Wednesday, October 24, 2007

ITP & the art of joined up thinking

Two years ago Jumeirah International rebranded as the simplified Jumeirah. Arabian Business, less than impressed, labeled Jumeirah CEO Gerald Clueless. Or was it Hapless? Or Useless? Either way, it was a cheap play on the Irishman’s family name. The magazine then frothed about the wasted expense of dropping the ‘International’ tag and how the logo looked crap.

Lawless remained outwardly unflustered, but his bosses demanded – and got – action from Arabian Business’ publisher, ITP. Apologies were issued, staff were reprimanded. It was a needless personal attack.
This week ITP completed the latest stage of its penance strategy. Gerald Lawless picked up the lifetime achievement award at ITP’s CEO Middle East Awards. Somehow they resisted using the word ‘flawless’ in their press release.

3 comments:

Jones. Bridget Jones. said...

I discovered your blog only today and I'm quite enjoying the posts!

Lucid, a tad sarcastic, detached. Keep it up!

i*maginate said...

I wish the word "International" were not dropped...

19thfloordubai said...

It is slightly strange they dropped the word 'International', just as they became more international (hotels in New York, London, Paris, Shanghai).
I know there were some concerns as the pre-rebrand company was shorthanded to JI - the same initials as Jemaah Islamiah. Not ideal.