Marketing and Singapore Airlines Essay

I. Introduction gravid of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of Singapore billetlines (SIA) has been graded as iodine of the blow over leading atmospherelines in the world. Singapore Airlines began with triple dodgings per week, and today their route net incomes span is 99 destinations in 39 countries worldwide. Singapore Airlines special(prenominal) split from Malaysian Airways in 1972 and is the national airline of Singapore run on global major(ip) routes. As stated in its website, the follow is ge atomic number 18d towards providing air transportation faithfuls of the highest quality and to maximizing returns for the upbeat of its sh atomic number 18holders and employees.. It has constantly outperformed compargond to galore(postnominal) another(prenominal) warring airlines and subject atomic number 18aed superior annual returns on prof its.As airline is known as a mistake-free sedulousness, Singapore Airlines has been proven its superior performance by its excellence emoluments as considerably as be a pioneer in ingatheringion line strategies. Hundreds of industry awards atomic number 18 received by Singapore Airlines for its run quality. This report will outline in detail the fundamental issues in selling of Singapore Airlines such as foodstuffplace and customer inevitably, highlight the satisfying issues regarding the organizations competitive environment as strong as suggest possible enhancements for the organization.II. Body1. Customers needs, wishs, adopt, mathematical product and marketplace identified for Singapore Airlines. i. Customers needs, wants and demand. Amstrong and Kotler (2011) defined needs as states of felt deprivation. They explained human needs incorporate basic physical needs as food, clothing, warmth and safety, as well as favorable needs for belonging, affection, fun and relaxation. thither ar overly esteem needs for prestigiousness, recognition and fame, and individual needs for knowledge and self-expression.. On the other hand, wants are another sort of human needs that are influenced by gardening and individual personality. Western lot like Ameri sterns or Europeans would want breads for their daily meals, while eastern people from China or Vietnam would prefer rice, though they all collect the same need of food. the great unwasheds wants expand throughout times. In the previous days, they powerfulness nevertheless simply want a transporting way to work a destination. freshr days they wanted a fast and safe transport. Today they as well want comfort and pleasure while they are transporting. Organizations should be able to see and foresee the undiminishing wants of its customers to develop their products and returns. Nevertheless, human wants are boundless, but not resources. What a person wants and what he can afford are 2 different matters. As described by Amstrong and Kotler, wants that are backed with acquire origin are called demand. For example, everyone wants to fly with a business or commencement exercise split up, but not all are willing to pay for those grievous bodily harm prices, thus few of the demand will go for the economy rank instead. Singapore Airlines has identified in that location is a need of travelling, relaxation and prestige from its customers, as well as wants and demand for the aviation service and facilities. As so, Singapore Airlines offers best services in order to satisfy its customers thuslyce. ii. Singapore Airlines products and market.Singapore Airlines aboutly mugs at businessmen and wealthy folds who are willing to pay a premium flight fares for a see high quality service. The product line of Singapore Airlines is divided into three classes of travel First, Raffles (Business) and Economy. First class accounted for 5% of passengers, Raffles class for 10 % and economy class for 85%. The expectations of these particular customers were constantly revolt and their needs and wants donjon on changing over years. Other than that, Singapore Airlines also offer many in-flight facilities and entertainment, such as free headsets, resource of meals, satellite-based inflight telephones, inflight meals from the International Culinary Panel, offer audio and video on demand capabilities on KrisWorld in all classes. They also throw different luxurious lounges for different class of passengers.2. Singapore Airlines market orientation course.i. market orientation check to Kohli and Jaworski (1990), the merchandising concept is a business philosophy, whereas the term market orientation refers to the actual implementation of the market concept. Marketing managements butt is to build profitable relationship with the rear customers by designing strategies which chase a certain business philosophy that the organization has chosen. in that location are five of them, including production concept, product concept, selling concept, trade concept and societal selling concepts. The newest business philosophy that has commonly been adopted by most(prenominal) of the large organizations nowadays, including Singapore Airlines, is the societal marketing concept. Kotler, et al. (201019) state that, the societal marketing concept holds that the organization should determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and deliver the desired satisfactions to a greater extent effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that maintains or improves the consumers and