ABEL 321 (1M) 313

Airline Marketing (Traffic & Sales Procedures)

Reference: Air Transport – A Marketing Perspective (1982) by Stephen Shaw

I. General Provisions (Prelims) (Week 1)

A. Fundamentals of Marketing
a. Marketing Defined – two definitions:
i. (Remember MP-IAS-CRP) The Management Process responsible for Identifying, Anticipating and Satisfying Customer Requirement Profitably (UK
Institute of Marketing, quoted in Wilmshurst, 1978)
ii.(Remember HADS-NW-EP) Is Human Activity Directed at Satisfying Needs and Wants through Exchange Processes (Kotler, 1976)
b. The Application of Marketing Theory
i. Market Investigation – a business may employ three (3) different philosophies: (Remember PSM)
1. Production Orientation – corporate effort is directed to the manufacture of high-quality products
2. Sales Orientation – costly expenditure on advertising, trade promotions through inducements or price cuts, or high-pressure selling by a
large sales force.
3. Marketing Orientation – research is conducted to gain a thorough knowledge of the structure of [the] markets.
ii.Definition of Corporate Strategy – the following are the phases: (Remember OMP)
1. Objective
a. profit maximization;
b. minimization of environmental nuisance;
c. other social goals, e.g., to help increase employment during rising structural unemployment
2. Mission – statement of the broad area of activity with which the firm is concerned
3. Plan – aims to use market gap which can exploit the strengths of the firm whilst reducing or eliminating its weaknesses

iii. Organizing for Marketing (Remember IE)

1. Internal Organization – deployment of own (human) resources, e.g., definition of a corporate management structure, or application of
appropriate personnel recruitment and training policies
2. External Organization – defines the role to be played by outsiders in marketing and who these outsiders should be, i.e., outsourcing
iv. Designing the Product – (Remember M-GRUN)
 the ideal of product development is a phase whereby products are made of a type, and in a sufficient quantity, to allow a launch that will Meet
Genuinely Understood and Researched consumer Needs
v.Pricing the Product – decisions must be made about
(Remember GR)
1. the General level of prices of products, and also
2. about any Readjustments
[Purpose] is to give psychologically appealing and convenient prices
vi. Selling the Product
– not a synonym for ‘marketing;’
- (Remember OBC) culmination of the marketing process, where products planned on the basis of detailed market investigation are Offered
to and Bought by Consumers

Divided into two (2) parts: (Remember CpAo)

1. Communication with potential customers
2. Administration of the order through suitable procedures
vii. Distributing the Product – often takes place in advance of sale, due to customer demands for an immediate availability of goods through
point-of-sale stockholding
viii. Product Strategy (diversification) and Life Cycles (never-ending because a product moves to maturity and eventual decline, and then
introduction of a new product)
c. Marketing and Airlines – the theory of marketing can indeed indicate a logical process for airline decision-making