Jet Star Airways Marketing Mix Strategies

Jet Star airways was established in the year 2003 by its parent company Qantas Airways. The most favoured destinations of the airlines include Asia Pacific, New Zealand and Australia with approximately a total run of around 4000 flights in seventy five different destinations (Jetstar Airways, n.d.). It means the domestic individuals of Australia and the mentioned destinations are the key individuals who are the regular customers of the airlines and are also contended with the services of the organisation. The results and the analysis suggested that in past few years there has been found a change in the preferences of the customers and so the percentage of travellers has reduced. There has also been analysed that there is a shift in the customers to other competitive airlines have forces the airlines to work upon the strategies and improve the marketing mix. The services of ten airlines are affordable in nature and this offers a competitive benefit to the customers. The target market for the airlines are the business travellers and the leisure travellers as they are the ones which takes use of the airlines at the major segment (Kollmorgen, 2017). 

The target market will reorganize the leisure customers and the business travellers as both the categories hold the maximum percentage of the customer base and also possess higher disposal le income in comparison with eth female individuals or the youngsters. It has been analysed that the target customers are more likely to use the modern technology and this means that they are more likely to have a communication through emails and the modern communication channels rather than the traditional methods. Furthermore, the leisure travellers and the business travellers are comparatively more active and are more likely to respond back or can be fascinated through these channels (Jetstar Airways, 2017).

Jet Star airways benefitted itself through the leadership position of Qantas in the airlines industry as Qantas holds a strong market share and launching under such powerful brand offer high benefits for fetching the attention of the masses.  In earlier stage the airlines was costly but it didn’t worked for Jet star. And thus the airways established it as low cost airlines targeting eth middle income travellers. The primary customers who are targeted comprises of the one who look for cheap fare flights (Acehsc, 2014).

Figure 1 – Perceptual Map Jet Star airways

The product or the service offered by Jet Star airways is the flights destinations which is comparatively low cost. The product is also a bundle of various attributes designed by Jet Star airways in order to satisfy the needs of the customers. Such as the following:

Marketing Mix Strategies

Scheduling features

It comprises of the aircraft type, number of direct flights and stops, time of arrival or departure and the route frequency. Being one of the subsidiaries of a strong brand, there is extensive national coverage. There are also provided express services under which there are more flights in peak season (Wang, Leou and Li, 2016). Jet Star flies from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to the various leisure destinations of Australia for example Cairns and Tasmania, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast. There are also international flights of Jet Star International which flies to destinations including the Pacific and Asia (Domestic Aviation Activity, 2017).

Comfort based features

It includes components such as seat width, in-flight entertainment and in-flight drinks and meals. The food menu of Jet Star has been inspired by recognized chefs. The flights have being configured in new premium economy class, business class, economy class and first class.  There are LCD screen, self service bars, bed facility, USB and laptop ports, and access to webmail, small lounge and other various services which are offered to the passengers (Krishnan and Malick, 2015). The airline spends millions in the up-gradation and improvement of the flights. To offer the customers a seamless experience there are also provided new generation check in system, mobile check, electronic bag drops, automated bag drops and chip enabled rapid flyer card (Beaumont, 2007).

Brand Name

Qantas is one of the most renowned and leading brands of Australia and therefore for Jet Star it is a key marketing tool. The brand name and its high visibility and recognition support the growth of Jet Star. If anything good will get associated with the brand name then it will benefit Jet Star in terms of increased number of travellers (Whyte and Lohmann, 2015). To make the brand strong, it is also necessary that Jet Star must associate itself with branding campaign. And the services of the airlines must also mesh up for fetching the attention of the new ones and retaining the old ones (Holloway, 2017). There is a need that at least twenty five new Boeing and Airbus aircrafts are required for serving the customer with more rapid and excellent services so that customers can enjoy more privacy. There is also required to have lower number of seats in the rows and as a result higher leg-space and maximum pushback. Other things which should be included are larger washrooms, customization of the meals, no flight delays, luggage loss (Cheaponana, 2014).