societys well-being.In brief, this concept is all about balancing three aspects of an organizations marketing shape up beau mondes profitability, customer satisfaction and societys welfare. Bhasin H. (2010) stated that the marketing concept alone sidesteps the potential conflicts among consumer wants, consumer interests, and long-run societal welfare, yet some firms and industries are criticized for satisfying consumer wants at societys expense. This has been a precedent for the societal marketing concept to be formed, which could be seen as an overstatement of the marketing concept itself. Singapore Airlines official website publishes that, Singapore Airlines firmly believes that musical accompaniment programmes that benefit the communities we serve throughout the world is an essential part of being a good corporate citizen.Singapore Airlines has been contributing to the  residential district in arts, sports, community welfare, and education. It supports a wide range of local and overseas community groups and charity organizations. Some of the highlighted are providing air travel for Australian social workers to Dhaka in Bangladesh for a project to prevent hearing outlet in textile workers, rebated air tickets to the newly established Singapore Sports trail to nurture emerging sporting talents, helping to fly the natio ns flag high in the sporting arena as the positive Airline for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore, etc. By practicing this societal marketing concept, Singapore Airlines has shown their customers that profitability is not their number one and only concern, but also to be a responsible and contributive corporate citizen. By doing so, Singapore Airlines has toped respectable reputation and favor from the customers, and boosted to a notable sales and profits.ii. Product life cycleSingapore Airlines product set is in a mature life cycle. The airline has do an outstanding job of differentiating itself through customer service available through any of its commercial aviation products. In this stage of the product life, Singapore Airlines must reinvent itself every few years to remain competitive in the industry and to prolong the stage period not to reach the decline stage. Singapore Airlines is constantly examining other service industries to see how they move to cu stomer needs and then adjusts its products accordingly. Through this strategy, Singapore Airlines by and large leads the industry in innovative customer service products and initiatives. As airline is a service industry, its products are intangible, yet Singapore Airlines commission to its service strategy is visible in every aspect of its operations.3. major(ip) competitive issues facing Singapore Airlinesi. Singapore Airlines competitive advantagesEver since the judicial separation from Malaysian Airways, Singapore Airlines has no domestic routes to serve, hence the corporation has been force to rely on the international flights and compete with other major airlines. There are three core aspects that Singapore Airlines has gained competitive advantages over other players within the industry. These comprise of the excellent service, the continuity innovation, and the technology superiority. Firstly, as explained by bundle (2004), the airlines have begun its bladeing str ategy on it in-flight service. The company booked French haute-couture designer Pierre Balmain in 1972 to design a special version of the Malay Sarong Kebaya as the airline stewardess uniform and then is branded as Singapore Girls for providing excellent in-flight hospitality. This later becomes one of the most recognized signatures of the airline, and is one of the critical reasons why Singapore Airlines forever and a day ranked at top for the customer satisfaction survey about in-flight service observed by various sources such as independent institutions or online social networking sites.The second aspect that supports the Singapore Airlines success is their effort to always be innovative particularly about the in-flight services. Additionally justified by Roll, Singapore Airlines has pioneered many in-flight experiential and entertainment innovations, and strived to be best in class. It was the beginning to introduce hot meals, free alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, hot t owels with a unique and patented scent, personal entertainment systems, and video-on-demand in all cabins. The company keeps driving innovation as an important part of the brand, and the cabin ambiance and combined experience are key factors of its success. Lastly, on the technology side, Roll also evaluated that Singapore Airlines still maintains the youngest fleet of aircraft among all major air carriers, and keeps to the stringent policy of replacing older aircrafts for newer, better models.It has always been first in line to take delivery of new aircraft types like Boeing 747 big jets, Boeing 777, and it will become the first airline to fly the Airbus super giant A-380 in 2006. Even the aircrafts are sub-branded like 747-Megatop and 777-Jubilee to further distinguish SIA and its brand from competitors. Singapore Airlines also flew Concorde between Singapore and London in the late seventies in collaboration with British Airways (BA). The aircraft was painted with SIAs colouri ze and logos on one side, and BAs on the other, and it carried work party from both airlines.ii. Porters five forces analysis of