Strategies of Emirates Airlines Marketing Proposal

Abstract/Summary

Emirates Airline is currently the largest airline company in the Middle East. This company was founded in the year 1985 (“Emirates Airline Profile”, 2012). The company is the “flagship and national airline of Dubai, United Arab Emirates” (“Emirates Airline Profile”, 2012, p.1). It is based outside the Dubai International Airport.

Emirates Airline Company undertakes the operation of the four known longest flights across the globe and has “the largest order of A380 aircrafts” (“Emirates Airline Profile”, 2012). In the present day, this airline has more than one hundred destinations in over seventy nations across the world and has a fleet of over one hundred and eighty aircrafts (“The Emirates Story”, 2012).

The company has been realizing constant expansion of its network even if it is fully owned by the state. Its growth has been realized through competition and not through state protection (“Emirates Airline Profile”, 2012).

The company has been engaging in competition with the constantly increasing number of international airlines which capitalize on the “open-skies” policy that Dubai has put in place (“The Emirates Story”, 2012). The company’s success can be attributed to its effective marketing that enables it to win the competitive advantage and make profits (“The Emirates Story”, 2012).

Putting place effective marketing strategies and methods have enabled the Emirates Airline Company to be very successful in the global market.

Although the company has not been in business for a long time like most of its competitors, it has witnessed constant growth which has enabled it to become the leading airline in the Middle East and having destinations in all the continents of the world. Beginning from the time the company started its operations, it has been working hard to improve on its marketing in order to gain a higher market share.

The company has been using its innovative power to come up with the best marketing strategies that have enabled it to grow. However, with the ever advancing technology and coming up of new challenges with each coming day, there is need for the company to continue being innovative and keep on improving its marketing strategies to ensure they become the world’s leading airline and be able to remain at the top.

This research will aim at identifying any loopholes that may be in the marketing methods and strategies that have been put in place by Emirates Airline and how to bridge them.

Bridging these loopholes or gaps in the strategies will enable this company to improve its performance beyond the present state in order to meet the ever increasing challenges in the market. Relevant objectives as well as research objectives have been set up in this proposal which will serve to guide this research project.

Objectives

1. To investigate the Emirates airline’s advertisement and marketing methods and strategies that enable it to gain competitive advantages.
2. To examine how Emirate Airline’s marketing affects its global success.
3. To identify the marketing changes that have occured in the company beginning from the time the company was established to the present.

Project Outcomes

Emirates Airline Advertisements and Marketing Methods and Strategies

It has been found out that this company engages in aggressive advertisement in order to increase its market share (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012). As a way to realize customer attraction to the highest level possible, the company advertises itself by using a number of slogans.

The strategies employed by this company are aimed at ensuring that there has been exploitation of a number of issues concerning the business environment. Among these company’s branding slogans has been “Fly Emirates”. Emirates Airline Company has been offered a quite unique environment to market its business operations by Dubai.

Some of the other slogans that have been used by the company in the course of time include “’the Finest in the Sky’, ‘Be Good to Yourself by Fly Emirates’, Fly Emirates – Keep Flying’, and ‘When was the last time you did something for yourself’” (Kumar 2012, p.1).

Basing on the researches that have been conducted in the past about the use of the slogans by business organizations, it has been found out that some of the slogans used contribute quite positively towards the business performance by these organizations (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012).

It is pointed out that customers tend to abide by business slogans which seem to point out or deal with the needs that the company can meet (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012).

In the course of time, the Emirates Airline Company has been using the business slogans to hit back at other slogans used by the competitors which had exhibited themselves as being the best airline companies.

Such business slogans as “’Be Good to yourself’ and ‘when was the last time you did something for yourself’ by the Emirates Airline ensure that customers feel treasured and cared for” (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1).

Just like most other airlines, Emirate Airline has engaged in diversifying the operations it carries out in various industries that are related. This approach has been used by the company in order to make sure that there is capitalizing on any other potential opportunity.

It is reported that, in the past this company has utilized the “Flex-tracks program” with an intention of planning and fully optimizing the efficiency of a number of business routes as well as load factor (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012).

According to other reports, it has been found out that another strategy used by this company is the utilization of what is referred to as “tailored arrivals” and this strategy has been employed in putting the uplinks to aircrafts on route under control 9 Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012).

