Developing a Marketing Plan & Strategies

LO1

An Etihad airline is the flag carrier airline of the United Arab Emirates and it is based in Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways is the one international airport that operates more than 1200 flights per week to over 70 destinations. They are offering several products and services to their customers in order to achieve their target. They offer cargo products and charter services. It is the fourth largest airline in the United Arab Emirates. They are the ones who won the Air Transport World's Passenger Service Award for 2012. They provide either two-class or three-class service on their flights. There are different classes of services that are provided to all their consumers according to their class and status. These services are diamond first-class, pearl business class, coral economy class, etc.

Diamond's first-class service is available on long-haul flights (Bradley, 2005). In this class, they provide a first-class personal cabin for each guest and it is completed with sliding doors for maximum privacy. Pearl class business passengers can enjoy fully lie-flat seats and personal video screens on all aircraft. There is an extra facility for coral economy class passengers. They can enjoy complimentary meals and personal on-demand entertainment systems. The main business of the company is to fulfill the requirements of all its passengers. They also provide different facilities to all their economy class members as well. So that all the people who belong to economy class can also enjoy all the services of airline. Etihad Airways operates in the tourism industry through their holidays and operates in cargo. They operate under the terms of product share and they have 60% international transportation of passengers. There are a lot more expectations of the company from their passengers as they are providing them with different services (Dibb, Stern, and  Wensley, 2002). They are expecting more profit and revenues in terms of its international transportation of business.

LO2 SITUATION ANALYSIS

Company Analysis

• Goals: In today's competitive environment each and every organization needs to adopt several strategies in order to achieve their goals. Etihad airways focus on the brand and quality of services. They have their short-term as well as long-term goals. Short-term goals of the company are the key issues that the company needs to accomplish by mid-2011 and the long-term objectives can be achieved by the next three or four years. In order to accomplish long-term goals firm need to set their future strategies (O'Shannassy, 2008).
• Short-term goals: Etihad airways need to maintain their customer values even while decreasing cost. They also need to maintain their brand image by providing luxuries services to all their consumers.
• Long term goals: Company should not only be profitable every year but also profit should increase by 5-10%.
• The main focus of the company is to providing all the luxurious services to all its passengers and increase their customer value and satisfaction. The airline can do by decreasing cost ans simultaneously increasing yield. The main focus of the company is to creating inbound holidays to Abu Dhabi by 2030.
• Culture: The unique culture and heritage of Abu Dhabi determines across the emirates. The main aim of the company is to deliver every best and possible service to its consumers. In order to support this they have created a business rich in culture diversity. All the employees work in this organization work with full commitment. They have set an environment and very good working culture of the company. People works in Etihad airlines with full of energy, creativity and team work together in harmony to achieve their goals. There are several opportunities for all their employees (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). With good working culture organization will become the part of the world's fastest-growing airline.
• Strengths and weaknesses: Domestic market, experienced business unit, high profitability and revenue, existing distribution and sales networks are some of the major strength of the company which helps them to achieve their target. Etihad airways can easily accomplish all their objectives. There are some weaknesses of the company are further increasing future competition, small business unit, costs etc. Some consumer's complaint about longer waiting time in connection flights and it is the major weakness of the company. Etihad airways increases their seating capacity every year and they have globally recognized sponsorship with sports club and events.
• Market Share: Etihad airways are the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. The main objective of the company is to attain their long term and short goals. Company can easily gain their market share with the help of providing first class services to its entire consumer. It is the world's largest international carrier and operator of the world's largest commercial aircraft. They can gain their market share with the providing help to all their employees from more than 120 different nationalities (Wedel and Kamakura, 2000). The organization not only maintains but also improved its service level to customers.
• Customer Analysis

It is the part of microenvironment which mainly focuses on the buyer behavior. The organization has many international airports but the main region carrier is Abu Dhabi. All the target customers of Etihad airways are the passengers who travel from Abu Dhabi international airport. The main objective of the company is to provide luxurious services to their entire passenger. In order to attract their customers company has set various strategies. The tagline of airline is “From Abu Dhabi to World” currently focuses on outbound holidays. The current target segments of the company are the tourist and business people. Company focuses on their pricing strategy as well as their middle class and higher class sector. The target customers of the company are those people who want to travel with luxury and high standards of hospitality. They need to increase the number of their consumers and for this purpose they need to segment their customers (Shaw, 2012). All the passengers are segmented into tourist, personal, religious, business. Abu Dhabi is rapidly developing region in the terms of business and tourism both. There is a high range of increment in the tourist arrivals. The value of any product is the psychological belief the customers create about a certain product brand. Customers will easily obtain the benefits of all the products and services given by the organization.

