Marketing for Aviation and the Creative Industries

This report discusses the potential marketing opportunities in the aviation industry using Porter's five force model, PESTLE and SWOT analysis. It also explores how TAP Air Portugal segments its market, targets customers, and differentiates itself from competitors. The report provides insights into the marketing mix programs of the company and offers valuable recommendations for improvement.

Marketing for aviation
and the creative industries

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1) Analyse potential marketing opportunities by using Porter's five force model, PESTLE and
SWOT analysis.......................................................................................................................3
2) How company segments market, target customers and differentiate itself from their
competitors.............................................................................................................................6
3) Provide marketing mix programmes of company..............................................................6
4) Conclusion and recommendations.....................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the process of searching, promoting and distributing the products and
services of a company to the target audience within the market. The airline industry is considered
as a fastest transportation sectors and it is highly competitive because many companies offers
similar products. So the marketing of aviation industry is essential for which companies adopts
social media, advertising, perks, loyalty programmes etc. in order to market their airline facilities
or services. In this report, TAP Air Portugal company is chosen which is a flag carrier airline of
Portugal that mainly headquartered at Lisbon Airport in Portugal. Company has a fleet of 100 air
planes that manufactured by Airbus. The company was started in 1945 by the David Neeleman.
In this assignment, the potential market opportunities are discussed by using Porters five force,
SWOT, PESTLE as well as STP are done in order to differentiate customers and lead market
position. Also, prepare marketing mix of company to promote their offerings and facilitate
appropriate recommendations on the above discussion.
MAIN BODY
1) Analyse potential marketing opportunities by using Porter's five force model, PESTLE and
SWOT analysis.
In the Aviation industry several opportunities are available in the market that are
analysed properly by the marketing manager of TAP Air Portugal in order to formulate
appropriate strategies and decisions to gain a competitive leading position (Lampel and Germain,
2016). Some of the models and analysis are considered as follows:
Porter's five force analysis:
This model was created in 1979 by M. Porter which is very helpful for the understanding
of entire effectiveness of businesses within the market. As TAP Air Portugal used this analysis as
they will be capable to get several advantages such as effective planning, dealing with
stakeholders, gaining competitive edge and so on. The detail discussion is to be done as follows:
Threat of new entrants: In the airline industry, the threat of new entrants is low because
there is the huge requirement of investment as well as skills and knowledge is also valuable that
can not be have by all persons. Also, the government regulations are difficult to handle with it
and generate customer base is hard in that kind of industry because customers have concern

towards the trust and safety service providers. This kind of threat can be handled by bringing
innovation in services of company and more focus on R&D activities (Jarach, 2017).
Threats of substitution: The aviation industry has many substitutes as people can switch
to bus, car, train and the switching cost is also low. So the threat of substitution is moderate for
Air Portugal and the marketing manager can handle this threat by being service oriented,
understanding the customers requirements as well as increase switching cost for clients.
Bargaining power of buyers: It is high in the airline industry because of the availability
of various buyers. So the marketing manager of Air Portugal need to be handled these threats by
building a large base of customers, rapidly brings innovations in their services and so on. This
will help in building loyal customers which gives high profitability.
Bargaining power of suppliers: In aviation industry, suppliers includes labour, fuel
supplier, air plane manufactures so the company have to maintain better relations with their
suppliers. The bargaining power of suppliers is high so that the manager of TAP can require to
handle this threat by developing efficient supply chain with various suppliers, experiments with
design of products as well as deal with dedicated suppliers.
Industry rivalry: In airline industry, the rivalry is intense because the exit prices is huge
so the competition is continuously going on (Klimas, 2016). The marketing manager of TAP Air
Portugal can handle this kind of threat by building the sustainable differentiation as well as
collaborating with rivals to increase market shares.
PESTLE Analysis:
Political factor: In UK, the political factors or governmental regulations are strict for the
aviation industry because the risk are highly associated with this which can result in the
accidents or death or damages. These factors includes taxation, fiscal policy, trade tariffs and so
on that may have huge impact on the airlines companies at a great extent so companies need to
be considers the influences of political factors.
Economic factor: It have high influences on aviation businesses or industry as the
economic recession in UK made travel market lowest and the economic as well as premium
travelling declined. These factors involves inflation, foreign exchange rates, interest rates as well
as economic growth patterns. Due to the Brexit, uncertainty occurs which had impact on TAP
Air Portugal but it has benefited for low prices of fuel and low interest rates which helps in
promoting the growth of company.