Product/Service

Table 1. Product attributes

The pricing strategy of Jet star is low cost so that it can provide the travellers with lowest price possible and is justified by the fact that there are individuals who primarily compare the benefits on the basis of prices or cost charged for the services. There will be different fares such as full fares which will benefit the business travellers in terms of refund; promotional fares; loss leading, etc. (Whyte and Prideaux, 2007).

Table2. Fares at Jet Star airways and competitors

(Source: Cheaponana, 2014)

As shown in Table 2, Air Asia and Tiger Air are the two competitors who also offer their services at low cost but in comparison with Jet Star airways both charge a little high. Jet Star does not charge any kind of booking or service fee whereas both the competitors charge certain amount of fee as booking fee (Gross and Lück, 2011). In order to have improve brand visibility of the brand there must also be offered additional benefits to the travellers such as there must be an option of complete refund for the business travellers as well as at the time of instant flight booking, there should some special offers and discounts available only for those flyers. Jet star must also remain on it its loss leading strategy by introducing more low fares for capturing the market share and attaining a number of competitive benefits (Tretheway and Kincaid, 2005).

Promotion is the way by which Jet Star communicates its services and its image to the travellers. The promotional strategies of the marketing mix of Jet Star comprises of the following:

Advertising and Media

Jet Star take use of the advertising agencies for creating media advertisements for radio, television, brochures, newspapers, magazines, billboards and posters in travel agents. Jet Star takes much use of television advertising starring celebrities for fetching the attention of its customers once again, the airline took sue of campaigns and other direct advertising. In order to reach the target customers, there will be elaborated customer profile (Ashwini Nand, Singh and Power, 2013). The leisure travellers and the business travellers tend to have regular visits to various different destinations, thus they are more exposed to eth media advertisements too and are also much engaged with social media (Snyder and Pham, 2014). These people watch video content on social media and so the campaigns of Jet Star airways will be focusing on the video advertising on these social media sites. The budget approximately AUD300, 000 will be used for the advertisements comprising of magazines, billboards, radio, television, etc. By having strong advertisements on the online media, there will be effective reach to the target audience (Graham and Vowles, 2006).

Brand Name

The table shows the media schedule of Jet Star airways for the period of twelve months and will initiate from the month of February 2018. There will also be used the radio advertisements for next twelve months as it a very cheap and .low cost advertisement. For reaching teh target audience radio is an efficient advertising tool (GRADE, n.d.). The billboards which will be used will depict the message for the initial two months for reaching the highest set of travellers or the target audience and then will have repeat implementation in the month of May, until the campaign ends. In respect with the magazines, once there will launched the Jet star premium flights, it will be published at the cover as well as the last page of the magazines (Chan, 2014). There will be double spread exposure for March month. In April, there will be double page magazine publishing with complete information regarding the flights and also few interviews with the travellers (Charoensettasilp and Wu, 2014). There will also be allocated some part of the budget for the online media and advertising as it is also one of the major tools for fetching the attention of the audiences (Lim and Mohayidin, 2011).

Table 3. Jet Star media schedule for next 12 months

The sales promotion will be executed at the beginning of February when the premium flights will be launched for encouraging the number of travellers in first few months. There will be mainly two types of sales promotion that will include the psychological promotion and the price deal promotion (Wittmer and Beritelli, 2011). In the psychological promotion there will be offered a fixed percentage of discounts on the tickets and in the price deal promotion there will be offered two-for-one ticket sale where the person who is second traveller will be allowed to travel on the respective cost of charges and taxes. Such sale promotion will encourage the target audiences to travel by Jet Star airways and have additional benefits (Whyte, n.d.).

Public Relations/Publicity

For building strong association among the airlines and the travellers, there will be a vital role of public relations. With the help of the campaigns and the social services, there will be enhanced brand visibility of the airlines (Roberts, et al., 2012). The airline will also donate a percentage of its profits for the social benefit of the community as a part of its cause-related marketing strategy so that there can be improve d public relations. This will be taking place for the period of two months i.e. February and March. Moreover, it is estimated that with such a sound promotion marketing mix there will be an increase of seven percent in the number of bookings at the end of twelve months (Mules, 2013).

