Introduction to Organization
A marketing plan is the basic foundation of a business. It helps a business unit to prepare the strategies that will help in the growth of the business. Marketing plan also determines the position of the business in the market and helps in preparing the plan that will result in the overall growth of the business. The real performance of the company is determined and strategies are made, so that there will be an increase in profitability.
Introduction to Organization
Qantas is a famous air company in Australia. It has a largest airline by fleet size. Also, it is the largest airline by international flights. It is the third oldest airline in the world. It was founded in the year 1920 and began its operations internationally in the year 1935. The Qantas flies internationally to 21 destinations and flies domestically to 20 destinations. It also provides the charter flights to Antartica (Qantas Airways Limited, 2017). Qantas is the acronym for Queensland and Northern territorial airways services. It is a Sydney based airline. It also has its subsidiary airlines that are Jetconnect and Jetstar Airways. The Jetconnect provides services between Australia and New Zealand, whereas the Jetstar is a low cost airline which operates on domestic as well as on international routes.
Qantas profit failed in 2012 and was also modest in 2013. The main reason of the failure was the bad marketing strategies as per the reports. They were not flexible for their market plan which resulted in the failure. After that they started to work on their marketing plan and was earning the profits. Therefore, a good marketing plan helps in the growth and success of the business. The new marketing plan for Qantas is prepared for next twelve months.
A marketing analysis helps in determining the dynamism in the market. It basically helps in giving the business plan regarding the operating market. PEST analysis helps in determining the effect of the external environment of the business.
PEST Analysis
The external environment is analyzed with the help of a PEST analysis. It gives the company a whole information regarding the operation condition of the company in the market. The PEST analysis helps in determining the political, economic, social and technological factors that affect the market share of the company.
Political Factor
The political factors mainly include the interference of the government in the business. It also affects the performance of a business. The analysis indicates that airlines has faced government actions across various regions. Government is supportive towards the Qantas. It supports the company for debt guarantee. Also, the government is being supportive in the case of cyclical airline industry. But in some countries of the middle east it has faced difficulties in its operation due to political unrest. But, some countries like China and Israel in has seen the supportive political influence due to their open aviation market in both the countries. The company has also faced government intervene during 2014. The carbon tax was imposed on the company and was 106 million dollar which affected the company financially. The company has to give all its saving in the tax which resulted in the financial crisis (Keung, 2014).
Marketing Analysis
Economic Factor
Economic factors that affected the company was a liberal aviation policy by the Australian government resulted in a decrease in the growth of domestic airlines. The competition has increased and the company suffered economically. Decrease in the oil prices resulted in the profitability of the airlines, but upward volatility in the oil market created a matter of concern of the airline industry. Also, due to the economic crisis in the market the company suffered a lot. The customers travelling was reduced, which resulted in financial recession which leads to the economic crisis.
Social Factors
As the airline is operating in domestic as well as internationally, it has diverse customers. Due to the national level carriers the company enjoys a diverse base of local as well as international customers. The airlines has an influence on Australian life. The airlines is also a big brand symbol for the Australia. Partnerships with various states helped the airlines to create a large customer base and publicity (Rahman, et al., 2015).
Technological Factors
Technological factors affect the company directly. The introduction of new technology helps the company to expand its market share and customer base. The company updates its aircrafts time to time and provide good services to its customers. The company also tries to give comfort to the customers in case of booking with the help of mobile applications and websites. Also, it give online boarding pass to the customers. The company tries to get updated and reach the expectation of the customers. The company is investing in technology and innovation in order to gain success. The customers are provided with Wifi in the flight and it is the first company to give its customers with the I-Pad that is hanging in front of their seats. Therefore, these factors help in increasing the customer base with the help of technology (Gupta, 2013).
Micro analysis helps in analyzing the two main aspects of the business that are competitors and customers. The factors directly affect the company as they are the major building blocks of the company. The competitors are the company that is providing the same product or services to the customers. Customers are the one who is directly related to the growth of the business. The customers should be a priority for any business unit.
Competitors Analysis
The aviation industry is facing a lot of competition nowadays. Each company is trying to occupy the market share in order to gain profits and growth. The main significant competitor to the Qantas airline sis the Virgin Airline. The company is giving a tough competition to the Qantas in case of domestic flights. Both airlines are competing with each other by gaining customer base with the strategy of reducing the price of the airfare (Bergen & Peteraf, 2002). The competition is for the purpose of occupying the market share of each other. The competition across the companies are in the condition that is causing losses to the companies. Also, the international airlines is facing the competition from Air Asia and other airways. Therefore, the plan suggests that in order to gain competitive advantage over the competitors the company should provide added services to the customers. The distinction in the services should be provided so that the customers choose the Qantas over its competitors. The marketing plan should be prepared in order to highlight the differentiation in the marketing and promotion to gain the competitive advantage.
