AirAsia's Rise to Market Leadership: An Analysis of Marketing Concepts

This case study examines how AirAsia, initially a government-controlled airline, achieved market leadership through strategic marketing concepts. The airline leveraged readily available experienced staff, reduced leasing costs, and implemented a no-frills model. Key strategies included a user-friendly website for promotional fares and easy booking, active engagement on social media for customer support, and email marketing. Furthermore, AirAsia introduced value-added services like online check-in. The case suggests that AirAsia can continue to thrive by maintaining reasonable pricing, enhancing internet booking convenience, and continuously innovating value-added services, thereby solidifying its market position. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running head: AirAsia 1
Marketing Management
Student Name
Institution Affiliation

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How did AirAsia become a market leader? What marketing concepts were used well?
AirAsia began as a Malaysian government controlled and full-service regional airline.
After its establishment, the company charged customers favorable fares that were slightly lower
than the one charged by its main competitor, Malaysia Airlines. Due to airline layoff of
employees, experienced and competent staffs were readily available to AirAsia (AirAsia.com
2008). The company hired competent and experienced employees and this enhanced its
competitiveness in the industry. Also, the leasing costs had sharply dropped and a great potential
for no-frills was unleashed. The company was restructured. Fully ticketless travel and free sitting
policy were introduced. Also, value added services such as online check in and check outs were
introduced (AirAsia.com 2008). The company further partnered with various companies that
offered online booking services for hostels, cruises, hotels, car rentals and medical care. As a
result, AirAsia becomes Malaysia airline market leader.
Becoming a market leader by AirAsia was not easy. This competitiveness is attributed to
various marketing concepts that the management used, and these include:
Use of company website: AirAsia updated its web to offer regular fare promotional
campaigns to customers at different booking times. Travelers could easily purchase their air
tickets on its website, and this encouraged early booking by the customers.
Use of social media: While AirAsia’s key competitors wanted to stay corporate and
wrongfully use social media with no marketing purpose, AirAsia did it differently (Azleen,
2015). Chatting with the customer with customer support was encouraged and this made the
company directly stay in touch with its clients via online marketing.

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Other marketing concepts used by the company were email marketing, tagline, and easy
branding.
Based on the latest development in AirAsia (from information beyond the case write-ups), can
AirAsia soar higher? If so, how?
AirAsia continues to be one of the leading Airline company in Malaysia and in the world
at large. Given its unique success history since 2001 when a private entrepreneur (Tony
Fernandes) took over, the company can still soar higher.
Reasonable pricing: AirAsia fare is favorable than those of other operators. The company
targets travelers who travel without the frills of meals and frequent flyer miles (Shuk-Ching Poon
& Waring, 2010). The recent development of low fare, no frills significantly provides the
company with a perfect opportunity to issue more tickets to customers than the competitors
hence enlarging market base in future.
Internet booking: Another recent development as depicted in the case is internet booking,
where the customer purchases their own tickets directly from the company’s website. As a result,
most travelers prefer its online booking and consider it more convenient for buying seats and
logging into the company's website. With this in mind, AirAsia will grow higher in the market.
Value-added services: Recently, AirAsia launched an internet check-in service, a service
that no other airline in Malaysia had used before. These services allow guests to enjoy online
check-in as well as printing out their own airplane passes. Customers have shifted from other
companies to AirAsia for it is offering the best services in the country (Jiang, 2013). With this

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increased creativity and innovativeness, the company will obviously soar higher and gain a
position in the market that competitors will find it difficult to overturn.

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References
AirAsia.com ., (2008). “Promotion of the Month”, http://www.airasia.com/nl/nl08506-en.htm
(accessed 25 May 2008).
Azleen, Abdul, R., (2015). AirAsia: Their 6 Marketing Secrets Revealed. Retrieved from:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/airasia-6-marketing-secrets-revealed-azleen-abdul-rahim
(Accessed 16 April 2018).
Jiang, H. (2013). Service quality of low-cost long-haul airlines–The case of Jetstar Airways and
AirAsia X. Journal of Air Transport Management, 26, 20-24. Retrieved from;
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969699712001160
Shuk-Ching Poon, T., & Waring, P. (2010). The lowest of low-cost carriers: the case of
AirAsia. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(2), 197-213.
Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585190903509480