Price

The product or the service must be easy to purchase or interface, otherwise it does not matter how good the product is, and selling will be restricted. The distribution to the customers is attained by Jet Star in two particular ways i.e. indirect and the direct:

Direct (direct to the customers)

It comprises of the direct sales i.e. through the retail outlets. Jet Star has a network of travel centres. There are airport ticket sales, telephone sales centres and also the internet has been considered as one of the most emerging distribution channel for Jet Star as the internet booking is growing day by day. There is leisure travelled booked by Jet Star of both eth international as well as the domestic bookings. The 90 percent of the tickets of Jet Star are selling through online portal only (De Boer, 2017).

Indirect (use of intermediaries)

The indirect way comprises of the travel agents as Jet Star has a strong relationship with various retail agencies including Flight Centre, Community Travel etc. Jet Star being a brand of Qantas is selective in respect with the intermediaries who sell the tickets as it only works with the responsible and financially strong ones. The marketing immediacies carry pout the bookings and sale of tickets for Jet Star but do not possess any control on the key distribution. There are given commissions to these intermediaries for their sales (Jackson and Ahuja, 2016).

For having effective evaluation and control in respect with the performance of the product or service in the market, Jet Star airways will take use of particularly three most effective evaluation approaches i.e. Competitor response method, customer response method and Return on Investment method. The ROI will be calculated on the total sales of the tickets in the Australian dollars, the competitor response will be calculated whether the competitors are also taking use of the similar strategies and in order to calculate customer response there will be used the feedback collection method (Fernando, 2012). There will be developed a cognitive plan which will be taking place simultaneously with the controlling process for increasing the sales. If there will not be attained an increase in the two months of the plan then there will be more focus upon the advertising and marketing activities. And if the feedbacks of the travellers will be negative then there will be more focus upon the satisfaction of the travellers by having communication with them. And if there will be implemented similar strategies by the competitors then Jet Star would diminish its process to beat the competitors (Pakandlová, 2016).

Promotion

Table 4. Evaluation methods

Table 5. Gantt chart Jet Star airways

Conclusions

Qantas is they market leader in eth airline industry in Australia and Jet Star airways is one of the sub-brands of Qantas which also has a strong customer base. But with the increased market competition and continuously improving services offered by the other airlines, there is a need for Jet Star to improve its services and have strong customer base to sustain in the market. However, it has been seen and analysed that the leisure travellers as well as the business travellers are comfortable with changes and thus it is an opportunity with Jet Star airways to enhance its sales by targeting the particular audience through innovative and improved services. By offering the travellers with premium services at the aim of keeping the prices as low as possible, Jet Star airways can fetch the attention of the target customers. By strengthening the services and increasing the presence at various channels, it can be benefitted both for the travellers as well as the airlines. The improved and strong marketing mix will support the brad visibility of Jet Star and retaining the customers with the brand. From the analysis and positioning, it can be concluded that Jet Star offers much valuable services to its travellers in comparison with its competitors such as Air Asia, Tiger Air, etc.

Following a successful campaign and from the overall report, there can be recommended two main things to Jet Star airways for maintaining the success and growth in the international as well as the domestic market. Firstly, kit is recommended that Jet Star must continue with its low cost strategy so that even if the competitors copy a similar marketing or strategic fit, then too the company can benefit itself with its low prices. It is recommended to keep high emphasis on the advertising and marketing as it is the major source of fetching the attention of the potential customers. The higher and effective the advertisements would be, the greater would be the chances for growth.

Reference List

Acehsc, (2014). Qantas Business Case Study, Pp.17. Retrieved on: 28th January, 2018, Retrieved from: https://www.acehsc.net/wp-content/uploads/Business_Studies_Resources_-_Qantas_Marketing.PDF 

Ashwini Nand, A., Singh, P. J., & Power, D. (2013). Testing an integrated model of operations capabilities: an empirical study of Australian airlines. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 33(7), 887-911.

Beaumont, P. B. (2007). Blending Old and New: How Low-Cost and Legacy Carriers Are Reshaping the Airline Industry. LERA For Libraries.

