MARKETING

PLAN
PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE

Prepared By :
Ayesha Zafar
Tahreem Nadeem
CONTENTS

01
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY

02
COMPANY
INTRODUCTION

03
SITUATION
ANALYSIS

04
SWOT ANALYSIS

05
MARKETING
GOALS

06
TARGET MARKET

07
PRICING AND
POSITIONING
STRATEGY
08
DISTRIBUTION PLAN

10
MARKETING MATERIALS

11
PROMOTIONAL
STRATEGIES

12
CONVERSION STRATEGY

13
JOINT VENTUERS

14
REFFERAL STRATEGIES

15
RETENTION STRATEGIES

16
TIMELINE

17

FINANCIAL
PROJECTIONS
Executive
Summary
Pakistan International Corporation
(PIAC) is a Pakistan-based airline
company offering multiple national
and international services. This
marketing plan focuses on restoring
and improving the PIA's (airline) brand
image as one of the former giants of
South Asia, beginning from its origin
country. Our main focus will be on
PIA as a commercial airline. An
overall situational analysis has been
conducted, discussing the company's
financial performance, target audience,
and current marketing materials. In the
competitive analysis, it is found that
PIA being the national carrier, is not
performing well among the other
airline's competitors. Our priority is to
improve the company's image and
customer relationship management. To
accomplish that SMART marketing
goals are set with appropriate
strategies for implementation.

1
Company Introduction
The Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) was Pakistan's first
airline. It was a merger between privately owned Orient Airways and the
Pakistani government. It was established on 29th October 1946 and started
services on international routes in 1955. It has had the active support of
successive governments since its inception and a vibrant and devoted
leadership team at the start. As a result, the airline was built on a solid
foundation of infrastructure and strategy. The airline's remarkable history in
the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s can attest to this. PIA was formerly regarded as
the most vibrant airline in Asia throughout those decades. The progress of this
air service had a significant influence on the growth of its numerous divisions
as well as its supplementary or supporting administration. Its headquarter is in
Karachi Sindh.

The airline's remarkable history in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s can attest to
this. PIA was formerly regarded as the most vibrant airline in Asia throughout

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those decades. The progress of this air service had a significant influence on
the growth of its numerous divisions as well as its supplementary or supporting
administration. Its headquarter is in Karachi, Sindh.

Situation Analysis
Today PIAC's market capitalization is almost Rs.19 billion. It is serving 62
destinations around the globe; 24 domestic and 38 international. As of 2021,
PIA has a total of 29 planes consisting of 16 white bodies, 27 narrow bodies,
and 6 turbo propellers. Currently, PIA is making losses and is expected to do so
till 2025 reaching its break-even, if followed IATA’s business plan. It has many
national and international competitors which have become a growing threat to
its current brand image, quality, and profits. Some of its domestic competitors
are Airblue, Serene Air, Air Sial, and Fly Jinnah. A few of the prominent
international competitors are Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways, Thai Airways
International, Turkish Airline, and Etihad Airways.

PIA is not following any marketing campaign. Furthermore, not many

advertisements are seen of PIA through traditional mediums such as TVC ads,
newspapers or magazines, brochures, billboards, posters, and etc.. On the other
hand, it has kept itself updated on online platforms such as websites, social
media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), YouTube, applications, and B2B sites
while lacking advertisement campaigns. Its unique selling point is being a
national flag carrier.

It has joint ventures with Etihad and Hashoo group to promote tourism. It is
partners with Roosevelt hotel, Karachi airport hotel, and The scribe hotel.

3
 ""

Competitor Analysis
The global ranking of the domestic competition airlines such as pia, air blue,
serene, and aerial is #62,456, #56,940, #333,021, and #516,514 respectively
which shows that among all these competitors of PIA, Airblue has better
global recognition. If we talk about their traffic generation and engagement
on all their social media and other marketing platforms over the last month,
we can see that the overall performance of Airblue has been on top of all its
competitors with the highest total visits of 863.7k, and lowest bounce rate of
21.45% as compared to 35.8%, 68.78%, and 83.24% of PIA, Serene and
AirSial respectively. In the marketing distribution channel, Airblue remains
topped with the highest ratios of direct marketing, referrals, social media,
emails, display, and search engine.

