Marketing Communication Campaign in Easy Jet - Case Study Example

DIRECT MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN IN EASY JET Introduction Communication is one of the most important aspects of any organization. Communication forms a core factor in the operation of any company as it enables a company to function well. Communication is very important since it forms a link between the organization and its customers. It forms the main channel through which the management of an organization communicates with the customers. Therefore communication is central to the function of an organization. Communication is not centered only on the communication of the company with the customers but also it affects the internal relations within the company. Internal communication in an organization is the stepping stone that enables a cordial communication between the company and the outsiders. (Littlejohn, 2002, P. 30) A communication campaign is a well defined communication strategy that helps an organization to communicate with the customers. It is a strategy for internal and external communication within the organization. A communication campaign represents well arranged interacted strategies which are aimed at delivering a certain message to the customers and which is important for effective relationship in an organization. (Werner 1998, P. 72) There are various communication campaigns that are used in the market by different organization. An organization can use one specific communication campaign or it can integrate number of campaigns with an aim of delivering its core message home to the target audience. The kind of communication campaign that is used by a company depends on the target audience and the kind of message that an organization wants to deliver. (Dempsey 1997, P. 7) In this paper we will be reviewing how easyJet, which is one of the prosperous low cost airline in the UK has been using internet tools as direct marketing communication campaign in the market. We will review what the company has achieved and review the areas that it needs to improve. Background of the company The company was founded by Sir Stelios Haji-loannou in 1995. Initially it was started as a family business and was owned by easyGroup IP licensing Ltd. Sir Stelios who also owns easyGroup has remained to be a major shareholder in the aniline up to date. The Airline is based at Hangar 89 which is a bright orange building next to the taxiway at Luton airport. This represent the simplicity way that the company has been using for its operation which is not only reflected in it headquarter but also in the pricing strategies that that company has adopted. Since it was started the company has been keeping the policy of low cost operation and has been eliminating unnecessary cost and frills which has been characterizing the traditional airlines. This has been achieved through a number of ways. One of those ways has been the maximization in the utilization of the substantial assets which has reduced the unit cost of the airline. It has also taken the policy of not providing free lunch on the airport. It has kept to the efficient use of the airports. But its main source of success in keeping the cost of operation low has been the policies that the company has taken towards the use of internet and paperless operations which have been enabled by the direct marketing campaign through the use of internet tool. (easyJet.com, 2008b) Use of internet communication campaign in EasyJet Easy jet was one of the first airlines in the UK to embrace the use of the internet when sold the seat online in 1998. Since then the company has not looked backward in its internet campaign and currently online marketing accounts for more than 95% of all its sales. This makes the company to the one of the leading internet retailers in the Europe. EasyJet has become one of the leading airlines in Europe which have banked on the use of the internet for their success. The company has adopted an e-commerce strategy which has been the main tool of communication with the consumers. In this regard the internet has become the main tool of communication between the company and its customers. Since the company adopted the internet strategy, there has been marked improved in business transaction. This also enabled the company to live up to its dream of been one of the cheapest airline in Europe. The internet has provided the company with one of the most important means of communication with the customers. In this regard the company has been carrying out aggressive marketing campaigns that have been aimed at encouraging its customers to book there freight online. This has had positive results in the sense the currently over 98% of the seats for the company are sold online. Analysis of the internet communication campaign of easyJet In order to ensure that that the company has an effective communication strategy, the company initially used phone communication so that it could be having a direct communication with the customers. Therefore since it was started the company has been emphasizing on the use of direct communication with customers as a marketing campaign for it products. But with the development of the internet, the company saw an opportunity which could make its communication strategy more effective and cost effective. As the number of customers increased, the company was either to increase the number of call agents that it had hired or come up with another strategy altogether. Therefore it seized the opportunity of using the internet. Therefore the internet became its market communication campaign tool through which it sold its product and services to the people. The internet became the main media of communication between the company and the customers. (easyJet.com, 2008a) In order to become effective in the market, the company launched its website easyjet.com. This has been the main center of communication between the company and the customers. Through the website customer have been buying services from the company. There are also a number of services that have been provided in the website. As