Andrea Assi
Nour Haddad
Sahar Nifnaks
Andrea Assi
Nour Haddad
Sahar Nifnaks
​​In order to establish and promote the identity brand of Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways in two periods across the future era, we have to implement cultural branding strategies explored and discussed by Douglas Holt in “How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding” (2004). Holt suggests that too often advertisers rely on the use of traditional mind-share principles and brand attributes when it comes to selling to a customer. However, he reveals an alternative; a cultural branding strategy that focuses on building relevant “identity myths” that are formed through the deep analysis and understanding of ideologies, populist worlds, and consumer anxieties. Holt defines cultural branding as the “set of axioms and strategic principles that guide the building of brands into cultural icons”. This formula of cultural branding principles has led to the mass success of iconic brands.
We will be creating an identity myth chart for the two potential periods in the future era of Etisalat and Du branding. The first step is to identify the appropriate ideologies along with their contradictions for each period. By analyzing the potential social, political, and economical issues that could arise in the future while keeping in mind the understanding from previous research conducted in the past and present era we have developed, we were able to create four myth markets (two myths per period) in order to address the anxieties, desires, and needs.
​​In order to establish and promote the identity brand of Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways in two periods across the future era, we have to implement cultural branding strategies explored and discussed by Douglas Holt in “How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding” (2004). Holt suggests that too often advertisers rely on the use of traditional mind-share principles and brand attributes when it comes to selling to a customer. However, he reveals an alternative; a cultural branding strategy that focuses on building relevant “identity myths” that are formed through the deep analysis and understanding of ideologies, populist worlds, and consumer anxieties. Holt defines cultural branding as the “set of axioms and strategic principles that guide the building of brands into cultural icons”. This formula of cultural branding principles has led to the mass success of iconic brands.
We will be creating an identity myth chart for the two potential periods in the future era of Etisalat and Du branding. The first step is to identify the appropriate ideologies along with their contradictions for each period. By analyzing the potential social, political, and economical issues that could arise in the future while keeping in mind the understanding from previous research conducted in the past and present era we have developed, we were able to create four myth markets (two myths per period) in order to address the anxieties, desires, and needs.
Political and Economic Issues
Figure 13: The number of new covid cases each month
Political Issues:
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There were some serious political issues that took place during the years of 2011 to 2021such as:
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The major reason for choosing the Age of the Coronavirus as a political issue is because the pandemic has impacted us rapidly by the spread of Covid-19 which has resulted in a number of ethical, legal, and social issues for many people living through the epidemic.
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The Age of Coronavirus
Since the covid-19 pandemic happened and the first infection occurred. Over millions have been affected and killed by the virus, as it is now known, which was first reported in China in December 2019. Starting in China, it started to spread to every country, resulting in the world to live in fear. It was unexpected how every person from different ages got ill, entire countries were in serious lockdown, and a ban on international travel was placed in effect in all countries to prevent infection spread. During the Coronavirus pandemic, people all around the world adapted to staying at home, distancing themselves from others, and wearing masks. According to Statista “Lockdowns around the world have helped to slow the spread of new infections – restrictions include working from home, limiting public gatherings, and banning all non-essential travel. The number of new cases continues to fall, but there is understandable concern about relaxing guidelines too soon, especially while the virus is still circulating at a very high rate.” (Elflein.J,2021) Human life and economic growth have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year. Many people were left jobless during those difficult times, all factories started to slow down that caused the industrial production, sales, and investments to fall. Together with working-hour reductions, the loss of 114 million jobs in 2020 resulted in moving hours that are nearly four times higher than during the financial crisis (ILO, 2021). The virus made us live in fear not knowing whether we will make it alive the next day or not. As shown in the figure, Global incidence of Coronavirus (COVID-19) from January 23, 2020 to November 10, 2021, by day.
