation. One aircraft already has Virgin Australia titles alongside the basic V Australia livery. One B777-300ER will receive a full re-paint early next year when it goes into heavy maintenance with Air New Zealand Engineering Services. The remaining aircraft will receive the Virgin Australia titles on V Australia livery until they can be re-painted. Virgin is now focusing on streamlining its service and aircraft product, which includes changes to the B777 fleet. Virgin is due to announce the changes by 30-Jun-2012.

While the brand consolidation occurred under Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti, who assumed the role in May-2010 from founder Brett Godfrey, the vision of the name consolidation – and many of Virgin's recent changes – were started under Mr Godfrey. "We’ve always had constraints using ‘Virgin’ offshore. We’ve only had rights to use it in Australia," Mr Godfrey said in a Sep-2009 address in Sydney. "There will be a day when this airline does not have four brands, it sits under one umbrella."

Virgin Blue, as the company was known as until this May when it re-launched as Virgin Australia (initially only for its domestic operations), acquired additional brands as it expanded internationally but was prohibited from using the "Virgin" name overseas. Singapore Airlines (SIA) took a 49% stake of Virgin Atlantic in 1999 and as part of the agreement could veto the use of the Virgin name internationally.

Singapore Airlines wanted to limit the Virgin brand around Australia as SIA had ambitions to enter the Australia-US market. If there was to be overlap between SIA and Virgin Blue, SIA saw a non-Virgin branded operation as a lesser threat than one badged with Virgin. Virgin Blue initially expanded with Pacific Blue in 2003, which now serves New Zealand and islands around Australia; Polynesian Blue in 2005; and V Australia in 2009.

Virgin secured approval from SIA to use the Virgin Australia brand network wide – a sign not only of SIA relenting on ambitions but also looking to forge ties with Virgin Australia to bolster its corporate presence at the expense of mutual rival Qantas. Virgin and SIA in Jun-2011 announced a tie-up, which recently received regulatory approval. (That tie-up followed the day after Qantas and Malaysian Airlines, a rival to SIA, announced ties in connection with MAS joining oneworld.) Virgin Australia's upscaling from LCC to full service carrier is understood to have swayed SIA, who had hesitations being associated with a non-premium carrier.

Virgin founder and CEO Richard Branson has remarked in recent months that he wished Virgin Blue had been named Virgin Australia from the start. But arguably the re-branding gives a higher profile to the recent changes than if the carrier was Virgin Australia throughout. While the choice of Virgin Blue may have seemed arbitrary, it was selected for its quirky back story that added to Virgin's ethos as a fun and different carrier, the launch strategy of many LCCs. With red-heads in Australia sometimes referred to as "blueys", Virgin seized on the gimmick of painting its aircraft in Virgin's signature red colour but naming the airline Virgin Blue.

That represented Virgin's spirit of having "flair", but now it is all about the need to elevate – moving the carrier upmarket.