Delta: Use the Northwest Brand or Lose It

It's a fundamental of trademark law. To keep a trademark, you have to use it.

My old Virginia bank Virginia National Bank learned that lesson. It dropped the name VNB, and merged a number of times into what is now Bank of America (BAC). A few years ago, a new start-up bank decided it wanted the name Virginia National Bank and so it claimed it, no problems at all.

So it was unfortunate that I read in the Seattle P-I online (now that's an old brand that's staying alive) that Delta Airlines (DAL) attorneys are writing nasty-grams to the owners of a travel website called GoNorthwest.com. Go and read the back and forth between the lawyers when you click on the preceding P-I link; it appears that not only has Delta made a legal boo-boo, but it has alienated the entrepreneurial community in the Northwest, an area it is trying to win over.

I guess Delta's old slogan, "Good Goes Around," is no more.

But being a bully isn't the only stupid thing they have done. Delta's "protection" of the soon-to-be-discontinued Northwest Airlines brand through legal threats misses the whole point. They are wasting the Northwest asset. On top of that, the GoNorthwest site is all about promoting travel to the Northwest, where Delta needs traffic.

Use the Northwest Brand

The way for Delta to protect the Northwest Airlines brand is to use the brand where it can. If it did that, there would be no need to bring such lawsuits; the use of the brand does the "brand protection" for Delta. Even if Delta won this case (and Delta won't) in order to protect the name from here on out, they would have to keep bringing these annoying lawsuits against businesses in the Northwest using the name Northwest regularly. It looks to us like make-work.

Delta has a tremendous asset with the Northwest brand, a brand name that is associated with Charles Lindbergh and Cary Grant. Why lose that mystique?

However, it is not an either/or proposition. There are many ways to preserve the Northwest identity that do not involve operating two different airlines. Delta could use Northwest as a sub-brand for their Asian division. They could keep Northwest-branded club lounges in areas that were Northwest hubs. They could operate airline training schools and weather centers (a NW specialty) under a Northwest brand. A fitting situation would be to use Northwest as a service brand inside Delta; for instance Delta/Northwest's "Business Elite" trans-Pacific routes could be re-branded as Northwest Class.

We wonder if Delta did any market research to see if non-English speaking passengers in Asia preferred the Delta name over Northwest? We doubt it. Northwest flew to China in 1947 before Mao; throwing out the Northwest name in that brand-centric market would be like GM Shanghai-ing the retro Buick brand because it liked Chevy better for the U.S. market.

USAirways (LCC) has been very careful to preserve the various identities within its system, including Piedmont Airlines, PSA, Allegheny and America West. Through the years it has used those old company names as sub-brands for its commuter airlines; a commuter flight might be PSA or Piedmont. Recently, it painted its planes to look like PSA and Piedmont in a program it called "throwback" jets; this move pleased the former employees and passengers who still felt nostalgic over the old names.

CEO Doug Parker said then that the company did it because the old Piedmont goodwill was still alive and well at USAirways. In addition, USAirways posts each of the logos of the airlines to the right of the doors of its planes; there can be no mistake that USAirways not only wants to protect its intellectual property, but that it is taking aggressive (and thoughtful) steps. Rather than threatening lawsuits to everyday folk, it is proudly utilizing its old brands where it can, and having a rather fun time at it.

But back to the Delta issue. They are not only wasting an intellectual property asset, they are wasting time and money protecting the wasting of the asset. Delta just hired Wieden and Kennedy to re-brand the new airline with a new campaign. Before they try to fix things with new ads, they best go back and straighten out the current branding mess.

Position: None

Comments

[eshtadiva:]

You are spot on about Asia recognizing NWA...They have a reputation in Asia that none of the other US carriers have. Delta should use the brand name whenever possible. Let's hope they listen or they may end up losing a lot of paxs....

Aug 12 07:01 AM

[Syracuse:]

So true about the NW name in Asia. I am now a retired NW flight attendant, went to Japan and beyond hundreds of times. Even with all of the NW tardiness and more basic cabin service, that brand name was respected highly. And yes part of it was because of NW going in there soon after WW2 ended and flew planes in and out of Japan when no one else did. I'm not saying the NW name should survive over Delta itself. However Delta would do well to attach the old "Northwest Orient" approach to some kind of branding, maybe on the 747s and A-330s that fly there. Anyone who has ever seen the NW hub at Narita will tell you the red tail presence there is impressive and Delta is like some kind of strange upstart trying to be one of the big boys.

Aug 12 07:47 AM

[logicalthought:]

>>Delta has a tremendous asset with the Northwest brand, a brand name that is associated with Charles Lindbergh and Cary Grant.<<

30 years ago it was still a great "brand". However, for anyone who's been an active flier for at least the past 10 years, the Northwest "brand" conjures up nothing but images of old, dirty planes and cabin crews who didn't give a damn. Assuming they can fix all that, it wouldn't be worth the ad money they'd have to spend to convince people of it.

