Marketing Strategies for Sri Lankan Airlines Digital Channels

This report analyzes digital channels for Sri Lankan Airlines, examining how the airline can build and grow an online community. It begins with an overview of Sri Lankan Airlines, including its services, customer base, and competitors. The report then explores various digital channels, such as social media, and justifies the selection of social media as the primary platform for community building, emphasizing its ability to facilitate two-way communication and engage with customers. A budget breakdown for implementing the selected channel is provided, along with recommendations for best practices in digital compliance, including legal considerations and record-keeping. The report highlights the importance of marketing strategies, cost considerations, and adherence to guidelines to ensure effective and compliant digital marketing efforts. The report references various books and journals to support its claims.

Mastering Digital Channels

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
Part 1 (a ) Summary of an organisation ....................................................................................3
Part 1 ( b) Digital channels .........................................................................................................4
Part 1 © Budget breakdown for implementation of channel selected ........................................5
Part 1 (D) Recommending best practices for digital compliance..............................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In present digital world, the development in technology has changes the way the various
business operations are being performed by companies. Emergence of digital technology has
supported an enterprise in bringing improvement in various business activities. Marketing is the
field in which the drastic improvement can be analysed. There are variety of online platform or
channels are available utilising which an organisation can improve its promotional activities.
One of the major platform is social media sites. These online platform has allowed business
entity to reach wide number of customers and provide them services. It has provided
organisation an opportunity to directly communicate with customers and influence them to buy
the goods or services offered by company.
Online community is also defined as a virtual community whose members interact with
each other primarily via the Internet. The objective of developing online community is to
interact direct with customers and inform them about the product or services offered by an
organisation. A successful online community provides excellent content. There are variety of
online platforms are available for developing the community.
The purpose of the assignment is to identify the online channels or platform which can
be utilised for building as well as growing online community.
TASK 1
Part 1 (a ) Summary of an organisation
Name of an enterprise - Sri Lankan Airlines
Shri Lankan airlines is recognised to be as the member of the One world airline alliance.
Business entity is the largest airline in Sri Lanka in context of number of aircraft as well as
services offered by the company to destinations. An organisation was established in 1979 by the
name as Air Lanka. Few years after the launching of business , an enterprise has terminated its
business operations (Shin,2002). Due to reasons company was rebranded and introduced the
current livery. Business venture has developed its own brand and logo. Shri Lankan airlines
offers transportation services approximately at more than 42 destinations. The Shri Lankan
airlines airline has gradually increased its number of destinations with more additions to
territorial markets.
Type of an organisation –The shri Lankan airlines is developed and managed by both
public as well as private companies jointly. Business entity was leased by Maersk Air as well as

maintained by Air Tara.Sri Lankan government signed an agreement for a ten-year strategic
partnership with private organisation. This agreement included exclusive rights for all aircraft
ground handling and airline catering at Colombo-Bandaranaike airport for a period of !0 years.
Size of business- At the starting phase , business entity was operating at the small scale
and was providing services at very few destinations. But with the growth in business as well as
increase in revenue firm has expanded the business at large sale. By forming the partnership with
global companies, an organisation has able to expand its business operations at international
level. There has been tremendous growth in the number of passengers since last few years.
Products and services offered by an organisation - Shri Lankan airlines provides
variety of services to its customer such as cabins, Entertainment, catering etc. Objective of an
organisation is to provide safe and good travelling experience to customers. The Shri Lankan
airlines has been given award for safety, comfort, services and punctuality (Hassanein and Head,
2006). Business entity has form partnership with Bandaranaike International Airport which is
located in Colombo has provided firm an opportunity to strengthen its networks and increase
its number of destination. Partnership strategy adopted by an organisation has allowed an
enterprise to expand business operation and provide additional facilities to customers. It enabled
business venture to deliver high level of satisfaction to client.
Customer base – The three customers segments which is mainly targeted by Shri
Lankan airlines are Leisure travellers, direct consumers and Business travellers. Among the
three targeted customers segment contributes significantly to the revenue for firm. While some
portion of revenue has been generated by an organisation through directly from customers or
other passenger who facilitate travelling for the purpose of leisure. Shri Lankan airlines offers
services in Asia as well as sub continents.
Competitors- As an organisation is operating in hospitality sector which is very big,
business entity has to face stiff competition. An enterprise has to face competition from domestic
as well as global companies. Some competitors of Shri Lankan airlines are , Ukraine
International Airlines , Thomson airways, Fly Dubai etc.
Part 1 ( b) Digital channels
The increase in reach means , potential of company to reach wise number of target
audience by utilising the online platform or channel. There are several online platforms or

