And what about you ?

Through this blog, we want to share with you some insight about the airline industry but mostly about brand strategies of the most powerful companies. Our articles were focused on understanding how the companies try to develop their brand through their values, event sponsorship, communications, celebrity endorsement…

But this time, we wanted to have your opinion to see if you really see these brands how we present them to you in this blog. To do that, we conducted some interviews of travellers to test the image, awareness and perception of some famous brands. We conducted 10 interviews with students. These students represent large amounts of the travellers and are also the future 1^st or business class customers of airline companies. The population is composed of Chinese and French students in order to be able to compare the vision of people from different nationalities.

We will share the results of these interviews with you today.

Among the students we interviewed, 40% are frequent travelers as they travel between 4 and 6 times a year by plane. Then, they are the good population to judge the image and awareness of airlines as they are used to travel very often and with several companies.

The first question was an open question in order to students to list the 3 premium airlines that come to their mind. This question helps us to determine the unaided awareness of the airline brands. The results were pretty similar and the 3 most named brands were Air France, Emirates and Singapore Airlines.

More deeply, Air France has been cited by 7 people and 6 times in first position. This is a very high score of unaided awareness for Air France and means that for our population, it is one of the most known premium airlines. Of course it can be explained by the fact that our population is mostly composed of French students.

In second position, we have Emirates, which has been cited by 5 people and twice in first position.

And finally we have Singapore Airlines named 3 times.

Then, we wanted to know more about the companies who decided to focus on low cost. We asked the students to named the first low cost airline that come to their mind. No surprise for us, Easyjet was the winner with 7 votes followed by RyanAir with 2 votes. These low cost airlines are the most known in Europe so these results are understandable.

After discovering the most known airline companies, we wanted to understand what they really think of these companies.

You can see below the 3 most frequent words attributed to each brand:

These attributes represent quite well what people think of these brands even if it is not especially what the brand want to be associated with.

It seems that Emirates has a very good and luxurious image for students. This image is the one the company tries to develop so it is very good.

Singapore may be less known by the students interviewed.

Finally, we wanted to go deeper by asking people to associate some attributes to famous airline companies.

Here are the results of the main cited brands for each adjective given.

Classy	Emirates (5 times)
Trendy	Emirates (4 times)
Reliable	Air France (5 times)
Friendly	Air France and Emirates (twice for each)
Innovative	Mixed, premium (Emirates, Qatar, Virgin) as well as low cost (Easyjet, Southwest Airlines)
Unpleasant	Easyjet and RyanAir

These results confirm the results from the previous question regarding the image these students have of the most famous airline companies.

•    Emirates is well known and seen as luxurious, classy and trendy
•   Air France is also well known but even if it is seen as offering quality service, they suffer from a bad image because of their numerous strikes
• Singapore Airlines is not well known among our students who think it is Asia related
• Easyjet is well known among the low cost airlines but have a very bad image of being unpleasant

Emirates Communication through social media

Having analyzed the Emirates Group social media, it should be mentioned that the company presence on these platforms is undoubtedly strategic and essential communication tool.  

Thus, the Emirates’ main marketing objectives are: 

         1. Increase of brand salience and recognition

         2. Customers’ loyalty to brand

         3. Online brand reputation

         4. Higher conversion rates

         5. Higher Brand authority

         6. Increased inbound traffic

         7. Better Search Engine Rankings

         8. Clients’ feedbacks and review on companies services

         9. The usage of consumers’ online related activities and electronic word of a mouth to successfully advertise online

       10. Promotion of the product via consumer-to-consumer interactions

       11. Improved customer insights

We have explored the most dominant Social Media Marketing Techniques of Emirates Airline:

Social Media Marketing Technique 1: SM Brand Management

Emirates Company maintains a blog, Twitter Account, Facebook, engages people who are interested, shares valuable things in the industry promoting their branded aircraft, and eventually builds up followers, visitors, and trust. Also the YouTube and Instagram are managed according to the social media marketing strategies of Emirates. However, the Google+ Emirates’ Account seems less popular between clients. LinkedIn Emirates’ profile is working for professional purposes and career opportunities within the company.

Social Media Marketing Technique 2: Marketing Gamification (Viral Videos)

Emirates creates their own viral content which indirectly promotes their brand and services. Emirates uses this technique creating viral videos and hosting a competition. A great example of it is a celebrity endorsed advertising of A380 airplane with Jenifer Aniston. The video represents the advantages of flying with Emirates instead of using others competitor’s services. Another example is Benfica FC Safety video. Although Benfica lost 0-3 to Sporting, the marketing move proved to be a big win for Emirates. As of Thursday, the FB video had been shared 57,000 times and clocked 556,000 views on YouTube. Reception of the video has been positive, with an outpouring of support and fanfare on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. In addition, #HelloJetMan is considered as part of creating viral video strategy.

Social Media Marketing Technique 3: SM Influencer Campaign

Emirates driving Influence through Sponsorships with Football Clubs, Rugby. The latest one is with Rugby Cup 2016.

Lets' take a look at Emirates' Facebook community.

#Facebook

Content

Company shares the latest news, photos, videos about the brand, its’ services and improvements of product. Uses buzz to engage audience’ attention and to make them be passionate about Emirates brand.

Interaction

Emirates major accent is on community building, customers’ interactions through promotion campaigns.

The great example of engagement is #BringRegbyHome an integrated advertising campaign centred on a fan photography contest. Rugby fans across the world are invited to submit photographs to the website emirates.com/BringingRugbyHome through Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, using the hashtag #BringingRugbyHome. The winner gains two airline tickets to Dubai

#GlobalistasExperience or #BeingThere campaign: 'Be There' is about inspiring travellers to explore more of world through the eyes of our very own travel experts - Emirates Globalistas.

Company has chosen seven of their staff with a passion for travel to explore different places around the world and share their experiences along the way. Emirates shares the videos and photos of their globalistas experience.

#WhoseSideAreYouOn - campaign on animals protection; users have to share the video with hashtag #WhoseSideAreYouOn saying No to poaching. Emirates proposes to watch the reveal of new airbus A380 with logo of United for Wildlife supporting this campaign.

#HelloThailand – promotion campaign which motivates users to participate in #HelloThailand competition, in which anyone has take a selfie with the “Hello Thailand” selfie wall at the Emirates Official Store in The Village at The Dubai Mall, uploading selfie to Facebook or Instagram using #HelloThailand and tag @emirates. The praise - a return Business Class ticket on Emirates from Dubai to Bangkok or Phuket and experience Amazing Thailand.

#HelloLisbon, #RogersCupSocial Media competition, #Poland&Arsenal FC social Media competition both propose tickets to tournaments in Tennis and for football matches.

Marketing Objective: 

Customer engagement and raise of brand awareness through social media promotions and partnerships with others organizations. Clients’ feedbacks and review on companies services. Higher conversion rates. Higher Brand authority.

Source: Emirates Facebook Offical Page 
Picture Credits: Emirates Facebook Offical Page