SA Road Link's bold move to heal ‘bruised' brand

“Focusing on internal communication”

Spokesperson Lumka Oliphant told Bizcommunity.com yesterday, Sunday, 21 February 2010: “In terms of marketing, we are currently restructuring and focusing on internal communication strategies to strengthen our brand equity from an inside-out approach. We are definitely focusing on creating more awareness and reassurance of our brand.

“SA Road Link is a strong brand built on affordable and luxury travel that caters for the previously disadvantaged target market.

“The secret to the success of the brand was that there was a gap in the market and the targeted LSM by SA Road Link knew about the brand through word of mouth, but we had always marketed the brand through various mediums which can be reached by our LSM.”

A series of recent misfortunes - fatal accidents - which the company failed to manage professionally, led to SA Road Link being labelled a ‘brand killer', thus hurting its prospects in South Africa's highly competitive market.

Recently appointed

SA Road Link has recently appointed a brand and marketing manager to effectively manage the brand, and a communication officer to liaise with the media with ‘correct' information concerning the brand. The aim, it said, is to take on a more transparent approach and continuously strive for differentiation of its positioning to serve its loyal customers.

A source told Bizcommunity.com that the brand, which has been bringing in millions of rand in the past eight years due to its affordable pricing, has been neglected and mismanaged. The source alleges that ‘some ill-intentioned people' took advantage to create a negative media campaign to damage the brand.

“Our brand is not damaged,” Oliphant pointed out. “Our passengers are just being fed with incorrect information that is creating uncertainty. The media are reporting on what they are being fed by either police officials or disgruntled former employees and we can't fault them for doing their jobs. But where they have failed tremendously is in the interrogation of that information. Media has not tried to go out and find the real SA Road Link story.

“Not the worst company”

“When even the RTMC [Road Traffic Management Corporation] found that SA Road Link was not the worst company, it became a non-story because people were already geared up for a story that would put SA Road Link as the worst brand or that ‘coffin on wheels'.

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“In any competitive market, it is often clear that competitors exploit other brands to gain credibility with the press. In recent findings we have experienced a fair amount of exploitation of our brand within the press, resulting in a negative knock-on effect with our consumers. It is rather concerning that by exploiting one brand for the benefit of the other is a strategy used for competitive advantage.

“The issue I am dealing with now is to protect our brand's reputation. And if information is required regarding our service, the reports from the depot can be made available at any time.”

‘See for themselves'

More than 20 journalists from mainstream and community media were invited late last week to the company depot in City Deep, Johannesburg, to ‘see for themselves' and start telling the brand's ‘real story'. SA Road Link's operations centre include a roadworthiness system and a wellness centre, where buses are checked for technical hazards, and long-distance drivers are thoroughly checked for drinking problems and other health conditions before they board into the bus.

It remains, however, unclear whether the company will embark on a rebranding campaign any time soon.

“With all brands, rebranding is a discussion point and this is something we will look into, and the process might take some time,” Oliphant said.

For more, go to www.saroadlink.co.za.