Air Asia
Air Asia
Air Asia
ID Number : 1001130269
Topic
: Air Asia
Lecturer
A) INTRODUCTION
i) COMPANY BACKGROUND
Air Asia has been one of the award winning and largest low fare airlines in the Asia expanding
rapidly since the year 2001 which is established with the dream of making flying possible for
everyone. Air Asia is a Malaysian low-cost airline, where the headquarter is located in Kuala
Lumpur and its main hub is the low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International
Airport (KLIA) Sepang. Air Asia has faced all the obstacles that came by and has managed to
make its name as the Worlds Best Low Cost Airline in the annual World Airline Survey by
Skytrax for five consecutive years in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. In addition to that, this
has made Air Asia to be ranked among the Top 5 most recognized and favorable airlines in the
Asia Pacific 1000 Brands in 2008. Air Asia with its route network that has span throughout in 20
over countries, have continues to still cover the way for low cost aviation through their brilliant
innovation solutions, efficient processes and a passionate approach to their business.
In order to keep the business growing they have associated companies of their own which are
AirAsia X, Thai Air Asia, Indonesia Air Asia, Philippines' Air Asia Inc, AirAsia Zest, AirAsia
India and Thai AirAsia X, AirAsia which has now set the platforms to a higher range in which
still maintains the mission of being the lowest cost air fare airlines so that this holistically
endorses their belief, "Now Everyone Can Fly" with Air Asia.
ii) HISTORY
Air Asia was originally established by the Malaysian government as a sister airliner to the majotr
national carrier Malaysian Airline System (MAS). It was founded in 1993 by a governmentowned conglomerate DRB-HICOM13 and began operations in later 1996. However, the
government was more committed towards MAS operation, which indirectly made AirAsia to
face failures year after year towards making profit even though it was set up as a sister airliner to
cater domestic routes which are normally not serviced by MAS.
In the year 2001, Tony Fernandes took his leap of faith to make a difference, to change and came
up with the idea of developing a Low-Cost Carrier in 2001. The following year 2002, Tony
Fernandes made a 360 degree turn around for the company by producing profit and he launched
new routes from its hub in Kuala Lumpur, undercutting the former monopoly operator which is
MAS.
On the 23rd of March 2006 Air Asia has begun operating and living up to the mission to be the
low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) which is known to be a budget terminal in Malaysia. The
LCCT, which was opened by the then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on March
23, 2006 and it, had the capacity initially to handle 10 million passengers annually. The facility
was expanded in 2009 to handle 15 million passengers.
Besides airlines of the AirAsia group, including AirAsia, AirAsia X, Indonesia AirAsia, Thai
AirAsia and AirAsia Zest, three other airlines used the LCCT as well, namely Tiger Air, Lion
Air and Cebu Pacific Air. In August 2006, Air Asia took over Malaysia Airlines Rural Air
Service routes in Sabah and Sarawak, operating under the FlyAsianXpress brand.
With the increased frequency and the additional new routes, Air Asia had an amazing increased
in the number of passengers by the end of year 2007. Year by year, it was a vibrant seen to be
growing airlines and early of the year 2013, Air Asia saw that it was a steep increase in its profit
compared to the time it started off.
On 2ND May 2014, the curtain came down on the operations on LCCT as KLIA 2 takes over. The
new terminal KLIA 2 was opened as LCCT was unable to handle the budget carrier passenger
traffic that had reached 22 million people per year, which way beyond its 15 million people
capacity per annum. The KLIA 2 terminal which was built at a cost of RM4 billion, can handle
up to 45 million passengers annually, and Air Asia is expected to contribute about 80 per cent of
the traffic. Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd had said that the LCCT would be turned into an air
cargo terminal.
This was for the better investment for the future and for the growth of the business so as to keep
living up to the slogan - Now Everyone Can Fly.
Air Asias vision is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia and serving the 3 billion people who
are currently underserved with poor connectivity and high fares.
To be the best company to work for whereby employees are treated as part of a big
family.
To attain the lowest cost so that everyone can fly with Air Asia
Maintain the highest quality product, embracing technology to reduce cost and enhance
service levels.
Safety: Adopting a zero tolerance to unsafe practices and strive for zero accidents
through proper training, work practices, risk management and adherence to safety
regulations at all times.
