Consumer Behavior: Kingfisher Airlines

Kingfisher Airlines is an airline group based in India. Its head office is Kingfisher House in Vile Parle (East), Mumbai. Kingfisher Airlines, through its parent company United Breweries Group, has a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red.

Kingfisher Airlines is one of six airlines in the world to have a 5-star rating from Skytrax, along with Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. Kingfisher operates more than 375 daily flights to 71 destinations, with regional and long-haul international services. In May 2009, Kingfisher Airlines carried more than a million passengers, giving it the highest market share among airlines in India.

Kingfisher First

The international Kingfisher First has full flat-bed seats with a 180 degree recline, with a seat pitch of 78 inches, and a seat width of 20-24.54 inches. Passengers are given Merino wool blankets, a Salvatore Ferragamo toiletry kit, a pyjama to change into, five-course meals and alcoholic beverages. Also available are in-seat massagers, chargers and USB connectors.

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Every Kingfisher First seat has a 17 inch widescreen personal television with AVOD touchscreen controls and offers 357 hours of programming content spread over 36 channels, including Hollywood and Bollywood movies along with 16 channels of live TV, so passengers can watch their favorite TV programs live. There is also a collection of interactive games, a jukebox with customizable playlists and Kingfisher Radio. Passengers are given BOSE noise cancellation headphones.

The service on board the Kingfisher First cabins includes a social area comprising a full-fledged bar staffed with a bartender, a break-out seating area just nearby fitted with two couches and bar stools, a full-fledged chef on board the aircraft and any-time dining. A turn-down service includes the conversion of the seat into a fully-flat bed and an air-hostess making the bed when the passenger is ready to sleep.

Kingfisher First feature mood lighting on the Airbus A330-200 with light schemes corresponding to the time of day and flight position.

Impact of External Influences

In this era of competition, understanding the consumer is a necessity for marketers. Consumer needs and preferences are continuously changing, given the changes in factors like demographics and lifestyles. These changes can become great business opportunities for alert marketers and threats for marketers who fail to adapt. 

Consumers acquire, consume, and dispose off the products and services created by organizations. They go through several cognitive and behavioral processes while making their purchase and consumption decisions. The knowledge of how they decide on one brand instead of another and what factors influence their decision-making is crucial for marketers, not only to cater to the existing needs of their consumers but also to prepare for their future needs. This knowledge is also essential to make various business decisions related to product development, packaging, pricing, distribution, promotions, communication, etc.

Consumer Behavior helps to understand the internal variables like motivation, personality, perception, learning, and attitude, and external variables like reference groups, family, social class, and, culture, and their influence on consumer decision-making process.

Consumers are faced with many external influences, including an individual’s culture, subculture, household structure, and groups that he associates with. Marketers and business owners call these external influences because the source of the influence comes from outside the person rather than from inside (which would be internal, or psychological, influences). You also could refer to them as sociocultural influences, because they evolve from the formal and informal relationships the individual has with other people.

Clearly ours airline Kingfisher FIRST is an luxury segment service which caters to the needs of high class executives who wish to fly to their destinations not just the ordinary business class but want an experience which is even more luxurious than the business class. We cater to their needs in the best way possible.

We more than just a airline, we host one of the most luxurious & coziest services available, we are just 1 of the only 6 airlines in the world which enjoy a 5 star rating by SKYTRAX.

But still we have consistently under-performed from our capacity and are running into losses consistently into losses from last 2 years.

This is a serious issue which needs a timely surveillance to counter the increasing red lines on the balance sheet.

Consumer behavior can provide a insight of the problem by applying the various theories to the problem. As ours is a service provider company, consumer behavior becomes all the way more important as one can draw a lot of conclusions by simply studying the psychology of the customers and the great problems can be countered in a effective way.

Behavior of any customer is derived from two factors:-

• external factors
• internal factors

though the internal factors are totally in control of an individual and are hard to control, but still they can be managed by looking after the external factors which themselves directly affect the consumers buying decisions.

