Sales Promotional Campaign of Turkish Airlines - Case Study Example

Sales Promotional Campaign of Turkish Airlines Total Number of Words: 2,027 Tableof Contents I. Introduction ''''''''''''''''''''''''.. 3 II. Sales Promotional Activities of Turkish Airlines '''''''''. 3 a. Offers '111 on Specific Destinations ''''''''... 4 b. Offers 50% Discount to Teachers ''''''''''.. 5 c. Offers 25% Discount to Disabled Individuals, Students, and Senior Citizens '''''''''''' 5 d. Discount Privileges on Special Events and Occasions ... 6 e. Free Tickets from Turkish Airlines '''''''''' 6 f. Promoting the Importance of Specific Market Segmentation ''''''''''''''''. 7 III. Importance of Marketing Communication Tool over the Success of Sales Promotional Activities of Turkish Airlines '''''''''. 8 IV. Discussion ''''''''''''''''''''''''' 9 V. Conclusion '''''''''''''''''''''''''. 10 References ''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 11 - 13 Introduction Under the law No. 2186 in ANKARA under the corporate name of 'State Airlines Administration', Turkish Airlines was founded back in 1933. (Turkish Airlines, 2008a) One of the missions of Turkish Airlines is to "strengthen the company's position as a global airline by expanding its long-distance flight network." (Turkish Airlines, 2008b) Despite the financial, technological, and market challenges Turkey Airlines had to go through over many years, the company exerted a lot of effort in managing Turkish Airlines to grow as the biggest airline in Turkey today. Turkish Airlines was able to provide its services to approximately 18 million passengers between the months of January to November 2007. Because of the company's success in capturing a larger volume of passenger as compared in 2006, and aims to increase the passenger traffic by 28% this year. (Focus on Travel News, 2007a) For this study, the student will concentrate on examining and analyzing the sales promotion campaign that has occurred in Turkish Airlines over the past two years. In the process of discussing the sales promotional campaigns made by Turkish Airlines, the student will concentrate on applying the marketing principles in each promotional activity that will be discussed in the study. Sales Promotional Activities of Turkish Airlines The main purpose of sales promotion is to stimulate consumers' interest in developing a long-term business relationship with the airline company. (Kotler, 2000: p. 598) As a result of providing the general public with free management-advisory service with regards to the products and services offered by Turkish Airlines, sales manager are expected to develop sales promotional strategies that could attract new customers and/or frequent brand switchers. In most cases, this can be done by offering the public with low price yet high quality services. As soon as sales managers are able to capture a portion of its target market, managers should be able to satisfy the customers' individual needs to increase loyalty of its customers. For Turkish Airlines to be able to develop and implement effective sales promotional activities, sales managers should carefully identify its target market and target audience for each sales promotional campaign. Even though the target markets of Turkish Airlines are the local and international travellers, a large portion of its sales have been reported to be coming from the local citizens of Turkey. (Ogutcu, 1998) For this reason, the company should also focus on reaching the international markets to enable the company increase its global market shares. Offers '111 on Specific Destinations Since December 2006, Turkish Airlines declared to offer a one-month special destination sales promotional campaign at '111 on economy class and '333 on business class each month. (Focus on Travel News, 2007c, 2007e, 2007h, 2007i) By publicly announcing special destination promo throughout the entire month, Turkish Airlines was able to effectively capture the interests of the local citizens and foreigners who are planning to visit their love ones not only during Christmas holidays. Since the "111 of the Month" campaign enabled thousands of passengers enjoy the quality service rendered by Turkish Airlines at a very reasonable market price, the company was able to significantly increase the number of its loyal passengers over time. (Focus on Travel News, 2007i) Likewise, Turkish Airlines also conducted sales promo on airline fares from Bahrain to Istanbul and Europe back in September 2007. (Focus on Travel News, 2007d) Offers 50% Discount to Teachers Aiming to capture a market segment of individuals with teaching profession, the company shows its gratitude with teachers on Teachers Day. In line with this matter, Turkish Airlines publicly announced a one-day promo that offered 50% off on both domestic and international flights exclusively for teachers back in November 2007. (Focus on Travel News, 2007b) The sales campaign was not limited to teachers who are active in teaching profession. Turkish Airlines also extended the offer to retired teachers as long as these individuals are able to present a valid identification card to prove that they were affiliated with any local schools in Turkey. Offers 25% Discount to Disabled Individuals, Students, and Senior Citizens Between the months of June 25 to July 2, 2007, Turkish Airlines targeted the population of disabled individuals by offering them 25% discount on domestic and international flights. (Focus on Travel News, 2007f) As long as the passenger has been medically considered 40% incapacitated and has a special identification card coming from