a marketing communication campaign tool, the website offers information on the following: It gives crucial information about the company. In this case it informs its customers the history of the company and what it has been doing for the time it has been operating. The website gives all the information on the performance of the company and also shareholders information. Therefore it is a source of information for anyone who wants to know about the company and how to invest in the company. It gives information about the freights, their time, their prices, and the procedures for booking. This is the main channel of communication between the company and its customers. Through the website the company informs the customers of the schedule of freight also provide a place of book online. When the customers book their freight they are given code number which allows them to access the airport. Therefore it is the center of communication between the customers and the company. Through the site the company gives the customer a chance to book other services which are subsidiary services of the company. For example, the company offers car rental services which are booked online. It also offers hotel and apartment services which are also booked online. Therefore through the website the company has been able to communicate effectively with its customers. The airline also offers a lot of discounts on freights. They are communicated online but it has also been using mass media advertisement like the radio and Television in order to inform customers of impending discount on freights. Therefore it has been integrating mass media advertising with the internet tool as a part of its communication campaign. But on the large scale, the internet becomes the commonly used means of communication by the company. Therefore we can say that the main strategy that the company has been using in communication with its consumer have been aimed at reaching that wide scale of customers. It has been based on the fact that there has been increased use of the internet tool in the world. This has also been influenced by the fact that there has been a changing culture in the market in which there has been increased adoption of information technology in the operation of companies which has been the base of operation of the company. In order to move with the moving technology the company had to drop its communication strategy through the use of phones and concentrated on the use of online communications. This was based on the factor of evolution of technology in marketing and the increased use of internet by customers. (Robertson 2002, P. 62) However there was also a strong culture of the organization which was aimed at providing cost effective services and goods to the customers. It is in upholding this culture that the company came up with a policy of using the internet in order to lower the cost of operation. Once it found out that there was reduced cost of operation through the use of the internet, the company embarked on it use as the main tool of communication in the market. Therefore the culture of providing low service to the consumer and of being different from other operators in the market helped the company to cut an edge in the use of internet tool. Critical evaluation of the campaign While the electronic mail has become a frequent subject of research in communication in the recent past, the global internet tool as used today has been one of the most diverse tools that has revolutionized communication and given more light to these researches. This has been due to the power in marketing that has been created by the use of the internet tool in communication. Therefore we can say that computer mediated internet communication campaign is a form of communication which is in a form of direct marketing since it enables a direct communication between the organization and the customers. Under this kind of communication the web site is one of the most important elements in internet communication. Following the theory of communication, the website becomes the main communication channel between the organization and the customers. (Macquire 1999, P. 80) Therefore we can say that as a form of communication, the internet mediated communication has been able to fulfill the elements that are used in defining a communication theory. In simple definition is fulfilling the factor of "who is telling who what in which channel and what the effects are". The company communicates directly with the customers by provision of information in the website. The customer communicates back to the campaign by making their bookings, and inquiring about other information. The computer is used as the main channel through which the company communicates with the customers. Therefore there is a sender, receiver and the channel of communication. (December 2005, P. 71; Griffin 1997, P. 13) The current wave of evolution of technology in the market has left many companies with less option on the choice of modes of communication with the customer. As the paper work is continuously being undermined by the emerging technology, there has been a shift from the use of the earlier modes of communication in the market to the modern forms which are based on the technology that is currently evolving in the market. The internet has become one of the most important tools of marketing communication as it is a form of direct marketing. Therefore many companies have currently adopted the use of the internet in line with the evolving globalization and internalization of organization. The global market has required the formulation of a good communication strategy that may help companies to achieve the desired results in the market. The international theory of communication calls for an efficient communication procedure in the global market where an organization is able to communicate directly in the market with the consumers. (Volkmer, 20008) One of the key elements of internet marketing is provision of the valuable information in the website and the easiness of the use of the website. These are tow important factors that determine