Strategic Marketing – Emirates Taking the IMC Route

STRATEGIC MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
EMIRATES: TAKING THE IMC ROUTE”
INTRODUCTION
Emirates Airlines established in 1985, is a subsidiary of the Emirates Group, a public international travel conglomerate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. An Emirate is the largest airline in the Middle East operating its flights & hub at Dubai International Airport to various countries all over the world. Emirates initiated flying internationally with two aircraft – a leased Boeing 737 & an Airbus 300 B4. Its main focus on providing quality services to customers instead of focusing on quantity of customers. Due to its despite efforts & supportive attitude towards customers, Emirates became a market leader in the global airline industry within a short span of time. The overall profit of Emirates grew at a faster rate with a minimum 20 per cent hike every year & hence became the fastest-growing & youngest fleets in the aviation industry. Because of their excellence in providing satisfactory & quality services to the customers, Emirates earned majority of awards globally. It also deals in cargo activities, which is taken by Emirates Group’s Emirates Sky Cargo division.
OVERVIEW OF THE CASE STUDY
This case study discusses on the overall effort made by the Emirates to ensure the consistency & the effectiveness of messages targeted to various audiences. The Emirates has used Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach for marketing their services in front of customers. Majority of the companies have paid close attention to the IMC approach. Various IMC tools such as television commercials, print advertisements, internet marketing, charitable foundations, in-plane advertisements, sponsorships & trade promotions have been utilized by the Emirates in order to achieve an excellent market position & a positive brand image in the minds of its current & potential customers. Emirates could easily reach their target audience via these mentioned modes of marketing & promotions. Due to its continuous effort towards marketing the brand & services, Emirates maximized exposure rate.
Several Challenges Encountered By the Emirates to distribute an individual message about the high class facilities for its customers & to create a brand name in front of its customers –

Explain how Emirates’ promoting approach has been effective in constructing an optimistic trademark appearance with current & potential customers?
Classify the IMC tools used by Emirates?
Emirates flies all over the world. Should Emirates modify its messages & channels according to where it advertises? Explain.

DISCUSSION OF THE TASKS CONFRONTED BY THE EMIRATES –
A1. The marketing strategy of Emirates includes –

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Approach –

Emirates’ advertising policy has been efficacious in generating a progressive brand image in the minds of its current & potential customers by embracing the IMC approach for marketing its brand. An IMC concept is an approach of achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign, via proper & efficient use of promotional tools & methods that are intended to reinforce each other. It enables that all forms of communications & messages are linked together & hence work simultaneously in harmony rather than in isolation. This approach is used by the organisation to create a unified & brand experience for consumers across several communication channels. As marketing efforts have been moved from mass marketing to slot promoting, companies have growing use IMC to cultivate more economical promotions that still distribute value to the customers.

Emirates think global –

Emirates have set out to be an innovative, modern & customer-oriented provider of high quality air travel services. Its brand positioning is that of a leading, international & quality airline serving the global community.

Emirates deliver on their brand promise of innovation & quality. Emirates end line “keep discovering” sums up its philosophy on travel: Only Emirates lets you discover a more authentic & fulfilling life.

Emirates do remarkable things for integrated marketing communications activities such as advertising, sponsorship, e-commerce, public relations & supportive communications.

Emirates have effectively used www.emirates.com to drive the brand experience, maintain cordial relation with the customers & by launching frequent flyer program skywards. Through such an effort, Emirates has easily reaches their target audience & hence successfully developed a strong relation with their customers.

Emirates mobilising customers to actively participate in the experience & other promotional events & activities in order to market their service in front of the customers
Hence, by using the above mentioned message strategies, Emirates has successfully developed a positive brand image into the market in front of their customers.
A2.Emirates use a variety of marketing communication tools in an integrated way to deliver one message about the high quality of its services along with maximising its message exposure rate.
Various IMC tools used by Emirates are-

An advertisement is a way of publicity or promoting a product, service or any event. There are several modes of advertisements such as online advertising, newspaper ads, radio advertising, television advertising, public speaking, door hangers, flyers & word-of-mouth advertising. Emirates utilize the commercials & print advertisements for highlighting the airline’s new products, routes, services & aircraft. It helps in fostering its services.

Sponsorship is another form of promotional activity. Emirates have undergone partnership with several events both regional & international like FIFA. Moreover, Emirates is dedicated to the growth of global arts & culture through a number of sponsorships around the world. In fact, Emirates believe that sponsorship is the best way to develop a cordial relation with customers.

E-commerce is referred to as purchasing or selling goods or services, or the conducting of assets or data, over an electronic system, mainly an internet. It is also referred to as an electronic commerce. Emirates enable customers to perform online shopping of Emirates related merchandise via its official retail website (emiratesofficialstore.com).

