Thomas Cook to take off as JMC

Thomas Cook is attempting to shake up the package holiday business with yesterday’s relaunch of its tour operators and airlines under a new brand, created by Enterprise IG. The project represents the consultancy’s first airline identity project.

The UK’s third biggest airline and tour operator has acquired a number of disparate businesses, some with low consumer awareness. It is grouping tour operators Sunworld, Sunset and Inspirations with Caledonian Airways and Flying Colours airlines, under the name JMC – creating the second biggest charter airline.

Thomas Cook wants to create “a seamless link” between the two divisions, and is investing £200m in the five-year initiative.

The brand has been developed over a 12-month programme of staff focus groups, consumer research and management interviews. “All the mass market tour operators are very similarä and 80 per cent of people ‘float’ each year,” meaning that there is little brand loyalty, says JMC marketing director Lyndsey Allardyce.

The brand has five core values: expertise, security, innovation, delivery and care. The last three are seen as market differentiators.

Of the brand, Allardyce says: “We wanted something simple and straightforward.” Green is unusual in the travel industry, where red, blue and yellow proliferate. The lower case letters are intended to be informal.

“We wanted to break away from the patronising buckets and spades imagery,” says Enterprise IG creative director Franco Bonadio of the brand.

The acronym JMC comes from the initials of John Mason Cook, son of Thomas Cook, who is credited with transforming the concept of the package holiday.

Enterprise IG has redesigned brochures, travel agent window graphics, vehicle livery, aircraft graphics, interiors and exteriors, airport check-in areas, and rep and air crew uniforms. The website has been created by Fitch.

Thomas Cook travel agent and bureau de change brands remain unchanged.

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