Virgin Blue: Industry and Company Analysis

Michael Porter wrote about five forces affecting the profitability and viability of companies. The five forces are existing competitors, new entries into the market, substitute products, bargaining power of customers, and the bargaining power of suppliers. (quickmba)

Porter’s Five Forces (1980), named after Michael E. Porter, is a critical framework to access the level of risk and degree of potential profitability of each industry in which firms are competing. Specifically, five forces are shown in Figure 1, are includes competition between rivalry, potential of new entrant, threat of substitute products, and pressure on bargaining power of suppliers and customers.

Porter’s Five Forces is a framework that consists of five competitive forces, threat of entry, power of supplier and buyer, threat of substitution and competitive rivalry. These forces facilitate the analysis of the task environment of an industry or company (Wheelen and Hunger, 2009).

Competitive environments are defined by the identity, track record, financial strength and market share of key competitors. Harvard Professor Michael Porter 's Five Forces model can be used to evaluate a company 's competitive position. These five forces are barriers to entry (the ability of new players to enter the market), buyer power (the ability of customers to influence price),

The Risk of Entry by Potential Competitors – Since the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 over 1,300 new airlines have opened for business. However, most now are bankrupt or merged with the other carriers to stay workable. The established giants were Delta (merged with Northwest), American Airlines (merged with U.S. Airways), United Airlines (merged with Continental), and now Alaska Airlines (merged with Virgin America). Now the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) are posing a massive threat which includes Southwest Airlines (merged with Air Tran), and JetBlue.

2. How Porter's Five Forces of Competition impact the company Porter set out his famous Five Forces model in chapter 1 of his 1980 Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, which has now become the dominant paradigm for the "Structural Analysis of Industries." The model places supply chain forces on the horizontal access and market structure vertically above and below industry competition, which they all point to as the center of potential profitability (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson,

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.

1. There are a few trends in the US airline industry. One is consolidation, wherein existing players merge in an attempt to lower their costs and generate operating synergies. The most recent major merger was the United Continental merger, which is still an ongoing affair, but has created the largest airline in the United States by market share (Martin, 2012). Another trend is towards low-cost carriers. In the US, Southwest has been a long-running success and JetBlue a strong new competitor, but in other countries this business model has proven exceptionally successful. The third major trend is the upward trend in jet fuel prices, and the increasing importance that this puts on hedging fuel prices and capacity management (Hinton, 2011).

In the article, “The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy,” Michael Porter argues that the five forces are an important element for managers and investors in the business industry. Porter stated that it is important to “understand the competitive forces, and their underlying causes” which many companies will use to determine if they will gain profit or not (Porter 80). Companies determine their profitability of the industry through the level of the force that they face. For instance, when the forces are favorable, most companies will be profitable. Porter gives a detail description of the five forces and explains the importance of each force. The five forces are the threats of new entrants, the power of the buyers, the power of the suppliers, the threats of substitute for products or services, and the rivalry among existing competitors. Porter believes that “a company strategist who understands the competition extends well beyond existing rivals will detect wider competitive threats and be better equipped to address them” (Porter 93). In other words, when strategists understand the different forces it will benefit them to make better decisions and to be ready to face the different challenges between competitors. In the article, Porter’s main goal is to present the importance of the five forces to the audience.

1995). Although some researchers argue that service quality is an individual judgement, defined purely by the customer about the excellence or superiority of a service provider’s performance (A. Finn, 2005), brand image and how the service is communicated to consumers still appears to be the most effective form of customer loyalty; with 59% of consumers admitting to utilizing a particular service through advertisements seen on the television, billboards etc (P. Edelin, 2011). This is as a result of the promise/proposition the brand provides that specific service to a set of consumers; thus British Airways should aim to maintain a strong brand identity in order to preserve long-term customer loyalty, as well as maintain a nationwide appeal in order to reduce overall perceived risk (Sweeney, 2000). This combined with a thoughtful and high quality service to ensure customer satisfaction, will not only encourage positive word of mouth communication amongst targeted consumers (Siddiqi, 2011), but increase the customer’s willingness to purchase the service (Shostack, 1977).

The five forces of Porter’s model are an exceptional tool that can help Virgin to understand the level of competition in the airline industry. Some of Virgin competitors are Qatar, British Airways etc. The managers at Virgin Atlantic can create strategies that are more successful to tackle competition and to improve Virgin competitive strengths by using this tool.

The economies of scale in the retail industry are huge. All of the companies in this industry have first mover advantage. Many of the competitors in this industry already have immense and diverse relationships with many of the suppliers they obtain and any new competitor will have a tough time trying to squeeze into the dealer network in order to establish themselves as any type of threat to another retailer.

Porter's First force is the threat of Potential Entrants. Statistics have shown the industry to be slowing down, therefore making competition high and the threat of new entrants low. Broadway Cafe has a small market presence, but the presence of its competitors like Starbucks

Porter’s five forces are used to determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market. These are close forces that affect a company’s ability to make a profit and serve customers. If any of these forces change, a company must reassess its marketplace. The five forces include: the threat of substitute products, the threat of the entry of new competitors, the intensity of competitive rivalry, the bargaining power of customers and the bargaining power of suppliers.