PEST Analysis
The customers are the one who are directly associated with the competitors. The customers should be provided with added services and advantages so that they get attracted towards the company. The customers are directly associated with the success and the failure of the business. To gain competitive advantage the customers of the companies should be satisfied so as the customer base is maintained. Therefore, competitive advantage is also associated with the customers (Czepiel & Kerin, 2013).
The analysis is done to determine the target customers and the segments who can afford the services. The customers are directly associated with the success of the business. Therefore, the analysis is done to determine the target audience. The company should focus on the target customers are provide them with value added services. Also, it should give special discounts to its business class customers who travel regularly in order to maintain its customer base. The customer analysis includes the segmentation, target customers, differentiation and positioning of the brand.
Segmentation
Market segmentation analysis depends on the income of the travelers. In airline industry the airfare is not afforded by each and every class. Therefore, the segmentation is based on the per capita income of the travelers. As, the people with higher income can afford the business class or premium class, whereas the average income holder can afford the economic class. Therefore Qantas is serving both the classes with low fare airlines as well. Therefore, it suggests that the travelers consists of premium class as well as low cost airlines. Thus the segmentation is also made according to the premium and economy class.
Target Customers
The current target customers of the airline industry are increasing as the global economy is raised as compared to earlier. The future prospect with context to the airline industry has good opportunities and growth. Also, an increase in the tourism sector throughout the world has made the airline industry in profit. The target customers of the Qantas are both the price sensitive customers as well as the premium class customers. As the airlines provide the services in both the classes. The company should therefore focus on providing the best services to the customers of low price segment as well as the premium segment to maintain the customer base (Metaxas, 2005).
Positioning
The strategic positioning indicates that Qantas is placed in the top rank among the all airlines in the Australia. It is known for the best air services provided by them and is the third airline in the world. The company is facing losses nowadays due to the non flexibility in the marketing plan as well as the decline of the international market. The new strategies are now implemented in order to maintain its position in the market and to regain its market share. The company should attract more customers in order to increase in profitability. Due to decline in the number of passengers the company is also facing loss in the domestic airline industry. The company should make new strategies for attracting the customers to improve the growth of the company (Lynn, 2011).
Political Factor
Differentiation
Various promotional campaigns was launched by the company in order to promote the airlines. The one of the campaign was price beat the guarantee. It offered the cheaper flights to the customers as compared to the competitors. The differentiation is made to get the customers towards the Qantas. Promotions are also done through online marketing in order to attract the customers so that company can gain profitability. Various differentiation techniques such as promotional offers, online boarding passes is sent to the customers to attract the customer base (Ahmed, 2016).
Analysis of brand can be done with the help of SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis helps in determining the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat to the brand. The company tries to focus on the strength of the brand in the marketing plan and works in the direction of eliminating the weaknesses of the brand.
Strength
- Qantas is a proven trustworthy brand and is the second oldest brand in the domestic market. It is providing services in domestic as well as international segments.
- It is serving worldwide have two subsidiary brand that are Jetconnect and Jetstar.
- Latest aircrafts that are fuel efficient and save the environment.
- Good safety record.
- Serves premium class as well as price sensitive class.
- The tag of safest carrier in the world.
Weakness
- Too much focus on Australia
- High employee retention
- Increase in the losses due to rise in the fuel prices.
- The secondary location of airports is not centralized.
- The price sensitive market is putting the airlines into the losses (Team, 2015).
Opportunity
- Regular flyers have given the advantages of lucrative policies as they earn points which includes the money spent, which covers dining, hotel staying, credit card usage etc.
- The customers are awarded with the points from time to time and the points keep on growing from silver to gold and gold to platinum.
- The new aircraft fleet has been announced to serve more passengers, which will help in creating more opportunities of the employment in Australia.
- The value added services to the business class person so that they can utilize the services of the club. The service will help them with priority check in and some other personal facilities such as access to the launge which are completely business related (EBSCO, 2013).
Threats
- Competitors are the major threats to the airlines
- Due to several industrial actions causing safety check ups, leads to the delay in the flights, result in spoiling of the reputation
- Failure of IT systems causes major losses in sales of the tickets.
- Employees departure to other airlines pose a major threat
- Strikes by the employees result in heavy losses to the company
- Social and political unrest cause delay in flights and sometimes cancellation, which causes the losses.
- Currency fall is also the action of loss to international airlines.
Vision
The main vision of the company is to become the most preferred airline in the world. Its main objective is to become the leading group of airlines in the world. Qantas is living its vision as it is progressing towards becoming the most preferred domestic airlines and is trying to become the most preferred international airlines.
