Introduction and definition of the problem
Between 1994 and 2007 there have been various crises and recessions that have ended or left large and small companies at a disadvantage, however, LAN has managed to overcome these inconveniences without being affected, even to the point of continuing to grow considerably. In 2007 there were more than 100 airlines, of which only 12 were from Latin America. Furthermore, of the 12 regional airlines, 60% generated losses, a position contrary to what happened with LAN. Between these years, LAN grew at an average annual rate of 19% and had an EBITDA margin that positioned it financially in 2007 as one of the largest companies in the world. The problem is that Latin America does not move the number of passengers that move Europe, Asia and North America. In 2007,In this area, revenues for Latin America represented barely 5.7% of total revenues worldwide. In 2000, LAN was the first Latin American airline to join the oneworld alliance, making it known worldwide and offering new international routes. Operating profits increased from 5.7% in 2005 to 11.7% in 2007.
LAN is one of the largest companies in Chile considering its market value. However, after a merger with TAM, Brazil's largest airline, the value of the new LATAM company is close to 65% of the expected market value before the merger. The complex adaptation between the two airlines has taken longer than necessary, increasing LATAM's overall costs. In order to position itself as one of the world's leading companies, LATAM has proposed to increase the traffic of international routes, specifically, promoting destinations to Latin America and the US, mainly with departures from Chile, Argentina and Brazil. These last three countries are the most powerful HM's (Home Markets) in LATAM, for this reason departures to relevant destinations from these countries will be promoted.
Holidays and sports tournaments, mainly the next soccer world cup, could attract flights to these destinations. Although there is no other Latin American airline with the power of LATAM at the moment, there are other "competitors" that take away a considerable percentage of the sales of air tickets and packages such as Despegar.com and Booking.com, which in addition to capturing a significant sale of tickets from LATAM and other airlines, they invest and position themselves very well in search engines, also competing for keywords with LATAM, of course, generating a loss for the latter.
The environment, then, is mainly made up of 3 large groups, airlines, passengers (clients) and travel agencies. After the merger, LATAM is among the 10 largest airlines in the world, clearly being the largest in Latin America. Therefore, at least in this territory, competing airlines have low power compared to LATAM. On the other hand, passengers, although they have other airlines to choose from, the vast majority (more than 80%) prefer and fly with LAN at least in Chile, followed by Argentina. The latter is a clear indicator that LAN has a competitive advantage, since leaving the price second, users decide to buy their tickets through LAN.com. However, the last large group is the one that worries LATAM more and more, since it is growing strongly,capturing a considerable market share in the sale of tickets and tourist packages. In addition to this, it competes extremely strongly through digital marketing, specifically for keywords in search engines such as Google, thus generating an increase in costs per clicks and costs per sales for LATAM.
Regarding the diagnosis, mainly about the audience, LAN is considered to be one of the Chilean brands with the highest investment and digital presence, massively known in the real world and on social networks, which is a digital medium that has practically exploited in its entirety. Building the brand in digital environments, therefore, is very similar to what is applied in the real world. It is a particularly complex process, given the resources. The audience, according to statistics collected by Google Analytics on the LAN.com site, which is where the largest amount of ticket sales for LAN comes from, provides practical information that says that users, customers and / or passengers are mostly women concentrated among 25 to 34 years of age. This majority group is followed by men of the same ages as women.This same group, made up mostly of young working men and women, will be our target audience within LAN's entire social media audience.
