Emirates Airlines
Zayed University
BUS310-502
1
Table of contents
Pages
Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………. 4
Introduction
…………………………………………………………….... 4
Environmental Context Analysis ………………………………………………… 5-6
Competitor Analysis ……………………………………………………………... 7-8
SWOT Analysis …………………………………………………………………. 8-9
Segmentation and Targeting……………………………………………………… 9
Positioning Strategy ……………………………………………………………..
10
Product Strategy ………………………………………………………………..
10-11
Pricing strategy ………………………………………………………………..
11
Distribution strategy ……………………………………………………………. 11-12
Promotion strategy ………………………………………………………………. 12-13
Customer service and relationship activities ……………………………………. 13
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………
13
Recommendations ………………………………………………………………
14
Appendices ………………………………………………………………………
15
2
List of Tables and/or List of Figures:
Strengths
Dubai government
support
Weaknesses
High competition
High employee
satisfaction
High cost to maintain
brand image
Wide area of business
activity (72 countries)
Dependent on
international moving
traffic
Not catering for
budget travelers
High customer loyalty
Opportunities
Continuously
purchasing newest
fleet available
Increase number of
destinations grows
market share
3
Threats
Competitors within
the region following
the same model
Change in
governmental policies
Executive Summary:
Emirates Airlines is an organization in the UAE that is owned by the government of
Dubai's Investment Corporation of Dubai. It provides services of flight and in-flight
entertainment systems which also include economy, business, and first classes. Emirates airlines
furthermore consist of ground services such as providing separate lounges for first and business
class as well as a complementary chauffeur-drive from and to the airport. Emirates functions
across six continents with nearly 3,400 airlifts a week.
Emirates airlines offer a service that is in demand by many consumers and especially in
Arab countries for their frequent travels around the world, mostly Europe, during vacations short
or long. Due to this huge demand of travel service Emirates have gained an advantage by
providing many irresistible amenities. They try their best to perfect their company and image to
win against some threatening competitor such as Gulf Air Company and many others. This
airline has a lot of advantages because of image and good service but it has some disadvantages
as well.
Emirates targets mainly middle class and business class people and tend to somehow
overlook the lower class because of the high price they pay for development and advertising. It
has grown rapidly throughout the years and is still improving by providing offers for the
customers and settling on fair prices. They also listen to their customers complaints and try their
best to fix it.
Introduction:
Emirates is an airline started in Dubai located in the United Arab Emirates. Emirates
Airlines expects to clasp the interest and prioritizes business class customers and the upper
middle class. The company plans to build a strong market position in the world. Emirates airlines
aims to offer its service at a good price to meet the demands of upper middle class and the
middle class due to their astonishingly favorable service and safety and their willingness to listen
and fix their customer’s complaints.
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Environmental Context Analysis
Demographic Environment:
The need of airline industry is growing rapid as the world has become a global village.
The number of immigrants, business traveling, and tourism is expanding in the Asia pacific
region. Therefore, all the airline service providers’ including Emirates are in a constant struggle
to fulfil the growing needs. Emirates have customized its services to its customers according the
age, gender, religion, and other demographic features.
Economic Environment:
The aviation industry worldwide suffered a lot during the major economic down fall,
resulting in liquidations of numerous airline firms, reduction in airline travel networks and levels
of service and IATA gave a approximated net losses 9.4 billion US dollars in the year
2009. Globally, the Aviation industry stared severe price-cutting and downsizing. But the
Emirates due to its well-established strong network agreements over international destinations
were not only able to survive but also optimized it operations. The Emirates now have increase
its capacity while still able to keep its fixed costs at a similar when compared with other
competitor. An emirate is able to access the international markets with bigger geographical
coverage.
Socio-cultural Environment:
Socio-cultural factors can also effect on strategies of development. It was real challenge
for Emirate because both global and domestic markets where Emirates function have large
cultural multiplicity. Since the countries like U.K Australia, Canada, America and Dubai, are
multi-cultural so the customers possess different moral values, education, attitudes, and religion.
Because of this diversity, Emirates turned itself in a dynamically vibrant airline. Now the
Emirates possess the competitive advantages of operating in regions where the tendency of
air travel is enhanced by social diversification.
