Despite conducting extensive market research before the launch, there was public uproar. At the height of the backlash, Coca-Cola was receiving 1,500 calls a day from disgruntled consumers. What the company had underestimated was just how emotionally attached consumers were to Coca-Cola and everything it represented.
There are parallels with SIA. Both companies sought to modernise iconic brands, and illustrate the risks of underestimating the meanings and emotions they evoke in customers.
KEEPING SIA DISTINCTIVE
SIA is not simply a premium airline but a premium Asian brand – one that evokes a particular sense of comfort, elegance, and Asian hospitality. And this is precisely what feels missing in the new design.
Looking at the grey-and-yellow colour scheme, I struggle to see anything that evokes that identity. In its previous incarnations, the cabin environment mixed soft colours and textures. The warmth and hospitality associated with SIA’s cabin crew, found a visual counterpart in the cabin’s design.
But the new, more technical aesthetic, appears largely disconnected from this heritage. If someone told me this was the new business class cabin of Lufthansa, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid.
That is the central issue. SIA has said the colours and materials were selected to create a “fresh, contemporary and refined ambience”. But does it feel like Singapore Airlines?