Strategic Marketing of Qatar Airways - Assignment Example

 Strategic Marketing Executive Summary Marketing orientation is a highly talked about matter in the modern day business organizations. Managers across the world are spending huge money and energy for the proper marketing orientation. This study will discuss different important elements of the marketing orientation and the chosen organization for this study is Qatar Airways. Contents Executive Summary 1 Contents 2 Introduction 3 Customer orientation 3 Competitor orientation 5 Inter functional co-ordination 7 Organizational culture 8 Long-term creation of shareholder value 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Appendix 14 Introduction Marketing orientation is the philosophy of the company which is focused on identifying and meeting the needs of its customers through several factors. Those factors are customer orientation, competitor orientation; inter functional co-ordination and organizational culture. Strategic marketing orientation is the integral part of the modern day business. Modern day business is ever-changing. It is very important for each and every organization to change their structure according to the time. The modern business is full of cut throat competitions; managing competition is the need of the hour for the managements across the world. Customers are the focus and understating customers continuously is a complex but important task. The performance of the company has significant dependency on inter functional co-ordination. Organizational culture with their values and visionary thoughts also play significant roles for the marketing orientation. Share holders are the pillars of organizational successes, it is important for every company to take care of the long term interests of share holders. With the help of this study Managing director of Qatar airways will be able to get some insights of marketing orientation on the basis of the above written factors. The organization has 131 fleet sizes and the company covers 144 destinations across the world. Customer orientation According to Donavan, Brown, Mowen (2004), customer orientation is all about a group of actions taken by the companies to identify and meet the needs of the customers. The authors said that previously organizations were more products centric but as the business scenario has changed now days organizations are transforming themselves into more customer centric. They also commented that performances of the organizations are highly dependent on the continuous understanding of changing needs of customers. In the modern world of business customer orientation is the core factor and fundamental aim of every organization is to remain focused towards customers. They argued that in modern day business every company relies on pricing, innovation and brand image. They commented that apart from all these things organizations can gain high competitive advantages through offering quality services and by meeting the customer expectations (Donavan, Brown and Mowen, 2004). According to Kirca, Jayachandran, Bearden (2005), customer orientation can be achieved with the help of different steps all relating to analyzing, engaging, delightful, automated and optimizing. Authors commented that at the beginning companies must continuously analyze different needs of the customers and then make all the internal and external customers engage with the process of customer orientation. In the next step organizations must provide delightful experiences to their customers with the help of supreme product and service qualities. According to them delighted customers are important for increasing the value of the organizations. In the next step organizations should streamline the process of customer orientation to get the optimal benefits out of customer orientation (Kirca, Jayachandran, Bearden, 2005). Qatar Airways being an airline company must focus towards the customer orientation. Their services should be more and more customer centric instead of any fixed and structured standardization of services. The aviation industry is highly competitive. Rising prices of air turbine fuel has made this industry more complex. It is very important for the organization to attract more and more customers towards them and this endeavour only can be possible with the help of supreme customer orientation. Each and every day the organization comes across different gender and age group customers. The organization has to understand or identify different needs of the customers after analyzing their needs the organization can modify their services before, during and after the journey. The main idea of the organization should be offering a delightful service experiences to the passengers (Herhausen, 2011). The organization must try to exceed the customer expectation with their supreme services. This will help the company to maintain customer orientation and it will lead into improved organizational performances. Competitor orientation According to Barbara, Lafferty, Tomas and Hult (2001), understanding the short term and long term capabilities of the competitors is significantly important for each and every organization. They commented that this understanding can give lots of information on the basis of which organizations can design their marketing strategies. They further argued that in the modern world business companies belong to any industry are battling hard to snatch market shares of other competitors. In this environment of supreme competitions it is significantly important for the organizations to gather as much information as possible. According to them managers across the world think that competitor orientation is an effective way to increase the performances of organizations. They further argued that in a survey done by A&C in 1992 has clearly indicated that 39% of global managers think that the best way to judge their organizational performances is on the basis of competitor analysis (Barbara, Lafferty, Tomas and Hult, 2001). According to Calantonea, Cavusgila and Zhaob (2002), competitor orientation is highly preferable in every growing industry. According to them the organizations across the world must invest more and more money for gathering different competitive information. They also commented that information related with the strategies of the competitors can help organizations in terms their product or service innovation. They further argued that competitor orientation can give first mover advantage to organizations across the world. Authors also stated that if organizations are well aware of the capabilities of their competitors then it become significantly easy to manage the ever growing competitions (Calantonea, Cavusgila and Zhaob, 2002). Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways are the main competitors of Qatar Airways and both the organizations are head quartered in the Middle East region (Hooley, Piercy, and Nicoulaud, 2012). According to the survey and forecast of Air transport intelligence, from the year 2005 to 2020, Qatar Airways has remained and will remain in the second position among two other competitors in terms of passenger carried. Emirate Airline has 227 fleet sizes and covers 142 destinations across the world. Fleet size of Etihad Airways is 101 and covers 120 destinations across the world. All the above information is clearly pointing that Qatar Airways has significant improving opportunities in terms of increasing their fleet size. Improving fleet size will allow the organization to increase their business in the Europe and Latin America. This will help the company to increase its market share in the global aviation industry. Qatar Airways must retain its well performing and highly skilled work forces for the longer period of time. It has been noticed that in the year 2013 Emirates Airline has successfully retained their experienced employees. The organization has able to retained 20 % employees who are having more than 10 years of experiences (Hill and Jones, 2009). It is an exemplary recommendation for the Qatar airways to retain their performing employees for the longer period of time. Inter functional co-ordination According to Lussier (2008), inter functional coordination is the integral part of the marketing orientation. The author stated that over the year dependency have been increased between each and every departments of an organization. They stated that from the beginning of the services or product up to end, a cascading systematic process follows in the different departments of an organization. He also commented that inter functional coordination reduces the confusions among different divisions inside an organization. The author categorically stated that proper inter functional co-ordination can reduce unnecessary wastage of valuable resources of the companies. He further argued that market orientation is incomplete without the inter-functional coordination (Lussier, 2008). According to Dessler and Phillips (2007), inter functional co-ordination is significantly important for the value creation of customers. The authors stated that due to the proper inter function co-ordination organizations can offer more improved products and services to the customers and customers also feel significantly satisfied with their experiences related with the products and services. They have described it as joint and systematic efforts by the organizations for delivering smooth and hassle free services. They have further argued that lack of inter functional co-ordination can prove to be detrimental for the companies as lack of co-ordination can cause damages to the organizational resources (Dessler and Phillips, 2007). The recent reviews given by different passengers of Qatar Airways have categorically stated that from the time of boarding pass collection to the time of getting down from the plan they have mixed feelings regarding their service experiences (Fitzroy and Herbert, 2007). The organization has significant scope of improvement in terms inter functional co-ordination. If the organization tries to increase the values of their targeted customers then, it must focus towards inter functional coordination. The organization must tie all the functional departments into a common fabric which will allow them to provide services to the customer in hassle free manner. Departments like catering and staff services must work in more co-ordinated way because these two departments are facing some criticism by the passengers. Human resource department of Qatar Airways must keep close contact with the services department of the company. HR department of the organization must seek for regular feedback related with the service quality of each and every individual service staff. It will help the organization to monitor and control the whole passenger service procedures (Verweire and Berghe, 2004). This will help the organization to identify performing and non performing employees and at the end of the day passengers will be benefited by the services of the staffs. Organizational culture According to Alvesson (2012), the behaviours and values that contribute to the psychological and social environment of an organization are famously known as organizational culture. It is the backbone of market orientation. According to the author this factor guides in which way an organization will go in future. He also added that organizational culture has significant influences on the different activities, strategies and goals of an organization. He commented that organization culture is a way through which organizations conducts their businesses, treat their customers and employees and the overall community. It is all about linking the behaviours of employees and management for the interest of customers. The author categorically stated that productivity and organization performances are directly related with the organizational cultures (Alvesson, 2012). According to Schein (2010), it is shared value across the organization which can offer significant benefits to the customers and the companies as well. He further added that culture is observable and continuous behavioural pattern of the organization. The author commented that market orientation is significantly dependent on the culture of the organization. He further stated that each and every company organize their market according to their organizational culture. He commented that culture acts as the immune system for the organization and protect the company from any external cultural diseases (Schein, 2010). Being a government controlled organization Qatar Airways reflects significant Qatari factors in their organizational system. The organization has a serious issue in terms of providing better working environment for the employees. In 2013 International Civil Aviation Organization has criticised the organization in a meeting held in Canada (Schabracq, 2009). The organization must look at this matter otherwise this can hamper the image of 5 star airlines. The issue was related with the standard hiring contract of female cabin crew. The organization has to improve this cultural scenario by implementing proper and unbiased hiring contracts for female cabin crews. It is the primary duty of the company to provide good