Issues & Trends – November 2010

Local/national branding mix in fine-tuned 1ndependence model

TOM Manwaring is beating the publicity drum for his plan to “fine tune” the 1ndependence chain of travel agents but he also claims that his ambitions are quite modest.

1ndependence is the smaller of the two groupings of independent agents operated by Manwaring’s Orient Express Travel Group (OETG).

The larger Select chain, comprising retailers specialis-ing in the Chinese ethnic market, has about 300 members. Currently there are about 100 1ndependence agents. Over the next two years, Manwaring is aiming to build 1ndependence to around 300 outlets which, he points out, is a fraction of Australia’s roughly 5000 bricks and mortar agencies (albeit, it is a larger proportion of the 1200 or so unbranded, unaffiliated or loosely affiliated businesses that OETG can realistically target).

OETG’s fine-tuning of the 1ndependence business model is underpinned by the proposition that independent local agents are “their own brand”. The 1ndependence plan is to underwrite these local brands with a common tag line: “An Independent Travel Expert … Talk to us!”

But in seeming contradiction to the emphasis on diverse local brands, 1ndependence will also offer members the option of adopting a national generic brand.

Manwaring agrees “this is a difficult proposition to articulate” but he insists that it’s really quite simple.
He says the 1ndependence approach has evolved from research that OETG conducted among agents, supplemented by the views expressed at the chain’s agency forum in Phuket earlier this month.

Manwaring said this revealed that 70 per cent of independent agents believe their brand is well recognised in their area and 54 per cent do not want an overriding consumer brand in their shops. The great majority of 1ndependence agents fall into this camp and Manwaring anticipates they will adopt only the tag line.

“But there are some who would like the comfort of a generic brand,” he said.

He anticipates their numbers would be only 50-60 among a 300-strong group but they will have a brand available to them early next year.

Manwaring says the brand has been decided but it is being kept under wraps until trade-marking and other legal issues have been finalised.

Is there any point in a national brand unless it can be promoted with heavy advertising on television and other mass media?

Manwaring replies that “cluster marketing” and intelligent use of social media can go a long way towards establishing a strong brand without national television advertising.

But he also stresses that the core of 1ndependence membership will be putting their faith in the strength of their local brands.

“Many of these businesses also carry the name of the owners who are generally keenly involved in local community activities, so they felt to lose that to a franchised brand would dilute their community marketing link,” he says.

“Importantly, they really know the buying patterns and preferences of their local market which can vary significantly from one region of Australia to another and sometimes these patterns have no relevance at all to a national campaign.”

Manwaring has no qualms about acknowledging the success of major brand franchising but he adds: “One size does not fit all.”

And in a press statement he claims many independent agents see major brand franchise agreements as “highly-formulated, authoritar-ian, costly and carrying onerous penalties”.

Urging the 1200-plus independent agents across Australia to explore the 1ndependence alternative, he says: “1ndependence is offering agents a flexible, transparent, low-cost and non-mandatory core support service with an annual membership of just $500 which includes the Express Ticketing suite of products, airlines, wholesalers, technology, Sabre GDS, and operations support.”

On top of this, he says, 1ndependence offers a compre-hensive range of optional customised partnership services – marketing support, Sabre Explorer, Sabre Red, staff training, marketing, bench-marking, conferences, product training, and home-based consultant services.