Marketing Communication Plan free essay sample

Iberia’s mission is to offer air transport, airport services and aircraft maintenance services that come up to our customers’ expectations and create sustainable economic and social value. Iberia aims to be leader in customer satisfaction, innovation and economic and social performance. Iberia’s values are; focus on customers, creation of value, search for excellence in management, social commitment, importance of people, leadership, teamwork, constant improvement, adaption to change and innovation. The communication objective for the created plan is to minimize the existing gap between the perception of the brand image in Spain and the Netherlands. The focus lies solely on business people whom fly on a regular basis to Barcelona from Amsterdam Schiphol airport and vice versa. Through this two-year communication plan, Iberia aims to attract new and more business passengers. The marketing objective is to attract more business passengers, increase brand awareness and improve Iberia’s brand image in the Netherlands. We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing Communication Plan or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Advertising, direct marketing and public relations will be used for Iberia’s marketing. The media tools that are part of the communication plan are several Dutch business magazines, online ads on social media and e-mails. Iberia’s value proposition is a reliable and punctual airline with excellent customer service at a relatively low price. All communication will be done in a professional and clear manner. The total budget for the years 2013 and 2014 is â‚ ¬310. 364. The budget consists of advertising costs, employee costs and sponsorship costs. The main indicators for measurement of effectiveness are; sales revenue for flights between Amsterdam and Barcelona, customer surveys and the number of visitors of Iberia. com/business. * INTRODUCTION As part of the Marketing Communications course at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, this Marketing Communication Plan for Iberia is written to attract potential customers in the business sector. The report is written as a practice for professional reports, for the teacher who will assess the quality, and for fellow students. Iberia is an interesting company to analyze and to write a Marketing communication plan for, since it is one of the largest major airlines in the world. This plan has the aim of attracting potential business customers travelling with Iberia between Amsterdam Schiphol airport and Barcelona El Prat airport. This plan is divided into an analysis of the company and its external environment. Furthermore, there will be a description of Iberia’s new marketing campaign as well as the marketing budget and campaign planning for the years 2013 and 2014. To conclude, the plan provides a brief description of how the marketing campaign will be controlled and evaluated. * TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. CONTEXT ANALYSIS5 1. 1. Company Analysis5 1. 2. Environmental Analysis6 Political environment6 Economic environment7 Social environment7 Technological environment7 1. 3. Consumer Analysis7 Customer Segments8 Customer Needs8 Brand awareness9 1. 4. Competitor Analysis9 Air-France-KLM9 Lufthansa10 1. 5. Market Analysis13 5 Porter’s Model13 Financial prospect14 Market share14 Market developments14 2. PROBLEM DEFINITION AND COMM. OBJECTIVES15 2. . Problem Definition15 2. 2. Communication objectives16 3. TARGET GROUP16 4. POSITIONING STRATEGY17 5. MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MIX17 6. MEDIA TOOLS18 7. BRIEFING19 Explanation mandatories20 8. BUDGET22 9. SCHEDULE AND PLANNING25 10. CONTROL AND EVALUATION26 11. APPENDICES27 1. CONTEXT ANALYSIS 2. 1. Company Analysis Iberia Lineas Aereas, usually shortened to Iberia, was founded in 1927 by Horacio Echevar rieta during the dictatorship as a monopoly in the air transportation in Spain. Since that moment, it has been the largest airline of Spain and is headquartered in Madrid. Iberia is one of the oldest airlines in the world and the fourth European airline by number of passengers (Iberia, 2013). They fly to 95 different destinations in 39 different countries (Iberia, 2013), and are even market leader in passenger traffic between Europe and Latin America. As can be seen in the graph (Mundo de la Empresa, 2013), in 2009 and 2011, they obtained a negative net income of 273 million euro? s and 61 million euro? s respectively (IAG, 2012). In 2010, Iberia merged with British Airways holding a new company called International Airlines Group (IAG). Nowadays IAG owns two subsidiaries (Iberia Express and Vueling Airlines) and a franchise (Air Nostrum). Furthermore, it has an alliance with Oneworld in order to provide the customer with a better service and offer better flight connections (Iberia, 2013). Furthermore, Iberia describes its mission as ‘‘Providing air transport services, airports and aircraft maintenance to meet and satisfy expectations of our customers and create economic and social value sustainably†. Focusing on its vision: â€Å"Iberia wants to be leader in customer satisfaction, innovation and, economic and social returns†. The values of Iberia are their customer focus, value creation, the pursuit of excellence in management, social commitment, the importance of people, the leadership, teamwork, continuous improvement, adaptation to change and innovation. Strengths: * Market leader flights Europe – Latin America * Flag carrier of Spain * Part of IAG, strong merge with British Airways * Well connected to major airports and well positioned within the airports. Weaknesses: * Frequent delays and overbooking problems (Rincon del Vago, 2012) * Personnel strikes (Daily Mail, 2013) * Moderate price quality relation (Air Review, 2012) Negative media coverage: ranked in Top 10 Worst Airlines (Business Insider, 2010) 2. 