principles of airline advertising

PRINCIPLES OF AIRLINE ADVERTISING

Mr. Francis T. Deslate Instructor

ADVERTISING – IS ANY

FORM OF NON PERSONAL COMMUNICATION CONDUCTED THROUGH PAID MEDIA UNDER CLEAR SPONSORSHIP.

THERE ARE 3 ELEMENTS IN THIS DEFINITION: First, advertising is a non personal communication. This differs from other forms of product promotion,

such as : 1. personal selling, 2. publicity, 3. sales promotion.

Second, It is directed at many persons rather than a single person.

Third, Mass communication is achieved through various media, such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor (posters) and transit (cards on motor vehicles).

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AIRLINE ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING FOR OTHER CONSUMER PRODUCTS:

I. Sometimes in the advertising of a consumer product, especially the new one, a free trial sample is offered to the public. In the case of the airlines, although this not impossible, offering a free sample of the airline product would be very costly. At times, after a strike airlines have tried to attract ridership back by offering customers a free ticket anywhere on the system provided they pay one full-fare ticket.

II. Unlike , other products, airline products are basically homogeneous; hence, product appearance (color, size and packaging) cannot be effective in airline advertising.

III. In advertising consumer products, the actual product can be shown in the ad to produce a psychological effect in the consumer’s mind regarding the product. But in the case of airline advertising, the actual product cannot be shown in the ad, instead, service qualities are stressed.

IV. In the advertising of a manufacturer’s product, “ours is better “ concept is sometimes directly used, but in the case of airline advertising it is generally not used.

VI. Advertising of a consumer product can be done regionally as well as nationally. Airline advertising, is more effective when concentrated on a particular market rather than carried out on a national basis.

VII. Because of the above reasons, it is considerably difficult to develop an effective airline advertising campaign , as compared to other consumer products advertising. Yet advertising is the most important vehicle by which an airline can inform and persuade the public to its product.

ROLES OF ADVERTISING: AWARENESS BUILDING. Advertising creates awareness in the minds of

consumers who have never heard of the company or its services. Thus it relieves to travel agent or reservations clerk of some of the work of explaining the service to the prospective customers.

COMPREHENSION BUILDING. Advertising helps consumers know the

particular characteristics of the service. It allows the consumer to differentiate the service under consideration from other services.

CONVICTION BUILDING. Advertising builds a certain kind of rational or

emotional condition in the consumer’s minds so that they can clearly see the benefits they will obtain by purchasing the particular service.

ACTION BUILDING. This function of advertising actually creates

some action on the part of the customer in buying the particular service.

ROLES OF ADVERTISING:

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD ADVERTISING:

1. TIMELINESS. A good advertisement should catch the attention of consumers in time for them to purchase the service only when they need it. Consumers purchase the service when they need it.

This need generation and purchasing action can be facilitated only if the advertisement attracts the attention of consumers in time, in the case of promotional fares, a period of 30 to 60 days prior to inception of the promotion is not too soon to allow customers to make up their minds.

2. INTELLIGIBILITY. An advertisement is intelligible when it is easily understood by the customer. It should be clearly written, and the consumer should have to expend minimum effort to know enough about the service for purchasing to take place.

3. RELEVANCY. An advertisement is relevant to the extent that informs consumers of the benefits they can derive form the service. This relevancy varies from consumer to consumer.

4. COMPLETENESS. Completeness refers to the total information required by the consumer to make a purchasing decision with ease. This completeness varies depending upon whether it is a first-time or a repeat purchase. With a first time to purchase, the consumer expects more information than for a repeat purchase. A consumer who is not interested in knowing much about the service will not accept ads with a significant quantity of information.


5. TRUTHFULLNESS . In order to increase the sale of the service, an advertisement must possess truthfulness; the advertisement must convey true information regarding the service. If it tells about certain benefits that can derived from the particular service advertised, these benefits must be available to the purchaser of that product. Exaggerated claims can result in lost repeat business.

