Introduction
Statement of the problem
The current research addresses the problem of positioning of corporate brand of Qatar Airways through strategies for improving customer satisfaction. This problem is significant since brand development and brand management encompass one of the important aspects for making an organization gain global competitive advantage
Purpose of the study and delimitations
Purpose of study
The purpose of this study is to aid in resolution of the problem of determining ways of positioning the corporate brand of Qatar Airways through strategies for improving customer satisfaction. It seeks to draws knowledge from the body of literature on techniques of marketing research and their applications in solving marketing problems and formulating marketing strategies in helping to resolve likely marketing problem of positioning the corporate brand image for Qatar Airways
Limitation and delimitations
In the quest to achieve this concern, this research has a major limitation since it uses a small sample size (34 respondents). However, this limitation is countered by random distribution of questionnaires to persons of different demographical characteristics so that the responses to questionnaires reflects general customer views about Qatar airways
Theoretical perspective
Research findings such as Wirtz and Chung Lee (2008) and Yelkur (2007) contend that customer satisfaction comprises one of the most important aspects for incorporation in the marketing planning strategies for organizations considering global growth plans as a measure for securing competitive advantage. Qatar airline is one of such companies
Research hypotheses
It is hypothesized that Qatar Airways has poorly positioned its corporate brand Image by building strong local customer relationships, but insufficient customer relationships to global clientele. Various factors and variables may affect satisfaction of consumers depending on the industry within which a business operates. For the airline industry, it also hypothesized that independent variables such as product (which include services, quality and brand image) offered by Qatar Airways affect perceived satisfaction and hence customer satisfaction.
Literature review
Research on the best strategies for positioning cooperate brand of an organization has yielded huge body of literature on organizational brand inventories and brand elements to induce customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is a critical element of retention of existing clients for an organization coupled with attraction of new ones (Yelkur, 2007).
Customers possessing good organizational reputation share it with other people. This aspect creates the urge amongst potential customers to experience the service or product offered by an organization. Brand inventories are aimed at availing comprehensive profile of the manner in which products coupled with services that are sold by a given organization are branded and marketed.
Hill and Ettenson (2005) note that profiling a product or a service “requires marketers to catalogue visually and in writing various products or services sold, the names, logos, symbols, characters, packaging, slogans, or other trademarks used” (p.86). Outcome of any product profile requires accuracy, high precision, comprehensibility, and reflective of the status of a product or service brand for a given organization.
Brand inventories should highlight the brand elements utilized to build brand loyalty and the manner in which this goal is accomplished coupled with how it is reflected on any necessary marketing program. Qatar Airways’ competitive brand profiling is done to unveil the probable points of difference coupled with points of parity. In these extents, brand’s inventory is valuable at Qatar Airways, as it helps in determining the platforms anchoring customer perceptions.
A brand identifies and distinguishes an organization from other organizations even though two or more organizations offer similar products or services. Organizations not only sell products or charge for their services, but they also sell their brands (Hill & Ettenson, 2005). A number of elements including the brand name, logo sounds, tagline, tastes, and scents among others identify brands (Hill & Ettenson, 2005).
The Qatar Airlines protects its brand name consisting of ‘Qatar Airways’ with the symbol (logo) of the Arabian Oryx. People living within the Arabian region are highly familiar with the animal. Any attempt to use a brand name possessing the Arabian Oryx symbol and the brand name ‘Qatar Airways’ amounts to a legal challenge by the organization. In a bid to enhance its brand identification and association, Qatar Airways uses the slogan ‘World’s 5 Star Airline’.
The recognition of the extent to which an organization meets satisfaction of its customers is critical in aiding to channel the efforts of employees to meet the anticipated needs and perceptions of services provided.
In this extent, marketing scholars such as Yelkur (2007) and Farris, Neil, and Pfeifer (2010) perceive customers’ satisfaction as entangling the dominant business strategy that may affect the profitability of an organization positively if it is cutely developed.
Given this merit, it is significant for an organization to be in a position of developing metrics of measuring customers’ satisfaction and determine the marketing factors that help to induce the same (Farris, Neil, & Pfeifer, 2010).
Some metrics measure customers’ satisfaction, but the applicability and appropriateness of any metric depend on the industry of operation of an organization. One of the metrics entangles the number and frequency of the complaints raised by clients (Farris, Neil, & Pfeifer, 2010).
