Airport Marketing Case Study

AC1.1

Airport operation is quite competitive and as such different marketing strategies, methods, techniques, and concepts have to be implemented in order to stand-out, increase profits, while also achieving passenger satisfaction. The concept of marketing plays a very vital role in the function and profitability of any organization, including that of an airport. According to (The Chartered Institute of Marketing, n.d.) “Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitability”. In layman terms what that is really saying is that all practical aspect of the company, from its board meeting stages to its research stages, to what is put out (products and services) are all a

They were implemented to provide guidance for organizational activities. While most industries, including that of the airport, were not susceptible to them at first, they have come to realize the importance of implementing these concepts (Netmba.com, n.d.). To effectively manage and operate an airport, managers have to implement various marketing concepts in order to develop strong lasting connections, attract passengers and businesses and to keep existing clients around. In earlier years airport marketing was centralized around airlines; however, there has been a drastic shift and the attention is now geared towards airport consumers, otherwise known as passengers (Kramer, 2010). This is due to the implementation of concepts such as the Production Concept, the Product Concept, the Selling Concept, the Marketing Concept and lastly, the Societal Marketing Concept (Kotler 2000, cited in Www2.nau.edu,

They want more! Competition is at its peak and airports are realizing that they need to find more innovative and mind captivating ways of making sure that passengers continue to travel through them and airlines find it beneficial to create a partnership with them. The production concept was the first to be implemented; airports believed that if they had more airlines and inexpensive flights then more passengers would come. Hence, they placed more focus on airlines and getting them to bring in more fleets of aircraft and dropping fare prices. It was realized soon after that the concept was no longer working; thus, the product concept was introduced. During the implementation of this concept, airports were focused more on improving the airlines, their facilities, the aircraft and the airport structure. It was believed that passengers would gravitate to more high quality and innovative product and services. Hence, more focus was placed on outputting high standard product and services with continuous upgrades. The selling concept came in afterward due to the fact that passengers were not traveling as much as they use to. Airports had to push sales aggressively by advertising and promoting more. They had to let the people be aware of the different flights in which they offer and the ‘ease of access’ when travel through their airport. As the aviation industry revolutionized and expanded so did the