Existing Target Audience

Demographic Segmentation
PIA is targeting the Income and Occupation segments when it comes to
demographics. Income segmentation is those who fall under the upper and
upper-middle class while Occupation segmentation contains the ones who are
working people either in Pakistan or abroad along with the business people

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who are having their businesses.

Geographic Segmentation
The audience is from both domestic and foreign regions.

Behavioral Segmentation
Hajj Occasion: People from all over Pakistan fly to Saudi Arabia to
perform their hajj in the holy month.
Eid: An increase in urbanization and economic activity and other reasons
people are not with their family most of the time. To celebrate religious
holidays, people tend to visit their hometowns with their families.
New Years: People visit families or travel on vacations locally and
internationally during the new year for celebrations.
Various National Events

Psychographic Segmentation:
They did this by providing different seating facilities (First class, business
class, and economy) in turn targeting different social classes. Providing halal
food to Muslims and alcoholic drinks for international passengers. Also
giving options of veg and non-veg food. They had targeted customers based
on interests and activities by focusing on different deals. They also give
loyalty rewards points.

Distribution Channels
Distributions channels are one the most important aspects of an organization.
PIA currently deals with two levels of channels which are:

Zero level Channel

It's also referred to as the direct marketing channel. Through its ticket
counters, PIA sells tickets directly to end consumers. PIA maintains a ticket
and booking office in different cities which is computerized and connected to
the company's headquarters in Karachi.

5
One level Channel
Here travel agents, as intermediaries, are involved in selling
tickets to the customers. Many travel agents are provided with
the auto ticketing and reservation system. Along with online
booking from different websites.

6
Strengths
It has loyal generational customers.
It has an updated social media presence
It has a great brand recall based on the first
and oldest airline in Pakistan.
Presence of network and routes
Its customer experience with cabin crew
service is notable.

Weaknesses
The aircraft have operational and maintenance
issues.
It is a state-owned company with high political
interference.
It has gained plenty of negative media because of
accidents and fraudulent pilots' licenses.
PIA is banned in some countries.
No marketing campaigns
It is overstaffed and fake degree holders.
It has poor time management.

7
Opportunities
It can target the budget-friendly segment in
the domestic market.
It can adapt and upgrade to new technology.
It can target new international cargo markets.
It can improve CRM through cloud software's

Threats
New Pakistani or low-budget airlines were
introduced in Pakistan.
Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations have a
major, influence on PIA's revenues.
Weak corporate governance.
The increase in oil prices.
Strong present competitors.

8
 Marketing Goals
With the newly proposed PIA's five-year plan by IATA, it needs major
marketing evolution so the brand image would be improved to increase airline
users and ultimately improve profit margins. Although its issues are much
more governance, safety, and quality-related with upcoming change we are
assuming here that they would be resolved. The lack of marketing effort on
the PIA part also contributes to its downhill. Following are some of the
marketing goals that need to be followed to revive PIA to its former glory.

01 Improve overall 04 Build brand

brand image awareness

02 Build new 05 Increase

positioning engagement

03 Improve customer 06 Increase

relationship market share
management.

Before continuing any implementation of marketing strategies for this

marketing plan, proper customer research needs to be conducted through
different surveys, and online engagement (polls, reviews, comments). So, that
Marketing manager would go to the root of the problems customers are facing
to better understand their target audience and provide solutions accordingly.

9
Target Market
Target Customers
Single Travelers
Students
Families with small children
Group Travelers
Elderly Travelers
Business Travelers
Leisure Travelers

Unique Selling Point

The unique selling proposition of PIA in the upcoming time should be putting the
customer first the safety. It has to be one of the airlines where passengers are pretty
confident while traveling through PIA.

Pricing and Positioning Strategy

An average domestic PIA ticket ranges from Rs.17000 to Rs.45000 which should be
reduced by at least 30% to make traveling cost-effective for the passenger because
considering the local audience, they would prefer to buy a ticket which is saving
their money. Reducing the prices is one of the most important practices for
declining airlines to boost their revenues. Substitutes such as trains, buses, and
vehicles compete fiercely on short routes so the prices should be kept less while
keeping all kinds of inflight services and entertainment against some charges and
not included in the ticketing. Apart from that, the demand for a certain air transport
service changes depending on factors such as working days and hours, public
holidays, and school holidays. They charge higher rates during peak days/hours and
cheaper prices during periods when demand is projected to be lower. They'll be able
to smooth out the demand-supply gap this way. So there is a need to continuously
post different offers regarding the prices and destinations.

