About a week ago, I was tasked with an assignment of finding a marketing-related news article. It was difficult at first because not many well-known media outlets publish on such a specific subject, normally they tend to focus on politics and whatever is viral at the moment. After scrolling through several google pages I came across MarketingDive.com which is a site that publishes marketing stories on successful business decisions of well-known brands.
I came across an interesting article on Alaska Airlines that caught my attention because I love traveling. Alaska Airlines is a company I respect and am familiar with as I have had the opportunity to fly with them various times before.
The article itself specifically spoke about how the airline company is currently having a promotion and offering discounted flight tickets depending on the projected intensity of Northern Lights by a local university. An important take-away is that popular northern airline company understands how crucial of a tourist attraction this is for the state of Alaska and the many destinations they fly to. Not only that this promotion does an excellent job at taking advantage of this time of year to increases sales and incentivize travel. However, this isn’t the first time Alaska Airlines has employed this genius data use tactic, last November they used surf forecasting data to determine flight discounts to Hawaii. This is another excellent example of how to utilize a tourist attraction and create a promotion to get people's interest.
As a previous Alaska Airlines passenger, I would say their value proposition lies within part of its name. They are an airline that offers flights in the pacific northwest regions at a very reasonable price. Unlike other airlines like United and Spirit, they provide good on flight service, their airplanes are quite comfortable and some providing tech entertainment. Like most airlines, they highly value safety and limiting risks. The best part about Alaska Airlines is that they are well-known for frequently offering all types of discounts and promotions from time to time which is great for the consumers.
The marketing relevance of this article is centered around their promotion which in my opinion acts as a great sales strategy. The article explains how their use of forecast data on the Northern Lights led them to discount their flights in hopes that this link would incentivize travel to wintery destinations and experience the natural phenomenon.
The main challenge they are attempting to overcome with this promotion is the decreased amount of travel during the month of January now that the New Year has begun and the holidays are over.
The approach they took was unique in the sense that they utilized weather forecasting data to provide their customers the opportunity to experience a beautiful natural phenomenon during a slow travel season. Instead of hiking up prices during an important event, they did the opposite and lowers prices for their customers’ benefit.
I believe this was a great marketing approach by linking science data to prices for their customers to get the greatest experiences at such an unexpected month to travel. The most important thing I learned from this article was how useful data can be in the marketing world not just to create important decisions regarding what interests people but also to get people’s attention.
Article Link: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/alaska-airlines-ties-airfare-discounts-to-northern-lights/570365/
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