and super working environments to the employees. The organization can achieve supreme customer satisfactions by making their employees satisfied. Satisfied employees will devote full dedications and commitments towards their works and the result will be increased business performance for the company. The company has to reduce their gaps between the management and the employees. This will help the company to combine together and in this way a bidirectional communication will flow across the length and breadth of the organization (Ashkanasy, Wilderom, and Peterson, 2011). Close rooted relationship between employees and management will help the organization to serve their customer smoothly and the organization will be able to secure its 5 star rating. Long-term creation of shareholder value According to Jones (2008), share holders are the nerve centres of any organization. He also commented that it is significantly important for the organizations to create long term valuation of the shareholders. He added share holders value creation is possible only when the organizations create income more than their capital and costs. Share holder value creation is significantly important for the image of the company. As the organizations give continuous high dividend to their share holders then share holders feel greatly attracted towards those companies and invest more money in those organizations. Over the year’s shareholder’s value has become significantly important. The author has suggested that maximizing the wealth of share holders should be the main aim of the organization. The author categorically stated that each and every investor seeks highest possible returns in against of their investment and it is the core area for the management of the organizations to secure the interests of share holders (Jones, 2008). According to Keay (2012), share holders are the owner of the organizations and fundamental objective of the organization is the creation of long term values for the share holders. The author also commented that before making any strategic decisions each and every organization should consider their decisions from the point of view of share holders. The author stated that share holders values are significantly dependent on certain elements like Revenue, operating margin etc (Keay, 2012). In 2013 the organization has started 7 new routes into their operations. During this course of action the organization has lost $200 million revenue. Over the years investor of the organization has greater interest towards the performance of the company. Being a government controlled organization the government of Qatar is also a shareholder for the organization and spends lots of resources into the organization. The organization has to focus towards the interests of the share holders (McLoughlin and Aaker, 2010). The organization is in the mode of expansion as it eyes for the increasing number of routes but it must take care of the interests of the share holders consistently. It has to strike a suitable balance between the long term value creation of share holders and the business expansion. Long term value creation of share holders will give the organization a sense of security within this uncertain environment of global aviation industry. Conclusion Customer orientations, competitor orientation, inter functional co-ordination, organizational culture and long term value creation of the share holders are deeply related with the marketing orientation. It is very easy to analyze that all these factors are the primary requirements for marketing orientation. Marketing orientation provides complete looks to the organizations across the world. Here in this study different recommendations have been given to the Managing director of the Qatar Airways and all those recommendations are significantly specific for the marketing orientation of the company. With the help of those recommendations the organization will be able to implement their marketing orientation in a more effective way and it will help the company to maintain their 5 star rating in the aviation industry. References Donavan, T. D., Brown, T. J and Mowen, J. C. 2004. Internal Benefits of Service-Worker Customer Orientation: Job Satisfaction, Commitment, and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors. Journal of Marketing: January 2004, Vol. 68,(1). Kirca, H. A., Jayachandran, S. and Bearden, O. W. 2005. Market Orientation: A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of Its Antecedents and Impact on Performance. Journal of Marketing: April 2005, Vol. 69, (2). Barbara A. Lafferty, G. Tomas M. and Hult, 2001. A synthesis of contemporary market orientation perspectives", European Journal of Marketingi.Vol. 35, (1). Calantonea, J. R., Cavusgila, S. T. and Zhaob, Y. 2002. Learning orientation, firm innovation capability, and firm performance. Industrial Marketing Management. Volume 31, (6). Lussier, R. 2008. Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development. London: Cengage Learning. Dessler, G. and Phillips, J. 2007. Managing Now. London: Cengage Learning. Alvesson, M. 2012. Understanding Organizational Culture. London: SAGE. Schein, H. E. 2010. Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Jones, V. R. 2008. The Executive Guide to Boosting Cash Flow and Shareholder Value: The Profit Pool Approach. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. Ashkanasy, N. M., Wilderom, C. P. M. and Peterson, M. F. 2011. The Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate. London: SAGE Keay, A. 2012. The Enlightened Shareholder Value Principle and Corporate Governance. New York: Routledge. Hooley, G., Piercy, N., and Nicoulaud, B., 2012. Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning, 5th Ed. New York: FT Prentice Hall. Schabracq, M. J. 2009. Changing Organizational Culture: The Change Agent's Guidebook. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Herhausen, D. 2011. Understanding Proactive Customer Orientation: Construct Development and Managerial Implications. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media. Fitzroy, P. and Herbert, J. M. 2007. Strategic Management: Creating Value in a Turbulent World. New York: John Wiley & Sons. McLoughlin, D. and Aaker, D. A. 2010. Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Verweire, K. and Berghe, L. V. D. 2004. Integrated Performance Management: A Guide to Strategy Implementation. London: SAGE. Hill, C. and Jones, G. R. 2009. Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. New York: Cengage Learning. Appendix Customer orientation Competitor orientation Inter functional co-ordination Read More