Classic Airlines and Marketing

Classic Airlines and Marketing

Debra Elliott

MKT/571 - Marketing

December 24, 2012

Melodi Guilbault

Classic Airlines and Marketing

Financial success depends on the right marketing strategies. The appropriate marketing techniques are important and when not used “other business functions will not really matter if there is not sufficient demand for products and services …” (Kotler & Keller, 2006, p. 4). The main objective of marketing to consumers is keeping old, attracting new, and keeping both satisfied (Ward, 2008).

Classic Airlines (“CA”) is the fifth largest airline in the world having a fleet of more than 375 jets serving 240 cities (University of Phoenix, 2010). CA has grown to approximately 32,000 employees with earnings of $10M on $8.7B in sales (2010). Striving for continued success presents CA with challenges affecting the airline. One challenge CA faces is the frequent flier rewards program. This paper will provide insight into marketing concepts from this week’s readings.

Marketing Concepts

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stake holders” (Kotler & Keller, 2006, p. 6). The chief marketing officer, Kevin Boyle, is responsible for CA’s reward program. Currently, membership has dropped close to 20% from the prior year in numbers this totals more than 160,000 loyal members flying other airlines. This is a high number requiring Boyle to begin the process of analyzing why the drop in membership. As Kolter and Keller discuss in Chapter 1 (2006), understanding the marketing function requires the understanding of fundamental concepts and tasks along with trends (2006).

Needs, Wants, and Demands

One core concept CA needs to look into are the needs, wants, and demands of the target market. To revamp...