Customer responses to advertising social media choices when choosing an airline: a case study of low-cost airlines in Thailand

. This study examines customer responses to advertising media choices when choosing an airline. The authors employed quantitative research that obtained the basic information about passengers' choices of airlines via an online Google form and in-person questionnaire distribution at the airports. As a result, this study's number of valid responses was 209, with a 50.20% age range between 18-30 years old. The results found that passengers tend to watch social media, use the web rather than offline media, and consume online application platforms on mobile applications, e.g., Facebook, YouTube Channel, Line application, and Instagram. Online advertising and social media are closely associated with consumer lifestyles. The most important social media that customers respond to when choosing an airline ticket is Facebook, followed by Instagram and Line application because it connects customers to the airline website conveniently and creates better interaction with customers. At the same time, Offline media is considered a minor virtual channel that affects customer response.


Introduction
Social media is a powerful source for companies to connect their products and services to customers. A survey indicated that in 2021 the global social media advertising market was value at 181.2 billion US dollars. By 2026, companies will spend money on social media up to 20.5% of marketing budgets (Statista, 2022).
Social media has gained credibility in company image, brand loyalty increasing, and customer relationships improvement and customers positively choose the airline's choices based on marketing behavior and advertisement activities (Zhou et al., 2020). In an era where online consumers are increasing every day and the world today, mobile phones have become at the center. More than 80% of Millennials in Thailand, ages 18-34 years, about 20.6 million people spend 5 hours per day on the internet and online, with a mobile phone accounting for 80% (Boonrod, 2017;Ushakov et al., 2021a ).
So, it is inevitable that social media has played a vital role in people's daily life. Telephone and email are no longer the best way to contact customers. Nowadays, customers tend to contact airlines to ask questions and compliments and complain through social networks. The company must respond to the changing behaviors of consumers to reach customers and understand customers' lifestyles. Social media has gained much attention from marketers due to the expanded marketing with media having high potential in making customers choose the product. Social media provides a massive potential for airlines. Companies can reach customers from all over the world anytime and anywhere.
Around 900 million people are on Facebook, around 100 million on Instagram, and over 300 million on Twitter (Bangkokbiz, 2021; Seo, Park & Choi, 2020; Ushakov et al., 2020;. The ability of social media to support many customers so that they can decide to buy if they get information and recommendations from other users' experiences on social media. Customers are more likely to choose a product from a company that provides convenient connection and ease of use. Customer service is enormous in the airline industry (Kankaew, 2022;Ushakov et al., 2022a).
The researcher realized the importance of social media in connecting and building relationships with potential customers, including maintaining their customers effectively. Advertising media have become more severe in taking part in the aviation industry. The critical players among many airlines have attached great importance to the market on advertising media. The airline industry faces challenges due to many factors which are more competitive than ever, and many airlines are trying to find ways to compete for customers (Paethrangsi, 2021, Kankaew et al., 2021. Since social media is easy to reach, airlines can connect with people worldwide across their social media platforms. They can use the tool to strengthen the trust and relationship between the consumer and their brand through social media. Airlines need to have a clear strategy for customer engagement, including attracting new customers and generating brand loyalty. Social media is also fundamentally changing customer communication and lifestyle. They can acquire company information and products and discuss social issues discussion and social change pursuing. (Seo et al., 2020). Therefore, the motivation for this study is first to confirm whether the influencing advertising media affect passengers' airline choices. Secondly, this paper seeks to determine the influence degree of influence media on each type. \ Therefore, it comes to the following research questions 1) How does advertising social media influence airline customers? 2) What types of social media do customers prefer to use when choosing a flight?
2 Literature Review

Social media and airline customer behavior
Travel behaviour and activity patterns differ between age groups. Researchers have studied the significant factors that affect air travel behavior, including passengers' attributes such as education level and income and trip attributes such as travel distance, departure time, and passenger perception. The two most significant aspects of travel among the elderly are safety and convenience Both income and education positively affect the passengers' airline choices (Paulley et al., 2006). Passengers with lower incomes were likelier to choose low-cost airlines than those with higher incomes (Yu, 2013).
Passengers with lower incomes were likelier to choose low-cost airlines than those with higher incomes. Trip attributes and social channels significantly affect passengers' decisions, such as departure time and travel distance had a significant impact on the travel behavior of the elderly passenger. At the same time, the young generation preferred choosing the airline by influencing advertising media and price. The study showed that the elderly always avoided traveling at night or during rush hour, and the young generation is likely to travel during weekends and holidays (Wang & Zhao, 2009;Worasuwannarak & Kankaew, 2022).

Characteristics of advertising social media.
Advertising is the business of trying to persuade people to buy products or services (Cambridge dictionary). Advertising is the announcement or declaration that aims to publish a message to the citizen. The product presentation includes the product quality that aims to convince the customer to purchase the product. (Office of Royal Academy Society, 2008) Advertising is the most effective measure in marketing. It can help the company to sell the product, image, and service. Advertising can convince people to be interested, and advertising is one of the marketing processes.Advertising is the declaration of the product presentation that aims to make the consumer know about the product. Advertising could be created in different ways, such as through television, radio, newspaper, and the internet (Supattra, 2013). Nevertheless, advertising is one of the measures that help a company achieve its selling objective.

Effects of media advertising.
Schemas (or schemata) are units of understanding that can be hierarchically categorized and webbed into complex relationships. A schema is a cognitive network of related information that identifies the essential contents of a specific stimulus domain (Fiske & Linville, 1980;Fiske & Dyer, 1985). Schemas theory claim that human knowledge of the world is organized and categorized, which can influence cognition and behavior. Customers rely on the brand and advertising schema to understand and recognize an advertising message. If the advertising schema is not activated, customers are likely not aware of the message that the company is trying to persuade and have less resistance toward that advertisement. (Fransen et al., 2015) 3 Methodology This research the use of advertising media to engage and build a relationship between airlines and customers of low-cost airlines in Thailand. The primary data collection approach was used as quantitative research using a questionnaire to collect data. The sample size is 200, but the actual number in return is 209 responses.
The researchers employed convenience sampling by placing surveys on online media Google forms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Application Line and hand questionnaires at the airports. Demographic factors are gender, age, education, and occupation. Before answering the questionnaire, the respondent was asked how they chose a flight. i.e., have you ever chosen a flight on social media? To ensure they are the actual sample of this study.
The airline customer respondents' profiles are shown in Tab. 1. This study surveyed customer behaviors and opinions, the questions about types of advertising media available for passenger choices, advertising media usage behavior, and decision-making when choosing the airlines. The data were analyzed through a computer program, i.e., Mean, S.D., and percentage were analyzed.

Results
To obtain the basic information about influencing media on passengers' airline choice behavior via google and in-person surveys. We found that passengers' socio-demographic characteristics (such as gender, age, education level, and occupation) as shown in table 1. For service preference characteristics, i.e., passengers' advertising media preference when choosing airlines (such as prefer Facebook, Line application, YouTube, Instagram, and Offline media). Tab. 1 displays the statistical information on passengers' demographic characteristics on the advertising media choices of airlines. Of 209 people who responded to the survey, most of them are female, that is 70.3%, and most respondents are around 18-30 years old. In terms of education, most of the respondents are college/ graduates or above, and 51.2% of the respondents are company & government employees. Respondents' air travel behaviour shown in tab. 2 illustrates that 70.33% of the respondents travel by plane less than three times per year, and 74% of the respondents use low-cost airlines. Regarding the purpose of travel, most of them travel for leisure to visit friends and relatives. Based on question that how much time do you spend using media per day. Interpret as 1is very low = less than 1 hour, 2 is low= 1-2 hours, 3 is moderate = 2-3 hours, 4 is heavy = 3-4 hours, and 5 is very heavy = more than 4 hours.
Tab. 3 & 4 illustrate the effects of the advertising media preference aspect on airline choices. Most people use advertising media more than 4 hours a day, and they use it from 18:01-22:00. Most of the respondents watch advertising on social media more than on television. The respondents use social media for entertainment, and Facebook is a popular media to use. Details are as follows; First, Facebook (4.39), most respondents considered Facebook the channel that customers conveniently connect to airline websites. Airlines can build better interaction and closely talk to their customers via Facebook. This study discovered that the airline should launch an advertising campaign through Facebook.
Moreover, the ads on Facebook drive customer interest. Second, Instagram (3.53), the respondents who prefer using Instagram are aged between 18-30 years old.
Hence, should the airline's target market focus on this group age range, it will be an excellent choice to advertise via Instagram.
Third, Line application (3.38), results from this research evidence that it is not worth promoting airline advertisement through the Line platform. Most respondents who use Line for chatting and sending clips are interested only in Line stickers, not advertisements.
Fourth, YouTube (2.56), most of the respondents enjoyed watching YouTube but were not interested in YouTube advertising. They think advertising on YouTube interrupts them, and they do not click to view it. Therefore, shooting advertising through YouTube is not a good choice. Furthermore, the last one is offline media (1.82).
This advertising relies on real-world channels like television, prints on magazines, radio, billboards, brochures, and flyers. The respondents are not interested much in offline advertising, which was perceived as the least influencing advertising media on airline choices. and Line application, affect customers' purchase intention when buying an airline ticket. Time consumed is a matter for people when using social media. They can do many things simultaneously, such as watching YouTube, chatting with friends, following the news, and working. Social media is prevalent, and they can engage customers and quickly.
The airlines can use social media to enhance the market strategy to attract customers (Bigne et al., 2018;Zhou et al., 2020). Airlines will gain competitive advantages if they choose the appropriate advertising media for their target customers (Alnsour et al., 2018). This study discovered that social media advertising, namely Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Line platforms, has an unequal influence on passengers when making airline choices. Facebook is the heaviest social media that customers use.

Recommendation
Social media advertising is a tool for airlines to connect with customers besides traditional marketing. The airline industry could examine customer decisions from research investigation to grow the competitive advantages organization. This study showed insight into airline passengers' behavior in using social media for flight selection, and the results will be helpful to airline companies in deciding on social media advertising.

Research Limitations
As we used convenience sampling and data from 209 respondents were obtained, the findings may not be generalized.