However, this research does not adapt its research methodology to measure customer satisfactions for Qatar Airways via this way; rather, customers’ surveys through responses to questionnaires act as a resourceful way of measuring customers’ satisfaction. The focus of this research is not on measuring customers’ satisfaction. Rather, the measures are used to establish factors that may influence customers’ satisfaction. Marketing mix comprises one of such factors.
After the establishment of an appropriate brand, the next phase of corporate brand positioning entails its supporting. Holt and Quelch (2009) support this assertion and further add that for success of any brand, a means of supporting it to ensure that its preferences among customers do not fall when new competitors in the same industry emerge should be created. For Qatar Airways, brand promotion is a central component for supporting its brand.
Promotion is done through various ways such as sponsorships. The main aim of collaborating with Barcelona FC in the 2013/2014 Spanish premier league season is to create a global image for the existence of the Qatar Airways brand. Through this partnership, Qatar Airways endeavors to display passion for its brand as being the best in the airline industry tantamount to that of FC Barcelona in the football industry.
In the effort to access the perception of customers on the brand of an organization, brand exploratory is important. The concept refers to any research executed by an organization to garner information, which upon analysis, helps to give an indication of the manner in which customer feel or think about a given product or service and their associated classes of brand equity sources (Hill & Ettenson, 2005).
Conducting brand exploratory requires the execution of a number of preliminary activities. One of such activities entails conducting an interview to an organization’s personnel to acquire an understanding of manner in which they think coupled with determining their beliefs and perceptions about the brand (Hill & Ettenson, 2005).
Opinions accruing from the above interviews are normally diverse and they serve several functions in determining the manner in which consumers of a given product or service may be feeling or thinking about the same. Among such functions includes the generation of vital and informing ideas about products from an organization’s perspective and providing likelihoods for understanding any preconceived internal misconceptions and on inconsistencies on the way people internally perceive the products and services (Hill & Ettenson, 2005).
This exercise is necessary since customers think about products that they consume depending on how the communications personnel within an organization portray the products (Farris, Neil, & Pfeifer, 2010). However, even though it is important to unveil an organization’s internal inconsistencies and misconceptions about products, such an endeavor is not adequate to develop brand explorations fully.
Conducting additional research on customers is necessary to establish how their own experiences with the products or services of an organization shape their thoughts and feeling about the products. This aspect is the central concern of brand exploratory, as a component of successful corporate brand positioning strategy at Qatar airlines addressed in this research.
Methodology
Research design
A research can be designed as one of four main approaches, viz. qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods (pragmatic approach), and emancipator approach (participatory or advocacy approach). In this research, pragmatic approach is utilized. Freshwater, Sherwood, and Drury (2006) posit, “Pragmatic researchers grant themselves the freedom to use any of the methods, techniques, and procedures typically associated with quantitative or qualitative research” (p.295).
The freedom of choice of method depends on the researchers’ perception and evaluation of methods that best suit the particular kind of research they are conducting. The best choice is the one that utilizes methodologies that complement one another. This aspect forms the basic logic for designing this research to use pragmatic approach deploying aspects of both quantitative and qualitative research.
Population, sample, and participants
Thirty-four (34) copies of questionnaires were distributed without selection of certain demographic characteristics of people that received the questionnaires. Rather, the respondent was required to indicate these characteristics in the questionnaires. The entire sample (34 people) answered all the questions in the questionnaires promptly. Hence, no questionnaire was rejected.
Data collection instruments, variables, and measurements
The research used questionnaire as the primary data collection tool. The independent variable was the impact of positioning of the Qatar airline product and services. Independent variable was customer response and prevalence to the positioned brand as is an indication of customers’ satisfaction, which is measured from the context of quantitative number of Qatar Airways’ customer perceptions and preferences on the product and services.
Some questions requiring qualitative information were also used to help in the provision of data on specific perceptions about the products and services offered by Qatar Airways. Ten (10) questions were used to capture the aspects of customer satisfaction with the company’s product and services as shown in appendix 1
Data analysis procedures
Data was analyzed through computations of percentages of responses for each question in the questionnaire. These results were then used to conduct an analysis of the brand positioning challenges likely to be encountered by Qatar Airways, which helps in the identification of areas that pose challenges in the positioning of the Qatar brand to correspond to its global growth strategy.
