How Ben Smith is Branding Air France and KLM

The group’s CEO shares how each airline’s brand is developing a distinctive style, and tells us why customers never again will see the Air France-KLM brand.

Dear readers,

The last time Air France updated its safety video, which was a few years ago, the airline's agency proposed an English-language narrator with a British accent. Ben Smith, the meticulous keeper of Air France’s brand, found that unacceptable. "That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard," Smith said. "I mean, it was crazy."

By now, you should know two things about Smith. First, he's clear-eyed about what he believes customers want, and is obsessed with giving customers a consistent experience. Second, he's a consummate Francophile who has made a big bet that Air France will succeed only if it becomes the most French carrier in airline history. Just as lovers of French wine and exclusive handbags accept no substitutes ("it's Hermès or nothing else,” Smith said), Smith wants to make Air France the only airline that wealthy people will consider when going to or from France.

"That's what you're searching for," Smith said. "So how do we position Air France to make it as unique as possible, and then charge a premium for it?"

Nixing the British accent was one of many places Smith leaned into this all-French ethos. I give Smith enormous credit for how he has repositioned Air France, and I admire Smith's attention to the tiny details that influence passenger views on the airline, including which movies are available on board, the stitching on the seats, the branding on the bulkhead walls, the onboard menu, and which language flight attendants use when they approach a passenger. Because of Smith's relentless obsession with brand, Air France has become an airline that knows exactly what it is and what it is not, and who its target customer is. Any premium airline should strive for such clarity.¹

Still, I remind you that Air France-KLM owns two historic and iconic airlines. And while I have only flown KLM twice in the past year, I was not as impressed with its brand promise — not that I really knew what it was. Had you told me I had been on any mid-level European airline (was it TAP Air Portugal? SAS?), I might have believed you. The business class cabin felt sterile, the crew lacked warmth, and the lounge in Amsterdam was crowded and appeared understaffed, judging by the dirty dishes laying about. When I landed, I wondered: is this by design? Is Air France-KLM making a conscious effort to operate two distinct brands — a premium one, and maybe a value brand that perhaps better competes with IAG's Iberia or Aer Lingus — and leaders just have not announced it yet?

Absolutely not, Smith told me during an interview last month at the IATA AGM. I'll get to details below, but I’ll share the gist of Smith’s argument with free subscribers (who will hit a paywall soon): Smith said KLM remains a premium brand roughly on par with Air France, and that any discrepancies are related to two factors. First, Smith has spent more time retooling Air France's customer proposition than KLM's, not because he favors Air France but rather because its brand needed more help when he arrived in 2018. Second, Air France and KLM have distinctive styles because they’re independently run companies that focus on different customer segments.

I referred to Air France as Smith’s "baby" in our conversation. "You said, ‘it's your baby’ — no, it's my biggest challenge," Smith told me. "You're seeing changes at Air France that were required to be done that were not required to be done at KLM. We had to rethink, what is the raison d'être of Air France? Where can Air France make money? How can it position itself in the market? ... When I started at Air France-KLM, we had a great model in place at KLM — it was working, and profitable, and totally in sync with the airport."

I believe him, but I also pressed him about how he intends to position both brands over time, because while it's very clear to me that Air France is a French luxury airline, I find the core proposition of KLM less obvious.

Here are some highlights of our discussion.