TriStar500 From Germany, joined Nov 1999, 4685 posts, RR: 47 Posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 8302 times:
Seemingly the overrated and overpaid MBA and marketing types still haven't learned from the marketing blunder surrounding "Condor - formerly known as Thomas Koch"... I wonder, how much money the management of TUI has pi$$ed away for this bull and how long it will take until deteriorating passenger feedback will force them to pull this back...
Anyway, here is the press release in German:
Hapag-Lloyd Flug heißt künftig Hapagfly
HANNOVER (dpa-AFX) - Die Charterfluggesellschaft Hapag-Lloyd Flug startet künftig unter dem Namen Hapagfly. Der bisherige Name sei oft "mit Container-Schifffahrt und Kreuzfahrten in Verbindung gebracht worden", begründete Hapagfly-Chef Wolfgang John am Donnerstag in Hannover die Änderung. Der Verkauf von Einzeltickets in der Sommersaison ist nach seinen Angaben gegenüber dem Vorjahr um 40 Prozent gestiegen. Auch die Buchungen im Internet seien stark im Aufwind.
Beaucaire From Syria, joined Sep 2003, 5252 posts, RR: 26 Reply 2, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 8292 times:
Well it seems some never learn..!
They should put that money into improving flight-service and merging HLF with Hapag Lloyd Express into one singe entity - like Air Berlin does.
Udo From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 8271 times:
What a load of b***s***! I thought renaming Condor into "Thomas Koch" would the all time dumbest, but "Hapagfly" is even worse. What a cheap, brainless decision by these overpaid beancounters...
UK_Dispatcher From United Arab Emirates, joined Dec 2001, 2553 posts, RR: 32 Reply 8, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 8245 times:
I imagine Hapag Lloyd Express will not be affected by this - just Hapag Lloyd?
TriStar500 From Germany, joined Nov 1999, 4685 posts, RR: 47 Reply 11, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 8208 times:
The "best" part of the reasoning is the statement that HF's passengers would associate "Hapag-Lloyd" primarily with containerships and big passenger cruiseships.
Seriously, I strongly doubt that the average Michael Mueller, who is flying to his Ballerman binge drinking vacation or Grandpa and Grandpa Mueller, who are flying to their appartment in Spain over the winter, really know, what the other branches of the "Hapag-Lloyd" corporation really are about.
Well, at least someone at TUI will have received a big bonus payment for this brain fart... and a marketing agency will have made some serious cash.
Homer: Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 12, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 8207 times:
Quoting NoUFO (Reply 10): And how dare they to rape such a traditional name like Hapag Lloyd?
I am asking myself the same, this is not the UK where charter airlines get renamed every 4th or so month.
At first they introduced this ridiculous livery which is butt ugly and now they drop such a well known name like Hapag-Lloyd in favour of such a cheapo name like Hapagfly.
BREmer From Germany, joined May 2004, 540 posts, RR: 18 Reply 13, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 8190 times:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Hapag-Lloyd is a brand that is well known around the world!! As a Hanseatic citizen, I'm proud that it reminds people of the world-famous shipping company!
That's what happens when rich people only let rich people into the top positions - you lose contact with everything else! Condor was the perfect example how this concept can backfire.... Human stupidity never dies!!!
Chiguire From Venezuela, joined Sep 2004, 2003 posts, RR: 18 Reply 14, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 8189 times:
Great - now they will have to rename Hapag Lloyd Express in HapagFly Express. .
When will they finally put those two together !
At least HLX is paying more comission than "HapagFly" now !
Leskova From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 6075 posts, RR: 72 Reply 18, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 12 hours ago) and read 8113 times:
This must truly qualify as one of the dumbest ideas of this year - if not the decade...
Why does HLF/TUI feel the necessity for repeating TC's mistake? Isn't anyone capable of learning from other people's or other company's mistakes anymore???
Hapagfly... oh lord... what next? TUI to be renamed to TUIholiday? Or TUI's hotels into TUIstay?
