Silver Airways starting Bimini-West Palm-Tampa route

Design and Engineering

Article | January 7, 2022

Skift research shows that 90% of airline marketers have dropped their marketing budgets due to the pandemic.The pandemic brought massive changes in marketing. Due to this, CMOs navigated through restricted availability of resources and shifted airline companies’ guidelines for months. CMOs find increasingly difficult to rely on conventional financial and managerial aspects like typical cost setting—the way profitability was being achieved, fuel consumption, accounting decision making, investments, manufacturing and more. Due to these challenges, airline brands are bound to sternly reevaluate their current and future marketing process to maintain a steady flow of income and increase ROI. So, it’s quite possible that your marketing tactics also may have suffered due to the pandemic. Right? And now you must think, “How much should your budget be for marketing?” It’s an important question. It’s because most aviation businesses do not have a considerable aviation marketing budget. The answer to your concern lies here, “spend the least amount that achieves your business objectives.” A lot has transformed since the outbreak of the pandemic. Yet, there are novel opportunities in aviation marketing activities. So, let's take a closer look at some of the opportunities that might help control your aviation marketing budget. Opportunity No.1: Invest in Paid Advertisements; they are cheap! Paid advertisements are becoming cheaper. These are in higher demand when it comes to aviation marketing. It makes sense because the way digital advertisements are making money is going to benefit marketers. First, the paid ads drive the cost per click (CPC), so investing here can increase the ROI. Second, as the pandemic forced companies to focus on all-digital processes, as it prompts the audience to spend more time online. Resultantly, traffic on the web is up, and there are lots of ads. It means ads are cheaper. Even conversion rates are increasing now. It’s because the ads online are evolving at the same rate as it was before the pandemic. Therefore, you must take advantage of paid ads to start with controlling your aviation marketing costs. Opportunity No. 2: Determine your Annual Customer Value The key to having controlled aviation marketing costs is to have an average customer revenue. If you haven’t calculated yet, then you should begin with it. Begin tracking the effectiveness of your sales and marketing efforts. Once you begin with it, you will calculate how much money is spent on every customer or a new customer. The other important aspect to consider is how wisely you spend the dollars in a limited budget. And that’s where a marketing plan comes into action. A well-improvised marketing plan may include proper tactics, tools, and platforms. But to implement all these things effectively requires an adequate budget. However, how to use them requires a thorough analysis and experts’ experience. Usually, marketers make a mistake by spending too much on a single marketing tactic. And this results in a considerable loss. So, to control your budget, be intelligent to concentrate on a selected marketing tool and platform. And then spend dollars on it. Tapping on this approach, you will create a cost-effective marketing plan, which will give better marketing results. Besides, your customers might equally feel satisfied by getting worthwhile results. Well, in reality, it will be easy for you to determine the annual value of money spent on each customer. Opportunity No. 3: Review Investment Plans When looking at the aviation marketing budget, it’s advisable to review investment plans carefully. The investment plan is crucial when you need to control your aviation marketing. Having an in-depth knowledge of it can lead you to save big. Also, it might bring opportunities further for your airline business. For example, in December 2019, JetBlue announced a marketing structural cost program. It aimed at producing $250-$300 million by 2020 through cost savings. According to the company’s 2020 annual report, the program emphasizes these points: Technical marketing operations Planning, automation, and executing efficient activities online .(Like on a website, social media platforms, online campaigns, and more) • Decreasing distribution costs • Tax reformation All these aspects demonstrate opportunities to propel business growth. We are extremely excited about the potential for increased business demand with the costs and tax cut. - Glen Hauenstein, President of Delta Airlines. So, consider if you can reduce, delay and/or eliminate non-essential marketing tasks or not. Then, find opportunities to help you do a transition from costly, inefficient technological aspects to more cost-efficient technology, thus, driving more valuable results. The bottom line is that you must understand where it makes sense to cut costs and where to make the proper investments because it's about bolstering your airline business. With the help of this, you can create value for customers, partners, and investors in no time. Opportunity No. 4: Encourage Innovative Digital Engagement Some of the top airlines like Delta Airlines and its marketing teams use innovative engagement methods through digitalization. Yes! After being hit by the deadly pandemic, Delta lost $60 million in cash each day. Delta CEO Ed Bastian revealed that Delta airlines reduced 80% of its operation. “Delta will weather the storm by sticking to our shared values of honesty, persistence, and service to our customers and our communities. We encourage digitalization to the core. And that has helped our customers easy to connect us.” - Delta CEO Ed Bastian With this approach, Delta further forecasts its revenue to rise by 90% by the end of 2021. So, you can see how investing in digital methods can help revenue rise without going out of budget or crossing the budget line. When you introduce automation, AR, VR in your aviation marketing efforts, it will drive value from existing customers and engage potential customers. For example, you can create innovative videos for social media, visual online campaigns, presentations, and more. Finally, remember to “Have Patience and Carry On” It is critical to managing finance, especially in global disasters like coronavirus. However, today's marketing budget may seem exhausting when aviation businesses compete each day. But it is helpful at the end of the day! Controlling your aviation marketing costs will lead you to increase your ROI. And this way, you will get valuable prospects, which is even more critical in the current scenario. Moving ahead with not-so-hard marketing budget control, you will require powerful leadership, top competency with courage and empathy, and the correct data, of course. So, having all these aspects and proactive measures in place, you will be able to outshine again. So, which one of the opportunities are you going to implement first? Frequently Asked Questions How do airline businesses do marketing? Marketing is the best practice to build trust among airline customers. The marketers offer rewards to customers so that they become loyal to an airline brand. They also run campaign activities, provide rich informational content, produce videos to educate and motivate customers. This is how engagement increases along with loyal numbers of customers. What are the leading airline expenses? The leading airline expenses are as follows: The employment process expenses. These expenses are the most critical operational cost of an airline (33.5%). Fuel expenses (19.6%). Sales and marketing expenses. They are approximately 15.7% on the rise. How do airlines control the marketing budget? There are several ways the airline controls its marketing budget. A few of them are: By conducting fuel-saving strategies Operation procedure simplification Introducing automation Technology implementation { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How do airline businesses do marketing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Marketing is the best practice to build trust among airline customers. The marketers offer rewards to customers so that they become loyal to an airline brand. They also run campaign activities, provide rich informational content, produce videos to educate and motivate customers. 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Air Transport

