About the added value of an alliance, both for members as well as customers, how the partnership is illustrated and some of the branding evolutions made, the need to align marketing strategies as well as some practical insights into working together in a complex 19-member, multi-cultural environment.

1. CASE: BRANDING IN AN ALLIANCE
MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
Fatima da Gloria, Director Brand & Communications
April 18, 2013

2. WHO ARE WE?
2
One of the 3 global airline alliances
 19 member airlines
 1,000 destinations
 552 million passengers
 436,000 employees
 SAAM, the central office
 A cooperative (legal identity)
since 2009
 35 people, 20 nationalities

3. WHY WERE AIRLINE ALLIANCES CREATED?
3
We enable cooperation where legal constraints restrict global consolidation
Consolidation Cooperation
=+within the continent between continents

4. SOME KEY QUESTIONS
4
When setting up an alliance
 What is the added value of the alliance
 What is the member recruitment strategy
 Is there a central organization and what is its role
 What is the key focus with regards to deliverables
 How is the day-to-day governance arranged
 How are competitive conditions ensured
 How is compliance monitored of alliance principles

5. OUR VALUE PROPOSITION FOR CUSTOMERS
5
Creating a seamless travel experience
8. AFTERCARE
Branding
Recognition
of products
and services,
minimization
of perceived
purchasing
risk, trust.
Network
Global
coverage
and reach,
connectivity,
frequency
Frequent
flyer and
elite
benefits
Earn and
burn FFP
miles
network
wide,
Improved
experience
along
customer
touch points
Airport Experience
Check-in, baggage drop-off, lounge access,
boarding, transfer, baggage handling
Connection
and
transfer
experience
Seamless
connection
and transfer
process
Buying
process
Coordinated
selling,
global
corporate
contracts,
integrated
online
booking tool
SkyTeam
products
Round the
World
tickets and
fare passes
Post-flight
Service
recovery,
issue
management

6. OUR VALUE PROPOSITION FOR MEMBERS
6
Creating solutions allowing members to connect and grow their business
Growth of loyal customers by offering
consistent value across all members
A Seal of Quality
Why invent the wheel?
The power of collective sourcing
Combining networks without employment of
own aircraft fleet
Cost
benefits
Network
benefits
Customer
value
Sharing
expertise
Brand &
reputation

7. ILLUSTRATING A COMMON SEAL OF QUALITY
7
The SkyTeam “bug” or lock-up logo
Briefing:
 It shouldn’t struggle with the logotypes
of different partners
 draw inspiration from customer-oriented
service companies
 whose business it is to take care of the customer

8. ALL MEMBERS ARE REPRESENTED EQUALLY…
8
The SkyTeam cobranding

9. SOMETIMES SKYTEAM IS IN THE LEAD…
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Intro the SkyTeam blockmark in 2010, and a Chinese version from 2012

10. AND CAN ALSO BE EXPERIENCED IN 3D
10
Requiring a common visual language accepted by 19 members
 Beware of consensus!! But take local specificities into account.
 Strong brand values defined from the start
 Same agencies partnering since origin of the alliance
 Agencies are partners that attend all meetings
 Much attention to building a sense of team spirit & buy-in from key members
 Strict enforcement of brand rules that start
during pre-joining process

11. ACTIVATING MEMBERS TO PROMOTE SKYTEAM
11
Why pay for advertising when our members access 161M frequent flyers
 3% of fleet to be painted in SkyTeam
colors with a minimum of 2 aircraft
 2 pages in the inflight magazine
1 news page & 1 ad page
 1 DM campaign per year to FFP members
How? A CEO dashboard!

12. NOT COMPETE WITH THEM
12
Balancing act: complementing the marketing strategies of our members
Home Markets
 Home carrier in the lead, acts as voice of SkyTeam
 No SkyTeam advertising, except within own media
and unless requested by the home carrier
 Shared airport facilities not (heavily) branded as
SkyTeam unless requested by the home carrier
Strategic Markets
 Member and SkyTeam communications exist side-
by-side and “pool” where possible (e.g. at fairs)
 Alignment between timing of campaigns
 PR messaging, distribution and events aligned with
local marketing teams (representatives of the
carriers operating in that market)
 Shared airport facilities are SkyTeam branded
Global
 Strong PR alignment through Corporate
Communications team
 Support of members via social media and SkyTeam
website (while not detracting customer bookings!)

13. SKYTEAM INSIDE
13
Allowing some alliance-wide services to be marketed as members’ own
SkyTeam app functionality
used within members
own app, for example
worldwide lounge finder
SkyPriority branding and communication rules and
tools incorporated within the member’s identity

14.  Setting and auditing membership
requirements
 Helping candidate members to join
(dedicated transition teams)
 Creating marketing campaigns
 Provide guidelines and member
building blocks
 Design common SkyTeam lounges and
other shared airport facilities
 Guide sales communications and
provide them with tools
 Manage media messages
 Manage central platforms: website,
apps, social media
 Working Groups
 Advertising & Branding
 Corporate Communications
 Corporate Social Responsibility
 SkyPriority Project Team
 MCCs
 Supervisory Board
 Governing Board
 Sharing Tools
 Online sharepoints
 SkyPlace for documents
 SkyTeam Hub for all creative
artwork (run by agency)
 Conference and web calls
WORKING IN AN ALLIANCE OFFICE
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Its all about managing the decision making process as well as execution
Organizational (Brand & Comms) Collaboration Platforms

15. ALLIANCES: CULTURAL MELTING POTS
15
Building upon our Differences
 “Easy to build the foundations of a building.
Less easy to agree on how many windows,
doors, rooms….”
 Multicultural factor: one of the main risks of
alliances failures
 Intercultural differences don’t lead to
disagreements, but lead to misunderstandings
 Disagreements are immediately obvious and can
be dealt with
 Misunderstandings are generally discovered when
it’s too late,
 when each party has tackled an action plan in its
own way.
 Need to consider national and corporate
cultures

16. BE AWARE OF PERSONAL ATTITUDES
16
Spend time on creating awareness, sensitivity and alliance values
What do we notice ?
 difficulties in accomodating different ideas or ways of doing things
 difficulties in understanding: accent, pronunciation, choice of words
 not enough checking for understanding
 uncertain use of humour
 thoughts not always expressed fully to colleagues, especially on
controversial topics
 different perception of time
 Each side is convinced that the way it does things is the only possible way
to do them….
MOST IMPORTANT LESSON
 Have FUN, good COMPANY, and good FOOD!!