Marketing Mix (4Ps)
Product Strategy
JetBlue Airways is a major airline in its maturity stage with over 200 aircrafts including Airbus A321, Embraer 190, Airbus A320, among others. Each of the aircraft categories offers different facilities t9o the company’s clients. For example, Airbus 320’s interior design offers sufficient legroom, an eye-soothing ambiance, comfortable seats, and satellite TV. JetBlue Aircrafts also possess gate-to-gate Fly-fi allowing clients to stream videos on amazon. As such, clients can watch their preferred movies online. The seatback TVs are 10’’ touch screens with each seat being installed with charging ports, thereby offering uninterrupted entertainment to clients. Though the company’s product strategy provides a lot of elements that clients value, there is ample room for improvement. First, the company should introduce new products and services in line with the latest trends in the market and extend benefits to clients, including warranties, after-sales service, and credit, among others.
Pricing Strategy
Following JetBlue’s Airlines motto; “bring humanity back to air travel,” the company offers clients with low fares while still ensuring excellent comfort. The Airline’s pricing strategy differs depending on the choice of aircraft that a client books to cater to the wide variety of clients whose sensitivity to price varies. To achieve a low costing strategy, the company implements a strategy in its operations to minimize operational costs. For example, JetBlue Airlines does not offer meals to clients but instead provides snacks and drinks that are relatively cheaper. The Airline also saves on costs by automating some tasks, engaging workers on a part-time basis, and encouraging some employees to work from home.
Additionally, the company issues e-tickets, thereby saving on postage expenses, employee time, and paper. To improve on the company’s pricing strategy, the company should introduce allowances and discounts to attract customers, the company can also use psychological pricing to make its prices seem lower—for example, pricing at $99 rather than $100.
Place: Distribution Strategy
Though JetBlue airline is headquartered in New York but is present in over 100 destinations, the company sells its products through two marketing channels, including direct sales through the company website and the use of wholesalers who sell to different retailers who in turn sell to customers. The distribution channels have made it possible for the company to engage over 500 retailers who ensure that the company products are available to customers in different parts of the globe. Furthermore, the company has partnered with numerous delivery agents that facilitate timely deliveries. Following the increased use of social media in contemporary society, JetBlue Airlines should open up its retail shop on social media to allow the company to increase sales. The company should also improve its website to make it more user friendly. Furthermore, rather than relying on contracted retailers, the company should set up a company-operated retail store to help save on costs by eliminating the wholesaler and retailer margins.
Promotion: Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy
Approach
JetBlue Airlines uses multiple promotion channels, including traditional media such as TV and Radio, social media advertising such as YouTube and Facebook, sales promotion, and personal selling, to promote its products. The promotional engagement strategies that I will use to ensure that the company reaches out to as many customers as possible is the hiring of influencers on social media such as bloggers and celebrities. Bloggers will be involved in posting educative content online on their social media platforms to promote the company’s brand awareness.
Goal
The goal of the campaign is to increase the company’s sales by 10 percent by informing a wide range of air travel services and retaining the current customers. My call for action is ‘book your ticket at the comfort of your house or office by booking your ticket online.
Messages
Primary message- Online platforms provide access to timely information and accurate customer reviews about a company’s products and services that helps you to make an informed decision when purchasing a product or service.
Message pillar- Our online community welcomes you into a highly competent professional community that provides any information that you may require about our company in a wide range of social media platforms. Our online clients always come back to book or cancel their tickets online without having to travel to an agent.
Proof point- our online customers give positive feedback about our social media marketing because it makes it easy for them to access accurate and timely information about our products and services
Call to action- Book your ticket online today for free in minutes.
Promotional Mix and IMC Tools
The key marketing communication for the campaign will entail Digital marketing. Particularly, the company’s website will be improved by enhancing regular updates to ensure that customers get access to accurate and timely information about the company’s products. The website will also be enhanced to make it more user-friendly, allowing more customers to login at the same time and in a bug-free manner. Direct Marketing will also be used where contacts of current customers will be maintained in the company’s database, where customized messages will be sent to individual customers.
