Although Classic Airlines is one of the market leaders in the provision of airline services to more than 240 destinations, there are myriads of marketing and management challenges that the company is still grappling with in its daily operations.
In other words, the company ought to carry out a forensic audit of its current operations so that it can be in a position to positively transform its profitability alongside meeting the needs and demands of clients.
To begin with, the management at Classic Airlines should strive in developing a viable brand loyalty so that they can attract additional clients who are not current customers. According to Kotler and Keller (2006), brand loyalty entails the tastes and preferences of clients on specific products that are being offered by an organization.
It is quite cumbersome for the products and services of a company to obtain a niche in the market without a well recognized brand. Therefore, it is necessary for the management at Classic Airlines to increase the level of loyalty for the services that they are presently being offered to clients.
In addition, the shareholders should be part and parcel of the brand loyalty program. Both the external and internal stakeholders should be involved in building the brand image and loyalty of the airline’s services.
It is also prudent to note that Classic Airlines is still struggling with the threat of being bankrupt. It appears that the cost of overheads is not commensurate with revenue generation at the company. It is therefore the responsibility of the airline’s marketing department to devise rigorous marketing strategies that will lead into improved generation of revenue.
The marketing campaign to be adopted by the airline should largely focus on boosting the image of the company in addition to offering wide array of products and services that will meet the diverse needs of both the active and passive clients.
The airline has been embracing unique concepts of marketing so that it can improve its level of profitability. The concepts have not been very productive largely due to the stiff competition from other market rivals. Therefore, it is necessary for the management at Classic Airlines to initiate new marketing strategies by re-examining the internal and external marketing environments.
One of the most common and viable models that Classic Airlines can use to assess the nature of its current market is the Porter’s Fives Forces. When this model is aptly applied, the corporate strategy can be used to evaluate whether the corporate structure in place is effective.
As it stands now, the profitability of this organization has been destabilized by the market competition in spite of the fact that the company is facing myriads of barriers to market entry compared to other market rivals.
Although the airline has been in operation for over 25 years, the trends show that its profitability has been going down for sometimes now (University of Phoenix, 2011). One of the factors that has significantly contributed in the declining profitability is the high cost of air tickets. This has compelled customers to take minimal number of flights in order to cut down costs.
As such, the airline uses a reward program to attract customers. This is one of the company’s marketing concepts. Determining and meeting the needs of customers is also another marketing ideal used by the airline in order to improve profitability. The ability to offer the most appropriate services to customers is also a vital ingredient for profitability in this airline company (University of Phoenix, 2011).
Conclusion
To recap it all, the paper has discussed various marketing strategies that Classic Airlines can adopt in order to revive itself back to profitability. For instance, there is need to restore the image of the company.
Therefore, the airline should conduct thorough research on how brand loyalty can be boosted. Moreover, customers’ tastes and preferences can be met by taking care of controllable elements such as pricing and the nature of services offered. The current reward program is also highly recommended.
References
Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2006). Marketing Management (12th ed.). New York: Pearson Hall.
University of Phoenix (2011). Scenario: Classic Airlines. Retrieved from University of Phoenix.