THOMAS
Cook is to resurrect the popular Sunset name and introduce a mass-market Thomas
Cook brand after admitting JMC has failed to work across all market sectors.
The travel
giant confessed its JMC “one brand fits all strategy” had flopped
after its flamboyant £200 million launch in 1999 under the helm of managing
director Simon Vincent.
Tour
operations managing director Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: “At the time the
logic was sound but life has moved on. Everyone is adopting a master brand
strategy.
“What
came out of our research was that one brand doesn’t work. JMC doesn’t stretch
across all market sectors. It should not have come as a surprise to us.”
But
predictions that JMC would be scrapped and the Thomas Cook name used across the
board were dismissed by Fontenla-Novoa.
JMC’s
scope will be reduced to the young families and couples market where research
showed it had an awareness level as high as First Choice.
The move represents the division of the JMC brand into
three, in which the Thomas Cook name will be the largest and most dominant.