Considering the "problem tree" model, I will identify and define clearly and concretely the problem that we will address with the project. The trunk or central problem, then, is identified by the low level of purchase of tickets or tourist packages for Latin America, through social networks on the part of men and women between 25 and 34 years of age, that is, our target audience. The branches or consequences, meanwhile, are given by the proportional declines in sales from the main social networks, Facebook and Twitter, also in relation to the constant increase in budgets for this area of the company's digital marketing. Another visible symptom is the number of fans or followers compared to the effective sales that are produced by these means. By last,There is the confusion generated by the number of company accounts in each social network, since there is at least one account for each country where the company operates, leaving aside a global account. Finally, there are the roots or causes that, in this case, are given by the low investment in these media compared to the rest of the marketing area, I was also able to identify that there is not enough personnel in charge of communication, since this is mixed with the problems derived from the contact center, and finally, the large number and frequent change of agencies that manage LAN accounts in all countries.They are given by the low investment in these means compared to the rest of the marketing area, I was also able to identify that there is not enough staff in charge of communication, since this is mixed with the problems derived from contact center, and finally, the large number and frequent change of agencies that manage LAN accounts in all countries.They are given by the low investment in these means compared to the rest of the marketing area, I was also able to identify that there is not enough staff in charge of communication, since this is mixed with the problems derived from contact center, and finally, the large number and frequent change of agencies that manage LAN accounts in all countries.
From all the aforementioned, together with the information collected by Google Analytics, there is a drop in sales / profits for air tickets and tourist packages through the LAN.com site and in the rest of the LATAM points of sale.. Ecuador has long been a country that has been tried to promote for various reasons external to the case in question, which is why it has a greater weighting in matters of investment of resources within the strategy to generate an increase in sales in destinations in America. Precisely, my strategy will be focused on this aspect, increasing the sale of air tickets through social networks, specifically in Ecuador, achieving this objective in a period of less than one chronological year.
Taking into account the antecedents and, mainly, the problem regarding the decrease in ticket sales to destinations in Latin America and the US, specifically to Ecuador, a communication strategy will be carried out through social networks to promote these destinations, mostly with Departures to Ecuador from all HM's. This will be reinforced with SEO and SEM campaigns that aim to generate an increase in sales to the destinations relevant to the strategy, which is clearly aligned with the company's global strategy.
Focus
Regarding the objectives, the idea is to exploit the largest amount of free digital resources available, from social networks, blogs, forums, to analysis tools such as Google Analytics. As activity presence increases in the largest number of media, the brand will be better known by increasing interactions and, probably, sales. In this way, we reach as many people as possible, including potential clients. The longer term objectives are to build an attractive corporate reputation or image for the user and / or client. Our main focus is on the company's social networks, which although they have been increasing year after year, still do not have an attractive percentage of sales for the company. It is quite a special case / problem,since the sales are low considering that the majority of the fans or followers are in the age of our target audience, which is the largest buyer of tickets through the LAN.com site.
To achieve the objectives and comply with being actively present on social networks, we must begin with the development of a social media plan, where the first thing is to perform an analysis of the initial or current situation of the company and the market. Then, the fundamental thing is to clearly establish the objectives that you want to achieve through the integrated strategies. Although being present in social networks involves being willing to interact with all types of public, clients, consumers and others, we must also define our target audience, which our campaigns will be focused on. Finally, we must design and implement the strategy that, of course, we must measure through various reliable tools that provide us with relevant KPIs.
Precisely, one of the most important KPIs is ROI, which is the return on investment and, although many think that it is impossible or very difficult to measure this through social networks or digital media, the truth is that there are various tools available in Internet that manage to measure these KPIs very effectively, the most prominent being Google Analytics, Social Bakers or the statistics of the Facebook fan page. In fact, this is precisely what companies are looking for, since through digital marketing they can obtain specific data about the company, its campaigns, its customers, among other information, which is highly valued because it is possible to obtain quantitative marketing that It is very complex to measure outside the digital or offline area.
Although the strategy is covered, for the most part, by SEO and SEM, social networks have been increasingly increasing their importance and percentage of associated sales. This goes hand in hand with the data that position the Internet as a channel for conversation about brands that has been increasing in relation to other media. This is why the Facebook channel will be used for the purpose of the campaign, since it is a campaign focused on a young target audience, more specifically single men and women between 25 and 34 years old. This is precisely the largest audience that interacts with Facebook.
