Executive Summary

The aim of this blog report is to evaluate the marketing strategies used by the Emirates Group and how effective and complex they are. The report will introduce tourism marketing concepts and move on to provide a background of the company. Chapter three will then look to provide an external analysis and chapter four provides an internal analysis of the company. The report will then end with a summary and any future recommendations for the company.

Chapter One

An Introduction that Defines Tourism Marketing Concepts

To begin with, “marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit” (Kotler 2012). The purpose of tourism marketing is to appeal to target customers by promising a service with great value, and then trying to maintain those customers through trust and customer satisfaction. This includes raising awareness of the company and promoting it, attracting customers, and being unique compared to their competitors (Dolnicar and Ring 2014).

 Chapter Two

 Background of the Company

The Emirates Group is an airline company that was established in Dubai in 1984, by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a member of the royal family in Dubai. The Emirates Group “operate modern, efficient and comfortable aircraft” and their “culturally diverse workforce delivers award-winning services” to their customers “across six continents every day” (The Emirates Group 2024). Going back in history, the Emirates Group operated their first flight from Dubai to Karachi in 1985. In 1987, they had their first own aircraft. Within the first five years of establishment, their network spread across 14 different destinations, making them a well-known company. In 1992, they became the first airline that included the installation of video systems throughout each seat. Throughout the 21^st century, the Emirates Group built its profile across the globe and increased its capacity of passengers to 22 million a year in their Dubai terminal. Even after COVID-19, the Emirates Group “remains the largest international airline” carrying millions of passengers a year. The company continues to provide innovative ideas to increase the success of the company, through their “stable executive team” (The Emirates Group 2024).

 Chapter Three

External Analysis

Chapter three will discuss the Emirates Group’s competitive situation by providing an external analysis using Porter’s five forces.

With regards to the intensity of the competition, there are many factors that influence this. Within the airline industry/market, there are several organisations competing for the same purpose, hence there is increased rivalry within this sector. Furthermore, customers look for flexible prices, mostly looking for cheap and affordable ones, therefore there is competition between ticket prices for different organisations. As well as this, different companies work to provide unique services that differentiate them from other companies, hence there is more competition. Additionally, what makes the competition more intense is how much influence airline companies have on a global scale (Shaw 2024). The Emirates Group has a range of competitors within the airline industry, all competing to provide world-class service, but Emirates Group is still in the lead. Some of the competitors include Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, Turkish Airlines and British Airways (Bhasin 2024).

Moreover, the Emirates Group have key suppliers that they rely on to provide for their company and maintain its growth. Boeing and Airbus are the aircraft manufacturers and play a crucial role in the running of the business. The Emirates Group is one of the largest airline companies, hence it comes with high fuel consumption that is needed for the operation of their products. Catering suppliers such as dnata provide meals within flights and other catering services that maintain the Emirates airline. Furthermore, technology suppliers ensure the effective functioning of the operations within the airline and the regular maintenance of the airline, to ensure the running of a safe and efficient airline company. Additionally, Emirates Holidays work with other organisations including hotels and restaurants to provide their customers with holiday and family packages with a range of different activities. These external suppliers ensure that the company provides and maintains a high standard of service for their customers and safe and efficient operations, improving quality of services. (Shaw 2024 and The Emirates Group n.d.).

As well as this, there are numerous types of buyers of the Emirates Group and their bargaining power is very low due to their trust in the company. For example, the Emirates Group has individual travellers, who buy tickets from this company for their own personal travelling. They also have business travellers for business purposes. Moreover, they have tour operators who sell travel services from this company, and they have government related travellers, who buy from Emirates Group for official purposes. The Emirates Group provide high quality service and loyalty to their customers, hence their buyers never feel the need to buy from other airline companies, because the Emirates Group’s reputation is difficult to compete with (Kasi, 2018 and the Emirates Group, 2018).

Furthermore, there are many barriers to entry for the Emirates Group. For example, capital requirements are needed to maintain the operations of the airline company and it can be quite costly. The Emirates Group must also follow government guidelines and regulations to ensure safety and efficiency of flights. Getting approvals can be a lengthy process and cost a lot of money (Kasi, 2018 and Shaw 2024).

Customers may also be attracted to different modes of transport or different airlines compared to the Emirates Group. Other airlines that may compare to the Emirates Group due to cheaper costs or better services include Etihad Airways or FlyDubai. Customers may use other forms of transport such as bus, boat, car or train due to shorter distance travelling or travelling for leisure (Kasi 2018 and Saadat et al, 2018).

 Chapter Four

Internal Analysis

This chapter will provide an internal analysis that will discuss the company’s ability to meet the needs of its customers by using STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) analysis.

The customers of the Emirates Group can be segmented into the following groups: geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioural segmentation. Customers are segmented based on geographic location. This includes customers who travel internationally, customers who travel regionally and customers who travel within the UAE. Customers are also segmented based on demographics such as age, gender and occupation. These include young and old, male and female, business travellers and leisure travellers, and high and low income earners. Furthermore, customers are segmented based on psychographics such as interests, behaviours and lifestyles. These include travelling for luxury experiences, travelling with eco-friendly services and travelling for exploration purposes. As well as this, customers are segmented based on their behaviours too which refers to behaviour patterns they portray with the airline company. For example, customers who travel regularly with the Emirates Group portray loyalty, customers travelling first time portray curiosity in the company, and customers travelling for business purposes portray their trust in the reliability of the services (Prayag and Hosany 2014, and Avram 2019).

With regards to targeting strategy, the Emirates Group follows a differentiated marketing strategy as they cater for a range of different customers and work to ensure they can meet their diverse needs. For example, one of the target customers includes business travellers. The Emirates Group provides efficient and reliable services that businesses can trust. Another target customer includes travellers who are cost-conscious. The Emirates Group provide flexible prices across their airline company meeting the financial needs of diverse customers. Another target customer includes travellers who are loyal to the company. The Emirates Group provides a loyalty program known as ‘Emirates Skywards’ for their loyal customers where they offer valuable benefits and aim to maintain the trust of their customers (The Emirates Group 2024, Shastri 2023 and The Big Marketing.com 2024a).

The Emirates Group is one of the largest airline companies in the world and has many competitors within the airline industry. Below is a positioning/perceptual map for the company portraying its position against its competitors:

As shown above, Etihad Airways is in the same positioning as the Emirates Group portraying its quality at a similar level to the Emirates Group. This can be a concern as the company can find it difficult to compete with them in retaining and sustaining customers. The other side illustrates the other competitors who provide high quality services but lower prices, which can be appealing to a diverse audience, hence increasing rivalry among the airline companies (Bhasin 2024, The Big Marketing.com 2024b)

 Chapter Five

Future Development and Conclusion

Throughout this blog report, it was portrayed that there was high competition between the airline companies against the Emirates Group, even though the Emirates Group is still one of the top airlines. With new technology and advancements within the 21^st century, it can be a concern for the Emirates Group as other airline companies take on these new advancements to improve their services. It was also raised that the Emirates Group targets their services for higher income earning travellers, which can be an issue for travellers who earn a lower income and prefer cheaper ticket fares. This means that their services are not for everyone and needs to be improved to ensure they can meet the various financial needs of their customers, especially if they want to remain in the top position (The Emirates Group 2024).

The Emirates Group uses a range of social media platforms and collaborations with influencers to promote and advertise their company further within the airline industry. To further improve this marketing strategy, continue to research into advancements that will enhance the services of this company, ensuring high quality standards, and ensuring that the Emirates Group services are more middle-class and working-class friendly, to ensure a diverse range of customers needs are met.

 

References:

 

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