the 'Prime Ministry Directorate General of the Disabled', customers could readily avail the sales promo. As part of this particular sales promotion, Turkish Airlines have tried to communicate their concerns for the need to improve the life quality of individuals who have been handicap either by birth or through an accident. Aside from promoting the welfare of disabled individuals, Turkish Airlines also offer special discounts to students below the age of 25 years old and senior citizens who are more than 65 years of age on all domestic routes. (Focus on Travel News, 2006d) Discount Privileges on Special Events and Occasions Turkish Airlines acknowledges the importance of giving special airfare discounts based on a particular event or occasions. As part of Turkish Airlines' Valentine's Day campaign, the company announced the advantages of purchasing their fares at '199 round-trip ticket from Istanbul to Europe, Turkish Republics, Middle East, and North Africa on economy class as early as January 2007. (Focus on Travel News, 2007k) This promo allows the passenger to bring with him/her a companion at the price of '1. For customers with the capacity to pay a premium price for business class, Turkish Airlines offer a round-trip ticket at '499 with the same option to bring a companion at '1. This strategy is a very effective in terms of enabling Turkish Airlines to convince its target passengers to purchase their plane tickets from the company rather than doing future business transactions with other airline companies. Free Tickets from Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles is the advantage frequent flyer programme offered by Turkish Airlines to its valued customers. (Turkish Airlines, 2008d) With legal authorization coming from the Turkish National Lottery Administration, Turkish Airlines started a sales campaign that enables each member of the 100th Miles&Smiles to have the opportunity to win free domestic round-trip airline tickets within a time frame of 3 months. (Focus on Travel News, 2006b) This type of sales promotion is a strategic way of encouraging the customers to remain loyal in patronizing the travel services offered by Turkish Airlines. Promoting the Importance of Specific Market Segmentation The sales promotion of Turkish Airlines does not end with offering discounted airfares to its target customers. In line with the importance of promoting specific market segment, the company has made an initiative to host religious activities related to Christianity and the Jews in Turkey by offering tours to religious people the opportunity to visit sacred places around the world. (Focus on Travel News, 2007j) As part of the agreement made between the Turkish Department of Religious Affairs and Turkish Airlines, the company took the responsibility to transport as much as 62,853 Turkish pilgrims' passengers with a total of 219 flights to Jeddah and Madinah airports. (Focus on Travel News, 2006c) In relation with the company's strong support on religious activities and global affairs, Turkish Airlines has established a yearly schedule for the Haj celebration which takes place at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. (Focus on Travel News, 2006a) This type of sales strategy is unique considering that not all airline companies are giving special attention on the large population of such market segments. For this reason, Turkish Airlines is able to increase its competitive advantages over its global competitors. Importance of Marketing Communication Tool over the Success of Sales Promotional Activities of Turkish Airlines Marketing communication is basically referring to several ways wherein Turkish Airlines could effectively communicate its sales and marketing strategies to its target audiences. Among the traditional communication tools that can be used in relaying these messages to target audiences include: (1) television and radio; (2) newspapers; (3) magazines; (4) brochures and pamphlets; (5) direct mail; (6) telephone; and (7) online technology among others. (Kotler, 2000: p. 588) There are several strategic ways that enables Turkish Airlines to communicate its sales promotional activities with its target audiences. One of the most common communication tools that is widely utilised for this purpose is the use of the internet technology because of its cheaper costs when it comes to publicly announcing its temporary sales promotional campaigns. (Turkish Airlines, 2008c) Based on the qualitative meta-analysis study that was conducted by Park & Gretzel (2007) with regards to the success of destination marketing using websites, a total of nine success factors known as: (1) quality of information provided in the website; (2) user-friendly websites; (3) responsiveness of customer care service; (4) security and privacy; (5) visual appearance of the website; (6) customers' trust on the company; (7) interaction between customers and customer representative; (8) personalization; and (9) fulfilling the needs and wants of the customers could significantly affect the success of sales promotion on special destinations. Another advertising tool used by Turkish Airlines is the double-decker tour buses that can be found in Paris. (Focus on Travel News, 2007g) Since most of these buses serve the transportation needs of the tourists in different historical places and famous attraction sites within the city, the company is able to effectively reach its target audience who belongs to the 76 million tourists who visit the country each year. Discussion Although there are some close similarities between marketing and sales promotional