Online Marketing for Airline Industry - Literature review Example

?Introduction Online marketing is a strategy that provides a wide variety of marketing services, especially for those companies and organizations that wish to communicate directly with the customer. The airline industry have in recent years shifted its focus to online marketing because it provides many services which other marketing strategies tend not to provide or if they do, it is at a lower quality. Some of the services which are associated with internet marketing include the following: strategic consultation; direct marketing; the promotion of sales through such strategies as sampling; event marketing; marketing in a multicultural setting; and finally, interactive services. The use of online marketing is quite advantageous for the airline industry because it provides access to potential customers even in the most remote areas of the world. The internet is currently one of the most accessed tools of marketing in the world and because of this; online marketing carries with it a higher possibility of having access to more customers than other traditional means of marketing. Among the biggest advantages of online marketing for the airline industry is that it is not only done at a local level, its marketing campaigns are also done at a regional, national, and international level and this is one of the reasons why this means of marketing is one of the most successful of its kind worldwide. Online marketing is so efficient that it is able to compete effectively against other marketing strategies and in fact, it has an edge over them. When compared to other means of marketing, one is likely to find that online marketing is probably more popular than the others hence more returns to those companies that invest in it. This is means of marketing which most airline industries in the world should aspire to invest in because it is a guarantee of their success not only in the present, but also in the future. The online marketing of an airline company can be used as a means through which it can be able to attract the best talent to seek jobs within it. With some of the best people working for it, not only will such a company be able to offer excellent services, but its reputation is likely to grow, since the internet has become a means through which news travels fast. Making excellent job offers through the internet and acquiring good staff through it is a means to make the public more aware of the company. Because online marketing is one of the leading marketing strategies, this is where most companies and other institutions go to when they need to acquire people in to work for them. In addition, marketing online ensures that a company’s clients stay up to date with the current knowledge about it as well as ensuring that they take advantage of all offers that the company has to give, hence giving the company a competitive edge over other airlines. Online marketing ensures that an airline is able to make adjustments quickly, according to the changes in the marketing scene in the world and it does this for assisting its clients keep up to speed of things so that they do not lose any opportunities if there are any unexpected changes in the market. Online marketing provides a swift means through which individuals can easily be able to make connections with people and resources which they have need of in order receive the services they want from the airline companies. Context This paper discusses the need for companies in the airline industry to turn to the online marketing in order to reach more customers in the process of marketing their products. It deals with how these companies are moving from the old mode of marketing and relying heavily on new sources such as social networks. Instead of the impersonal marketing modes of the past, these companies have now realized that it is better to deal with potential customers on a more personal basis so that data that is more reliable can be collected. Due to the availability of a lot of data that is brought about by social networks and consumer websites, online marketing is a safe investment for airlines to make because it is a rich source of information on how to handle future marketing. Most of the companies that have no set online marketing strategies often find it difficult to handle most of the marketing data they receive online. Among the reasons why companies find it so difficult to handle this data is because they tend not to use multiple approaches in handling it and they instead concentrate on a single approach. Moreover, the best practices for handling online marketing data have yet to be put in place in many airline companies because involving their leaders in the implementation of online marketing strategies is still an ongoing challenge. Managing online marketing requires that there is a change in existing marketing strategies and a focus should be made on integrating unstructured and semi structured online marketing data as a key requirement in these companies’ attempt to improve their engagement with their customers. While traditional marketing strategies remain one of the most important means of marketing, online marketing helps in the drive towards the process of the airline companies engaging with their customers. It is, therefore, necessary for airline companies to opt for online marketing because this is the only way through which they can be able to compete on a global scale efficiently. Literature Review According to Toh and Raven (2003), airline today have to deal with the issue of having to dispose of perishable goods that have not been used by customers. The large amounts of perishable goods come about when planes leave