Valuing our People: Committing to our peoples development and well-being and
treating them with respect, dignity and fairness.
Customer Focused: We care and treat everyone in the same manner that we want to be
treated.
Integrity: Practicing highest standards of ethical behaviour and demonstrate honesty in all
our lines of work in order to command trust and mutual respect.
Excellence in Performance: Setting goals beyond the best and reinforcing high quality
performance standards and achieving excellence through implementing best practices.
B)BODY CONTENT
Competitors
ii)
Perceptual Mapping
iii)
SWOT Analysis
iv)
Target Consumers
v)
vi)
Objective
vii)
i) Competitors
Living in such a globalized and much competitive world to be the best among the best, Air Asia
should take in consideration to know their current standing among the competing airline industry
for them. The competitors which are found to be the archrival of Air Asia come in two forms.
The direct competitors for Air Asia are Firefly and Tiger Airways and the remaining under the
indirect competitor which are Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines System (MAS).
However, MAS could also be considered as the direct competitor as well since has been a
monopoly in the domestic air travel industry in Malaysia. (Malaysian context ONLY)
High Price
Malaysian Airlines
System
(MAS)
Singapore Airlines
Low
Quality
Of Service
High
Quality
Of Service
Expected future
position for
Air Asia
Air Asia
Airlines
Firefly Airlines
Tiger Airways
Airlines
Low Price
Figure 1
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Figure 1 showed the representation of similarities and differences between the different airlines
which are found to be the relevant competitors of Air Asia airline. As shown above, MAS and
Singapore Airliners are of high standard airlines in which is aimed for meeting customers
expectations at of a higher level expectation compared to Air Asia airlines. Therefore both this
airlines have positioned themselves as high quality of service, high price. On the other hand, for
the positioning of low quality of service, low price has been taken by Air Asia Airlines as the
lead followed by Firefly Airlines and then Tiger Airways Airlines.
Focusing on Air Asia airlines, the best position for a new shift to a better success would be still
to maintain its position at the low price but moving towards the high quality of service airlines as
the new face of Y-axis. The low cost axis is important to be maintained as that is what Air Asia
airlines is known for and has been established in the eyes of the consumers.
Therefore, adding a new high quality of service airlines or a more luxury quality in laymans
term with still at a low cost price is what is found to be an ideal placing for Air Asia for it meets
Air Asias vision is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia and serving the 3 billion people who
are currently underserved with poor connectivity and high fares.
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSESS
SWOT
ANALYSIS
OPPORTUNITIES
The
STRENGTHS
THREATS
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The
WEAKNESSESS
The
OPPORTUNITIES
Differentiation from traditional low cost carrier (LCC) model by adding customer
services or operation as full service airline with low fare.
Ongoing industry consolidation has opened up prospects for new routes and airports
deals.
The
THREATS
The whole analysis has summarized both pluses and minuses in the company. The following
strategies can be used to decrease the weaknesses and avoid threats of the company and improve
its competitive by upgrading its company to a more successful and well to do Airline Company.
According to the VALS system, my targeted consumers would be experiencers group of people.
They are people who want to live within the social circle that now Everyone Can Fly with Air
Asia to gain new experience as mentioned earlier. Other than that, these groups of people are
highly motivated with brands that reflect peer acceptance and without any further doubt Air Asia
is well accepted brand with the largest low fare airlines in Asia which has been expanding
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rapidly since the year 2001 which is established with the dream of making flying possible for
everyone.
Air Asia believes in the no-frills which is good to go against competitors. Hassle-free, low fare
business concept and feels that keeping costs low requires high efficiency in every part of the
business through the corporate philosophy of Now Everyone Can Fly, Air Asia has sparked a
revolution in air travel with more and more people around the region choosing Air Asia as their
preferred choice of transport.
With the power of technology, Air Asia took advantage of the power of technology and used it
for expanding the business, which began with online booking. Tony Fernandez understood that
the new generation is more incline towards technology savvy and hence Air Asia was the first
airline in Malaysia to provide a service for consumers to buy their ticket through just a simple
call on the phone. While the years pass by, Air Asia built their website platform which was
online booking. With online booking in hand, customers can just log in to the website, to book,
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pay and look through promotions with ease. Air Asia even sends E-mail to customers who
subscribe to their website with the latest promotions in Air Asia.