For airline companies to bring up the level of their efficiencies of their operations, most of them in different parts of the world bring down the level of costs by making use of aircrafts like Boeing 777-3000ER. Such an aircraft makes use of one engine “to taxi aircraft engine thus increasing the efficiency of the whole process” (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1).

It is true to point out that the Emirates Airline Company has actually been able to put itself in a quite strategic position within the industry. The constant flourishing of the business market in Dubai and this nation’s constant cooperation with the rest of the world has gone on contributing towards Emirates airline’s improved performance.

However, according to the researches that have been conducted, it has been clear that customer satisfaction levels in a large number of the airline companies have remained low (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012).

As a result of this, customers across the world have turned out to be “switchers”; moving their loyalties from one company to the other, on a constant basis. They move with a hope that they would possibly come across an honest company that they could trust.

In the airlines industry, customer satisfaction involves making sure that the clients are given the services about which they have expectations of obtaining from the company on the basis of the price they pay for these services. This also involves making sure that clients arrive at their respective destinations via the shortest route available in the shortest time and at a minimum cost possible.

Emirates Airline has been making efforts to capitalize on the existing opportunities and this company has been doing this by ensuring that it positions itself as the excellent global carrier since this airline by-passes some of the well-known hubs as it moves to various other destinations across the world (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012)

Another strategy that can be employed in order to realize customer satisfaction has involved finding out from the customers in a direct manner in order to be in a position of getting to know what the actual needs of these customers may be.

The use of technology has as well been implemented to a high level to make sure there is integration of the needs of the customers into the business operations in the shortest time and at a lowest cost possible (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1).

A number of measures have been taken to make sure that there is receiving by the company’s management of the feedbacks that are given by the clients. These feedbacks may be in line with a number of issues that arise in the company which may be linked to the customer satisfaction either in a direct manner or an indirect one (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012).

As another strategy, this company engaged in launching a global campaign referred to as “Kids Go for Free” which has been very successful. Under this campaign the two parents can travel with two kids who are below the age 16 years without paying for them. A discount is also given to these families at the biggest shopping malls within Dubai (Emirates Airline, 2010).

From this initiative, it can be seen that children are turning out to be most vital client groups in a number of industries. It is reported that the “Kids Go Free” promotion was quite successful in 2009 and served to attract more than twenty thousand travelers originating from seventy countries having Dubai as their destination.

Basing on a particular survey in relation to this campaign, it was found that “the average family of four from Europe could save as much as 3000 pounds by taking advantage of the offer” (Bundhun, 2010). Other than the campaign enabling this company to increase its profitability, it also enabled the families to save large amounts of money.

It is reported that, it was not only Emirates Airline that had knowledge about how important the kids market can be but an increasing number of companies also engaged in launching this campaign in order to increase their performance level as well the “customer awareness index” (McNeal, 1999).

The campaign served in assisting Emirates Airline specifically and Dubai in general, to distinguish themselves as “cost-competitive alternative to other destinations” (Kotler, Bowen, & Makens, 2010).

This promotion left a great impact in that the companies in the airlines industry came to a realization of the way to utilize the products of kids in order to draw the attention of families and give encouragement to the parents to engage in purchasing. This campaign is healthy for the domestic tourism and in the year 2008, it made a direct contribution of nineteen percent to the GDP of Dubai (Bundhun, 2010).

How Emirates Airline Marketing affects their Global Success

Over eight hundred Emirates aircrafts leave Dubai every week to other destinations across the world (Calleja, 2009).

It is reported that this company’s flight form about forty percent of the total number of flight movements from and into Dubai and at some point, the Emirates Airline, was targeting to bring up their market share to about seventy percent by the year 2010 without having to compromise their standing for quality (Calleja, 2009, p.3).

It is also important to point out that value creation and goal achievement are very vital strategic principles in the process of globalization. This company has been constantly undertaking its operation with an aim of making their services better in the global market.

In the recent past, this company realized a fresh milestone as “it touched down to vibrant beats of African drums at Cape Town – its 100^th global destination in South Africa and also launched a new service to Brazil; a daily non-stop Dubai-Sao Paulo operation effective 1^st July 2008” (Travel Daily News, 2008, p.1).

