Airline Marketing:History and Development

Dr Narudh Cheramakara

Bangkok University

1/2017

First Human-powered Flight:

17 Dec 190312 Seconds, 37 meters, (10.9 km/h)

Aviation as novelty era

- Flying Circus- Joy rides- Using war surplus

aircraft- Flown by ex military

pilots- Poster is the mean

to advertise

The early stage of commercial aviation: Air Mail

- Again caused by surplus war aircraft- Developped for transcontinental mail

service in the US- Poster Advert – Aiming at speedy delivery

Airships of 1930s

- Experienced the boom in 1930s

- Germany led the market- First Air transport option

for Atlantic crossing- An alternative to cruise

line- Used speed as selling

point- Prone to accidents

(because of Hydrogen)

Post WWII-70s

• Air transport is still out of reach

• Passengers are mostly businessmen and diplomats

• Military style Branding

• Luxuarious / Novelty

• Speed

• Exploring exotic destinations/the world

• Adventure

• Empire building – connecting the world

• B2B market – most tickets sold through travel agents

70s – Business/Luxury/Sex

- Fares are still tightly regulated internationally

- As a results, airlines were competing on service

- Branding were changed from being safe (as aviation industry progressd) and military style organisationto fun, cheerful.

- Flight attendant were portrayed as sex symbol

- Still distributed through B2B (Agent)

70s/80s – Business/Luxury/Sex

The new millennium

• LCCs

• Price (Fare War)

• E-commerce

• The rise of B2C

• The collapse of Travel Agency

• The rise of OTA

• Social Media Advertising – Content producing (Pantip, Blog, Facebook, Line, etc)

• Each campaigned has its message (branding, price, service, etc.)

What does this advert tell you?

What’s next?