BRAND HEALTH CHECK: Zuji - Zuji's aim obscured by confusing messages

It does not offer lowest prices, which is generally a great carrot to dangle in front of customers. Its name, Zuji, does not elicit an immediate connection in consumers' minds as anything remotely related to travel.

Its positioning as "Your online travel guru" supposes a market that is travel portal-friendly, which countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong, among Zuji's initial targets, are not - as yet.

The Zuji investment is a big gamble by Asian airlines. Launched a year ago, Zuji continues to be strengthened in areas such as reliability, convenience, travel expertise and unique features. But efforts to raise awareness have only recently started, with Zuji's first-ever advertising blitz (Media, September 5, 2003) launched in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

In the Singapore campaign, hundreds of taxis were turned into moving billboards to promote Zuji, while in Hong Kong, a barge was tranformed into a 'floating billboard' which is towed across the harbour daily. Zuji combined these efforts with print, online, radio and ambient and outdoor executions.

Branding gurus say there are weaknesses Zuji must tackle in order to build the brand. For one, the name itself needs to be explained and could be capitalised on to build brand recall. 'Zuji' means 'footprints' in Mandarin, yet the campaign focuses on positioning without relating its name to its raison d'etre. The Zuji proposition also has to be made clearer: "Your online travel guru" may be a unique positioning, but customers want to know what's in it for them.

Zuji director of marketing Philip Ho says after the campaign in Singapore, the number of members jumped from 20,000 to 30,000; brand awareness "doubled within one month"; and the weekly number of tickets sold has increased five-fold.

"Zuji is seen as 'fresh and innovative'. The fun 'guru' personality is coming across in our ads. As for the overall rating of Zuji, 61 per cent rated us as 'very good'. And 69 per cent indicated that they 'definitely will' or 'probably will' buy from Zuji. It's a great start for us," Ho says.

VITAL SIGNS
              Asia launch  Major shareholders
                           in Asia               Core brand values
Zuji.com       August 2002  Travelocity.com, 11
                           airlines including    Best value and speedy,
                           Cathay Pacific and    reliable transactions
                           Singapore Airlines
Priceline.com  April 2002   Hutchison Cheung      Best price
                           Kong                  and convenience

DIAGNOSIS

JOSEPH DARANJO; AGENCY DIRECTOR; ATOMZ I!, SINGAPORE

Zuji's overall positioning as the 'online travel guru' is strong, easy to remember and to the point.

It also differentiates it well from competitor Priceline.

Using taxis for its recent promotional campaign (in Singapore and Australia) to draw attention to the brand and what it offers, and to feature the Zuji 'travel guru' image, was particularly clever and catchy.

A moving, travelling medium immediately suggests "being on the move" - just as holidays are about being on the move, taking a break, going places.

That's a strong psychological prompt.

That's a particularly effective message to an audience which already knows Zuji.

But I am not sure if it will be that effective in recruiting new users, in convincing those who have never heard of Zuji to come to the fold.

The simple fact of the matter is that if a person has no idea what Zuji is, it is hard to make the connection of cabs and the travel portal (based on just that portion of the promotional effort) alone.

In this sense, the campaign has its weaknesses and may not be able to fulfil its objective of expanding the market base.

KELLIN CHAN; COO, ONE INDENTITY GROUP INTERNATIONAL, SINGAPORE

Zuji will need to approach its branding thoughtfully in order to effectively differentiate itself from the other online travel agents out there.

For instance, it needs to be sure the audience has an exact and correct pronunciation of the word 'Zuji', since this is so front-and-centre to its identity.

The company must also capitalise more on the associations of the word 'guru'in its advertising and promotional campaigns - the present brand communications inadequately reflect the look and feel, the dimension and imagination of this name.

This touches upon questions of original identity, because the name Zuji recalls its Chinese heritage - the name means 'footprints' in Mandarin, but this may not necessarily create the correct and desired association or symbiotic relationship between business model, brand identity and customers.

Like every company, Zuji will need a good product and, like any brand, it needs a good identity that says who it is, what it does and what Zuji truly stands for.

The challenge for the 'flight guru' is to capitalise on this group of emerging online customers' behaviour, lifestyle and purchase habits if it intends to be more than a flash in the pan.

TREATMENT

Daranjo's prescription

- The taxi campaign may need to be slightly modified. The message needs to make it appealing - perhaps with a tagline such as 'Set yourself free: travel online with Zuji'.

- Integrate the taxi campaign with other awareness drives such as consumer competitions and direct mailers.

- Can the taxi campaign help to build a consumer database for Zuji? A series of consumer promotions held throughout the period of the taxi campaign may do the trick.

Chan's remedy

- First and foremost, create a clear and concise point of difference and differentiation for the Zuji brand identity.

- Then, the next task is to precisely identify the critical success factors of Zuji as a company and the unique selling point of its online travel product/service.

- The company also needs to translate Zuji's brand equity in order to create strong buying demand and buy value for customers, using the 'brand equity ten' theory.