Air France Internet Marketing Essay

b) (10 points) Based on your results in a), graph publishers on a bubble chart using the

The author’s study of the Internet’s genesis makes systematic links between the technological development and its organizational, social, and cultural environment. There are many available histories on the Internet, in print and online. Most are well-documented information on technology and its history. Some mention the fundamental concepts of communication, information, and knowledge. Abbate's work, however, goes beyond ordinary facts and her findings are most revealing.

It began participating in online sales at the Basic Booking Request level, a level specifically designed for its own needs in 1995, largely to make life easier for travel agents in its home market of Dallas (Bremner, C. & Fiona, J., 2008). This method of distributing their “goods” has benefitted Southwest Airlines immensely. Lower ticket costs, higher sales volume and cutting out the middle man, offering a pseudo bulk break method for the airline shopper. Southwest could improve on this media through progressive marketing campaigns targeting the areas of air travelers they currently do not. The elderly, young college students and those with children; these untapped areas hold a great possibility for revenue if Southwest is willing to target and market to them.

Before the days of the Internet, if a family wanted to travel to a far-off, exotic locale, they would have to either find a local travel agent or call a travel agency and plan their getaway. In the 1990’s, the Internet became a staple of everyday life and began entering many homes. As the availability of the Internet increased, so did the services available to clients. With the increasing availability of the World Wide Web the travel industry found itself faced with revolutionizing changes. All of the tools that were once solely available to travel agents now became readily available to anyone with access to the Internet and a search engine. Websites quickly formed around the idea of providing consumers with quick vacation planning ideas at low costs. Getting

Airlines are now able to expand their outreach directly to consumers through e-commerce. For example, airlines like Qantas are able to introduce ticketless travel through the use of technology (Thompson and Gamble, 2012).

The Web is structure on the idea of sharing, for the most part for free. This evens the playing field to everyone with a computer, a phone, and/or a tablet and the connection to the internet. This means the average person has a platform and an audience, something that has never happened before until recently.

You have just been hired by Rob Griffin to help him better understand the effectiveness of Air France’s online sponsored search efforts. He has requested answers to the following questions:

Rob Griffin, the senior vice president and U.S. director of search for Media contacts, a media consulting firm, is faced with the task of optimizing search engine marketing (SEM) for Air France as the company seeks to compete in the hyper-competitive U.S. market. Even though Griffin is satisfied with the performance of his company, he wants to make the team to remain the leading position and provide the results that Air France wanted. At the time of the case, SEM has become an advertising phenomenon, with North American advertisers spent $ 9.4 billion in the SEM channel, up to 62% in 2005. In the past, Media contacts h had concentrated on Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo for the search engine

Of the total travel market only 1% was generated from the online travel market, and consumers still depended on customer call centers to confirm payment status. To counteract the risks it is important that Lucky Air create an effective business-consumer-business model that will do the obvious and draw consumers to their site and make an online purchase of airfare. To draw in consumers Lucky Air will need to focus on Web 2.0, which is the unique feature or features of e-commerce and the Internet coming together as applications and social media technologies. Web 2.0 will allow for a better online experience with inter-human connections, consumer interacted blogs and the staff to constantly monitor the site to provide consumer feedback. Web 2.0 is crucial to providing customer relationship management. Promoting reviews from consumers in regards to destinations and airline experience are important so the consumer can feel they are important enough to expose the truth from other consumers even negative remarks. But the single most important part of focusing on e-commerce is the ability to provide a online experience and advanced technology that enables customer self-service without the need for multiple customer call centers. Customers should be able to pay for fares, cancel fares, use a safe payment method that can verify a credit card, check on the status of flights and use rewards programs

BA’s product in essence relates to the flights offered. However, the product can be drilled down into specific areas ranging from the airport lounges around the world, the ‘extras’ that you can buy on board such as model BA aeroplanes or even package holidays. Each of these has been specifically tailored to meet customer expectations (which are highlighted in the section of the report titled ‘target market’). This part of the marketing mix focuses on how BA’s products are managed and in the Guardian case study article titled ‘BA, Iberia and American Airlines tie-up heralds new era of transatlantic travel’ dated 06/10/2010 it shows how BA have made an executive decision to link their websites with other companies to have the possibility to offer a higher number of routes (products) to their potential customers.

Airline companies are becoming more and more competitive as the low budget discount airlines are becoming popular. It is key for airlines to differentiate themselves among the various airlines to choose from, and United Airlines wanted to ensure that it offered products and services for all marketing segments. “United realized that it needed to develop a customer-centric future strategy and galvanize its organization to improve the customer experience for its most valued customers” (Prophet, 2012, para. 1). This paper discusses the marketing plan for the newly merged

Customers are part of the process and taking their roles willingly. For distribution of tickets, initially commission was given to travel agents but later Southwest implemented a “ticketless” (paperless) travel program and later the development of Southwest.com as a means of using the internet to sell travel directly to customers. Southwest was a true pioneer in utilizing the internet, first establishing a website in 1995. This lowered distribution cost.

Website owners are drawn to using Google because of the company’s ability to help these site owners create useful information. Google Ad words are an advertising platform that places

Fast, user-friendly online reservation system by facilitating e-ticketing and reducing staffing requirements at telephone reservation centers and airport counters. (Kuzmicki, 2009)

Internet advertising has been around for just about as long as the internet has. There are also many different forms of internet advertising such as banner ads, social media ads, email ads, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Cost-Per-Mile (CPM), affiliate marketing and many many more. I am going to be focusing on pay-per-click advertising, specifically Google Adwords. Google Adwords is a marketing tool by Google that allows for a business to set a budget for advertising and you only pay when a consumer clicks on your ad. The main point of as you may have guessed is largely focused on keywords. In 2010 google reported that Adwords earned over $28 billion