South African Airways Marketing Mix (4Ps) & Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy of South African Airways through marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion).
South African Airways Product Strategy:
South African Airways is the flagship airline of South Africa and one of the largest in the world. Being a leading airline, South African Airways provides both international as well as domestic passenger and cargo services. Currently, they boast of an extensive air fleet that includes some reputed names including Airbus A330-300, Airbus A330-200, Airbus A340-300/600, and Airbus A320-200. It has a vast range of fleet as a part of its marketing mix product portfolio which clearly portrays the wide range and variety of services provided by them. While most of them are meant for premium experience while others focus on the economic segment of flyers too. Their services include less noise and different lighting ambiance for certain flights while for premium experiences they offer the finest of dinners, drinks as well as complementary services. For business class travellers, South African Airways offer long beds, homely ambiance and more personal stowage making the journey more comfortable as well as private. Even in the economy class segment, they provide accessory services like USB charging ports, shared PC power points and spacious seats with more leg room. South African Airways also give cargo services and they are Africa’s leading air freight service provider. As a part of cargo services, they transport livestock, human remains, dangerous goods, vulnerable and valuable cargo, general cargo with some distinct services. They have even partnered with other airlines and trucking agencies to offer freight services to distant parts of Africa.
Image: Wikimedia
This concludes the product strategy in South African Airways marketing mix & strategy.
South African Airways Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in South African Airways marketing mix strategy:
Pricing strategy is very vital for any organization to stay upright in the game. The South African Airways connect the nation with major cities across the globe, it has to maintain a fair pricing strategy for its products and services to accommodate different segments of customers.
Since it's an international air service provider, it needs to keep an eye on its competitors too. Following them, South African Airways has adopted differential as well as competitive pricing strategy targeting certain customer segments and providing them with special services.
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South African Airways Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the South African Airways marketing mix:
The brand always projects itself in high-end department stores like Harrods and Selfridge, in selective online departmental stores like net-a-porter and in their official e-shops. South African Airways are into web presence too with mobile sales channel developed drastically in the last few years.
Currently, they have expanded to more than 30+ countries and is expanding ambitiously in countries like Japan through an increasing number of Brick and Mortar stores.
South African Airways Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the South African Airways marketing mix is as follows:
Marketing policy of South African Airways aims at creating a positive awareness of its brand among the consumers. They have adopted an aggressive marketing strategy and has launched several campaigns via electronic and print media including popular channels of television, travel magazines and newspapers. They have utilized social media to its maximum capacity. South African Airways have designed their official website so well that one can easily get all the relevant information from their website itself and this enables them driving traffic towards their website for online booking.
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of South African Airways.
People:
Since South African Airways offer an experience to their customers, they hire the best of the people in the lot who are trained well to cater to the needs of the flyers. This policy is implemented not only for the air hostesses or other crew members but also for the ground staffs and employees of other associated departments like maintenance and cargo. At certain times they train their employees according to their requirements and this process is quite influential in smooth service of this airline.
Process:
South African Airways being a member of the Star Alliance adopts such processes and practices that enable them to offer a holistic customer experience at a certain competitive price which other airlines cannot provide. From pricing to end to end services, they implement the best industry practices to cater to the needs of their customers. Even for cargo, they take utmost care to deliver and has expanded its outreach beyond its normal hubs and hence they have been claimed as one of the leading players.
Physical Evidence:
For different fleets, South African Airways provide different ambiance, food, comfort as well as services. As a part of physical evidence, they provide the finest of meals, drinks as well as tv screens for entertainment purpose. For certain fleets, they offer extra storage space, leg room, rest space too. Their fleets are mostly designed to cancel the outside noise to their passengers making it a pleasant and homely experience for their customers. Hence this concludes the marketing mix of South African Airways.
About South African Airways:
South African Airways is the flagship carrier of South Africa and it projects itself as the leading carrier in the entire African continent. Being a member of Star Alliance, they aim at achieving consistent efficient and customer-centric operations to give a service that is one of its kind.
Apart from the services, they also work on South Africa’s National Development Agenda and try to keep up commercial sustainability. Over the years, South African Airways have diversified their business and now involved in several other segments in the aircraft business like aircraft maintenance.
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