Chan, J. K. L. (2014). Understanding the meaning of low airfare and satisfaction among leisure air travellers using Malaysian low-cost airlines. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 20(3), 211-223.

Charoensettasilp, S., & Wu, C. (2014). Thai consumer’s expectations and satisfaction of services obtained from domestic low-cost airlines. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(1), 1-9.

Cheaponana, (2014). Comparison of budget airlines in Singapore and how to get the best deal for your budget travel, Retrieved on: 28th January, 2018, Retrieved from: https://www.cheaponana.com/2014/05/comparison-of-budget-airlines-in-singapore/ 

De Boer, E. R. (2017). Strategy in Airline Loyalty: Frequent Flyer Programs. Springer.

Domestic aviation activity. (2017). Retrieved on: 28^th January, 2018,  Retrieved from: https://bitre.gov.au/statistics/aviation/domestic.aspx

Fernando, Y. (2012). Impact of Internal Marketing on Operational Performance: An Empirical Study in Low Cost Carrier Industry. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 65, 913-918.

GRADE, G. B. Jetstar Marketing Strategies.

Graham, B., & Vowles, T. M. (2006). Carriers within Carriers: A Strategic Response to Low?cost Airline Competition. Transport Reviews, 26(1), 105-126.

Gross, S., & Lück, M. (2011). Flying for a buck or two: Low-cost carriers in Australia and New Zealand.

Holloway, S. (2017). Airlines: Managing to make money. Routledge.

Jackson, G., & Ahuja, V. (2016). Dawn of the digital age and the evolution of the marketing mix. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 17(3), 170-186.

Jetstar Airways. (2017). Retrieved on: 28^th January, 2018, Retrieved from: https://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/jetstar-airways/

Kollmorgen, a. (2017). Not so friendly skies. Retrieved on: 28^th January, 2018, Retrieved from: https://www.choice.com.au/travel/on-holidays/airlines/articles/airline-satisfaction-survey#Results

Krishnan, J. J., & Malick, T. V. (2015). A Study on Marketing Services. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research (IJEMR), 5(6), 421-423.

Lim, S. P., & Mohayidin, M. G. B. (2011). The Sustainability of Low Cost Airlines in Malaysia. World Business Research, Australia, 4(9).

Mules, R. (2013). The long haul: The QANTAS-Emirates Alliance. Busidate, 21(3), 2.

Pakandlová, A. (2016). Intercultural Aspects of Airline Marketing.

Roberts, J., Danaher, P., Roberts, K., & Simpson, A. (2012). Jetstar Airways: How Modeling Guided the Brand Migration Strategy of a Low-Cost Carrier. GfK Marketing Intelligence Review, 4(2), 42-51.

Snyder, D. J., & Pham, A. (2014). Customer satisfaction at low cost airlines: a case study of Jetstar Pacific Airlines (JPA). In The Clute Institute International Academic Conference (pp. 254-265).

Tretheway, M. W., & Kincaid, I. S. (2005). The effect of market structure on airline prices: A review of empirical results. J. Air L. & Com., 70, 467.

Wang, X., Leou, C. H., & Li, J. (2016). A Study of Tourism Satisfaction and Destination Image for Leisure Travelers Who Use Macau Low-Cost Carriers. International Journal of Business Administration, 7(5), 1.

Whyte, R. The carrier-within-a-carrier strategy: An analysis of Jetstar. Management, 42, 141-148.

Whyte, R., & Lohmann, G. (2015). The carrier-within-a-carrier strategy: An analysis of Jetstar. Journal of Air Transport Management, 42, 141-148.

Whyte, R., & Prideaux, B. (2007). Impacts of low cost carriers on regional tourism.

Wittmer, A., & Beritelli, P. (2011). Comparing Airline Network Structures: The Case of Australia. In CAUTHE 2011: National Conference: Tourism: Creating a Brilliant Blend (p. 1384). University of South Australia. School of Management.

Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:

Turnitin Report

Formatting

Title Page

Citation

Outline

Place an Order