Coping with corporate crisis: the role of brand heritage while rethinking a business model. The case of Meridiana airline company

The Italian airline company Meridiana suffered a strong financial crisis during the second decade of 2000. The business model was based on internationalization in partnership with Qatar Airways, rebranding and financial restructuring, but unfortunately it did not succeed and led to a liquidation in 2020. This paper aims at investigating an alternative communication strategy, based on the company's brand heritage on connections with Sardinia, while operating as an excellence in the national airline market. The research represents a “what-if analysis” based on a survey of 305 customers, conducted in 2017, applying a snowball sampling strategy. Obviously, an alternative approach to communication during the crisis would not, by itself, have been enough to solve companies problems, but the analysis helps to identifying specific reference targets to address companies messages, measuring the importance of the motivations in regard to consumer behaviour attitudes. The survey shows that, despite a portion of “price-oriented” respondents, there was another group of customers interested in the quality guarantees and in the recognition of an excellent national airline service. Thus, the company's heritage could have been during the crisis the starting point of an alternative communicative model, focused on a reliable national airline service.