Qantas's Marketing Plan And Strategies example essay topic

About Qantas In 1920, Qantas was founded in the Queensland outback as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service, hence the acronym QANTAS was formed. The company began its work with an aircraft designed to provide air taxi services and also joy rides. In 1922 it began regular scheduled mail and passenger services, where it began carrying airmail. In 1934, Qantas and Imperial Airways formed Qantas Empire Airways. In 1938, Qantas moved its head quarters to Sydney.

1947 was the year that Qantas was first national ised when it was purchased by the Commonwealth Government. Qantas is a business performing very well. Qantas still remains once of the most stable and profitable airlines in the world, having announced a record $352 million interim net profit for the half year to December 31. Today, Qantas is considered as the world's leading long distance airline and one of the strongest brands in Australia. Qantas is the world's eleventh largest airline and is the world's second oldest. Business classification Every company or business can be classified using the following guidelines: The size, its legal structure, its industry sector, and its prime function.

Qantas can be classified as a large company. The reason it can be classified as a large company is because it is said that Qantas is the 3rd largest public company in the world according to the information collected by! SS the age!" newspaper. A large company involves stakeholders and is a profitable company and is a company that employs more than 200 people.

Qantas can be classified as a public company because it is listed on the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange). A public company is one in which the shares are offered to the public for sale. Public companies must have a minimum of 5 shareholders but there is no upper limit. Public companies therefore tend to be quite large with the advantage that they can attract a large amount of capital through the open sale of shares. In public companies the liability is limited, hence! yen Ltd! |.

Qantas is tertiary when it comes to the classification of its industry sector. The tertiary sector is made up of all those industries that provide services. This sector either distributes manufactured goods to customers or provides services! V products that are not physical goods. Tertiary is the processing or transfer of matter and / or energy, e.g. moving people, maintaining their bodies, heating and cooling them. It basically involves the provision of services to other businesses or people.

Services may involve the transport, distribution and sale of goods from producer to a consumer as may happen in wholesaling and retailing, or may involve the provision of a service, such as in tourism or entertainment. The prime function the Qantas is tourism, taking people across to different countries all over the world with comfort, hospitality and as much safety as possible to keep the customers satisfied. Their prime function is to meet the needs of customers while they are on the journey with domestic or world-wide flights. Recent developments, recent achievements and recent performance Some recent developments for Qantas, they include: "lb Purchasing of 31 new air crafts as a part of it's long term fleet plan (13 airbus A 330-200 and A 330-300 for growth on domestic routes, 6 Boeing Longer Range 747-400 aircraft to handle growth on international long haul routes and 12 Airbus A 380 to meet passenger growth.) "lb Gradually installing a new $300 million total in-flight entertainment system. which propose 12 different channels, the screening of new release movies and TV. Programs, video games, and 16 audio channels. "lb Introduction of Australian Domestic Economy meals, stressing the importance of fresher, modern and enjoyable meals. "lb New Qantas City Flyer service which offers flights every half hour. "lb A new chauffeurs service called! yenQantas Drive! | "lb Enhanced! yenQantas Valet! | giving valet customers, access to a variety of services intended as being a time saver. Qantas has achieved many things through its life.

Its very first achievement was in 1958 where it led the way around the world service with two super constellations circumnavigating the globe in opposite directions. Qantas is also well known for the first airline to introduce Business class. Qantas has also achieved the status of being the only airline to ever win the Cumber batch trophy two times. Qantas received the name! yen Airline of the year! | in 1996 for providing outstanding service to the public, always performing in a productive way, introducing new technology to the aviation industry and creating ground-breaking new markets and services. Qantas had increased its net profit before tax by 15% at one stage from June 1999 to June 2000. Operating profit prior to abnormals and tax also rose by 17.2%.

Net profit after tax was higher than in 1999 by 23%. Revenue increased by 8%. Qantas's recent performance amongst others in the industry is still very high. However, when the performance is compared to previous years it is not doing so well. Some of the negatives include a 12% slash off their share price and their need for staff cuts. Its shares are plunging to their lowest since September 2001.

The reasons for these recent declining in performance are due to the external factors such as the war on Iraq and the SARS epidemic arising. Recent changes to management structure Between 1947 and 1995, Qantas's management structure evolved from its ownership by the Commonwealth Government. Qantas used have a Classical-scientific management structure. The classical-scientific structure involves a strict hierarchical organisational structure, clear lines of communication and responsibility, jobs broken down into simple tasks, rules and procedures, impersonal evaluation of employment performance to avoid favoritism and bias, and formal record keeping. In 1991 the domestic airline industry was deregulated when they removed the regulation of over entry and price controls in the industry.

Qantas was then privatised in 1995. Qantas faced a number of implications in the management due to these changes. Qantas had become a more resourceful and money-making business and more competitive as well. Qantas had to pay levies and taxes paid by other businesses and Qantas also had to make earnings and pay a dividend to its shareholders.

