A Survey of Marketing Mix and Decisional Factors on Airline Carrier among Incentive Freight Forwarder in Thailand

A study on marketing mix and decisional factors on airline carrier among Thai freight forwarder aims to investigate the general behavior of the airline carrier selective decision for the freight forwarder in Thailand. It focuses on the use of international outbound freight services in Bangkok metropolitan region. In addition, the marketing mix factors affecting airline service providers in Thailand are investigated. Consequently, the new strategies to meet the customer requirements and the guidelines for improving and developing services are proposed. The samples for this study are 400 freight forwarder customers during May 2016 and March 2017. A random sampling is conducted using the convenience sampling method with the questionnaire as a research tool. The data analysis statistics is performed with the frequency distribution, average percentage, and standard deviation. The results of the research are as follow: 1) The customers are mainly sales executive of a large freight company, working in sales department. The majority of goods are transported to Europe over 16 times per month. A popular type of transported products is a general merchandise valued over 1,000,000 Baht,shipping a paper box container; 2) The decision to use the airline is decided by the freight forwarder. The popular commercial conditions for the freight forwarder are DDP terms, over 1,000,000 Baht for each transportation cost, optimal service of 14 trips per week, 1 working day for transit, 75-100% punctual delivery rate, 2 delays delivery per week, damaged goods by cargo compression, and limited number of shipping by the airlines. Therefore, most carriers resolved the problem by switching to another airline; 3) The 7 marketing mix factors affecting the airline service selection are in the following order Process, Product, Price, People, Place, Promotion, and Physical Evidence; 4) The guidelines for improving the airline business consist of introducing a technology to improve products and services, price and quality optimization, improving the efficiency and distribute channels, developing a good staff attitude toward service and the airline standard to meet international standards.