In addition to that, this cut- cost in advertising and marketing component of IM especially since
everything could be accessible online which makes it easier and user friendly. Besides that, this
reduces the number of stuffs required as even the boarding passes could be printed only online.
Besides, the website itself does the advertising, which means Air Asia is saving cost to Advertise
even though at times they do advertise in newspapers such The Star to achieve higher reach and
frequency. Therefore I would say, maintaining and updating the official website would take up a
little more in costing but the outcome is still way more profitable as there are higher users who
prefer online-booking which saves up all the hassles.
Besides that, the more informed Internet customers become the more power they may have over
Air Asia, especially if Air Asia is unable to maintain its low cost leadership position. Therefore,
Air Asia has The Revenue Management System which is the only system being used by Air
Asia. This system had made the airline understands, anticipates, and react to the behavior of
customer to maximize income from organization. This takes account into the operating costs and
Air Asia has to optimize prices and distribute amount to maximize the expected income. Seats
are available at various prices in different points of time. Reservation will be charged once
consumer changed the previous booking time to the earlier or late after the days. While for the
route, it can be done by adjusting the prices for destinations that have higher demand when
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compare with others. Combination of these 2 levels for all flight will be the best effective
method.
vi) Objective
The objective of the IMC CAMPAIGN is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia. This is to
maintain the identity of what Air Asia is known for and established as and as well to full-fill the
vision of Air Asia Airlines.
The marketing mix is the combination of elements that influence a customers decision whether
or not to purchase Air Asia airline fare. They need extended marketing mix to make sure they
can achieve the aims.
1. Branding
The branding for Air Asia would be maintained as the identity and the recognition of its airline is
strong enough as it is known to be the low cost airlines in Asia. Branding consist of three
components which are the brand story, brand strategy and the brand consistency.
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The Brand Story would be entailing on how Tony Fernandez taking his leap of faith against all
the odds with one determination which is to make a difference, a change and he came up with
this brilliant idea of developing a Low Cost Carrier and ever since then that vision has been
lived up to. Air Asia has also come with a tagline which has empowered people by making it
possible to fly anytime across the vast distance at the best rate with Air Asia airlines. In return,
millions of life had been changed with a bundle of happiness to the new experiences Air Asia
offers with its low cost affair airlines.
The Brand Strategy for Air Asia Airlines is to be maintained as the low cost air fare, for Air
Asia is one of the businesses airlines that have successfully adopted cost leadership through
operational effectiveness and efficiency enabling Air Asia to become the Asias leading low-fare
airline. By using a simple but strong slogan Now Everyone Can Fly, Air Asia has successfully
positioned itself in its customers mind. These points of contact with their target customer help
them to mold their image, which in turn created loyalty from their customers.
The Brand Consistency on the hand is to also be maintained with the present Air Asia Airlines
Logo in inclusive of the dimension, the size, the font and the color red and white throughout the
IMC Campaign. For instance, the color red could be the font and white as the background or
white as the font and red color as the background as shown as visual below.
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This is because Air Asia has created a very strong brand identity and therefore it should be
maintained in order not to confuse the consumers and remain with the loyalty which has been
earned.
2. Advertising
In the advertising component of Air Asia is using the blend of information and persuasive kind
of advertising objectives as their efforts to promote their products. Air Asia also uses the
informative advertising method to promote their latest promotion especially the promotion of
their latest flight tickets promotion of their latest destination. This piece of information is found
to be an important form for their advertising for Air Asia is vital for them to keep their customers
up-dated and well informed on the current on-going issue and deal offers of Air Asia.
Air Asia uses both the ATL (Above The Line) and the BTL (Below- The - Line). However
the ATL type of advertising can be seen to be the most transparent one especially on the print
media of the newspapers such The Star. The originality of the color scheme is maintained
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throughout the advertisement which is red and white. A clear brand identity is being maintained
throughout the advertisement as their branding.
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Here is on sample of the from The Star newspaper in the year 2013: See Figure 2
Shows the latest update of Air Asia deals for January to March 2013
Figure 2
Besides that, the ATL is also done in the online adverting site which is on the official website of
Air Asia (http://www.airasia.com/my/en/home.page?cid=1 ). All the latest deals and offers are
put up there as well for it is more user-friendly, easily to be accessed as well it lives up to the
new generation of Internet Savvy. From this ATL type of advertising, Air Asia has a high reach
and high frequency.