campaign in terms of aiming to increase the profitability and sales of Turkish Airlines, these two promotional campaigns are entire different from one another in the sense that marketing campaign focuses on identifying the company's specific target market and product positioning by conducting a market segment study whereas sales promotional campaign is more on developing and designing sales strategies that could effectively convince or attract the Turkish Airlines' identified target markets to try the services of the company as the management tries to keep its existing customers loyal to them. (Kotler, 2000: pp. 256 - 257; 597 - 602) On the other hand, marketing communication is equally important in terms of making it possible for Turkish Airlines to spread their sales promotional activities to its target customers. In general, selecting the best marketing communication tools should highly depend upon the main objectives of Turkish Airlines. In case the company is targeting to capture the global markets, it would be best to make full use of the internet technology since this type of communication method will enable the sales manager to easily reach its target consumers at a relatively low investment costs. On the other hand, it would be best to consider integrating these marketing communication tools to make the company gain as much financial returns as possible in case the company is considering the need to increase the number of passenger traffic in domestic flights. Conclusion The sales promotional campaign of Turkish Airlines has been very effective in terms of enabling the company to persuade its target market to patronize the services offered by the company. The success of the company's sales strategy can be noted with the significant increase in the company's revenue between the years 2007 and 2006. Based on the financial statement of Turkish Airlines, the company has recently experienced a 28% increase in its net profit and 22% in operating income. (Turkish Airlines Annual Report 2007, 2008) For a sales promotional campaign to be effective, sales manager should be able to clearly identify its target market. This can be easily done by conducting a thorough market segment study to allow the manager to have a clear vision on which market segment they should consider in order to increase the growth rate and profitability of the company. In general, sales promotional campaign does not only focus on the need to give special discount rates to the company's target customers since this strategy could make the company's total expected revenue to decrease at the end of the year. For this reason, one of the best and fastest ways to increase the company's sales and revenue is to continuously work on special arrangements with large groups like the Turkish pilgrims. References: 2008. Turkish Airlines Annual Report 2007. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 12 - 19 November 2007b. Turkish Airlines Offers 50% Discount to Teachers on Nov. 24. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 10 - 17 December 2007a. Turkish Airlines Carries 18 Million Passengers in 11 Months. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 5 - 12 November 2007c. Turkish Airlines '111 Destinations for December. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 17 - 24 September 2007d. Promotional Turkish Airlines Fares from Bahrain to Istanbul and Europe. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 10 - 17 September 2007e. Turkish Airlines '111 Destinations for October. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." June 25 - July 2 2007f. Turkish Airlines Offers 25 Percent Discount for The Disabled. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 2 - 9 April 2007g. Turkey Advertising on Buses of Paris. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 19 - 26 March 2007h. Turkish Airlines '111 Specials for April. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 5 - 12 March 2007i. Turkish Airlines' '111 Promotion Carried 60,000 Passengers. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." January 29 - February 5 2007j. Turkish Airlines To Start Belief Tourism Flights for Jews and Christians. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 22 - 29 January 2007k. Valentine's Day Surprise from Turkish Airlines. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 6 - 13 November 2006a. Turkish Airlines To Transport 100 Pilgrims for Haj. 30 March 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." 6 - 13 November 2006b. Free Tickets from Turkish Airlines. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." October 30 - November 6 2006c. Saudi Arabian Airlines Transports Turkish Pilgrims for Haj. 30 August 2008 . "Focus on Travel News." September 25 - October 2 2006d. Special Fares & Discounts of Turkish Airlines. 30 August 2008 . Kotler, P. Marketing Management: The Millenium-International Edition. Upper Saddle River: New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2000. Ogutcu, Mehmet. "Sino-Turkish Relations: Preparing for the Next Century." China Report (1998): Vol. 34, pp. 303 - 325. Park, Young A. and Ulrike Gretzel. "Success Factors for Destination Marketing Web Sites: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis." Journal of Travel Research (2007): Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 46 - 63. "Turkish Airlines." 2008a. A Brief History. 30 August 2008 . "Turkish Airlines." 2008b. Mission. 30 August 2008 . "Turkish Airlines." 2008c. Turkish Airlines Official Website. 30 August 2008 . "Turkish Airlines." 2008d. About Out Program. 30 August 2008 . Read More