Article | July 6, 2022

The UK government has announced that from 11th February, fully vaccinated passengers arriving into the country will no longer have to take COVID-19 tests on arrival. The news follows the removal of pre-departure testing for fully vaccinated UK-bound passengers this month. The relaxation of testing measures is something the aviation industry has been actively campaigning for, as it removes barriers to travel. Just today, IATA distributed a press release advocating for similar moves to be made by further governments. It cited a study focused on the UK carried out by Oxera and Edge Health which found that because Omicron is now highly prevalent in the UK, “if all travel testing requirements were removed there would be no impact on Omicron case numbers or hospitalizations.”

Business Aviation

Article | January 28, 2022

Hit by the impact of the COVID-19 slump, airline businesses are enduring a major crisis no matter how recognized they were before. The crisis has pushed airline businesses to re-look at how to manage and operate their operations. It even includes re-positioning in the airline industry’s competitive market landscape. In a time like this, you need to delve deep when you update your airline brand positioning strategy. Your marketing team will have to be versatile and adapt to a new set of planning strategies. They should be mindful of aspects to reduce risks and overcome challenges that the pandemic caused. It’s time to rise again through hindrances that affected your airline brand image to go down. Let’s throw some light on why brand positioning in marketing has become necessary now. Importance of Re-positioning of an Airline Brand Brand positioning in marketing is receiving snowballing attention in airline marketing today. Adopting versatile branding concepts creates optimism to provide value to products and services. And such concepts help products and services to perform well on various distribution channels. The values play an active role in brand positioning and so in re-positioning. Since customers’ activities have transformed in the new era of digitalization, deciding afresh on values will help you position your brand for the future. The branding must include a proper blend of physical and emotional values to make the brand both powerful and meaningful. When faced with challenges, it’s natural for even large airline businesses to become unrecognizable by customers. Thus, showcasing your brand as unique as possible becomes hard-hitting to differentiate from the competition. In that case, the idea of re-positioning requires consistent branding strategies. The strategies can help in many ways. A few of them are maintaining customer loyalty, encourage awareness, and showing customers your presence in the market. Therefore, to build deeper relationships with customers by re-positioning your airline brand, there are some important steps to follow. The stepwise guide will help in creating a competent brand positioning framework development. But remember, the framework should be defendable for growth. 6 Steps to Follow: Re-position your Airline Brand Determine your Values Start by considering the values that will represent your airline business brand. By finding the values, it will make you different from the rest of the competitors. Especially in a case where you are going for product marketing or service as an ordinary in the market or marketing it extraordinarily. Your aim gives you essential insight into what and how to go with the brand again in the new normal. Thus, try to analyze and research aspects of your competitors as well. We fight every day to stand out. We know our customers like to sound and feel authentic about brands. So, we believe that instead of building a complex picture of our airline brand (where no one will be able to understand), we prefer humanization. - Kevin Krone, the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Southwest Airlines. In realizing this aspect, your marketing team can innovate by creating campaigns to improve brand image. Identify the Competitors Surrounding and Research After recognizing the brand values, it’s requisite to analyze competitors serving in the market as you. You can do it by performing competitor analysis. The analysis will help to decide how better you can do in creating your brand positioning strategy. To start with it, there are different methods for determining your competition. They are: Do a thorough competitor research You can take guidance from your sales team to study what and how competitors develop their distinctive ideas with sales. Then, identify them through in-depth market research on their tactics of positioning their brand. To conduct it, include the following points into your research: What are the services or products competitors do offer? What are the brand positioning strategies they are using to ensure success? What