Emirates publish three in-flight magazines in order to reach readers & passengers during their journey. Through such magazines, passengers are usually encouraged to donate to the Emirates Airline Foundation, which seeks to improve the quality of children. Magazines are the best source of marketing the products or services, as it contains articles & illustrations, which attracts customer attention towards it. So, by means of magazines, Emirates has gained majority of market shares along with the competitive advantage in the airline industry.

Supportive Communication –

Supportive communications is referred to as a style of communicating with customers that has a particular set of aims & techniques. The principal objective is to resolve conflict or attain variation in a situation, while protective, even strengthening, the relationship between the communicating individuals. Emirates’ on-board entertainment system has been highly recognized as a market leader, winning awards for its quality & enabling the airline to show passengers commercials about it latest offers, partners & services.
A3.Tagline is a short & prominent or memorable phrase used in advertising. It identifies the uniqueness of a brand or conveys some type of special meaning.
The taglines which are used in the past by the Emirates airline in order to gain market value & customer preference in aviation industry are –

The finest in the sky

Be good to yourself.
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
Keep Discovering.
Hello Tomorrow.
No doubt Emirates has already gained an excellent market position & a positive brand image in the minds of its customers via IMC approach & its tools but still I believe that Emirates should modify its messages & channels by embracing new ideas, new technology & good quality services to the customers in order to maintain their position in the market as well as to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals.
REFERENCES

“CASE 2
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN
FOOD MARKETING”
INTRODUCTION
The South Australian government established South Australia (SA) Food Centre in 2008 in order to provide practical advice to food businesses in Australia. Due to the agency & its expertise, many other businesses have taken advantages. Countries such as Japan, the United States & Hong Kong are the major exporter of the South Australian Food market. Some products like meat, seafood, fruit & cheese are the main export food of the South Australian Food market. The main aim of the South Australian (SA) Food Centre is to promote South Australian food businesses through various modes such as Food Talk (an online magazine), Food-e-News (e-mail news updates) & the Premier’s Food Awards (awards for South Australian food producers). The key purpose of the South Australian (SA) Food Centre is to create a collaborative partnership with industry & government, in order to ensure a thriving South Australian food industry.
OVERVIEW OF THE CASE STUDY
This case study discusses on the overall effort made by the South Australian (SA) Food Centre in order to make sure that their brand is exciting to consumers, by focusing on factors such as packaging & labelling. It also encourages food producers to promote their products & brands by not only informing consumers about their availability, but to highlight what is special about a particular product. After performing continuous efforts of establishing collaboration with industry & government, one such result came in front from the well-known Charlie’s Group Limited. The Charlie’s group limited is known for selling fruits & sports water flavoured with fruit juices. So, due to collaboration with Charlie’s group limited, SA fruit growers received a considerable boost from Charlie’s Group Limited. In-fact SA Food Centre promotes various events, including annual food festivals & shopping appearances alongside celebrity chefs & media personalities. Due to their despite efforts towards food industry, the South Australian (SA) mushroom industry gained three main campaigns. So, this well supported program is indicative of the activities of the SA Food Centre.
Several Challenges Encountered By the South Australian (SA) Food Centre –

What type of message strategy should SA Food Centre utilize? Should it be the same for all of the brands & in all of the markets?
What leverage point makes the most sense for South Australian food producers’ advertising?
What type of executional framework should be used in traditional advertisements aimed at consumers?

DISCUSSION OF THE TASKS CONFRONTED BY THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN (SA) FOOD CENTRE –
A1. Message strategy –
Message strategy is a basic step in generating an effective promoting message. It provides the groundwork for rest of the marketing operation.
There are three types of message strategy which should be used by SA Food Centre utilize such as:

Cognitive message strategy – A cognitive message strategy offerings coherent opinions or fragments of evidence to customers. Among all five types of cognitive message strategies, they should make use of pre-emptive message strategy in order to advertise their products. The idea requires cognitive processing. It makes a claim of superiority based on products specific attributes or assistance with the intent of averting the rivalries from making the same claims. Customers can obtain benefits by purchasing the product. The South Australian (SA) Food Centre could utilize a cognitive message strategy for motivating the food producers to promote their brands by highlighting about what is special in their products for the consumers. By this strategy, food producers can describe attributes like healthiness, pleasant tasting or low calorie & many more. So, the marketing & promotion of the food products can be increased via cognitive message strategy.

Affective message strategy – In affective message strategy, the South Australian (SA) Food Centre could use an emotional advertising method to promote their products in the market. Advertisements that invoke feelings or emotions & match those feelings with the good, service, or company use affective message strategies. These messages try to heighten the amiability of the product, recall of the appeal, or comprehension of the advertisement. Affective strategies elicit emotions that, in turn, lead the consumers to act, preferably by buying the product, & subsequently affecting the consumer’s reasoning process. Many emotions can be connected to products, including trust, reliability, friendship, happiness, security, glamour, luxury, serenity, pleasure, romance & passion. Affective strategy may help in developing a stronger brand name. It helps in creating a positive feeling of the customers towards product.

