Comprehensive Marketing Report: Air Canada's Concepts and Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Air Canada's marketing strategies, encompassing various concepts and practices. It begins with an introduction to marketing and its significance, followed by an overview of Air Canada as a leading airline. The main body delves into key marketing concepts such as product strategy, branding, and promotional strategies, highlighting Air Canada's approach to each. The report further explores marketing strategies employed by Air Canada to achieve its objectives, including e-mail marketing, word-of-mouth, and pricing strategies. It also examines the ethical considerations and principles that guide Air Canada's marketing efforts. The report then discusses the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) model and the 7Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence) in the context of Air Canada. Finally, the report concludes with a summary of the key findings and a list of references.

MARKETING CONCEPTS
AND PRACTICES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is predominately the range of activities which the organisations carries out in
order to promote and advertise their products on large platform. Marketing concept is the
strategy which firms implement to fulfil the needs of customers and to go beyond their
expectations. Thus, marketing concepts helps the firms to make their selling procedure more
consistent by guiding them towards fulfilment of goals and objectives. Air Canada is basically
one of the renowned airline of Canada which was established in 1937 and headquartered in
Montreal, Quebec. This airline serves more than 206 destinations across the world and has its
largest hub in Toronto. It has various operating divisions like Air Canada rouge, express, Jetz
etc. and thus provides a range of services to their passengers. Along with regional partners, this
airline has around 1613 scheduled flights on daily basis.
This report gives a brief about marketing concepts as well as terminology, marketing
strategies for achieving the objectives and marketing principles.
MAIN BODY
Marketing concepts as well as terminology
Marketing concept is basically the philosophy which stresses that the organisation need to
analyse the neds as well as demands of their customers and based on that should make their
decision.
Product strategy
This is basically the first marketing concept which is the roadmap and thus outlines the
vision of product as what will product look like and what will it become. The product strategy of
Air Canada is highly imperative. It generally belongs to the Canada's airline as well as is largest
and biggest international within country (Giovagnoli, 2018). It generally consist of various
subsidiaries and have a wide range of products which are
Air Canada cargo- this is the cargo service and facility of this airline. It is considered as one of
the leading provider of the air cargo services.
Air Canada Rouge- This is the service of Air Canada and is generally considered of low cost
and forms the main product of the company.
Air Canada express- this is the another most important service as well as product offered by Air
Canada and thus have four airlines which operates regionally that are Jazz aviation, Air Georgian
etc. Along with all these, the airline also offers the business, premium economy as well as

economy class to their customers. Thus, at the end this airline provides a range of products and
services to their customers.
Branding
The Air Canada have a well-through branding strategy where they are highly focussed
towards promoting its brand to wider audience. The most effective branding strategy which this
airline utilizes is the brand recognition. In this, Air Canada airline promotes its brand to the
wider platform and thus make the customer's ware of its presence within marketplace (Saavedra,
2016). The branding strategy which this airline uses have enabled them to establish their position
in market and thus have helps the company to achieve competitive advantage. The company has
divided its service as per the class of customers and thus its services ranges from simple
economy class to premium economy. The branding strategy of Air Canada is highly effective
and thus has proved itself to attract the customers through this strategy. The company has shown
its brand equity through a well recognized customer base where they serve the customer from
different regions and thus have a great customer pool. Their strategy for branding their services
normally entice the customers and their main focus for promoting their brand remains on
providing the world class services to their customers. This airline provide high class services to
their customer in affordable range however some of their service have high price and mainly
attracts the high income group.
Promotional strategy
The promotional strategy of the Air Canada is highly effective and efficient in attracting
the wide range of customers. This airline not only uses online strategy for marketing its products
as well as services but also make use of offline mode for taking the brand message to wider
audience. The company generally have build the online community for the customers through the
use of social media platforms (Patti and et.al.,2017). In this, the management of the company
send direct links and emails to their customers through their own application and thus increases
the conversion rate. Besides this, company also uses e-mail marketing through which company
sends personalized messages and e-mails to their customers regarding any offer, cashback and
discounts. The promotional strategies of the company changes according to the customers and
thus there is no single strategy which the organizations uses. Along with this, talking of the
offline mode Air Canada every month creates various campaigns regrading various issues like
environmental issues and thus promotes their brand. Apart from this, in the occasional seasons