Therefore the advertising would be giving importance to these four areas which are
1) Competition
2) Objective
3) Money
4) Placement
So the direct competitor of Air Asia airlines would be Firefly as the Firefly airlines as well caters
for the low-cost carrier airline. This can be seen based on the perceptual mapping in Figure 1
(page 8) with the explanation on (page 9).
The objective of the advertising to achieve high reach with high frequency with the aim to full
fill the vision on Air Asia which is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia and serving the 3
billion people who are currently underserved with poor connectivity and high fares. Therefore,
by using the ATL type of advertising will maximum the reach and frequency to their consumers.
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Money and placement on the other hand, goes along together with the objective. According to
the VALS category, Air Asias target consumer would be for the experiencer group. Therefore
since Air Asia is well to do, enhance more money could be spent on the ATL type of advertising
in order to show that Air Asia is social accepted brand of airline among the society. This would
create a deeper sense of acceptance to the social circle of experiencing.
3. Public Relation
Looking into the context of Public Relation (PR), Grunig- Hunts 4 Models would be taken into
account when PR is being put into practice. The Grunig-Hunts 4 Models consist of these four
components which are:
a) Press Agentry
b) Public Information
c) Two Way Asymmetrical
d) Two Way Symmetrical
The press agentry is one of PRs main goal and objective in order to get the media exposure and
coverage into the mainstream media if possible. Social media has becomes one of PRs huge
playground especially in these recent years after the advancement of the globalized era. PR has
used the social media channels such Facebook to obtain the larger reach and frequency to that
people. With this platform people can share and create conversation on the official fan page of
Air Asia on Facebook.
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Here are the samples taken directly from the official website of Air Asia Facebook fan page: See
Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6
Figure 3
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Figure 3 is shows the official page of Air Asia on Facebook with the totally amount 2,596, 183
up to date on the 14/ 8/ 2014, Thursday. This clearly shows that how active people are these days
being an online-user. Therefore using the social is good media to reach out to people.
Figure 4
Figure 4 on the other hand, shows that social media has also been actively involved in other
social media as well such as the line application which is applicable on any smartphone platform.
As, from this Air Asia has gone all out to be more user-friendly and made easier in oder to reach
out to as many people they could.
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Figure 5
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Figure 5 shows that social media has also become a hub in updating the creating an awareness of
the development of Air Asia so that the people could also be a part and be well informed of the
positive development of the airlines.
Figure 6
Figure 6 shows Air Asia official Facebook fan page is promoting as well encouraging promoting
conversations between the airlines and the customers. This would definitely make the experience
group category to feel welcomed as well being accepted as a apart of the social society of Air
Asia.
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The public information is PRs secondary daily operations objective which is to be involved as
the main information processor or journalist of the community. Here are some samples for Air
Asias public information: See Figure 7
Figure 7
The last component to PR is the 2 way Asymmetrical and Symmetrical. Two-way asymmetrical
model is a persuasion and manipulation which aimed to influence the public to act in the way
organizations desire. Two-way symmetrical model is attempted to achieve a win-win situation
which build mutual understanding between the organization and its public.
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Propaganda
Figure 8
Figure 8 shows the asymmetrical model of Air Asia using the propaganda to describe this model.
Propaganda intends to alter the public perception on certain thing. It is use as a communication
to achieve the organizations desire and expectation. Therefore, Tony Fernandez has set
propaganda indirectly in his print ads as you can see this phrase in the ad which says ZestAir
now flies with Air Asia, The Worlds Best Low- Cost Airline. This propaganda was put there in
order to manipulate the mind sets of the consumer to agree with Air Asias point of view and
hence, the support for the product or services of Air Asia is achieved as people as influenced by
it which why Air Asia is brand identity is known to be the largest low fare airlines in the Asia.
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Figure 9
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4) Marketing
Last but not least is the marketing component to the IMs and marketing component comes with
the 7Ps which are:
i.
Price
ii.
Promotion
iii.
Place
iv.
Product
v.
People
vi.
Physical Evidence
vii.
