Given the proven power of social media in driving its brand awareness in China, Spring Airlines is hoping to replicate that success globally as it expands international flights to 20% of route network.
Jonathan Hutt, speaking at the LCC & New Age Airlines conference in Macau, said the airline was setting up a new team to drive its social media strategy across global markets. “We have a limited social media presence internationally but this will change as we expand our international routes.”
The airline does all its social media inhouse and Hutt said more resources would be invested into the team which should grow to 20 people by year end. It has set up a Facebook page and a YouTubechannel.
To fuel overseas ecommerce, it has set up websites in Thai, Korea and Japanese and is working on a new international online platform to be ready next year.
Spring is regarded as China’s industry leader in direct website sales. In 2010, 75% of its business came direct through the website; today it’s 85% when the industry average is 10%. Mobile accounted for 5% of sales in 2010 and 8.5% in 2011; the industry average is less than 1%.
“Social media is driving our growth,” Hutt said. “Brand development through social media is very critical to how we see Spring developing.”
With 34% of Chinese consumers online and highly engaged – 92% contribute to social media – and with 950 million mobile users and 30% accessing the Internet via mobile, Hutt said that Chinese travellers are talking about every stage of their experience and this allows brands to engage, collaborate and build loyalty and awareness through these channels.
“Chinese consumers are predisposed to receiving messages from brands on social media and 53% of Chinese internet users join branded communities to learn more about the brands,” he said.
Their own studies show that 60% of customers learn about its brand from the Internet with search accounting for 40% and another 40% from social networks and friends.
The airline has been online since 2007. Its chairman Wang Zhenghua was the first company chairman to initiate a personal blog. Since then, he’s posted 448 posts, the site’s been visited by more than half a million users and close to 14,000 comments have been received.
“Every comment is read by the chairman and responses are approved by him. It is a good way to explain what a low cost carrier is,” said Hutt.
Spring has more than 500,000 followers on SinaWeibo, clearly its preferred network, and about 44,000 on Tencentweibo. According to Hutt, it is ranked 11th among all Chinese enterprises using social media. (Check out its popularity here.)
Hutt said that travelling by low cost carriers in China is considered quite hip and there’s lots of dialogue in social media about these carriers. “Our audience is a younger demographic under 45 and it is important we engage with them, we get a lot of brand loyalty this way. Chinese customers can be very disloyal.
“Sinaweibo has developed into a new promotional channel for us to sell new products and services, it also helps us develop more customer understanding.”
The airline is also using it to sell and is seeing conversions to sales and Hutt predicts it will become an increasingly important channel for direct sales.
All its senior management have their own account – and the airline has five different feeds covering senior management, operations, recruitment and training, business offices and charity and community projects.
“We are ranked #1 for influence, retweets and relevance among domestic Chinese airlines,” said Hutt.
Hutt said that low cost carriers are no longer perceived as a low fare brand proposition among Chinese consumers. Almost 90% of its customers are white collar, under 45, and the gender mix is gender mix is 56% female and 43% male.
The airline is evolving along with its customers and is moving away from the straight low cost proposition. It now has Spring Plus, a business style product at full economy price, and customers can earn Spring Dollars. This is one way to attract younger and business travellers, he said.
It is also beginning to try ancillary sales. “This is alien to the Chinese customer and it is still a challenge but we offer a full range of products.”
Said Hutt, “Our future is tied to the international markets and you will see more of Spring in the future. We want to be the preferred LCC for Chinese customers.”
