Service Marketing Enhancements for JetBlue - Essay Example

RUNNING HEADER: Service Marketing Enhancements for JetBlue Service Marketing Enhancements for JetBlue BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Service Marketing Enhancements for JetBlue 1. Problem Identification for JetBlue JetBlue, a leading low-cost airline company, recently experienced a significant drop in trust related to the brand due to significant volumes of service failures. Customer sentiment about the brand was greatly reduced because of these customer service breakdowns, leading to a very rare and public apology by the CEO. To improve brand sentiment, service delivery, and ultimately profit, an assessment of the 7 Ps of service marketing is conducted. 2. The 7 Ps JetBlue maintains few problems with the traditional 4 Ps of marketing. Pricing is in-line with customer expectations based on their low-cost model and directly influenced by competitive pricing with competing airline companies (JetBlue, 2011). However, the problems associated with service delivery and brand sentiment requires that JetBlue offer more discounted package and travel options as a means of reinforcing their price differentiation and satisfying their value proposition. Product is reflected by its provision of travel vacation packages on reputable sites such as Priceline and Travelocity, as well as JetBlue Getaways, a self-managed website offering custom-designed packages (JetBlue, 2010). As with the pricing consideration, JetBlue should expand these product offerings to illustrate the depth of its value proposition and value consciousness. Place is satisfied by having many fleets and routes established throughout the nation, thus adding convenience to the consumer experience. However, the majority of revenues come from New York and Florida, as Jet Blue has the most presence in these locations. The business should expand its market presence and capacity to improve place availability that can be used in promotions. Promotion is lacking at JetBlue. The company relies heavily on social media to create relationships with customers and promote its value (JetBlue, 2011). Social media is not effective in all markets, thus the business should invest additional capital in promotion to fully advertise its value proposition and gain more market attention. The expanded dimension of physical layout is somewhat restricted by its low cost model, as improving physical layout requires less overhead or more budgeting in this area. However, by offering customers more airport-based facilities and improvements on-board will improve its competitive position. In terms of people, the business requires more cultural development to ensure a culture of service excellence, something significantly damaged in reference to the Jet Blue brand. Finally, the business needs to change its processes when it comes to creating customer satisfaction. The current level of market research being conducted is minimal and there should be more interactivity with customers to determine, statistically, where their largest service failures lie. This is one of the primary problems associated with the diminished brand sentiment of consumers leading to a reputational problem. 3. Implementing New 7 P Improvements New travel options should be coordinated with the JetBlue marketing division by expanding its vacation Getaways service with Priceline, Travelocity, and other major companies. JetBlue should establish, to satisfy product and pricing, more brand visibility to reinforce its pricing value proposition. Alliances and work with independent travel agencies will ensure a more effective product and also build short-term penetration/dynamic pricing to differentiate the business. Place will require JetBlue to establish airport lounges to provide a better service experience. The business should partner with major hub airports for these JetBlue lounges, which will require adding a short-term budget allowance for capital investment in construction and development. By linking the brand with these upgrades, consumers will maintain a better brand sentiment about JetBlue. Promotion will require creation of a social media questionnaire or survey that is attached to the tickets used by customers. By providing a code, and incentives for bonus mile points, customers will be incentivized to fill out these service instruments. This will give JetBlue more statistical knowledge of where their service is most poor and make changes based on consumer feedback. Physical layout improvements would be satisfied by adding Wi-Fi to the in-flight experience, thus giving business travelers (and others) more convenience in communications and business interactivity. By linking this with promotional changes, the business will gain more market attention and satisfy the busy traveler in need of Internet communications. A short-term capital investment is required for upgrading existing fleets. Finally, the most important to helping Jet Blue, is to establish new processes. The business should create a new internal vision and develop training packages to assist in changing attitudes about the importance of service delivery. Training would include customer relationship management theory and practice, offered to all staff members from flight crew to service support and ticket sales. This would build a new sincerity based on the CEOs apology for JetBlue service failures, something critical for establishing a brand personality (Aaker, 1996). By promoting these training changes and cultural development intentions, it will also build excitement and a consumer perception of confidence, more important elements to establishing a competitive brand (Aaker, 1996). Using feedback tools and human resource observations, it can be documented that all staff members have successfully completed new training as part of quality control systems. This training and evaluation can be coordinated with executives and HR, using 360 degree feedback systems and balanced scorecards to ensure that all training is conducted properly and outcomes have been achieved. Observation on in-flight systems can confirm that new elements of service excellence are being achieved. 3. Justifying the Changes Consumer trust in a brand is defined by “a willingness to be vulnerable” (Kramer & Tyler, 1996, p.37). The CEO managed to set the foundation of trust through his humility and willingness to accept responsibility for service failures. However, in order to establish more trust, the company needs to redevelop, mostly, its service excellence and training policies while also keeping true to the pricing policy that has gained market attention in the last decade. Dependability is one of the main concepts that builds brand trust in consumer markets (Mayer, et al., 1995), therefore by promoting the new JetBlue service and product concepts, it will provide consistency and a view of dependability that the business will not offer these same service failures as identified in the JetBlue case study. References Aaker, David A. (1996). “Measuring Brand Equity across Products and Markets”, California Management Review, 38(2), pp.102-120. JetBlue. (2011).” JetBlue Airways Annual Report”. Retrieved August 24, 2012 from http://investor.jetblue.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131045&p=irol-reportsAnnual JetBlue. (2010). “JetBlue Airways Annual Report”. Retrieved August 23, 2012 from http://investor.jetblue.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131045&p=irol-reportsAnnual Kramer, R.M. & Tyler, T.R. (1996), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research. New York: Sage. Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H. & Schoorman, F.D. (1995). “An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust, Academy of Management Review, 20(1), pp.709-734. Read More