The deregulation and the overcapacity of many industries have led to a record level in external growth operations in the late 1990s (Doyle 2000). Nevertheless, development by acquisition tends to be selective in terms of industry sectors. In banking, insurance, pharmaceutical, airline and automotive industries, the number of mergers, acquisitions and alliances is particularly high compared to other sectors (MANDA 2007). The airline sector, in particular, has been very dynamic in terms of external development strategies over the past years. The airline market has been fragmented for a long time but the number of players in the air transport sector is now shrinking and has entered a phase of consolidation (Euromonitor 2007). In order to face this phenomenon, more airlines were tempted to achieve the critical mass needed to meet the high capital requirements of the industry. Similarly other industries, mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances allow airlines to lower costs through rationalization and reduce competition and enhance market power. All these advantages are often viewed as strategic to face the new forms of competition, especially those coming from low cost airlines.
[...] Conclusions The research suggests that every external growth operation, whatever its form, has an impact on the corporate brand equity of the airline. It always develop the awareness of the brand, altered the perceived quality, the reputation and confidence of stakeholders ; in a positive or negative way depending on the results of the operation especially in terms of synergies. But further quantitative research is needed to generalize these results. Particularly, these changes observed in the brand equity of airlines are the direct consequence of the impact the external growth operation had on brand elements. [...]
[...] bottom-line impact of corporate brand investment: an analytical perspective on the drivers of ROI of corporate brand communications.' Journal of Brand Management 405-17. Grimaldi, V. (2001). ‘French Accent Frank Einstein, Inc. (Part II). Brand Channel Brand feature Brandspeak. June 25. Retrieved June 17th 2007 from < http:> Hamel, J., Dufour, S. and Fortin, D. (1993). Case Study Methods. London: Sage. Hatch, M.J. & Schultz, M. (2003). ‘Bringing the corporation into corporate branding'. European Journal of Marketing 1041-64. He, H-W. and Balmer, J.M.T. [...]
[...] Given the relatively recent importance of corporate branding considerations in the airline industry and the market consolidation that had occurred over the last years in this sector, the question of the impact of external development strategies on airline corporate branding is raised. This research aims to understand how mergers, acquisitions and alliances affect airline corporate brand equity. Previous research focused on the benefits of alliance for airlines and the consequences of the different redeployment strategies possible after a merger or acquisition. [...]
[...] Three major alliances emerged over the last years: Star Alliance, the first global network counting 18 members in 2006; Oneworld, centred on British Airways, American Airlines and Japan Airlines; and Skyteam, the smallest and youngest one formed around Air France comprising 10 international airlines from Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific Managing Corporate Brand and External Growth 2 The Brand Issue in External Growth Strategies Many argued that the integration of a clever brand management is one of the most important factors of success in a merger, acquisition or alliance (Balmer and Dinnie 1999, Swystun 2001, Johne 2003, Kumar and Blomqvist 2004). [...]
[...] The analysis relies for a part on secondary data from within the public domain, including academic articles, newspapers, websites, annual reports, archives etc Cases Selection The paper studies the impact of the different forms of external growth on airline corporate branding. It includes mergers, acquisitions and alliances. Therefore, three case studies present three particular types of external development: the merger of Air France and KLM, the acquisition of Swiss by Lufthansa and the Oneworld strategic alliance developed around British Airways. [...]
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