Can You Have Too Much Advertising Too Soon?

[Tuckernut]

I started Beginner Game 2 and had a general campaign with newspapers, Billboard, Radios and internet for all of Europe.  My company measure fell to -1.2.  So I added TV for a month in my base city.  Now it is down -5.0.  What is going on?  Too much advertising too soon early in the game?  I changed it to newspapers, billboard and internet only in my country.

What did I do wrong?  HELP!

Tuckernut

[groundbum2]

marketing will only increase CI.

So something is decreasing CI. It could well be delays, check the delay screen under the routes menu. Cancellations above 2% heavily hit CI. Other things could be missed maintenance and subsequent ramp checks by inspectors.

Delays are usually caused by turnaround times being too short. For exampe a 737 could be 40 minutes, but when you create the route you can stretch this to 70 minutes which the screen shows has a cancellation rate of 1% compared to 25%(!) of the 40 minute turnaround time.

Be aware of spending too much on marketing. Typically it shouldn't be more than 5% of income, managing a good airline often means managing cash flow. Doing route marketing also increases CI, and also increases RI and hence income, so has a double benefit over general marketing.

You could ask for a mentor to look over you airline and see what else is going on if you like..

Simon

[Sami]

Your CI was at -9 and now rising (-5). As mentioned marketing can make the CI go up. All other negative events will make it go down and marketing is used to compensate for that.

Your flight delays and cancellations are not the best, but nothing to be very alarmed about.
Your staff morale is in 60s - 70s points region, so not the best, but nothing to be very alarmed about (for a new airline).
There are currently no outside events affecting the demand or delays.
Your marketing spending is OK. There is no help in marketing too much, especially for a new airline.

Keep an eye on it for a few game weeks and check how things develop from here without any major changes to any of those things.

[Tuckernut]

Thanks, guys, for the valuable tips.  I thought a strong marketing campaign would cover any faults but that was not correct.  My delays were bad as my mechanical reliability is not stellar.  I may call one airplane at a time in for some additional Mx.  I schedule A321 departures (usually) at 1:10.  Sometimes I have to fudge it five minutes here or there to make things fit.

Blue skies and tail winds to us all.

Tuckernut

[knobbygb]

Another big no-no for CI, which nobody mentioned yet is firing staff. Avoid doing that at all costs.