There is a functional benefit of product which is determined such as Etihad Airways delivers to the customers. They always provide the facility of air transportation to both their passengers and goods. Companies can easily attain the trust of all their consumers as they have provided them with different facilities. Services are further divided into three categories: Coral economy class, pearl business, and diamond first class. This company also provides liberty to their customers to customize certain products according to the customer's preferences. They can customize the entire menu of Etihad Airways which gives several specialized facilities to all the passengers. The entire staff of the firm is very helpful and friendly which gives a position impression of the company to all its consumers (Perret and Holmlund, 2013). Etihad Airway not only provides luxury and super travel experiences to all their customers but also gives them different facilities such as online booking, entertainment, food lounge, etc. They always keep their all services at moderate costs and it is very convenient for passengers to online check-in services and Chauffeur services. The airline has its own terminal which is one of the biggest facilities for all its consumers.

Competitor Analysis:

There are several competitors of Etihad Airways such as Emirates Airlines, Air Arabia etc. The opponents of this airline not only include U.A.E.-based airlines but also Qatar Airways, Oman Air, etc. Emirates Airlines is one of the strategic benchmark companies which is the biggest rival of Etihad. It is famous because of its low-cost marketing strategy. Due to advancements in technologies such as video conferencing etc, people do not need to travel to different countries for business purposes. All the telecom companies are the biggest threat to Etihad Airlines. Emirates has more customer value. Customers would get the values in terms of monetary price as the airline Air Arabia is much cheaper than Etihad Airways. In order to gain their market share organization need to fulfill all the requirements of their consumers. Etihad Airways provides several distinct services and products to their passengers which helps them to improve their productivity (Wedel and Kamakura, 2000). With the help of satisfied customers, companies can gain their market share. There are several strengths and weaknesses of the firm that need to be resolved in order to compete with its rivals.

LO3 COLLABORATORS

Etihad Airway is the flag carrier airline and it is the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates. It is a distribution industry and today it is considered as one of the most rapid growing airlines. They mainly work with the strategy to provide their guests with an incredible travel experience with its excellent services for business class, economy class and first-class cabins. They operate more than 1000 flights per week to 96 passenger and cargo destinations. They will give various rights and privileges by the government for international operations. The capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi is Etihad airways base and hub. This airline operates with the help of different travel agents who are their general sales agents. They have last year carried only 26% of the total number of passengers transported by Emirates. This industry is well known among all the people because of its quality cabin crew services. These services are provided to all its customers. The airline operates in various destinations and provides various online services (Bradley, 2005). All the corporate activity of the organization is controlled by the head office of Abu Dhabi International Airport. The company is administrated by the board of directors. The organization has its partnership agreements with other airline companies. These will promote all the company's operations including its marketing strategy.

LO4 PESTLE ANALYSIS

There are various factors of macro-environmental factors that directly affect the decision-making process in the organization. These factors can easily be determined with the help of PESTLE analysis. It gives the total description of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors. The political situation in the Emirates gives a competitive advantage to UAE companies. They can attain higher competitive advantage because of the political stability in this region in comparison with other Arabic countries. Etihad is based in Abu Dhabi which is one of the developing cities (Ferrell and Hartline, 2012). The growth of Abu Dhabi's economy is higher and it is one of the best parts for business class people.  The main competitive advantage of the firm can be determined such as benefit from a low tax regime and lower costs in domestic airports. The currency cost of the UAE is associated with the US dollar. It is the base of cost advantages over the UE rivals. The company has their lower exchange values according to its legal factors. The political factors can be described with the relatively liberal government of the country and it mainly depends on the support of sheikh. Economical factors provide cheaper cost at domestic airports as well as high external and low internal fuel prices. Social factors in the Emirates give a cosmopolitan workforce and population. Abu Dhabi is one of the developing city and the environmental factors of the company represents the sound and other restrictions in urban areas (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2008). Etihad has started its online services through which it can easily gain its market share. It totally depends on the technological development of the country.