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Many governments were trying to manage and control the situation, scientists were rushing to identify a cure against the virus and the vaccine was out. According to New Scientist “With many vaccines now approved, over 300 million doses have been administered, and over 65 million people are now fully vaccinated” (2021). Although many got vaccinated and life is getting back to normal, we can't forget that the virus is still living around us and that we must take precautionary measures not only for us but for the people around us as well. The figure above, vaccinations are categorized by whether someone has been partially or fully vaccinated in the following charts. An individual who receives just one dose out of a two-dose vaccine protocol is considered partially vaccinated. On the other hand, if a person receives both doses of a two-dose vaccine or both doses of a single-dose vaccine, they are considered fully vaccinated. As a result, it shows that the United Arab Emirates has 88% of its people who are fully vaccinated while 10% who are partly vaccinated against covid-19. Furthermore, Chile and Spain have 81% to 80% of its people who are fully vaccinated while 82% to 87% who are partly vaccinated against covid-19.
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Figure 14: Countries that are being vaccinated
Economic Issues:
There were a few major economic crises that happened during the years of 2011 to 2021 such as:
The major reason for choosing the impact of the Coronavirus on the global economy as an economic issue is because many countries have experienced or still are experiencing a major decline in many sectors.
Impact of the Coronavirus on the Global Economy
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The sudden outbreak of the coronavirus started all the way in Wuhan, China, by the end of the year in 2019. The epidemic of the coronavirus has been spreading rapidly since then. Later, in the middle of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated about the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit almost every country possible and which caused over millions of cases and deaths over a very short period of time. COVID-19 did not only impact the public health crisis, it also played a major role with the global economy and the financial markets, as it caused an economic shock. Almost 43 percent of the small businesses had to be temporarily closed due to the lockdown that happened in the beginning of the coronavirus (Pak, A, 2020). Which led to the businesses having to have a major reduction on the employer’s income and it also caused the businesses to lay off many employers too. The global financial markets have been heavily impacted by the impacts of Covid-19. Also, according to CNBC, the coronavirus followed a number of declining revenues within the UAE’s most important sectors, mostly with the real estate and hospitality (Turak, N. 2020). Also, the pandemic has brought many challenges to the economies within MENA. This region has been struggling to attract more of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) (Investment in the MENA, 2020). The number of cases globally rose drastically, mainly from the United States, Italy, Spain, France, South Korea, China and Germany.
The world’s financial and oil market have dropped greatly. Many of the countries have been experiencing a recession. However, the economic impact of the coronavirus on the industrial sectors varies depending on how each of the countries are taking their own measures on the lockdown and restrictions. As the spread of this virus will most likely continue disrupting the economic activity and also negatively impacting the manufacturing industries especially in the more developed countries, they are expecting that the financial markets will continue to be unstable (McKinsey, 2021).
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How Etisalat leveraged the political and economic issue of Coronavirus in their AIMC:
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Due to Covid-19, they have stepped up their game and had great measures as they were trying to meet the demand that was created by a gigantic volume of people who were working or studying from home. Due to the increase’s cases in the UAE, the national government decided to close everything and have everyone go on lockdown. Due to the lockdown, residents were forced to work or study from home, which made the internet service providers take huge steps to try and avoid any internet cutting or any type of reduction with the speed of the internet. The congestion of using the network was a major issue during this situation (ICMR India, 2021). The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that Etisalat and du should provide free internet data services for those families who cannot afford to have internet access at home.
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Etisalat SmartCloud Talk
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At the end of March 2020, Etisalat was expected to have an overall increase of demand with the data traffic due to the surge of cases that have risen exponentially, which resulted in a huge boost with both the local network and the international data capacity. Also, Etisalat announced that they would provide the businesses with a three months free of access to their online collaboration platforms – Etisalat announced that they have officially launched the ‘Etisalat SmartCloud Talk’ as this is a unified communication platform whereby they are collaborating with the leading partners and industries to deliver an advanced connectivity and productivity. Their platform brought multiple types of technologies to enable the service for voice calls, high-definition quality video calls, screen sharing, allowing up to 50 participants to join the meeting, and many other benefits. This will allow you to basically work remotely, maintain their business, and it is based upon being secure and having to be a cloud-based solution which is beneficial for many companies to have their meeting via online (Etisalat, 2021).
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Communication Platform:
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Issue Being Addressed: Ensure that people have an integrated solution that supports their business communication and collaboration needs with operational flexibility.
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Communication Objective: Raising awareness of the coronavirus situation by encouraging people to use their Smart CloudTalk platform and stay online.
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Target Audience: The ad is mainly targeting business companies to stay home and work online.