The concrete objective, then, is focused on increasing, through a comprehensive digital strategy, mainly on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, the sales of tickets and tourist packages made by women and men between 25 and 34 years of age, young workers of the HM's (Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador), to tourist destinations in America, mainly Ecuador. This objective can currently be measured very precisely thanks to the resources and tools available in the globalized company LATAM with the collaboration of Google, mainly with the proportion of information and statistics related to the number of flights, visits, sales, income, visitor flow, global comparisons and statistics with other airlines and companies in the field, remarketing campaigns,specific controlled SEO and SEM campaigns, among others.
Going a little deeper into the content, we find the fundamental issue that is related to the target or our target audience, that is, to the mass we want to reach with our messages, campaigns, etc. Clearly, the digital marketing target is more flexible than the traditional marketing target, since in social networks or the digital world, users are "moving" rather according to their interests and not so much by the most common classifications as age, sex, social class, among others. All the latter are precisely the benefits or disadvantages of the internet. Defining the target I want to reach is key to choosing the social networks where I should be present, the most famous being Facebook and Twitter, but not the only ones. In the case of LAN, this company is actively present, for the moment,on networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among others, frequently publishing content. Finally, given that users are very active, it is necessary to be very attentive to social networks to react to the various events that arise, especially if our target is involved in that news or relevant event.
Our audience, depending on the problem to be addressed, is the users of social networks, mostly young workers between 25 and 34 years of age, women and men in a percentage of 60-40% respectively. This was determined as such due to statistics and data collected through Social Bakers and Google Analytics. We focus on these users, since it is a young audience that is interested in visiting countries, such as adventures to jungles, exotic places, trips with a partner or friends, different parties, meeting people from other cultures, among other characteristics of an audience each time more connected with the rest of the world, and less and less interested in dedicating his whole life to the routine and monotony of the same job or activity. These people, born and raised in the internet age, clearly choose to research,Find out and buy online, either through computers, tablets or portable phones. For this reason, the LAN.com website is optimized and constantly monitored so that the purchase process and assistance is available 24 hours a day, since the largest amount of company sales is generated through this portal. This target audience has the need to move or be transported to the places they want, but at the same time they do not have as much time, since they have obligations. In this way, and to optimize your work, family and leisure life, travel time is key. Consequently, to visit other countries and travel, there is no faster alternative than traveling by plane through America,even more so if it is LATAM, which has alliances with a series of airlines around the world and which has one of the largest offers of destinations and routes also worldwide. To this, we add the current topic regarding the soccer world cup that is going to take place in Brazil. Clearly, the demand for tickets to this destination will increase considerably, given the party that is generated around this sporting activity. Finally, and to the extent that the resources allocated to the area increase, in accordance with the explosive increase in the use that social networks are having, it is intended to cover a larger audience, extending the ages of our target audience from 18 to 45 years approximately.We add the current topic regarding the soccer world cup that is going to take place in Brazil. Clearly, the demand for tickets to this destination will increase considerably, given the party that is generated around this sporting activity. Finally, and to the extent that the resources allocated to the area increase, in accordance with the explosive increase in the use that social networks are having, it is intended to cover a larger audience, extending the ages of our target audience from 18 to 45 years approximately.We add the current topic regarding the soccer world cup that is going to take place in Brazil. Clearly, the demand for tickets to this destination will increase considerably, given the party that is generated around this sporting activity. Finally, and to the extent that the resources allocated to the area increase, in accordance with the explosive increase in the use that social networks are having, it is intended to cover a larger audience, extending the ages of our target audience from 18 to 45 years approximately.In accordance with the explosive increase in the use of social networks, it is intended to cover a larger audience, extending the ages of our target audience from approximately 18 to 45 years.In accordance with the explosive increase in the use of social networks, it is intended to cover a larger audience, extending the ages of our target audience from approximately 18 to 45 years.
