Air Asia, taking Asia by storm!
Rodney Louis Vincent, Contributor/Jakarta
Right now, one man is making all the waves in Southeast Asia. He is young, hot and happening and is literally, flying high.
Just over two years ago, he took over AirAsia and since then the name Tony Fernandes has been on everyone's lips. It isn't any man who just goes and buys up an airline - and then slashes prices like crazy and creates a hype about his product that seems to be self-sustaining.
With a tagline like "Now everyone can fly" he is endearing himself to the masses with a product that they have long been waiting for. Fares are reduced to a bare minimum and will be further reduced through advertising and promotions and Tony has a few things up his sleeve. They now fly to Bandung, Jakarta, Johor Bahru (close to Singapore), Phuket, Bangkok and have plans to explore India and China very soon. In mid air, this Malaysian entrepreneur tells us his story.
You were from the music industry. Tell us a little about that?
I'm actually an accountant by training. I joined Virgin after I qualified as an accountant and from Virgin I moved onto Warner. And then I was given the big break from the chairman who noticed that I had more interesting ideas that just finance. He offered me a marketing position as the GM of Warner Music in Malaysia which was a fantastic opportunity because I was 27 at that time. So I didn't even negotiate a salary -- I just packed my bags and I came out here. The agreement was that after five or six years, I'd be made the managing director. But after six months, they gave me the job. So it was fantastic - I was 27, I was the MD of Warner Music Malaysia and life was unbelievable.
How did you get the passion for flying? Not everybody goes and buys an airline ...
I don't fly. I got into aviation basically because I loved planes. My three loves in life were sports, music and planes. What made me do it? 1) I love the business. 2) I wanted to be my own boss and 3) There was a business opportunity in Malaysia for the product we're bringing in.
Which is Air Asia...
Yes, the low-frills airline that we've brought as a cost concept. A bit like Southwest Airlines, Ryan Air and Easy Jet. Asians are price conscious. But basically, I think there's always an opportunity for a business which is value-based and that's the opportunity that we've seized.
Textbooks would commonly say that price is not really a great differentiating factor to start off with ...
It depends where you position your brand and how you position it. I definitely think that price is an issue but there are many gradients of price. It also depends on what market you're in and we're targeting a market that is price sensitive. If you're selling a first-class product, people who fly first class are less worried about price and are more worried about the service factor. But even with branded goods you might notice that people are price-conscious -- the Japanese will come to Hong Kong to buy something because there is a price differential.
Your position is obviously helped by the fact that our society is moving from a paradigm of travel as a luxury to travel as a necessity ...
Flying is seen as a purveyor of the rich but we're going to bring democracy and freedom to that. We're busting that open and as our tagline goes "Now everyone can fly". Look at it -- our prices make it so affordable for people to travel by air and the goal is to bring more affordability to flying and to break the perception that you have to be rich to fly.
Will you be introducing any other innovations?
Price is not our only driving factor. If you're cheap and if people have a little bit of fun on your flight, they want to be associated with you. We will also be doing things associated with music and advertising to enhance the value of our brand.
If Air Asia was a personality who would it be?
Approachable, down-to-earth, lot of fun to be with, humble, hard-working. Madonna would be a great personality to describe Air Asia -- she's smart, she's creative, she's always setting new trends, she's down-to-earth and she'll always push the boundaries.
Are you trying to be the Richard Branson of Southeast Asia?
No I'm not. I'm doing the reverse - Branson owned a record company and started an airline. One day, I hope to own a record company. It's purely coincidental -- I love music and I love planes. Maybe Richard Branson felt the same. I don't know. I am who I am and I'm definitely a hands-on person, I'm not as flamboyant as him and will never be.
-- The writer is the editor of ADOI Magazine, an English publication about advertising & marketing.