Generative AI will play a big role in enhancing customer experience: Belson Coutinho of Akasa Air

In the post-COVID era, where the aviation industry has been gradually recovering, including a revamp for legacy airline Air India, we saw the emergence of Akasa Air, which commenced operations on August 07, 2022.

Founded by Vinay Dube, the airline has managed to become the fifth-largest domestic airline by capturing a market share of 5.2% within just one year. It has been observed that it has a bigger market share than SpiceJet, an airline that has been around since 2005, as per the latest DGCA data.

Belson Coutinho, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at Akasa Air, shares how Akasa Air has created its brand identity in the first year of operations, with a larger focus on creating a new-age brand and marketing itself through customer experiences to stand out amid the cut-throat competition.

Edited Excerpts:

Could you highlight some of the major marketing milestones that Akasa Air has achieved during this time?

Brand creation, for us, was not just about creating a powerful and engaging logo or a tagline, but it was taking a holistic approach. We kept a strong focus on product, service experience and looking after the consumer’s journey across the point. That's where the whole brand came to life when we launched the brand way back in December of 2022. 

Our focus was on creating a brand that would be relevant and connected to the new-age consumer, and overall, be a humane brand that creates an inclusive environment.

And it is not just creating a good marketing campaign or advertising campaign. It's a 360-degree approach where marketing communication became integral to the differentiation 
that we would create by leveraging the product and service we are building.

It was product-led and consumer experience-led, and together, it has been the story for us to create this service that we believe is unique and differentiating.

What have been the key successes and challenges that the airline has experienced in its first year of operation?

As a brand that was setting its foot in the aviation industry, we didn't have any ‘baggage’ to bring along. We had the advantage of technology, consumer insights and customer behaviour trends at our disposal.

Post-COVID, most brands have changed their approach towards consumer interaction or consumer communication, and many consumers have changed the way they approach brands. 

Consumers have become socially conscious and environmentally conscious. So as a brand, this became a part of our team's commitment while focusing on first-time travelers as we built the product brand and service strategy. 

It was a no-brainer for us to lead our marketing and communication approach with a martech 
thought process. We leveraged marketing technology platforms, the power of CRM in the way we do our campaigns, and incorporated personalization techniques through new technologies. These gave us the opportunity to get our foundation right.

The insights from martech solutions, the available data, and understanding what the consumer wants helped us make key decisions. For instance, our crew uniforms are made from sustainable material apart from being comfortable for the crew. We also realized that many pet parents wouldn't travel because they could not leave their pets at home. We felt this need was important to be served, hence, we designed a product that allowed pets to fly on our planes.

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What has been your preferred media mix for promoting Akasa Air over the past year? Have there been any surprising results from certain channels that you didn't anticipate?

We are 100% Digital. We did do one of the larger 360-degree campaigns in October 2022. But generally, we are a digital-first brand. We participate in anything across the digital ecosystem. 

It has been just about a year for us and we had a few objectives for year one. It was important for us to make sure that we got our brand identity and our brand positioning right. 

Our focus was not just on metro cities, but Tier two and Tier three cities, in terms of the cities where we had to connect with our consumers. 

Social media helped us to create that engagement. It also depends on the type of content and the objective that we have. For example, X (formerly Twitter) is largely leveraged for customer experience and customer service. Similarly, LinkedIn and Instagram are used at different points in time, but at the end of the day, it's to deliver the promise of being a dependable and affordable airline.

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We have seen a significantly higher engagement on our social media platforms than what one 
would have seen otherwise in the social media ecosystem. 

Akasa Air has entered a market dominated by established legacy airlines. How does your marketing strategy differentiate your brand and create a strong competitive edge in this landscape?

First of all, it's been a conscious decision that we want to focus on ourselves. For us, it was very clear that the Akasa experience was going to be the differentiator. 

The differentiation is the category redefining quality service that we bring to the consumer despite being in a space where previous attempts at providing service have failed. 

We brought in-flight dining with Cafe Akasa, pets flying on board, and our menu card and safety manual are offered in Braille to our consumers. 

In the last few months, we have launched two features that are small but I believe are powerful from a consumer experience point. Customers get a notification on the baggage belt number where their bags will arrive. When consumers are at the airport to check in, they will be proactively informed or notified of the gate from where they will have to board.

Now these are small features but I believe they are very important and powerful features from a consumer convenience and experience point of view. And we'll build a lot of that through the customer journey. 

Are there any under-explored or emerging areas within the marketing landscape that you believe could offer unique opportunities for Akasa Air's growth and brand visibility?

Absolutely. We are very focused on leveraging marketing technology and the whole martech space is going to get even bigger for us. At the end of the day, we want to drive reach, visibility, and engagement with conversions coming our way. 

Martech opportunities, data insights and generative AI are something that we are closely trying to experiment with. 

Technology and especially, generative AI will play a big role in enhancing, not just efficiency and productivity internally, but also enhancing customer experience and customer satisfaction to a great degree.

Those are the areas that we are focusing on investing at least for the next year and beyond. 

I believe that collaboration and partnerships will help us to create value and differentiation in what we bring to the table to the consumer. So working with brands and partners outside the Akasa ecosystem is going to help us to bring value and create a differentiated product and experience.