Inside SWISS, Outside Switzerland - Italy

Paola Tomaino, E-Commerce Italy

Buongiorno a tutti da Milano, the capital city of fashion. I could not come from any another part of the world. I’m partly addicted to shopping and I’m very lucky to look after a “shopping window” on the Internet. In fact, I’m responsible for the online content for SWISS Italy - it’s like running a shop! Via SWISS.COM, the SWISS Newsletter and our different online channels, all our destinations are well presented and made very attractive to our customers. Working for SWISS fits perfectly well with my own passion: I sell great service, a product offering a broad choice of beautiful destinations all over the world and 17 daily chances to travel to wonderful Switzerland from Milan, Rome, Venice, Florence and Bari. And during the summer holiday period my shop offers an even greater selection of destinations in Italy: Catania, Lamezia Terme and Olbia. My online shop is running very well indeed. :)

Transcript from our chat with Holger Hätty (25.08.11)

Dear all, we are live now and happy to start the conversation. Holger Hätty is with us and will answer your questions:

The top question from our facebook fans was:
Looking at the strong and emotional reaction by thousands of your followers and all the negative tweets and blog pots - don't you think you already have a strong and powerful brand?

Holger Hätty: Yes, we believe we already have a powerful brand and are happy about the ongoing discussions. But to stay successful in the future, we need to look forward and develop our brand for the future. And this includes sharpening our profile and positioning.

José Olé: As I guess you will defend your new logotype and your decision, I'd like to know what was the reason to get rid of a classy, timeless logotype which is so different and unique in aviation industry that in my eyes it just doesn't make any sense to change it. Could you please explain it? What is the decision based on? Surveys? Brand Awareness? Figures?

Holger Haetty:
Your claim that our logo is timeless and unique is a personal impression. My first question is: what is our current logo? We get several answers, including square, cubes and tailfins. Therefore we decided to develop a new logo as part of a brand concept, consisting of more elements than just a logo.

Live chat with Holger Hätty, Chief Commercial Officer

Dear fans, followers, customers and readers
Start time: 5 PM CEST
Welcome to the live chat with Chief Commercial Officer Holger Hätty. We are ready to answer your questions now and are looking forward to this live session.
The following people are attending this session:

Holger Hätty, Chief Commercial Officer
Susanne Mühlemann, Head of Media Relations
Walter Stulzer, Managing Partner @ NOSE (branding agency)
Parand Rohani, Manager Online Marketing
Christian Lüdi, Social Media Marketing
Mathias Sulger, Intern Online Marketing
Alan Millen, Translator/Editor Brand Management



GAME RULES
Join the live session
At 17:00, we will launch the online chat here on the blog, so make sure to be online. As we want to keep the chat stream readable, we will pick your questions from the blog entries and answer them in the live chat. You can comment or ask further questions in the comment section/chat function of the blog.

Live chat with our Chief Commercial Officer on Thursday, 17:00 CEST

Dear fans, followers, customers and readers

As previously announced, our Chief Commercial Officer Holger Hätty will join us and answer your questions regarding our brand positioning in a live chat.
This online event will take place tomorrow, Thursday, 25 August, between 17:00 and 18:00 CEST on our blog.

Ask your question
We are looking forward to your questions: you can either phrase your question now by commenting on this article or ask your questions online tomorrow during the chat. You can ask your question in English or German.

Join the live session
At 17:00, we will launch the online chat here on the blog, so make sure to be online. As we want to keep the chat stream readable, we will pick your questions from the blog entries and answer them in the live chat. You can comment or ask further questions in the comment section/chat function of the blog.

We strengthen our positioning and sharpen our brand profile

An interview with Holger Hätty, Chief Commercial Officer of Swiss International Air Lines (scroll down for a brief résumé)

Mr. Hätty, SWISS is currently doing very well. Why the need to sharpen the current brand profile? And why now?

Past successes count for very little in today’s competitive environment, and we can’t afford to get complacent. We need to lay the foundations today for the successes of tomorrow. And it was with this aim in mind that our Board of Directors and our Management Board took a long and careful look at our present business strategy to determine if it was still optimally suited to our aspiration of being and remaining Europe’s leading airline. We came to the conclusion that the course we are currently pursuing is indeed the right one. So in this sense, we are not repositioning SWISS; but we have decided to pursue our present path with an even clearer focus and even greater resolve.

39 tonnes from Berlin to Zurich

Uschi Roth, Head Corporate & Marketing Communications at Swiss Aviation Training
Mathias Sulger, Intern Online & Social Media Marketing at SWISS

What does it take to move a flight simulator half way across Europe? Such an undertaking is a logistical challenge as this piece of aviation equipment weighs some 39 tonnes and measures seven metres long, six metres wide and five meters high. A Swiss Aviation Training team shows how it’s done.

Swiss Aviation Training (SAT), a wholly-owned SWISS subsidiary company, went the proverbial extra mile to transport the BAe 146 / AVRO RJ simulator from Berlin to Zurich. Ralf Kempa, simulator engineer at SAT and project head for this relocation, deployed a team of seven experts for the dismantling phase in Berlin, which took approximately two weeks to complete.

Becoming a SWISS fan is really worth it!

Eigil Houmark, SWISS passenger from Denmark

Hi out there!

I was the lucky winner of a trip with SWISS to Athens – including a party night in the Galaxy Bar of the Hilton Hotel in Athens on the 18th of June. For the first time ever I flew with SWISS and it was a very pleasant experience. After the landing in Athens, I headed to the Hilton Hotel and waited eagerly for the party. Although an international DJ came all the way from Hamburg, the party – in contrast to the SWISS planes – unfortunately never took off. People rather stayed outside on the hotel’s terrace, talking, drinking and enjoying the magnificent view of old Acropolis. But I can’t blame them because it was a fantastic evening.

Rescue dogs on board

SWISS Team Italy

We arranged an exclusive partnership with Scuola Italiana Cani Salvataggio (S.I.C.S.), the Italian association and school for rescue dogs.

In our cooperation, we have agreed to fly 30 selected, well trained and disciplined dogs (Golden Retriever, Labrador, Newfoundlander) around the world to present them to other rescue dogs’ associations and assist other countries in emergency situations. The licensed rescue dogs are permitted to fly in the cabin on SWISS operated flights (the dogs also buy a seat, the Newfoundlander even two).

On July 28th, our team in Italy has arranged a dry boarding test onboard of LX1637 (MXP-ZRH) which was accompanied by several journalists, among them a TV team filming for the German-French TV station ARTE and a staffer of the Italian magazine ARGOS, the most read home animal magazine. The first SWISS flight of the two rescue dogs will take place early October