6. TARGET AUDIENCE. An advertisement is effective only when it is directed at the particular audience for which the advertised service is intended. Directing the advertisement to consumers who are not interested is a waste.


TYPES OF ADVERTISING

By geographical area- national, regional, or local

By intended target market- business versus pleasure

By content – product versus institutional advertising

By intended effect- direct action versus indirect action

By types of appeal-emotional versus rational

By level of demand- primary versus selective

VS


I. Product versus Institutional Advertising. When advertising is used to promote a product or service that is to be sold in the market, it is called product advertising. When the advertisement is used to promote the company, it is called institutional advertising. In product advertising, more emphasis is placed on the product’s particular characteristics, its benefits, and its superiority over competing products.

On the other hand, institutional advertising is used to promote the corporate image. The main purposes of this kind of advertising are to make friends; to build goodwill for the firm; and to publicize the firm’s strengths, such as research, safely, reliability, professionalism, and experience.

Let’s take closer look at the latter (4) four


II. Direct Action versus Indirect Action Advertising.

Direct-action advertising is used to persuade the consumer to take immediate action toward the purchase of the product advertised. This action may be the actual purchase of a ticket or making a reservation to purchase tickets at some later date. An example would be a promotional fare that is offered only for the period October 1 through November 15, a normally slow time on most major routes, provide tickets are purchased and paid in full by September 20. The goal of direct- action advertising are short range in nature: they are applicable only for the particular period. On the other hand, indirect action advertising has long range goals. Its main concern is to built attitude toward purchase rather than immediate action. It cultivates respect, approval, confidence, and kindly feelings toward the product so that when the customer is ready to buy, advertising airline vacation travel is indirect-action advertising.


III. Emotional versus Rational Advertising. An advertisement is said to be emotional if it appeals

to the consumer’s emotions, such as romance, pride, or fear; it is said to be rational when it appeals to rational motives, such as dependability, durability, and other specific product characteristics. “Take me, I’m yours” advertising campaign. The airline actually gave each aircraft a female name and promoted flying Shirley to the Bahamas or Alice to Martinique. Another airline promoted its equipment as the proud birds with the golden tails “ We really move our tail for you.” These advertisements, generally depicting attractive young flight attendants, were unquestioningly appealing to emotions. On the other hand, “Eastern has’ the right time and the right place for you” or Pan Am,” the world’s most experienced airline "are most certainly rational appeals.


IV. Primary Demand versus Selective Demand Advertising. Primary- Demand Advertising is directed towards building demand for a product or service category rather than for a specific product or service, while selective-demand advertising stresses a specific product or service rather than a general product category. Primary-demand advertising is used when product is newly introduced into the market; for example, the introduction of a new class of service or a new aircraft, such as the B-767, on a prime route. It might also include and advertisement from the regional airplane association informing business flyers of commuters air carrier service. One the product is accepted and more competitors are drawn in, then selective-demand advertising is used to differentiate the product from the similar products offered by a competitor: “Our airline is better than Airline X because….”

DEFINING ADVERTISING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

It must have a stated purpose; a set of goals and objectives.

Differentiate between a goal and an objective, while goal is specific as to time and degree. Objectives are long term in nature.

Defining advertising goals helps make advertising planning effective. The more effective the goals, the better they are able to guide the creative team in developing and effective message.

In order to established goals, the advertising department, working with the advertising agency, must go through an evaluative process. This includes a complete review of the company’s product and services, markets, messages, media, and measurements.


