Classic Airlines

Classic Airlines Marketing Solution

Brian Fish

MKT 571

November 5, 2012

Colleen M. McGrath

Classic Airlines Marketing Solution

Classic Airlines (Classic) is the world’s fifth largest international airline company. Classic is currently facing declining stock prices, revenues, and customer loyalty even though it has managed to remain profitable in recent years with $10 million earned. Facing these challenges, Classics Board of Directors has mandated reductions company-wide over the next 18 months and required the executive team to demonstrate progress with actionable results reported in a short three-month time line. The call to action is to reinvent Classic and move forward with a new marketing plan increasing revenues and customer loyalty. This paper will evaluate and define Classic’s marketing problem, create a forward looking statement, evaluate a five-step problem-solving model to review three potential solutions, consider objectives, and possible obstacles, compare other companies with similar problems along with recommending and justifying a solution for the airline.

Analysis

Currently Classic has an executive team with years of industry experience and most are veterans of the airline. The CEO, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and the human resources (HR) president are newer to the company, and many of the problems fall within these departments as mentioned (University of Phoenix, 2012). The current situation at Classic is tense with the board asking the CEO for a report in 90 days that “demonstrates a measurable, positive trend” (University of Phoenix, 2012, p. 3). The CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) have put operational plans in place meant to increase profits by reducing prices and hedging fuel costs. These have not been enough, according to University of Phoenix Classic Airlines Exhibit A (2006), Classic has seen net income drop from 71 to 10 million over the last two years. Currently, the CEO, and CFO believe a stronger...