Marketing Audit and Plan of QANTAS Airline
Organizational view
The airline industry is a fastest growing services industry in the world that is providing air transport services to the traveling passengers and freight. I am very inspired by the industry business, and it provided valuable service to me. I have gathered some information and aware about a leading Australian Airline company, Qantas. The marketing audit is and empirical study of the company that Qantas to understand the global market’s demand and examine the competitors’ market. It also helps the management to investigate the current marketing aspects and set future strategies. I am familiar with the company business and services. It was established in Queensland in 1920 and continuously serve the customer from its beginning. Qantas is the largest airline that is operating in Australia and other countries of the world. I know that the company has a strong reputation in the market due to operational reliability, world-class services, safety excellence, and valuable customer services. It has two complementary airline brands including Jetstar and Qantas.
Ii is well known that the organization has focused on loyalty, respect, commitment, positive attitude, corporate culture, customer demands, and employees’ motivation that increased the satisfaction among its customers, employees, and other individuals. The company has created the effective business strategies, corporate mission, and vision. Qantas vision is to provide the world’s best premium transportation services for the reasonable price. I know that the company has developed different strategies to meet its objectives such as operational efficiency, customers’ service excellence, safety, right aircraft right route, and skilled employees.
I am very familiar with the company reputation in the domestic and international market. The company has developed strong values and ethics that created the corporate culture within the organization and other business activities. It has valued the people and provides flexible working conditions, fringe benefits, and other facilities that increased employees’ motivation and improved their performance. The company has a strong team of more than 3,000 employees who are skilled, passionate, and diversified and strongly contributed to achieving the company objective .
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is used to examine microenvironment of the organization and identify the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Qantas. I have gathered the information about the current company position.
Strengths
Qantas is largest and famous airline that has a strong brand reputation in the world.
It is the oldest airline that has effective marketing strategy such as create brand loyalty to new and existing customer through providing worlds class services in reasonable price.
It has most popular loyalty program such as Frequent Flyer program that attracted more passengers in the Southern part of the planet.
The company has sound leadership and effective team of skilled and qualified employees.
High-quality services are a core responsibility of the company and it improves its revenues.
It has wide geographic coverage and numerous flights for the domestic, regional, and international destination.
It has launched Fly Carbon Neutral program to accomplish the corporate social responsibility and protect the environment from different environmental issues.
It has provided both low-cost and premium flights and service to meet the customers’ expectation according to their income level.
Weaknesses
Qantas has higher operating and labor cost as compared to other competitors.
The company mostly depends on the domestic market and a large part of revenues is coming from the local market.
The employees’ conflicts have risen in Qantas that affected the organizational culture and reduced trust and loyalty among the employees. It negatively affected the company operations and its performance.
Opportunities
The company has chances to increase its destinations especially in the Asia that would provide new opportunities and enhance its revenues.
The technological innovation in aircraft design, online ticketing, customers’ services, and other transportation facilities would improve its brand reputation in the world that will increase its profit.
It has the opportunity of strategic alliances with other airlines that would enhance the frequency of flights.
Low fuel prices have reduced the company cost and increased its profit.
Threats
It is the threat of strong competition with other low-cost airline organizations in the domestic and international market.
It has faced a shortage of staff such as pilot, air hostess, and other individuals.
Increasing labor cost especially increased in security cost has increased the company cost .
Environmental scan
I know that the environmental scan helps the company to identify external opportunities and threats. The PEST analysis identifies the macro-environment of the organization and provides information about political, economic, social, and technological factors that affect the company growth.
Political factors
The company has merged with British Airways with the help of the Australian government. It has reduced the wastage of different resources, expand and utilize the network to earn more revenues in Asia, Europe, and Transatlantic market. The organization has also affected due to the government actions in different regions and it affected the political instability in Bangkok and Middle East that reduced the company operations. Australia’s international aviation policy has affected its revenues.
Economic factors
The performance of Australian economy is directly associated with the company performance. The company has faced the impacts of lower demands that decrease its revenues and generated loss.
Social and cultural factors
The social and conditions and trends have affected Qantas operations and its performance. It is noted that the Australian society is very developed and high-quality education, developed technologies, and increased industrialization has increased the standard of life in Australia.
Technological factors
Technological factor directly affected Qantas operations and it has developed different technological changes. It has improved fuel efficiency through the use of technology and it is providing online reservation system, flight email and phone connectivity, and flight entertainment to the passengers. It is introduced global landing system and performed landing through satellite technology that improved passengers’ safety .
