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AIRLINE SELLING, AIRLINE ADVERTISING, THE FUTURE OF AIRLINE MARKETING, MARKETING COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES

Submitted to : Submitted by :

Abin. K.I. Fayas. R.M.

Lecturer : School of tourism studies Roll No : 6

M.G. University.

 

INTRODUCTION

• Aviation provides the only transportation network across the globe and it is crucial for global business development and tourism enrichment. By serving tourism and trade, it contributes to economic growth. Air transportation is essential for the fast movement of people and cargo shipments around the world. Finally, air transportation improves the quality of people’s lives by leisure and cultural experiences.

• In order to be successful airline must convince and persuade potential customers to buy from them rather than from their rivals. The early stages of marketing should certainly make this process easier. It will always be more straightforward to persuade people to buy value-for-money products which will meet well-understood customer needs, rather than those which do not. sales task is not an easy one, given the levels of competition which now prevail in the industry. A great deal of planning and hard work will be needed.

AIRLINE SELLING (THEANATOMYOF A SALE – AIDA model)

• Identify the prospect and gain their attention. Using methods such as advertising, direct mail, telephone etc.

• generate interest in customer by identifying the problems faced by the customer.

• Converting interest into the desire to make the purchase. Promoting desire may also involve the handling of objections. Objections, must be handled professionally.

• The last stage is action. Salespeople must have the courage to risk rejection and ask for the deal, intention of customer will be understood by body language or verbal buying signals. for example, asking about the details of deal rather than concluding it.

Sales Planning

An overall sales and marketing plan will be needed for the airline as a whole, and preparing this will be the responsibility of the Executive Vice-president for marketing.

The Sales Budget• To support sales and marketing• Competition in market (domestic and international) and

number of competitors.• To launch new routes, or when a major product upgrade

is to take place.

• For brand positioning.• cost of the different forms of marketing communication.

MARKET COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES

1. Sponsorship Policy

The term ‘Sponsorship’ is used to describe a situation whereby a firm has its name associated with an event, a team or a competitor, in exchange for money. It is valuable for a new airline, or for an established operator opening a new route into a market area where it has had no previous presence.

2. Database Marketing

Sound information of customers is essential for successful Database Marketing. Carriers are seeking to make better contact with their customers to secure greater control of their distribution channel. Airline finds database marketing as a way of doing so.

Continues. . .

3. Media relations

Air transport must have strong media relation, an airline which fails to cultivate strong Media Relations can suffer bad publicity when things go wrong. Media relations have to be well-placed to obtain favorable coverage when positive things happen such as new route introductions or product and brand re-launches.

ADVERTISING

• It is a form of communication that appears in the media to inform and persuade the consumer to buy the product. Advertising is carried out by a number of media such as newspapers, magazines, journals, brochures, display boards, radio, television, motion pictures etc.

• Airline marketing is the marketing communication method available to airlines. It needs a special section of its own. The purpose of this is to look at what advertising can and cannot do for airlines.

Objectives of advertising

1. To increase sales directly by

a. Encouraging potential purchasers to visit distributors

b. Announcing special sales, contest or other promotions

c. Securing new dealers and inducing opinion leaders to recommend product.

2 . To create awareness and interest in the company’s product by:

d. Informing potential buyers about product features

e. Announcing the availability of new products

f. Demonstrating the benefits of product’s use

g. Publishing a new brand name or symbol

Advantages of Advertising

• Wider coverage (it can be placed before large number of prospective customer as compared with efforts of sales man)

• Frequent appeal (it can make its appeal frequent, whereas the calls of salesman are usually not so frequent)

• Accessibility (it will reach customer through different distribution channels)

• Lower cost (large numbers can be reached economically)

• Selling task (advertisement may be used to do a variety of selling tasks)

Planning the advertising

• Careful consideration must be given to gain attention and interest of customer and secure the action desired by seller

Eg - color scheme, size, layout of advertisement.• Present the advertisement frequently because people

are inclined to believe statements they hear or see repeatedly.

• Early in the campaign they should be used close together because consumers forget rapidly at first and much more slowly later on.

• After the facts are retained by the prospectus, the advertisement can be presented at longer intervals

Selection of media

• Selection depend on factors like area to be covered, type of audience to be reached, the appeals to be made and upon the services and facilities of particular medium in relation to cost.

The factors which influence the media selection are

a. Media habits of target audience

b. Product characteristics (Eg,demonstration of flight operation for effective impact on target audience)

c. Cost of the media.

MESSAGE SELECTION

• Message selected for advertisement should retain interest in the minds of customer.

Important characteristics of an effective message are

a. Information – should be adequate for decision

b. Interest – should catch attention

c. Authenticity – should avoid exaggerated claims

d. Persuasion – should create favorable conviction in target audience

e. Memory value – to have something which help target audience to remember it.

Cost effectiveness

• The advertiser must relate the estimated cost of the objective planned and the contribution expected from advertising.

The various method commonly used are

a. Affordable method – budget set on the basis what an agency can afford

b. Percentage sales method – budget on the basis of specific percentage of sales.

c. Competitive parity method – agency set its budget to match those of its major competitors.

d. Objective and task method – budget required to perform various tasks that are necessary to achieve the objective

Determining advertising effectiveness

The commonly used methods are

a. Inquiry – the amount of response is an indication of the effectiveness of the concerned advertisement.

b. Recall Tests – here respondents are shown the magazine cover or other media in which advertisement had appeared. They are then asked to recall.

c. Recognition test – asked whether respondents have read them

d. Sales test – sales results are examined before and after the advertising

Features of ‘Good’ Airline Advertising

Good research data helps in deciding whether advertising is working or not

Showing an understanding of the customer’s True Needs, and demonstrating the ways in which the airline can meet these needs. Offer a Unique Selling Proposition to the customer. ( Eg, “First Flight of the Day” or “Only Airline Flying the A380”).

It will be necessary to study the advertisement very carefully to make sure that it is compatible with the airline’s long term development of its brand values.

Marketing communication with its freight customers important to many airlines as air freight consistently growing faster than the passenger

The Future of Airline Marketing

• Airline industry facing rapid change and continuing financial problems.

• Issues like terrorism and rising fuel charge has serious consequences in the travel industry.

• New business models is need to deal gloom prevailing in the market.

• Airlines will certainly have a substantial demand for their product

• Leisure traffic will have greater demand in future, and it will be even lower-yielding ahead. Airlines with the keenest levels of operating costs will be able to carry profitably.

• One bright spot will be continuing growth of the air freight market, which is not vulnerable to wars and the threat of terrorist attack.

• Environmental issues will limit the growth and freedom of action unless they demonstrate that they are taking all possible steps to minimize the environmental impact, even if it involve substantial costs.

• Technology will also affect airlines. There will be fall in the proportion, average of 70 – 50 % of ticket sold by travel agents because of the ability of airline control their distribution channels effectively.

Marketing strategies of air India

• In order to boost the sales of its tickets, it launched many schemes to attract clients. It promoted its services through various media like leading news papers, reputed TV channels.

• Leaf lets and brochers where issued to travel agencies.

• The air line was able to suppress the threats of terrorist attack and other negative thoughts by media blitzkrieg sponsored