Private aviation is feeling the effects of the economic downturn with growing job losses and plummeting business confidence. This has translated into cuts in private aircraft usage; so, many in the private charter brand category are looking for ways to reach the business market in a more cost-effective way. In a departure from traditional marketing practices, private aviation brands ought to be  increasingly turning to the web for promoting their proposition as well as seeking out new audiences that would like to find alternative ways to travel. The problem is that although private aviation businesses all have web presences now, many fail to realize the full potential of this new thing called social media.

Since private aviation is considered a luxury, one wonders whether  other luxury brands are using social media. According to the Luxury Institute the trend towards e-commerce is already happening in the US:

• In 2008, 33% of luxury brands had e-commerce sites.
• In 2009, 66% percent had e-commerce sites.
• Luxury consumers are individuals who make $419,000+ per year.
• 48% of them are on Facebook, and 14% of them are on Twitter.

How Does Private Aviation Stack Up?

While all private charter businesses  now have established websites, generally their approach to digital marketing (specifically, search, social & target marketing) is often sub-optimal and fails to unleash the full potential of this channel and the related technology. This is because the aviation industry has failed to educate itself as to the power of this thing called social media.  This is evident by:

• Insufficient senior management buy-in (e.g. formal corporate KPI’s for digital marketing)
• Organizational ‘silos’ causing disconnects between ‘digital initiatives’ and ‘physical initiatives’ – for example the industry continues to use old media channels and chases the same old audience rather than trying to expand the audience.
• Lack of clarity around the objectives (selling vs branding vs engaging) – this then reflects as a lack of an online strategy, leading to confusion and a total lack of knowledge and understanding
• Small marketing budgets, if any, allocated for online activities while still using expensive off-line channels to message a shrinking market of listeners
• Within the online budget, poor use of distribution tools and conversational content. The Aviation Industry needs education on various other channels that would produce much better outcomes (such as search and social).
• A tendency to consider this thing called social media as something buyers of charter service don’t use. Wrong again, the largest adoption of this new technology is from people in the age bracket of 45 – 55 and their average income is in the high six figures.  Does that sound like a market operators should reach?

From my prospective, while the private aviation industry moans about a depressed market, few if any show evidence of innovative ways to expand their market and reach a larger audience.  Many operators take the attitude that their service is too costly for the larger audience.  Really? Then how about leveraging a larger user base, fill your seats and subsequently lower your cost per seat, per leg?   Doing so would enable your market to expand and applying the innovation afforded by social technology would allow you to reach the larger audience efficiently and effectively.

There is an old saying “If you keep doing what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always got but today you’ll get less.” How are those old ways working for you?  Not good huh? Then innovate!