Second decade of 2000s which coincides with the period in which the concept of internet was in the lives of generation when they were born…
Second decade of 2000s which coincides with the period in which the concept of internet was in the lives of generation when they were born began travelling for business purposes. Being one-step beyond the internet, this generation, the travelers of this new era who carry the mobile devices, which get smarter, with them have been enjoying a much more enriched travel experience thanks to gyro, compass, GPS and AR-compatible software in addition to just taking photos and videos with the devices on them and offering the same for admiration of the mankind upon completion of the necessary corrections.
This new lifestyle where the travelers live by being constantly connected to the web has radically changed the consumption habits. Beyond seeking for travel tour campaign from the newspapers, the travellers of Digital Age make decision to make a travel while reading a blog text from which they get inspiration to travel and can buy the flight tickets instantly all airlines at the most convenient prices thanks to the applications they use and arrange staying at a hotel in line with the recommendations of their friends and the ones like themselves — which might be sometimes a room of a hospitable one who wishes to share its house in the comfort of a hotel they can arrange a transfer reservation at an affordable price for a chauffeured luxury vehicle from airport to the city, available nearby and ready to serve, which they may find with the help of the mobile application they use instead of using taxi from the airport to the city.
While the works are carried out in this way at the side of the travelers, also the ones involved in the sector of transport
and accommodation are to consider SoLoMo (Social, Local, Mobile) more than ever before while configuring the marketing strategies today and position their marketing and sale channels within the framework of these three basic key concepts.
When we take a look at particularly the new travelers who travel only for vacation two greatest sources from which they get inspiration in making decision on destination appear to be the circle of family, friends and business and internet. Today, social media is where the people spend their time more than ever before, and we now get in touch with our family, friends and business circle on social media.
When the travel is being planned, online tools stand out in clear space. Three connected screens, namely telephone, tablet and computer, stand on the forefront in every step of making decision to travel, arranging transportation and accommodation details and traveling. A lot of processes from checking the flights to check — in processes and from pre-flight meal selection to sharing experience during flight are now easily performed via the connected devices. At this point, Turkish Airlines should offer the services available in our customer experience map found at all contact points in accordance with the channel.
When the companies want to be the source of inspiration for the destinations of the travel the first thing the companies do is to prepare the travel videos and to wait for the users watching these videos to purchase a ticket immediately. Nevertheless, according to a research carried out among those who travel for the purpose of both business and vacation, this is not the case. The ones travelling do not only consume contents on travel videos, but also in the other areas, especially musical clips, movie trailers, TV Shows, news, eating and drinking and entertainment programs. At this stage, we have to offer different and rich — content choices from all types to the consumer during flight.
The travelers of today do not only consume but also produce their own contents via the mobile devices they have. An investigation conducted has revealed that 48% of those who travel for business purposes have produced their own video contents and shared the same at the social media platforms. As for those who made vacation — purpose travel, this ratio is 40%. If it is considered that a video of 100-hour is uploaded to Youtube per minute, it is perceived how much the contents consumers by the producers for the companies are important.
We witness that travellers of the new age have undergone major transformations in the their habits of traveling, as in all other areas. While only family and close friends used to look at the vacation photos, today new-generation digital travellers who travel just in order to share their photos with their Instagram followers have come out.
At every point where the companies touch the customer
to reach today’s contemporary travelers, they should check themselves regarding whether or not they are appropriate for the innovations brought in by SoLoMo principles and channel.
(This article is prepared for Turkish Airlines Marketing Vision Magazine. For more articles visit www.kamilmehmetozkan.com )
Kamil Mehmet ÖZKAN