Emirates Airline Communication - Case Study Example

EMIRATES AIRLINE COMMUNICATION By + Sate Table of Contents EMIRATES AIRLINE COMMUNICATION 3 Existing Communication Mix in the Emirates Airline 3 Target Market 6 Tourists and Businessmen/Businesswomen 6 Expatriates 7 Transit Passengers 8 Recommendations for a New and Improved Communications Mix 8 12 Month Implementation Plan and Costing Information 9 References and Bibliography 11 EMIRATES AIRLINE COMMUNICATION Communication can be broadly defined as the conveying, reception, and processing of information (O’Connell & Williams, 2011). Communication is very significant to business because through it businesses make connections with prospective customers and complete business dealings. The distinctive senders in the communications model are companies who desire to sell their product, service or idea while the distinctive receivers in the communication model are prospective customers who are seeking to purchase the product or service (Pearson Education, 2015). This paper is going to talk about the existing communication mix in the Emirates airline and give recommendations for a new and improved communication mix for the airline. Existing Communication Mix in the Emirates Airline The communications mix in the Emirates airline is currently varied. The most distinct is the use of their tagline which sells as their trademark. The tagline states “Keep Discovering”. This is intended to attract the customers to the airline who will be eager to keep what they are supposed to keep rediscovering once they board the airline. Emirates airline has of late become an extremely popular and authoritative airline brand all over the world. This is mainly because of its advertising approach which includes a promotion stressing the traveller to do something or experience something novel. This is given much backing by its tag line called “Keep Discovering”. The Emirates airline also uses promotional mix to communicate its services and products in the aviation, travel, tourism and leisure business industries to the prospective customers. These promotions mix consists of advertising by using traditional media channels, for example through the use of direct mail, outdoor signs, newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Through the use of this traditional media channels, the Emirates airline has been able to effective communicate its products and services to the world at large. This is mainly because the traditional media channels are easily accessible to most people in the world and their use proves to be quite effective and efficient. The Emirates airlines also use sales promotions comprising trade and consumer promotions. This is through the additional services that it offers to its customers either at a discounted rate or free of charge. Personal selling activities of directly informing the public of the airline’s products and services are also employed by the Emirates airline. The Emirates airline also uses the pull strategy to gain an enhanced awareness and reputation among its customers. This type of pull strategy also makes the people to get more involved in the activities and events of the airline. It comprises the presentation of information that targets trade channels rather than the customers. Through the trade channels, the customers can easily get to know the airline as most people are involved in business. It is also possible to attract a large number of customers that conduct business and move from one country to another through the use of trade channels. The Emirates airline has in the past employed the “Kids Go Campaign” in its advertisements (Tolpa, 2012). This type of a campaign enabled the airline to get more customers from over seventy countries in the world to travel to and fro Dubai. Most of these customers came in form of family groups. Through the kids go campaign, it was able to increase its awareness among the people. The airline also implemented a “Hello Tomorrow Campaign”. This campaign was designed to make the airline to be associated with useful, significant and connectivity experience. Through this, it was able to attract a lot of customers who were interested in getting a share of this useful, significant and connectivity experience. The use of social media, for example Facebook is also employed by the airline as an advertising tool. The use of Facebook was geared towards the building of a close connection and relationship with its customers and to achieve the customer loyalty that every business yearns for. The use of Facebook has gone milestones in positioning the Emirates airline as an esteemed and cosmopolitan airline to be adored by people of diverse races. Facebook is a very effective advertising tool for this airline due to the large numbers of people who subscribe to it. It is easy to advertise the brand of the Emirates airline through Facebook as one is assured of passing the message across a huge group of people. Intense advertisement across many people has enabled the Emirates airline to gain popularity across the world. Popularity increases the Emirates airline’s chances of getting many customers. The Emirates airline equally has its own website. The website was designed among other things to promote the brand of the airline both locally and internationally. Banners and advertisements are regularly placed on the website in order to capture the attention of the viewers as well as to increase the awareness of the airline to both its customers and prospective customers. This improves the trustworthiness of its old and new customers towards it. Apart from all this tools of advertisement, the Emirates airline gives its customers a unique experience through its in-flight entertainment. All the seats of the Emirates airlines have personal entertainment systems that are not only used to entertain the people on board the airplane but also to advertise its services and hence increasing its popularity. The Emirates airlines has both online and offline distribution channels. These channels are intended to meet the individual needs of each and every customer. This translates to satisfaction among the customers who will then be loyal to the airline as they believe that it takes care of each of their needs and demands individually. These channels help the customers of Emirates airlines to have a personal interaction with the airline and to ensure that all their problems and concerns are sufficiently addressed. The Emirates airline also employs the use of personal selling sales promotion, publicity, cinema advertising, outdoor advertising and exhibitions as part of its communication mix. Target Market The Emirates airline’s target market comprises of at least three categories of passengers. These passengers are the tourists and businessmen and businesswomen; expatriates and transit passengers. The Emirates airliner being an air carrier has been able to effectively identify these three types of customers. This type of identification enables it to offer satisfactory products and services to its customers. It also enables it to meet the particular needs and needs of its diverse target market. Tourists and Businessmen/Businesswomen Dubai has for a very long time been recognized as the regional business and tourism hub in the