Social factor: It is related to the customers perception, needs, values and beliefs that are
rapidly changing over the time (Albers, 2017). For satisfying the emerging needs of the
customers aviation industry needs to be incorporated changes. As customers prefer those airline
that are facilitated extended services at low prices.
Technological factor: Technologies are highly used in the airline businesses across the
globe as passengers prefer to access check-in and ticketing services by using hand-held devices
rather then manual booking. The use of advanced technologies can make businesses to gain
profits by offering better services and safety measures as well.
Legal factor: There are several laws and legislations for the safety of passengers which
needed to be offer safe travel with the better quality of services to the clients of company. These
regulations has been proposed that regulates how the airline treat their customers and they are
responsible for any damages or crashes.
Environmental factor: In the aviation industry, fuel is the main expenses of airline
industries or businesses so the companies need to invest in the environment friendly aircraft.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths Weaknesses
 As the big strength of TAP Air Portugal
is the increased propensity to fly and
the company provide fast and safe
travel to their passengers.
 The staff of company is highly skilled
and trained with the experience as all
flight attendants, pilots, ground staff
etc. are skilled.
 The company needs high capital outlets
as it is expensive to operates which
creates difficulties in the fund
generation and arrangements.
 Also, company face issue in making
quick schedules and aircraft changes
due to the staffing commitments (Lu
and Chang, 2016).
Opportunities Threats
 The company has an opportunity to
continual expansion for leisure as well
as business destination.
 The technological advancement
provides an opportunity to save costs
 The economic downturn adversely
impacts on the operational and business
travel as well as leisure.
 Governmental interventions can results
in the unexpected competition at

and become more fuel efficient aircraft. international level and costly rules.
2) How company segments market, target customers and differentiate itself from their
competitors.
Several strategies, principles as well as concepts are used by the company TAP Air
Portugal for achieving the organisational objectives and increase the profitability by gaining
competitive advantages (Lüke, Walther and Wäldchen, 2018). For segmenting the market,
targeting audience and differentiate brand with the competitors a marketing manager of company
use STP as a strategy.
STP Strategy:
Segmentation: It is related to the division of entire market into different groups which
have common requirements and will be responds same to marketing actions. In order to segment
the market, TAP Air Portugal have segmented entire market on the basis of demographical
aspects which includes age, income, education, gender etc. For getting the competitive
advantages company compete with the low cost strategy and segments their market on
behavioural variables as well that is based on how people use goods and services, what kind of
benefits they are looking for and how they are loyal.
Targeting: Target customers are considered as a group of people which is identified as
the buyers of company's goods and services. As the targeting defined as an advertising
mechanism that allows company to segments visitors who fulfilled a specific set of criteria form
the general audience. For selling the products and services of company the marketing manager
targets their customers as the TAP Air Portugal firstly target adults of 25-54 age who frequently
travel for business purpose (Noam, 2018).
Positioning: It refers to the place which a company occupies in the view of customers
and shows that how the brand differentiate from the competitors offerings. In this, the marketing
department of TAP Air Portugal creates an image for their services on the basis of intended
customers. This can be done through the use of marketing mix strategies. The company TAP Air
Portugal follows the multi segment concentrations marketing strategies by facilitating different
packages and different customer segment.

