Responding To The Airline Cabal - My Recommendation For AIR PEACE

This may not be something you would anticipate. It is not about how government should help Air Peace which of course I believe is one of the possible solutions. This is about business strategy and offer creation - A lesson mostly never taught to most businesses but it beats price-slashing and makes competition irrelevant

Let's get to it.

I don't know, but I think it was just a business move from the cabal. Entrepreneurs 101 - Anticipate Your Competitor's possible responses to the offers you make for the market, and then prepare your response

I read the article posted by Ndubuisi Ekekwe on LinkedIn, on how foreign airlines are crashing down prices on the European route to kick Air Peace out. Find the post here

"The foreign airlines were taking between N15-N17 million for business class, N6 million for premium economy, and N5 million for economy. Then Air Peace came on, charging N4.5 million for business class, and economy class starting from N1.2 million. Now Air Peace did this, everybody has come crashing their prices from N18 million to N5 million. Dollar did not change.” - Allen Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace

Coming from a marketing background, the right offer, paired with the best marketing strategy for a hungry market wins at all times irrespective of what competition is doing in that market.

Price-cutting, while it is targeted at kicking Airpeace out of the Lagos-Londo Route, will only work because the market has price shoppers in it - people who want the offer for the cheapest price. This consumer base in every market has a significant population that can't be ignored in most markets. For example, why should I pay 15 million for vacation if someone is offering the same to me at 8 million under similar conditions?

However, the bedrock of great offers isn't about price slashing, it is how you can compete while charging a premium on your services - The more pain and problem you can solve, the more you can charge.

My Recommendation For Airpeace - The 3-Step Approach

Air Peace needs to work on great local offers that are personalized for different market segments that cater to.

Here is why...

The cabal has had enough past profit to keep this game going for years.?They can do this price slashing going for 2 - 3 years because they have made profits years back.

A better way for Airpeace to approach this is to clearly define the market it will be bringing distinctive offers to

These offers can be unlocked through partnerships with non-competing products and service providers that offer complimentary elements that can serve as add-ons to Airpeace original core offering/service. The way to look at this in simple terms is to ask: "What else are the customers they are currently serving or willing to serve need to get done to complete the perfect travel journey?"

AIR PEACE should work laser-focused to:

1. Find differentiated Market segments with premium buying power that each require personalized experience that differs.

2. Pull a list of all possible Partnerships that can be done with non-competing products and services (complimentary businesses) to create personalized offers - long-term and short-term.

3. Package Great offers. The offers are great, not just good if they help the users complete their sales story to the dream outcome — this way Airpeace is not creating those add-ons from scratch. Partners already have those as their core business and adding it to Airpeace's business will help solve more of the target market problems and lock customers in.