world. The Emirates airline being a Dubai based airline has therefore been able to expand and get more customers. This is due to the regional air traffic of passengers who visit Dubai either as tourists or to conduct their various business dealings. Research averages that Dubai receives at least 15 million visitors in each single year (Bauernfeind & Wilfing, 2012). This offers the Emirates airlines very splendid opportunities of increasing its popularity among these visitors by either employing its current communication mix or even developing a novel promotional and communication mix that will see it get more customers. If the Emirates airlines take advantage of this huge number of visitors who stream into Dubai each year, it can be able to get more customers and even establish customer loyalty among the various classes of customers that it would have managed to retain in the airline. With the reputation that Dubai has of being a business hub, it means that businessmen and businesswomen will always visit Dubai to conduct their business deals. This therefore shows that with a good communication mix, the Emirates airline stands a good chance of retaining these customers. Expatriates The economy of Dubai is growing at a very fact pace as compared to the economies of other cities in the world. With a fast-growing, there comes an increased demand of labor force. It is common knowledge that an improved economy attracts a huge workforce as the employees/workers have a higher assurance that they will be paid high wages to meet their daily demands. The diversity of this workforce that comes from all over the world to seek for employment in Dubai makes the Emirates airlines to efficiently plan their routes. Currently, the Emirates airlines have been able to operate in almost all the countries of the world. This is as a result of the cooperation that the airline has with the national authorities of these nations. This notwithstanding, the Emirates airline needs to improve its communication and promotion mix as it faces a lot of stiff competition from both within and outside Dubai (Pizam & Mansfield, 1999). The competition from Dubai exists as the government of Dubai operates what is known an “open sky” policy which virtually allows any airline to offer competition to the Emirates airline which is owned by the government. Transit Passengers The Emirates airline has its business seat in Dubai. Dubai is a very strategy point to connect to other countries of the world like Australia, Europe and Asia (Safi, 2011). This is one of the reasons that the Emirates airline has been getting transit passengers on board its airlines as it use the campaign “connecting point” in their promotion mix to attract them. The well reputable and market wide range network enables the Emirates airlines to prosper in getting the transit passengers on their airlines. Recommendations for a New and Improved Communications Mix For the Emirates airlines to continue retaining its popularity among the people, it will have to establish a new and improved communication mix. This communication mix should be calculated towards making it to have numerous customers that it has at the moment. The Emirates airlines should improve its advertising strategies by coming up with advertisements that would appeal to the emotional aspects of both its existing and prospective customers. These advertisements would for example be based on people’s feelings, fun and even humor. The justification behind this is that it is very easy to attract customers once you capture their emotions. The customers will feel obligated to respond to these feelings, fun and humor by choosing the Emirates airlines for their travel purposes. The Emirates airlines should also make use of conferences, public relations programs and seminars. This will enable it to get more engaged with people especially with the businessmen and businesswomen who tour Dubai and are most likely to be found in such kind of conferences and public relations programs. Such kind of engagements with the customers and prospective customers will increase their trust in the Emirates airlines and hence find a reason to board it several times. The Emirates airlines should also consider exploring the internet marketing as their communication mix. This type of marketing will offer it a platform to reach out to most of the business people. This is due to the changes taking place in the world today as a result of the introduction of the internet and most businesses are now being carried out online as opposed to offline. In addition to the internet, the Emirates airlines should also consider database marketing and sponsorship marketing as methods of communication mix. This will enhance its popularity round the globe and hence attracting customers (Taneja, 2011). Lastly, the Emirates airlines should keep abreast with the emerging technologies and alternative media that can be used to effectively communicate their brand to customers. These emerging technologies are like the blogs, guerilla marketing, buzz marketing, lifestyle marketing as well as entertainment that are branded. 12 Month Implementation Plan and Costing Information The implementation of this proposed communication mix will take place over a period of twelve months. People usually go for holiday during the winter and summer seasons. This is the period that the Emirates airlines need to do a lot of the promotional mix as well as communicating their brand to the prospective customers. Holidays provide a perfect time for increase the popularity of an airline as well as getting new customers. Advertisements will be held during this winter and summer seasons so as to increase the number of passengers for the Emirates airline. Conferences, public relations programs as well as seminars will also be conducted during this period as that is when it will be easy to get a large group of people in Dubai attending these meeting in addition to having a holiday. This will also be the perfect time to carry out branded entertainment. Internet and database marketing will have to be conducted throughout the year as business dealings go on all year round. The use of blogs, guerilla marketing, lifestyle marketing and sponsorship marketing will also be done all year round. The amount of money to be used for all these activities will constitute the costing information. References and Bibliography Bauernfeind, U. & Wilfing, R. (2012). Passenger decision making behavior and implications for airline marketing: Case Emirates. Modul Vienna University. O’Connell, J. & Williams, G. (2011). Air Transport in the 21st century – Key Strategic Developments. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited Pizam, A. & Mansfeld Y. (1999). Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism. Binghamton: The Haworth Press Taneja, N. (2011). The Passenger Has Gone Digital and Mobile: Accessing and Connecting Through Information and Technology. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited Tolpa, E. (2012). Measuring customer expectations of service quality: Case airline industry. Aalto University. Safi, A. E. (2011). International corporate strategy: Case study of an analysis of luxury airlines, Emirates Airways and competitors. Italy: University of Trento. Read More