Etihad Airways: A Strategic Marketing Report and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive strategic marketing analysis of Etihad Airways, the leading airline of Abu Dhabi. It begins with a company background, highlighting Etihad's growth and global presence. The core of the report is divided into two tasks. Task 1 includes a thorough marketing situation analysis, incorporating SWOT and PESTEL analyses to assess the airline's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and the external market environment. Task 2 delves into strategic recommendations, covering market situation overview, marketing goals, product development, pricing, placement, and promotional tactics, including implementation and control. The report emphasizes Etihad's competitive advantages, such as its online booking, long-haul routes, and customer service. It also addresses weaknesses like strategic decision-making and service complaints, along with the opportunities in unexplored markets and threats from competitors. The analysis provides a detailed view of Etihad Airways' marketing strategies and its position in the global airline market.

RUNNING HEAD: STRATEGIC MARKETING
Strategic marketing
Student’s Name
University Name
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1. Company background...............................................................................................................3
2. Discussion................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Marketing situation analysis.............................................................................................4
2.1.1 SWOT analysis..........................................................................................................4
2.2 External market situation analysis....................................................................................7
2.2.1 PESTEL analysis.......................................................................................................7
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................11
2.1 Market situation overview...................................................................................................11
2.2 strategic recommendations for marketing............................................................................11
2.2.1 analysis of market situation...........................................................................................11
2.3 marketing goals determination.............................................................................................12
2.4 product development............................................................................................................13
2.5 price determination policy...................................................................................................14
2.6 places....................................................................................................................................15
2.7 promotional tactics...............................................................................................................15
2.7 implementation and control of the actions...........................................................................15
4. Reference List.........................................................................................................................17

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Task 1
1. Company background
The leading airline company of Abu Dhabi is the Etihad Airways. Company has gained a
reputation of becoming the highest grossing air freight Organisation in the entire United Arab
Emirates. The company was established under the orders of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al
Nahyan. Etihad Airways was established in the year 2003 and since then the company has grown
in a steady way by increasing their profit margin each year. However, since there is
establishment in the year 2003, they saw considerable profit in the year 2011
(Baxter, Srisaeng and Wild 2018). Since 2012, Etihad Airways become a global brand name and
the international air travel rate has ever been increasing for Etihad Airways. The sole ownership
rights of the organisation lies with the government of United Arab Emirates. However, for
internal management of the organisation is up to the discretion of a distinct board of directors
and they have an operational CEO also. The workforce of Etihad Airways is most advanced,
comprising of airline professionals from the best countries. Etihad Airways International runs
more than 1200 flights every week and then maintains 110 airbuses interesting the famous
Boeing air ferries. According to the higher management of the organisation, franchising and
setting up partnership with the other Global Airlines is the main reason by Etihad Airways have
been able to gain access to the Global market in such limited time. Investment on equity shares
of airline companies in other countries is also another major reason why the company could
grow financially in such a limited amount of time. They have significant shares with Jet Airways
Singapore Airlines as well as other European airline companies. Etihad Airways have strategic
Alliance with Lufthansa as well as 2 other German and Serbian airline companies also (Urban et
al. 2018).

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2. Discussion
2.1 Marketing situation analysis
2.1.1 SWOT analysis
Strengths
In UAE, Etihad Airways have been the leading airline company in terms of growth over time.
Commonly agreed, they are the second biggest Airlines Organisation in the whole country. As
the first airline company of Asia, Etihad Airways offered hundred percent online booking
facilities to the consumers all over the world. This is why the market reputation of the company
did spread fast. In fact, researchers like Taneja (2016) also identify that this is the first Asian
airline company which offered maximum long haul all air routes for the international customers.
Distances, as long as USA to Dubai is directly connected by Etihad Airways and services like
this are being provided smoothly by the company since 2005. In most of the important airports of
the world the company have their self owned service desk for helping their customers. With their
fast-paced growth, the company also holds the record of purchasing maximum flights in a year.
Tu et al. (2019), informs that in the year 2005 they had purchased 48 airbuses, to deliver the
largest air route coverage by any Asian airline company in the year 2006.
Etihad Airways has their headquarters in the favourable Gulf region which is why they can enjoy
competitive advantage over the Rivals. The airport at Abu Dhabi connects almost all the major
airports of South Asia directly and evens all major and significant airports of Europe also. That is
why the dominant presence of Etihad Airways in this region helps in attracting the major
International customers towards them. The preference is specially provided by the long haul
customers who pay maximum airfare for their flight travels. This is one of the major reasons for