LO5 SWOT ANALYSIS

Etihad Airway is a national carrier of United Arab Emirates and today it is considered one of the most rapidly growing airline industries. They always try to promote Abu Dhabi as an attractive business center as it is the primary focus of the company. Companies need to promote their different services in order to achieve their target. It is essential for them to set several future strategies, so that they can easily compete with their rivals (Shaw, 2012). A SWOT analysis can be performed with its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These are as follows:

Strengths:

• The CEO of the company James Hogan is very experienced and they have a highly qualified management team. It is a necessary part of the company in order to achieve success.
• Etihad has unique designs of cabins and also for their different services such as diamond zone for first class, coral zone for economy class, pearl zone for business class. It is the major strength of the company which helps them to attract several customers and achieve their target.
• The main strength of the company is its strong brand name (Koh and Boo, 2004). They have their tagline “From Abu Dhabi to World” it has a high impact on all its consumers.
• Low corporation taxes and increased seating capacity every year.
• It is a globally recognized sponsorship with sports clubs and events.
• They have adopted the strategy of partnership which is very successful for them as the partnership with Virgin Blue Australia. They have added the new dimensions and provide high service quality.

Weaknesses:

• Their capital interest charges and the high cost of a business start-up are the major weakness of the company.
• They have fewer destinations than major competitors such as Emirates have more than a hundred destinations.
• They never use to manage their customer service centers appropriately. Many passengers complained that they didn't get the help they needed.
• Longer waiting time in connection flights.

Opportunities:

• Entrance into new markets is also allowed due to a strong brand image (Crystal, 2010). There are several further opportunities that help the firm to increase its market share.
• Growing ground services and partnership with other airlines
• Abu Dhabi is one of the most promising business districts in the Middle East and it will attract more and more business travelers.
• Due to innovations in cabins, there is a good chance to attract technology-loving customers.

Threats:

• The biggest threat for the company is a shortage of trained and qualified staff. This will lead to a decrease in the performance of the industry.
• Entrants of new rivals into the market
• Fuel costs may increase
• Natural environmental conditions also affect the aviation industry
• Terrorist threats towards airlines.

LO6 Market Segmentation

In the difference of few years, the business of Etihad Airways has risen to a peak due to its marketing strategies. A few years back they were at a small business in Abu Dhabi. They worked at the local level, but by including different strategies in business they are now worldwide. They were having a competition in the market with Qatar Airways and Emirate Airways. They were called as “Middle East Big Three” (MEB3). The Etihad Airways is an Airline Company. There are many strategies which are used by Etihad Airways to get the growth in the market of airline companies they had many competitors in the market which were for a long time. But now they have got the respective position in the market and successfully giving their services to the world. The strategies which are used by the Etihad Airways are:

There are huge size aircraft: They have large size international aircraft that are the world's largest operators of commercial aircraft. In their annual report, they have 39 million 237 billion available seat kilometers. They have a large number of passenger who are using their services. They have having number of Airbus A380. Initially, they have around 30 A380 in their stocks and they are planning to purchase 30 more. It has carried around 26% of the total number of passengers transported by the Emirates (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). They had reduced the cost but they maintained the customer value. As they had decreed the cost they do not compromise with its luxurious brand. They give the same services after decreasing the cost. They do not have a profit business every year but they manage to increase profit rate every year. They had got the customer value and satisfaction every year. As compared to others they had large size aircraft.

Partnership with different companies of airlines: Etihad Airways has partnerships with different airlines in the world. Today it has around 45 airlines worldwide. They are creating a virtual network between these companies to get the services with less capital. A similar networking has been done by different companies to get the benefits. This strategy allows them to get their own alliance. It's getting easier for them to raise their business through their business in one one-on-one partnership.

Equity tie-ups: They had developed their first partnership with Air Berlin in December 2011. This partnership was carried out at a time when Air Berlin was struggling with its financial condition this partnership also gives them support for their business. They both had different conditions in between them to work. Etihad had more partnerships with different airlines. This is the best example of Etihad to produce the different airlines. This led to the success of both companies.

LO7 Alternative marketing strategies:

There are different alternative marketing strategies used by Etihad Airways that help generate growth in the sale of the products. It has partnerships with different airline companies which help them to maintain the cost of traveling. That creates a virtual network between the companies which helps in reduced use of resources. In that, they developed their first partnership with Air Berlin in December 2011. This partnership was carried out at a time when Air Berlin was struggling with its financial condition this partnership also gave them support for their business (O'Shannassy, 2008). They have another tie-up with a low-range company which shows the interest of Etihad Airways in both types of companies. They had a change in the rate of their tickets. They lower the values of their products so that customers can get to them more frequently. They had good and qualified staff in their Airline that will give more satisfaction to the customer and they make many changes to the facilities which they are providing earlier. In that, they give road transport services in the form of cars and coaches. They provide medical information to aware people. The children above the age of 5 and below the age of 12 can travel easily with them they can get full support and attention from the staff. They give 24-hour advance check-in in limited cities so this will reduce the crowd at the check-in counter.

