What do tough times mean for airlines and their marketing strategies? Do they pull in marketing budgets as costs are reined in to help offset lower revenues or is it even more important to spend on marketing during a recession, and if so, where do they spend?
As part of this special report on marketing, Airline Business has carried out its own survey of senior airline executives to see what carriers are thinking and doing when it comes to market during difficult times. Most airlines believe it makes sense to keep spending on marketing during a recession, and an increasing amount of that spend is being directed at new opportunities directly reach customers through the web.
Also as part of this special report, we take a detailed look at enterprise data warehousing, the steps airlines are taking to upgrade their reservation systems and look at airlines' tentative moves into social networking.
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EVOLUTIONARY MARKETING An Airline Business survey of top airline executive finds that carriers are not cutting back their marketing spend during these tough economic times. Instead marketing techniques are evolving as the internet continues to open up new opportunities. Click here
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JOIN THE CONVERSATION
While everyone is convinced of the market potential and power of the web, few airlines are experimenting with social marketing to interact with customers. It may be a frightening step, but now is the time to take a leap of faith and open up.
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VITAL STATISTICS Airlines are following other industries into warehousing their valuable customer data in one place to make the best possible use of it to drive loyalty and improve service and operations. Click here
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©Rex Features |
AHEAD OF THE GAME As low-cost airlines gravitate towards hybrid models and network carriers go in the opposite direction and unbundle their products, they are finding that their reservation systems are struggling to keep up. Click here
Click here for our earlier feature on airlines and social media
Click here for an interview with Virgin boss Richard Branson and his take on social media