A marketing plan can be a very difficult document to write. A well-thought out marketing plan requires specific attention to very particular points, must be able to communicate how a company will reach its target demographic, and must be able to deliver a message that is pleasing to investors and realistic to implement. This is a sample essay and analysis that focuses on the important elements of any successful marketing plan. 

Marketing Analysis of the Airline Industry 

One of the key business decisions that faces any sort of company is to have a well thought out and successful marketing plan to let the company’s targeted demographic know about the service or product that the company is offering. The ability to reach out and inform the potential clients about the company’s particular services is of the upmost importance for a company to become profitable.

Therefore, much of a company’s resources are placed into implementing a workable and well-designed marketing plan. In modern times, marketing plans must meet several important criteria in order for them to be considered worth the investment made by the company to put them into place. A successful marketing campaign will be concise in its message, cost effective, cover multiple forms of media, appear frequently, and follow the trust triangle. By paying attention to each of these aspects, a successful marketing campaign will make the company’s service seem to be the best choice to the potential clients that it reaches out to and will ultimately generate a great amount of revenue for the company that implements it.

Travel Industry in general

One of the service industries that relies heavily on putting into effect an effective media plan is that of the industry of travel. This industry is one of the most important and highly competitive fields of business in modern times, especially within the air-traffic industry. It is therefore essential that an effective marketing campaign be put into place because this is an industry that, for the greater part, is not dominated by companies that the individual knows by name and relies upon using a single company for all of their needs.

In order to attract and implement the most amounts of clients to utilize a particular company, those that are in this industry rely heavily upon their marketing campaigns in order to put their companies above the others in terms of attracting new clients to utilize their company’s services. Marketing campaigns for companies that operate within this field of business have several unique challenges to face and are subject to analysis, rules, and restrictions in advertising and marketing that other businesses do not have to face. 

One of the other most important aspects that a company should consider when marketing to its potential clients comes in the form of what is known as the Trust Triangle. This marketing concept is based upon the idea of building three particular areas to equal proportions in order to solidify a company’s position to its potential clients in order for them to gain some trust that the company will provide the services that they offer to superior level.

The cornerstones of the Trust Triangle are: character, common sense of purpose, and competence. Each of these aspects helps a company to form a more positive image within their clients’ minds and helps to build up the company’s name and reputation with the ultimate goal of generating more revenue from its client base. Each of these cornerstones should be paid equal attention and should be thoroughly, but not overbearingly so, addressed by the company so that the potential client can build the greatest amount of trust for the company based upon the form of marketing that the client has been exposed to.

Trust triangle

The first of the cornerstones of the Trust Triangle that must be addressed in marketing for a company is competence. Every potential client that sees some form of advertisement for a company should always see how professional, well led and managed the company is. In terms of an airline, this can be seen by showing well organized and maintained employees that appear to be both helpful and generally enjoy being a part of the company as a whole.

The major aspects that are addressed within this aspect of the Trust Triangle come down to the notion of making the client believe that those that run the company know what they are doing and will provide an easy to use way of providing their service to their clients. Without a sense of competence from the company, the client could feel that those that run the company are no more qualified them themselves and lose faith in the company’s ability to provide their marketed services to a superior level. Generally speaking, the aspect of competence can be summarized as the marketing company showing that they are the most qualified, on every level, at providing their service to their clients.

Second piece of the triangle

The second aspect of the Trust Triangle that a successful marketing campaign addresses comes from the notion of a common sense of purpose. Companies must be able to show their clients that they understand, from the client’s point of view, what the company should be able to do and attempt to provide an environment in which the company can fulfill their obligations to the client in the best way possible.

In terms of an airline company, this can be seen in the company’s ability to demonstrate to its potential client base that the company wants to get the client to his or her destination as quickly as possible with the least amount of hassle for the client that can be given. By providing a common sense of purpose, a potential client will feel that the company is not simply taking their money in exchange for a service, but they will feel that the company is utilizing their money in a way to provide the best possible service that is both efficient and effective in the company’s overall purpose of supplying the client with a service.

Without a common sense of purpose, the clients of the marketing company can feel as though the company lacks both leadership and an understanding of the client’s needs and desires.

Final aspect of the trust triangle

The final aspect of the Trust Triangle is the character of the company. This notion is summed up by the idea that the client believes that the marketing company is not simply in business to take the client’s money. By character, the implied meaning is that the marketing company is honest enough to provide the service offered at a reasonable price given the level of care that the client would receive for choosing the particular company.

The potential client must feel that the company that is marketing its services is both honest and fair. This can be shown by an airline company in its ability to deal with the many potential complications that can arise during the duration of traveling that a person can experience such as time of bad weather. To build the company’s character image, an airline company can show that it is not only willing to work with but will go above and beyond the call to take care of its customers during such times by providing complementary services to stranded passengers until they reach their final destination.

By showing displays of customer affection such as this, the marketing company is showing its potential clients its strength of character and attracting them to utilize their company’s services. By combining these aspects, a company solidly builds the foundation of trust that is necessary for a client to feel that the company is worthy of their trust, which will usually lead to the client using that company for their needs in the particular field of service. 

For a travel company, particularly those in the air trafficking industry, reaching out to the particular client base can be relatively challenging. This is due largely to the fact that the target audience is not limited to a specific set of individuals that many other types of companies usually cater to. For example, a company such as a athletic shoe brand is not going to be implementing a marketing campaign that aims to up its sales by targeting people over the age of 65 because that age group is not the company’s target demographic.

However, for an airline company, the potential client base literally spans all ages, genders, races, etc. It is of the upmost importance, therefore, for these companies to implement marketing ventures that do not isolate or make a particular group of individuals feel as though they are not wanted by the company. This is largely handled by the company’s ability to diversify the types of media that specific advertisements appear within. 

Delivering the message

An airline’s marketing campaign can largely been broken down into the multiple ways in which it displays its message to its clients. One of the most important aspects of these company’s campaigns comes from the different forms of media that are utilized to reach the potential clients. Because different age groups will get their news from different forms of media, usually, these companies will attempt to cater particular advertisements within the media that is dominated by a particular age group specifically to that age group’s desires.

For example, the social media world is not usually seen as a place for the elder population to gather and gain their news from. Therefore, it is uncommon to see the marketing endeavors of an airline to be catered to the elderly population in this particular form of media. The general takeaway is that it is critical for a company to choose wisely how and to what demographic of their potential client base should particular forms of marketing take shape within in the overall marketing campaign within particular forms of media.

There are many different forms of media that an airline company will use to market itself to its client-base. The four forms of media that are the most common are seen in: social media through the Internet, television, classic forms of printed media (newspapers, magazines, etc.), and email. Each of these forms of media generally targets the entire demographic that would utilize a company’s services, however particular forms of media are catered more so to a particular type of audience based upon which age group is known to use that form of media more than the other age groups.

It is also important to note that the general message that is displayed through the different types of media tends to vary, albeit to only a slight degree. This again is due largely to the fact that within different forms of media, a company is targeting specific age groups.

Want to see another example? Check out this market analysis on Dove soap.