Through online websites, people get to know about the different information on the flight including time, ticket confirmation, and flight status.

LO8 Selected marketing strategies

• Products strategies: Etihad Airways has different products for their customer to satisfy them. For this, they had large aircraft with different types of facilities in it. They give full possible pleasure to their customer. This also leads to developing their brand values. The products which are provided by them are much standard as compared to other flights in the market.
• Price strategy: They had different market strategies to implement their price strategies. Some services are the same as Emirates Airlines and British Airlines are producing but the services that are provided by the etched are at much lower prices as compared to others. But low prices can create problems so they should increase their price by a few percent so that they can come in the categories of Emirates and British airlines due to low prices people count those in low brands which can affect their brand value.
• Place: In place strategies, the main problem comes in the format of ticket distribution. The customer did not want to go to their main office to collect the tickets so they had tie-ups with different agencies that could provide the tickets to their customer. This makes it easier for customers to collect the ticket (Worthington and Britton, 2009). On their official website, customers can collect the ticket from there. For the satisfaction of the customer, they had a customer service call center where all the problems of the customer were solved. It can be about the reservation, booking, and time of flight. This type of facility gives the customer more satisfaction they do need not to go to their counter.
• Promotions: Promotions are the main factor through which the customer can get to know the different strategies of the company. So for this, they had many policies with the help of which they can give the information about the company policies. This will help the customer get the benefits of those policies.
• Sale promotions: For the promotions of the sale Etihad has many different policies which help the customer to get an advantage of it. They provide different coupons and bundle offers to their customer so that they can make use of the given fare. They also provide the ticket at a low rate as compared to the different sales agents.
• Direct marketing: For direct marketing, they had different employees who could give the information of the airline to the customer (Leonidou and Leonidou, 2011). This helps the customer to get to know about the required information. So for this, they had taken different parts in the event and the exhibitions.
• Sponsorship: They have different sponsorships in different fields which helps them in promoting their business. They had a sponsorship of F1Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the F1 Ferrari team, the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, and the Gaelic Athletic Association.
• Advertisement: This can be done with the help ho media channels with the help of different means of media like T.V., radio, magazines, and newspapers. These help them to send their information to different places at the same time. So with the help of this, they are able to make the people about their company's policies.

LO9 Short and long-term projection

Short-term projections: There are different objectives which are taken by Etihad Airways to get the projection in the market. Decrease the cost of the tickets this takes the attention of the customer. They started making use of their facilities as they get this service in other Airways at much higher rate. So they started taking high revenue on the flight of long distance, the ticket of diamond class, and the sector where more people travel on a regular basis. They maintain the luxurious brand value of the company which also helps them to maintain the brand value in the market (Bradley, 2005). The low cost of their product did not lower the priorities of the customer. They get the same services that they had before.

Long-term projections: In the long-term projection they had to maintain the profit rate in increasing orders every year so that they were able to get growth in the company's position in the market. As they maintain customer satisfaction they also keep it in an increasing manner so that the customer can get different changes in the flight every year. They are giving different coupons and bundle offers to the customer for the stay in Abu Dhabi which gives more attention to the customer. That gives rise to the sale of the ticket.

CONCLUSION

From the above report, it is concluded that in today's competitive environment, it is essential to set various marketing strategies in order to achieve the goal of the company. Etihad Airways needs to provide airline carrier services to all its customers globally. It is essential for the company to meet all the expectations of the consumers. Customers who have experienced these services they guarantees for the standards set by the airlines. The current strategy of the company is to have fewer destinations than its competitors. It gives the total description for choosing target markets through market analysis, as well as understanding consumer buying behavior and providing superior customer value.

REFERENCES

Books& Journals

• Bouyssou, D. and et.al., 2013. Decision Making Process: Concepts and Methods. John Wiley & Sons.
• Bradley, F., 2005. International Marketing Strategy. Pearson Education.
• Breton, G. C. and Martín, M. O., 2011. International market selection and segmentation: a two-stage model. International Marketing Review, 28(3), pp.267 - 290.
• Chen, S. M. and  Lai, C. G.,  2010. Distribution systems, loyalty, and performance. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 38(9), pp.698 - 718.
• Clifton, B. M. and et.al., 2003. Target Costing: Market-Driven Product Design. CRC Press.

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