Assignment and Reflection about Principles of Marketing

Assignment 3 (Chapter 8)

1. Go to the American Airlines website and explore the American Airlines Advantage loyalty program. This link will take you directly to the loyalty program page, but you will likely to need to click around and visit other pages for all the relevant information.

a) List and briefly describe the target market segments you see, as they pertain to the loyalty program.

b) What bases for segmentation is American Airlines using?

c) Why do you think so? Provide specific details that link the loyalty program to the bases in your explanation.

2. Look at the American Airlines ads below, continue to browse their website, and take a look at some of their recent press releases .

a) How do you think they are trying to position American Airlines?

b) What positioning base(s) are they using?

c) Why do you think so?

3. Now, create a positioning map featuring American Airlines and 4 of their closest competitors. You may choose the competitors and the dimensions for your map. See Exhibit 8.3 on page 151 for an example. How you create your map is up to you – you can use Word’s shapes tools, create it in PowerPoint, or draw it by hand – but please put your image directly into this document.

1