Marketing Case Study- StraitAway Airways

At the end of the third Marketing class, Paul gave us a case study which is a previous case exam. This one is interesting because I always want to go to Vancouver, haha..... The ferry takes two hours and then takes about half an hour to arrive downtown. It's a long trip, isn't it? But I still choose BC ferries instead of seaplane. In my experience, I believe student or international student is not a segment in this case.

Finding the emotional needs of a product or service is the first step we should do as a marketer. Using the Kotler's five levels tool let the digging become easier. 

Service: Seaplane

Core benefit: transportation

Generic product: - ferries

                              - Air Canada

                              - West Jet

                              - helicopter

                              - boat

Expected product: - fast

                                - less crowded (fewer passengers)

                                - on-line reservation

                                - accsesable ( easy to get a ticket)

                                - comfortable

                                - affordable

Augmented product: - special seat which next to the pilot

                                     - membership ( discount)

                                     - flexible schedule

                                     - more landing place 

                                     - video recording

Emotional product: - "I feel free"

                                  - "I feel rich"

                                  - "I feel successful"

                                  - "I feel better than others" (status)

                                  - romantic

For the market segmentation, I think there are three important groups: retired people, business people, and fashionable young people between 20-30 years old.

Retired people is a large group because Nanaimo is a retirement city, as well as this entire island. There are lots of senior villages on the island. They have money and enjoy their senior lives.

Business people is another group who travel a lot between the mainland and island. They would choose seaplane in order to save time and be on time. But I don't know if there are lots of big corporations on this island need this particularly efficient.

Fashionable young people between 20-30 years old always easier to accept the new things, such as seaplane. They go to Vancouver shopping a lot, sometimes with their girlfriends or boyfriends. They want to be proud and romantic.

These are the segments I could think about and I do think they are logical target markets. For the positioned product, I still confused. I believe next class Paul will illustrate this part.