So that`s why we need to take a close look at the external factors that effect consumer behavior

In the section below:-

Global & National culture:-

Culture:-

The set of basic values perceptions, wants, and behaviours learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions. Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behaviour. Every group or society has a culture, and cultural influences on buying behaviour may vary greatly from country to country.

Sub Culture :-

A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations.

Each culture contains smaller sub cultures a group of people with shared value system based on common life experiences and situations. Sub culture includes nationalities, religions, racial group and geographic regions. Many sub culture make up important market segments and marketers often design products.

Culture is a problematic issue for many marketers since it is inherently nebulous and often difficult to understand. One may violate the cultural norms of another country without being informed of this, and people from different cultures may feel uncomfortable in each other presence without knowing exactly why?

So we can understand that how this factor can play an important role in attracting customers if dealt with effectively.

For this our company has already ready by offering 5 star services which is acknowledged by the SKYTRAX agency and this can become our USP if promoted wisely. As our Kingfisher First is an elite class service so we need to customize according to the routes on which it operates like Delhi-London flight can keep themselves up to the customer expectation by upgrading their flight services according to the demographics of the passengers traveling.

We`ll have to serve to the needs & expectations of the passengers who belong to the different nationalities like mix of different nationals by maintaing the standards this can be done by taking consideration of the cross cultural factors into consideration.

Family & household influences:-

A major factor that affects one`s choice of the services is his family & household income. These factors may include the perception about a service which may be same for the whole family & the complete may think of a service as compliant to their requirements & representing family status or not.

This also makes an opportunity as if one influencing member of the family is convinced about the service the whole family may become a customer.

So a lot of potential lies in this factor if trapped efficiently

For this we may promote our service by:-

being a sponsored at charity events as higher class people have a good attendance at such events.

We can hold events of massive show-buzz as that will help a lot to promote the service.

Our event on personal yatch of Mr. Vijay Mallya before Monaco Grand Prix hosted by Mr. Vijay Mallya to promote Force India can be a great help by making Kingfisher First as official airline of the event. This will create a buzz in the society and at the same time a sample of the service can be given to probable customers.

Opinion leaders:-

Opinion leaders are one who can be of great help as they lead a lot of people, and their followers either follows them blindly or they affect their followers decision to that extent that the probability of the follower consuming that product becomes very high. So if we can entrap these opinion leaders we a gain lot on consumer base.

So this can be achieved by asking review of critics of lifestyle magazines which are read by upper-upper class this can affect decision of a lot of followers.

Added to this some top level executives of some companies can also be asked to travel as their peer group can be affected by this.

As discussed earlier event before Monaco Grand Prix can be of great help to influence these opinion leaders.

Reference Group:-

Reference group are the ones with one comes in contact on the basis of his/her interaction in daily life. This interaction may be on aregular basis like viz. Family, work group, friend circle, etc. OR on a less regular basis like shopping group, virtual group, consumer action group, etc.

A lot of customer base can be gained if dealt with reference group properly since person comes in contact with persons from various aspects of life in his/her reference group & his decision making depends on this reference groups.

Like on is most affected by family & friend group & often if someone in these group appreciates the service the buying decision can definitely swing in favor

To get this as talked earlier event sponsorship & some personal events can be of great help, as well as doing corporate dealing with companies can be of great help as this can start the buzz in the corporate circle and help get the support of these reference groups.

Income & Social Groups:-

Income group are not of much issue as this is a service in luxury class & one who can afford it will definitely not give a much thought to the cost then & so not much to consider in this section.

Almost every society has some form of social structure, social classes are society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests and behaviour.

Social group are of concern definitely as these are generally inherited & affects lot how you perceive the product & this social class also becomes the reference group & a product`s probability to get a boost from word of mouth publicity increases. Added to that are some features like a whole class may give preference to a certain product over the other & this can be of great benefits.

To achieve this same high society events can be a good place to promote, at the same time if we can grab some personal functions of high class society people will also help.