Now, going into the "dragonfly effect" a bit, it can be pointed out that by using social networks and digital tools correctly, psychological insights can also be exploited to achieve specific objectives, that is, a perfect relationship is obtained between theory scientific and more practical application. There are different forces such as focus, act, attention grabbing and engagement that, when cooperating with each other, can bring about extraordinary results, just like dragonflies, an insect capable of moving in any direction when its four wings cooperate with each other. In this way, the different actions can be aligned to provoke changes and achieve the desired objectives that are included in our digital and transmedia strategy. In the background,the final objective is to achieve the viralization of the contents through the collaboration and participation of the users. The important thing is to get attention to achieve our specific and concrete objective. For this, the transmedia strategy is fundamental, that is, the mix of communication media and their respective contents to be published always focused on our target audience, that is, young workers interested in traveling and touring the exotic places of America.that is, young workers interested in traveling and touring the exotic places of America.that is, young workers interested in traveling and touring the exotic places of America.
Communication strategy
As indicated in the content of the unit, today there is an enormous amount of information and content available in different media, mainly television and the Internet. Lately, the boom in websites and social networks has led to a growth in the sales of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, which brought with it an exponential increase in the development of applications for these new technologies. Companies, of course, have had to adapt to new trends, being actively present on social networks, developing applications and optimizing their websites and technological tools so as not to be left behind in this rapid advance. In addition, it is what users seek, ask for and demand, especially in the case of high-value products and services such as air tickets.
In order to attract attention then, our strategy is a series of publications with relevant, new content and interaction with our fans / followers. More specifically, the unexpected and out of the ordinary content, such as the style of interventions above the planes and at the airport, are essential to disseminate the videos, achieve an increase in fans / followers and, of course, an increase in sales. In order to ensure that sales occur on the relevant routes of our strategy, all these actions will be carried out at airports and flights in the aforementioned destinations. A concrete example would be to include a surprise gift that appears in the suitcases when they are leaving on the tape at the Quito airport in Ecuador. This situation would capture the amazement of the passengers and, of course,it would be disseminated on social networks. Users of social networks will see these actions as constant and will be anxious when they travel waiting for their turn.
Another alternative will be to capture success stories and personal stories of travelers, whether in business, family trips, etc. With these types of stories, people connect and get excited, spreading the information. However, these contents should not be abused, since if they are constant and in the majority, it could become unethical and, furthermore, stop attracting attention. Precisely, in the latest campaign and current global strategy of the company, LAN tries to transmit its slogan "that which unites us", connecting family members, couples, businesses, that is, stories and experiences. Deep down, they are people the same or similar to ourselves, customers and users; ordinary passengers just like us, the majority.
In order to make the public participate, they will have the option to share their travel experiences with the LAN team, which will select the latest videos, edit them with a professional team and share them on social networks, obviously with the consent of the passengers who submitted their video. In this way, LAN shows itself as a company close to its customers, inviting other people to participate so that they travel and enjoy their experience with LAN just like the common people in the videos. With these actions, a space for participation is created where users will be attentive to review new stories and share theirs if they deem so, that is, a space is created where they can not only comment and comment, but also propose new ideas, share experiences,interact with audiovisual materials, compete, etc. Along with that, prizes like tickets or video cameras are given to the winners.
What we seek with these actions is for the public to participate and actively interact with the company, perceiving it as a close and friendly company with the customer. More specifically, it seeks to increase the number of followers and fans of social networks, making LAN the company with the most users in social networks in Latin American countries, thus achieving a consequent increase in ticket sales and tourist packages through these digital media.
With the target audience already defined and clear, the content to be generated becomes the most important topic, whether from the creation of the website or a simple landing page to the different publications and their schedules and periodicity. The key will always be to capture the interest of our target, communicating the different content effectively and attractively. This is why one of the short-term objectives will be to generate audiovisual content trying to achieve viralization. Points of interest can be generated in different ways, from a labeling in an image or publication or the common links in bold and underlined. Clearly, these simple resources are used to make the digital user navigate or move through the contents to which we as a company want them to go. These can be, for example,a link in an offer published on Facebook that leads to the company's website where they can make and specify the purchase, which is one of the company's final objectives.
