Experiences should end airline price war

Airlines in Malaysia wanting to stand out in the me-too category of budget flights should market experiences not prices, a market research guru said in Kuala Lumpur this week.A fierce battle over cheap plane seats has been raging across the ad pages of Malaysia's dailies, in a race to the bottom with key players running competitive analysis ads to lay claim to the cheapest seats in the skies.It might seem like an environment where only tactical retail type messages would work but Synovate's visiting international director of research and development, brand communications practice, Jan Hofmeyr believes even in this slash and burn category there is a place for branding.Hofmeyr says there is an opportunity to take the focus off just the price itself and create more lasting connections with consumers by selling what cheap flights achieve for individuals, time with family, learning through travel, freedom etc. rather then simply the price of the flight itself.This then builds more of an emotional bond between consumer and brand that might even transcend a competitor selling a flights for a few ringgit less.Once you have created a set of associations among the audience which they can relate to their lives and how the brand fits in to that, there needs to be continual re-enforcement of this.Hofmeyr says there is no better place to do this than when the customer arrives at the airport."You have a captive audience at the gate, so you should use reinforcement at the point of use," he says, this might include branding around the check-in counters where permissible.While much of the print advertising related to the cheap ticket price war consists simply of numbers and comparisons, Hofmeyr believes marketers should never forget the secret to successful advertising."You can never get away from great creative," he concludes, but adds that the experience itself must deliver on the promise, there are no shortcuts in this aspect of the marketing.