US President Donald Trump Tells Boeing To Fix And Rebrand The Grounded 737 MAX Jet

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged World’s biggest aircraft maker Boeing Co. to fix and rebrand its best-selling aircraft, the 737 MAX jetliner, following two fatal crashes. But the planemaker said it was focussed on fixing the problem and brainstorming over next steps to win back public trust.

In an early-morning post on Twitter, the aviation enthusiast, who owned the Trump Shuttle airline from 1989 to 1992 , weighed in with his own advice.

“What do I know about branding, maybe nothing but I did become President.

“But if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features & REBRAND the plane with a new name.

“No product has suffered like this one, but again, what the hell do I know?”

Trump issued the tweet as US Boeing tries to restore trust in its fastest-selling jet, the main source of profits and cash at the Chicago-based planemaker which has won some 5,000 orders or around seven years of production for the aircraft.

But CEO of Brand Finance, a UK-based consultancy that tracks the value of global brands, rejected the idea that Boeing should abandon the MAX brand but said its corporate reputation was in the firing line.

“This has without a doubt damaged Boeing’s reputation and we foresee a dent to the Boeing brand’s value at over 12 dollars billion”

He added that Toyota and others had recovered from similar high-profile crises without a drastic rebranding exercise.

Founder of marketing and advertising firm DXagency, Benjamin Hordell, said just renaming the plane alone was not enough.

He said:

“People will look at it and know that it’s the Boeing 737 MAX under a different name.

“To rebrand without making sure the product is safe, and undergoing another crash with the same airplane under a new name and image could destroy Boeing”.

Paul Caiozzo, founder and Chief Creative Officer of brand design agency Interesting Development, also said:

“It is premature to begin to talk about rebranding a plane that has not yet been fixed”

According to Brand Finance, Boeing has the world’s most valuable aerospace brand, with the value of its overall corporate image rising 61 per cent to 32 billion dollars in 2018.