company provides services at reduced cost to their customers which help them to entice more
and more customers and thus uses word-of-mouth to take their branding message to wider
audience.
Marketing strategies for achieving the objectives
Marketing strategy is basically the series of action and activities which the organizations
undertake to achieve their long-run as well as short-term goals and to market their products. The
various marketing strategies which has helped Air Canada to achieve their goals are
E-mail marketing
This is one of the most important way through which organizations promote their
products to their target audience on large platform (Patsiaouras, 2019). This is considered as one
of the most significant method through which organizations attracts their customers and thus
provide them with the high class services. Through E-mail marketing, Air Canada has promoted
its services and taken its brand message to the audience. This strategy has helped the airline to
enlarge its customer base and hence enter the new market. For example- during the off season,
Air Canada tend to lower its prices like ticket prices, food prices and provide services to the
customers at lower prices. They release various offers, discounts, cashback like free breakfast on
booking of 4 flight tickets. In order to make the customers aware of these offers, Air Canada
send personalized messages and e-mails to their customers outlining the offers and the availing
date. This help them to increase the sale of their services and attract customers.
Word of mouth
This is the another marketing strategy which helps companies to establish its position in
market through gaining high goodwill and also enable them to enlarge the customer base by
entering into the new market. Air Canada has utilized this strategy to enter the new market and to
serve the new customers other than the existing customers (McKay, Hopkinson and Ng, 2018).
As the company operate in wide number of countries thus this is the result of large number of
customer willing to spend for their products and services. Air Canada provides a high-quality
services to their customers like complementary meals, touch screen television etc. so, when
customers avail these services at much affordable range them they leave satisfied and at the end
recommend the same to other people like friends, relatives, etc. Thus, this word of mouth have
allowed Air Canada to serve new customers and increase its profit ratio by providing quality
services.

Pricing strategy
Air Canada not only focusses on providing world class services to their customers but is
widely known for its lowest price guarantee under which they mainly claim that the customers
can easily find the lowest priced tickets within the 24 hours. The pricing strategy of Air Canada
has a profound impact on the customers where they provide the lowest tickets to their customers
without compromising with the quality (Akgun and et.al.,2017). Within its lowest price
guarantee, the airline offers the passenger with promotional code whose value ranges from $50
to $60 after they complete their ticket booking on their personal app that is aircanada.com. Thus,
in the greed of the lowest price, more ans more customers book their tickets through the app and
this eventually raises the sale of Air Canada. Besides this, it also helped this company to achieve
competitive advantage by offering quality services at low prices.
Ethical manner
The most important objectives and goals of Air Canada are to serve the consumers better
by providing world-class services, to increase the revenue and profit margin, to expand in wider
geographies and to gain the competitive advantage by becoming leading market leader. These
objectives were achieved in the ethical manner by the company. Another significant objective of
Air Canada is to contribute towards the environment and make it safer to live. In order to attain
these objectives, this airline has taken a number of steps (Garrido-Moreno, Lockett and Garcia-
Morales, 2015). The airline completed the IATA audit and has complied to the transport safety
management which has helped them to enlarge the customers by ensuring total safety. Besides
this, the airline has contributed to the reduction of environmental pollution by reducing CO2 to
more than 50% to 2050 level and has developed an agreement with NACC to continuously
improve the fuel efficiency. Along with this, to make a better workplace for the employees, Air
Canada has developed the employment equity scheme where it has refocussed its commitment
on the ethical code of conduct and has provided the training on discrimination a well as
harassment.
Marketing principles
STP
Segmentation
Segmentation is basically the process through which organizations segments and
segregate its customers as per various aspects which help them to concentrate their focus on that

