You may have known that the 178-year-old British travel agency, Thomas Cook declared bankruptcy in September 2019. And you may not know that Thomas Cook China, which has always been independent of its HQ in the UK, was not affected by the bankrupt.
Continue to read and let’s explore a bit more about Thomas Cook China.
In March 2015, Thomas Cook and Fosun, a leading Chinese investment group entered into a strategic partnership. The joint venture business combined Thomas Cook’s brand heritage and Fosun’s insights of local market.
VISUAL IDENTITY – WEBSITE
When the business started, the first step was to have a new name. What a pity, they should have be more creative rather than choose a directly transliteration.
“Tuo Mai Ku Ke” is the new name: four Chinese characters, difficult to pronounce, no special meaning and not easy to remember. As a Chinese native speaker, I could say, comparing to other Chinese travel institutions, this is really a bad name.
Qyer is one of the most famous online travel platforms in China and the core value of the brand is to let you travel with the least money. Qyer means “budget trip” in Chinese and you can get the point immediately: Want to save money? Go with Qyer.
Though Thomas Cook China is not a good name-giver, it has good taste in aesthetic design. In terms of visual identity, TC China keeps the traditional brand logo, the light yellow heart. The color of yellow always gives people the feeling of happiness and leisure.
Credit: Screenshot of TC China website
Moreover, the website of TC China looks amazing. Each time I land on the web, I always have a desire of traveling. The interface well explains what is “less is more”, only colorful photos with simple introductions. The eye-catching travel photos are the best triggers than any copywriting.
Since Thomas Cook China is not well-known, it shows a section of “clients feedback” at the bottom of the page. After reading those endorsements, I have a kind of feeling that the package tours of Thomas Cook China are different than any other travel agencies. Though the price is not cheap, it is worthy.
VISUAL IDENTITY – OFFLINE STORE
Thomas Cook China places customers’ needs as their top priority and you could better feel this when visiting their offline store.
While Thomas Cook has more than 500 offline stores in the UK, Thomas Cook China opened its first offline concept store in 2019. To generate more exposure to their offline store, Thomas Cook China ran serious marketing events with different partners, including theme parties and football match night with TV channels, etc.
Credit: TC China
A friend of mine has been to the offline store, saying that she could feel the price won’t be cheap once she stepped in. “Everything was designed elaborately with a good taste and the atmosphere was leisure and comfortable. The staff were professional, hospitable and always willing to help. They consider themselves as ‘butlers’ rather than salespersons.”
BRAND RECALL
To increase brand awareness, TC China also sponsored lots of football teams, including Manchester United，Newcastle United and Chelsea FC, etc. They also signed contract with Manchester United, serving as their exclusive travel service provider in China.
Credit: Liverpool FC
In China’s travel market, few agencies targets to sport events, and this was Thomas Cook’s traditional advantage. TC China forges associations with the specific product category on The Premier League, attracting Chinese football fans.
Besides its main social account, TC China also established another social account on Weibo particularly generating content related to sports and interacting with accounts of Premier League football clubs. As a result, this account gets more than 60 thousand fans, double of its main social account.
The competition in China market is extremely fierce, however, the service on sport events is a niche market. As a result, when you think about traveling to England watching a match of the Premier League, you will think of Thomas Cook China. They built a positive emotional relationship with loyal football fans.
Credit: TC China Website
Though Thomas Cook China has long ways away to be well-known, it has built a good reputation and positive brand personality.
As China travel market is saturated, it is difficult for those travel agencies who have vague brand personalities to stand out.
Haitao Travel used to be a popular travel agency in Beijing. With the cheap price, it attracted a lot of local citizens. However, Haitao placed a huge emphasis on how to invest the money they earned in order to make a bigger profit. They never thought about enhancing core competence and building emotional linkage with clients.
Due to the unsatisfied service, more and more consumers made complaints and asked Haitao to return the money. Negative reports and rupture of the cash chain made the situation even worse. Finally, Haitao lost the trust of their suppliers. Since Haitao didn’t have a strong brand value neither emotional bond with its customers, when they lost suppliers, they almost lost everything.
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