Qantas Airline: Twitter Nosedive - Case Study Example

Qantas airline: Twitter nosedive Brief history of Qantas Qantas has remained as one of the leading flight planes in Australia since its inception in 1920 in Queensland and the northern parts of the remote Australia. As part of their assignment to map the route from Long reach in Queensland to Katherine, the trio noticed the need to introduce a long distance flight to cover this area and make them more accessible to Australians. To succeed in their dream, the two sourced for resources before plunging into the business of commercial and charter flights along this route, Qantas provided joyrides and air taxi services and trips to Australian (Taylor, 32). The company expanded its services and ventured into airmail delivery from the city of Charleville to Cloncurry. The company later acquired more spacious and bigger aircrafts and this enabled it to increase its customer base and the areas of focus beyond the traditional areas that it pioneered. After moving its headquarters to Brisbane, Qantas acquired a number of contracts including the provision of medical flights, a contract that saw the company charter flights for more than 28,000KM with flight doctors to offer medical services to Australian in the remote villages (Baker, 10). Brief introduction of the case In the backdrop of the massive success posted by the company, Qantas airline faced a number of management issues that affected its ability to fulfill the demands of its customers. By 2011, the company was facing a number of challenges including aircraft maintenance issues, contract negotiation issues, misuse of photographs from its flight sights and a number of customers suffering due to grounded airlines. Despite these problems, the company decided to introduce a public relations and communication exercise that was intended to evaluate the attitude of the clients and the consumers. This approach was adopted despite the massive demand on the management to improve the standard of the planes and their relationship with the employees (Taylor, 33). To improve its relationship with the public, the company introduced a public competition exercise through twitter which would saw a number of the participants to win Qantas first class pajamas and a luxury amenity kit. To attract the members of the public into the competition, the company create a hush tag #Qantas Luxury, a platform that world allow the participants to describe the best and most preferred luxury inflight experiences. Instead of using the opportunity to describe their luxury experiences, a number of participants decided to lash out at the poor management approaches of the company. The site was flooded by a number of critical comments that lashed out at the company’s attitude towards the plight of the customers and their laxity to change the current situation. The underestimation of the company’s ills and weaknesses was demonstrated by misplaced priority that saw the introduction of a publicity campaign that in no way provided solutions to the problems (Bigus & Seijts). Key issues in case While this campaign approaches launched by Qantas spiraled out of control, a number of key issues became evident and these defined the case and the reason for the failure of the communication strategy by the company. Through this hash tag, the customers and members of the public decided to highlight some of the problems that the company was facing and this defined the twitter nosedive case at Qantas. One of the issues in the case was the industrial dispute that the company was engaged in with its employees which resulted from payment disagreements. While the union workers representatives were keen on engaging in talks with the management of the company, the management showed openly that it was not keen to listen to the demands of the workers (Baker, 10). This led to the intervention of the Fair work Australia in a move seen to broker an agreement between the employees and the employer. Instead of focusing on this issue, the company decided to introduce a communication process aimed at appeasing the public. Apart from the internal problems facing the company during the time for this twitter campaign, the company lacked proper communication strategy especially in the face of challenges (Quiggin, 47). Qantas SWOT analysis Despite the backfired twitter campaign that was meant to redeem the image of the company, Qantas gas stood out as one of the leading airlines in Australia with a share of its strengths and challenges. This section will provide a quick overview of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the face of the recent saga, and how the company used its influence to emerge stronger. As one of the pioneer airlines in the country, Qantas has remained as one of the few airline companies that serve other continents including Africa, Oceania, Europe and different parts of America (Bigus & Seijts). With several years in long distance flights in the massive regions of Australia, new Zealand and other continents, Qantas is considered as one of the few experience airlines in Australia that have developed stronger accountable and technologically averse systems. Most of the company’s airlines also have highly serviced cabin systems with different classes to suit the needs of different people across the world. The airline has first class cabins for business executive clients, business and premium economy class for people on budget flights and also an economy category that charges even lower when compared to the other classes. This makes the airline a home for all who would love to fly to their destinations despite the disparities in their budgets and abilities (Qantas Airways Limited, 6). These strengths have enabled the company to retain its core customers even in the face of challenges and are one reason for which the company was awarded the world skytrax airline of the year for five consecutive years. It also won the best airline Australia from 2005 to 2008 among other awards which demonstrated its excellence in service