is the current position of their brand in the market? It will be easy for you to set your aim to re-position your airline brand by putting these considerations forefront. Take Feedbacks from customers Connect with your existing and potential customers. Try to know what services or products they are considering according to the present scenario. Use the power of social media Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Quora, Facebook, and other online forums offer interaction with consumers. You can ask questions about products and services. Use these forums to discover competitors in your role. Find your Brand’s Uniqueness Building a unique brand image (by keeping a similar aim as before) will make you different from the competitors in the airline industry. We are the same exact airline that we were before. We are not walking away from our DNA. - Kevin Krone Your well-researched step on competitors will help to learn about branding patterns in the new normal. In addition, by looking at their weaknesses and strengths, you might get a chance to know your strength. This aspect will make your brand unique. Develop a Re-positioning Statement Once you know your customers' thoughts, you need to develop a statement that portrays your message. If you aim to convey that your business offers the best services or products in the market during the current economic slump, then it’s imperative to keep a razor-sharp focus on a brand positioning strategy. For example, you can include your ROI data. Use it as a statement in online paid ads, social media platforms, campaigns, emails, and other marketing methods. By doing this, you will be able to grab your existing and potential customers’ attention. And see how potential ones become loyal towards your business in no time. There’s no definite way to re-position your existing airline brand in times of the pandemic. But there are some crucial ways to do it. The ways are customizing efforts enable significant chances to offer quality services and products to reach customers. Test your Re-positioning Statement—if it works! Once your re-positioning statement is formed, it’s time to test it. Try to do experiments with the help of feedback collection from customers. The feedbacks should cover if they are conveyed with the right message. Therefore, in this way, you can know whether your brand achieved its goal or not. As you invest effort and time into re-positioning your airline brand, it’s helpful to keep in mind the type of consumers, demographic segmentation, and verticals. These verticals provide a deep insight that content and its aim remain advantageous to your brand. Develop your Brand’s Reference Frame Your brand’s reference will be an accurate way for customers to perceive it in the right way. Having a genuine brand positioning framework today is vital for re-positioning. And with the help of an on-point brand development strategy, you can plan it extraordinarily. Once you have created the frame of your brand, it is advisable to keep a focus on reaching achievable goals. Successful Re-positioning Efforts Drives Growth As you are aware that a strong branding of an airline business makes all the difference when you enter the market, similarly, re-positioning also makes a difference when you have to outshine again amid challenges. So, having a definite approach will ensure success for your brand and drive growth amid the ongoing pandemic challenges. Frequently Asked Questions How can airline businesses improve their brand image? An airline business runs with a multitude of functionalities. Every function plays a responsible role in improving the brand image. Thus, some crucial ways are discussed below: Create the right message which should be synonymous with brand value or perspective Stay in contact with customers through various marketing ways Keep track of strategies and implementation Turn data into intelligence Keep an eagle eye on competitors and their activities Keep employees in the loop What are the best branding strategies for airline businesses? The best branding strategies for airline businesses are as follows: Cost control strategies Social media campaigns Creative advertisement Loyalty programs Use power of influencers { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How can airline businesses improve their brand image?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "An airline business runs with a multitude of functionalities. Every function plays a responsible role in improving the brand image. 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Article | April 20, 2020

With rescue flights crisscrossing the globe and passengers keen to get where they are going as soon as possible, will we see the end of hub to hub travel? Has this current aviation crisis signaled the decline of the current model of aviation we know today? One reporter at Simple Flying gives his opinion.