According to Calleja (2009), “attracting customers is the major strategic global principle”( p.3). This company has all the time been seeking fresh ways to innovate.

The company engaged in opening innovative lounge at the “Brisbane International Airport” thus “unveiling the facility that offers a stunning 360 degree view and is the first airline lounge in Australia capable of boarding passengers directly to the aircraft, including the upper deck of the Airbus A380” (Travel Daily News,2008, p.1).

This brings in convenience to the clients and therefore it is a great achievement especially in regard to offering quality and superior value attainment by the customers in comparison with other companies in the industry.

In its marketing, Emirates Airline has also used what is referred to as “global aviation strategy” (Calleja, 2009, p.3). This marketing strategy has enabled the company to achieve success in the global market. In the course of the last one and a half decades, the “Dubai International Airport” has immensely grown to become among the greatest hubs in the global aviation.

The strategy has been employed by the Emirates Airline Company basing on the fact that “its planes can reach any point on the globe nonstop from Dubai and can connect any two city pairs with just one stop in the Middle East” (International Herald Tribune, 2007, p.1).

This company is reported to be having a geographic advantage over all other companies in the industry and “within eight thousand miles, they can reach something like 80% of the world” (Calleja, 2009, p.3).

Marketing Changes in Emirates Airline Company from its Establishment until Now

There has been integration of a number of strategies in this company’s marketing strategies in the course of time (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012). There is a great correlation between marketing concepts within the airline industry and the marketing strategies which are chiefly utilized in such other industries as the hotel industry and tourism among others across the world.

Just recently, Emirates Airline flourished after making sure the focus of their services is put on the “target market” (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1). It is reported that at the time the year 2000 was ending, this company had plans to come up with a “very ultra-long-haul service” (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1).

The plan for this service is that it be situated in the “East coast and the West Coast part of the United States of America” (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1). There were also plans to have more services in Argentina and Australia.

It is also reported that “Fly Emirates business strategies employed in the recent past have seen the business organization overall output increase and the specific traffic flow rate increase to twenty percent from the year 1999 to the year 2000” (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1).

Seven years ago, in 2005, this company commenced on its operations of the airline to the New York City and this was on a continuous basis. Emirates Airline strategy put in place in this regard enabled the company to commence undertaking operation of A340-500 flight to JFK airport.

In the course of time, the company has also realized creation of several partnerships with some airlines in the Delter airlines and in the U.S (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1). The initiation of such operations was undertaken in 2001.The enhancement of the company’s growth has been realized through implementation of various strategies in the past.

By the year 2007, Emirates Airline was able to mark its “new non-stop air operation services between most of its major destinations” (Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012, p.1). The company has also been able to continuously capture traffic to Southern Asia as well as North America.

By the company introducing Airbus A380-800, this served as a great move towards making sure it has a better performance within the business market. The strategy put in place in order to ensure creation of additional space in flights played a big role in enabling the company to achieve significantly higher profits resulting from the flights between Bangkok and Dubai 9 Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012).

Why the Interest in the Project

Considering that there is continued complication as well as competition witnessed in the airline industry, it is important that the marketing methods and strategies that have been and are currently used by the Emirates Airline Company be examined in order for any gaps that are there in these strategies be established and necessary changes which need to be carried out be implemented and submissions of proposals be made to the management.

Indeed, this research will be beneficial not only to the Emirates Airline Company but also to the investors into the industry as well as shareholders and stakeholders in making sure that they receive maximum gains from this company.

I am also interested in this research project because it will offer very important information that relate to the present situation of the business market in which airlines carry out their operations. This information that will be obtained will also be helpful in the optimization of real performance of the small as well as big businesses.

Questions to be answered

1. What are the Emirates airline’s greatest competitive advantages?
2. What are the biggest challenges that Emirates Airline encounter in their operations both in the local and global market in relation to their marketing strategies?
3. In what ways do the Emirate Airline’s present marketing methods and strategies give a reflection of its future targets within the market?

Research Methods

The methods that will be used in this research will involve the use of primary data as well as secondary data collection. Considering primary data, this will be dependent of data collection from the company regarding the strategies they use with the objective of winning the competitive advantage through customer satisfaction.

