SO, JUST when you thought you were safe from the branding men, along comes Thomson to put the cat among the pigeons.
After the hype of Thomas Cook’s new JMC brand, the market leader has launched Just, aimed at couples who want a no-frills holiday.
At least Just is trying to say something, because the product is just a flight and a hotel and, er, nothing else.
To get the message across, preferred agents have been sent a box of goodies from Thomson, which may go some way to making up for last week’s cock-up with the direct-mailing campaign which failed to direct customers to travel agencies (Travel Weekly September 20).
Inside the box is a brand manager’s dream:various bars of chocolate for staff, branded ‘just a treat’; a tape by DJMark Goodier branded ‘just listen’; and lots of stickers to put around the office which say things like ‘just my computer’, ‘just the bathroom’, etc. Bet you can’t guess what the guide has been called?
Backchat dreads to think what the local Lunn Poly, Travel House or Sibbald Travel is going to look like, although we expect branches of Thomas Cook and Going Places to scoff the chocolate and bin all traces of the brand.
Of course, the brand is much more fun than JMC for making up catchy phrases and as the styling of Just looks suspiciously like that of a low-cost carrier, one agent has already quipped:”Just like Go, only hopefully profitable.”
Mind you, the funniest thing about Just was provided by the company’s own press release. Obviously feeling that journalists are too thick or lazy to do their own investigating, the release poses several questions with neat little answers underneath.
Unfortunately, there’s a blank space under the first question:”What makes Just different from the package holiday we know?” Fax your suggestions to Backchat on 0181-652 3956.