Political and Legal Environment:
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For air travel, aviation companies need to acquire license to fly through the air space of
the counties but in case of Dubai there is no such requirement, it is an open market. Due to Dubai
policy of opening up it skies, the Emirates was able to compete with the large stair line of the
world. Emirates now is able to enjoy the advantage of the global market from entering
worldwide destinations like Australia, America and New Zealand all because of the recent
contracts on complete air traffic rights from the respective countries. Aviation deregulation has
enhanced airline organizations to improve open route entrance and exit of airplanes, work on
reasonable fares and travel services. Additionally the liberalization in aviation industry is
growing. Therefore, the competition is turning out to be more and more challenging. Recently,
Emirates Airline was successful in obtaining more landing rights in states of Europe which is
seen as major threat by the local airliners. Numerous carriers have said the Emirates airline due
to getting fuel subsidies from it local government possesses a serious competitive advantage over
their airlines. Therefore should not be given license (Davahran, et.al, 2014).
Technological Environment:
The use of latest technology is a grantee of success in the commercial aviation industry.
The never ending requirement for technological progresses in order to gain competitive
advantage and enjoy opportunities in the profitable business market is dream of the every airline.
The Emirates airline is also completely aware of the importance of technological advancements
in it industry. That’s why it is pursuing the 5 star airline standards. Emirates have recently given
an order for a book stands for its 244airplanes of the latest Airbus and Boeing, having a net
worth of 60 billion US dollars. It is current the youngest and would become one of the most
advance fleets of the entire international commercial airlines. The Emirates airline
recently signed a mobile phone network coverage contract with a telecommunication company,
in order to give its customers the facility to use their mobile phones while they are on the plane.
For several years of its existence, the Emirates airline has also been awarded many performance
awards like having the Best Global Airline Website, and technologically most advances airline of
the world.
Natural Environment:
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Natural environment and maintaining the level is the foremost responsibility of Emirates airline.
This airline thus works at its best in order to maintain its environment by providing best working
environment to its employees
Competitor Analysis
Direct and Indirect Competitors
The companies like Gulf Air Company GSC, Air France, Lufthansa AG, British Airways,
and Qatar Airways Group are main direct competitors and major threats to the Emirates Airline
business. Indirect competitors are countless local airlines in different countries which associated
with its competitors (Davahran, et.al, 2014).
Porter’s Five Forces
The strategies of Emirates airline sever as a function of its environment where it works
and delivers the services of inherent strategic thinking within it carrier planes. The porter’s five
forces will give a detail overview of the current state of the company.
1. Threat of New Entrants: the current scenario shows that existing airline industry has a low
entry barrier. Investment, the prime admittance barriers, is freely present in the Middle East
and expertise and technology can be easily purchased.
2. Power of Suppliers: The two leading suppliers are Airbus and Boeing and competition
between them is obviously visible. Also, the probability of a supplier incorporating vertically
is not very probable.
3. Power of Buyers. The haggling power buyers of airline industry in the Asia Pacific region is
very low.
4. Availability of Substitutes: The number of Threats are quite limited taking into account the
distances in the region and the fast growth is that is a symbol of development of the area.
5. Competitive Rival Situation: The airline industry is termed as one of a highly competitive as
well as highly advanced industry that can also gain low returns due to the cost of competition
that is supposed to be high. This in the future can ruin the entire situation of the industry and
can also spread the disaster in low cycle parameters too. On the other side, Middle East
provides a very different story and this is all because of the government interventions.
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Competitive Strategy and Position Analysis
Strategic capabilities termed as the skills as well as abilities done in order to accomplish
the stage so that a company can easily survive in the market. It is further categorized into two
classes i.e. resources and competences.
Emirate is embedded with threshold resources that comprise of various office equipment,
flights, head quarter, employees and last but not the least its finance resources. Emirate on the
other side has some main resources too that are operating in the form of management team, run
by Ahmed Bin Saeed Makhtoum CEO & Chairman of the stated company. Like resources, this
company does have threshold competences as well which comprises of online booking
procedures; operations related to on time delivery and point to point based routing. The core
competences consists of IT development and management along with route and no frill strategy.