And yes, I, too, will be leaving a comment on their guestbook in a moment...
FlyCaledonian From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2003, 1971 posts, RR: 3 Reply 19, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 8041 times:
Not every UK charter carrier goes and constantly renames itself! It's only a fairly recent thing, though Thomas Cook have to be one of the worst offenders for rebranding. TUI is really taking this corporate branding thing to heart though. They've killed Britannia Airways and Lunn Poly travel agents, and are now turning their attention to Germany. Thank goodness we've still got Monarch with a traditional name.
N1120A From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 25869 posts, RR: 79 Reply 20, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 8031 times:
Quoting Sabena332 (Reply 1): Oh God, the stupidity continues, did these morons not learn from the Condor -> Thomas Cook -> Condor re- rename action?
Or perhaps the idiotic naming of LCC's things like Volareweb.com. I mean, of course they went out of business with a name so bad as that.
Quoting UK_Dispatcher (Reply 8): I imagine Hapag Lloyd Express will not be affected by this - just Hapag Lloyd?
Aren't they just calling it HLX now?
Mangeons les French fries, mais surtout pratiquons avec fierte le French kiss
Udo From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 21, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 8020 times:
I just made a guestbook entry. Here's my comment (sorry, only in German):
"Ich protestiere in aller Entschiedenheit gegen die Umbenennung von Hapag Lloyd in "HapagFly".
Ein altehrwürdiger Markenname der deutschen Luftfahrt wurde gegen eine Bezeichnung getauscht, die an Lächerlichkeit kaum zu überbieten ist. Scheinbar halten es einige "dynamische" Jungmanager oder so genannte "Marketing-Experten" für "hip" und "trendy", den traditionellen Begriff "Hapag" mit dem englischen "Fly" zu vermischen. Das Resulat ist jedoch ein billiges, unprofessionelles Flickwerk, das bei den Passagieren sicherlich auf Ablehnung stoßen wird.
Eigentlich sollte man annehmen, das peinliche Debakel um Einführung und Zurücknahme der Bezeichnung "Thomas Cook" bei Condor war ein warnendes Beispiel. Doch die Damen und Herren bei Hapag Lloyd haben bewiesen, dass es in negativer Hinsicht immer noch eine Stufe tiefer geht. Wenigstens hat man bei Condor den Fehler erkannt, Mut gezeigt und den alten Markennamen wieder eingeführt.
Bleibt nur zu hoffen, dass auch bei "HapagFly" der Geist der Erkenntnis noch Einzug hält - aber bitteschön bald!"
RayChuang From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 7711 posts, RR: 5 Reply 22, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 8007 times:
You know, I wished someone will kindly point out that the TUI logo looks like a water closet.
Ushermittwoch From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 2890 posts, RR: 18 Reply 24, posted (8 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 7985 times:
Udo, man, that hurt!
And rightly so!
What the hell are they thinking?!
I guess the "Denglish"-Trend continures and people in this country still do not understand that it is NOT cool to get rid of tradition or the German language just to jump on the latest fad.
But after LH's latest workings, maybe they too will go with a new name.
How about Luftfly (sounds dumb enough, doesnt it).
But rest assured that I could make a load of money with the name "fLyTU".
Which I hereas declare as my copyrighted idea!
Where have all the tri-jets gone...
25 Gkirk: Hmmm...the Germans didnt like Thomas Cook, so it was changed. They wont like Hapagfly so it'll be changed. The Brits hate Thomsonfly...it wont be chan
26 Sabena332: Didn't everything start with "Einslive" ? They should better liquidate and go for something complete new. They don't need a stupid name to be a compl
27 KL911: No way! I don't need any service as long as the fare is not above 20 euros for a 1 hour flight MRS-CGN. Improving service means higher fares, and who
28 Leskova: Hapag Lloyd does not fly MRS-CGN, that's HLX... HLX is a low cost carrier, HLF is not. And, by the way: I just had a look at Hapag's website - when I
29 TriStar500: At least their rebranding is consequently stupid. I am not so sure if I should really wish them to experience the "Thomas Koch effect" - after all, it
30 Columba: Absolutely unneccessary to change the name now after 45 years or so in the airline business, no one would confuse Hapag Lloyd with containerships and
31 MIAMIx707: no way.. HAHAHAHHAHAA! Will they now associate it with a mosquito or a fly? Do you guys think they'll eventually rename it TUIfly? What planet is the
