Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CHAPTER 4
2. Situational Analysis
Swot Analysis of Qantas
Strengths:
Extensive network / part of the One world alliance
Excellent airport locations and facilities
Globally recognised brand name and logo
Excellent safety record probably the best in the world (not one death
on a Qantas flight)
Operational excellence: Qantas has twice won the Cumberbatch trophy
for engineering excellence.
Weaknesses:
Speculation that British airways will quit its $1.3 billion stake in
Qantas.
Higher labour and other operating costs than its competitors
An ongoing disputes between Qantas management and militant
unions
Opportunities:
For its new international budget brand, Australian Airlines
Taking advantage from the Ansett collapse by hiring new staff,
expanding routes and purchasing / leasing more aircraft
Developing further E-commerce operations
Threats:
Strategies of its main competitors especially Singapore Airlines and Air
New Zealand (international) and Virgin Blue (domestic)
Increase in government regulations to protect its smaller rivals
Rising fuel costs
Further fall in Australian dollar
Further weakening in the international market / economy
Being a public company listed on the ASX, Qantass main marketing objective
is profit, both in the current and long-term periods. Its goal is to provide a
satisfactory return to shareholders and to generate enough profit in reserve to
fund growth and the gaining of new aircraft.
Growth / new routes, and corporate size as there are cost advantages
in being bigger
4. Marketing Strategies
Market Segmentation and Selection of the Target Market
Better meet the needs of all its customers, to compete more effectively
and to attain financial goals more readily
Better tune the marketing mix to particular groups in the market, so
the product can be refined, prices set, place of sale determined and
promotion better focused for each market segment. EG: Economy,
Business and First Class travellers.
However, there are many reasons for travelling either business or leisure.
The business segment is broken down even further into routine business
(normal point to point business travel), conferences / seminars and
emergency business which reflects passenger needs and benefits sought.
The leisure segment is broken down into holiday (inclusive of tour segment,
multi-destination touring segment and weekender segment) and visiting
friends a relatives.
(i) Product
As the airline industry has become much more competitive, airlines like
Qantas have focussed on product planning. Qantas designs products to
attract and hold customers from a particular market segment and to do so
profitably.
The generic products of Qantas are the provisions of a seat (passenger) or
a container (freight).
Qantas enhances its basic product by having the best connecting airline
on a preferred basis with its One World alliance.
The Qantas Frequent Flyer Scheme (FFS) with more than 2.6 million
members and over 100 programme partners is used by Qantas to
retain customers, increase market share and fill otherwise empty
seats. The Qantas FFS also provides a large database of specific
customer information thereby providing additional valuable direct
marketing opportunities.
Qantas freight has recently launched two new Internet tracking facilities:
follow me tracking that enables customers to receive regular status updates
on their freight shipments. Secondly City to City tracking Which enables
customers to receive automatic status updates on a pre-defined group of
airway bills nominated by the user.
(ii) Price
Price is the crucial element in any marketing plan. Price is the variable, which
can be changed quickly and as often as required. In the past prices were
regulated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and two
Airlines Agreement which had a formula for all fares based on flag fall and
distance.
Price penetration: Qantas will use such a strategy for its new
low cost Asian Airline to be launched this year as Australian
Airlines. Qantas will initially charge the lowest possible price
for this service.
Loss leading: Qantas in the past has entered new routes and
introduced low fares to gain initial market share.
(iii) Promotion
(iv) Place
The product must be easy to border the purchase, no matter how good the
product, the selling will be controlled. Distribution to end customers is
achieved by Qantas in two main ways, direct and indirect: