On average, long-haul passengers on the main European airlines watch on-board TV during 80 minutes

This research figures included taking into the account all of the airlines that are currently available on the world market, involving surveying all of the long-haul flight passengers on these airlines, which means this data is relatively accurate. And if there’s a 69% probability that long-haul passengers watch an on-board movie when they’re flying, and on average they watch on-board TV during 80 minutes, this suggests that it is very likely, that the passengers will want to try the new Apple noise-cancelling headphone, which increases the chances of my method of promotion being successful.

• In terms of fitness for purpose, this advert directly relates to the product being advertised, and clearly outlines all of its characteristics. It is also fit for purpose, because the advert targets those people, who are most likely to benefit from using such product as noise-cancelling headphones due to excessive noise caused on the airplane, and it is also those people who are most likely to buy new Apple headphones, because they are prior able to buy this product, because those people who fly, and especially on the airlines picked by me such as British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa, are likely to be in the medium and high income brackets due to high prices of the tickets.

• In terms of how clear the message and how well it is delivered to the audience, it is on a relatively high level, because the message is made clear, the headphones are given out to the passengers on the airplane, they are able to try the product, and then they are asked whether they would like to buy it. The aim of my message was to make people want to buy these new noise-cancelling headphones, and recognize that it’s made by Apple, and therefore also increase Apple appearance of the company that not only produces music players such as iPods, computers and accessories, but good, high quality, niche market noise-cancelling headphones that are no worse than any other made by their competitors such as: Bose, Sony, Senheiser, Bang and Olufsen and others.

The main weaknesses of this method of promotion are:

• Only those people who have long haul flights are targeted in my promotion, whereas many of those people who listen to the music, but don’t fly due to immobility to travel by an airplane may not find out about new Apple noise-cancelling headphones, and will not benefit from it, which means there will be only a limited number of people who fly who will be able to experience new Apple headphones.

• The extent to which this method of promotion will be effective is also limited, because the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones cannot be advertised on all airlines due to a high cost. In theory they can be, but it will not be cost-effective, because in terms of costs of advertising it’s better to target few most popular airlines with the highest number of passengers that travel, who can therefore be targeted during my promotion, rather than advertising on all airlines which might not have as many passengers traveling, which will lead to high costs of promotion per unit of headphones produced. However, due to this constraint, and the fact that some e.g. some Asian airlines will not be affected, most of which have long-haul flights, decreases my audience and the number of potential customers that can be targeted during my promotion, who may well have a high demand for the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones.

• There’s also a risk involved, that e.g. someone might break the headphones on the flight, which increases the chance that next time some other person on the airplane might get a pair of broken headphones, which will ultimately make this person dissatisfied with the quality of the product and create a bad image and reputation for Apple, because it will be very difficult to monitor the quality of those headphones that are given out to the passengers to rent or to try on during the flight. However, alternatively this problem or weakness of my promotional method can be solved by checking all sets of headphones and replacing the broken ones if necessary every 6 months, which will obviously lead to slightly higher costs, but it will only be a marketing cost, and it would be probably be better for the Apple’s reputation to replace the broken sets of headphones to increase people’s awareness of the high quality products produced by Apple, and improve its reputation, rather than doing the opposite.

• It will also be very difficult to control the price for the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones, if they are sold on the airplane, as well as whether passengers will be offered a free trial, or asked to pay a rent. However, there might be some special agreement between Apple and certain airlines about what price they will be allowed to charge under the contract, and terms of use of the promotion, because Apple will be in this case mainly selling the noise-cancelling headphones to the airlines rather than customers directly, which means airlines can charge slightly higher prices. This, therefore, makes the price control difficult.

• It might also be difficult to monitor whether the passenger has already used his trial, and he might be asked for his boarding ticket details, which means there will be more work for the cabin crew, which will make the whole process slightly more complicated.

• People on short-haul flights will not be affected to such a great extent, because they will not have as much time to experience the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones, or the airplane used for the short-haul flights might not be fitted with the screens and appropriate equipment such as music players, that noise-cancelling headphones can be used with.

Secondly, I’m going to discuss all strengths and weaknesses of my second method of promotion which involves putting an advert about new Apple noise-cancelling headphones into an in-flight magazine, that can often be found in the back pockets of the seats in the airplane. The strengths and weaknesses associated with this method of promotion are actually quite similar to the ones associated with the first method of promotion, because both methods involve advertising in the airplane. However, there are also some differences, because visual and physical promotions of the product are two completely different methods.

The main strengths of using this method of promotion are:

• It is relatively original which should make my advert memorable and increase the chance of people buying these headphones, because I’ve used an analysis of the adverts used by Apple competitors as well as some other firms, and took the main strengths of those adverts and tried to avoid the main weaknesses, because it involves use of people in the advert, there’s a set theme which is funny, because it shows that whatever the noise distraction might be on the airplane, even if another person is using a loudspeaker in-front of a person listening to new Apple headphones, he will not be distracted from enjoying listening to the music, due to Apple’s noise-cancelling technology. This makes this advert both memorable and outlines the main feature of these headphones.

• Communication is also highly effective not only due to how clearly the advert is made, so that the person can understand it by both looking at the picture and reading information about the characteristics of the headphones, but there are also captive audiences with this type of promotion, because people will be sitting on the plane for a certain number of hours, depending on the type of flight.

• In addition to this, communication is likely to be effective, because according to my primary research 68% out of all my respondents said, that they could possibly buy something from an in-flight magazine and 88% said that read in-flight magazines. The extent to which this method of promotion is effective depends on where in the magazine the advert is located. However, if it is located in the right place, then there’s a high chance that the person will read it, which increases its effectiveness.

• The layout of this advert is simple and clear, as well as colourful, which leads to effective, high level aesthetics. It doesn’t have too many pictures or colours neither it has too much text written or information provided about the Apple noise-cancelling headphones.

• In terms of fitness for purpose, this advert clearly outlines what the product is, its main features, characteristics, price and availability. It is clear and it’s printed, which avoids any possible confusion, which makes this advert standout amongst the others, and makes it effective. It is fit for purpose due to its design, use of people and the actual headphones, as well as showing how it looks if the person was wearing them. This advert emphasises what the flight for any person on that airplane should be like, and this also targets the audience and encourages them to try this product and enjoy it, just like the man on the picture.

• In terms of the brand loyalty, this advert effectively promotes Apple brand, because it has the Apple logo, as well as the fact that this advert was made to be memorable, and the extent to which it’s memorable will affect how well the Apple brand will be remembered or promoted in this particular advert. It also promotes the brand loyalty, because this advert is simple and clear, and all Apple adverts are like that. They never contain too little or too much information, which should also help people to associate this advert with Apple.

• In terms of the message and getting this message to the customer. Although there are certain limitations, if found and read, this advert clearly transfers the message, encouraging people to try the product and recognise that it’s Apple, which it clearly does. However, not all passengers on the airplane are guaranteed to see this advert or pay attention to it and read it, which leads to a certain degree of risk, especially if there are some other similar adverts published by competitors or about similar products.

The main weaknesses of this advert are:

• Similarly to the previous method of promotion, only those people who fly will be affected, and particularly those who fly frequently or those people who usually have long-haul flights.

• There’s a risk that this advert might not be found or read in the magazine, due to its misallocation in the magazine, or people not being interested in the noise-cancelling headphones.

• Some people on the flight may not have enough time to buy the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones or try them on due to a short flight; therefore, although they’ve seen or read an advert and it might have had some impression on them, they will not buy the product due to a lack of time.

• It might seem ridiculous, but some people on the flight might fall asleep, and not read the magazine due to their tiredness.

• Some people on the flight might not understand English, because they are foreign, which might not get the message of the advert across to them, which will decrease the extent to which this method of promotion is effective. This problem can be solved by making sure that an advert provided in the in-flight magazine on a particular airline is translated into the language that most passengers on that airplane are likely to speak. And although there might still be some people on the airplane who don’t understand the advert, it should be made sure, that the visual impact is so great and the picture of the advert is so clear, that the message can be transferred to the passenger easily without having to translate it into another language.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-26