CURRENT POSITIONING BY KINGFISHER AIRLINES

POSITIONING BY PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES AND BENEFITS

Kingfisher Airlines is India leading luxury airlines. Kingfisher airlines are intended to provide you luxury and comfort as each aircraft meets the sophisticated and global technical standards so that you can feel like a king of good times, traveling in air for having an experience of lifetime. The highly promising features of Kingfisher Airlines India that has made it truly a world-class airline are its soothing and beautiful ambience with very comfortable seats. Further to add on is its flight entertainment system and its vibrant and brightly dressed, professionally trained and very hospitable crew, the comfortable seating, punctuality of flights, the service makes the Fly Kingfisher Airlines most popular and promising.

In a short span of time Kingfisher Airline has carved a niche for itself. The airline offers several unique services to its customers. These include: personal valet at the airport to assist in baggage handling and boarding, accompanied with refreshments and music at the airport, audio and video on-demand, with extra-wide personalized screens in the aircraft and three-course gourmet cuisine.

Fly kingfisher has achieved A 5 Star status recognition, which means that Kingfisher Airways has the highest standard of product after going through several stringent quality assessment categories. Fly Kingfisher delivers high standards of service in on-board and airport environments. Skytrax also recognizes Kingfisher Airways to be at the leading position for product and service innovation. This honor makes Kingfisher Airways one of only 6 airlines in the entire world to have a 5 star rating, so fly kingfisher and enjoy the convenience.

Thus kingfisher airline provide luxurious services that having various attributes that brings more benefits to the customers. They have very small size target market and they are trying to grape it. They generally use surprise and delight positioning strategies.

In TV commercial, it is clear that kingfisher airline came up with the slogan “fly the good times”. It reflects that attributes and customer benefits clear in the mind of customers. They were tried to reflect luxuries, comfort and relaxation benefits of customers. Kingfisher First is the luxurious brand of kingfisher airline. They came up with the ideal of emotional appeal in the commercial that truly show attributes of airline and customer benefits.

SUGGESTED POSITIONING STRATEGIES

POSITIONING BY QUALITY

Kingfisher Airline often uses quality characteristics to position their brands. One way they do it is with ads that reflect the image of a high-quality brand where cost, while not irrelevant, is considered secondary to the quality benefits derived from using the brand.

They have through very well laid out marketing strategy successfully accomplished. Today, the air traveler not only wants to commute faster but also be entertained. Recently, the kingfisher airline introduced two initiatives to enhance guest convenience. First of these is the introduction of the Roving Agent at the airport. Rather than waiting at the check-in counter to collect their boarding pass, travelers can directly approach the security check-in counters. Deployed outside the security check-in area will be airline’s Roving Agent, who will reach out to guests and check them in using a mobile digital device and printer.Also launched is the facility of web check-in, allowing travelers to print their boarding passes via www.flykingfisher.com.

The quality provided by kingfisher is rated high among all airlines in India. That the reason that it cover the market very quickly.

In just over two years, after entered in to the Airline market, Kingfisher Airlines has achieved a market share of 10% and has one of the most aggressive expansion plans of all Indian carriers during 2007. It dramatically increased its influence in the market with 26%.

Thus kingfisher First must be come up with the new positioning strategies like positioning by quality. It cannot come up with price positioning because it deals with luxury class. But they can increase the quality in the services with negligible increment in fares.

For this our company has already ready by offering 5 star services which is acknowledged by the SKYTRAX agency and this can become our USP if promoted wisely. As our Kingfisher First is an elite class service so we need to customize according to the routes on which it operates like Delhi-London flight can keep themselves up to the customer expectation by upgrading their flight services according to the demographics of the passengers traveling.

We’ll have to serve to the needs & expectations of the passengers who belong to the different nationalities like mix of different nationals by marinating the standards this can be done by taking consideration of the cross cultural factors into consideration.

In this strategy our main focus on the customized services improvement in term of quality according to customers.

We can come up with the slogan “fly your own way”. It easy reflects offered customized services to customers.

POSITIONING BY USE/APPLICATION

Another way is to communicate a specific image or position for a brand is to associate it with a specific use or application.

