Social Media Marketing and Traditional Marketing in Airlines Industry

Running head: MARKETING DISSERTATION
Social Media Marketing and Traditional Marketing in Airlines Industry
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Chapter 3: Research methodology...................................................................................................4
3.0 Overview................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Research outline.....................................................................................................................4
3.2 Research approach.................................................................................................................5
3.2.1 A justification for using deductive approach..................................................................5
3.3 Research design.....................................................................................................................6
3.3.1 A justification for using descriptive design....................................................................7
3.4 Research strategy...................................................................................................................8
3.4.1 A justification for using case study research strategy....................................................8
3.5 Data collection process..........................................................................................................9
3.5.1 A justification for using secondary data collection process.........................................10
3.6 Data analysis technique.......................................................................................................10
3.6.1 A justification for using qualitative data analysis technique........................................11
3.7 Accessibility issues..............................................................................................................11
3.8 Summary..............................................................................................................................11
Chapter 4: Data analysis................................................................................................................12
4.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................12
4.1 Thematic analysis................................................................................................................12

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Theme 1: Current airlines industry in UK.................................................................................13
Theme 2: Existing difference between social media marketing and social media marketing...15
Theme 3: Issues in traditional marketing...................................................................................18
Theme 4: Effectiveness of social media marketing compared to traditional marketing...........20
Theme 5: Digital marketing used in airlines industry...............................................................22
Theme 6: Contribution of social media marketing in gaining market exposure and improving
brand image...............................................................................................................................24
4.2 Summary..............................................................................................................................26
References......................................................................................................................................27

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Top 15 airlines in UK International routes....................................................................16
Figure 2: UK Aviation industry.....................................................................................................17
Figure 3: Growth at hub airports competing for international passengers in UK.........................18
Figure 4: Predicted growth of UK passengers...............................................................................19
Figure 5: Social media marketing..................................................................................................20
Figure 6: Drawbacks of traditional marketing...............................................................................22
Figure 7: Social media effectiveness.............................................................................................24
Figure 8: Digital marketing in UK airline industry.......................................................................26
Figure 9: Effectiveness of social media marketing........................................................................28

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Chapter 3: Research methodology
3.0 Overview
The research methodology chapter provides an overview of the existing methodologies
that can be used while commencing with a research work. Appropriate selection of research
methodologies is necessary, as it helps in developing a constructive, conclusive and authentic
study that relates the selection of the tools with the research topic successfully. The chapter
throws light on the different layers of the research onion such as philosophy, approach, design,
strategy, data collection and data analysis techniques. The data collected for research are done
through a proper framework in order to maintain the quality of the work. The section also sheds
light on the crucial research ethics and the issues that potentially arise while completion of
research successfully.
3.1 Research outline
In accordance with the topic, it can be said that positivism philosophy, deductive
approach, descriptive design and case study research strategy has been used. As a result the
difference between social media marketing and traditional marketing in the airlines industry can
be analyzed by investigating the current marketing techniques. This is followed by secondary
data collection process and qualitative data analysis technique that helped in comparing and
contrasting the changes that marketing has encountered and accepted over the years. The
secondary data analysis technique facilitated gathering data about how marketing in the UK
airline industry has changed over the years and accepted social media marketing for better
business.

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3.2 Research approach
The concept of research approach provides an opportunity to collect huge knowledge
about the topic of the research. The most commonly used research approaches are inductive and
deductive. As mentioned by Vaioleti (2016), inductive approach is defined as the approach that
aim towards creating and developing new theories and models based on the observations made
about the research topic. As a result of developing new theories and concepts, this approach is
said to be time consuming and vulnerable to errors. This is because observations vary based on
individuals mind set, opinion and perspectives. This becomes a problem in narrowing down the
observations and developing theories and concepts. Additionally, difference in observations
results in developing different ideas of theories and models that are not tested with suitable
scientific evidence thereby, making it difficult to refer to while conducting the research.
On the other hand, deductive approach is defined as the approach that provides an
opportunity of deducing observations by referring the existing concepts, theories and models.
Deductive approach is scientifically tested, as the concepts, theories and models are already
proven in the past literatures. Referring to previous pieces of literature and information allows in
developing knowledge and understanding about the different variables in the research topic. As a
result, in-depth analysis can be conducted thereby, enriching the quality of the work. As the
concepts, theories and models are previously tested, deductive approach is time efficient and not
prone to error unlike inductive approach (Neuman and Robson 2014).
3.2.1 A justification for using deductive approach
Analyzing the characteristics of all the two approaches, deductive approach is said to be
the best suited. Deductive approach is best suited because the positivism philosophy has been
implemented. Taking into account the research topic, the identified variables are marketing,

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traditional marketing, social media marketing and UK airline industry. The implementation of
deductive approach helped in identifying all the variables of the research topic by referring to
concepts, theories and models related to marketing in the past pieces of literatures or developing
a clear concept and understanding (Alvesson and Skoldberg 2017). As a result, the time taken for
developing new theories and models are saved in deductive approach unlike inductive approach.
Deductive approach facilitates the generation of tested conclusion at the end thereby, improving
the overall quality of the research outcome. In addition to, the use of deductive approach allowed
transforming general information about marketing into specific information about marketing in
the UK airline industry and how effective is social media marketing compared to traditional
marketing in the selected business sector (Bresler and Stake 2017).
3.3 Research design
The research designs are defined s the set of methods and procedures that are used for
gathering and collecting measures of research variables in the research topic. This is because
proper understanding of the research topic facilitates the completion of the study successfully by
identifying the accurate variables. Thus, effective research designs results in proper
understanding of the research topic (Ledford and Gast 2018). The most commonly used research
designs are exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research designs.
As commented by Bauer (2014), exploratory research design facilitates exploring or
identifying the issues existing within a research topic. A research is conducted with the aim of
identifying the problem and finding a solution to it for the benefit of the selected industry,
organization or society. Exploratory design helps in exploring the issue based on the background
information. This research design also helps in clarifying the research problem in context with
the background information. On the other hand, explanatory research design aim towards

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explaining the reasons of the identified issues thereby, finding reasons what lead to the existence
of the issues. As a result, the relationship between the different variables in the research is
identified that helps in making possible links among the variables in the study (Choy 2014).
Descriptive design combines both the characteristics of exploratory and explanatory
research designs. As a result, the use of descriptive research design allows exploring the issues as
well as explaining the reasons of the occurrence of the issues. Additionally, the relationship
between the existing variables in the study can be linked and determine the impact on one
another by providing detailed information about the topic (Quinlan et al. 2019).
3.3.1 A justification for using descriptive design
Analyzing the characteristics of all the three designs, descriptive design is said to be the
best suited. Descriptive design is the best suited because this helped in identifying the issues
related to marketing in the UK airline industry. In addition to, the use of descriptive design
provides an opportunity to collect information about the issues identified in the traditional form
of marketing that influenced the UK airline industry to undertake social media marketing
thereby, determining the effectiveness (Jamshed 2014). As mentioned in the above section,
descriptive design helps on exploring the relationship between the variables, the use of this
research design helps in exploring the relationship between traditional marketing and social
media marketing efforts managed by the UK airline industry. Moreover, the use of descriptive
design helped in identifying the existing differences between the social media marketing and
traditional marketing that allowed social media marketing gaining more preference than
traditional marketing in the UK airline industry. As a result, the effectiveness of social media
marketing over traditional marketing can be determined in gaining market exposure and
improved brand image (Smith 2015).