with some seats, which the airlines expected to be occupied, being empty. This tends to leave many airlines in a dilemma because they do not have the means of knowing just how many perishable products they should buy for the sake of their customers. They propose the online marketing system to help airlines achieve their goals, which are consistent with the needs of their customers. It is stated the online marketing will help airlines deal with issues concerning pricing register, advertising, delivery, customer association marketing, internal marketing contacts, and data mining. Moreover, online marketing will be beneficial to airline customers because they will be able to see first-hand what the airline has to offer them. Toh and Raven conducted two internet research to test their hypothesis concerning the use of online marketing by airlines might help them save a lot on the purchase of perishable goods for their customers. An experiment conducted on the discrepancy in airline pricing is carried out to reveal that it paid to visit several online sites to obtain affordable fares, particularly on the day of exit. Toh and Raven state that the internet has become one of the tools that are indispensable in the advancement of the goal of all airlines of maximizing their profit, in consistence with the needs of their customers. Furthermore, they state that the move by airlines to shift to the use of their own websites has enabled them to bypass travel agents. This has enabled them to reduce paper and distribution costs and this has come to save the airline industry millions of dollars. Airline companies that market online get to deal with online travel agents who charge lower commissions and transaction costs ensuring that they have plenty of savings in the end. Mack (2000) states that online marketing is the future of all world marketing, despite the fact that it retains the underhand tactics that are displayed in other forms of marketing. Mack goes on to say that one only has to log onto the internet to see the scale of online marketing going on within it, even going as fair as to say that it has grown into ‘the Main Street of the World.’ While previously it was just a place where academic material was put up for free, the internet has now developed into a massive marketplace that airlines cannot afford to ignore, because to do so would be to doom themselves to failure. As the years have progressed, the internet is moving from being a place of personal communication to one where there is plenty of economic opportunity for those who care to venture into it. When marketing online, airlines should continue to make offers to potential customers that are familiar to them. Among these is the offering of packages that are new and surprising as well as also being useful and essential. In addition, their marketing strategy has to be so well done that it touches the emotions of those who witness it. As long as more people continue to go online to conduct their activities from there, the influence of online marketing is also likely to continue to develop and this will ensure that those who participate in online marketing have a constant audience. The potential of online marketing is so great that its limits are yet to be deciphered. McCartney (2000) analyses the way some of the largest airlines in the United States have chosen to go directly into the online reservation industry in a bid to cut commission costs to travel agents. Many airlines had not until this moment, seen the reason for conducting an aggressive online marketing campaign. In fact, some had simply set up reservation sites in the hope that potential customers would conduct their booking. However, this turned out not to be the case because many of the customers chose to go either to online booking agents or to travel agencies to do their bookings. Thus, the reservation business moved from the airlines to the online agencies that swiftly grew, making acquisitions and conducting marketing campaigns online to attract a larger customer base. As a result of this, about two dozen carriers chose to come together to form their own reservation site, known as Travelocity Terminator, because of the need to control ticket selling on the internet. One of the reasons why these airlines chose to do their own online marketing was the fear that the few companies that dominated this field would end up running it like a monopoly, demanding unreasonable commissions from the airlines for their services. While this venture may have been beneficial to the airline companies, McCartney states that it came at an immense cost, because now, these airlines have to spend much more money than they used to for maintaining a strong presence in the online marketing business, which has long been dominated by big travel companies. According to the article, "Spanish and German carriers agree online marketing arrangement," (2008) airlines are seeing the advantages of marketing online and have started to get into joint ventures to achieve these advantages. Airlines have come to find that the best way to ensure that their customers get the services that they want is by making deals to advertise each other in their websites. An example of such a deal is one between clickair and German wings, two European budget airlines when they made a deal to make a selected number of flights between Spain and Germany, their home countries, available to each other’s customers. The aim of this joint online marketing arrangement was to increase the number of destinations available that each of the airlines had to offer. Those passengers who wished to travel to destinations that were not on offer in one airlines website would simply be redirected to the