Marketing Analysis of Jetstar and Virgin Blue Airlines Essay

This report largely focuses on constructing a situational analysis of Qantas Airlines. An organisations situational analysis refers to an analysis that consists of ascertaining the key factors that will be used as a basis for development of marketing strategy. (Elliot 2014). Situational analysis consists of the environment analysis (both internal and external environment), competitor’s analysis and finally the swot analysis.

Jetstar Airways Proprietary Limited are a completely owned subsidiary of the Qantas Group, they operate across 19 different Australian destinations, and 17 overseas destinations. They were established in May 2004. Jetstar’s fleet across Australia and New Zealand is made up of 80 aircraft. Their focus is on providing a low-cost or “value based” airline, and commit to doing so by ensuring a “price beat guarantee” where, if challenged, they pledge to beat rival airlines by 10% (JetStar, 2015). Their current brand slogan is “Low Fares Forever”.

Rivalry among industry competitors has caused attention to be focused on tariff levels. Airfare prices were at an all time low in 2009. This suggested a strong competitive rivalry based on price differentiation. This price differentiation will cause a dramatic loss in revenue if these prices continue to drop and this would lead to a reduced competitiveness. In an effort to safeguard revenue and reduce expenditure, Qantas has developed a strategy to deal with a change in the external competitive environment. .

The following paper provides an analysis and evaluation of the current market position of Qantas and the airline industry. By assessing the company both internally and externally by applying PESTLE and Porter’s Five Force frameworks, this report will assess Qantas’ opportunities and strengths within the aviation industry. In addition to this, the report will focus on the specific resources and capabilities that enable Qantas to obtain a competitive advantage over its competitors through the use of the VRIO framework. A final analysis

The economy class is targeted at the leisure travel segment and the low cost business travel segment.

The airline business is an industry that is competitive and unique, focussing on consumer choice and the responsiveness of airlines to changes in the external business environment. For any airline, this environment can be very complex as it is ‘hard for them to fully understand and impossible for them to fully control’ (The Times, n.d. p1). Virgin Atlantic is an international airline that is based in the UK. It was started by the entrepreneur Richard Branson in 1982 and now flies to 30 destinations around the world (Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, 2011). By looking at

Flight Centre describes itself as a global discount flight specialist. Taking into consideration the relative size of the Australian and international operations as well as the availability of information on global environment and competitive factors, for this analysis, it is more appropriate to consider the Flight Centre’s industry environment as “The Australian international and domestic airline

Virgin Australia which was formerly called Virgin Blue is the Australia’s second largest airline. The airline was started in 2000 by British business tycoon Sir Richard Branson and former Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey. The airlines started as low-cost carrier, but went on to become a “new-world carrier” (Virgin Blue media release, 2011). This low cost airline went on to become a full-service airline by 2012 with the name of Virgin Australia. Since the year 2000 the airlines grew rapidly and posed threat to Qantas airline and over the years Virgin Blue looking at the marketing trends and characteristics of the aviation industry grew into a Full Service Airline and is considered a four star airline by research consultancy firm Skytrax.

Market structure can be defined as patterns of behaviour by enterprises in an effort to adjust to the markets in which they operate (buy or sell). Pricing strategies and collusive behaviour mergers are a few dimensions of market conduct. It is the industry norm for a legacy carrier to offer service to most popular destinations; Delta reducing routes to a similar schedule as the low-cost airlines is not an option in the multi-billion dollar industry. In order to gain market share from low-cost airlines, Delta must create a value proposition that differentiates itself from its competitors. Many customers will pay a premium if the level of service provided is higher than the low-cost, no-frills

Technology is growing rapidly since the early 90’s and a lot has changed in the marketing sector on how businesses operate. The internet has made it possible for businesses to market their products and services through digital channels. According to Smallwood, (2016). “The way people connect, communicate, and share information online has evolved in ways unimaginable just a generation ago, yet from a marketer 's perspective the biggest change may be in the amount of information suddenly available.” Through digital media consumers are able to associate themselves with the products and services that are rendered. The three organizations I have seen advertised; that have specifically focused on digital media to market its products and or services are, Southwest Airline, John Foy & Associates, and the Coca-Cola Company.

Launched just 8 years ago, today, the Jetstar Group consists of a network of value-based air carriers that deliver high quality air passenger services for budget-minded travelers across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region. Beginning with just 400 employees, the company currently employs more than 7,000 people and carries about 20 million passengers a year. To gain some insights into how the Jetstar Group achieved this impressive growth in such a short amount of time, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature concerning the air passenger industry in general and the business strategy used by the Jetstar Group in particular. A summary of the research and recommendations for this company are provided in the paper's conclusion.

Airline companies are becoming more and more competitive as the low budget discount airlines are becoming popular. It is key for airlines to differentiate themselves among the various airlines to choose from, and United Airlines wanted to ensure that it offered products and services for all marketing segments. “United realized that it needed to develop a customer-centric future strategy and galvanize its organization to improve the customer experience for its most valued customers” (Prophet, 2012, para. 1). This paper discusses the marketing plan for the newly merged

The primary purpose of this report is to demonstrate the decision-making process for the chosen aviation company Virgin Atlantic Airline owned by Sir Richard Branson, which was established in 1984 and how they influence their customers to purchase their products and use their services. Virgin Atlantic offers many services such as

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the business strategy of JetBlue Airways. JetBlue was founded by David Neeleman in 2000 and quickly became one of the largest discount airlines in the United States. It was started in the east coast primarily and expanded throughout the country and entered the international market soon after that. JetBlue received the “#1 Airline Brand” rating10 even while keeping its advertising costs significantly lower than Southwest Airlines. Jet Blue’s talent in formulating and executing effective strategies has enabled the company to rapidly grow in the domestic and international market base.

1) Introduction to airline industry 2) Drivers of globalisation using yip’s model 2.1 Market globalisation 2.2 Cost globalisation 2.3 Globalisation of government policies 2.4 Globalisation of competition 3) Localisation- arguments against globalisation 4) Pestle Analysis 5) Porter’s 5 forces analysis and their application to Airline industry 5.1 Rivalry amongst Existing Firms 5.2 Threat of substitution 5.3 Threat of new entrants 5.4 Power of customers 5.5 Power of buyers 6) Opportunities and Threats of Airline industry 7) Internal analysis of Virgin Airlines: Strengths and Weakness 8) Financial Statics of Virgin Atlantic Airline 9) Strategic Changes of Virgin