3) Provide marketing mix programmes of company.
Marketing mix refers to the set of tactics and actions which a company use in order to
promote their products and services within the marketplace. This helps in determining the
suitability of goods and services in order to target specific customer (Shaw, 2016). With respect
of TAP Air Portugal, marketing mix are discussed as below:
Marketing
mix
Description
Product Pressure on the marketing TAP'S strong product mix as the further improvement
within different product lines includes better specs, on board internet, customer
service upgrade etc. The simplification of products across board includes online
and mobile check-ins, mobile flight updates and online flight tracking system.
Whereas the joint product development with the Star alliances are shared airport
lounges, FFP incentives, schedule coordination.
Price It is the major mix of marketing for TAP Air Portugal as the company succeed
because of their cheap prices so that all class of people will be able to avail
services. The economic pricing strategy is set for those people who need low
priced tickets.
Place TAP Air Portugal is a flag carrier airline of Portugal which has been a member of
the Star Alliances since 2005 and the operates on around 2500 flights in a week to
90 destinations in approximate 34 nations across the world (Sharma and Singh,
2017).
Promotion There are several promotional tools that are being used by TAP Air Portugal
which includes print media advertisements, billboards, advertisements on travel
portals etc. Through which the company promotes their services to their target
customers.
Process Process mix is related to the delivery of services as the process mix of TAP Air
Portugal includes the reservation system, baggage handling facility, facilities
provided to the customers, flight information which is provided to the customers,
check-in services as well as in-flight services.

People Employees are the best and valuable resources of a company which helps in
increasing the production and optimum utilisation of workers skills provides the
better customer experience and satisfaction.
Physical
evidence
In context of TAP Air Portugal there are mainly two types of physical
environment such as ground and in-flight. Ground environment is related to the
booking office, baggage facility etc. and in-flight environment includes ambience
and cleanness in flights as well as amenities facilitates in the flight (Zahari and
Romli, 2019).
4) Conclusion and recommendations.
It can be concluded from the above report that marketing plays an important role in the
airline industry in order to build trust among customers by rewarding them so that companies
conduct their activities continually. In order to analyse the potential market opportunities
company use several tools and techniques such as porter's five force model, PEST analysis,
SWOT etc. Also, use STP marketing strategies in order to segment market, target customers and
differentiate businesses with the competitors. Also, prepare marketing mix in order to create,
interact and deliver the values of businesses to their customers and facilitate valid
recommendations for the improvements.
Recommendations:
 The company TAP Air Portugal is the market leader but they needs to stay active for
getting the competitive advantages.
 The company requires to invest into increasing the brand awareness into the competitive
market place.
 Currently the competition of TAP is on the basis of price so they need to focused on
increasing the competitiveness of their offerings on the basis of quality, services,
amenities etc.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Lampel, J. and Germain, O., 2016. Creative industries as hubs of new organizational and
business practices.
Jarach, D., 2017. Airport marketing: strategies to cope with the new millennium environment.
Routledge.
Klimas, P., 2016. Organizational culture and coopetition: An exploratory study of the features,
models and role in the Polish Aviation Industry. Industrial Marketing Management. 53.
pp.91-102.
Albers, S. and et. al., 2017. Strategic management in the aviation industry. Routledge.
Lu, C. and Chang, J.L., 2016. Beijing cultural and creative industry policy effect evaluation
based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Cluster Computing. 19(4). pp.2133-2143.
Lüke, K.H., Walther, J. and Wäldchen, D., 2018, June. Innovation management methods in the
aviation industry. In International Conference on Innovations for Community Services
(pp. 161-177). Springer, Cham.
Noam, E.M., 2018. Marketing of Media and Information. In Managing Media and Digital
Organizations (pp. 397-452). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Sharma, M. G. and Singh, K. N., 2017. Servitization, coopetition, and sustainability: An
operations perspective in aviation industry. Vikalpa. 42(3). pp.145-152.
Zahari, A. R. and Romli, F. I., 2019. Analysis of suborbital flight operation using PESTLE.
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. 192. p.104901.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.