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Compelling Benefit: Making sure the people have a unified platform and a great communication experience. Such as HD video calling and conferencing, security, and online collaborations.
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Creative Strategy: The ad mentions “Etisalat Smart CloudTalk” which introduces there on the cloud smart solution “CloudTalk”. This print advert shows a picture of a paper shaped in the form of a cloud which is folded in half showing the social distance between the two employees, which allows both employees to work from any location at any time using any network. They used the color green to represent the theme of their logo. This can either be a rational or an emotional appeal. In addition to Smart CloudTalk, Etisalat built a variety of campaigns tackling this issue on staying home and staying connected at the same time, where they further talk about how “Etisalat Smart CloudTalk” can simply allow you to work from home by using the right tools from Etisalat.
Figure 15: Print advertisement on Etisalat Smart CloudTalk
How Du leveraged the political and economic issue of Coronavirus in their AIMC:
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At the same time, on March 17, 2020 du announced that they would be doubling the speed of the internet for all schools and universities across the UAE, with no additional costs being charged. Also, du maintained and kept it as their number one priority with the reliability and the capacity of their networks during the pandemic outbreak (du, 2020). Du has been taking measures on keeping the public safety ensuring that businesses will continue running via online communications. They have set out the number of packages and bundles to keep businesses running. Also, they have collaborated with a wide range of solutions to stay connected using various connectivity tools such as Skype, Cisco WebEx, Office 365... and many more. However, they did not take a step forward like Etisalat has done in which they have created their own unified communication online platform. With the use of their social media platforms, du found a way to raise awareness and promote their packages to their customers through twitter by staying home yet connected with your loved ones.
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Figure 16: Du tweets about staying home yet staying connected
We have creatively created logo ideas for Etisalat and Du: A Social distancing logo for their social media accounts
Although both brands were able to touch base on the coronavirus case, it would have been a good idea if the brands creatively took advantage of this situation by interpreting “social distancing” with their logos being redesigned. The practice of social distancing entails standing 6 feet away from others to reduce the likelihood of contracting diseases. According to Sellers, D. “And brands designing social distancing logos have the potential to diminish the severity of what we are going through. The creativity, passion, and thought that goes into wanting to help, educate, and be part of the physical distancing movement is a worthy note” (CNN Business, 2020).
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Since Etisalat and du did not leverage the issue of the coronavirus, we decided to take advantage of it creatively by creating a social distancing logo for their social media accounts. With the use of photoshop, we were able to develop the illustrations shown below. The purpose of those logos was to show that brands can creatively leverage a certain global issue.
Figure 17: Social Distancing creative logo enhancement
Social media account for Etisalat
Communication Platform:
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Issue Being Addressed: Ensure that people have an idea about the social distancing issue with the virus.
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Communication Objective: Raising awareness on social distancing and having their logo redesigned to address the corona virus issue that the world is facing globally.
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Target Audience: We are targeting both male and females of all ages, who live within the UAE.
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Compelling Benefit: Due to the serious nature of the epidemic, whatever brands can do will go a long way towards convincing their audiences that social distancing works.
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Creative Strategy: We decided to take advantage of it creatively by creating a social distancing logo on photoshop for their social media accounts. To do that, we used the original logo for du and distanced each element away from one another. This showcases how everyone in those circumstances should and must obey the restrictions that are required from everyone to follow. Also, the brand stands with everyone during those difficult times.
Figure 18:Social Media Accounts for Etisalat (Social distancing)
Social media account for Du
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Communication Platform:
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Issue Being Addressed: Ensure that people have an idea about the social distancing issue with the virus.
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Communication Objective: Raising awareness on social distancing and having their logo redesigned to address the corona virus issue that the world is facing globally.
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Target Audience: We are targeting both male and females of all ages, who live within the region.
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Compelling Benefit: Due to the serious nature of the epidemic, whatever brands can do will go a long way towards convincing their audiences that social distancing works.
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Creative Strategy: We decided to take advantage of it creatively by creating a social distancing logo on photoshop for their social media accounts. To do that, we used the original logo for Etisalat and distanced each element away from one another. This showcases how everyone in those circumstances should and must obey the restrictions that are required from everyone to follow. Also, the brand stands with everyone during those difficult times.
Figure 19:Social Media Accounts for Du (Social distancing)