2. Environmental Analysis Political environment 9/11: Since 9/11, safety regulations have become very strict. In order to safeguard passenger’s safety, customs checks and the regulations of what you are allowed to bring on a plane have become extremely strict. The most significant cha nge is that passengers are no longer allowed to carry large amounts of liquids onto the plane. The consequence of the strict safety regulations is that it costs a lot of money to enable this (USA Today, 2012). European Laws applicable to the airline industry: There are several European laws that are designed to protect the passengers. It applies to issues like damage to and lost suitcases, flight information, transparency of ticket prices and delays. The laws make it possible for passengers to get compensation (EU Commission, 2013). Economic environment Economic crisis: The most recent influential factor on the airline industry is the economic crisis. Because of the economic crisis, almost all households and companies are saving and not spending. Families go on holidays in their own country instead of abroad to save money on plain tickets. The consequence of this is that fewer tickets are bought and therefore a decline in sales occurred. (European Parliament, 2009) Interest rates: Another factor that causes sales to drop is the interest rates. If the interest rates are high, savings will be stimulated and spending will decrease. Oil prices: Furthermore, the price of oil also has an impact on the airline industry. If oil prices are high, the price of plane tickets will automatically go up as well. If the prices go up, less people will be able to afford a ticket and consequently, sales will decline. Social environment Overweight: One topic that caused a lot of commotion was the idea of charging overweight people more or even obliges them to buy two tickets in order for them to travel. The issue of overweight people is mostly present in the United States. (Economist, 2012) Technological environment Ticket booking: One of the most significant changes since the invention of the internet concerning the airline industry is that passengers and travelers no longer have to book their flights through the use of an intermediary. Travel agencies are no longer needed in order to be able to travel; passengers can now easily book their ticket online themselves. The internet enables the consumer to book their own flight, compare prices and enabled price transparency. Social/economic: Iberia is part of the International Airlines Group, which made a loss of 631 million euro. Iberia was forced to develop a corporate restructuring plan, which includes the layoff of 19%, almost 3. 800 employees. This leaded to a 5-day during strike amongst employees including pilots which caused the cancellation of 1. 300 flights. The costs were counted approximately 3 million euro’s per day. (De redactie, 2013) (IAG, 2013) 2. 3. Consumer Analysis According to a survey of the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization), 16% of the travelers are businessmen, whereas 26% of the travelers travel for to visit family and relatives and even 50% of airline customers are traveling for holiday. (United Nations World Tourism Organization,2004) Customer Segments The customer segmentation for the airline branch could be defined into three separate key groups: Business travel, Short-haul leisure travel and Long-haul leisure travel. Business travel: is not the lifeblood of the airline branch. However, businessmen are the gold customers in the customer lifetime value (CLV). Most likely, these frequent flyers are returning customers, and do normally fly with the same airline. This group has high demands and needs due to the fact that they are time focused, want to work on the plane, need a quiet place and a good seat. This target group has been increasing due to the globalization. However, since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, companies have been saving on their travel budgets. For this reason, more employees travel Economy Class with low-cost airlines; especially on domestic and short- haul flights. However, this segment is highly sensitive for price fluctuations and frequently changes airlines. Short-haul leisure travel: Commonly, this segment will visit family and relatives or travel for health or religion purposes. Since flying for the ordinary citizen is affordable because of the low-costs airlines, they often take the plane instead of travelling by car or train to save time and money. To this segment belong the silver customers in the CLV. They will return to you if you satisfy them in their primary needs and by giving them a good value for money. Long-haul leisure travel: This is the largest segment of the airline branch. The number of people travelling to foreign countries is rising. These are the lead customers in the CLV and are also the lifeblood of the airline branch. These customers listen very carefully to the media and the public opinion. Airplane crashes in this segment are killing