“Being customer-centric is in our DNA,” says Manish Dureja, Vice-President Marketing Products and Merchandising, Jet Airways, as he talks about viewing Civil Aviation as an enabler for economic growth, the ‘unbundling effect’ and challenges faced by the brand.
Q] Jet Airways announced the consolidation of its low fare service products Jet Airways Konnect and JetLite under the JetKonnect brand name. How will it affect the brand positioning and what has been the response?
We have consolidated all our low fare offerings under one single brand. It promises consumers that under JetKonnect, you will get the price you are looking for in a seamless hassle-free manner. The positioning of the brand remains unaffected. Though it is a bit too early, the initial numbers coming in from the JetKonnect website are very encouraging.
Q] Jet Airways partnered with Nokia in January and then with Disney in May for innovative branding initiatives. Has there been an adequate ROI for the brands? Which other brands will you be partnering with for similar campaigns?
There are many more tie-ups in the pipeline. Yes, the brands have been extremely satisfied with the association; Disney had a registration of about 2.5 million consumers which is a substantial number. Nokia had initially planned the campaign only for a month, but renewed it because of the great response.
Q] What is the market share enjoyed by the brand? Your rival Indigo increased its market share from 19% to 24% in April 2012, leveraging its positioning as a low cost airline. Has this eaten into Jet Airways’ market pie? How is the brand countering this challenge?
In the same scenario, the Jet market share also grew from 23% to 28%-29%. I don’t think people should read too much into the market share data, at the end of the day what every airline and every business has to gauge is whether their market share is profitable or not. An increase in market share does not necessarily mean an increase in profitability.
Q] What would you call the USP of your brand as opposed to competition?
Customer-centricity is in our DNA.
Q] What role does Direct Marketing play in your marketing strategy?
As we go along, marketing processes are becoming far more complex and ROI is becoming far more important. We use 85% of Direct Marketing in our loyalty programmes; this includes both electronic and physical communication.
We do a lot of analytic work on our database. Business analytics covers revenue management, including the right pricing of the right seat at the right time. After all, it is the airline that takes a direct loss when a seat goes empty. Direct Marketing helps us optimize inventory, based on historic data and tracking consumer behaviour. We analyse data to verify hypotheses and to learn something new from it. We also track consumer responses to help us in future campaigns; this is as much a science as an art.
Q] What is the emerging consumer trend of Indian consumers - is flying based on the ‘experience’ or a necessity?
It all depends on what stage of life the consumer is in currently. The majority is price sensitive, the reason being the age band which drives growth. Young customers, as they go along, graduate to a higher disposable income and become less price sensitive. We need to cater to all segments, be it the consumer who is price sensitive where personal travel is concerned, or the consumer with a higher disposable income looking for value, or a consumer who is part of the premium segment. A market exists in all segments and cannot be ignored. As a brand, we need to create value propositions for each segment.
Q] Do you think the Indian consumer has become more demanding?
The Indian consumer is demanding to the extent that he is saying, “You deliver, I will pay for it. Don’t give it to me bundled up. It is my job to pick and choose.” More of what we call the unbundling effect. An emerging trend we see is that, as a result of being price sensitive, the Indian consumer now makes travel bookings much more in advance.
Q] What about the brand presence in Tier II and Tier III cities?
We have been at the forefront of making our presence felt in these cities, and are well positioned. In fact, a lot of our growth has come from these cities.
Q] What role does technology and new media play in building your brand?
We were pioneers on the mobile platform before the apps came. We had experimented with a concept called ‘Jet Wallet’ four years ago. It was a Java-based programme. We were the first to introduce SMS check-in and SMS communication ‘Jet Alert’ to send out alerts and updates. We are still investing in and developing the mobile platform. Very soon, we will announce the launch of our mobile application. We are extremely active and have half a million consumers on Facebook. On Google, we are very active on search engine marketing, search engine optimization and affinity marketing.
Q] One learns more from failures than successes. Can you share any such phase or incident in your brand marketing that helped you learn and completely turn around the brand?
As a result of the insights we had based on consumer behaviour, we made a change in our Jet Privilege programme. The change was delinking the miles from the fare paid by the customer and linking it to the business given by the customer. We have already seen activity rate increase as a result of this change.
Q] What are the biggest challenges faced by the airline today?
One challenge is understanding the consumer, given the nature of the industry. Our cost is fixed and we serve a perishable commodity which is a seat, whether the seat will be filled is a variable. Also, it would help if the government brought about transparency in infrastructure policies. Civil Aviation needs to be viewed as an enabler of economic growth and given importance in policy frames.
Q] How do you see the aviation industry five years from now?
Ancillary revenue will be a large part of the aviation industry going forward, and offerings will be customized to match the ‘unbundling’ effect. We also need better infrastructure to facilitate growth; the overall outlook is positive, the short to medium term needs to be made sustainable.
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