Social Media effects on Emirates Airline

By: Chenoy Ceil

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

Table of Contents
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3

2. Emirates Airline ......................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Marketing Communication Mix for Emirates ........................................................................................... 4

4. Use of Social Media and its Effect on Emirates ........................................................................................ 6

5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 8

References .................................................................................................................................................... 9

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

Summary
As people continue to spend more time online, it is important for social media to capture these
interactions to influence buying behavior. This paper looks at how Emirates airline has utilized
social media to effectively boost its online presence and create customer interactions. The
Emirates brand has been successful because it has utilized the marketing communication mix
effectively to reach out to its audience and customers effectively. For Emirates, social media has
played an important role and the company has utilized various online platforms such as social
networking sites, content communities, blogs and collaborative projects to engage with
consumers.

1. Introduction
Airlines are under immense pressure to produce economic results as fuel costs, labor and asset

costs continue to rise. Under such circumstances, technology and social media interactions are

few of the innovative measures that will help the airline industry to stay afloat. Social media has

changed how marketers plan and operate to boost sales for any company. As people continue to

spend more time online, it is important for social media to capture these interactions to influence

buying behavior. This paper looks at how Emirates airline has utilized social media to effectively

boost its online presence and create customer interactions. Communication has become one of

the key elements of international success and this paper looks at those various measures that

have helped Emirates to become one of the top ranked airlines company in the world.

2. Emirates Airline
Emirates airline as a company is part of the Emirates Group and was established in the year 1985

in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The company today is valued as one of the most valuable airline

brand in the world and is engaged in providing air transportation facilities. Flying the largest
3

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

fleet of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircrafts, Emirates has established itself as a brand to

reckon with. The brand identity of Emirates is with the aim to gain the attention of the consumers

and establish itself as a premium airline brand. It is important to look at the marketing mix

behind Emirates to understand how social media has helped the company to increase its revenue

and reach to potential customers. The Emirates brand has been successful because it has utilized

the marketing communication mix effectively to reach out to its audience and customers

effectively. The brand has grown from strength to strength due to the effective utilization of

social media as well as old media to showcase its presence around the world. Today, the

company has the most number of flights around the world which is a commendable achievement

for the company which had started off with only two airlines in 1985.

3. Marketing Communication Mix for Emirates

The marketing mix for Emirates comprises of its product, pricing, promotions and place where

the services are provided. Within this spectrum, social media falls under the promotional

category. However, marketing communication mix comprises of various elements such as

advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, events, personal selling, customer services and

packaging that help the company to deliver planned messages to audiences and build the brand

for the company (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Social media is an undeniable part of the

communication mix and it is based on web-based technology that allows companies to create and

exchange user generated content (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).

For Emirates, social media has played an important role and the company has utilized various

online platforms such as social networking sites, content communities, blogs and collaborative

projects to engage with consumers (Rudloff and Frey, 2010). Out of the marketing mix, Emirates
4

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

has successfully used the platform Instagram to showcase its reach and potential. Emirates is also

available on the Facebook Page and has its own Twitter handle (Zytka, 2018). These social

media sites utilize user generated content to expand its reach (Milovic, 2012). There are several

advantages arising from social media usage, but there are also corresponding weaknesses due to

unsatisfied customers who can use social media to express their dissatisfaction.

Creation of the brand identity is one of the key reasons behind the marketing and promotional

features of a company (Aaker, 1991). Aaker’s model describes how the brand can be used as a

product, as an organization, as a person or as a symbol to showcase the diverse features of the

brand (Aaker, 1997). As a brand, the company requires social media interactions to build its

communication mix that will help it to reach customers around the globe (Harris and Chernatony

2001).

Social media is all about human interactions and can take the form of text, audio, video, images

or even communities (Hanke, 2016). The airline industry has also been caught in this frenzy of

utilizing social media platform to interact directly with customers and engage in sharing (Hanke,

2016). One of the primary question that airlines ask before engaging in social media is where

airline travelers spend their time and who do they share their information with. If web travelers

are spending more time on Facebook and Twitter then airlines need to have presence on such

platform (Hanke, 2016). However, if web travelers are not utilizing platforms such as Google+

or Flickr, then the airline company need not spend its resources on such platforms to showcase

its presence (Hanke, 2016). The marketing communication mix must focus on the essentials that

reap maximum benefit to the company.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

4. Use of Social Media and its Effect on Emirates
Emirates has utilized social media as a part of its marketing communications mix to reach the

global audience. Emirate has a Facebook page which showcases the multiple services that are on

offer on the flights. Through Twitter too, Emirates has created a separate support page under the

#handle @EmiratesSupport that showcases how Emirates is managing crisis situations and

giving up-to-date information to customers on any issue. Emirates uses short catchy tweets and

posts with attractive content to draw the attention of its customers (Zytka, 2018). It is also

evident that Emirates is also listening to what the customers have to say and are reacting to such

insights. Facebook marketing insights is an important step in this direction that helps companies

to see page engagement rate as well as measure post engagement rates (Hanke, 2016).