Singapore Airlines a) Suppliers powerSuppliers power is consistently high in airlines industry. This hence will have a great impact in the companys product and service costs, prices andprofitability. However, Singapore Airlines is financially strong and has its own ground service such as baggage handling and in-flight food and beverages supply. Aircraft maintenance and function is also carried out by SIA Engineers. Thus the main supply for Singapore Airline is basically the aircraft manufacturers. Since the firm has been known as an airline with youngest aircraft usage, Singapore Airlines has been a significant customers and has bargaining power over the suppliers.b) Buyers powerThe emptor bargaining power is indeed high for Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines targets mostly on businessmen and people who are affordable for premiums flight fares. The se types of passengers are not too sensitive to prices, but concentrating much on the flight time that is flexible for them, and also the comfortability of the en boldnessd service. However, regardless of which type of passengers, all of them might just switch to other airlines without hesitation if time and service sum up their demand better. Since customers are willing to pay for their enjoyment and flexibility, Singapore Airlines target market has a strong level of buying power.c) SubstitutionsSingapore Airlines generally has medium to low threat on substitution of its services. As mentioned above, Singapore Airlines target passengers are not cost-conscious travelers, they can afford high fares in return for their comfort and time efficiency. Hence with excellence both in ground and in-flight service quality and updated high-tech facilities, Singapore Airlines easily guard customers loyalty. Other substitute transport mode would not be a big threat especially for long flights or long withdrawnness travel.d) Competitive rivalryThe level of rivalry is medium for Singapore Airlines. Although there are not many airlines can compete against SIA, these airlines in the holy industry share the very similar market. Most of the carriers are utilise differentiated strategy that focus on both booking and in-flight services. SIA with outstanding and uniqueness service offerings has helped the firm to have lesser pressure on competition. However, Singapore Airlines has to continue on innovation and maintain and improve service quality if they do not wish to lose out.e) New entries bane of new entrance is consider low in airline industry, since the capital investment for the industry is massive. According to Calingo (1997) it would read a lot of logistic works, highly skilled personal such as pilots, aircraft technicians and specialize managerial personnel which are often limited in resources in the industry. trammel access to airport and route are also anoth er obstacle post to new entrant.4. Segmenting, targeting and view of Singapore Airlines. i. SegmentingAccording to Kotler et al. (2010199), marketing section is defined as dividing a market into distinct groups who might require separate products and/or marketing mixes. The objective is to help determine marketing strategies and realistic marketing objectives by understanding customer trends and buyer behaviors. Singapore Airlines divides its market based on geographic, demographics, psychographic and behavioral. For geographic segmentation, Singapore Airlines customers are located globally with varying wants and needs thus the firm attempts to exploit this by providing airline services to major cities or routes. Evidence given is Singapore Airlines operates flights to over 90 destinations in more than 39 countries over 5 continents.Its strong presence is however still the Southeast Asia region. Demographic segment works on the basis of customer factual characteristics such as age, gender, family lifecycle, social-culture, occupation, education and income that can influence purchasing decisions. Singapore Airlines, for example, demographically segment their customers from their resource of the service class. Suite class and First class passengers are dominantly traveling on business purpose and mostly are male between 25 to 45 years old. Passengers in business class are split evenly between traveling for business and leisure. Mostly are male with average age 32. Economy class passengers are a much broader group, traveling mainly for leisure and evenly spread crossways most socio-economic groups and age ranges.Another approach to segmentation is psychographic, which is an attempt to impound what is driving the customers behavior, such as values, personalities, attitudes, opinion, interest and lifestyle aspirations. For instance, Singapore Airlines provides variations of cabin classes (First, Business and Economy) to meet the product demand of peo ple. Singapore Airlines employs tier membership to provide status preferences to customers. The last segment approach is behavioral which is based on observable issues on consumer behavior when purchasing the products. Characteristics include frequency of consumption, buyer readiness and commitment. The corporate market tends to be a frequent flyer that could gain benefits from Singapore Airlines Frequent Flyer program, in return for customers loyalty to the airlines. Some people are brand loyal, they tend to stick with their preferred or familiar brands even when a competing one is on sale.ii. TargetingMarket