Brand Matters
Response of Air Peace to disparity in air fares: Poor PR, Poor English -By Azuka Onwuka
The error of judgement Air Peace made is the assumption that because its CEO is Igbo, any attack on the Igbos will not be seen as an ethnic slur. But that is wrong. To understand the import of that statement, the company should have replaced the “Southeast” in that paragraph with “Southwest” or “North” and asked itself if it could have released a press statement with such an ethnic attack in it.
Air Peace airline was accused of having discriminatory air fares for its different zones in Nigeria, with the fares to its Eastern routes going for as high as N95,000, while other routes go for as low as N35,000.
Air Peace responded today. See the attached screenshots.
- The response was unprofessional. It sounded like something issued by Nigerian politicians who are always fixated on “enemies”, “disgruntled elements”, and “paid agents”. The press statement is littered with combative and denigrating words and phrases like “orchestrated attacks”, “propagandists”, “ignorant”, “selfish ends”, “feather their parochial interests”, “mischief-makers”, etc. The essence of public relations is not to war with the public and become victorious but to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between a brand and its publics.
When a false narrative is created about your brand, it offers you the opportunity to enlighten the public, thereby turning something bad to your advantage.
- The press statement engaged in ethnic baiting which a corporate body should never be seen doing.
It said in its second paragraph: “It has become a pastime for our brothers from the South East to attack Allen Onyema and Air Peace for their selfish ends.”
The error of judgement Air Peace made is the assumption that because its CEO is Igbo, any attack on the Igbos will not be seen as an ethnic slur. But that is wrong. To understand the import of that statement, the company should have replaced the “Southeast” in that paragraph with “Southwest” or “North” and asked itself if it could have released a press statement with such an ethnic attack in it.
Ethnic/racial baiting, religious baiting, or gender baiting is one thing a corporate body must be careful not to be caught doing.
- There were unpardonable grammatical errors in the press statement, which cannot be blamed on “typos”. They pointed to a deficiency in the language of the person who wrote it and the people who vetted it and approved it for release. Having a firm grasp of subject-verb agreement as well as the tenses (present, past, past particle, future, etc) is the foundation of English language. It is basic English.
i. “Our fares start from N23,000 and progresses to N60,000 ….”
This means: “Our fares progresses to ….” That is like saying: “The men is here.”
ii. “If the first 10 seats of N23,000 fare finishes ….”
The same problem of subject-verb agreement rears its head: “Fares finishes”. That is like saying: “The women has eaten.”
iii. Meanwhile what is “If the first 10 seats of N23,000 fare finishes …”? Isn’t that clumsy and tacky? This is a case of translating word-for-word from a Nigerian language like Igbo into English: “Ọ bụrụ na oche iri ndị N23,000 ju/gwụ.”
Could finesse not have been achieved by saying something like this?
a. If the first 10 seats of N23,000 fare are fully taken ….
OR
b. If the first 10 seats of N23,000 fare are filled up ….
OR
c. If the first 10 seats of N23,000 fare are sold out ….
OR better still:
If the first 10 seats of N23,000 are fully taken/filled up/sold out ….
No brand should toy with its public communication because it has the capacity to make or mar a brand.