Segmentation and Target market analysis
I am aware that the company has used market segmentation to unify the customers in each segment and fulfill their needs and wants to increase the satisfaction. It has heavily invested in market segmentation to earn the more revenues. The company has developed different approaches to follow the market segmentation according to its capabilities. QANTAS has differentiated the travelers in premium class and low class. The company has two airline brands including Qantas and Jetstar and it targeted the specific customers according to their income level. Jetstar has targeted the cost sensitive customers and offers two class including standard class and star class. The company has used behavioral segmentation, select target market, and distinguishes the passengers in three class including business class, first class, and economy class. The company is investing the new premium airline in Asia to grow its business.
Qantas has improved its loyalty program and provided valuable services to the customers to influence buyers’ behavior. It has developed a different tool to understand the customers buying behavior such as Qantas Club rewarding programs and Qantas Frequent Flyer program. It has offered more bonuses and other benefits to the gold and silver frequent flyers that improved its business. It has provided different special promotions according to the customers’ behavioral preferences such special discounts for regular travelers, extra baggage weight for large families, hotel promotion for the business person, and other rewards for the passengers. It has created travelers lounge in some large cities and improved its market position in the world. It has targeted the key destination in South East Asia and China and given propriety to the growing markets in the world. It has considered demographics and psychographics variables and targeted the customers to improve its relationship with the customers. The company is improving its loyalty program and creating a good relationship with its existing and new customers.
Competitor analysis
I am aware that the competition is very high in the aviation industry and company has a strong position in the domestic and international countries. The airline organizations are competing to achieve the largest market share. The Virgin Australia Holding Airline Company, Singapore Airline Limited, and United Continental Holdings Company are most significant competitors of Qantas in the domestic market. The competition is very high among those airline companies to achieve the strong position in the market. The prices and customers services are most significant factors of the competition. The companies have tried to provide best services and low prices to achieving the competitive advantage in the market. The strong competition exists between Virgin Australia Holding Airline Company and Qantas in the Australian market. The company has faced significant loss due to strong competition across the industry. Virgin Airline has tried to achieve the good market position and improve its market share. Qantas has applied capacity brakes for a capacity growth spurt. The conditions of the airline industry are not good and the number of traveling passengers has declined hence, the strong competitive environment has affected the airline industry (Center for Aviation, 2015).
The competitive scenario is also high in the international market and British Airlines, Air Asia, Ryan Air, Southwest Airlines, and others are strong competitors in the foreign market. It has affected Qantas’s operations and performance in other countries. The company has tried to develop new strategies such as lowest possible price and innovation to hold a superior competitive position in the domestic in the international market. It has increased investment in product, technology, and innovation to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Qantas has announced to increase the destination and improve services in Asia to secure a strong position. The number of dedicated seats has enhanced to Singapore and Hong Kong and operations restructured in Asia to improve services and gain a competitive advantage in the market .
Stakeholder analysis
Qantas has strongly focused its stockholders and established effective communication environment. The direct stockholders of the company are employees, shareholders, suppliers, trade unions, customers, business partners, and community. The indirect stockholders are governments, the media, and nongovernmental firms. They all have a significant influence on the business strategy and its performance and growth. The company has developed an effective approach to increase the shareholders’ value and meet their satisfaction. It has established ASX principles to ensure the effective communication with the shareholders and their participation in Qantas Annual General Meetings (AGMs). The company is committed to create a good relationship with the shareholders and maximize their profit. Qantas has recruited and skilled and talented people and increases their capabilities through training and development program. It has provided good opportunities and fringe benefits to the employees and offered a successful career. The company employs more than 33,000 people with 93% employees located in the domestic country. It has a strong community of 99 nationalities from 157 countries that speak 51 languages. The management has developed effective communication culture in the organization that increased employees’ engagement and motivation. The company created an ethical corporate culture and managed a diversified workforce in the workplace .
Qantas has created a good relationship with different key suppliers through Supplier Relationship Management program. The Procurement section has ensured effective communication with the suppliers and considered to work collaboratively and improve the operations performance. The customers are highly focused, and Qantas has developed different approaches to meet the customers’ satisfaction and attract more and more passengers. Customers’ satisfaction and Net Promoter Score processes are core business activity of Qantas. The managers have ensured effective communication with the customers to identify their demands, needs, and feedback that support continues improvement. The company is engaged to be a responsible member of local communities and arranged different meetings in Australia to focus noise improvement issue. The Airport, Airport Traffic Control, and resident have worked together to identify noise improvements, mitigate noise, and improve operational efficiency. The organization has established a good relationship with the trade union and dedicated a team of Industrial Relations to manage negotiation and consultations .
