Alaska Airlines is about to launch its new loyalty program, Atmos Rewards, combining Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles. The name was leaked but we know nothing else about the branding.
We’re supposed to learn more this month ahead of an October 1 conversion of HawaiianMiles into the new program. There haven’t been any statements from Alaska Airlines explaining the name “Atmos Rewards” that I’ve seen – no branding rationale, timeline for a rollout, or even indication of which agency is behind the branding.
Wow, This Is Gonna Be Expensive!
Naming work from a top-tier branding consultancy will involve research, competitor audits, linguistic and trademark screening, focus groups, and iterative design work. To merge two airline loyalty programs you’re probably looking at $1 million in branding work alone.
Then you need to promote the new name and transfer brand equity from two well-known programs into the new one. This involve paid media, social, email, inflight video, airport signage, and partner promotions. Remember also that all of the existing collateral – both online and in meat space – needs to be updated as well.
To reach parity in awareness within 12 – 18 months you’re probably spending $20 – $30 million in the first year at least, though a more aggressive campaign could cost $50 million.
Is Atmos A Good Name?
“Atmos” is vaguely evocative of ‘atmosphere’ or flying and sky. This is relevant to both pre-existing brands and likely carefully avoids favoring one over the other.
It’s short and easy to pronounce. It’s trademarkable. And it should work well across many languages, which is good for Alaska as they ‘go global’ with flights to both Europe and Asia.
On the other hand, both Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles have decades of recognition and emotional attachment. “Atmos Rewards” starts at zero.
And it’s generic. It could be used in just about any context. It could be a tech brand. It could be a fragrance! Spray yourself with some Atmos and become irresistible! There’s really no immediate communication of miles and points and travel rewards, which means more spending required to establish the brand.
What Actually Makes A Great Brand?
ChatGPT is probably the best recent brand. How many people even know that GPT is a generative pre-training transformer or what that means? But when we first saw a chat tool interacting with AI, we were amazed. The name is great because it’s associated with the thing that’s great, and it’s now a better brand that Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemeni or Meta’s Llama. The name can be clunky if the underlying product delights.
On the other hand, you want to ditch the brand if it has a bad reputation like in The Wire: change the name of the product.
Marriott invested in the generic and meaningless ‘Bonvoy’ and then had to spend heavily to give it meaning. But the botched roll out of the program, which included disappearing member status and account history, imbued it with meaning: getting Bonvoy’d became derogatory – akin to getting ‘hosed’ or subjected to a comedy of errors.
What they really should have done is just resurrected the old ‘Marriott Honored Guest’ name both because it was new to most members and because it would have appeared to also be a nod to Starwood Preferred Guest whose members were getting folded into the new program.
At the very least it would have kept the focus on the guest, which is something that’s felt missing from the brand since the Starwood deal. Marriott’s CEO famously says that they’ll put ‘net rooms growth’ on his tombstone. The corporate priority is mollifying owners, not delivering value to guests. And this is done through reduced program costs, including shifting the cost of free night awards onto members by passing on resort and destination fees (something neither Hilton nor Hyatt do).
Air Canada, on the other hand, launched its new program five years ago after buying it buy from Aimia. They considered giving it a new name. But they already had one of the best, most recognizable brands in Canada. Over time investing in a new name and elevating that name to the stature of what they already had would have been a nine figure investment. Better to put that money into the program itself!
Ultimately a great brand is something you establish with a great product. Brand awareness is terrible for a bad product – it accelerates negative sentiment! Spend the money on a great product, rather than great marketing of a terrible one. Be Be Trader Joe’s, Apple and ChatGPT – not Spirit Airlines! And unless you’re trying to escape a name, don’t invest in a new one even if you’re merging two companies like BB&T and SunTrust becoming ‘Truist’.
You could have brought up Hyatt’s questionable decision to move away from the beloved :”Hyatt Gold Passport” and its “Passport Points” name to the bland “World of Hyatt” name which did exactly nothing for anyone. of course no name means anything if there’s no substance behind it…
Wonder how Dolby will feel about this (shocked they don’t have it trademarked already?!)…
Not a good name, at least in areas like Dallas served by Atmos Energy. They have a history of poor maintenance and gas explosions, with several resulting in deaths. That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw “Atmos”.
They should have spent the money on figuring out how to provide special meals when meals are served. To me they are the airline that doesn’t care about us.
@ Gary — I can see it now: “You miles will be worth Atmos 0.8 cents each!”
Sounds weird. I would have preferred they take the other half of atmosphere…”Sphere”, sounds better to me.
@Gene — Yep, I can see that too!
Eh, TBD. Not awe-inspiring but the proof is in the pudding. If it’s an awesome program, call it whatever you want. If it’s not, prepare to be Bonvoy’d.