In the campaign, sales promotion and digital marketing tools will be used where social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among others, will be used to disseminate information about the company. At least one post will be uploaded per day. The digital media platforms will trigger customers to explore the company website. In the social media blogposts, a language that persuades, informs, and reminds potential buyers to influence an opinion or elicit a response from clients.
Sales Alignment
This marketing campaign operates at the leads generation stage of the sales process. The campaign aims to reach out to a vast pool of customers while maintaining the current ones. The campaign strategies, mainly digital marketing and sales promotion, will aid in providing information necessary to drive sales by informing, reminding, and motivating clients to book JetBlue airline services.
Measurement (KPIs – Key Performance Indicators)
To measure the success of the campaign, several key performance indicators will be applied. First, total sales revenue will be used to determine the influence of the marketing campaign on sales revenue. One goal of the campaign is to increase the company’s sales revenue by 10%, making sales revenue a significant performance indicator. Second, since the campaign does not only target short-term goals, website unique visitors will be used as a KPI. This is because, throughout the campaign, clients will be sensitized to apply for their travel tickets online, and an increase in the website visitors would be an indication that the various promotion tools have successfully informed the customers on the existence of the company’s website. Third, the number of registrations to the company’s websites will also be used as a KPI, where an increase in registrations would indicate the success of the campaign. Fourth the feedback gathered from the social media platforms will also be used as a measure of campaign success. Positive feedback will indicate the effectiveness of the campaign. Lastly, the number of qualified leads generated will also be used as a measure of success. This is because an increase in the number of first-time customers would indicate that the marketing campaign served its purpose.
Budget
| Item | Purpose | Cost Estimate |
| Banner Ads | Design of marketing ads to be posted on the company’s websites and other advertisement mediums such as social media. | $8,000.00 |
| Content development | To develop digital content to be used in the marketing campaign such as videos and graphics | $10, 000.00 |
| Website development and redesign | Upgrading and maintaining the company website to ensure efficiency and | $5,000.00 |
| Recruitment | Both full-time and part-time staff to implement the marketing campaign operations. | $20,000 |
| Influencers | Bloggers to use their social media platforms for marketing the Airline products and services, particularly by posting burner Ads. And celebrities to appear on the company’s marketing ads to act as brand promoters. | $30,000 |
.
Estimated campaign impact: the campaign is expected to increase the company’s sales by at least 10%, which will cover the marketing expenses, thereby improving the company’s profitability.
Action Plan
| Timing | Activity Type | Brief Description | Audience |
| May 20, 2020 | Recruit the required personnel to implement the marketing plan | Conduct a recruitment process to attract and obtain highly qualified and competent workers and enter into a contractual agreement with them | Marketing professionals seeking employment |
| May 25, 2020 | training | Train the recruited employees on the expectations of the marketing campaign | Recruits |
| May 30, 2020 | Website update | Update the company website to improve customer experience | Website specialist |
| June 1, 2020 | Development of marketing content | Creation of marketing content like graphics and blog posts to be posted on the company website and in digital media platforms. | Content developers |
| June 15, 2020 | Dissemination of the marketing information | Communication of the marketing content to customers | Staff, Bloggers, and celebrities |
| Continuous process | Feedback gathering | Collection of feedback in the form of suggestions, opinions, and questions posted by clients | Customer care |
| Continuous process | Revision of marketing campaign where necessary | Implementation of necessary changes to the marketing strategies based on customer feedback. | Marketing manager |
Risk Factors
Some of the risks that JetBlue Airline face includes unpredictable fuel prices. Since the company’s most significant expense if on fuel, the company should consider employing strategies aimed at reducing fuel consumption, for example, by training the pilots on fuel conservation methods and the use of aircrafts with economic energy consumption. Another significant risk is competition, where the airline industry is highly competitive. To gain a competitive advantage, the company should adopt innovative strategies that lower the cost and provide better products and services compared to competitors.