10
Distribution Plan
Apart from the traditional distribution, the company should opt for NDC (New
Distribution Capability) which is the future of distribution in the airline industry
worldwide. This approach will assist travel agents in receiving richer content,
allowing them to better serve customers by giving a more tailored offer than ever
before. Some of the benefits of NDC are that the low-cost airlines can differentiate
between their product and services while the agent can access rich information and
the customer can benefit from shopping very transparently.

Marketing Materials
It is discussed in the situation analysis that currently, PIA is not doing any
marketing campaign. It is not using any type of print media (billboards, newspapers,
brochures, or posters) to promote itself. Television and online advertisements are
also not seen. However, they are keeping themselves updated through different
online platforms regularly such as website, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn with
regular posts. They also had a YouTube channel whose video was last uploaded two
years ago.

To increase its awareness, and improve its brand image at a low cost we need to
employ the help of social media because of its vast reach and quick results. We will
make a proper google account including Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
These would be done to improve its search engine optimization and make
advertisement campaigns on various online platforms and digital newspapers and
magazines. We would also use traditional mediums; newspapers to target older and
prospective customers, billboards for brand recall, flyers, and brochures for quick
information. A television commercial would also be made for our TV users which
would be used on YouTube as well. Famous malls would be used for a live
campaign.

11
Promotional Strategies
A revitalization strategy will be used. As we are targeting children and adults, the
focus would be on associating a sense of reliance, comfort, and understanding of the
customer's needs.

2nd Quarter
Traditional Marketing

Financial
Following Highlights
are some suggestions PIA can implement, starting from television
commercial in which inherent drama is intended to be used to connect with
customers' stories/situations and PIA’s better customer service. It would be aired on
PTV channels, Pakistani news channels(Samaa news, Lahore news, 24news live),
sports channels( Tensport), and entertainment (URDU 1, Hum Tv, HBO, etc.).
Originally the commercial would be made of 60 to 70 seconds however on television
it would be played for under 15 to 30 seconds with the frequency of 2-3 times every
day. Two more advertisements would also be made as a reinforcement strategy.

A cheap way to advertise is to put advertisements in Pakistani newspapers (The

Dawn, The News, Jang, The Nation, and The Express Tribune) and magazines.
Billboards near airports and shopping centers would be a great place to target
customers for brand recall. Furthermore, flyers and brochures would be distributed
to airline agencies and airports.

10

12
To give customers a first hand experience to fly with PIA, a place would be set up in
multiple famous malls. Three different classes of seats would be arranged and
potential customers can experience being on PIA airline with VR glasses.

To target customers psychologically PIA can develop a particular neutral

fragrance/smell to distinguish PIA from other airlines and they can use that in their
lounges and airplanes.

Inbound marketing would also be applied because word of mouth is important, and
effective to restore PIA's reputation. Things we would use here are blog posts,
webinars, videos, educational videos, discussing new technology, promoting causes
and etc.

Online Marketing

Comparing the results from its competitors, PIA’s engagement, and vanity metrics
are low. Online campaigns would be carried out across the internet with the help of
Google AdWords, and Facebook manager. Its application needs a better user
experience and user interface so needs to update that too and monetize through ads.

Google AdWords

The plan includes making an account on Google AdWords. This is done to optimize
PIA’s search results and increase brand awareness. Three marketing campaigns
would be created. One campaign would be named Passengers, including four ad
groups (vacations, budget, elite and normal). The second would be named cargo and
the third would be named ground handling to target B2B customers. Display and
text ads both would be used. A list of keywords will be set for the ads and website
to appear in search results such as tourist, airline, flight, budget-friendly, vacations,
reliable, and etc.. Our goal is to increase engagement and then conversion. Some
KPIs that are going to be used are click-through rate, average cost per click,
conversion rate, cost/conversion, and website visitors.

13
Google Analytics

This is going to be very important to

analyze our overall advertisement
(from google AdWords) results and
monitor the purchase funnel. It would
also help find any flaws the company
might have and recognize the
company's purchase funnel to target
where things are going wrong. An
organization account would be set with
properties and views. Tracking codes
would be attached to website pages to
track customer behavior.

Facebook Ads Manager

This will enable the company to create

and manage ads on Facebook and
Instagram. This will help PIA to see
which ad is performing better through
indicators such as reach, impression,
and cost per click.