delivery and customer care (Baker, 10). Despite the glamor of its strengths, Qantas airline has a number of weaknesses that have hampered its growth and ability to improve service delivery to clients. One of the major challenges that have significantly affected the ability of the company to remain clean is the numerous air accidents. In the recent past, the airline has had at least one accident per decade and this has been associated with the technical inadequacies that the company has failed to address. This has created a feeling of fear among otherwise loyal clients of the company and has significantly reduced the number of clients using the airline. The long routes served by the company have also served to its disadvantage as some of its flight has been delayed as results of the nature of the long routes. This has not gone well with a number of customers who would love to have their flights on time for convenience reasons (Bigus & Seijts). The company still have a number of opportunities that if well implemented can enable it to overcome some of its current challenges and remain on top of the rest. Of the opportunities is the adoption of fleet lease, an option that will enable the airline to increase its fleet size and cater for more customers than it currently does. As an airline that serves a large population of businessmen in Australia and beyond, Qantas has the opportunity to organize a club that will enable its business class members to access uninterrupted travels. Such clubs will also provide members will an easy access to a number of personal facilities like the internet upon subscription, an option for on-flight office for the businessmen (Qantas Airways Limited, 8). Qantas is still faced with a number of strengths that the company must also address to enable it’s remain profitable and competitive in the face of the high competition in the world today. The unstable process of oil has remained as one of the main threats to the success of the company with every increase in fuel cost pushing the cost of the airline operations higher. In 2006, the company also faced a lawsuit that tainted its image and reputation before its customers and investors. The company was accused of price fixing, an accusation that the company was found guilty of and forced to pay a hefty fine plus damage to its reputation (Qantas Airways Limited, 4). PEST analysis of Qantas airline Qantas airline operates in a market that is exposed to a number of factors which can be categorized into political-legal factors, the economic factors, the socio-cultural factors and technological factors, all that influences its operation. A balance in all these factors influences the ability of the firm to succeed and become more competitive as compared to other market players in the industry (Clausen & Williams, 47). The Australian aviation industry has a political and legal atmosphere that favors the entry of new firms who are allowed to grow and compete as the earlier entrants. The domestic airline industry is also exposed to less regulatory mechanisms when compared to companies that operate international flights, most of which are subjected to commonwealth regulation. Market analysts have seen internal industry deregulation as a way of giving more dominance to Qantas and virgin who continue to control the local market (Taylor, 33). The economic nature of the flight industry has however faced some turbulent moments attributed to the events in the international arena like the SARS outbreak and terrorism activities. The unstable cost of fuel caused by continued environmental concerns has pushed the basic cost of flights higher which has impacted on the willingness of the customers to book their flights. Competition in the market has also been increase due to the withdrawal of Ansett, which currently allows for the uncontrolled entry of new airlines into the industry (Clausen & Williams, 47). Recommendation Qantas airlines succeed to become a major force in the sector due to its proper policies and approach towards the market especially during the introduction of long flights. However, the company has faced significant challenges that have impacted on its ability to be on top of other market players and retain its traditional customers. To remedy the current situation, the company must seek to implement a market centric communication approach that seeks to address the problems facing the customers (Baker, 2013). This will enable the company to act and introduce products that are designed from the demands and needs of the consumers as opposed to developing products to fit the organization’s desires. Competition has also increased due to the change in airline policy that has made it possible for new airlines to join the market without strong regulation. Adopting customer centrality will be the best option for the company to retain its customers and attract more despite the current competition (Bigus & Seijts). Conclusion Success in airline industry is influenced by the policies of a company that reflects its commitment to safety, quality services and dedication to the customers. The problems associated with technical negligence serves to scare away customers from the airline and work to the disadvantage of the company as most of its traditional clients stay away (Quiggin, 51). Qantas must thus show commitment not just to its customers but also to its aircrafts by regularly servicing them to reduce technical problems that scare the customers. Works cited Baker, Collin. Crunch Time for Qantas. Asian Aviation Magazine, (2013): 11(10):10 Bigus, Paul. & Seijts, Jana. Qantas airline: Twitter nosedive, Harvard Business review, Ivey publishing. 2012. Clausen, Lisa, and Daniel Williams. "One Down, Two aloft." Time International (South Pacific Edition) 9 (2002): 47. Qantas Airways Limited. Qantas Airways SWOT Analysis (2013). pp. 1-8. Quiggin, John. "Evaluating Airline Deregulation in Australia." Australian Economic Review 30.1 (2001): 45-56. Taylor, Ellis. "Trial Period." Airline Business 29.8 (2013): 32-33 Read More