Company Image Question

[blahmeh14]

Hi!

My company image seems to be stagnating at 90, what are the ways to improve it? Is it because of my seats on long flights (I currently have only standard economy for flights up to 15 hours, but premium first and business)? Would more advertising help (I am advertising in newspapers, billboards, and the radio all over the world, television on in the United States)? Thanks!

LUX International

[NorgeFly]

There seems to be a "glass ceiling" at CI 90, which if you want to break through you have to be willing to increase marketing spending significantly.

[swiftus27]

fleet 1.5 yrs old.  Whole world, TV on down all being done.  stuck at 90.

[blahmeh14]

Does that mean that two general campaigns for television, newspaper, radio, and billboards for the whole world could break through the barrier?

[NorgeFly]

I have only ever once past CI 90 and if I remember rightly I had a national campaign, a Europe-wide campaign and a World-wide campaign, all with tv etc. Cost a fortune!

[Sigma]

Does that mean that two general campaigns for television, newspaper, radio, and billboards for the whole world could break through the barrier?

Figure on spending at least 50% more than whatever it took you to get to 90% and hit that glass ceiling.

Anything less than 50% more and you literally won't budge it an inch.

There's  no good way of knowing exactly what it is though, since everyone will have different campaigns, and therefore different costs, at which they got to 90.  If you got to 90 very quickly, it may not take much more to get above it, you may be most of the way there already.  If you barely had the spending to get to 90, then it may take as much as double that to break through.

[losgatitospeligrosos]

Is there a big gameplay difference between 90 and 95?

[jest]

Like other people said, it's perfectly possible to have CI @ 100% but the marginal increase in LF ( If any ) wont cover the staggering costs you will incur to do so.

[Curse]

If your competitor has CI 92, yes. If he has 60 or 100, no...


Also in my both games I have CI100 and I wouldn't say it has slowered my expansion in a bigger way.

Sure, in the past I spent in Euro Challenge #2 a good of 14% of my profit in marketing, but now (after 4 or 5 years without a new marketing campaign and at CI100) it's only 5%... and you can earn much more money than you can ever spend to whatever.

[Sigma]

If your competitor has CI 92, yes. If he has 60 or 100, no...


Also in my both games I have CI100 and I wouldn't say it has slowered my expansion in a bigger way.

Sure, in the past I spent in Euro Challenge #2 a good of 14% of my profit in marketing, but now (after 4 or 5 years without a new marketing campaign and at CI100) it's only 5%... and you can earn much more money than you can ever spend to whatever.

That's because you're playing a big international carrier -- aka "Easy Mode" -- with some dense domestic routes thrown in.

That makes the percentage contribution to Marketing to attain a CI of 100 very low.

In MT#2, it's take about 7% to get to 90.   I upped it to about 12% and still wasn't able to get it to break 90.  So I've cut the expense as it's not worth it for nothing.
In EC, it took me about 20% to get to a CI of 100.
In MT#1, when I started out of DFW as a "regional" I was spending 40% and couldn't even break a CI of 60.  Eventually, after killing off the competition, I got dense and drove it down to about 25% to get to a CI of 100.

[Curse]

That's because you're playing a big international carrier -- aka "Easy Mode" -- with some dense domestic routes thrown in.

But if you are operating a smaller company like commuter with only EMB-120, there is no need to get your Company Image to 100. If you operate a smaller regional airline out of Africa you don't need CI 100 and if you operate a larger airline, you need CI100 so you have to spend the money.

I don't see the problem, yes, marketing is expensive at some point, but big Wide-Bodys are very expensive, too (A380, 777, 747). If you want to get the biggest thing you have to pay for it, no matther if it is a car, a television, CI 100 or something else.

with some dense domestic routes thrown in.

I don't think so. I started as a small airline with much more 737 than DC-10 and expanded both markets at the same time under high pressure from eXceed and Real air. Also I think King Airways is the only of the bigger carriers with two prop types in the fleet, so maybe I'm not choosing the hardest way (EMB-120 out of a South American drug airport), but also not the easiest.

However, you are much more experienced with different airline sizes in AWS (and I always like your posts), so it's interesting to hear your opinion and reconsider my point of view.

[Sigma]

I don't disagree, Curse.  I was just explaining that some people may not find it quite as easy to get to a CI of 100 as you did/are.

And you're exactly right, some people don't need it and shouldn't worry about it.  I did back in MT#1 because I was a regional that wanted to take out the big guys at my airport and wanted a high CI to help.  I ended up doing it, but doing it on the strength of my massive F28 fleet that steal pax like some sort of uber-ninja not because of a better CI

[jest]

But if you are operating a smaller company like commuter with only EMB-120, there is no need to get your Company Image to 100. If you operate a smaller regional airline out of Africa you don't need CI 100 and if you operate a larger airline, you need CI100 so you have to spend the money.

I don't see the problem, yes, marketing is expensive at some point, but big Wide-Bodys are very expensive, too (A380, 777, 747). If you want to get the biggest thing you have to pay for it, no matther if it is a car, a television, CI 100 or something else.

I am sorry but i will have to disagree. My airline in MT2 is valued at nearly 8 Billion. The second airline in the list is only 3,5 Billion. I can assure you that my CI is nowhere near 100%. Also Sami has said in this very forum some while ago that it wasnt worthwhile. I tried to browse the forum but could not find that post. So Sami, if you are reading this, can you reafirm what you said before ?

[auerbacs]

Well, if it is worthwhile to go to CI 100, if would only be so when a significant share of your competition was above CI 90. Maybe if everybody else's CI was 99, it would be worth it going to 100, but given the wide range of CI that your competitors have, I'd be very surprised if the extra benefit from going from 95 to 100 CI would justify its cost in a strict financial sense. But, that said, it's kind of fun to know that you DEFINITELY have a higher CI than (or rarely equal to) every one of your opponents. My CI is 20, so I'm not sure that I'm actually allowed to post on this forum 

[RushmoreAir]

I find that around 60-70 works really well for me.

[jest]

I browsed a little further and found the thread with the final answer.

https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,7097.0.html

[Curse]

I have some routes with high competition and we both use the same type at nearly same times and my market share is some percent higher, although I have very high ticket prices. So what if noch CI makes the difference?

And nobody said you can't be successful without CI100, but it helps you on high competition routes (US domestic market for example) against other big airlines.

[jamestbailey]

I appreciate that marketing costs are related to routes. Does (i) 5 flights a week to a destination at the same time of day with 1 flight number; cost less than (ii) 5 separate flight numbers (of 1 flight each) to the same single destination, i.e. because they are at different times of day for scheduling reasons?

Many thanks,
Jimbo

[Sigma]

I appreciate that marketing costs are related to routes. Does (i) 5 flights a week to a destination at the same time of day with 1 flight number; cost less than (ii) 5 separate flight numbers (of 1 flight each) to the same single destination, i.e. because they are at different times of day for scheduling reasons?

Many thanks,
Jimbo

No, it's Origin/Destination pairs that do it.  Flight frequency does play some role as well, but its predominatly O/D pairs.

[jamestbailey]

Thanks Sigma