Airline Industry: Flying Full-Service on Research Paper

4). The return on this modest investment was impressive: "We saw that mobile is five-to-ten times more effective than online advertising" (Butcher, 2009, para. 4). The contest also increased visitors to the company's WAP site (Butcher, 2009).

7.

Description of Location

The same location will be used for the envisioned marketing campaign as the "Back for a while" initiative which targeted Hispanic males and females ranging in age from 27 to 45 years, in the New York and Houston metro areas; both English as well as Spanish consumers will be included in the campaign.

8.

Pricing Strategy

Because of skyrocketing energy costs, the company is already operating on razor-thing profit margins. Therefore, the company's general pricing strategy that is associated with the marketing initiative envisioned herein, "Llevar a un amigo" ["Take a friend"] will remain unchanged from current practice, but the content will offer Hispanic consumers in the targeted areas with the opportunity to purchase two tickets to their destination of choice for the price of one. This will allow the 100 lucky winners to take a friend or loved one wherever they want to go, and will still generate revenues and additional interest in the company's full-service offering.

9.

Summary and Implementation Plan

The research showed that the airline industry is fiercely competitive and Continental faces competition from American Airlines, Delta Airlines and U.S. Airways in the full-service category, as well as increasing competition from low-cost carriers such as Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran. The implementation of the marketing initiative envisioned herein should therefore proceed before spring break 2011 in order to generate interest from the Hispanic traveling public, many of whom will likely be traveling during this period.

References

About us. (2011). Continental Airlines. Retrieved from http://www.unitedcontinental holdings.com/.

Butcher, D. (2009, October 28). Mobile Marketer. Retrieved from http://www.mobilemarketer.

com/cms/news/advertising/4508.html.

Continental advertising.(2011). Continental Airlines. Retrieved from http://www.continental.

com/web/en-U.S./content/company/advertising/commercials.aspx.

Flouris, T. & Walker, T.J. (2005, March). Financial performance of low-cost and full-service airlines in times of crisis. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 22(1), 3-21.

The world's leading airline. (2011). Continental Airlines. Retrieved from http://www.united continentalholdings.com/documents/FactSheet.pdf?file=united_factsheet.pdf&type=pdf.

Company profile. (2011). Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=

ual&ql=1

Form 10-Q quarterly report. (2010, October 21). EDGAR online. Retrieved from http://biz.

yahoo.com/e/101021/ual10-q.html.

Appendix a

Key Statistics

Frequent Flyer Program

Mileage Plus

OnePass

Mainline Fleet Facts

Total Operating Mainline Fleet: 359

Total Operating Fleet: 348

Narrow-body

• Airbus A320 family: 152

• Boeing 757-200: 96

Wide-body

• Boeing 747-400: 24

• Boeing 767-300: 35

• Boeing 777-200: 52

Narrow-body

• Boeing 737 (500/700/800/900): 238

• Boeing 757 (200/300): 62

Wide-body

• Boeing 767 (200/400): 26

• Boeing 777-200ER: 22

Regional Fleet Facts

Total Operating United Express Fleet: 295

Regional Jets

• Canadair CRJ (200/700): 194

• Embraer (145/170): 92

Turboprops

• Embraer EMB-120: 9

(Only includes aircraft operated under capacity purchase agreements.)

Total Operating Regional Fleet: 252

Regional Jets

• Embraer (145): 221

Turboprops

• Bombardier Q400: 15

• Bombardier Q200: 16

(Only includes aircraft operated under capacity purchase agreements.)

Wholly Owned Subsidiary

• Continental Micronesia, Inc. ("CMI")

Operating Brands

• United Express®

• p.s.(sm)

• United Cargo (sm)

• United Services

• Continental Express

• Continental Connection

• Continental Cargo

Other Partners

• Aer Lingus

• Emirates

• Gulfstream International Airlines

• Hawaiian Airlines

• Island Air

• Jet Airways

• Qatar Airways

• TACA Group

• Aeromar

• Amtrak

• Cape Air

• Copa Airlines

• Copa Airlines Colombia

• Emirates

• EVA Air

• Hawaiian Airlines

• Island Air

• Kingfisher

• Virgin Atlantic

Contracted Regional Carriers

United Express

• Atlantic Southeast Airlines

• Colgan Air

• ExpressJet Airlines

• GoJet Airlines

•….....