Aug 12 08:42 AM

[Garland Pol...:]

Logical. Your point is totally logical though I am not sure whether the other legacy carrier brands are that much better in terms of consumers actually liking the brand experience. It's pretty dreary all round and so much of airline travel has become a commodity.

That being said, any improvement in a brand that was once really loved is appreciated by consumers.

Aug 12 09:12 AM

[User 470431:]

People don't really care if it says "Delta", "Northwest", or "Bubba's Flying Service" on the side of the airplane - they'll go with the first carrier that pops up on the travel website because it's the lowest price. Talk about airlines being a commodity and dreary - there's your root cause - Wal Mart crowds en masse with matching shopping bag luggage.
Why not rehash all the great (now defunct) airline names - Pan Am, TWA, Eastern, et al? Times change, move on, nothing to see here.

Aug 12 09:50 AM

[TWA727:]

Delta had no interest in rebranding Western, when it took it over
in the 1985. They were so happy the take-over went thru that they
could not even wait to re-paint their aircraft, so they put a cheesy
decal on the Western aircraft until the planes went to the paintshop.
Their desire to keep the Northwest name in any shape or form is
non-existent, and eventually will dissappear altogether.

Aug 12 11:28 AM

[FlyingSig:]

Regardless of the fact that Delta is phasing out the NWA brand, fact is that they will win this lawsuit because 1.) they own the name, and 2.) there are still 200+ airplanes flying around in the NWA brand, thus they are still using it. The call sign is still "Northwest", there is still a Northwest Airlines website, and you still buy a ticket on Northwest Airlines which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.

This lawsuit is no different than Pirate Bay telling the movie publishers that piracy is ok because the website is in Sweeden and not the US.

Aug 12 03:39 PM

[jetmman:]

Probably Delta could transfer the "Northwest" name to one of their regional wholly owned carriers like Mesaba, Compass, Comair etc.as they have no real draw or value as they operate under the "DL" code.

However, consider who Delta is...
1/The largest airline in the world
2/Only airline that flies to all 50 US states (Before Northwest)
3/Only US carrier that operates to six continents (Before Northwest)
4/Operates the world's largest airline hub., Atlanta (BeforeNW)
5/Number 1 across Atlantic (Beforfe NW)
etc etc etc

Really should they keep the Northwest name? They bought Northeast, Western, and most of Pan Am.... there gone.

Aug 12 07:27 PM

[swim9700:]

The NWA brand is still in use with the items listed (website, aircraft, callsign, etc) because they are technically two airlines, each operating with their respective FAA Operating Certificate. A Single Operating Certificate (SOC) must be acquired before NWA can be fully integrated into Delta. This is expected to happen by then end of the year. Until then, Northwest Airlines is, as mentioned, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Airlines and therefore will have it's own website (although the reservation systems have been mostly integrated), flight numbers, and callsign. As Delta and Northwest work towards SOC, aircraft livery, frequenty flier programs, gate operations, employee uniforms, terminal signage, and other technology systems are all being rapidly brought together under the Delta name.

Litigation, especially involving intellectual property, can be a very protracted battle. (case in point--In the late '90s two major sporting goods retailers fought in the courts for almost 10 years over trademarks and their usage) The author has raised a number of valid points regarding the future of the NWA brand after SOC is acheived. "Red-tails" have been a fixture worldwide at airports and in people's minds.


On Aug 12 03:39 PM FlyingSig wrote:

> Regardless of the fact that Delta is phasing out the NWA brand, fact
> is that they will win this lawsuit because 1.) they own the name,
> and 2.) there are still 200+ airplanes flying around in the NWA brand,
> thus they are still using it. The call sign is still "Northwest",
> there is still a Northwest Airlines website, and you still buy a
> ticket on Northwest Airlines which is a wholly owned subsidiary of
> Delta Air Lines.
>
> This lawsuit is no different than Pirate Bay telling the movie publishers
> that piracy is ok because the website is in Sweeden and not the US.

Aug 12 08:06 PM

[doubleshortetf:]

I'll miss the NW name and color... I have logged in 2.77 million flight miles since 1989.

Flew NW on transpacific routes for 20 years on business and in some strange ways miss the old Narita satellite gates. It was awkward to see 747-400 painted with Delta colors in Narita starting Dec last year.

NW has given me miles for being good customer including 15k miles toward Elite status last month. Sadly, NW Platinum Elite no longer receive 125% bonus miles since March this year as part of "alignment" with Delta.

Aug 13 12:58 AM

[MBanalyst:]

the bottom line is that Delta doesn't give two shakes about the Northwest brand. They didn't give ANY consideration to the Asian presence Northwest has maintained for decades, nor does Delta mgmt really understand doing business over there. It's very clear from the aircraft regauging and route management that their focus is ATL / JFK and TATL traffic. Delta is run by beancounters and they are making business decisions based on that. You'll see tactical retreats away from many Northwest strongholds, leaving openings for Southwest, etc.