Validity and reliability
Quality research should possess several characteristics, which include credibility reliability, use of rigorous methods, and verification (Cohen & Crabtree, 2008), validity, clarity, and coherence in reporting (Yardley, 2000) among others. Validity can both be internal and external.
Validity entangles the “best approximation to the truth or falsity of proportions” (Rolfe, 2006, p.307). Validity and reliability in this research were enhanced by the choice of primary method for data collection (questionnaires) as a tool for ensuring that the research findings add significant knowledge to the body of knowledge (market research) that the research seeks to amplify.
However, the sample was too small. The demographic characteristic of the sample are perhaps not exact representation of the population seeking service from Qatar Airlines, which poses challenges to the reliability and validity of the research. Nevertheless, given that the sample was small, it was possible for the researcher to administrate the process of filling the questionnaires so that ambiguity of the question was addresses. This move helped to improve both reliability and validity of the responses and hence research findings
Data analysis, findings and discussion
Table 1 below shows the findings obtained on administration of the questionnaires.
Table1: Results for questionnaires for a sample of 34 respondents
Ninety-four percent (94 %) of the respondents had used Qatar Airways while 6% percent had not used it.
While only one person (3%) prefers Turkish Airlines, 3% did not cite their preferred airline. This aspect indicates that some people are undecided on their preferred airline brand. It also shows that Turkish Airlines may become the biggest competitor. While deciding on the most appropriate strategy to position Qatar Airways to win these people, gender preferences and tastes for airline services play a significant role because most people who have used Qatar Airways are more likely to be women (76%) as opposed to men (24%).
Nationality is another important demographic factor to consider when choosing brand-positioning strategy for Qatar Airways. Although the company seeks to grow its global courier capacity, the adaption of brand promotional strategies to meet local tastes should not be abandoned. Most people using the airways are Qatari (76%) compared to other people of the Middle Eastern nationality (6%).
The low number of people from other Middle East nations using Qatar Airways suggests that the airline should position its brand as a regional courier. This strategy also needs to extend to global platforms as the company seeks to become a global courier as suggested by the low percentage of people from other nations (18%) using the airline. This positioning reflects well on the strategy of the company to position itself on a global scale through partnership with Barcelona FC in the 2013/2014 season.
As at the time of conducting the research, the results show the ability of Qatar Airways to position its brand to young people, 18-28 year (76%) as compared to 29 -39 (12%) and 40 and above (12%).
This aspect means that the company needs to adapt its services and products to meet the needs of all customer age groups while attempting to become the world’s best courier. Customers are also more interested and satisfied by good flight experience (50%) and easiness of accessing booking and tickets (44%) than the cost of travelling.
This realization explains why Turkish Airlines may not become the Qatar Airways’ near future competitor, as customers prefer it only on low cost basis, which is not an important factor in positioning an airline brand seeking to compete with Qatar Airways. Indeed, customers are not interested at all (0%) with flight experience.
Customers define flight experience to encompass good entertainment (75%), as opposed to seating arrangements (12.5%) and on board customer experience (12.5%).
This element means that Qatar Airlines will face the problem of marketing itself as the global best onboard entertainer. A major problem for Qatar Airways encompasses convincing its customers to express their concerns on areas where the company may need to improve to serve them better, as evidenced by 37.5% of people who have raised their concerns with the services and 63.5 % of those who have not.
The media for collection of customer concerns should be hybrid in nature since 50% percent of persons raising concerns over the services and product of Qatar Airways prefers the Internet while 50 % prefers traditional means such as suggestion boxes and registering their concerns at the customer-service front desk.
Customers are also happy when Qatar Airways responds to their concerns since this element may (50%), or may not (50 %) make them alter their air travel company. As the company works hard to positions itself as a customers’ needs and concerns centre Airways, many routes and schedule flexibility are important factors to consider when seeking to enhance customer satisfaction among 100 % of the customers who consider the current response mechanisms of Qatar Airway inappropriate.
The establishment of demotic or popular travel routes and positioning of the Qatar’s brad image as the best global leader in this extent remains the most important driver of Qatar Airlines success and marketing challenge.