Alaska Airlines is so brand confused.
They say the Alaska brand is so great that it is worth starting new routes from Seoul and Tokyo to Seattle but not as great as Hawaiian which has flown to those cities for years and yet flights from Seoul and Tokyo to Hawaii will still be under the Hawaiian brand. Say what?
and now they throw in another brand that is not connected to either AS or HA.
Atmos Energy operates from Virginia to Colorado and Dolby Atmos is still fairly well known.
this merger feels far more like the amateur hour than the Virgin America acquisition
First there are rumors they’re getting rid of Chester (the smiling eskimo (?) face on the tail) and now this.
Jesus Alaska, un-F your IT. Fix the upgrade processor. Invest in IRROPS.
But no, they waste money on a pointless rebrand.
I can understand the idea of picking a new name that “favors” neither AS or HA, even though there is little doubt who took over whom (which took over what?). While I grant you, “Atmos” is not as bad as “Bonvoy,” it is far from the best option that could have created for the new program. Heck, if the trademark protection expired, they could have used VX’s “Elevate!” — for those who don’t remember, or don’t care, Virgin America’s mileage program began as “Elevate!” and later dropped the exclamation point.
Then again, has anyone ever joined or dropped out of a mileage/points program because of that program’s name?
And yes, (@Ex-UA Plat) Chester is going away — Alaska has already released pictures of the new livery — but (FWIW) I have only been “F’d up” by their IT once in 133 flights,. That happened last weekend and appears to be due to human error. But while I haven’t experienced the problems that you apparently have, basically EVERY carrier should be constantly fixing/improving their IT…
I hope we don’t get Atmosed like we got Bonvoyed a few years back.
Is anyone really that concerned what they call their mileage program? Regardless of what they call it is still one of the best mileage programs out there.
And @Jason, Chester isn’t going anywhere. He will remain on all the narrowbody aircraft. Just not on the Global livery.
Well done, @Gene. You have the best comment so far. *chef’s kiss*
THIS !! => “Jesus Alaska, un-F your IT. Fix the upgrade processor. Invest in IRROPS.”
Mileage Plan is a fine name…yeah, its boring, but works for HA and AS “brands”
But again the CMO/SVP of Branding probably is wanting some big “change” on their resume with the help of some outside agency that will never say “gee your brand is great, you shouldn’t change it”
ATMOS is used as a trademarked name in a lot of areas from financial institutions to scuba gear.
When I hear the name ATMOS, I think of the mix of solid and liquid fine particles suspended in the atmosphere. These fine particles like PM2.5, pose significant health risks because they can be inhaled deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream exacerbating deadly respiratory issues like asthma. Currently, wildfire smoke from Canada is a major source of particulate matter, but it’s also produced by other sources like vehicles and industrial processes. Accordingly, I will think of both Alaska Airlines and, air pollution every time I see or hear the new ATMOS brand name.
Atmos Rewards feels vague and risks confusing guests when clarity should be the priority. Alaska should use this moment to launch a strong, unified identity such as “Northern Pacific Airways,” or a similar name that is traditional, geographically relevant, and symbolic of a new chapter. A fresh, single brand could ultimately build more equity than either legacy name can moving forward, especially as the route network continues to grow. Passing on that opportunity now may ultimately prove to be a costly mistake.
Isn’t Atmos what the move Spaceballs was all about?
‘Atmos’ meets autocorrect is gonna be interesting.
First it was Virgin America. Now it’s Hawaiian. If Alaska can afford these airlines, it can afford the expensive rebranding/advertising.
Speaking of Alaska (the state), did y’all hear our Lard and Savor (#45/47) plans to meet with Pootler next week? I know, TDS. Anyway, where’s @Mike P to tell us how those commies feel about this over in Moscow…
Mike,
the name that best describes what AS is trying to be is… Western Airlines… but I’m guessing Delta has that name locked in a vault never to be used again.
and, yes, Elevate would have been a good loyalty program name.
1990,
I have a feeling that the national CEO is going to highlight what happens in real estate deals when you lose focus on what matters.
I swear half of the problems we are dealing w/ as a world is due to remorse for selling Alaska to the US
@Tim Dunn — You’re not wrong, sir.
Sounds a lot like At Most, as in you’ll get mediocre value at most.
Spending a lot of money on the Atmos name is wasted. No airline frequent flyer name is so good that it rakes in money because of the name. Some of the simpler names work fine…
United Airlines MileagePlus
American Airlines AAdvantage (sort of weird, crAAppy weird)
Delta Airlines Skymiles
Lufthansa Miles and More
ANA Mileage Club
The weird ones, which may be Atmos, are weird
They should have stuck with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan or even Alaska Airlines HawaiianMiles
El Al Matmid
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands (what’s a mileageland?)