EMIRATES: TAKING THE IMC ROUTE (A Case Study)

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 Groups 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 maximised exposure rate.

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.

Living the brand 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.

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

Engaging customers 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 reached their target audience & hence successfully developed a strong relation with their customers.

Open up 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.

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 maximizing its message exposure rate.

Various IMC tools used by Emirates are-

Advertisements 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 airlines new products, routes, services & aircraft. It helps in fostering its services.

Sponsorship 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 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).

Public Relation 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.

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

Emirates The finest in the sky

Fly Emirates

Be good to yourself.

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Keep Discovering.

Hello Tomorrow.

Instructions:

This is a group assignment. You have to d it in a group of 5 Students

Go Through the above case study and answer the following questions:

Questions:

Q1. Explain how Emirates promoting approach has been effective in constructing an optimistic trademark appearance with current & potential customers?

Q2. Classify the IMC tools used by Emirates?

Q3. Emirates flies all over the world. Should Emirates modify its messages & channels according to where it advertises? Explain.