Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Gulf Air is going on a charm offensive to woo back its former customers supported by a range of new incentives to ensure passengers remain loyal to Bahrain’s national carrier.
Executives readily admit the airline lost its way and allowed competitors to move on its territory ... but all that is changing now.
The battle is truly taking off to win over hearts and minds and the message will be spelled out later today with the launch of Gulf Air’s new commercial initiatives and the unveiling of an emotive marketing campaign supporting the kingdom.
The airline’s ambitious Chief Commercial Officer Karim Makhlouf believes the results of intensive market research and listening to the needs, wants, desires and demands of customers is pointing the airline in the right direction.
“Over the last few months we have conducted extensive customer surveys to identify our customers’ wants and needs and from this developed a range of commercial initiatives for different customer segments,” he said. “Through these initiatives we hope to win our customers’ loyalty.
“In today’s competitive market, promotions and incentives are abundant; yet while these attract customers they may not entice them to come back; you need to have loyal customers to build a long-term sustainable business especially in the airline industry.
“Customer loyalty is important to all businesses, not only Gulf Air. When you look at it objectively – it is a simple business concept. New customers cost more money, you have to find them then you have to promote to them which can be costly and there is no guarantee they will choose to fly with you. So for me it makes sense to invest money in our existing customers with a view to winning their loyalty.
“As the national carrier of the kingdom, we have a moral responsibility to promote Bahrain and make ‘Bahrain Fly’. As a first step, we will be launching a series of testimonial campaigns to win the hearts and minds of Bahrain residents.
“The campaigns ‘Straight from the Heart’, ‘My Country, My Airline’ and ‘Push Bahrain’, will be touching the hearts of every Bahraini and make them feel proud to fly with their national carrier.”
Mr Makhlouf, 37, says that for many years, Gulf Air led the field with some of the best products and services in the sky. The airline had a clear vision, backed by a wider network, strong product offering, limited competition and unlimited support from its four owner states.
“However, the competitive landscape changed and Gulf Air was left operating in a vastly different environment to that of 20, 10 or even five years ago with many new airlines starting operations in the GCC and the arrival of the low-cost carriers,” he admits. “Unfortunately we didn’t react fast enough to combat the competition and we allowed them to erode our home market share.”