how a company is able to create an effective communication campaign with the consumers. The airline has been able to satisfy all these factors of internet communication. It has created a website which contains all the information that one needs to know about the company and its products and services. Therefore it has been able to create an effective channel of communication with the customers. The website is also easy to use. (Mediacampaign, 2008) There are various forces that have led the company to adopt that kind of communication campaign. These represent the push pull strategies that have been taking place in the market. The push factors that led the company to come up with such a technology were the desire to have an effective means of direct communication with the customers. In this case it wanted to uphold its initial values of being close to the consumers. Another factor which pushed the company to adopt such a strategy was the need to keep to its original policy of providing low cost services. In this regard it was a pull factor as the company found the internet to be more friendly and leading to reduction in the cost of operation. The company was also facing a stiff competition from other established airlines which were operating in the same market and therefore there had to be good strategies which would help to cut a competitive edge in the market. in this regard the internet became an important tool. (Stephens 2001, P. 65) There were various pull factors that led the company to adopt the strategy. One of the factors was the change nature of operation in the market which was becoming more global. There was increased use information and communication technology which was affecting the way companies were operating. Therefore the company had to be inline with the technology change that was taking place in the market. There was also a pull factor due to the increased use of the internet in the market. In this case internet presented as simple way to communicate with customer since there was increase accessibility of computers and the internet services by many people. (Featherstone 2000, p. 72) There were various internal factors that also led to the adoption of the technology. There was a great drive in the management to come up with a communication strategy that was in line with the management of the company. Being one of the companies that have a flat layered management, the company was in dire need of simple methods of communication that did not lead to increased cost of operation. There was pressure from the sales department for the company to adopt the internet communication technology despite resistance from the owner of the company. There was increased pressure from other stakeholders who were the owners of the company and the customers in general for the company to streamline its operation. The shareholder were concerned that the returns of the business remained low despite putting in place various efforts aimed at making the business more profitable. Therefore they rooted for the company to give a try to internet communication as a way of reducing the cost of operation. There was also pressure from customer who was being delayed on their services. Since the adoption of the communication campaign, there has been efficiency in customer services. The company has also been able to increase its revenues for shareholders. This communication campaign has also kept to the ethical demand for the company. In this case it has not been posting irrelevant messages for consumers neither has it been carrying out fraudulent scams over its website. It has maintained its original obligation of serving the consumers. The company has been able to meet the demands of the customer as they are more informed of the operation of the company. The customers have met their demand for a more efficient services delivery and communication system. The operation of the campaign has also not been in line with the proposition of the competitors. There have been many complains on the way the company has been carrying out advertisement on the internet. There have been many legal battles between the company and other carriers on the issue. Future recommendations Although the campaign has been relatively successful there are some drawbacks that the company has to work on. In this case there have been a number of weaknesses that have been faced by the operations. There have been many instance where the company has been at logger heads over it internet marketing advertising campaign. For example running on the banner "is your company wasting money" the company has been criticized by Telecoms firm Marconi since it claims the advert targeted it directly. The company has also bee banned from putting on its website four banners called for customer to come and receive a refund doubling the difference in price between the deal it was offering and another deal offered by any other company. therefore I would propose the following change to be made in the campaign; (Swenet, 2008) The campaign should be more direct targeting the consumers only in the market. This means that the company will not be in conflict with others airlines. The company should integrate other strategies in its campaign. In this regard it should come up with more ways of communication to its customers including integration of its CSR activities as a way of communication with them (Baer 2005, P. 34) In order to ensure that the above strategies meet their expected outcome, the company should come up with control plan that will put up a communication department that will be involved in regulation of the activities that it is implementing. This department would supervise the various activities that touch on communication. (Benoit 2000, P. 64) The company should also monitor the effectiveness of the strategies on bimonthly bases. In this case it should evaluate the number of new customer who have been acquired by the company and the number that is registering online. It should also monitor the effectiveness of the CSR activities that it put in place. 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