According to Shaw (2016), the marketing mix is defined as the range of marketing principles that are utilized in any business scenario. The marketing mix comprises of the commonly referenced 4P’S, namely, product, price, promotion, and place. An explanation of these components is better provided using Emirates Airlines marketing mix below.
Product
Products refer to either the physical products or services that are being sold by an organization. Emirates Airlines is involved in offering commercial air travel. The airline provides business and leisure travel services to its customers (Schraub, 2015). It has a fleet of 270 aircraft comprising of Boeings and Airbuses (Emirates, 2020a). The services are offered using its fleet that comprises of Airbuses and Boeings. The airline uses convenient routes that avoid unnecessary stopovers, thus ferrying passengers at a satisfactory time (Alshubaily, 2017). Its travel services are categorized into economy class, business class, and first-class services. The airline prides itself on offering quality air travel and always being ahead of its competitors. It was the first airline to offer customized videos to its passengers in all the travel classes. Its luxurious travel services are quite appealing, consisting of services such as comfortable seats.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Price
The price concept refers to the pricing strategy adopted to attract potential customers to make a purchase. Emirates Airlines is engaged in luxurious air travel. Compared to other airlines that target the same market segment, Emirates uses a competitive pricing strategy by adopting a lower pricing model (Alshubaily, 2017). The low pricing model offers a great deal of value to its customers, thus attracting large customer numbers, which translate to higher revenues for the company. The low pricing is aided by its model of direct flights and the use of low-cost labor (Paraux, 2019). Its price differentiation strategy proves to be inclusive to persons with diverse purchasing power. The airline offers economy class, business class, and first-class services. A dynamic but flexible pricing model allows the airline to maximize its revenue. Premium pricing is used for persons seeking to fly in the luxurious first-class services.
Promotion
Promotion refers to the array of communication measures used to entice potential buyers to make purchases. Emirates Airlines has crafted quite a competitive promotional strategy. It has adopted a competitive branding slogan, “Don’t just fly, Fly Better,” that seeks to attract customers to fly using the airline as opposed to using its rivals (Emirates, 2020b ). Emirates Airlines uses captivating adverts placed in different print ad electronic media such as radio, magazines, billboards, and websites (Devasia et al., 2016). The adverts are made in various languages to reach a diverse client base. Emirates Airlines has also embraced social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter in its promotional practices (Ceil, 2019). These sites are used to reach the tech-savvy generation (Alshubaily, 2017). One of the past successful promotional campaigns is “The Kids Go Free” (Devasia et al., 2016). The campaign was quite appealing to families making Emirates Airlines the airline of choice when traveling with the family. Emirates also increases its brand visibility by sponsoring different sports teams, e.g., the Arsenal football club (Emirates, 2020a). Engagement in sponsorship deals helps in the promotional strategy by creating brand visibility to a large audience who might be potential customers.
Place
Emirates Airlines is based in Dubai Airport, a crucial link between the destinations in the East and West. Consequently, the airline has tapped markets in six different continents, including the Americas, Asia, Africa, amongst others. Currently, the airline flies in over 80 countries and has 159 destinations (Emirates, 2020a). Its combination of long haul and short route flights serves to the needs of various customers. Its huge number of fleets has allowed it to penetrate the different markets. Its distribution strategy incorporates the use of travel agencies to reach to potential customers. A website platform is also used to making various transactions such as dissemination of information about flights, making bookings, and cancellations.
The success of different airlines in an industry that is getting crowded day by day is dependent on how well it wholesomely handles the various components of the marketing mix viz, product, price, promotion, and place. By considering all the four elements together, successful airlines come up with a competitive strategy that allows the airline to thrive in a competitive environment. By identifying its potential customers, an airline customizes particular products for the customers at a price affordable to the target market (Ioannou, 2017). The use of various promotional strategies such as adverts are used to entice the target customers to purchase the products and through various distribution channels connects the customers to the products. The adoption of a unique competitive strategy in the long term enables an airline to remain successful amidst a competitive environment.
The seven stages in the application of marketing principles to airline management are documented below with reference to Southwest Airlines (Shaw, 2016):
The customer. Southwest Airlines was established to respond to the air travel needs of the price-sensitive customers, mostly middle-income earners. Southwest Airlines responds to the time and convenience-oriented customers by offering them cheaper air travel as compared to services provided by luxury-inclined airlines (Inkpen, 2013).
