The Image Value of Southeast Asia Airlines: A Study of Attribute That Led to Image Value of Choosing Southeast Asia Airlines by Mean-End Theory Approach

Introduction

In recent years, the airline business has grown at a breakneck pace. The industry's supply and demand sides have increased significantly during the last decade. Recent changes have been fuelled by legal, political, and cultural trends rather than technological considerations. Legal and structural factors have shaped the market structure, while cultural factors have influenced geographical mobility and features. Profitability is a recurring theme in the carrier sector on a worldwide scale. Its cycles are inexorably tied to global financial markets (Doganis 2006).

Additionally, airlines have three business models: full-service, low-cost, and charter (Gillen, 2006). Low-cost airlines operate point-to-point for various routes, whereas full-service and charter airlines use hub and speak for greater operational ease and flight frequency (Pels, 2008; Bachman 2017). The term “full-service” refers to food served as a service and in-flight entertainment. Full-service prefers to fill cheap tickets for unoccupied seats (Pels, 2008). According to Trethewey (2011), low-cost providers are eroding the market share of full-service providers and profiting from it.

Customer customisation is the job of an airline's customer service or customer experience department, primarily responsible for arranging individualised treatment in response to demand variations. Numerous clients fly with reputable carriers. As a result, customer satisfaction can assist in retaining consumers from other airlines. The airline industry's worth is in its passengers. Airlines that fail to satisfy and keep passengers are at risk of losing them (Wang and Shu, 2016). As a result, satisfaction in value-added procedures becomes ingrained in the airline sector as a means of assessing and sustaining passenger pleasure and loyalty. Airlines employ various customer satisfaction techniques to maintain client demand; they highlight the value-added service and product features that contribute to long-term commitment. In addition, airlines may use their experience, previous journeys, and ancillary purchases to push new items and services on customers.

Southeast Asia's airline sector has entered a new era of competitiveness. Southeast Asia's economic development demonstrates an increase in travel demand despite the external environment's influence on the business (Hogan, 2017). The ASEAN aviation industry's compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is constantly increasing, and it has the potential to become the world's largest aviation market by 2036. (IATA, 2017). Therefore, the development viewpoint for company competitiveness in retaining and acquiring customers is critical for survival (Calisir et al., 2016). ASEAN airlines' marketing strategy must focus on long-term pleasure (Akamavi et al., 2011). Airlines' customers in this region are multi-national and culturally diverse, which affects their wants and demand.

Additionally, in a rapidly increasing industry, the airline must provide a plan to close the gap between customer happiness and loyalty for the survivor (Tsafarakis et al., 2018). Additionally, developing a positive image for the airline is critical for its attractiveness (Hussain et al., 2015). Therefore, the research study focuses on deciphering the characteristic of selecting a Southeast Asia airline using the mean-end theory technique and developing a value-added framework for the Southeast Asia airline image.