Quantas Airlines- Models and Material in Pride Etal: Marketing Plan Assignment Solution

Marketing Plan Assignment

Task

Using the supplied Marketing Plan template (see Interact) and after reflecting on the models and material in Pride etal (and other sources ), develop a concise Marketing Plan for a new product or service your organisation might launch (or an organisation you aspire to develop a plan for). The plan is aimed at key decision makers.

Using the template, ensure you include organisational vision and mission and a SWOT to set the scene. Based on this choose a specific and well identified target market (be extremely focused in this) and develop goals for the target market.

Based on the goals you need to achieve with the target market, develop a comprehensive marketing mix utilising the 7 P's (Product/Service, Price/Value, Place/Distribution, People, Process, Physical Evidence and Promotion or communication plan) to communicate ONLY to the identified target market. For the purposes of this report please feel free to make whatever assumptions you need under the financials/budget heading to make the report complete.

The report needs to include a risk matrix, a brief internal marking action plan and how the plan will be

evaluated.

This Marketing Plan can be presented as a traditional well sign-posted report or in a format that might suit

your specific organisational context.

This plan should be something that you'd be happy to present inside your organisation or as a 90 day plan for a new position that you might be going for.

More detail supplied in our 3rd Adobe Connect online meeting

Marketing Plan

Introduction

Marketing strategy is a manner in which individuals, groups and organizations form a process that helps people to fulfill their requirements. Organizations strive to extend their outreach to markets by recognizing value to their commodities, communicate and deliver them to potential buyers (Smith et al. 2015). Scholars further argue that a strategic marketing plan is solely aimed to achieve competitive edge and this is conducted by establishing a marketing plan and developing, defending and maintaining the plan for continued organizational success (McDonald, 2006).

Qantas Airlines was incorporated in the year 1920 in Queensland and has over the years grown to become one of the largest international and domestic carriers in Australia. The airline was originally registered by the name Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited (QANTAS), and has got worldwide acclaim as a leading airline that caters to long distance travel. Moreover, Qantas has grown to become the strongest brands in the airline industry in Australia. The airline, over the years, has developed a reputation for providing excellent services in customer service, maintenance and engineering, operational reliability and safety. Qantas mainly transports customer by using the complementary brands named Jetstar and Qantas. Furthermore, the airline also has subsidiary business establishments in particular markets lime Q Catering and tie ups with other airlines (Qantas, 2016).

Mission and vision statements

The Qantas airline vision is to operate the best premium airline across the globe by means of “Qantas” and grow to be the best low cost airline across the globe “Jetstar” (Qantas, 2016).

The mission statement of the airline aims to meet customer expectations centered on flying and hence the airline will consistently invest in its business establishments by trying to provide to its customers an exceptional service level (Qantas, 2016).

Qantas short and long term objectives

The objectives of Qantas are as follows:

• Safety being the foremost priority – the airline is committed to maintaining and delivering the best practices in safety
• Right aircraft, right routes – renewal of fleet to optimize on fleets flying through optimal network of routes
• Excellence in customer service
• Effectiveness in operations
• Two complementary brands – Qantas and Jetstar to act as excellent premium and low fare brands (Qantas, 2016).



Qantas – Corporate goals and objectives

Objectives and goals are the fundamentals of marketing strategy of an organization. They help in measuring the outcomes of organizational performance. Corporate goals are the statements that aim to define outcomes of what an organization strives to accomplish both organizationally and programmatically. Goals are a bunch of relevant programs that aim to reflect significant tasks of the firm and offer opportunities for discourse among supervisors and management experts Objectives, on the other hand, are to the point, based on strict time schedules and can be measured. Hence, objectives help in supporting goal completion. Objectives are typically directly associated to a goal. They are concise, clear and can be understood easily. They are devised keeping in mind the aspired outcomes and always commence with an action element. They have a target date for completion and can be physically measured. The diverse departments of an organization have diverse objectives that are aligned to the organizational goals and hence in tracking and measuring (MacDonald, 2006). Strategic marketing plans help in aligning the corporate objectives and goals of an organization. The common method to strategic market planning involved in the linear and formal construction of integrated and broad decisions that centered on the market place, the product or service, the operational environment of the organization and its competitors (Day, 2006).

