The life of big names

KATHLEEN TAN IS CEO of travel portal AirAsiaExpedia, a joint venture between AirAsia and U.S.-based travel portal Expedia. She’s the marketing brain behind AirAsia, a low-cost carrier based in Malaysia and seen as one of the most disruptive brands to have come out of Asia in the past decade.

Tan is known as the right hand of Tony Fernandes, CEO of the AirAsia group. Armed with experience in marketing luxury brands, music (Warner Music), and airlines, she is now looking to make a dent in the online travel market.

On Asia

This is the age of Asia. Inspiring young Asians is part of my job. For years, I was building AirAsia’s business in China. Now I’m focussing on India [with AirAsiaExpedia]. Tony [Fernandes] once said, “You spent so much time on China. What about India?” I replied, “Tony, it’s a continent. It takes time.” (Laughs).

On plans for India

Expedia is a technology brand. It’s very good at what it’s doing. Now it wants to be in Asia. If Expedia were to come here on its own, it would take a while [to establish itself].

I am an Asian and I understand what Asians want in travel. Having worked with a lot of U.S. companies, I also know what they want. Working in a company that’s a blend of the East and the West helps. My job is to achieve growth. We want to reach out to Indians and localise AirAsiaExpedia so that they don’t see it as an expensive foreign name. I want people to connect with our brand.

A lot of Indians want to travel but they don’t know how to make bookings on the Internet. They need this service. So we are trying out an initiative in which a brand ambassador will go around India teaching people to do that. While learning to make bookings, they will see the Expedia brand and also tell their friends about it.

We want to make travel sexy. It’s about selling aspiration. If you’re young, you must travel, because it opens you up. I promote travel because I have loved travelling since I was young. And Asia is lucky because low-cost carriers are encouraging travel.

On branding

I breathe and live the brand I work for. When I was working for names such as Gucci and Fendi, I learnt the value of building brands. I understood why people pay so much for them and why companies should never compromise on branding.

Then I moved to the music business, a highly competitive field, with hundreds of people joining every year. Making a brand out of them is a huge challenge. I also felt very powerful—imagine being able to make a sound into a trend. It’s like fashion in many ways.

There are marketing managers but few can call themselves marketers. Anyone who wants to build brands needs to have pop culture in their DNA. It’s about creating an unwanted need.

Building a brand is a long-term investment. Many companies, especially Asian, don’t realise that.

They put one dollar today and want five tomorrow. Branding doesn’t work that way. And that’s where companies from the West are more sophisticated.

But companies like Japan’s Uniqlo have done a great job. Uniqlo succeeded by making sure it was seen as global. It opened stores in New York and London. Branding is intangible but valuable. AirAsia was only 10 years old, but see how strong we made the brand.

On working in aviation

When you’re not from aviation, you bring a new perspective and fresh ideas. If you know too much [about a sector], you over-analyse. [When he entered the airline business] Tony didn’t know much about aviation.

I began by telling myself I am going to be a disruptor. As I went ahead, I felt I was doing community service—the more destinations I opened, the more people got to travel.

Facebook says it connects people in the virtual world. I believe in connecting people in the physical world. Our office was above the LCCT [low-cost carrier terminal] in Kuala Lumpur. I would come down for lunch and see three generations of families travelling together. I felt my job was so powerful.

But low-cost aviation is a hard life because you are focussed on costs. If I had another life, I’m not sure I would want to be in low-cost aviation.

On working in AirAsia

I spent nine years in AirAsia. My main work was revenue management and I was also looking at branding, marketing, PR, social media—loads of stuff. Fuel costs were rising, so I had to come up with ideas to make money. That’s how we launched schemes such as Hot Seat and Express Boarding.

When I joined AirAsia, it was considered a budget airline. There was no soul to the brand. That has changed completely. The day I joined AirAsiaExpedia, I put up a picture of me in yellow on my Twitter handle and my BlackBerry. Tony said, “Gosh! You are so quick to throw out red [AirAsia’s colour].” I told him, “At AirAsiaExpedia, I don’t have you to help me promote a brand. And I have to do it fast.”

On AirAsia India

Just the mention of AirAsia partnering Tata gets tonnes of media coverage. Tony tweets that he has got a CEO, and everyone is talking. There’s so much interest.

Tata knows India and AirAsia knows how to run low-cost carriers. It believes in doing things differently and has the guts. When it flew to India for the first time [from Kuala Lumpur] we chose Tiruchirapalli. We found strong cultural links between South India and Malaysia. But South India was not well-served with connections to Southeast Asia. Others would have flown to Delhi or Mumbai. But we don’t do what everyone in aviation does.

On global marketing

You have to associate with a global brand. Which is why we tied up with Manchester United in AirAsia’s early days. You tap them. When people see you at Old Trafford, they remember you when they travel. You build a brand preference. This is how they may be thinking: ‘If they can associate with Manchester United, they must be good.’

On social media

We spend money only where we need to. Advertising is expensive. But social media is free. Through viral marketing, you can advertise to millions. I am very active on Twitter. I speak up. Of course, when you reach a certain level, people—especially young women and young men—see you as a role model.