Competitive Advantage
Emirates Airlines id working with enthusiasm in order to properly implement
differentiation generic based strategy by providing high quality and fully equipped services in
order to gain benefit and potential outcomes among their competitors and on the same side to get
a good and remarkable place in the market so that can termed as Leader Company. For this
specific purpose the emirates airlines was termed as one of the 1st Airline in the world who
offered big TV screen in all its all airline and this company also introduced e-ticketing system in
UAE for the very first time.
With the help of segmentation of market this company gained another major competitive
advantage too. This is the only company operating in UAE that is actually providing training by
best ever technology i.e. plane simulator. The aim of these changes is to make this company one
of the leader company (Davahran, et.al, 2014).
SWOT Analysis:
Emirates Airlines is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, becoming a pioneer
in the industry around the world as a model to follow and compete with. The company has its
own set of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that needs to be highlighted, as
illustrated in the table below:
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Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Dubai government
High competition
Continuously
Competitors within
purchasing newest
the region following
fleet available
the same model
support
High employee
High cost to maintain
Increase number of
Change in
satisfaction
brand image
destinations grows
governmental policies
market share
Wide area of business
Dependent on
activity (72 countries)
international moving
traffic
High customer loyalty
Not catering for
budget travelers
Segmentation and targeting:
To grow Emirates Airlines’ name in the international market, the target audience that
they address are people with high purchasing power and are in the upper-middle to upper class of
the population. The segmentation is done through income and occupation. In terms of the income
segmentation, the upper-middle and upper class have the desired amount of expendable money
and are likely to pay for the fares offered by Emirates and look for the type of services and
benefits the flight experience offers. The occupation segmentation categorizes the audience into
‘business class’ and ‘working class’ to divide the target audience and know what percentage is
more likely to fill which section of the plane. The business class seats are advertised to business
travelers, while the regular section would be for the working class, both having different
communication strategies. The working class would need to be inspired to pick Emirates and pay
a high price for a leisure trip by highlighting the different services offered that make the
experience unique. For the business class, where the price is relatively inelastic, the
communication is aimed at the prestige, trusted commitment and efficiency that the flight with
Emirates offers (more spacious, non-stop flights, uncompromised quality).
Identifying these within the UAE and across the different countries that Emirates flies to
is important in order to know how to position the brand and at what price are people willing to
use the services by the airlines. It also helps to decide on the most effective promotion methods
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to attract the audience and identify the effective distribution locations. To guarantee the feeling
of premium traveling, Emirates has a dedicated terminal in Dubai Airports, offering the VIP
treatment even before the customer gets into the plane. Such aspects allow Emirates to justify the
premium that it charges in comparison to its competitors.
Positioning Strategy:
Since 1985 Emirates airlines grown rapidly from just having two aircrafts to 171 widebody aircrafts including the world’s largest fleet of Boeing 777s and A380s. Emirates is one of
the largest airlines in which it is trying to position itself as a lifestyle brand, it is not just offering
a transportation from a place to another but a full experience and connection of people’s hopes
and dreams. According to Emirates247, Emirates is “a fast-growing international airline with one
of the youngest fleets in the sky and more than 400 awards for excellence worldwide.” Another
way in which Emirates airlines position itself and make itself well-known and preferable to many
passengers is by the skywards service. According to Emirates, they mention that skyward
programme is an award winning programme in which it costs nothing to join but will change the
way the people see the world forever. People could earn points “miles” and spend them with
emirates or other partners. It can also enhance the travel experience in which they could update
their flight experience and so on.
Product Strategy:
With Emirates airlines a customer is not only a flight attendant who travels with Emirates
airlines, Emirates airlines cares about every need customer to make it an unforgettable
experience. There are 3 different classes in the airplane which are First class, Business class, and
Economy class. Each of these classes has different facilities and services provided to the
customers. To begin with, First class and Business class passengers are offered a complimentary
chauffeur driver to pick up the passengers from their home or hotel to the airport, as well as
driving them from the airport to their final destination. This facility is available in over 70
countries around the world. In Dubai, First class passengers are provided with a Mercedes
vehicle while Business class customers are provided a luxurious Volvo car. Moreover, In the
Dubai airport there are both a First class lounge and a Business class lounge for their passengers.