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large capital acquisition of the company (Farouk, Cherian and Shaaban 2017). Etihad Airways
has also achieved several missions from America and Europe for excellence in their customer
relationship and customer service. The five star accredition received from Sytrax help the
organisation to gain popularity as a major airline brand in the Western market. The major factor
that distinguishes Etihad Airways from the other emerging airline agencies of Middle East and
South Asia is there strong financial hold and the steady Rafi technician rate in the financial year
2016-17 and 2017-18 (Reales and O'Connell 2017). Analysing the awards that has been received
by the company as well as the strong and hold on the market, it can be reflected that the service
qualities in terms of hospitality, customer satisfaction rate as well as competitive price
implementation are the most essential factors that have been pushing the company towards
reasonable success. The financial stability of the company has also help them to develop the
largest workforce among all the Asian airline companies with 6500 cabin crew working all over
the hundred countries where Etihad Airways provide their services. As per Derudder and Witlox
(2016), the reliability of the workforce of Etihad Airways is reflected in the fact that in the year
2018 the flights of Etihad Airways has ferried 19.5 million customers globally.
In fact the steady growth of airways in the Asian market has enticed the major Western airline
Agencies to enter in to strategic Alliance with Etihad Airways. Fan and Lingblad (2016),
identifies that most deserving hold their strategic partnership with the leading airline agencies of
the world like virgin Australia, air Serbia, Jet Airways and so on.
The On board services provided by Etihad Airways have a significant role to play in
determination of their success. Some of the significant facilities offered by Etihad Airways to the
customers are unique and exclusive, including the likes inflight chef, beverage management,
flying nannies and so on (Kim, Jung and Yoo 2018).

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Weaknesses
Main strategic decisions of organisation have also gone against them. For example purchasing
several flights at a time for expanding the business domain in a rapid way in a short span of time
was a decision that went against them. For the first one and half years, the customer acquisition
breakfast table comma however after that in the year 2017 the rate of increase in customers
dropped severely because of which the company had to encounter significant loss. In order to
make up that loss as well as maintain the profit ratio, in the following year Etihad Airways
entered into strategic partnership with air Berlin as well as Alitalia, which layer poor funding
decisions and Etihad Airways head to undergo a loss of about almost 900 million US dollars
(Citra and Harahap 2019). The board of directors where is selected through a merger of members
from the actual committees of various companies which Etihad Airways had acquired. However,
not all of them had equal knowledge about the concurrent market of the company and many of
the strategic decisions were wrongly taken which was accountable for financial loss of the
organisation. as an outcome of this financial losses, Etihad Airways was forced to stop providing
service in 10 important locations of Latin America and North America. Besides that, although
Etihad Airways has been able to hold market reputation for their class apart service to the
customers, in the last 2 years several complaints had been launched against the service quality of
the cabin crew members in the economy class of the long distance flights. This has accounted for
the growth of a perception that Etihad Airways is particularly emphasizing on providing finest
service to the high end customers, neglecting the economy class customers. Issues like longer
waiting time in airports for flights of Etihad Airways in comparison to the competitive brands
have also come up recently. As evidenced by Baxter and Bardell (2017), these issues are not only

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accountable for negative market reputation, but also higher negative publicity from the end of the
customers by means of their word of mouth.
Opportunities
Although Etihad Airways have been able to develop strong market hold in the international
market, they have significant possibility in the international market of South Asia and Middle
East which is still left to be explored. As analysed by Venkatraman (2016), Etihad Airways can
strengthen their network for the by developing the frequency of flights in specific markets like
Bangalore, Calicut, Ahmedabad, Istanbul, Dusseldorf, Dammam and others.
Threats
The two local south east airline Agencies, Emirates as well as Qatar Airways are the biggest
competitors as well as threats to Etihad Airways. In the international market, British Airways,
Air Canada as well as other American airlines are the major threats for the company. Just hold as
well as competitive air fare prices offered by these competitor companies is one of the major
reasons why Etihad Airways has experienced a depreciation of 5 to 7% in their customer
acquisition rate in the last 5 years (Gapper 2015). All the international business class and
speciality class flight bookings are unchallenged, in terms of booking of the economy class
flight; the low cost air line companies like Fly Dubai or Air Arabia provide stringent market
competition to the company.
2.2 External market situation analysis
2.2.1 PESTEL analysis
Political factors

