Marketing Costs

[big_nick]

Is there any rule of thumb to allow an estimate of the increase of marketing costs as the airline gets bigger?

I had selected county wide marketing to start with to build image as quick as i could which was fine while i was operating 1 DC10. Then i decided to expand first in regional serivces while i was waiting delivery of the new DC10's i have ordered. By adding 2 DC9's and 3 metro's my marketing has increased by nearly 700% to just short of 1mil per week. If i had known this was going to happen i wouldn't have done it.. that much of an increase is crippleing when we are talking about 19seat aircraft that are lucky to add 30k per week.

Any help would be appreciated

[Sigma]

It scales by the number of routes that you're operating.  More destinations you fly to, the more Marketing needs to be done, the more expensive it costs.

Hence, little airlines that fly to numerous small locations get HOSED.  If your plane is small enough you'll spend more in the Marketing increase alone than you net in raw revenue flying the route.

It's easier, and a heck of a lot cheaper, to find yourself a few really dense routes (like 2000+/day) and dominate them early on while throwing lots of money at Marketing.  This will get you to 100CI for a tiny fraction of what it will cost you later on once you've got a couple hundred routes.

[Powi]

There's also an invisible wall at 90%. To get over that mark one need to spend much more for marketing.
When you hit 90% try to reduce marketing... I've recently reduced marketing over $1M / week without negative effects to CI - still at 90%.

[maya666]

what is the best way to get to that 90%?

[Riger]

what is the best way to get to that 90%?

Quickly & Cheaply ........   but I am not sure that is possible ..

[Talentz]

Meh, just do what I usually do... On the first day, set marketing to world wide, all options and let it rise from there.

You'll be at 100 CI in 9-10 months and from then you can dictate terms on any route of your choosing against anyone.

But that's just me.


My rule of thumb for a tougher game is a bit different. My marketing costs is equal to 1/2 of my 1st aircraft's monthly lease. So a 400K monthly lease would mean spending no more then 200k a week on marketing. At the start. Then, judging on my airlines progress, I increase as go. You should never have to decease marketing costs at the start to survive. Your doing something wrong if that's the case.


Talentz