Passengers would enjoy a direct boarding to the airplane through those lounges as well as having
free Wi-Fi access, a wide selection of food and beverages, and much more. Moving on to the
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flight itself, all the passengers are offered with different and exclusive facilities depending on
their class in the airplane. Each passenger of the First class is provided with a private suite in the
airplane in which they have a personal mini-bar and they could convert their seat into a fully
flatbed as well as having a vanity table and mirror. First class passengers would also enjoy a fine
dining experience throughout the flight. Another facility available to the First class passengers is
a Shower Spa which includes a selection of Bvlgari toiletries and signature Timeless Spa
products. The Business class cabin also lets the passenger have a fully flat bed. Because the
business class is specifically designed to meet the needs of their business passengers such as
businessmen, writers, musicians, and much more, the facilities and services available are a side
table to work on and an in-seat power for the laptop. And finally, Emirates airlines is not only
taking care of the First and Business Class passengers but other passengers in the Economy class
as well. The food that is provided to the passengers is inspired by the destination. There are also
Wi-Fi services in the airplane as well as in flight entertainment for all the passengers. Emirates
inflight entertainment is called ICE which stands for Information, Communication, and
Entertainment. What is meant by information is information about Dubai, the flight, as well as
catching up on news and sports during the flight. Communication is the service of Wi-Fi, data
roaming on mobile phones, and SMS and phone calls through the in-seat airplane phone. And
finally Entertainment, passengers enjoy over 1800 channels of different languages. They could
watch TV shows, movies and video clips, listen to music, and play games.
Pricing strategy
Emirates gained one of the best advantages by operating at ultra-efficient airport that is
providing tax free environment and it is also working on low labor cost too. Airline from 1980
are introducing best ever dynamic pricing based strategies that is then adopted by Emirates. This
therefore allows airlines to best manage the proper seat capacity and by this highest prices can
also be managed. At this point of time, dynamic pricing is termed as a complex methodology that
is related to availability, customer demand as well as competitor pricing too.
Distribution strategy
In the marketing term, the customer along with product and service arenas needs proper
distribution channels in order to generate optimal outcomes. The best ever distribution strategy is
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thus termed as one of the most important feature in order to attract customers towards this
company. Emirates therefore follow different distribution based strategies.
The term intensive based distribution links to the low offer rates of Emirate tickets. This
is an offer especially for winters or summers and is at low rates too. This kind of offers is
generally offered by various ticket channels that are available on Emirate websites too. Emirates
have advantage of this kind of offer as it helps Emirates in working under variety of marketing
activities and furthermore this can boost up the actual demand of its related services too.
Exclusive distribution is another major strategy as adopted by Emirates that helps in
allocating the airline tickets to various tour operators as well as travel agents who are termed as
friendly user and is in link with its business. As a matter of fact when it comes to the specific
service industry, such companies also require wide geographical coverage as well
Selective Distribution on the other side gives variety of offers to some selective
customers as well as to the operators. Emirates on the same side make best use of external
distribution channels where more than one airline competes with each other based on some
ground principles. Nowadays, customers actually compare prices on these kinds of websites and
later make a buying decision that is based on the information they obtain from these websites
(Boyd, et.al, 2012)
Promotion strategy:
Emirates Airlines has developed a promotional strategy that would be in line with the
overall brand image that it constantly maintains and builds, keeping consistent with the brand
identity. The tagline ‘Hello Tomorrow’ has been the main driver of the communications in the
company since 2012, holding many layers of marketing significance and almost always being the
key element in the promotional tactics used by the company. Inspiring the customer, the
consistent messaging pushes the customer to feel the motivational tone of welcoming newer
challenges and taking a step closer to reaching the top with excelling at their job in serving its
customers. The creative strategy behind this approach has become an umbrella campaign that all
promotional messaging falls under, such as announcing new destinations the airlines flies to.
Recently, for example, the flights to Oslo, Norway was launched and the promotion became
titled ‘Hello Oslo’ to ensure a continuity in the customer’s mind.
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Emirates Airlines have a very diverse advertising mix, utilizing numerous touch points at
any given time. The accomplishments of the company are heavily covered through public
relations, in the form of round table sessions with the media and a lot of press release coverage.
In terms of marketing, the company invests in full communication plans, ranging from print ads
and outdoor branding to activations at sponsored events. Emirates, promoting the name and
making it recognizable as a global player in the aviation field as well as an active company
aggressively promoting brand awareness, sponsor the famous football club ‘Manchester City’.
