The chairman of the board broadcasted the live "carry goods", created a series of cultural and creative products, and launched an "unlimited number of" flight packages...
Can the "high" airline grounding gas marketing "help itself"?
On July 6th, after preheating online for 6 days and satisfying the appetite of consumers, "HNA Airlines fly freely, get together for free trade port" was launched, and soon the Hainan Airlines APP was inaccessible due to the large number of purchasers. "Vignette".
Some netizens left a message on HNA's official Weibo: If it is not adjusted, don't engage in activities. You will be delayed for an hour, and you can't get in.
This is an example of some airlines trying their best to engage in marketing recently.
The chairman entered the live room to "carry goods", create a series of aircraft and soap gift boxes and other cultural and creative products, and launched an "unlimited number of" "free flight" preferential air tickets...Since the outbreak, airlines that have been "tall" in people's impressions have begun Play the ground-breaking marketing, and seek changes in the epidemic, and strive to create opportunities in the crisis.
Airlines seek change in the epidemic
On April 25, the chairman of Spring Airlines, Wang Yu, opened the first live broadcast to introduce netizens to the company's upcoming summer and autumn season new routes, and presented free tickets for the new routes, free hotel vouchers and other gifts in the live broadcast.
This is the first time that a domestic airline chairman has opened a live broadcast.
On May 13th, Shenzhen Airlines launched limited-edition models, aircraft soap gift boxes, little flying uniforms and other products in the live broadcast, taking advantage of new media marketing to create its own cultural and creative product brand.
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Under the epidemic situation, airlines are seeking changes and innovating marketing methods.
On June 18th, Eastern Airlines launched the "Weekend Free Fly" product, which pushed this wave of marketing to a small climax.
After purchasing and activating the "Weekend Free Fly" product at a special price of 3322 yuan, passengers can take unlimited flights on Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines on any Saturday and Sunday of this year, flying to all major domestic flights except Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan city.
Although China Eastern Airlines did not disclose the specific sales data of the product, but according to the passenger data provided by it, it can also be seen that the product is hot. In the two weekends after June 18, the number of passengers who used "Xpress-on-the-fly" on 4 travel days exceeded 150,000, and the proportion of seat reservations on weekend flights on some popular routes reached 90% of the total number of passengers.
After China Eastern's first "crab eating", on June 21, China Airlines also launched an "unlimited flight package."
On July 1, Hainan Airlines announced that it will launch the "HNA Freely Flying and Together Free Trade Port" product.
Compared with Eastern Airlines' "Flying on the Weekend", Hainan Airlines' "Flying on the fly" time is not limited to weekends, and it also plays a special card: the buyer can get 2880 yuan of tax-free vouchers from Hainan's four stores in Hainan and an additional 100 yuan of tax-free entities in Sanya Store shopping coupons.
Prior to this, multiple departments jointly issued an announcement: Starting from July 1, 2020, Hainan Islands travellers will increase the annual tax-free shopping quota per person from 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan.
Explosive money "fly with heart" is questioned not to heart
For "flying with your heart", industry insiders analyzed that it is essentially a "season ticket", which is a good example of internet marketing in civil aviation sales.
"Flying with your heart" is suitable for the travel needs of people who are separated, working in different places, and studying in different places. It is more suitable for high-frequency travel groups such as travel enthusiasts, photographers, and middle-aged and elderly tour groups.
According to Xiong Wei, an expert of the Civil Aviation Resources Network, for an economy hit by the epidemic, the social benefits of a "explosion" ticket product associated with travel-related consumption exceed the product revenue itself.
While being optimistic about the industry, some consumers find that "flying with their hearts" is not very casual.
On July 8th, a reporter from Workers Daily searched for “Xixianfei” on a consumer service platform and found 106 related complaints. Many restrictions, lack of contact with customer service, and difficulty in unsubscribing are problems that consumers reflect more.
Some consumers took the one-way flight from Shenzhen to Chengdu as an example. The online photo showed that compared with the flights provided by other platforms, the available flights of “Easy to fly” of Eastern Airlines are mostly transit flights, and the direct flights are only available in the evening. Some consumers also reported that they requested to unsubscribe and could not make more than 20 calls.
In this regard, Eastern Airlines responded that the issue of passengers has tickets available for individual flights, but the problem of "free flight" cannot be redeemed smoothly. After the technical problems in the positioning system have been quickly repaired, all flights have seats in economy class. Can be booked at the time of sale. At the same time, all the restrictions of "Xixianfei" have been made clear before the passengers purchase, and the company will refine some rules.
Regarding the difficulty in connecting customer service calls, Eastern Airlines explained that it was caused by a surge in customer service hotline traffic in the early stages of the product's launch.
Withdraw funds to overcome difficulties
"The marketing methods, including the launch of'Flying Hearts', are positive measures for airlines to actively activate market demand and improve operating efficiency. This move is to deal with the severe impact of the epidemic on the aviation market and ease airlines' funding constraints." China Liu Shuguo, secretary general of the Air Transport Association, said in an interview with a reporter from the Workers Daily.
According to data provided by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, my country's civil aviation industry suffered a total loss of 39.82 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, of which airline companies lost 33.62 billion yuan. In the first quarter, the civil aviation industry completed a total transport turnover of 16.52 billion ton-kilometers and passenger traffic of 74.078 million passengers, down 46.6% and 53.9% year-on-year.
Liu Shuguo further explained that the operating characteristics of airlines are sales before production. Under normal circumstances, cash flow is more guaranteed and the general debt ratio is higher. In the case of a sharp decline in market demand, revenues have fallen sharply, but rigid costs such as aircraft leasing fees, maintenance fees, and financial expenses still have to be paid. Therefore, airlines generally feel that funds are tight, and they must increase marketing efforts and expand sales through product innovation in order to withdraw funds and overcome difficulties.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, in addition to enriching marketing methods, airlines have opened up sources and cut expenditures to carry out "self-help".
According to Liu Shuguo, airlines have lived up to the "tight days" and adopted the strictest and most elaborate methods for cost management. Some airline leadership groups have had zero salaries for four consecutive months and employee salaries have been reduced by 50%. Some airlines have made efforts to alleviate the tight financial situation while strictly controlling financial risks by issuing corporate bonds, medium-term notes, and ultra-short-term financing bonds.
"The association also waives 50% of the annual membership dues for member units, and the other 50% is delayed." Liu Shuguo said that in the context of the global spread of the epidemic and the normalization of domestic epidemic prevention and control, it will take some time for the aviation market to fully recover. Next, the national level should continue to increase support, such as continuing and increasing policy support in finance and taxation. At the same time, airlines must also strive to innovate in times of crisis.
Du Xin