particular segment (Armstrong and et.al.,2018). Air Canada segregate its customers on the basis
of geographic location. For example- On the basis of region it has domestic flights which mainly
entertains people of urban as well as rural areas.
Targeting
Targeting is basically the strategy through which organizations breaks larger market in to
smaller and thus target the specific segment. Air Canada mainly employs the differentiated
targeting under which it mainly focuses on the various target market and thus have a customized
marketing mix which suits the demands of customer (Shields, Brown and et.al.,2015). For
example- for the middle class group, it has its price lower than usual and for high income group
passengers it keeps its price high with high quality.
Positioning
Positioning is basically the perception which the customers have for a particular brand or
the product. Air Canada generally focuses on quality positioning for attracting their customers. It
mainly provides high quality services to their customers at the affordable range. For example-
The price for upper class and middle class tend to fluctuate but the level of it is generally well-
know to provide high quality services to their customers (Saunders, Barrington and Sridharan,
2015).
7Ps of Air Canada
Product
Air Canada generally have the wide range of products as well as services and thus have
around 200 airports in 6 continents. It generally has various subsidiaries which forms its product
mix. It provides premium, as well as economy classes to the customers and have its lounges
which generally worldwide (Lee, Ha and Kim, 2018). It also provides flyers programme under
which the customers can spend the points together with rewards.
Price
The pricing strategy of Air Canada is highly imperative and thus have helped them to
gain competitive advantage. It is well-known for its unique feature which is the lowest price
guarantee under which the airline claims that customers can easily avail the promotional code
once they have booked their tickets within 24 hours (Hasan, 2016). Thus, it provides its
customers the quality services at much affordable rage and their prices ranges from simple
economy fare to ultra premium fares for economy class.

Place
The headquarter of Air Canada is situated in Montreal, Quebec. Along with this, it
generally has more than 3 major hubs that are located in Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver and
Montreal. Among all these, Toronto Pearson airport is one of the largest hub. It flies across more
than 182 destinations with and marks its presence in around 6 continents (Giovagnoli, 2018).
Promotion
Air Canada have build the online community for their customers through the use of social
media in which they send direct links in their app which have eventually enhanced its usage. The
airline have begun the hashtag campaign and have successfully implemented it across the social
media that have enabled them to attract customers (Saavedra, 2016). Besides this, the most
important Air Canada uses word of mouth advertising through which it encourages its existing
passengers to recommend their services to other by providing world-class services.
People
The major objective of Air Canada is customer satisfaction and for accomplishment of
this, it has a well-through staff and personnels. It has attained the position of top 105 employers
in Canada where their employees are highly trained and developed to serve the customers better.
The feedback of employees are generally recorded on the space design and the highest
performing employees are provided with the financial perks (Patti and et.al.,2017).
Process
Air Canada have a streamlined process through which it creates value for its customers
and for employees. For making the booking process convenient for passengers, it has developed
its own online app and through this, it ensures the well-through in-flight experience for its
customers (Patsiaouras, 2019). It business process consist of timely deliverables to every
departments whether pilots or ground crew and also to account and booking department.
Physical evidence
Initially Air Canada has the colour of light blue which then changed to white as well as
red maple leaf and finally the black belly appeared which made it popular. The colours of the
airline generally reflects the Canada's vast along with contrasting seasons and wildlife heritage of
the country. It was ungraded later on to change the perception of customers for Air Canada
(McKay, Hopkinson and Ng, 2018).

Relationship of marketing with other functional areas
Covered in poster
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that the product strategy of the organizations is highly imperative
and thus helps the company to provide customized product to their customers. Through this, they
are able to innovate their products as per the customer needs. Thus, product strategy serves as
road map which tells the organizations that what product will look like. The branding and the
promotional strategy helps the organization to advertise their products on large platform. In order
to achieve the long as well as short-term objectives, organizations seeks the support of various
marketing strategy like e-mail marketing, word-of-mouth. These strategies helps the
organisations to attract and thus increase the profit ratio. Besides this, two of the most important
marketing concepts that are 7Ps and STP helps the organisations to select the most appropriate
communication mix which will help to enlarge the customer base. Where on one hand, through
7Ps firms come to know that what product mix will help them to fulfil the needs and demands of
customers on the other hand, STP helps the organizations to segregate the wide customer base
into smaller division and thus enable them to focus their efforts on single segment and fulfil their
expectations.

REFERENCES
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