AIRLINE MARKETING

Aerlines

Airline Marketing Strategy with

Spokespersons
Using spokespersons has long been a strategy applied in
marketing management. In the early days, spokespersons
were seen as an endorsement or testimonial. In the 19th
century, this marketing strategy was commonly applied by
pharmaceutical companies that wanted to introduce new
drugs. In those days, even influential figures such as Pope
Leo XIII and Queen Victoria endorsed a number of drugs and
other products. Around the globe, consumers went wild for
the products or manufacturers that the British Monarch
approved. Nowadays, spokespersons are still popular in
marketing activities. Whether they would be famous athle-
tes or music artists, spokespersons can be found in almost
any industry. Not surprisingly then, that some airlines are
also introducing the concept of spokespersons as one of
their promotional strategies. We have seen many success
stories in various industries regarding the use of spokesper-
sons, but how does it work in the airline industry? Do spokes-
persons have a significant effect on the decision-making
process of passengers? In this article, we will explore some
of the facts about spokespersons in the airline industry.
by: Yen-Heng Chen, Joel Zhengyi Shon and Dun-Ji the Balance Theory into marketing fields by substituting P, O,
Chen X from Person, Other person, and Object to Product, Customer,
and Spokesperson (P, C, S). The theory proposed that, if a person
Introduction likes a celebrity, and perceives (due to the endorsement) that
Spokespersons are not just in practice a popular topic - they are the celebrity in question likes a certain product, that person will
popular in marketing research as well, thanks to Fritz Heider, tend to like the product more, in order to achieve psychological
who proposed the Balance Theory in 1958. The Balance Theory balance. McCracken (1989) then pointed out that a spokesperson
is a motivational theory of attitude change, which conceptualizes Figure 1: The Application of Balance Theory in Testimonial Advertise-
the consistency motive as a drive toward psychological balance. ment Mowen & Brown (1980)
Heider proposed that “sentiment” or liking relationships are
balanced if the affect valence in a system multiplies out to a
positive result.

On the basis of this theory, a psychologist was then able to

find out the fundamental theoretical structure of endorsement,
which is also believed to be the most important attributes of
spokespersons. Mowen, Brown & Schulman (1980) introduced

