Page 256 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Unit 13: Promotions and Servicescapes in Services

by-wire facilities; his past competitors had sought the easier options of wet and dry leases, Notes
mostly from the Russians and East Bloc countries. He boldly painted the Kingfisher insignia
on the entire length of the aircraft in an in-your-face style. The blood-red lettering and the
bird couldn’t be missed in the entire airport tarmac.
The interior décor and upholstery was distinctive. There were LCD entertainment screens
behind every passenger seat. The distinctive Kingfisher signature tune and music was
frequently played during the flight. While most airlines mimed the safety procedures
through their stewards; Kingfisher Airlines additionally beamed it through the LCD
screens, with seductive model Yana Gupta playing the perfect airhostess. Before the flight
took off, a canned message from Vijay Mallya was delivered in a very personal manner
from a surreal heavenly, up-above-the-clouds setting. If there was any criticism that Mallya
was aping maverick billionaire Richard Branson of Virgin Group, there are an equal
number of dissenters who insisted that his new look-alike hairstyle and peppery beard
was probably just a coincidence. While the market leader Jet Airways had male stewards,
Kingfisher Airlines made no bones about its all-female “hand-picked” (so announced
Vijay Mallya in his in-flight magazine) airhostesses in blood red, tight-fitting, thigh-
length, distinctive designer uniforms, with epaulettes on their blouses. There was a take-
away gift for all passengers: a red mobile-handset pouch, with pens, toffees, and red
coloured headphones. The cuisine was far better than the competitors and the cutlery was
in heavy metal reminiscent of a bygone era of ease and luxury travel, instead of the usual
plastics. The ground crew and the marketing team wore jeans and red T-shirts and caps.
The distinctive red was everywhere. The Ferrari team in the F1 pits must have owed at the
high-speed overtake.
Mallya, the flamboyant personality that he was, went on to add his very own distinctive
touch to his airline with a vengeance and no sign of an apology. There was great focus and
effort in faithfully translating the fun-loving image of the Kingfisher beer brand on to the
new airline - to create the right ‘splash’ literally! Their research revealed that airline
travellers were of two types: the business and the leisure passenger. They sought to create
an entirely new segment by communicating their brand new positioning statement:
Kingfisher Airline was for those business travellers who desired to travel in leisure. To
that end, Kingfisher Airlines had only one class - the Business Class. He was following the
irony of modern marketing: the more intangible your offer was the more tangible should
be your proposition.

Whatever Mallya’s critics might have lots to say, one thing that they all did concede was
that the airline did get noticed, instantly and how. He went to town with some of his
achievements:
“Service Excellence For A New Airline” Awards for Airline Excellence, 2006 by

SKYTRAX - the leading independent quality evaluation agency for the world air
transport industry
“New Airline of the Year Award” in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East Region

Kingfisher Airlines voted the third most successful brand launch of 2005 by 94% of

the respondents in the Brand Derby annual poll conducted by Business Standard
(Source: Brand Derby, BS, January 17, 2005)
The market was getting crowded again: Jeh Wadia’s Go Air, Captain Gopinath’s Air Deccan,
Spice Jet (all no frill airlines)...Jet Airways was going international and growing
horizontally by seeking to acquire the airline business of the ubiquitous brand Sahara .
Contd...

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