Marketing and Communication Plan: Aer Lingus - Essay Example

MARKETING & COMMUNICATION PLAN: AIR LINGUS If one were to consider the of travelling by air in the modern day, it is no surprise that despite the heavy use of Internet reservation and several budget airlines, one most often ends up dejected due to reasons such as less baggage allowance, hidden costs, unexpected restrictions, limited space during the flight etc. as such, customers end up repenting for having chosen the airline thereby resulting in a loss of future customers. Additionally, in this era of low cost airlines, there is an intense cutthroat competition that calls for companies to think beyond usual strategies such as excessive advertisement and low cost offers. In this context, it is proposed to study the case of Aer Lingus, the national carrier of Ireland, whose existing promotional mix shall be analyzed thereby helping provide a foundation to devise an improved marketing and communication plan that can be used to enhance the brand awareness thereby increasing the number of customers in the long run. CURRENT BRANDING SCENARIO Travelling to Ireland has never been cheaper. Be it travelling from North America across the transatlantic route or from any destination in Europe, the price disparity between destinations in Ireland and neighboring England is bewildering and more often than not the so called ‘budget’ airlines that promote a no frills offer have often left customer paying more than what they would have spent on a regular flight. Besides, all this is without the regular refreshments on offer. The most prominent form of advertising strategy currently followed by Aer Lingus relies extensively on the Internet wherein the primary emphasis is on flights to and from Ireland. The company has grown from a small carrier to Ireland’s principal carrier by thriving on the idea of the ‘no-frills airline’ concept, a business model that has been adopted by several European airlines such as Ryan air and Easyjet. Additionally, Aer Lingus offers inter - continental flights to and from the United States in addition to the newly opened route to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Most of Aer Lingus’ branding is based on web based advertising wherein it has adopted a bidirectional approach. For customer hailing from within Ireland, the company has used the local print and mass media through newspapers and television in order to keep the brand name afresh among the people. Secondly, in order to generate business from overseas customer flying into Ireland, the airline has established partnerships with several airline booking websites such as www.momondo.com, www.orbitz.com and www.skyscanner.net. The airline is partly owned by another famous low cost carrier – Ryanair. As such, whenever the travel itinerary is associated with destinations in Ireland, the top search results tend to predominantly consist of flights operated by Aer Lingus. The company promotes cheap flight offers predominantly through newspapers such as the Irish Times and the Irish Independent at regular intervals. CURRENT MARKET AND PROMOTION STRATEGY Aer Lingus also maintains a corporate website that facilitates booking of tickets apart from displaying all services and offers from the airline. Booking is also available through travel agencies, which usually involves a surcharge over the ticket price. Customers registered with the airline through their website are constantly informed of regular offers via email. However, the website has not been active in promoting itself through online advertisements in the form of banners across third party websites, which is considered to be one of the main reasons for its relative anonymity amongst most travelers (in comparison to the brand value of other carriers). The company is also actively involved in offering seasonal deals and packages to travelers such as the current winter flights that are offered from Boston and New York to several destinations across Western Europe. In the present day, it is professed that the success of a low cost carrier where most of the business is done online depends on three major factors. While the first aspect of the last cost between destinations has already been discussed, the factor of number of visitors to the airline’s website and affiliate sites also exercised a significant impact on the revenue generated. The last and perhaps an equally important criterion for the success of the promotion initiative lies in the aesthetic appeal of the company’s website. the design of a website should be efficient enough that it should allow a novice visitor to understand the prime purpose of the website at the first glance. However, the website of Aer Lingus, www.aerlingus.com seldom bears a remote picture resembling an aircraft. Additionally, the structure and design of the airline along with its logo fail to provide an instant overview of the motive of the website. Besides, the inclusion of the work ‘Aer’ instead of ‘Air’ is bound to create a sense of confusion among people who come across the name. Comparing with the corporate website of any other prominent airline would tell the different on all the points discussed above suggesting a huge difference and lots of site restructuring that needs to be done. One of the most