Customer service and relationship activities:
Being an influential company in the UAE as well as in the aviation industry, Emirates
Skywards club has become one of the most bonding examples between a business and
customers. The loyalty program allows frequent Emirates flyers to benefit by collecting points
through a wide range of purchases, allowing them to redeem benefits such as free tickets,
upgrades and other services. The exclusivity has built a relationship and a sense of brand loyalty
between the customers and the company, showing added value to the services offered by
Emirates that goes beyond flying experience.
Even internally, Emirates ‘face card’ for cabin crew as well as employee IDs provide a
long list of discounts and added benefits that the employees could enjoy throughout the UAE.
This provides a service and relationship value that promotes retention of employees and internal
satisfaction and motivation to benefit the company as a whole.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Emirates is a great and advanced airline system that delivers transportation by
airplanes. The corporation intends to shape a strong market position and surpass a couple of
competitors that encourage them to provide better services. Emirates sell their tickets for a fair
price in regards to the amazing service and security they guarantee the clients. For years now this
airline has been improving and gaining much trust making them one of the many famous airlines
known by the public. Since the day it had been formed only three airplanes had experienced
severe problems making it more desirable for the lower chance of getting into an accident or
crashing down.
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Recommendations:
Recommendation 1:
It is recommended for Emirates airlines to concentrate more on the attitude and the way their
servers or flight attendants act towards the people. Even though the service is good and the place
is comfortable but the some of the attendants may sometimes be rude or a bit careless.
Recommendation 2:
Some consumers who purchase tickets beforehand but come late may sometimes lose their seat
to other early arriving people. Emirates airlines should stop allowing that from happening since
the customer has already paid for the seat it is his/her right to keep it and not be sent to another
less desirable seat.
Recommendation 3:
First, business, and economy classes all have different lounges and would not allow people with
an economy ticket enter business or first and that seems sensible but there should be an exception
to family member when both parents have first class tickets while the children don’t so they are
forced to leave them on their own.
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Appendices:
A. Environmental Context Analysis ……………………… 5
A.1 Demographic Environment …………………………... 5
A.2 Economic Environment …………………………....... 5
A.3 Socio-cultural Environment …………………………. 5
A.4 Political and Legal Environment ……………………… 6
A.5 Technological Environment …………………………... 7
A.6 Natural Environment ………………………………….. 7
B. Competitor Analysis …………………………………… 7
B.1 Competitive Situation Analysis ……………………….. 7
B.2 Direct and Indirect Competitors ………………………. 7
B.3 Analysis of Competitive Strategy and Position ………. 8
B.4 Competitive Advantage ………………………………. 8
C. SWOT Analysis ……………………………………….. 8-9
D. Segmentation and Targeting …………………………..
9
E. Positioning Strategy …………………………………… 10
F. Product Strategy ……………………………………….. 10-11
G. Pricing strategy ………………………………………... 11
H. Distribution strategy …………………………………… 11-12
I. Promotion strategy ……………………………………… 12-13
J. Customer service and relationship activities ………….. 13
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Reference:
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from http://www.emirates.com/ae/english/about/about_emirates.aspx
Boyd, B., & Hollensen, S. (2012). Strategic management of a family-owned airline:
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Strategy, 3(2), 70-78.
Davahran, D., & Yazdanifard, R. (2014). The Importance of Managing Customer
Service, Safety Quality and Benchmarking of Airports and Airlines to Enhance the Performance
and Customer Loyalty. Global Journal of Management And Business Research, 14(4).
Direction, S. The remarkable record of Emirate Airlines: Product differentiation and cost
control deliver exceptional performance. Strategic Direction, 28(3).
Emirates Airlines in Travel and Tourism. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from
http://www.euromonitor.com/emirates-airlines-in-travel-and-tourism/report
Emirates | SWOT Analysis | BrandGuide | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share. (n.d.).
Retrieved December 3, 2014, from http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/airlines/534emirates.html
New brand campaign by Emirates. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from
http://www.emirates247.com/business/new-brand-campaign-by-emirates-2012-04-02-1.451755
Our Company. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from
http://www.theemiratesgroup.com/english/our-company/our-company.aspx
SWOT analysis on Emirates Airlines. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from
https://traveldeconstructed.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/swot-analysis-on-emirates-airlines/
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