REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Friday April 16, 2004

THE loss of Qantas’s iconic flying kangaroo from Gold Coast skies would backfire on the airline, a marketing expert said.

Professor Bill Merrilees, head of marketing at Griffith University Gold Coast, said passengers snubbed by Qantas were likely to return the favour and fly Virgin instead.

Prof Merrilees said it could lead to the loss of recognition of the Qantas brand or it being remembered for all the wrong reasons.

“The consumer reaction is likely to be that this was a bit of an insult and I think a lot of customers will be left feeling out of joint,” said Prof Merrilees.

“Qantas is saying ‘we don’t care about you and we’re not going to give you any choice, you can only fly discount’.”

He said it was also a snub to the Gold Coast Airport.

“It is saying: ‘You’ve now become a budget airport’,” said Prof Merrilees.

“The airport may be able to fight back and reposition itself as offering convenience and value, but customers don’t like being dictated to and I think a lot of people could turn against what they see as Qantas’s ‘big brother’ monopoly.

“I think people will blame Qantas and get upset. Transport, as we saw from the election, is a touchy issue.

“I think there will be a negative reaction and it could be quite considerable.”

Prof Merrilees said if Qantas had been trying to differentiate itself from the discount Jetstar brand ‘this was a very extreme way of going about it’.