Sunday, February 24, 2008

Oman Air Rebranded



Just like many others, I was not impressed with Oman Air's new brand identity, I did not understand what it meant at first, and I genuinely thought that all of their teasers that ran on the newspapers for the past week or so were made by the new Al Ahli Bank.

Oman Air, or whoever did the branding for them, clearly misunderstood what the problem is, there was nothing wrong with khanjar concept or with the choice of colours, why didn't they work with they had and remastered them instead of doing something totally random. Do they really think that using gold and silver will make them 'look' luxurious? And why in heaven's name didn't they change that ugly font?!

The brand is of course not only about the logo, but it is the image of the company within the consumers mind which is created by the quality of the service, the PR, and everything the company does. Changing the logo is the first step in telling all the consumers that Oman Air is changing, that is no longer that cheap-ass-service-company with old and dirty airplanes. But did this logo tell me anything such as that? I don't really know, I can' relate to it, I don't understand it, and I think that it looks ugly. I was discussing this with a friend earlier today, and he said that he really thinks that this logo suits Oman Air, it is a horrible logo for a horrible company.

A great number of Omani companies and institutions do not understand the importance of having a brand and the impact color and typography could have on consumers perception of their service. While new Omani companies such as Omran, Nawras, Oman Oil, and Bank Muscat, seem to know how to make the most effective use of the power of branding, the same cannot be said about Oman Mobile, OmanTel or Bank Sohar, and surely not Oman Air.

13 comments:

a7MeDiNo said...

This new logo symbolizes absolutely nothing about Oman.

First the Gulf Cup logo, then this .. what a shame.

alra7al said...

I couldn't agree more...

- When I first read the press release about Oman Air changing their logo, the first question I had in mind is "WHY???????".

- I also thought that the adds were refering to Al Ahli Bank!

Amjad said...

It seriously saddens me that the Omani Khanjar is no longer there...........

Al Nims Media said...

The problem is there is no much competition for local companies, so it hardly matters for them to make an impact in terms of colours/branding. Things will be set right only when the bottomline is hit. Until then, it is a long wait!

Bank Sohar is pathetic, worse than Oman Mobile. God save the agency doing dutites for them.

Unknown said...

This country has a lake of creativity in terms of branding. The only -worldwide- successful Omani brand remains the ChipsOman. i hope Ail al Shihani is not looking into re-branding through the cheap-ass local marketing agencies.

Like the old man said;
“You through peanuts, you get monkeys.”

Suburban said...

I think it's a real improvement, though the colors invoke Gulf Air in my mind. The old logo was bar-none the worst logo and color scheme I've ever seen for an airline. Well, maybe except for the crazily designed BA "world" tailfins, which thankfully have been painted back.

That said, Oman air will need to revamp a lot more than thier logo before they win back my partonage.

muscati said...

I managed to find an actual picture of the first plane in the new colors taken as it left the hangar where it was repainted in the Flinton Airfield. It's posted on my blog.

ANNA-LYS said...

It looks like gold and sand to me, and it ain't THAT ugly, its clean and gives a serious impression!

But, I do know nothing about Your country, I am just a Swede ;-)

Twister said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Twister said...

I can hardly say anything...they took off the khanjar...like WTH...

All they needed to get a new image was to keep the Oman flag colours and Khanjar, just that it needed a bit of a redo in terms of layout....

That said, I havent flown with oman air (yet)...i had no idea I could connect to a WY flight from Bangkok onwards to muscat...(and who wants to fly 6 hours inside a 737 anyway?)...

That said, the new logo isn't that bad either...

alra7al said...

mohammed

when you say
"This country has a lake of creativity in terms of branding"

I hope you are referring to the lack of decision makers in different organization to creativity.

As for creative designers, there are many upcoming good creative designers who have not surfaced yet. Or maybe there were not given the chance!

And Yes they need more than just a logo redesign. Personally after some experiences, I am hesitant to fly onboard Oman Air unless I have no choice.

Modee said...

I was curious to see if the site was updated yet.
It doesn't even open :S
Personally I don't find the re branding all that bad.
But what's the point of re branding if you don't galvanize your service and your planes?

Gargoyle said...

I only just realised the logo changed! (it's not as bizarre as it sounds, I don't live in Oman any more).

This is tragic. Where is the khanjar?!

Surely a modernised, more dynamic (for want of the right word) khanjar would have been the way to go?