Process
As for pricing, Air Asia is using the anchor pricing strategy. Anchor pricing creates the
foundation for the rest of the pricing in Air Asia. Anchor prices are usually at a very low price,
thus it attracts consumers to start thinking about the possibilities of flying with Air Asia as the
tagline of the low-cost airline says Everyone can fly now with Air Asia.
As for promotion, Air Asia is using the accessibility promotion in which the consumer is
allowed to gain the products promotion with minimal interference by receiving emails. As for
promotions, Air Asia have promotions for cheaper flights depending on every week or every
month. They send out e-mails to notify customers to subscribe to their services and to update
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them about the on-going promotions of cheaper flights. Other than that, Air Asia also does
advertisements, Internet marketing ( example Facebook ) and billboard advertising.
As for place, Air Asia is based only in Malaysia, and some parts of the world. Air Asia is also
concentrating in their online booking market. With this growing rapidly, their next achievement
is to extend their services throughout the world with more Air Asia flights included. From this
rapid growth has created a good reputation for the reach of consumers is high.
As for product, Air Asia is based on DeBono Six Thinking Hats process.
Air Asia has a clear brand name which is the largest low-cost airlines in
Asia. The brand name and identity has been kept consistent as the lowest
cost fare throughout all campaigns.
FACTS
Air Asia is clear with its benefits which the tagline says Everyone can
fly with Air Asias aim which is to be be looked and identified as the
lowest cost airlines.
BENEFITS
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Air Asias brand color is red and white. Both the choices of color
do reflect the right emotions. Red means determination, passion
and desire meanwhile white means perfection and positivity.
FEELINGS
Yes, the process of portraying Air Asia as the low cost airlines is
clear. They give out cheap air flights so that everyone can fly.
PROCESS
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As for people, Air Asia is well known for choosing the correct people for the correct job, they
are so specific about the job description than other low-cost airlines. They will only hire people
that they think is suitable and by the persons capabilities. For example, working for a low
budget airline needs people that can handle many flights that happen daily, but of course they
are not underpaid. With choosing people that is capable for the job, the person that had been
employed will not fail the company.
As for physical evidence, Air Asia is well known for their logo on the aircraft and also inside
the aircraft, from seats to air stewards / air stewardess. Air Asia is so detailed about their logo
being seen, that it is placed almost everywhere in the aircraft and also business centers.
As for process, Air Asia with good management team so that Air Asia can manage their
customer service very well. In fact, customers complaints are usually dealt within 1- 24 hours.
This shows how serious they are when it comes to taking care of their customers.
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C) CONCLUSION
i) Recommendations
ii) Conclusion
i) Recommendations
Though Air Asia has established itself to a distinctive brand identity, here are some
recommendations which could be used in the future of Air Asia to maintain as well to upgrade its
platform of the largest low fare airlines in the Asia. Here are few of my recommendations:
Besides the growth of Asian middle class, the liberalization of aviation sector of India is another
reason for Air Asia to open more Asian market. The Indian government has liberalized the
aviation sector long dominated by the national carriers. Now, only a few low cost airlines, e.g.
Air Deccan, Airone Feeder Airline Pvt Ltd, Crescent Air, have launched their services there.
Moreover, the national carriers, Indian Airlines or Air India, despite their domination of the
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Indian skies, do not seem to be much interested in operating low-cost services. Therefore, it is a
good chance for AirAsia to open the Indian market.
3) Consumer Satisfaction
Air Asia will be the best airline company as having the cheapest price tickets and letting
everyone can fly around the world. To make the company become better and better, Air Asia can
also recommended providing more choices of food and drinks in order to reach the satisfaction
of passengers. In addition, Air Asia can think of giving extra luggage allowance to 25 Kg to the
passengers.
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ii) Conclusion
Air Asias actual main strength is based in its innovative ways to keep the cost low which was
hard to imitate. This has allowed Air Asia to be positioned and be the market leader in the low
cost carrier.
Besides that, the combination of red and white colors in the Air Asias logo acted as a tool
to color the product within the airline industry in this region Asia by creating a self
image as other airlines did not have the same combination of colors as Air Asia red and white.
In a nutshell, Air Asia had successfully prove to be a award winning and largest low fare airlines
in the Asia.
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