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is a person “to provide an information Photo 1: The character “Hello Kitty” at Eva Air. Courtesy of Sanrio Co Ltd
broadcasting service to achieve private
or public interest of an enterprise or an
organization”. By this definition, the role
of a spokesperson is much clearer.
Airline Spokepersons
In the West, such as the US and the EU,
consumers usually do not see that many
airline spokespersons, but in some Asian
nations, spokespersons are quite easily
found in the airline industry. In order
to analyze the effectiveness of airline
spokespersons, a marketing research
was carried out in 2008 by the authors,
which looked into two airlines (from the
same country in order to reduce cultural
differences). In 2005, one of these airlines
started to use spokespersons. The airline
paid royalties to Japanese company Sanrio
in exchange for the right to use its famous
character Hello Kitty. And in 2007, the
other airline contracted a supermodel as
its spokesperson. Both of these airlines
asked their respective spokespersons to participate in numerous
other marketing activities next to televised and printed ads.
For example, the latter airline took a series of photos of its
supermodel and used these in give-away calendars. The former
airline painted its aircraft with the Hello Kitty character. All of
the duty-free merchandise, souvenirs, and catering tools on board
of the painted aircraft also featured the character. These two
spokespersons are widely believed to have been quite successful
in attracting the customers’ attention. For example, prices of the
earlier mentioned give-away calendar were soaring on various
auction sites, due to the limited number of those calendars,
while the other airline had to deal with passengers stealing
the cabin decorations with the character on them. The airlines
found the spokespersons to be a very effective way to attract the
Photo 2: Super model Lin Chiling on the China Airlines’ annual calendar, as their spokesperson. The
Courtesy of Catwalk Production House
media. The airlines did not have a hard time to get covered in
every newspaper or on the evening news - not to mention on
websites and radio stations. It was almost free advertising.
In fact, the two spokespersons were quite different in the market
they penetrated. The Hello Kitty character was first introduced
by EVA Airways. It mostly attracted young female travelers,
and families traveling with children. As a counter-strategy, the
most logical market segment China Airlines could go for was
the business segment. Using the supermodel, China Airlines
focused on males, aged 25-45, who were frequent flyers in
the business market. Most passengers in this segment would
certainly be attracted by the supermodel.
Effectiveness of
Spokespersons
The research not only examined the
responses from the market, but also
the impact of spokespersons on the
passenger’s behavior in choosing
an airline. Research showed that
spokespersons have some, but not a
huge impact on the airline selection
process of passengers. The influence
of traditional decision factors of
airline selection, including safety
records and fare levels, is still
bigger than that of spokespersons.
Given these findings, spokespersons
in the airline industry cannot be
as important as they are in other
industries, such as pharmaceuticals
or sports equipments, nor can they be
the key success factors of an airline.
In practice, using spokespersons has
its limitations. Though it can be a
very effective promotional strategy
for attracting media exposure, as
well as a very effective competitive
advantage within the airline industry,
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it will never be able to increase total demand. After all, total
demand relies heavily on the local and global economy. If the
macro-economic environment deteriorates, the market can
hardly be saved by spokespersons. Despite the fact that rising
oil prices and the financial meltdown have created the worst
recession in 80 years during the research period, the research
findings still reveal several important observations. First of
all, any marketing strategy can be easily duplicated, which
will thus affect its effectiveness. Second, to counter the first
problem, even spokespersons should be segmented to meet
different types of customers. Finally, total travel demand in
the market is much more important than marketing strategy,
especially in a small market. We observed that the number of
golf fans increased considerably when Tiger Woods spoke for
Nike Golf products. Nonetheless, travel demand is always a
derivative, as spokespersons of the airlines only speak on behalf
of the airlines instead of the entire travel market. But what if
the spokespersons were to be able to speak on behalf of the
travel market? Would they then be able to increase total travel
demand? One interesting case we found in Korea and Taiwan
was that both governments have hired popular movie stars as
spokespersons for the tourism industry for several years now.
As fans living outside of these countries wanted to participate in
the activities hosted by these movie stars, air travel increased.
Though it is a different story for airline spokespersons, we
are still confident about the possibilities and the potential that
using spokespersons offers. It would also be interesting for
marketing researchers to analyze the future. As mentioned
earlier, spokespersons in marketing research is not new, but is
still a current topic. Future research of airline spokespersons
could focus on cross-cultural comparisons, or it could develop
new tools to estimate the actual effects of hiring spokespersons
to attract customers. Based on the study’s findings, we believe
that spokespersons can be a good promotional strategy. Airlines
should try to make the best use of their spokespersons’ core
values in ads and media exposure, and focus on the market
segment that these spokespersons would be able to penetrate.
Airlines will then get a good return on investment from their
spokespersons. Alternatively, if airlines fail to find out these
basic market factors in advance, the strategy of hiring (usually
expensive) spokespersons may turn out to be a total waste.
Acknowledgments
With special thank to China Airlines, Eva Air, Sanrio, Ms.
Chiling,Lin, and the editorial board of Aerlines Magazine. All the
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Aerlines
Hello Kitty photos and characters are legally provided by Sanrio
with approval No. ST0961510. All the photos of the super model in
this article are approved by her agency.
About the Authors
Yen-Heng Chen is the Ph.D. candidate of the National Chiao Tung
University in Taiwan. Mr. Chen used to work for a local airline, and
he has long teaching experience in several colleges and universities
as a part-time lecturer. Mr. Chen and his students have carried out an
important passenger survey for the reseach presented in this article.
Joel Zhengyi Shon is the full-time professor of the Tainan University
of Technology in Taiwan. His research interests are marketing and
air transportation. He has advised graduate students carrying out
spokesperson related research for many years. He was Dean at the
school of management at Tainan University of Technology. He is
now in chairing several research institutes and academies.
Joel Zhengyi Shon is corresponding author for this article. To
contact Joel Zhengyi Shon, please mail to joelshon@ms4.hinet.net.
Dun-Ji Chen is the full-time professor of the Tamkang University
in Taiwan. His research interests are mainly focusing on behavioral
science and ITS related topics. In his career at TKU, Chen was Dean
of the school of management at Tamkang University. He is now
consultant for several transportation bureaus at central and local
governments in Taiwan.
Reference
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Images References
AllHelloKittyimages:© ‘76, ‘99, ‘09, SANRIOCO.,LTD.APPROVALNO.
ST 0961510.
Photo 3: The “Hello Kitty” livery. Courtesy of Sanrio Co Ltd
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