Tagging, precisely, is a fundamental tool to improve, for example, search engine positioning like Google, that is, SEO. This is one of the key issues to which the company has dedicated more resources, ensuring that the most important company, Imprenta Viña del Mar, is always positioned in the first places when looking for related content.
Although the global strategy is covered, for the most part, by SEO and SEM, social networks have been increasing their importance and percentage of associated sales, especially Facebook and Twitter. For this reason, it now becomes a fundamental part of achieving our objectives. This goes hand in hand with the data that position the Internet as a channel for conversation about brands that has been increasing in relation to other media. This is why the Facebook channel will be used for the purpose of the campaign, since it is a campaign focused on a young target audience, more specifically women and men between 25 and 34 years old. This is precisely the largest audience that interacts with Facebook.
The first thing to consider to carry out the digital strategy is to create an identity for our brand. Although LAN is among the brands that have the most fans on Facebook in Chile, over 2 and a half million, it is necessary to use the right tools to reach the right people who, in this case, are our target audience for the campaign, or be young men and women between the ages of 25 and 34. This is achieved through messages and publication of relevant content for those fans and for potential customers who are friends of those fans who are not followers of the brand. Contests and raffles for tickets, tickets or stays can be a great incentive for interaction with the company.
As the media have already been defined, these are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it is necessary to define more in depth the content that will be published on each of these platforms. To do this, we obtain information from Google Analytics about the public that visits our networks and our main website.
Use of social networks to increase sales in LATAM Airlines Group
With these data, taken for the first three months of this year 2014, it can be seen that the visits are mostly women between 25 and 34 years of age. In other words, a large part of our transmedia strategy must be focused on this audience, without neglecting the other users who we must also try to capture their interest. According to comScore studies, LAN leads among the most visited websites in the airline category.
Use of social networks to increase sales in LATAM Airlines Group
Further addressing our ultimate goal of increasing ticket sales on international flights, we must implement our specific strategy which, of course, is aligned with our global strategy as a company. After starting with the daily publications, first focused on the theme of the soccer world cup and then with other massive topics of interest to our target audience, according to important global dates or events. We must start to follow all these publications according to our available metrics, such as engagement, visits, fan growth, goal conversions, among others, available in tools such as Social Bakers and Google Analytics.
Edited audiovisual content will be published through Facebook, coming from contributions that the same users have sent to the company sharing their travel experiences in the countries relevant to the proposed strategy. In this same social network, other users will be able to interact by commenting and sharing the stories with their friends, family and close friends, spreading the content and popularizing the brand. Using Twitter, on the other hand, it is intended that users give their opinion and briefly share the stories they liked the most, along with indicating where they want to take their next adventure trip. With this we get LAN to position itself among the most discussed topics on this social network, even becoming a trending topic.
By way of conclusion, in order to achieve our main objective of increasing sales of international flight tickets, specifically in America or even more so in Ecuador, given the sustained decline that occurred mainly after the merger with TAM, we must define our target audience, young women men between 25 and 34 years of age, together with creating a strategy, which in this case will be a digital strategy addressed on social networks, mainly Facebook and Twitter, since it maintains a large database of our potential clients. Through daily publications of relevant content for our users we will be able to increase engagement along with goal conversions,which will be analyzed through various metrics available in tools such as Social Bakers or Google Analytics in order to quantify the results and, therefore, the success of our campaign that aims to increase sales through social networks for destinations that the company deems relevant, initially oriented to America, specifically Ecuador.
References
- Article Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage by J. Barney. Case of Lan Airlines in 2008, Connecting the world to Latin America. Content Workshop Realization of the Digital Project, Prof. Manuel Pinto. LATAM merger articles, Diario Financiero. Google Analytics account, LAN. Google Adwords account, LAN. Experiences of Digital Marketing officials, LAN.
