Commercial Product Naming Practice in Thai Airline Business: An Examination of Language Choice and Names Used
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Abstract
Since the liberalisation of domestic airline industry in Thailand in 2001, the airlines have shifted its revenue sources from predominantly air-fare based to ancillary services in both Full service and Low cost operators. This necessitates the launch of various products and services which are ticket and non-ticket related whereby such products need to have names that are attractive and easy to understand. This study examines the product naming practices among Thai domestic airline operators in terms of language choice and the use of branded product terms against generic product terms. The data of products’ names were collected from airline’s websites and offline media. A total of 116 products were offered by seven airlines that serve domestically as of December 2019. English language was found to be used more frequently than Thai for domestic airline product naming at 54.31% despite the fact that Thai has an official language status in the country. The use of branded names was found to be more popular than generic names at 54.31% or 63 products out of 116. Furthermore, this study attempted to identify the pattern in language choice and branded product usage. Nevertheless, it was found that there are no consistencies regarding the language used and name used in any of the seven airlines examined. Air operators were recommended to consider a more consistent approach to their product naming practices.
Article Details
The manuscript submitted for publication must be the original version, submitted only to this particular journal with no prior acceptance for publication elsewhere in other academic journals. The manuscript must also not violate the copyright issue by means of plagiarism.
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