Qantas has now developed certain corporate goals that aim to enhance its presence in the global airline and travel market. These goals are enlisted below:

• The airline aspires to foray into global airline and travel market
• It wishes to spread its wings into Asia
• It aims to create a viable and strong business enterprise
• It aims to bring about excellence in airline and travel solutions to its global travelers (Qantas, 2011).

Qantas aims to optimize its revenue both in the current situation as well as a long term plan. Its objective is to provide satisfactory returns to relevant shareholders and at the same time garner adequate revenue to fund growth in future by expanding its business.

The marketing objectives of Qantas include the following

1. The airline aims to develop a new brand campaign
2. It has taken insights of customers and is currently leading proposition to reconnect emotionally with customers aiming to travel to the Middle East or via Middle East to Europe and the United Kingdom
3. Accelerated sale of tickets for those opting to use the Qantas – Emirates alliance
4. Striving for augmented share of the market in the airline segment by foraying into the Middle East and Europe market (Qantas, 2015)

SWOT analysis

One of the most common strategic marketing tools is the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. Conducting this analysis helps companies to recognize the external and internal influences that lead to the creation of challenges for firms (Lee, Kozlenkova & Palmatier, 2015). At the same time, an organization is able to determine its opportunities and strengths by conducting the SWOT analysis. The below section will examine in detail the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Qantas airlines.

Strengths

• Strong customer service and people management
• The company has recently entered into an alliance with Emirates airlines (Qantas, 2016)
• Employing integrated marketing communication approach for promoting Qantas Emirates alliance
• Move to provide advanced customer check in techniques for customers flying on the Qantas Emirates alliance routes

Weaknesses

• High expenses
• Inconsistent offering of its products to Middle East and Europe
• The current performance of Qantas in the international arena is poor as compared with other global aviation giants

Opportunities

• The ASEAN Open Skies agreement will soon come into effect
• Entering into alliances with competitor airlines like Emirates

Threats

• High prices of fuel
• Preferences of business travelers have altered as they are switching over to alternative routes and schedules stemming through the Middle East to reach London and other cities in Europe
• Increased competition from Middle East
• Economic uncertainty in both domestic and international economy (Mules, 2013)

Target market

The target market forms a specific group of customers for whom the service or the product is aimed. The airline has used behavioral segmentation to select its target market. The target audiences of the airline will be those travelers who are aiming to travel to the Middle East and Europe by using the Qantas – Emirates alliance.

Target market objectives

The target market objectives of Qantas are as follows:



Corporate objectives

The airline aims to maximize revenue on sale of tickets on the Qantas – Emirates alliance routes and attain the 65% profit maximization

Marketing objectives

Enhanced ticket sale up to 75 percent for customers travelling by the Qantas – Emirates alliance routes

Marketing strategies

Achieve excellence in providing safety standards and achieving world class comfort levels to passengers travelling by the Qantas – Emirates routes.

Marketing tactics

• Conduct customer market surveys and obtain insights from business class customers traveling to Middle East or traveling via Middle East to reach Europe and the United Kingdom
• Augmented customer focus by opting for a data driven marketing technique

Marketing mix

The 7 Ps of marketing mix consists of the product, price, place, people, process, physical evidence and promotion.

Product – Qantas has emphasized on positioning its products to gain competitive edge. The Qantas – Emirates alliance has helped the airline to foray into the Middle East market and specifically target customers who prefer to travel to Europe and the United Kingdom via Middle East. It will use its strong branding across Australia as well as the globe to promote its alliance with Emirates. At the same time, it will also leverage on the global brand of Emirates airlines.

Price – entering into a strategic alliance with Emirates has helped Qantas to offer competitive prices to passengers willing to travel to and from Australia to Middle East or via Middle East into Europe and the United Kingdom. This is mainly because airlines like Emirates have government backing and are able to offer competitive prices despite high fuel price as compared with airlines originating from Australia and Europe. Previously, Qantas was struggling to regain its revenues due to diminished passenger travel as a result of high ticket prices. The high fuel price situation may be considerably mitigated by the strategic partnership drawn with Emirates. This will further help the airline to provide competitive ticket fares to customers flying on Qantas to Middle East or via Middle East to Europe and the United Kingdom.