The opinion of the clients and the potential clients will be collected. A number of opinions of various stakeholders will be put into consideration. The administering of questionnaires will play a big role in making sure that the different respondents who might be in different locations and those that cannot be reached physically can still take part in this research.

Research design

Since the Emirates airline is a multinational company that serves wide array of clients across the globe, it is imperative to note that it has numerous employees and clients from various locations across the globe. Therefore, a suitable research design will be required as part of methodology in order to address this kind of diversity (Creswell 1994, p. 76).

Therefore, a well designed and suitable research methodology will have to incorporate a thorough research study in order to understand how employees are motivated at the Emirates Airlines. Therefore, the research design that will be applied will take into consideration the number of employees in the company and how employees are represented in the company both regionally and continentally.

In addition, the research design to be employed will address all the major international airports and offices of the company that can be used to facilitate communication. This kind of information will be useful as part of the research design because it will enhance gathering of primary data and subsequent analyses.

Due to the complex nature of the ethical and cultural practices experienced at the Emirates Airlines, a qualitative research design will be utilized in order to map out expenses to be incurred in the process of conducting this research study (Doganis 2002, p.54). Besides, more focus will be laid on the descriptive research method so that the acquired data can be understood.

It is important to reiterate that this kind of research design is highly suitable for the study because it gives more emphasis on the much needed information when the actual research study will be conducted.

In addition, the qualitative approach will be used to carry out the methodology part of this research study. As a matter of fact, there will be a well defined method of collecting data from the field.

Data collection

Data collection is an integral part when conducting any research study. This study aims to collect the much needed data using various methods. However, the mode of data collection will have to be compatible with the research design that was chosen above (Hiatt & Creasey 2003, p.163).

Therefore, the aforementioned descriptive research design will employ survey as one of the methods of data collection. The use of survey method in data collection will be made possible through well designed questionnaires. The latter will save both time and expenses needed to collect raw data from the field.

Some of the suggested interview questions that will be contained in the questionnaire include:

• Are you satisfied as an employee at Emirates Airlines?
• Would you move away from the Emirates Airlines if you secure another job opportunity?
• What are the outstanding attributes of this company? Kindly enlist them.
• Do you feel like working with Emirates Airlines on every single day?
• What motivates you at workplace?

Primary and Secondary Data Sources That are Intended to Be Used in This Project

The primary data collection will involve obtaining information about the strategies that are employed by this company in order to realize customer satisfaction. A direct response from the interviewees through the use of the questionnaires will make it possible for the researcher to formulate, in sufficient manner, a perfect understanding of how efforts geared towards realizing customer satisfaction can be carried out.

Moreover, primary data will make it possible for the researcher to be in a position of obtaining the up-to-date information that will assist in comparing between the past data sources and the sources which are the most recent.

The secondary data sources will include journals, websites and information in books and sources written on Emirates airline. This information will be very important in the identification of a number of roles that have been played by a number of stakeholders in dealing with all concerns that are linked to different marketing strategies used within the airline industry.

There will be availing of a number of issues concerned with the most effective marketing strategies, which have formerly been used and their success patterns through comprehensive studying of the sources which are available, containing the secondary data.

Gantt Chart

References

Bundhun, R., 2010. Double the “Kids go free” on holidays to Dubai. Web.

Calleja, J., 2009. Global business – case study: Emirates Airline. Web.

Emirates Airline Profile, 2012. Web.

Creswell, J. W. 1994. Research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches, Sage Publications, New York.

Doganis, R. 2002. Flying off course: the economics of international airlines, Routledge, New York.

Emirates Airline, 2010. Family focus for Dubai and Emirate airline this summer. Web.

Hiatt, J. & Creasey, T. J. 2003. Change management: the people side of change, Prosci Learning Center, Madison.

International Herald Tribune, 2007. As other airline suffer, Emirate Airline prospers. Web.

Kotler, P., Bowen, T. B., & Makens, C. J., 2010. Marketing for hospitality and tourism, Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey.

Kumar, C., 2012. Emirates. Web.

Marketing strategy and customer satisfaction, 2012. Web.

McNeal, J. U., 1999. The kids market: myths and realities, Paramount Market Publishing, New York.

The Emirates Story, 2012. Web.

Travel Daily News, 2008. Emirates increases Brazil service to daily. Web.