The article author's raises good points about Delta's (and I think it might actually be the Northwest subsidiary's legal unit making themselves look busy) pursuit of some spurious claims (and DL will not win the lawsuit, GoNorthwest has been around a looong time) and what a waste of time it is when they're not "using" the Northwest brand, as well as some interesting thoughts about how to make some use of that brand. But again the bottom line is the Delta has set out to eradicate the Northwest brand. A walk through MSP or DTW will verify that for you. Long time NWA flyers may argue for the relative merits of "WorldBusinessClass" over "BusinessElite" or the "WorldClub" over "SkyClub" but it doesn't matter. Delta is in the process of erasing all NW branding at it will be as gone as Pan Am and TWA.

Aug 13 09:58 AM

[Delta Don:]

Does Delta still have control over the former Northeast Airlines "YELLOW BIRD"?

Aug 13 10:05 AM

[Pwilk:]

Why would Delta want to follow the example of USAir in anything?

Aug 13 11:14 AM

[Leftfield:]

Typical bean counters as MBanalyst mentions. Business by standard MBA formula. Homogenize, don't allow for uniqueness because that requires thought and individual chance-taking. CYA, cut corners, you will get a bonus for the short-term pop.
We pay people top dollar, multiples of anywhere else in the world, to do this.

Aug 13 11:39 AM

[User 471210:]

Delta was told by the FAA to follow Piedmont's (now USAirways) method of flight planning across to North Atlantic after they (Delta) almost collided with a Continental flight due to pilot error.


On Aug 13 11:14 AM Pwilk wrote:

> Why would Delta want to follow the example of USAir in anything?

Aug 13 02:28 PM

[Garland Pol...:]

Fascinating comments all. Thanks. One thought that has little to do with the branding and marketing; seems like Delta after merger has one of the most diverse fleets anywhere. It's like a flying museum of aviation from 1975-2010. Quite interesting but in the world do they expect economies of scale from the merger?

www.delta.com/planning...

Aug 13 09:06 PM

[mic59170:]

because what they did in protecting branding was smart


On Aug 13 11:14 AM Pwilk wrote:

> Why would Delta want to follow the example of USAir in anything?

Aug 14 11:37 AM

[mic59170:]

Because what US Airways has done in protecting branding was smart ... I mean common Delta how hard is it to rename one of your wholly own subsidiaries Northwest ... its obvious DL/US talk considering there recent slot/intenational trasaction



On Aug 13 11:14 AM Pwilk wrote:

> Why would Delta want to follow the example of USAir in anything?

Aug 14 11:43 AM

[Capt.John:]

When Delta bought up the Pan Am operation in Europe they couldn't wait to get rid of the Pan Am name. Almost overnight, all the signage for Pan Am, a name recognized all over Europe for many years, was gone immediately and replaced with Delta. What they didn't realize, was that Delta was also the name of a small French cargo carrier. Way to go you arrogant fools. That of course was the 'brain child' of one Ron Allen, who like Pan Am, also soon disappeared. We don't need no stinking 'good will' that's only an accounting term. MBA's just don't seem to get it.

Aug 19 10:47 PM

[raksasa:]

"Delta has a tremendous asset with the Northwest brand, a brand name that is associated with Charles Lindbergh and Cary Grant. Why lose that mystique?"

Huh??? Northwest squandered whatever legacy it had with rude employees and old, filthy aircraft. It reminds me of the US automakers and how they gave away the store to foriegn competition.

We flew JAL to Asia this year and loved the service and efficiency. Even though I have a lot of NW miles, it was worth the money to exit the aircraft relaxed and happy instead of angry.

Maybe DL should sell NW branded items on the internet. I'd buy a NW automatic pouring beer machine like the one in the Narita lounge. It would probably generate more money that actual flight operations.

Aug 21 12:03 PM

[h39291:]

Obviously Mr. Pollard doesn't really understand the airline industry. He trumpets USAirways using the old Piedmont, Allegheny, PSA names for their commuter which is/was a huge mistake by Doug Parker.

Let's pause for a minute...how do you think it makes the USAirways/AmericaWest employees feel to subcontract out their jobs and give their jobs to commuter carriers. While at the same time naming these commuter carriers the name of the airline which the employees of USAirways came from...

Obviously Doug Parker doesn't get it either. It pisses off the employees and that unfortunately equals poor customer service.

Aug 29 07:36 AM

[mc1:]

Delta can't/won't keep the Northwest brand alive for one simple reason, "unionzed workforce". The idealogy is if the NW brand dies so does the relationships or lack therof with the labor unions.

Sep 04 04:46 PM