Conative message strategy – A conative message strategy is aimed to lead openly to specific category of consumer response. It supports the promotional efforts, such as coupon redemption programs, internet hits & orders, & in-store offers like buy-one-get-one-free. In conative message strategy, they depend on action-including conative advertisements, where, situations are created in which cognitive knowledge of the product or affective liking of the product may come later or during product usage.

There will be no strength in the unity of a South Australian brand because if it happens, then it will lead to the brand parity so they need to differential the product that lead to equity & customer loyalty. So, it is quite essential to utilize a unique message strategy for all of the brands & in all of the markets.
A2.Leverage point –
Leverage pointsare those interpretations, if any, made at extreme or remote standards of theindependent variablessuch that the lack of adjacent explanations means that the tailored regression model will pass close to that particular observation. A leverage point interchanges the customer from accepting a product’s benefits to linking those benefits with personal values. In order to construct a quality leverage point, the creative builds the pathway that connects a product benefit with the potential buyer’s value system.
The two leverage points which makes the most sense for South Australian food producers’ advertising are –

Government
Industry

The reason behind that they get a feedback that leads to service credibility to South Australian Food Centres. The leverage points here link product attributes so that it will focus on factors such as packaging & labelling – consumers benefits that it will be make sure that their brand is exciting to consumers’ value that it’s related to industry value. The fundamental purpose of the South Australian (SA) Food Centre is to construct a co-operative conglomerate with both industry & government. Through this, they could build up strong & cordial relations with several agencies & corporations, which further enable the South Australian (SA) food producers to market & promote their food products into the market with an optimum level of efforts. The leverage point message links these attributes & benefits to consumer values. An effective leverage point can be associated with an attitudinal change, especially when the cognitive  affective conative sequence exists. As a result of collaboration of the South Australian food producers with an industry & government, South Australian fruit growers received a considerable boost from Charlie’s Group Limited, the manufactures of Charlie’s & Phoenix Organics. It was great news for South Australia’s fruit growers as Charlie’s propelled a new promoting campaign in order to support or promote their products or services. Due to such efforts made by both South Australian Food Centre as well as Charlie’s Group, the South Australian food producers have benefited a lot in attaining market value along with customer’s preference towards their product line.
A3.For traditional advertisements aimed at consumers, the South Australian (SA) Food Centre should use emotional framework to connect with consumers & get them engage by providing them the value that fulfil their requirements & expectations in the product. An executional framework displays the method in which an advertisement plea will be offered. It would be selected in conjunction with an advertising appeal & message strategy. The common types of appeal include fear, humour, sex, music, rationality, emotions, & scarcity. It is essential that each can be matched with the appropriate executional framework.
Several frameworks which could be used by South Australian Food Marketing are:

Animation – Animation has become a progressively prevalent executional framework, & its usage has escalated intensely. Animation can be presented in both televisions as well as in internet advertising. One sensational animation method is roto-scoping. Roto-scoping is the process of numerically painting or outlining statistics into live arrangements, which makes it possible to present both live actors & animated characters in the same structure. Animation helps in creating traditional advertisements funny, interesting & attractive for behalf of customers.

Dramatization – Dramatization is the best way of learning as it makes a situation more imperative or serious than it really is. It helps consumers to understand traditional advertisements easily & frequently. An effective & dramatic advertisement can be hard to create, but once it is shaped, it puts a strong & positive impact into the minds of customers.

Testimonials – Testimonials are also an effective mode of promoting services. It is referred to as a prescribed declaration testifying to someone’s character & experiences. It is like an individual recommendation. It is a declaration in provision of a specific reality, fact or claim. It can also be used by South Australian Food Marketing for impacting a strong impression of technical advertisements in front of customers.

Demonstration – A demonstration, in short demo, displays how a product works. It provides an effective way to converse the benefits of a product to audiences. It highlighted the product’s numerous usages. Demonstrated ads are well-matched to television & the internet. It attracts customers’ attention & hence makes them more fascinating towards product line.
Fantasy – Fantasy refers to as an imagination. Fantasy execution encourages the audience beyond the actual world to a make-believe experience. The most common fantasy themes involve sex, love & romance. So, fantasy fits pleasantly with target viewers that have a preference for a tamer demonstration of sexuality.

So, these executional frameworks could be utilised by South Australian Food Marketing for technical advertisements while aiming at consumers in order to attain competitive advantage over the rivals.
REFERENCES

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