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Etihad Airways has expanded their market operations in almost all the international routes and
that is why the political conditions of all countries is going to affect the management and
operations of the organisation. Recently, in America the government has restricted the air travel
of passengers of 6 Middle East countries as an outcome of fear of terrorism activities (Kim et al.
2016). This is a international political discussion which might impact the sales of Etihad
Airways.
Economic factors
Companies like Etihad Airways which deals with mainly with international customers are always
impacted by the dynamic changes in global economy. The moderate revenue compounded with
stable growth of facilities as well as continuous market exposure has provided positive
repercussions to Etihad Airways. Abe, the growth nature of markets like Southeast Asia has
prevented Etihad Airways to develop a strong zone in Asian market. There are various high risk
factors of operating in the Middle Eastern region like sharp fluctuation in the fuel prices which
has high potential of alternating the operational expenses. As opined by Ozmec-Ban and Babić
(2018), this can have a significant impact upon the revenue generation of Etihad Airways since
competitive pricing and standardization affairs is primary and integral to the business policies of
the company.
Socio cultural factors
After the huge inflation rate in the year 2008, from recovery of the major middle class spending
section led to the prompt increase of flight travel by the middle class passengers. This is why
Etihad Airways could expand their business territory to significant parts of Africa and North East
Asia as well. Important social development also includes the growing tendency of the new

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generation air passengers to avail flights more often. This has sharply helped the organisation to
generate high revenue. Development of significant imperatives to attract the new generation
customers like online booking facilities, discount offer free booking through internet portals has
helped Etihad Airways to attract the young customers age between 20 to 35 years who have the
maximum purchasing parity.
Technological factors
The massive development of Technology in the domain of air travel has taken place in the
context of the strategies to engage the customers. Majority of the E-Commerce portals have been
used by Etihad Airways in Asia in order to sell their tickets. They have their own website for
customers of different countries where information are listed with detail in the native languages.
The recent developments in jet engine Technology has been properly utilised by Etihad Airways
since they have purchased the latest versions of Boeing aircrafts in 2016 (Kaul 2016).
Enhancement of fuel efficiency has helped the organisation to reduce the operation cost also.
Environmental factors
Reductions of carbon footprint have been a constant International pressure upon busiest airline
companies like Etihad Airways. Besides, high Air Traffic of Etihad Airways has been the reason
for high level of SPM deposition in upper layer of the air. This is my Etihad Airways has been
forced to invest significantly in research for alternative fuel engine. In this context, it can be
specified that Etihad Airways has signed up with NASA for the use of biofuel as an alternative
full for popular airline networks of the world. This implies certain changes in the Global air
pollution rate in the upcoming 5 years. In case if Etihad Airways is able to contribute

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significantly towards reduction of pollution, they will be able to out safe majority of the
competitors in terms of air travel.
Legal factors
The statutory decision of the American government in favour of imposition of ban on ferrying
customers from Middle Eastern countries is going to have a direct impact on ticket sales in the
market. Responsibility of execution of the government till decision will fall on the shoulders of
the ticketing agents Etihad Airways. as an outcome, the customers will hold the company
blemish for rejecting application of customers to buy tickets in the domestic market. In fact ring
axis of the middle Easterners well as Southeast airline companies like Singapore Airlines,
airlines as well as other small companies like Fly Dubai or Air Asia in the European and
American markets is gradually cornering the local international air travel companies (Karamata,
Chroneos-Krasavac and Soldić-Aleksić 2017). That is why the local companies of America as
well as Europe or imposing pressure on the government to reduce the number of flights of
companies like Etihad Airways. This Biased political implication might affect the business of
Etihad Airways in the future also.
3. Conclusion
In reference to the above conducted arguments in this report it can be analysed that Etihad
Airways has worked significantly towards simplifying their growth since 2010. The air network
of Etihad Airways is the European market and the company has big opportunities of expansion in
the Russian, African as well as the North East Asian market. Maintaining parity which the
market growth and economic growth, the company has been constantly focusing on increasing
their service by purchasing more aircrafts as well as encompassing new Air routes.

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Task 2
2.1 Market situation overview
The business of Etihad Airways is mainly emphasizes upon International freight control of goods
as well as transport of people. The large number of air carriers has been properly segregated into
the three classes of speciality class, business class as well as economic class. In order to support
the Global air travel business, also entered into the Logistics business with Etihad Crystal Cargo.
However, as analysed by Zou and Chen (2017), more than one third of the profit is generated by
the business class ticket sales of the travel business of Etihad Airways. The economy classes are
responsible for about 15% of the revenue share (Crotti and Misrahi 2015). The overall analysis
of the operations of Etihad Airways shows that the market reputation of the organisation rests
upon the superior and excellent service that they provide to the customers of all their business
domains.
2.2 strategic recommendations for marketing
2.2.1 analysis of market situation
Analysis conducted in the previous section of the assignment shows that the air transport domain
of Etihad Airways is the most profitable business for the organisation. However, Etihad Airways
faces Etihad Airways faces severe competition from the large global competition from the large
market players like Emirates Airways, women Gulf Airways, as well as other like Jet Airways
who are also Specialists like Etihad Airways in terms are providing remarkable air travelling
experience to the customers along with the other features like competitive pricing. Like Airways
all the other travel agencies derive their major revenue from the business class only. However, as
discussed by Taneja (2016), the market growth in the domestic sector of any airline company is