targeting, explained by Kotler et al. (2010199), is the process of evaluating each segments attractiveness and selecting one or more of the market segments. Singapore Airlines subroutines differentiated market targeting, which refers to where firm target several segments and develops distinct products/services with separate marketing mix strategies aimed at various group appr oach, where they target in accordance to consumers needs and to their occupation. Singapore Airlines has two target markets.The first aimed at people who mostly have a high income with a high class lifestyle and prefer to seek comfort with excellent services rather than to get a cheaper price but do not get the as good facilities and services. The other target market is customary passengers who mostly just want to travel and not too demanding about the services and the facilities. For this market, Singapore Airlines owns a budget airline as well to compete, which is Tiger Airways, to meet the market needs.iii. PositioningKotler et al also described market locating is evolution competitive positioning for the product and an appropriate marketing mix. Added by them, a products position is the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes the place the product occupies in consumers minds relative to competing product. In this specific circumstance, is how the pa ssengers perceive Singapore Airlines service compared to other major carriers, such as British Airways or Cathay Pacific. There are many different general strategies for positioning products. Attribute or benefit, quality and price, use or application, competition, high-tech and high-touch can achieve desired positioning.Market positioning is about how Singaspore Airlines wants its customers to perceive their products and services in relation to their competitors. Singapore Airlines positioning strategy is using Singapore Girl as a key ingredient in marketing its image. Personified through the girls, customers will have a sensory and emotional experience when travelling with Singapore Airlines, with its commitment to service and quality excellence. Since the traditional marketing communication has often been focus on cabin design, food, comfort and pricing, this strategy of Singapore Girl has successfully gain a positive market positioning in the customers heart.III. ConclusionTher e are concrete substantiations why Singapore Airlines has grown from a regional airline into one of the worlds top leading carriers. This piece has analyzed some of the vital marketing issues concerning the strategic way that Singapore Airlines operates to reach their upward achievement nowadays. They have always been setting their customers needs and wants as the first priority in order to understand and provide excellent quality service to match the growing demand of the passengers. altogether with the clear comprehending and effective implementation of the organizations selected societal marketing concept, precise identification of the competitive concerns as well as the market segmenting, targeting and positioning, Singapore Airlines has been able to successfully differentiate its brand image and endorsed its prestige status to the whole world.IV. RecommendationsPerforming the SWOT analysis would help Singapore Airlines to identify the key issues for enhancements in its operat ional strategies. Singapore Airlines needs to keep its superiority and stay on the top of the competition in the international market, by understanding the plans that being pursued by other major players such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, etc. Singapore Airlines should continue to differentiate itself and keep on provide up scaling service quality to the customers.It is recommended for Singapore Airlines to regularly renovate its facilities as well as install new technological features. Improvement and installation of in-flight entertainment system such as latest technology electronics and DVDs, access training to the CD music and interconnected network games with the passengers inside of the aircraft, ability to shoot and receive email and internet surfing on selected content, Satellite telephones can be some of the suggestions. Nevertheless, Singapore Airlines should carry on contributing more in its social responsibilities to the community well-being to remain an ethical and trust worthy corporate citizen.V. References and BibliographyAyob, A.M (n.d.). Singapore Airlines Limited Building a culture of service excellence. Retrieved grand 5th, 2012, from https//docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q= compileaDhMN-GX8s8Jmahdzan.com/papers/sia/SINGAPORE_AIRLINES.pdf+singapore+airlines+marketing+strategy&hl=en&gl=sg&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjah_jaSacO-NJn77hv6rhqruT9KQnCLqiKJD4opuCV-hAT_rzvAM8eS_FMZqlhy2rmS8CRLxxhV7Jf8_p0XU-2ZaGHuzUF5I4yAOHzIGGbgCYMLq0C7pngKnOuKjFTWRAiMHID&sig=AHIEtbRwCtZUzXuAJ5G-SBBjU3CSURqkBQ Bhasin, H. (2010). Socetal Marketing Concept. Retrieved August 5th, 2012, from http//www.marketing91.com/societal-marketing-concept/Calingo, L.M.R. (1997). Strategic management in the Asian context. Singapore Airlines Comparative fountain studies of the British and Singaporean national airlines. 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Retrieved August 5th, 2012, from http//ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/02/the-critical-success-of-singapore-airlines.html_Toc212902244