predominant grievances among customers with Aer Lingus lies with the concept of no-frills, which is increasingly being seen as a disguised tactic by most airlines. Customers have expressed reservations with regards to several aspects of this low cost travel. For example, there have been several cases of customers being forced to shell out money for extra baggage, which is levied even though it is still negligible in comparison to the quantities allowed over regular flights. Secondly, customers have expressed reservations on the hefty feed that are charged with services related to changes in flight schedules, particulars of passengers etc. where the airline usually charges prices almost equal to or in excess of the cost of the ticket on most routes. Besides, customers wishing to have the possibility to change their flights subsequent to booking their flights are required to pay as much as 3 times the cost of a regular low cost ticket. All these issues are seen by customers as ploys on the part of the airline to charge customers despite the low-cost drumbeat. THE NEW COHESIVE PROMOTIONAL MIX The preceding discussions illustrate the various methods that have been used by Aer Lingus in various respects as part of its promotional strategy. However, in addition to the shortcomings illustrated by the previous points, the airline is making a few fundamental mistakes that need serious overlook. The different elements of the promotional strategy are the usual market tactics that are being used by low-cost airlines today and even though the ‘no frills’ concept initially succeeded in boosting airline traffic, the situation has reached its saturation levels with many airlines virtually ceasing to exist owing to decline in revenues and market capitalization. As such, there is a primary need for ‘Aer Lingus’ to refurbish its marketing and promotion strategy in order to gain consolidate its market share apart from making further inroads into bigger customer shares. The new promotional mix is part of the popular approach known as the ‘Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)’ approach, that popularizes the use of online and offline marketing channels. One of the first steps that needs to be undertaken as part of the new strategy is to cut of the role of middlemen, which is the travel agents in this case. This should be combined from a shift from the regular media promotion to using multiple forms of communication with the public. The focus needs to shift to ‘Relationship marketing’, where the emphasis is on establishing a personal and everlasting bond with the customer. This can only be done by instilling a faith in the mind of the customer on what Aer Lingus Stands for – Low cost travel. The airline needs to stand steady on its claims of low cost and eliminate all hidden costs levied on the customer thereby helping make the system transparent and customer friendly. Additional emphasis needs to be laid on increasing profits through increased effectiveness. This is only possible through the use of relevant cost cutting from the very basic levels. Rather than offer drinks and other refreshments at an additional cost, the company can promote tickets at additional fixed prices that will guarantee travelers additional benefits. Such an approach has not been followed by any airlines and could work in helping adding that extra edge into encouraging the customer. The company has to promote a unified message across the Internet instead of relying on advertising lucrative deals through newspapers and other mass media as readers generally discard such promotional material. Such a streamlined approach will help the airline is sending across a clear message apart from helping it retain substantial revenue. It is also advised for the company to act ahead of time with regards to its seasonal offers. Rather than begin to promote offers just before the start of the season, it is advisable that such campaigns begin at least a year in advance so that visitors have ample time to consider a holiday that aligns itself with the offered flights and travel packages thereby helping brining even the undecided ones into the fold. The timeline for promoting such deals over a long period of time should be properly devised and advertised to the public and registered customer on a regular basis through online advertisements and regular mails. This will work in reminding the customer regularly thereby making them to think of the offers from time to time. This strategy will also work a long way in projecting the message in a consistent manner thereby helping it seem more credible and not as spam. The website of Aer Lingus needs to revamped and designed with an aesthetic and corporate outlook thereby enabling customers to enhance its customer value. Content within the site has to be aligned and structured properly such that users have the easiest of experience in navigating through the website and booking tickets. Care should be taken while redesigning the corporate site as any shortcoming will result in confusion, frustration and anxiety on the part of the customer. Such steps are therefore crucial for the consolidation of the business and expansion into a wider customer base that will fulfill the future aspiration of the company in the long run. Read More