Airline Marketing and Management [Paperback]

Stephen Shaw (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 075463759X | ISBN-13: 978-0754637592 | Publication Date: May 2004 | Edition: 5

This book examines the principles of marketing and demonstrates the ways in which these principles can be applied to today's airline industry. This fifth edition of a successful book includes new material on: The implications of terrorism and the threat to the demand for air travel. The lessons to be learnt from the economic slowdown - in particular its impact on so-called Premium Traffic in First and Business Class. The developments which have taken place in the regulatory scene in recent years. The Impact of low fare airlines and the response of the traditional airlines to the threat posed by these carriers. Airline alliances, which are again in the melting-pot. An initial review of the structure of the air transport market and the industry marketing environment is followed by detailed chapters examining airline business and marketing strategies, product design and management, pricing and revenue management, distribution channels and selling and advertising policies. The reader will benefit from the clear explanation of both marketing and airline industry jargon and from the knowledge obtained of the significant strategic challenges facing aviation at the present time. The book is written in a straightforward, easy-to-read style and is full of up-to-date and relevant examples drawn from the world-wide aviation industry.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Shaw is Managing Director of SSA Ltd, UK, a firm specialising in providing courses in marketing and economics to airlines and aerospace firms, located at Chinnor, Oxford, England. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd; 5 edition (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075463759X
• ISBN-13: 978-0754637592
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential airline management and marketing text., March 9, 2002

By 

Miguel Hidalgo (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airline Marketing and Management (Hardcover)

The Fourth Edition is an updated and important text for people with whom need basic principles in marketing and management explained as it applies to the airline industry.

Airline Marketing and Management is a gem because it carefully breaks down major marketing and promotion concepts all the way down to smaller segments with great examples.

This book is a classic. Readers will get an indepth understanding of aviation and, surprisingly, why the airline industry is still in shambles today. It covers the intricacies of product design and development, pricing and revenue management, pricing and revenue management, distribution channels, and selling and advertising policies.

Many of the "tried and proven time after time" principles are, for the most part, still ignored by airline managers today. The author is diligent in his effort to examine "time-proven principles."

This is a marketing book about the fundamentals. Can't move on until you got them down!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Airline Marketing and Management by Stephen Shaw, August 6, 2005

By 

Elijah Chingosho "Dr Elijah Chingosho" (Nairobi, Kenya) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airline Marketing and Management (Paperback)

Airline Marketing and Management is a fascinating book about modern marketing and management in airlines. It approaches this interesting subject in a practical and easy-to-follow way. The airline business has many unique features that Stephen Shaw expertly managed to blend with the basic theory and concepts of marketing. This makes the book an excellent introduction to the field of airline marketing and management.

The reader is introduced to the principles of marketing and their practical application in the current highly dynamic and competitive airline environment. Among the important areas I enjoyed the most are product strategies, pricing, distribution and promotion in the industry, regulatory developments, the implications of low cost carriers to the industry and strategic alliances.

As a player in the airline industry, I am now knowledgeable about building and managing profitable customer relationships, how to study customer needs and wants, selecting target markets, how to attract, retain and grow customers by providing superior value and satisfaction. I highly recommend this book to those wishing to gain a basic understanding of the airline industry.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to airline marketing, October 10, 2005

By 

M. Beise-Zee "Rian" (Bangkok) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airline Marketing and Management (Paperback)

This book describes the principles of marketing in the airline industry from basic strategy, pricing, CRM, distribution to brands and advertisement. Shaw concentrates on the general principles of the airline industry. The author's approach is formal, he discusses each marketing task chapter by chapter, but his writing style is engaging and it is always interesting - at least for people who are not insiders. This approach has many advantages. Its formal structure makes it easy for the novice reader to navigate through the book and recall what one has learned. The writing is concise and theoretically sound. This book presents no anecdotes and irrelevant story telling, no exceptional success stories or failures that cannot be generalized. For instance, he describes Southwest Airlines as a very successful low cost strategy that has been successfully copied throughout the world by other low cost airlines. This strategy works because of the cost characteristics, the barriers to entry in the airline industry and the problems of traditional national carriers to copy a similar strategy. Other more idiosyncratic characteristics of Southwest (`relational coordination') are omitted here, because their impact on the airline's success is not theoretically clear. This is the difference between a scholarly approach and a typical business book.
This and the clear structure and writing style make this book ideal as teaching material. It can be used as an extensive case study or each chapter can be used individually as an application of the textbook marketing lessons to the airline industry. You'll find a lot of the basic textbook concepts in this book such as the Porter model, the Boston matrix and the Ansoff matrix, etc. Another advantage is that the book covers the world market and not only one part of the world. I often come across books that claim to explain "The XY industry" yet discuss exclusively the situation in the US market. On the downside: Shaw does not go beyond these simple models and it never gets quantitative. For instance there is no quantitative model for fare pricing. In general, there is little quantitative data presented, although the two tables about the cost structure of an airline included are especially interesting. A clear disadvantage is the almost total lack of literature references and further readings. Shaw expresses clearly his own ideas but he never mentions that other writers might have different views on a particular issue.
Overall, this book is a good example for an informative description of an industry. Other authors who want to write about a specific industry should use this as a kind of blueprint. Too many typos for a 5th edition though.