Marketing Communication Report on EasyJet - Essay Example

Marketing Communication Report on EasyJet Total Number of Words 998 Executive Summary In the past, a lot of airline companies had been totally dependent on the use of traditional marketing communication in order to increase the profitability and market shares of within the airline industry around the world. Due to globalization and tight competition in the global market, it is necessary for the marketing manager EasyJet to carefully study and focus on understanding the major changes in the trend of marketing communication strategies. This report will guide the readers on how EasyJet Airline Company could effectively attract more customers with the use of a company logo and slogan, print, and electronic advertisement. In line with this, the report provided an example of scheduling and budgeting which is necessary in making important marketing communication decisions. Situation Analysis behind the Economic Status of EasyJet Airline Company Established back in 1995, EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline company that operates domestic and international flight services on 387 routes in Europe and North African airports (Sager). As a result of the increase in demand for low-cost flights due to globalization, it becomes a challenged for most of the airline companies to develop strategic ways that will enable them to offer its target passengers a more competitive price on top of outstanding customer service. In line with this, EasyJet offers the public with low-cost flight services by continuously acquiring other airline companies like Go and GB Airways (BBC News a & b). EasyJet’s decision to acquire other airline companies does not only increase the number of routes wherein EasyJet airplanes could take-off and land (BBC News a). Aside from giving EasyJet Airline Company the opportunity to enjoy the benefit of economies of scale, this particular business expansion strategy could also immediately increase EasyJet’s existing customer base by serving some of the loyal customers of its past and currently acquired airline companies. Marketing communication strategies such as advertising plays a crucial role in attracting more customers to patronize the flight services offered by EasyJet. In line with this, EasyJet is more interested on the corporate business travellers as its target customers more than those individuals who are travelling for leisure purposes (EasyJet a; Perrett). By concentrating on the use of direct selling method using EasyJet’s official website, the company is able to save 10% of its total sales from travel agencies (Perrett). For this reason, one of EasyJet’s competitive advantages against its rivals goes around its ability to offer its target customers with low-cost airfares. EasyJet acknowledges that most of the business travellers around the world prefer an airline company that offers low-cost airfares. Therefore, EasyJet has been focused on positioning the brand as a low-cost airline company that offers good quality service to its valued customers. Because of the company’s ability to effectively communicate its business objectives, EasyJet has been successful in terms of capturing the attention of its target audiences despite the global economic crisis. Marketing Communication Objectives Marketing communication is referring to the marketing information being communicated to the public in order to reach out to potential consumers of flight services. The target customers of EasyJet are the corporate business travellers. Within a short period of one (1) month, the marketing communication objectives of this report include identifying and implementing three of the most effective ways to directly reach out to EasyJet’s target customers around the world. Upon locating EasyJet’s target customers, the company aims not only to convince the corporate business travellers to patronize the flight services of EasyJet but also to develop a long-term business relationship with this group of individuals. Marketing Communication Strategies Aside from creating a bigger demand for EasyJet’s flight services, the main purpose of investing a large sum of money in marketing communication is to create and develop brand awareness. In line with this, the marketing communication is often used as a marketing strategy to increase the company’s annual sales. The same business strategy can be used to enable EasyJet grab a bigger market share. To increase the feasibility of the marketing communication objectives, the use of marketing slogans, print advertisements, and electronic advertisements particularly on EasyJet’s official website will be utilized in terms of capturing the attention of the corporate business travellers around the world. Marketing Slogans Specifically the use of marketing slogans such as “affordable business flights”, “safe and affordable air fares for VIPs”, or “huge savings with EasyJet” could easily attract a large group of price conscious corporate business travellers. In fact, the use of good and effective marketing slogans could enable EasyJet develop a strong brand equity which could lead to strengthening of its customers’ long-term brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand association (Supphellen and Nygaardsvik; Yoo, Donthy and Lee). Brand loyalty is defined as “a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviours” (Oliver). In line with this, the brand loyalty of EasyJet’s existing customers represents a strategic asset in the sense that it can increase the business value by reducing the necessary marketing costs, leverage trade, and attract new customers by creating brand awareness and reassuring new customers of a timely response to their individual concerns (Moisescu). As a result of a true brand loyalty, EasyJet’s customers would continuously patronize the company’s flight services each time a loyal corporate business traveller would go from one country to another. Brand awareness is referring to how well a customer identifies the brand under different conditions (Keller). In line with this, the depth (the ease of recall and brand recognition) and breadth (number of purchase and consumption situations) of recall is crucial in brand awareness. On the other hand, a perceived quality is referring to “the consumer’s judgment about a product’s overall excellence or superiority” (Zeithamal). Basically, it is the personal experiences of EasyJet’s past and current customer base about the quality of company’s flight services that strongly influence the customers’ subjective judgment on EasyJet’s quality services. Brand association which consists of brand attributes, brand benefits, and brand attitudes is referring to “anything linked in memory to a brand” (Keller c). A strong brand association can result to the development of strong brand awareness. In line with this, Pitta and Katsamis pointed out that there are several dimensions of brand awareness with brand associations such that people in general could generate more information about EasyJet’s flight services by recalling the brand “EasyJet”. Since most consumers are unable to get a full picture of a particular brand, the brand association of EasyJet’s low-cost and good quality flight services can be stored in consumers’ minds after successfully establishing brand awareness in their memory. In other words, the better the consumer’s evaluation of a brand, a higher chance that a corporate business traveller would patronize EasyJet’s flight services (Hogg, Cox and Keeling). Print Advertisements Given that the target customers of EasyJet are the corporate business travellers, the use of print advertisement should focused on newspapers and magazines that are widely read by business people around the world. Among the magazines that most business people read includes TIMES and BusinessWeek whereas a good example of newspaper includes Business World or Financial Times. Electronic Advertisements Since 2005, the use of digital technology or Online advertising has been constantly increasing (Garfield). Although traditional marketing communication method such as the use of print advertisements can still be effective, the use of electronic advertisement for EasyJet which focuses on the use of the company’s official website could effectively cut down on unnecessary advertising expenses (EasyJet). Likewise, the company’s official website can be used to directly reach out to EasyJet’s target customers. Aside from using the company’s official website, the use of electronic mail advertisement can also be use in directly getting in touch with EasyJet’s target customers. Aside from being able to approach its target customers directly, EasyJet’s marketing people could take advantage of personalizing its online advertisement (Penna). Eventually, this marketing communications strategy could help build a stronger business relationship between EasyJet and its potential customers. Tactics As part of EasyJet’s marketing communication tactics, the use of EasyJet’s slogans should be exposed to its target customers as often as possible. In line with this, advertising EasyJet’s company slogan can be permanently posted on the company’s official website. Each time a prospective customer could view the company’s brand image and slogan; there is a higher chance for this individual to develop brand association with the company. Since the use of the company’s official website is a one-way advertisement such that only those individuals who would take time to visit the company’s official website are the only ones who could view EasyJet’s marketing slogans, the use of electronic mail advertisement should be utilized to enable the company to directly approach its target customers. The same goes with the use of print advertisement. Although there are a limited number of individuals who could have the privilege to browse on EasyJet’s print advertisement, the fact that the readers of business newspapers and magazines are corporate business people could somehow trigger an increase in the number of EasyJet’s future customers. (See Appendix I – EasyJet Logo and Slogans on page 11) Action Managing the proposed marketing communication strategies require effective coordination among the marketing team of EasyJet. Each time EasyJet’s marketing team would plan to reach out to its target customers, the team member should consider maximizing the use of online advertising strategies more than the print advertisement simply because print advertisements expenses costs more than the use of online advertisement. Given that there will only be one month to implement the proposed marketing communication technique, the marketing team of EasyJet should first decide which among the three given marketing slogans will be used to capture the interest of its target customers. (See Appendix I – EasyJet Logo and Slogans on page 11) Immediately after making a final decision on which logo and slogan to use, the marketing team of EasyJet should immediately coordinate with its internal IT personnel to incorporate the selected company logo and slogan in the company’s official website. This can be done in less than a day depending on the availability of qualified internal IT personnel who has the authority to revise the company website contents. Eventually, the marketing team should identify and select business magazines and newspapers that are widely read throughout UK, US, and other countries followed by discussing the number of days the company is willing to print the company logo and slogan together with its current flight rates. Basically, incorporating some information regarding EasyJet’s current flight rates could be useful in terms of attracting more price sensitive business travellers to read through the EasyJet’s print ads. (See Appendix II – Action Schedule on page 12) Depending on the company’s advertising budget, the marketing team of EasyJet may decide to pay for print advertisement every Monday and Friday on Financial Times and/or BusinessWeek. For instance: The advertising budget of EasyJet is only £20,000. Given that the advertising cost of printing the company’s logo, slogan, and current flight rate on ½ page costs around £1,500 each on Financial Times and £3,000 on BusinessWeek, it means that the number of print advertisement EasyJet will have on Financial Times newspaper will be 13.33 copies [£20,000 / £1,500] as compared to 6.66 copies on BusinessWeek [£20,000 / £3,000]. In case the marketing team of EasyJet would select only one of the two pre-selected newspaper and magazine, there is a higher chance that the marketing team would prefer to purchase print advertisement from Financial Times newspaper. This is possible especially in case the company has a very limited budget for its advertising expense. Control As part of evaluating the effect of the proposed marketing communication strategy, EasyJet personnel should start recording the daily revenues and the number of passengers that will be booking for a flight. These values should be compared with the previous days’ daily revenues and the number of passengers before the proposed marketing communication strategy was implemented. *** End *** Appendix I – EasyJet Logo and Slogans Sample I “Affordable Business Flights” Sample II “Safe and Affordable Air Fares for VIPs” Sample III “Huge Savings with EasyJet” Appendix II – Action Schedule Decide on Slogan to Use                               Coordinate w/ IT Personnel                               Select Business Magazines & Newspapers                               Decide on Companys Advertising Budget                               Implementation Starts                               1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Decide on Slogan to Use                               Coordinate w/ IT Personnel                               Select Business Magazines & Newspapers                               Decide on Companys Advertising Budget                               Implementation Starts                               16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 References "BBC News." 25 October 2007a. 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