Air France Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Services category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Air France analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Air France marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Air France Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Air France Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Air France marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Air France offers majorly in flight and on ground services to its passengers travelling in its flights. Air France company majorly owns Boeing and Airbus jets for its operations across the globe. In terms of its inflight products & services in its marketing mix, it offers four kind of services which includes:

La Premiere: This is the top class service cabin available in some of the select destinations of Air France. It provides premium service to its esteemed passengers in terms of additional benefits and features which are not available to some of the other classes of cabin.

Business: This type of cabin service is available for long haul flights and passengers are given personalised services in terms of food, comfort and entertainment.

Premium Economy: Air France offers passengers with extra baggage, premium services, lounge facilities etc. Additional services like meals, premium seats etc are also provided.

Economy: Features includes winged headrests, a personal telephone, and a touchscreen TV monitor with interactive Entertainment System which have been installed on all of Air France's long haul fleet.

The menu is presented with a choice of two meals for the passengers. The short and medium haul Economy services are operated by Airbus A320 family aircraft with different seating arrangements.

The inflight services offered by Air France are considered to be the best in class and high quality in terms of menu and entertainment. Apart from this Air France offers on ground services like parking, duty free shopping, baggage handling and services at customer desk for boarding and booking tickets. Air France has Le Salon lounges for its privileged fliers offering varied services.


Image: Wikimedia


Air France Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Air France marketing strategy:

Air France offers pricing as economy, business & premium. Generally following the traditions of airline industry the company offers value pricing in terms of its ticket prices.

Air France offers categories of premium tickets also recently started the budget segments in its economy classes for the passengers. It is perceived that Air France has lower fares of tickets compared to its competitors and offer better services accordingly. It has pricing model based on the capacity allocation where the airline offers seats at a fixed price. The price of a ticket is based on the base fare, leisure and other additional benefit cost and taxes levied accordingly.

Air France Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Air France marketing mix:

Air France has its hubs at Charles De Gaulle and Orly airports and has focus cities across 5 airports in France. Air France has flight services to more than 160 destination internationally and more than 30 destinations within France. With its SkyTeam alliance through joint ventures the new routes and code share agreements are being developed. Airline tickets for booking through Air France is available through offline and online ways. There are direct bookings for Air France through counters or indirectly through travel agents and tour operators or through phone.

Online website provided one point for rendering all services including booking tickets or gaining information about the airlines.


Air France Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Air France marketing strategy is as follows:

Air France being carrier of France has specific nature of campaigning its French connection. With its alliance and partners in operation the company makes use of directly advertising the brand as a part of its marketing mix through media like news, magazine and television advertisement. Continuing with the theme of depicting the French character the airlines has also launched a new campaign of ‘Air France, France is in the Air’. This new promotion was designed by French advertising agency BETC and the campaign was in the subject of illustrating the fun and culture of French lifestyle. Air France has also made inroads into digital presence through its social media campaign to garner its message across the globe. Apart from these campaigns Air France offers the passengers with some of the best deals in terms of pricing to different destination as a part of its promotion. Also to retain passengers the airline has the Flying Blue scheme which is the frequent flyer programme wherein points are given based on miles travelled. Air France is also the official airline of the Cannes Film Festival.


Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Air France.


People:

Air France has a dedicated team of employee handling different operation including the inflight and on ground services. This network of people ensures better services are provided to the passengers and maximize the customer satisfaction. There is a wide range of training programmes for the staff of Air France to enable such customer loyalty services. The company also promotes safety through its employees by conducting various in house training programmes wherein there are given complete understanding of handling difficult and unexpected situations. The company has more than 84 thousand dedicated employees catering to better services of more than 50 million passengers annually.


Process:

Air France has routine procedures of booking tickets through online and offline methods and through travel agents. There is a dedicated 24 by 7 services for its passengers all over the world and provides utmost facilities in terms of in flight and at airport. Air France has connectivity at major cities across the world and different level of seating for different segments of passengers. There are promotional partners who normally recommend Air France for travelling.


Physical Evidence:

Air France provides services to its customer right from booking tickets to the flight of the passengers till they reach their destination. They offer a French themed services to the passengers in terms of services at airport and in flight journey. The seating provisions, services and dedication of cabin crew and the customer desk service play a major role in determining the perceptual image of the airlines since they are visible factors. The Air France along with its subsidiaries try to ensure that the customers do not feel any negativity about it. Also the company has been revamping its fleet to provide better comfort and flying experience to its passengers. Hence, this concludes the Air France marketing mix.


About Air France:

Air France is one of the major French airline company operating for more than 200 destination worldwide and being one of the major operator in the European airline sector. The company was founded in the year 1933 through merger of different airlines like Air Orient, Air Union, CIDNA etc. Presently the company is the subsidiary of AIR France-KLM group and founding member of global air alliance SkyTeam. With over 84 thousand employees the company has reported a turnover of more than 15 thousand million $ in the year 2016. Air France has its headquarters in the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport at Paris.

Presently the company is ranked 18 at among all the airlines in the world by Skytrax. Air France offers wide variety of services at the airport and in flight for different segments of customers including the exclusive business, premium and economy classes.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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