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Online Platforms

Platforms Objectives Action Items KPI’s

Improve user User Interface

Link it with more B2B sites
interface User Experience
Improve UX and UI
Increase brand Average time on
Website Connect with google
awareness page
analytics
Improve quality Traffic generation
Search engine Optimization
score Conversion rate

Engagement per post:

Increase Likes: 2000
Set up paid ads
engagement Comments: 100-300
Sync it with facebook ads
Facebook (follows,likes,sh Shares: 50-100
manager
are and Followers: 3M
Upload engaging content
comments) Post per day:1
Lead generations

Link with Facebook ads

Followers: 1M
manager
Increase brand Engagement per post:
Upload more stories, polls
Instagram awareness and Likes: 3000-5000
Add iterating customer
engagement Comments: 200
content
Shares: 50-100
Set up PPC ads

Search engine
Upload better video Quality Channel
optimization
content Subscription: 200k
Share customer
Link it with influencer vlogs Views per:30K
created content
Youtube post Shares per
Increase product
Different class tours  video:1000
awareness
Behind the scene content Page Ranking in top
Build Trust
Short ads 2
Monetization

Page Like:1M
Upload more employee
Engagement per post:
Increase related content
LinkedIn Likes: 300-500
Engagement Set up ads and sponsored
Comments: 50-100
posts
Shares: 30

15
Conversion Strategy
Increasing conversions as much based on marketing also depend on the trust of
customers. PIA will do that by being transparent with its customers, building trust by
sharing their employee certifications, and showing them the intense training programs
they (employees) had to pass through. Share customer reviews and experiences.
Customers can also rate the services online.

Joint Ventures
Partner up with schools and universities to conduct seminars. These would be
educational (programs) and to hire interns and employees. Some of the students they
can partner up with are LUMS, Superior collage, Air university and COMSATs

Referral Strategy
We will be using social media to increase engagement which will help people voice
their reviews and refer to friends and family with different offers. Email - marketing
as low costly and still widely used would also be effective but we need to keep in
mind to use it at the right time when the chances of responses are high. A reward
point system will be made in the application. Here customers would have to complete
a series of tasks in the form of games where they can earn points and on the number
of points, they can avail of special services (free food, sweets,) on the airplane or
lounge. Also with enough points can avail discounts on the ticket.

16
Strategies for Increasing
Transaction Prices
Following are the strategies we will apply here:

Improve service quality and benefits to charge high prices to business and first-
class passengers.
Ask for add-on services at the ticket counter.

Retention Strategy
Retaining customers is harder than acquiring them, for this to work we would be
focusing on customer relationship management. Following are the few things we
will do to leave an impact on customers and them to preferably choose PIA.
Send newsletters and emails
Give first-class passengers souvenirs: a small intricate wooden box, when they
arrive at their seats.
Promote social causes such as drought, global warming, food and hunger
security, cancer treatment and etc.
On each flight pick 3 seats at random in the economy of children's by the cabin
crew and give them a packet of thanks. would contain; a teddy bear, mixed
sweets, and a visit to the cockpit.
Provide extra in-flight services to customers for their special events and
occasions, for example, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and etc.

17
TIMELINE
2023 2024

Online Marketing Introducing VR experience in the malls

Traditional Marketing Souvenirs

Sharing customer reviews and

Random gifts
experiences

Research on fragrance Introducing fragrance in the PIA facilities

Promote social causes New TV Commercial

Game in the application

Financial Projections

Sources
Angel Investors

Equity

Government of Pakistan

Venture Capitalist Firms

PIA spent only Rs1.4 billion for its advertising and marketing
expense in 2021. Below we have provided an estimate on how
much all this marketing campaigns will cost for two years. Our
prices are taken from the different websites.

18
Budget Estimates

2023 2024

Cost (PKR)

Research and Development

Online Surveys  90,000.00   18,000.00 

Focus group  2,000,000.00   800,000.00 

Fragrance Research  12,000,000.00   9,600,000.00 

Online advertising

Advertisement  55,872,000.00   111,744,000.00 

Traditional advertising

Print Media  2,800,000.00   2,800,000.00 

Billboards 21,750,000 21,750,000

TVC 18,000,000 20,000,000

Gift services
 512,500,000.00 

Joint Ventures
600,000

Total  112,512,000.00   679,812,000.00 

19
Share of Budget

Research
3% Traditional
Online
11%
21%

New service
65%

19
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