BAA has launched a new brand identity for Heathrow which it hopes to build into Europe's hub airport of choice and all consumer and business-to-business communications for the airport will now be branded 'Heathrow' and

feature the strapline 'Making every journey better'.

Establishing the new image will obviously take some time with so many areas at Heathrow still run down and in need of renovation, but BAA says that part of this new positioning will highlight the airport's investments aimed at improving facilities not only for passengers, but also for key internal and external stakeholders.

BAA says that it wants to build brand loyalty and recognition worldwide and a key way of doing this is by highlighting the airport's frequent and direct global connections and the vibrant shopping and eating experience.

The airports company says that the launch of brand Heathrow, which has been overseen by BAA Marketing and Insight Director Nick Adderley and colleagues in Heathrow's corporate communications team, was developed by incumbent agency masius and will be supported across all media channels.

From this week, an outdoor advertising campaign will roll out across poster sites at the airport itself and digital screens on London Underground and major train stations. Advertorials are also scheduled to appear in key publications targeted at high-end and frequent flyers.

As well as 'tentative plans' to add radio and press executions, brand Heathrow will be bolstered on airport via WorldPoints customer magazine Emporium Traveller which will be made available to all consumers passing through Heathrow.

Adderley said: ‘Brand Heathrow is about creating real understanding amongst our audiences as to why they should fly through our airport. We are proud of what we do well, but also recognise that we must continuously improve. The strapline 'Making every journey better' not only communicates our commitment to making passengers' experience of Heathrow better than the last, but provides a benchmark to justify each improvement.’

COMMENT: As the world's busiest international airport, London Heathrow is like a small town where some parts have been thoughtfully developed while others are still run down and very much work in progress. As a virtually brand new facility, Terminal 5 is a joy to use which shows what BAA can do with a blank canvass. But such multi-billion dollar opportunities only come along infrequently and while there are still huge infrastructure projects planned elsewhere, the airport's other terminals still need a lot of work and money to get them into world-class shape.

Ultimately, passengers (or customers) will judge whether BAA is making every journey better, not only by the bigger long-term infrastructure improvement projects it instigates, but mostly by the day-to-day progress it is able to visibly demonstrate on many smaller levels by regularly interacting with its customers during their journey.

The quality of some of Heathrow's basic facilities also need to match that of the shops and the food and beverage facilities in the terminals. Ultimately one of BAA's biggest challenges will also be to change the perception of 'brand Heathrow' from a facility that passengers feel obliged that they have to use, to one that they really want to use by choice and this will not be easy-Ed.