The marketing environment: The airline marketing environment is influenced by politics, economic, social, technological, and environmental factors. Southwest Airlines is subject to the regulations of the US Federal Aviation Authority. Governments make decisions on flight routes, especially on international travel. Economic factors such as global oil prices and economic times, e.g., during recessions and depressions, affect airline operations (Inkpen, 2013). The 1990 depression did not hit Southwest too hard due to its low pricing, which was appealing to potential customers experiencing tough economic times (Maxim, 2012). The changing social aspects, such as increased population and the need to travel faster, are likely to create a bigger market for airlines. The technological advancements such as video conferencing and different communications through internet-enabled platforms are likely to disrupt the potential markets since persons can easily communicate without the need for traveling. The advocacy for reduced carbon emissions to protect the environment may lead to the adoption of regulations requiring airlines to use low carbon-emitting aircraft. Besides using fuel-efficient aircraft, Southwest Airlines engages in various corporate social responsibilities that seek to conserve the environment (Southwest Airlines, 2009).
Strategy formulation. During its establishment, Southwest exploited the market gap whereby no airlines were offering low-cost air travel. Southwest reached for this potential market by providing low airfares to potential customers. To date, Southwest has retained its low pricing strategy, and most of the company decisions are made based on whether they will allow the airline to fly cheaply.
Product design and development: in the early years of establishment, Southwest developed low-cost travel services within the US domestic market. By doing away with some of the services offered in luxurious travel such as drinks and snacks, Southwest was able to provide low-cost travel. Despite venturing into international travel, Southwest has retained this product design (Maxim, 2012). Snacks and drinks are only offered for long haul flights, allowing the airline to keep offering low airfares.
Pricing and revenue management: Pricing refers to the kind of pricing applied to the various products or services offered by an organization. Revenue management refers to the techniques used by companies to manage the demand for various products and services (Klophaus, 2016). Southwest Airlines has established itself as a low-cost carrier and uses a low pricing strategy to reach potential customers. Its current revenue management model, Amadeus system, involves the adjustment of air travel pricing at different times of the day (Jonas, 2018). The model allows Southwest to offer customers low prices at appropriate times while at the same time, ensuring that the company maximizes its revenue in a highly competitive industry.
Distribution channel selection and control: Southwest airlines uses travel agents and a website system to enable their customers to make bookings, check different flights and make cancellations (Inkpen, 2013: Southwest Airlines, 2020).
Selling, advertising, and promotional policies: These are the range of measures that are used to attract customers to purchase the different services offered by an airline. Southwest airlines use both electronic and print media to create appealing and humorous adverts that entice potential customers to fly through the airline.
References
Alshubaily, A. (2017). Exploring the key success factors for young airlines. A focus on emirates airlines and its regional competitors’ strategy for success. Saudi Journal of Business and Management Studies , 2 (1), 30-37.
Ceil, C. (2019). Social Media effects on Emirates Airline. Available at SSRN 3521092 .
Devasia, F., Ajayakumar, S., & Robin, T. (2016). Proposal of Marketing Strategies for Emirates Airlines [Ebook]. Retrieved 17 April 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293707272_Proposal_of_Marketing_Strategies_for_Emirates_Airlines#fullTextFileContent .
Emirates. (2020a). About us | Emirates United States . United States. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from https://www.emirates.com/us/english/about-us/ .
Emirates. (2020b). Emirates flights – Book a flight, browse our flight offers, and explore the Emirates Experience . Emirates. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from https://www.emirates.com/us/english/ .
Inkpen, A. (2013). Southwest Airlines [Ebook]. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from https://studydaddy.com/attachment/69099/k6yowyrev1.pdf .
Ioannou, P. (2017). Strategic Marketing Plan: Towards Survival And Success In The Airline Sector [Ebook]. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from http://www.academia.edu/download/54228432/2_Strategic_Marketing_Plan-_Towards_Survival_and_Success_in_the_Airline_Sector_2017.pdf .
Jonas, D. (2018). New Southwest Revenue Management Tactics Put Upward Pressure On Fares. Retrieved from https://www.thecompanydime.com/southwest-revenue-management/
Klophaus, R. (2016). Airline revenue management in a changing business environment. researchgate. net .
Maxim, L. D. (2012). The development of the low-cost carriers’ business models. Southwest Airlines case study. Annals of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University-Economics , 59 (1), 231-238.
Paraux, N. (2019). The competition challenges between the European airlines and the Gulf airlines and the strategies to implement in order to better face this competition: A case study of Eurowings [Ebook]. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from https://dial.uclouvain.be/downloader/downloader.php?pid=thesis%3A21347&datastream=PDF_01 .
Schraub, I. (2016). A comparison analysis of the marketing strategy of Lufthansa and Emirates in Germany (Doctoral dissertation).
Shaw, S. (2016). Airline Marketing and Management (7th ed.). Routledge.
Southwest Airlines. (2009). The 2008 Southwest Cares Report . Retrieved from https://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs/corporate-commitments/southwestcares.pdf
Southwest Airlines. (2020). Travel Agency Certificate . Southwest.com. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from https://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/terms-and-conditions/travel-agency-certificate.html .