Place – Qantas was previously limited to catering only limited routes and having lesser network as compared with other global carriers. After entering into a strategic partnership with Emirates, the airline will be able to target an increased audience and at the same time offer more choice of routes and networks to its dedicated customers. Its foray into the Asian market and further enhancement into the European market will help in attracting more ticket sales. The alliance will help Qantas to leverage on the Dubai hub to widen its networks into several European cities (Bartholomeusz, 2013). Quantas will help in promoting its new service into the Middle East and via the Middle East to European destinations by means of Qantas Travel Centers. Sale of tickets will be distributed by using cost effective techniques including ticket sales by means of online booking through the internet and mobile, telephone sale centers and airline counters (Qantas, 2011).

People – Qantas has helped in establishing a greater target group of passengers by entering into an alliance with Emirates. Accordingly, it will provide training and mentoring to individuals aiming to augment ticket sale of customers opting to use Qantas to travel to Middle East and Europe. Its target customers include all those who wish to fly to Middle East or fly via Middle East into European cities and the United Kingdom. Customers travelling by business class and opting to fly into Dubai or via Dubai to European cities will be offered complimentary pick up and drop by Qantas. Accordingly, chauffer driven cars will be provided and chauffeurs recruited by the airline will be imparted training on soft skills for enhanced customer service and interaction (Day, 2006).

This will help in targeting more business class customers as well as leveraging on the Emirates hub (Qantas, 2014).

Process – Qantas will use integrated customer management technology in order to drive accelerated ticket sale for people aspiring to travel to the Middle East or via the Middle East to Europe and the United Kingdom. It will emphasize on a customer focused strategy by aiming to target business customers (Ardley, 2011). Survey and questionnaires will be conducted to determine customer preferences for travel to Europe and the Middle East by using the Qantas – Emirates route. The airline also aims to conduct an exclusive survey of its frequent flying members to determine their preferences for opting to travel by Qantas for Middle East nd into Europe. Furthermore, the airline aims to provide special incentives to its frequent flyers opting to travel to Middle East or Europe by means of Qantas (Qantas, 2011).

Physical evidence – the airline will aim to provide superior flight experience to all customers opting to travel to the Middle East and Europe by Qantas. It aims to consistently use integrated marketing communications in order to create customer awareness about this new alliance and its new service offering. This will be done by highlighting the capabilities, resources and skills required to fulfill customer needs and by forecasting the expected consequence that will help in benefitting its customers (Williams, 2008).

Promotion and communication – Qantas aims to promote its new service offering by rigorous advertising and promotion campaigns. It aims to opt for an integrated marketing communication strategy for promoting and creating customer awareness (Ingenhoff & Fuhrer, 2010). Furthermore integrated marketing will be conducted by means of social networking and online marketing through websites. Other than that the airline is aiming to publish several newsletters highlighting its new service to the Middle East and Europe.

Planning, implementation and evaluation

The final step of a marketing plan is to plan, implement and evaluate the plan. It is essential for organizations to plan, implement and review the plan to find out its success. A market plan must be substantiated by means of surveys, questionnaires, feedback and suggestions from potential customers. It helps in understanding the target market and facilitate the formulation of marketing objectives that needs to be achieved in the implementation stage.

Qantas will use integrated marketing communication techniques for implementing its marketing strategy. By using integrated marketing communication approach, the airline helps in developing a seamless and unified customer experience for brand interaction. All aspects of marketing communication including social media, direct marketing, public relations, sales promotions and advertising are blended by having a mix of activities, media, channels, methods and tactics (Bamber, 2011). This will aim to extensively market its new service into the Middle East and European cities by means of online advertisements, newsletters and social media campaigns. It will also use Webcasting as a means of communication by airing prior recorded videos on the Internet. Webcasting helps in the delivery of timely information to potential target audience by extending significant business related data. Overall, the airline has decided to holistically approach by using integrated marketing communications to ensure that more and more customer choose to fly by Qantas to destinations in Europe via the Dubai hub of Emirates.