Recommendations and conclusion
Summary of the research problem, objective, findings, and discussion
The research’smain problem was the determination of ways of positioning the corporate brand of Qatar Airways through strategies for improving customer satisfaction. The objective encompassed the identification of mechanisms in which Qatar Airways can position and manage its brand to achieve global, regional, and local success.
The findings indentified gender, nationality, and age demographic factors as important elements in facing the problem of brand positioning strategies focusing mainly in good on board customer experience (specifically good entertainment) and easiness of accessing booking and tickets while also capitalizing on increasing the number of flight routes and flexibility in schedules.
The discussion of the results treated this challenge to entail facing the problem of enhancing customer satisfaction with the product and services offered by Qatar Airways.
Limitations
Although the research indicates customers’ perception about the Qatar Airways, the research has some limitations. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of 34 respondents. No scientific method was applied to recruit this sample in a bid to ensure that it demographically reflected the population. A small sample size of 34 respondents also presents difficulties for construing into a perfect technique for marketing research or even a random sample.
Ethical issues in the study
In collecting primary data, addressing ethical concerns of the respondents is important. Respondents may be concerned about the intentions of seeking information from them. Another concern encompasses whether giving truthful and accurate information on their perceptions about an organization would lead to the victimization or any other unprecedented consequences. These ethical concerns were addressed by providing an explanation of the purposes of the data sought in the questionnaires in the first part of the questionnaire.
The introduction and statement of the purpose of the questionnaire explained that Qatar Airways endeavors to develop a global brand by expanding its courier capacity and the number of routes. It also explained that in deriving its marketing planning, the company should get right a number of interrogatives based on its ability to gain competitive advantage in both Middle East domestic markets and global markets. The respondents were further made aware that these interrogatives formed the basis of the questionnaires, which then would be deployed to conduct a research into the problem likely to be encountered by the airways courier in its effort to reach global markets.
Recommendations for managers, and for other researchers
For Qatar Airways, the customers’ perceptions shaping their satisfaction and preference to the product and services are dependent more on the nature of the product and service experience than the costs of the product and services. To the managers of Qatar Airways, this aspect implies that even though some airline companies elsewhere in the world have successfully positioned themselves as low costs couriers, in the context of the operational environment of Qatar Airways, such a positioning strategy might not work.
The research suggests the existence of a correlation between positioning strategy for an organizational brand and the degree of customer satisfaction in the airline industry. However, the exact correlation coefficients were not determined. Therefore, research opportunity exists in which regression analysis can be deployed to determine the correlation coefficients between brand positioning and customer satisfaction.
Amid, the view that the research has not considered to determine the correlation coefficient within its scope, the hypothesis that independent variables such as the product (which include services, quality, and brand image) offered in the airlines industry affect perceived satisfaction.
Hence, a relationship between brand positioning and customer satisfaction has been confirmed. The first hypothesis was unconfirmed since although the main clients of Qatar Airways studied were Qatari, a significant number of customers from the global market have developed loyalty to airline’s services.
References
Cohen, D., & Crabtree, B. (2008). Evaluative criteria for qualitative research in health care: controversies and recommendations. Criteria for Qualitative Research, 6(4), 331-339.
Farris, P., Neil, P., & Pfeifer, D. (2010). Marketing metrics: The definitive guide to measuring marketing performance. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Freshwater, D., Sherwood, G., & Drury, V. (2006). International research collaboration: Issues, benefits and challenges of the global network. Journal of Research in marketing, 11(4), 295-303.
Hill, S., & Ettenson, T. (2005). Achieving the ideal brand portfolio. Sloan Management Review, 2(1), 85-90.
Holt, A., & Quelch, T. (2009). How global brands compete. Harvard Business Review, 7(3), 68-75.
Rolfe, G. (2006). Validity, trustworthiness and rigor: Quality and the idea of qualitative research. Journal of Advanced Marketing Research, 53(3), 304-310.
Wirtz, J., & Chung, M. (2008). An empirical study on the quality and context-specific applicability of commonly used customer satisfaction measures. Journal of Service Research, 5(4), 345-355.
Yardley, L. (2000). Dilemmas in qualitative marketing research. International Journal of Marketing Research, 15(3), 215-228.
Yelkur, R. (2007). Customer satisfaction and service marketing mix. Journal of Professional Services Marketing, 21(1), 105-115