In today’s competitive business environment, the pressure on productivity, cost and efficiency are greater than ever before. Kingfisher Elite offers you exclusive travel solutions. Fly at your own convenience anywhere, anytime and choose who flies with you in the utmost comfort, safety and privacy. Be it business or leisure, select from our range of business jets and Eurocopters and you are assured of the most exquisite service complimented with the highest safety standards, allowing you to arrive at your destination relaxed and refreshed.

Key features*

• A private suite with attached rest room and shower
• Tailored service to meet your requirements – ultimate flexibility
• Private & discreet service including VIP, diplomatic and head of state flights
• Experienced & highly trained professional crew
• Custom designed luxurious interiors
• Conference room with state-of-the-art technology to meet your business needs
• Separate sections for guests and staff

To keep all these features at a high brand recall values we will launch our campaign with a central tagline of

“Heaven onboard; Fly with Pegasus”

POSITIONING BY PRODUCT

We will concentrate on the service that we will provide to the customers which inspite of being 5 star rated can gain on on customer base by concentrating on the demographics of pasangers boarding on the route and then customizing our services.

We can come up with the slogan

Heaven onboard; Fly with Pegasus: “Fly your own way”.

It easy reflects offered customized services to customers.

POSITIONING BY PRODUCT CLASS

Often the competition for a particular product comes from outside the product class. For example, luxury airlines compete with other economy airlines.

In this positioning strategy, the company can come up with the ideal of influencing the customer to use airline services. The company is totally focus on niche market of high segment class customers. For these target customers, price is not an issue. They generally influences by status.

The kingfisher First provides them a high class status in society. To influence new customers, the company tries to attach name of customer with luxurious aircrafts. That why Kingfisher Airlines currently operates with a brand new fleet of 8 Airbus A320 aircraft, 3 Airbus A319-100 aircraft and 4 ATR-72 aircraft. It was the first airline in India to operate with all new aircrafts. Kingfisher Airlines is also the first Indian airline to order the Airbus A380. Also kingfisher having number of awards that create it strong brand value in the market.

The company must be selling its brand image in the market by new positioning strategy by product class.

We can come up with the slogan

Heaven onboard; Fly with Pegasus: “because class can’t be compromised”.

POSITIONING BY COMPETITOR

Competitors may be as important to positioning strategy as a firm’s own product or services. In today’s market, an effective positioning strategy for a product or brand may focus on specific competitors.

The biggest competitors, across the globe, are:

• Singapore Airline
• British Airline
• Emirate Airline
• Lufthansa Airline etc

For this type of positioning, the company can be focused on Indian appeal to attract NRIs, and other high-class customers. For example most of the restaurants and hotel industries are focus in this strategy for emotional appeal towards nationality, like Indian Foods Restaurants, Italian restaurants etc.

Other strategy may be that the company can tie-up with international hotels, because most of the hotels provides airline services as their services to customers. The company must give emphasis on that. It can acquire new customers.

We can come up with the slogan

Heaven onboard; Fly with Pegasus: “because sometimes poleis arrange themselves with the pair of wings”.

Critical Reflective Writing

This project has been a great learning experience. I have learned a lot about various this which are different from theory but still the application of the theories learnt in the classrooms. The project has helped a lot to encounter the real brainstorming process which requires us to think a lot to use our space to market our product and the constraints of the brand positioning, resources available at your dispose, etc just add to the problems.

But still it has been a great pleasure to work on the project and has definitely helped us to brush our skills in the field of marketing.

The problem of utilizing the concept of consumer behaviors was a real tough task given you have the constraint of luxurious services in which you have to keep an eye on the base line that you not even by mistake make the product viable to the general public or even market it as one as then you will loose the customers who take pleasure in the status of the service provided. So you always have to keep your eyes open to it.

Then there was a good constraint of positioning strategies to be followed under the the policy of positioning by price & quality to be followed in this case.

Also the constraint of resources was a great source of learning as this helps us learn that how in real world the plans are always governed by the limitation of resources and certain inherent liabilities & constraints associated with the product itself.

Overall this has been a great learning experience, has has helped a lot by providing us a sneaking window into the real corporate world & the real life problems faced by the marketing guys sitting behind the glass walls of the corporate offices.