1. Product and services. The airline product consists of service from the time of ticket is purchase to the time the passenger reaches the destination. It includes flight information, ticket reservations, meal service, entertainment (movie) service, baggage-handling service, and so forth. In defining advertising goals, the advertiser must know the conceivable benefits of the airline product and services from the ultimate customers point of view. Product benefits may be comfortable seats, more leg room, handy baggage compartment, easy walkway in the aircraft, and so forth. Service benefits may consist of speedy flight information efficient ticket reservation system, free drinks, in- flight movies, fast baggage delivery, and so forth


2. Markets. Information regarding airline markets consists of the industry past sales data, industry forecast concerning passenger travel as well as new aircraft, and the estimates of the competitive share of the market. The advertiser must know the difference segments within the market. The people within these segments may have similar income and age characteristics and similar desires and interests. The advertiser must know which different groups of people are vacation, pleasure, or business oriented. Their demographic characteristics (age, sex, geographic, socioeconomic group, and so forth) should be considered.


3. Motives . Motives are the characteristics and the habits of people why they travel with a particular airline and why not. These people may include present as well as potential travelers. The advertiser must segregate people( present traveler) into two groups: one group consisting of regular travelers and the other group consisting of occasional travelers. Complete information

( sex, age, socioeconomic, geographic, and so forth) about these people travel on a particular airline. In particular they must know whether those people like some particular aspects of the airline product (comfortable seats) or service rendered (efficient baggage delivery) or whether they are attracted by the airline’s reputation.


4. Messages. After collecting information on the product and services, markets, and motive, the next problem is to decide what the advertising message will say. What message is to be conveyed to the people to make them more favorably disposed toward the company’s products? The message the heart of advertising. In fact, the future of the product depends upon the message to be selected for the advertisement. What really determines the consumer’s decision to buy or not to buy is the content of the advertising. It should be simple, so that consumers can grasp it certainly, painlessly, and instantly, yet specific enough to convey the particular benefits of the product or service.


5. Media. After answering the question of what to say, there arises the question of how to say it. Various media, such as radio, television, newspapers magazines, billboards, and so forth are available to the advertiser for conveying the message.


6. Measurements. Measurement is concerned with the question, “How do we propose to measure how well we get the intended message across to the intended audience in a certain period of time? By using this approach, an advertising department will be able to establish specific and realistic goals and objectives that are related to increasing profitability, image building, or increasing market share. Definition of these goals will provide the advertising team with a basic and practical approach to measurement advertising result.


ANALYZING ADVERTISING MEDIA

After defining airline advertising goals and objectives and examining the airline market, the next step is to analyze the various advertising media in order to select one medium, or a combination of media, for communication of the advertising message effectively and efficiently to the prospective customers. Four major media are widely used in airline advertising: news paper, magazine, television, and radio. Two other minor advertising media, outdoor ( posters, painted bulletins, painted walls, and spectaculars) and transit ( car cards, bus posters, station posters) are also used in airline advertising, but their use is minimal.

THESE CHARACTERISTICS ARE BASE ON THE FOLLOWING FACTORS

1. Impact. Impact is the ability of the medium to help make the reader or listener remember the advertizing message longer.

2. Flexibility. The ability of media to adopt to changing and special needs of advertisers is known as flexibility. The advertiser using flexible media can make changes in the advertising message because of competitive activity or can adjust the schedule to special needs.

In order to make the job analyzing the various media easier, it is necessary to understand their individual characteristics


1. Physical aspects – include color, motion, sound, and attractive surroundings of a medium, which usually helpful in making advertisements interesting, dramatic, and compelling.

2. Coverage. Coverage refers to the ability of a medium to generate audiences at a particular level within a designated market segment. It is simply the total number of people that can be reached by a particular medium.

3. Penetration. Penetration is the level or the degree to which a given market segment is exposed to a medium. Penetration is usually expressed in terms of rating.



4. Cost. Cost is the prime consideration in the selection of a particular medium. Although it can be considered in terms of total expenditure, it is more often looked at in terms of the cost of reaching an individual prospect ( potential customer). It is expressed in terms of cost per thousand ( persons). This makes the evaluation of media easy on a cost basis.


1. Newspaper 2. Magazines3. Radio4. Television5. Outdoor and transmit

advertising

Base on these factors, the characteristics of each medium can be described as follows:

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principles of airline advertising

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