website of the other airline. In this way, the two airlines agreed to allow each other’s passengers to get to complete their ticket purchases in each other’s websites. Tehrani (2000) states that it has become common knowledge that online marketing is the future of marketing, and this belief has developed to such an extent that many businesses have actually come to believe that it is the solution to all marketing problems they are experiencing. More companies than ever today are making a bid to enter into online marketing, and this has made them ignore the traditional means of marketing. Tehrani suggests that this trend is making businesses lose focus on alternative marketing strategies since their sole focus is on the internet. In order to counter this, businesses are advised to do their best to enter online marketing, but they should not put all their marketing investment into it because these is still quite a large number of people who do not use the internet. To get into online marketing would therefore mean that they are ignoring quite a large customer base that needs to be tapped to maximize the profits that companies make. Maddox (2007) states that other forms of marketing, such as print, trade shows, and exhibitions, are as important as online marketing and it is for this reason that they should not be left to go into marketing oblivion. The traditional means of marketing is still the best way to make a brand recognizable, because most people tend not to spend their money on products or services from companies that they have never heard of. Defino (2011) states that despite the fact that many marketers tend to recognize that the best marketing materials are those which target individual audiences, they still often end up having massive challenges with their budgets. This is because the behaviour and opinions of consumers tend to change often and this creates a situation where marketers have to continuously revise their marketing materials. The greatest struggle that many marketers have to go through is how to create material to keep up with the demand of consumers without exceeding the budgets that they have. However, the emergence of online marketing has made it possible for marketers to be able to meet their budgetary demands in making material can be distributed in diverse marketing environments. This has ensured that they are able to produce cross media marketing materials that are localized to effectively respond to the ever-changing consumer climate. Milne, Rohm and Bahl (2009) make an examination of the likelihood of consumers to make purchases from a company after they find out that it has made covert online marketing practices. They find that while their finding out makes them lowers their purchases from the company, this tends to be moderated by the fact that consumers often consider the company’s history. Among the things they considered is their prior experience with the company, whether it is a new company, or whether the covert online marketing involved information gathering or doing promotions. The background variables of consumers was found to be a moderator for the negative impact on purchases that covert online marketing activities may have caused. O'Brien (2008) states that the internet has brought a lot of change in the way people deal with businesses. Technological growth has led to the fostering of the growth of countless new online based business apparatus and services that help people administer their businesses. In this article O’Brien provides examples of efficient electronic mail marketing and online assessments from thriving business owners. Furthermore, there is a discussion of the best practices to help take businesses to the next level with their online marketing campaigns. By combining the ease of electronic mail with the influence of the internet, businesses rapidly, easily and cost effectively deliver proficient marketing campaigns to their targeted electronic mail lists of customers. Successful marketing communications include content that is relevant and interesting to the prospective customer, and this ensures that there is an offering of important information or advice and provides a chance to give a response. Through using online assessments, businesses are able to collect direct responses from their customers’ and this can influence their business in a multitude of ways. References Defino, F. 2011, "Online marketing management allows for customization", Beverage Industry, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 80-80. Mack, T. 2000, "Electronic marketing: What you can expect", The Futurist, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 40-44. Maddox, K. 2007, "Marketing budgets, online to rise in '08", B to B, vol. 92, no. 17, pp. 24-24. McCartney, S. 2000, Inside the Airline Industry's Plan to Dominate Online Reservations, New York, N.Y., United States, New York, N.Y. Milne, G.R., Rohm, A. & Bahl, S. 2009, "IF IT'S LEGAL, IS IT ACCEPTABLE?: Consumer Reactions to Online Covert Marketing", Journal of Advertising, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 107-122. O'Brien, K. 2008, "Grow Your Franchise With ONLINE MARKETING TOOLS", Franchising World, vol. 40, no. 8, pp. 12-14. "Spanish and German carriers agree online marketing arrangement", 2008, Airline Industry Information, , pp. n/a. Tehrani, N. 2005, "Online Marketing Comes Of Age! Opportunities & Pitfalls", Customer Inter@ction Solutions, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 2-2,4,6,8. Toh, R.S. & Raven, P. 2003, "Perishable asset revenue management: Integrated internet marketing strategies for the airlines", Transportation Journal, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 30-43. Read More