As a result, Qantas had to change its management practices. The changes that occurred within the management included a flattened structure, increased flexibility and communication, a stress of importance on multi-skilling, enlarged levels of training fro staff, Introduction of new technology, Implementation of a more participative approach to operational change and industrial relations, introduction of professional management standards ect. These changes had a positive impact upon the business. Qantas's management structure became more efficient and effective, which also allowed the company to deal more effectively towards changes in the internal and external environment. Recent business environmental influences (external & internal) driving change at Qantas Qantas have gone through a few changes due to the external environment. The external business environment comprises the factors and characteristics that are largely outside the direct control of owners, directors and managers.

Some of the external influenced have caused such changes like the shedding of jobs due to the SARS crisis, it is estimated that another 1000 jobs are to be sacrificed. Due to the SARS scare. Qantas just cannot afford to keep these jobs available due to the rapid plunging of the share market. Their market value had fallen from $5.06 billion to only $266 million. Qantas has also sliced through international flights by 20% until mid-July and publicized plans to shed at least 1400 jobs because of the war in Iraq and the SARS virus. The internal Business environment comprises the factors and characteristics that are within the direct control of owners, directors and managers.

An example of in internal influence is the management structure, when Qantas realised that the Classical-scientific method was clearly not working, they were forced to change. Now the management structure is flatter, less hierarchical and a more relaxed working environment. How Qantas selects its target markets & marketing strategies used by Qantas for product, price, place and promotion. Qantas uses behavioural segmentation to select its target markets. First of all the definition of market segmentation is when the total market is subdivided into groups of people who share one or more common characteristics. In this case, it is stated that Qantas selects its target markets based on the behavioural segmentation.

The guidelines based upon behavioural segmentation includes: A persons purchase occasion, benefits sought, loyalty, usage rate and price sensitivity. Qantas must perform a great deal of market research in order to find out the behavioural habits of its customers in order to succeed and achieve its marketing goals. The marketing mix is the combination of the four elements of marketing, the four Ps that make up the marketing strategy: product, price, place, promotion. Below is a brief outline of the marketing strategies used by Qantas in regards to the four Ps. (i) Product: It is stated that Qantas has become more focussed on product planning due to the fact that the airline industry has become at a much more competitive state. An example of Qantas! | focus of product planning is the way that the company designs its products to draw and maintain its customers. They find out certain attractions to customers through the usage of market research.

Also the seats and freights of the Qantas planes are differentiated in comparison to the competitor's planes. Qantas enhances its basic products by having the best connecting airlines on a favoured basis with Oneworld (Qantas! | alliance). In November 2000, Qantas announced that it would spend $US 4.6 billion on new planes over a ten year period including the purchase of the Airbus 380 which is the world's largest commercial aircraft. Major changes like this are strategic moves to attract and hold on to its customers.

Qantas products and features are designed to be comfort based. Such comfort based items include in-flight entertainment, lounges, in-flights meals and drinks. They overhauled its food menu after some widespread market research. Qantas wanted to focus on fresher, more contemporary and satisfying food with a more personalised service. Another strategy Qantas used was spending $300 million on an in-flight entertainment system which presents personal telephones, video games and 16 audio channels. They are also establishing a self-serve kiosk which will allow faster check-ins and choices of seats.

Qantas is to establish a! yenQantas club business customers! | where they will be to enjoy private meeting rooms, workstations, refreshments, news and entertainment, hot showers in the club lounge, photocopying and local faxing, postal services etc. The freight product is improved by the company's ability of managing efficient, steering and regularity. Qantas freight has recently launched two new Internet tracking facilities which allow customers to ask for regular automatic status updates on their freight load. Qantas is well renowned for its brand name, its famous symbol of the red kangaroo and its logo, ! SS Spirit of Australia!" , which evidently differentiates it from all of its competitors. (ii) Price: The pricing methods used by Qantas include cost plus margin where the business conclude the cost of production and then add a margin of profit, market where they determine the cost by the market, where demand is matched with supply and competition based where the actions of other airlines are carefully observed. Pricing strategies used by Qantas include price penetration where the business charges the lowest possible price for a particular service, full fares where people who want flexibility as full fares can be refunded and changed and loss leading where a business sells a product below its cost price to attract more customers.

( ) Place: There are two main ways in which the distribution to end customers is achieved by Qantas is direct and indirect. Direct sales are through its own retail outlets such as! yenQantas Holidays! | which is the largest travel wholesaler in Australia. Telephone sales centres airport ticket sales and the internet represents the distribution chain. Indirect sales is the usage of intermediaries, example, purchasing through travel agents and the encouragement of customers to book over the internet, which often comes with some sort of discount. (iv) Promotion: Promotions are the methods used by a business to inform, persuade and remind a target market about its products. The following are the promotional strategies that Qantas uses: fae Advertising: They use advertising agencies to create media advertisements in television, radio, magazines, newspapers, brochures, posters in travel agencies and billboards. fae Sales promotion: which are short term enticements, which are basically used only in periods where the demand is likely subdued. fae Personal selling based where sales representatives of Qantas directly sell to travel agents, government departments and other businesses. fae Publicity to improve the image of Qantas which include articles, interviews, conferences etc. Qantas's marketing plan and strategies seem to be effective because their detailed strategies, they created more distribution outlets, they focused a lot more on market research, the plan gives the business direction and helps manage a changing environment, they encourage new product development, etc..