Conclusions
After overall assessments of a different factor it is realized that Qantas has developed good approaches to face a different situation. It has realized that the market research is a serious issue and it needs strategic planning, assessments, and decision to identify the company internal and external factors. Qantas has applied different marketing theories and tools in the marketing strategy and established a strong position in the market. It has developed market segmentation methods to identify different types of customers, understand the buying behavior, and meet their needs and expectations. The company has focused its stockholders including employees, shareholders, suppliers, vendors, customers, and other parties and established a good relationship with them. It has effectively applied product positioning, strategic planning, and customer value marketing theories in its marketing strategies and achieves fruitful results.
Recommendations
Qantas should focus some important factors and improve its operational performance. It should focus the Australia and international market markets and diversify the risk of domestic politics, economic, and social conditions. It needs to focus the technological innovation and improve the airline service as compared to other competitors. The company should focus employee relationship and provide competitive salary and benefits, effective training and development programs, and good working condition. It should use skilled and well-trained employees to understand the customers’ needs and wants and develop new improvements accordingly. It should continue the environment saving projects and company social responsibility to maintain its good company and increase reputation in the market. Qantas should improve its loyalty program and offer new promotions to attract more passengers. It should maintain a good relationship with current alliances and find new alliances to improve its growth. The company should develop intelligence assist and marketing research in undertaking five-year plan and implements market strategy.
Marketing Plan
I have conducted the market audit of Qantas and generated the marketing plan that describes different business activities involved in achieving marketing objectives. It is essential for the success of the company that improves its operational performance and revenues.
Market research
I have found that the company has used various marketing research tool to address the customer's behavior and preferences and developed web-based surveys to identify the customers’ demands. It would help the company to identify the specific needs of the customers and design its service in an effective manner. It would improve the flying experience of the passengers and allow the company to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Qantas has segmented the market to target the customers according to their income level. The company has to focus the both international and domestic market and improve its services as compared to other competitors. It needs to develop different approaches to mitigate the threats and weakness and avail different opportunities from the market. The company needs to focus the potential partners and create new alliances to promote the business.
Qantas Marketing Mix
Product
It is reported that Qantas has offered valuable services that improved the customers’ satisfaction. It is using a loyalty program, Frequent Flyer program, and other promotional activities to improve its value in the eyes of the customers. The company has focused the product and service planning due to strong competition in the airline industry. It has offered premium traveling arrangements including first class, business class, international economy class, and premium economy class. It has provided different kinds of seating arrangements, meals, in-flight services, and amenities in all classes. The company needs to focus the product strategies, innovation, and consistency in service standard. It needs to develop an innovative strategy for gaining new customer winning back the last customers.
Price
I have understood that the company has used cost plus margin method and competitive methods of pricing. It has provided both low and high cost flying arrangements according to the customers’ demands. It has offered discount prices and other promotions according to the customers’ preferences and offered low pricing at new destinations. Frequent flyer program has provided good benefits and maintain the customers’ price perception. It should develop prestige price for high demand segment.
Promotion
Qantas has used different channels for promotions and branding such as Radio, TV, billboards, and brochures, Internet advertising, magazines, and other sources. The communication messages are used for direct marketing to hit the corporate customer at a personal level. Other social networks, email marketing are also used to improve the company reputation. It needs to use the popular network for promotions such as Yahoo, Facebook, Google, and others.
Place
I have found that Qantas has used different places for ticket sales such as airports counters, retail outlet, the internet, company website, and other travel agencies. The company also has sold the tickets through travel agents and mobiles. It needs to build more direct sales counters and retail outlet should have a better design, ambiance, and colors .
References
Center for Aviation, 2015. Aviation Analysis. [Online] Available at: http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/australia-domestic-airline-market-outlook-qantas-group-reins-in-capacity-as-virgin-continues-growth-218946 [Accessed 11 Aug 2016].
Daniel, T., 2013. QANTAS, VIRGIN Australia Face New Industry Normal. [Online] Available at: http://www.aspireaviation.com/2013/03/06/qantas-virgin-australia-face-new-industry-normal/ [Accessed 11 Aug 2016].
Qantas, 2011. Archives. [Online] Available at: http://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/media-releases/aug-2011/5157/global/en [Accessed 12 Aug 2016].
Qantas, 2011. Qantas Airways Limited. Australia: Qantas.
Qantas, 2012. Broadening our horizons. Australia : Qantas.
Qantas, 2013. The Transformation Continues. Sustainability Review. Qantas Group.
Qantas, 2016. Our Company. [Online] Available at: https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/company/global/en [Accessed 10 Aug 2016].
Rachel, M., 2013. The Long Haul: The QANTAS – Emirates Alliance. Facsimile: Warringal Publications Newtown High School of the Performing Arts.
