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Presentation
Consumer Attitude Towards the Spirit Airline Online Advertising
Academy of Business and Retail Management International Conference on Business and Economic Development (2014)
  • Tamilla Curtis, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach
  • Blaise P. Waguespack, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach
  • Anke Arnaud, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach
Abstract
The airline industry is one of the most competitive industries worldwide. The Resource-Based View of the firm claims that a firm should possess a bundle of tangible and intangible resources, including assets, endowments, and capabilities, that create a sustainable competitive advantage. Airlines utilize similar type of resources, including aircraft with similar features, flying to the same destinations, and at the same speed. With intense competition, airlines have to rely on advertising to differentiate their products and to create a brand awareness to attract more passengers.

Ethics in advertising is a continuously evolving field. While most of the airlines promote their product as safe travel with comfortable in-flight offerings in a friendly and glamorous manner, one of the Florida-based USA low-cost carrier, Spirit Airlines, uses non-traditional approach in advertising.

The proposed study will investigate the ethical orientation and awareness towards Spirit Airlines online advertisement, and its effects on the consumer purchasing behavior. Different images of Spirit Airline ads, including its commercials, will be demonstrated to the subjects enrolled at one of the U.S. universities with the pre and post tests. The survey instrument will be divided into several sections: general demographic questions, individual ethical orientation scale (idealism and relativism), general knowledge and awareness toward provocation in advertising, personal experience (consumer involvement), the power of feelings in understanding advertising effect, measurement of business ethics (five ethical philosophies), and purchase involvement.

The results of the study will outline the role that ethics plays in advertising and its impact on the consumer purchasing behavior in the airline industry.
Keywords
  • Airline,
  • advertising,
  • ethics,
  • competitive advantage,
  • consumer behavior
Publication Date
March, 2014
Citation Information
Tamilla Curtis, Blaise P. Waguespack and Anke Arnaud. "Consumer Attitude Towards the Spirit Airline Online Advertising" Academy of Business and Retail Management International Conference on Business and Economic Development (2014)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tamilla_curtis/26/