channels such as social media, Facebook , twitter are available utilising which an organisation
can reach to target audience and inform customers about the service or products offered by an
organisation. The emergence of digital technology has provided business entity with lot of
opportunities such as to communicate directly with client and identify their needs (Kear, 2010).
Objectives of channels in to provide firm an ease in reaching to the wide numbers of customer. It
also intends to support an organisation in improving its promotional activities which is very
much important in terms of accomplishing business objectives (Bulgurcu, Cavusoglu and
Benbasat, 2010.). Mission of Shri Lankan airlines is to increase market share, growth in sales
and profitability. Business entity also have focus on gaining the customer loyalty which is very
crucial in terms of increasing sustainability in highly competitive business environment.
It is very much necessary for marketing manager of Shri Lankan airlines to develop as
well as implement suitable marketing strategy. As creation of plan or tactics will assist an
enterprise in gaining the competitive advantage in the market.
online communities are clearly a preferred choice for many important market research
projects. Some of the online channels or platforms which can be utilised by marketing manager
in Shri Lankan airlines for building the online community are websites, electronic mail, social
media, Blogs etc.
Justification for specific channel selection.
Social media is considered to be as most effective online platform for building online
community. This media platform is utilised by many of the airline company for developing as
well as maintaining the strong relationship with customers. Social media is considered to be as
the best online community building channel , as it allows the company to facilitate two way
communication. It also allows business entity to engage with client and facilitates direct
conversation with them (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016.). Social media platform can be
utilised by Shri Lankan airlines fort variety of purpose such as brand development, improving
promotional activities, updating customer about new services etc. In addition to this use of social
media platform will help firm in responding quickly to the customer queries.
Part 1 © Budget breakdown for implementation of channel selected
There are different online channels such as websites , Facebook , social media etc.
which can be used buy business venture. Before selecting the online platform , it is required by
marketing manager in an enterprise to considered the cost factor. As each channel has some

cost such as maintenance expenditure , installation and other associated charges. The cost
associated with online channel has direct influence on the decision taken by top level
management in an organisation. It also has direct as well as significant effect on the company
budget. Marketing manager is required to inform about the expenditure incurred on developing
the online community to top level management (Jerman-Blažič and Tekavčič, 2012).So that the
immediate actions can be taken for controlling the expenditure. As increase in overheads can
have negative impact on the financial performance of an organisation.
The cost associated with external community for instance for 1m visitors per year is
approximately $1k per year for reduced-featured platforms. Cost might rise to $100k+ per year
for a similar tier at a full-fledged enterprise platform. Cost is charged for the channel for the
features, security and maintenance (Schwalbe, 2015). It also depends on number of users
accessing the information .10 to 16m per month (public) or 4k users (private) $7,450.
Budgeting is the technique which can be adopted by the management in Shri Lankan
organisation for controlling the expenditure. In addition to this the company is required to use
advance accounting software as well as system for monitoring as well as controlling overheads.
It is required by marketing manager to make the price comparisons before selecting the channel
for building community.
Part 1 (D) Recommending best practices for digital compliance
The various legal factors are to be considered by an organisation when utilising the social
media. As avoidance or failure to comply with the guidelines can lead to the legal obligation on
firm. All standards should be followed by marketing manager when utilising the social media
channel. Some factors which should be considered are it is very much important for an
enterprise to maintain the record of their social media activity, which can be facilitated through
the use of much compliance software options (Sittig and Zuckerberg, 2010.). In addition to this
it is very much crucial for marketing manager to separate their social media procedures from
other business process. Business entity can utilise the social media channel for sharing of
information with customers.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal:
Kear, K., 2010. Social presence in online learning communities. Paper presented at the
Seventh International Conference on Networked Learning, Aalborg, Denmark
Hassanein, K., and Head, M.,2006. The impact of infusing social presence in the web interface:
An investigation across product types. International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
10(2). 31–55
Shin, N.,2002. Beyond interaction: The relational construct of transactional presence. Open
Learning.17(2). 121–137
Bulgurcu, B., Cavusoglu, H. and Benbasat, I., 2010.. Process innovation: reengineering work
through information technology. Harvard Business Press.
Jerman-Blažič, B. and Tekavčič, M., 2012. Managing the investment in information security
technology by use of a quantitative modeling. Information Processing & Management.
48(6). pp.1031-1052.
Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information
Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons..
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Sittig, A. and Zuckerberg, M., Facebook, Inc., 2010. Managing information about relationships
in a social network via a social timeline. U.S. Patent 7,725,492.