Marketing Portfolio Of Airlines Industry

1.

2. MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS

In order to understand the most important challenges of the techniques and strategies adopted in the adverts included in the portfolio, it is important starting with the following MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS about this Industry:

1. It is very important to recognize this market as a typical market of services. That is going to have consequences in all the analysis, but mainly two:

- In the consideration of not only four "p" of the marketing mix (price, product, place and promotion), but also another three or four, which would be People (which is said to be the most important of the additional "p"), Physical Evidence, Process and Productivity&Quality (the last one only added by some authors as Lovelock, Vandermerwe&Lewis).

2. Is a market in constant evolution. Fifteen years ago it was a Monopoly in nearly all countries in Europe, after it became a market with oligopolistic competition with a small percentage of the population as costumers; and nowadays, although there are important barriers of entrance; globalization, new competitors and low-cost companies are transforming one of the most important markets in the world. Future Traveller Tribes 2020 analyses the impact of major international trends such as the globalization of business, politics, migration and tourism. These trends are considered alongside major consumer trends such as the growth in environmentalism and affluence to a greater demand for personalization and a search for health and wellbeing. Then it is a market where promotional efforts of companies must be huge and constant in order to survive, and where the quality and quantity of marketing researches will be one of the most important challenges of any company.

3. The analysis of the buyer behaviour is also really interesting in this sector. We can appreciate different needs and expectations for different customers in this market, so segmentation and positioning will be also fundamental. Furthermore, is normally an industry where the user follows all the steps of the buyer behaviour in the selection and purchase of the service. Special importance have the Information Search by the customer (which is normally more complete than in other purchases) and beliefs and attitudes, which are the most important challenges of this analysis because normally have an important weight in the final decision of the customer. In a market as competitive as this one, a personal bad experience or just a non favorable belief or attitude can determine the user's choice forever. That's why the Brand Image is also fundamental for this kind of Companies.

Another analysis of the buyer behavior can be done in this case according to the "Types of consumer behaviour map" (Source: Susan Baker, 2000, Cranfield, Macmillan Press). This map is created to determine the influence of the difference between brands and of the involvement in the consumer, and in this case says that because of the high involvement and the big differences between the brands, we can appreciate a Complex Buyer Behaviour it's users, what has many consequences that will be analysed deeply in the analysis of segmentation and positioning..

In addition to this, the buyer behaviour is very difficult to control by Airline Companies because of the special importance of one of the 8 components of the Integrated Service Management: People. Do we have enough employees to provide a good service?; Do they have the necessary personal and professional skills?, Do they understand the brand-values?, Are they enough motivated or too tired?. Those are questions that airlines companies have to ask themselves, and which answers are going to have important consequences in the type of service provided.

4. Segmentation and positioning are also two of the most important considerations of this analysis. In a moment when nearly everyone can afford an airplane ticket, this industry operates with a huge group of potential customers with completely different expectations of the service and with different needs. The main reasons for segmentation in this market are:

- Segmentation allows target markets to be matched by company competencies and makes it more possible for the smaller companies to create defensive niches.

- It helps to identify gaps in the market and segments that are still in growth.

- Be aware of the dangers of not segmenting the market when your competitors do (even more in an Industry as competitive as this one).

Finding measurable, accessible, substantial and actionable segments to orientate our promotions will be a very important challenge to determine success or unsuccess of Companies and so one of its most important targets.

POSITIONING MAP

PRICE

High

OTHER FEATURES

Low High

Low

This positioning map has been done considering the price (if it is high or it is not) and the importance that Companies give to other features in the adverts included in this portfolio (related to the importance given to the price). I think this gives analysis gives some interesting conclusions:

- For example we see that Airfrance does not offer in it's adverts anything more than price, but as it is a well-known brand, normally associated to quality, it's prices are considerably higher tan other companies's.

- It is also interesting how some companies as AerAraan or Aerlingus have found a gap in this map. They use adverts where price is not