Indigo Airlines Marketing Strategy

iii) Promotion

No airline has worked harder at capturing the local market better than IndiGo Airlines. The airline relies on its cost and availability to promote its brand across the market. These investments in advertisements are low because it affects the cost. However, IndiGo did come out with a few TVC’s of its own as well as does good advertising online. The airline has adopted a strategy of connecting flights to other destinations from one destination such that customers will not have to book another airline to arrive to their destination. For instance, it has connected four flights from Ranchi to Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and Bangalore and plans are underway for it to add Kolkata and Raipur.

Although not a direct marketing strategy, this

It is because of price and maintaining costs that the airlines have received so much success. IndiGo Airlines is one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest airline in India. In fact, that happens to be its competitive advantage when travellers are comparing prices. This makes it one of the most sought airline services in India because of its quality services as well.

The complete credit for IndiGo’s success goes to the cost control department at IndiGo airlines. IndiGo uses computer generated mechanisms to determine how much petrol it will need from Point A to point B. Thus, its savings on petrol is high as airline petrol is very costly. Furthermore, the servings on flight are minimum. IndiGo wants to control cost but does not build relationships with its customers. This might irk some but then the airline is the only airline which is making good profits even at this stage.

With decrease in prices and increase in the number of passengers every day, IndiGo faces a tough competition from SpiceJet and Air India. With a market share of 39.2% at present, it would be safe to say that IndiGo provides what no other airlines can offer when it comes to cheap prices. There are also some loyalty discount schemes that also help to keep customers

The network maps show that all IndiGo 's destinations are connected to at least two cities while most are connected to 3 or more destinations, whereas this is not the case with Jet Airways. This means IndiGo can keep its aircraft in the air for a longer period of time and save up on airport charges. Because of this IndiGo has a high aircraft utilization rate of more than 11.5 hours per day per plane. This also means that customers don 't have to look for connecting flights with other competing operators.

Spice Jet destinations also seem to be well connected, but they have a larger presence in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities (especially in the south) and traffic to and from these cities tends to be seasonal.

Value Chain Analysis

Strength

• Cost leadership: Successful implementation of low cost strategy

• Quite efficient management that ensures high rate of on- time arrivals

• Brand awareness

• Brand equity

• Continuous innovation to improve non-price factors

• Relationship with hotels and travel partners

• Easy ticketing and refund