the image. This group is very sensitive for best value for money and they do not care much about high services because they are often no frequent flyers and take less service for granted. Customer Needs Leisure Travelers| Business Travelers| Comfort (comfort seats, leg space, minimal turbulence)| Priority (leaving the plane first)| -Good customer service (information transfer flights, friendly cabin crew)| Wi-Fi and 3G (Call the office or check e-mail)| -Good price/quality relation (value for money)| -Punctuality (Time is money)| | -Special customer service (Extra attention, all-inclusive services)| | -Extra comfort (More leg space, bett er seats)| Brand awareness Iberia’s brand awareness is higher in Spain than in the Netherlands. This is mainly because Iberia promotes itself better in Spain. They advertise in newspapers, TV-commercials (YouTube,2008) and provide posters all over the country. (My collection,2010) On the other hand, Iberia does promote itself throughout the world mostly with social media and their Internet site in order to get awareness of potential customers. Besides that, travel websites have special discounts on Iberia flights sometimes, such as Onetravel. com(Onetravel,2013). Furthermore, the Iberia’s brand awareness did increase negatively the last few months, due to the personnel strike at the international airport in Madrid (CNN,2013). On the contrary, in the Netherlands Iberia hardly promotes itself. For this reason, brand awareness is low. 2. 4. Competitor Analysis The main competitors for Iberia in the Dutch market are: KLM-Airfrance, Lufthansa, British airways, Easyjet, Ryanair and Transavia. When it comes to flights between Amsterdam and Barcelona, both Air-France-KLM and Lufthansa are Iberia’s strongest competitors and will therefore be the focus of this analysis. Air-France-KLM When it comes to the financial position of Air-France-KLM, this company is the most profitable within the Netherlands. In fact, the firm has revenue of 24. 6 million euro’s in 2011. (Registration Document 2012 KLM) KLM-Air-France positions itself as a high-quality airline, focussing on excellent customer service and highly skilled employees. (Registration Document KLM,2012) The marketing mix is very coherent and focuses on luxury and reliability. First of all, the product they offer goes beyond the flight itself, it incl udes additional customer value assets such as excellent customer service, comfort and high variety. They provide a lot of extra-customized support, for example a mobile application, which makes it possible for passengers to check in easily. Therefore, innovative technological support is also an important part of their product offered. Secondly, KLM-Air-France prices are known to be relatively high. The price for tickets between Amsterdam and Barcelona start at 366 Euros in spring 2013. Then, referring to place, KLM executes its flights from the most central airports. This in alignment with KLM’s value proposition, the comfort and convenience to travel from the most central areas is important here. In the case of the journey between Amsterdam and Barcelona, KLM travels from Amsterdam Schiphol to Barcelona El Prat, which is the most central airport. Furthermore, they cover 62 % of all destinations worldwide, overthrowing Iberia (which is part of IAG) who currently serves 50 % of all destinations. ( Registration Document 2012 KLM,2012 ) As for the place of the distribution of KLM tickets, they are distributed through both travel agencies and online. Moreover, KLM has a large network with the largest travel agencies, which can also be considered to be a part of their marketing strategy. (Registration Document KLM,2012) Finally, focussing on promotion, KLM’s total expenditure on advertising and promotion is 244 million euro? in 2010. ( Registration Document KLM,2012 ) KLM focuses mainly on maintaining good relationships with customers and obtaining a loyal customer base. By introducing ‘Flying Blue Frequent Flyer’ memberships, KLM strengthened its relationships with its loyal customers by offering benefits and discounts. In addition, KLM also invests a large amount of money in advertising, mostly in digital medi a, such as Internet banners. They also make use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. One of their most famous marketing strategy until now recruited Facebook and Twitter users, which were KLM passengers, and the company ‘rewarded’ these customers with a gift. In addition, KLM advertises on billboards, newspapers and through its own magazine, called ‘The Flying Dutchman’. Lufthansa The total revenue of Lufthansa in 2011 is 28,73 million euros. The airline company positions itself as a very reliable German company, which is also visible in its marketing mix. When it comes to product, Lufthansa offers safe flights of good quality. Through their positioning, they stress their professional engineering program. Moreover, Lufthansa was ranked 11th in a safety ranking (whereas Air-France-KLM is ranked 27th, and Iberia 49th), executed by Jacdec. Jacdec Co-operation,2012 ) In addition, the tickets can be categorized as medium-priced. Tickets from Amsterdam to Barcelona start from 273 euros in spring 2013. Third, Lufthansa also makes use of travel agencies and Internet as for their distribution channels. Whereas low cost airlines chose to travel from decentral airports, Lufthansa travels from central main airports, such as Amsterdam Schiphol and Barcelona El Prat, like KLM.