Source: Zytka, 2018

From Emirates Facebook page, it is evident that the company is quite responsive on Facebook

and on average it takes them less than 8 hours to respond, which is a very good rate for a large

airline company (Zytka, 2018). Emirates also utilizes their Twitter profile and Facebook page for

real time marketing by sharing neat backstage pictures of cabin crew birthday parties and

showing relevant advantage to each buyer persona (Zytka, 2018). Compared to other airline
6

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

brands, Emirates has successfully utilized videos to showcase engaging content for their

customers. Emirates has also used Twitter to successfully provide real-time updates about any

emergency situation or crisis situations that arise. Twitter is also utilized to show various content

about how Emirates is one of the few airlines with presence around the globe (Zytka, 2018).

Source: Zytka, 2018

From the above content and by analyzing the worldwide sentiment perception of Emirates, it is

understood how the company has effectively managed its social media profiles to engage with

customers. The number of brand mentions of Emirates is also considerably high compared to

other airlines. Social network mention is an important key performance indicator in the

marketing communications mix to understand how the brand is performing (Zytka, 2018). As a

brand, Emirates has the most engagement on Facebook, Instagram and on Twitter (Zytka, 2018).

This clearly reflects that the brand is invested on these three platforms and is not engaging on

other social media networks. Further, Emirates focuses on building its brand image around brand

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

story, visual identity, service portfolio and sponsorship agreements. To this effect, the brand has

effectively utilized the three platforms that has worked best for the company.

5. Conclusion
From the above discussion it is evident that social media has played an effective role in boosting

the promotional aspect of the marketing mix for Emirates Airline. The marketing communication

mix of social media usage has tremendously helped Emirates to create a brand image that is

easily recognizable and recallable. The usage of Instagram has also helped Emirates to create a

brand image that is focused on showcasing the reach of the brand and the number of flights that

it has around the world. From Emirates’ Facebook page it is evident that the company is

constantly interacting with its audience and showing that it really cares about their opinion. On

Twitter too, Emirates has created a separate support page under the #handle @EmiratesSupport

to instill faith in its customers about the excellent customer service (Neises, 2013).

This paper has tried to look at the marketing communication mix utilized by Emirates, focusing

especially on its usage of social media as an effective means of interacting with consumers.

Emirates as a brand has been effective in managing its social media presence with a singular

focus on expressing its vast reach across the world with the most number of flights connecting

cities from different parts of the globe (Wilson, 2007). The company has also focused on

branding itself a consumer brand, rather than just an airline. This has helped the company to

reach across the globe for better brand presence as a luxurious brand. In the future, airline

industry will continue to use social media as an important part of the communication mix to

engage with customers.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092

References

Aaker, D. (1991). Managing Brand Equity. The Free Press.

Aaker, J. L. (1997). Dimensions of Brand Personality. Journal of Market Research, 34(3), 347-

356.

Hanke, M. (2016). Airline E-Commerce. Routledge.

Harris, F. and Chernatony, L. (2001). Corporate branding and corporate brand performance.

European Journal of Marketing, 35(3/4), 441-456.

Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J. (2009). Social Media: The new Hybrid Element of the

Promotion Mix. Business Horizons, 52, 357-365.

Milović, B. (2012). Social Media and eCRM as a Prerequisite for Hotel Success. Management

Information Systems, 7(3), 26-31.

Neises, L. (2013). Social CRM in the Airline Industry. Lit Verlag.

Rudloff, S. and Frey, B. (2010). Social Media and their Impact on Marketing Communication.

Bachelor Thesis published by Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences. Lulea

University of Technology.

Wilson G. (2007). Emirates: The Airline of the Future. Media Prima.

Zytka, K. (2018). Success of Arabian Airlines in Social Media – the Emirates Case. SoTrender.

[online] Available at: https://www.sotrender.com/blog/2018/09/success-arabian-airlines-social-

media-emirates-case/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2018].

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521092