Social Media Analysis for Qatar Airways

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Executive Summary

Business organizations regardless of the industry are subjected to micro and macro-environmental factors. These factors play key roles in the determination of various operational aspects of any firm.

In this case, Qatar Airways is dedicated to develop a social media, which allows the company to improve its airlines services and general customer communications. The achievement of appropriate social media must involve wide consideration of both internal and external factors of the environment.

Introduction

Social media is the most common technological trend of today. Almost everyone have attachment to a social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Flickr.

Organizations are not an exemption from the strategy, as they too have adopted the trend to perform some of the basic operations aimed at achieving their goals, which primarily revolve around profit maximization.

The marketing department is in the forefront in utilizing the social media in attracting customers and retaining the ones it has already acquired. Undoubtedly, the use of social media in marketing has been on the rise.

Company/Brand Information

Qatar Airways is a competitive company and one of the leading airlines in the world. Qatar Airways first began as a private business for the royal family members in Qatar on 20 January 1994.

According to Akbar Al Baker, the CEO of Qatar Airways, since the inception of the airline company, Qatar Airways have expanded to offer both local and international flights to its passengers in over 120 destinations across the world (Qatar Airways, n.d.).

The firm has deeply set its root in the aviation industry and currently boasts of a large market share. Qatar Airways is dedicated to the highest quality of service delivery to their customer with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is an important marketing tool in any industry; it plays an important role in allowing businesses to achieve the much-needed success. These four aspects include product, price, place, and promotion.

Product

Qatar Airways’ main product is air transportation for both passengers and goods; it has a set of product portfolio, which includes a 5-star online travel experience in its website. This has given the company an added advantage in terms of product offering over its close competitors (Qatar Airways, n.d.).

Price

Qatar Airways has been applying market penetration strategy within the markets that it serves through its website; this has enhanced price transparency. The company has been providing its customers with low prices in order to attract and retain more customers and increase its market share.

The company ensures that higher prices maintained through the perceived value that customers get from the service. The company does this through maintenance of high levels of hospitality and customer satisfaction (Qatar Airways, n.d.).

Place (Distribution)

Qatar Airways has advanced its services to include online facilities through its own website. The data networking techniques have automated the business processes and have allowed the connection with the customers through the internet.

The travelers are able to book their travel tickets through the company’s website. In addition, customers are able to book their air tickets online for convenience. The airlines have been able to implement comprehensive software, which can support more dynamic pricing (Qatar Airways, n.d.).

Promotion

Qatar Airways has been attracting its customers by participating in various activities such as sales promotion, direct marketing, sponsorship, and advertisement.

Qatar Airways has also promoted itself and the products through advertising; it advertises its products and services through media channels such as TV, newspapers, radio, newspapers, magazines and travel magazines.

It advertises its products through some of the leading newspapers such as Gulf News and Khaleej Times (Qatar Airways, n.d.).

Industry Information: Category Trends

Since the management expects social media to interact with and serve a larger number of consumers both existing and aspiring, it is important that the company develop a strategy, which will help attain this key stratagem.

The airline firm must portray fully the business strategy from the setting to the implementation of the social media. The strategy must work in consideration of the above discussed micro and macro-factors or determinants in order to have vast knowledge of the operational environment (Qatar Airways, n.d.).

Competitor information: Emirates airline and Etihad Airways

Emirates Airline

Emirates Airlines is ranked among the fastest growing airline companies with quality services in terms of speed and order. This kind of success from the company is built around certain operation policy or cultures.

The company’s operations are guided by superior customer service, well-developed operating strategy and employee loyalty for successful service delivery (Emirates Airline, 2013).

Etihad Airways

Etihad Airways is the second largest airline in the United Arab Emirates airline and ranked fourth in the Middle East, with its headquarters in Abu Dhabi. It operates an extensive domestic and international network providing flights to different destinations.

The company operates about 1,000 flights weekly; it is one of the largest airlines in terms of market capitalization and the number of employees. For instance, it has market capitalization of $68 billion. In addition, the company has a large market share both in the domestic and international markets.

The company has been using its long-term experience to provide innovative services to its customers. This has enabled the company to have a competitive advantage over its competitors (Etihad Airways Annual Report, 2012).

Target audience

Qatar Airways has been recognized as the carrier with excellent customer service products. The target customers are the passengers who travel across the world through its destinations.

Qatar Airways has different sets of customers who include tourist, personal, religious, business, and in-transit passengers who travel to different destinations.

It has mainly focused on both middle and high-class travelers with main target being the people who travel with luxury and high standards of hospitality (Qatar Airways, n.d.).

Review and critique of the Current level of Integration

When a company improves its brand, it means that its customer base will also increase since good brands attract and retain customers (Davis, 2009).

When marketers understand their customers’ minds and develop their brand around that information, customers will always be supplied with the products they desire; the marketer will need to be ahead of their requirements to continue being relevant to them.

Customers will also be guaranteed privacy since the marketers can access them directly and individually either through emails or confidential messages.

However, the government needs to tighten its privacy acts by ensuring that the social media used by people have complied with its demands and keep monitoring the social media to ensure that the privacy rights of consumers are protected.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths	Weaknesses
The management of the airline is committed to technology advancement through social media marketing. The airline is amongst those that make the most profit in the world The airline boasts of the most attractive crew and cabin. It targets group audience by either tagging them individually or directing them to the link where the products are available. The airline is in a region where the deregulation policy is applied and competition is allowed. Prompt and quality feedback through social media Advanced upstream technologies staff efficiency	Small number of fleet compared to the like of Emirates and Etihad Airline Airline services are limited to particular regions of the world There is limited consumer social-media knowledge.
Opportunities	Threats
Untapped market in other parts of the world, especially in Africa; Increased number of travelers in recent days; Prompt and quality feedback in using new social media applications	Perception of lack of security in using airlines due to attacks by terrorists New entrants who increase competition and rivalry for the airline Political situations and regulations must be considered so as to avoid conflicts

Recommendations

The macro-factors must also be considered since the social media is expected to serve people outside the company. In this case, political situations and regulations must be considered to avoid conflicts.

An appropriate social is must work in accordance with the regulations and stay away from irresponsible political messaging which may dent the image of the company.

When designing this social media the company must bear in mind what other competitors offered to better its presentation and gain an advantage over its competitors.

Finally, it is important to recognize the fact that the social media is being designed with the customer in mind hence customer knowledge of social media is important to determine the structure of the appropriate social media by the company.

Conclusion

Qatar Airways has grown a great deal to become one of the leading airlines across the world. It has been ranked as the 2011 and 2012 Airline of the Year through an audit conducted by the Skytrax.

From a humble crop dusting service, the airline has grown to offer both passenger and Cargo services in almost 120 destinations across the world.

References

Davis, M. (2009). The Fundamentals of Branding. Lausanne: AVA Academia.

Emirates Airline. (2013). Building a Global Network. Web.

Etihad Airways Annual Report. (2012). Web.

Qatar Airways. Web.

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