32 Jafa39: Hapagfly, I think you need to spray your Rose beds with urine to get rid of them......
33 Jafa39: Hapagfly, I think you need to spray your Rose beds with urine to get rid of them......
34 Airsicknessbag: Oh well, I can just echo what everybody else said so far... When the current atrocious livery was introduced, that same guestbook was overflowing with
35 Ushermittwoch: I am now wondering if TUI will also push Hannover 96 to call themselves HannoverFußball 96 and to adopt baby blue jerseys... When will companies lear
36 TriStar500: Following TUI's logic, Hannover 96 would be HannoverKick 96.
37 Ushermittwoch: My bad, I forgot that you HAVE TO use "Denglish" in today's marketing world.
38 TriStar500: Check out the updated guest book on the HF homepage - seems like some a.net regulars and even some other folks really needed to vent. http://www.hapag
39 Udo: They really updated the guestbook! And my entry is there, though somebody apparently has copied it from here and put it there with his name. Still str
40 Sabena332: Sue that twat, this is clearly copyright violation. Patrick
41 NoUFO: Taken from their English website: "When Hapagfly was founded in 1972 it set itself the aim of allowing passengers to start their well earned holiday a
42 N1120A: Hence the name was Hapag Lloyd FLUG. How the hell can they say people will confuse the two when the name says FLUG????
43 Leskova: Unfortunately for my old home-team, the more likely new name would be... HannoverLost 96 ... but anyhow, I was quite surprised when I looked at the g
44 Columba: The guestbook of Hapagfly now reads as the who is who of airliners.net
45 DAL767400ER: Unfortunately, they don't seem to post all comments in their guestbook. I wrote a comment prior to 3 pm, citing how Hapag Lloyd has such a long histor
46 Orion737: I am British but I am so sad that TUI have dropped the Hapag Llod name. TUI are meglomaniacs, they want to take over the world. First they raped Brita
47 Orion737: Also, many people who have provided years of loyal service to Hapag Lloyd must be upset by this. Why dont they flight for the name of their company?
48 DC10Tim: Exactly what were they smoking when this one was thought up?!!! What are the TUI organisation frightened of with heritage? They seem to want to be one
49 B742: So what airlines make up the TUI group, Britannia (Thomsonfly), Hapag-Lloyd (Hapagfly), Neos....? Rob!
50 GodBless: I feel sorry for the staff of Hapag-Lloyd Flug, especially since I know what price the staff of DE had to pay to get the airline back on track. And it
51 Udo: Sobelair is gone...TUI's Belgian branch is called Jetair "operated by TUI Belgium Airlines". So there's only Corsair left to be raped and called Cors
52 LH526: Guys .... although Hapag Lloyd is a strong brand in germany, I think the prefix "Hapag" will give it away. It's not as bad as the total disappearance
53 Columba: Well I doubt that they could do that with Corsair, it think if they would try that would cause an outrage.......
54 DeltaWings: Okay now- They turned Britannia into Thomson. Thomsonfly became the LCC part of Thomson (Britannia). And now they are turning Hapag-Lloyd into Hapagfl
55 Udo: Well, the French might oppose it and they have a damn right to do so! At least France tries to save its language while German is being raped every da
56 Doona: Could there please be a law prohibiting airlines from adding "fly" to their names? Hate, hate, hate!!! Cheers Mats
57 AeroVodochody: This is the STUPIDEST thing I have heard in a pretty long while!!! Really, imagine Deltafly, EasyFly, or Ryanfly.