Mission
The main mission of the airlines is to become sustainable to deliver high profits to its stakeholders. Due to past years the company failed to deliver the same to the stakeholder but is trying to work accordingly to deliver its stakeholder the best it can do. Due to losses in the domestic airlines the company was not able to deliver the profits to its stakeholder. But, nowadays the domestic airlines made a surplus profits and are returning the favor to its stakeholders.
Strategic objective
Ethics Position
In order to make the airlines among the top in the world the company has to make good strategies and marketing planning to succeed in the business. It should employ some training programs to the employees so that the marketing principles and strategies can be embedded into the employees (Howarth, 2015). The company also has a responsibility towards limiting the carbon footprint. This can be achieved by using efficient fuel engines as well as efficient fuels so that the responsibility towards the environment should be fulfilled.
This is a set of controllable elements of marketing tools and marketing strategies of a company in combining these elements. A set of marketing mix variables can be controlled by the marketing companies and institutions in their target market. Marketing mix is the strategy that helps the company to complete its objectives and achieve its goals. It helps the companies to highlight the points that are effective in the company for the marketing purpose. It adds the value to the service by making the use of marketing strategies. Marketing mix strategies help in attracting customers by giving them promotional offers, pricing etc. Advertising is done to highlight the promotional offers to attract the customers towards the company. The price, promotion, place and product help in defining the marketing mix to attract the customers. These are also known as 4P’s.
Economic Factor
Product
With an increase in the competition the services planning is given a great importance. The company is working in the direction of improving its services to an extent to gain competitive advantage over the customers. Due to this the profitability of the company is sacrificed. It has given the least importance in order to improve the customer base. The Qantas offers services to premium class, business economy class and economy class. Therefore the services are improved in the way to get more customers attracted towards it to gain the competitive advantage (Gupta, 2013).
Pricing
The company is using cost plus margin as a strategy. The markets having more demand is priced higher and the market with low demand is priced lower. The company is pricing very low in case of low cost airlines. The new destinations are offered with low pricing as the penetrating strategy of the company.
Promotion
The promotion of the company is done with the help of televisions, radio, newspapers, brochures, etc. Also, the promotion is done with the help of websites and emails to the regular customers by giving them promotional discounts as a benefit. Direct marketing is done to its customers. A message is sent to each customer that is being customized as per the customer (Keung, 2014).
Place
The tickets can be done from the direct sales counter as well as the internet. The websites are also used to buy the tickets. The travel sites are also used for buying the tickets. The ticket can be bought from the mobile phones also. Travel agents are also a source for buying tickets.
Conclusion
Qantas is adopting the marketing plan and strategies to improve its market position. These strategies will help the company to improve its market share. These strategies will help Qantas to create a loyal customer base all over the world. Targeting and positional tool will help in focussing on the target customers. Therefore, to make the company to the top level the company has to adopt flexible marketing strategies which will help the company to grow and increase the profitability.
References
Ahmed, M., 2016. Qantas positioning with individual/household and business customers…: World traffic growth forecast by Airbus Industries, Available at:
https://www.academia.edu/8031005/Qantas_positioning_with_individual_household_and_business_customers_World_traffic_growth_forecast_by_Airbus_Industries
Bergen, M. & Peteraf, A., 2002. Competitor Identification and Competitor Analysis: A Broad-Based Managerial Approach. Managerial and Decision Economincs journal, Volume 23, p. 157–169.
Czepiel, J. & Kerin, R., 2013. Competitor analysis, Available at:
https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~jczepiel/Publications/CompetitorAnalysis.pdf
EBSCO, 2013. Qantas Airways Limited SWOT Analysis, Available at:
https://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/86062031/qantas-airways-limited-swot-analysis
Gupta, A., 2013. Environment & PEST Analysis: An Approach to External Business Environment. International Journal of Modern Social Sciences, 2(1), pp. 34-43.
Howarth, T., 2015. QANTAS Domestic, Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/ThomasHowarth1/qantas-domestic
Keung, J., 2014. Formulation of a Systemic PEST Analysis for Strategic Analysis.
European academic research, August, 2(5), pp. 1-15.
Lynn, M., 2011. Segmenting and Targeting Your Market: Strategies and Limitations. pp. 1-14, Available at: https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=articles
Metaxas, T., 2005. Market research and target market segmentation in place marketing procedure, Available at: https://www.prd.uth.gr/uploads/discussion_papers/2005/uth-prd-dp-2005-03_en.pdf
Qantas Airways Limited, 2017. Qantas Airways website. [Online]
Available at: https://www.qantas.com/us/en.html
Rahman, K., Azad, S. & Mostari, S., 2015. A Competitive Analysis of Airline Industry. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), April, 17(4), pp. 23-33.
Team, U., 2015. A market analysis of Qantas Airways Limited, Available at:
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/a-market-analysis-of-qantas-airways-limited-marketing-essay.php
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