Market And Customer Analysis Of Qantas Airlines

Determination of external market factors

Contemporary business organizations are having different sets of business approaches available to them. This is enabling them to accept their business approach according to the business environment. In addition, the current business scenario is posing huge challenges for the business organizations by means of enhanced competition in the market (Bocken et al. 2014). Thus, it is becoming more important for the organizations to have a certain business model, which will help them in earning profit in the market and gaining competitive advantages. One of the major and most competitive markets in the current time is the airliner industry due to the presence of good number of players (DaSilva and Trkman 2014).

Qantas is the largest airliner and flag carrier in Australia with having their presence in different regions across the world. Being a flag carrier, they are mainly catering to the premium customers by offering premium services (Qantas.com 2018). They are following legacy airliner business model, which is helping them in them in gaining more profitability from the market along with maintaining the brand value. This business model of Qantas is well aligned with the target customers due to the fact that target customers of Qantas airlines are mainly the premium customers opting for long haul flight services. Majority of the customers for Qantas airlines are international.

This report will discuss about the of market environmental factors that are having impacts on the success of Qantas airlines. In addition, this report will also discuss about the consumer behaviors along with a few recommended steps for future business state of affairs.

Political factors	· Qantas is having their business operation in multiple countries and thus they are facing the challenge of different and diverse legal situations. Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper · Different regulations including different rate of taxation is affecting the profitability of Qantas. · Factor such as negative diplomatic relationship among the countries is affecting the business of Qantas. This is due to the reason that issues in international political relationship will affect the international route of Qantas along with their customer traffic (Murray and Benvenuti 2014).
Economical factors	· Profitability of Qantas airlines is highly influenced by the global economic stability due to the reason that ticket fare is much higher. · Thus, economic recession will lead to reduction in revenue stream for Qantas. (Pierson and Sterman 2013) · Competition in the market will also influence the profitability of Qantas due to the reason that the more will be the competition in the market, the less will be the profitability for Qantas (Pearce 2013).
Social factors	· Social factors such as change in the requirement and expectation of the customers will affect the success of Qantas (Araghi et al. 2014). · If the preference pattern of the customers is more towards the budget carriers, then Qantas will find it difficult in attracting new customers. · Social scenario of the target market also determines the extent to which the marketing activities of Qantas will be effective (Garcia, Tor and Schiff 2013). Thus, their branding activities will have different impacts on the success of them.
Technological factors	· Technological advancement refers to the updated technologies used by Qantas in providing more secured and diverse services to the customers. · Aviation technology is rapidly evolving and this is posing challenges for Qantas in coping up with this change (Marais et al. 2013). · Added cost is involved in procuring latest aircrafts and acquiring other technologies for Qantas and this will take a toll in their profitability. · On the other hand, adaption of newer technologies will help Qantas in regulating their cost of operation and contribute more in their success.

Strengths	· Qantas is regarded as one of the well known airliners in the world. · This is helping them in increasing their revenue from new markets. · Being a flag carrier, Qantas is having the support and assistances of the Australian government (Homsombat, Lei and Fu 2014). · This is helping them in having advantages in doing business in the foreign countries.
Weaknesses	· Qantas is having their major concentration in the Australasian region. They are yet to make a mark in the western regions. This is restricting their global success. · Target customer segment for Qantas is narrow and thus the potentiality from the market for them is low compared to some of their major competitors.
Opportunities	· With the acquisition of more fuel efficient aircrafts, the cost of operation for Qantas will get reduced. This will increase in the profitability of Qantas. · Average global economy is growing and this the potential market for the airliners is getting increased. · This will help Qantas to target more customers and increase organizational success.
Threats	· Entry of new entrants in the future will lead to further reduction in the profitability of Qantas airlines. · Emergence of economic recession will reduce the purchasing power of the customers and revenue will get reduced for Qantas (Curtis, Rhoades and Waguespak 2013).

Segmentation process will be initiated in order to determine the consumer behavior of Qantas airliners. In terms of the demographic variables, the target customers for them are the customers are vast and wide and customers across all the age groups are being targeted. This is due to the reason that Qantas airlines are offering flight services, which can be availed by the customers from any age groups (Floh et al. 2014). Furthermore, both the male female customers are targeted. In terms of the income level, only the premium customers are being targeted. This is due to the fact that service offerings of Qantas are targeted towards them only.

In terms of the geographic segmentation, customers from the capital cities and some other metropolitan cities across the world are being targeted. This is due to the fact that Qantas is having their presence only I the tier I cities across the world. However, the customers from the tier I cities are the primary set of target customers. On the other hand, the customers from other regions can be considered as the secondary customers for Qantas due to the reason that these sets of customers can also avail the flight services through their areas of operation. In terms of the psychographic segmentation, customers will having active and higher end lifestyle are being targeted (Hjort et al. 2013). This is due to the reason that customers with active lifestyles will have the interest towards the premium added services offered by Qantas. In addition, customers with having higher end lifestyle will have preference for the premium services of Qantas airlines.

Political factors

In terms of the behavioral segmentation, professional customers with having both corporate and business background are being targeted. This is due to the reason that corporate professionals will have the requirement for flight for their business appointments and business people will also have the similar requirement. In addition, these professionals will also have the higher level of purchasing power for the service offerings of Qantas airlines. It is also identified that majority of the targeted customers for Qantas are need based and customer loyalty. This is due to the reason that flight services are the need of the professionals for their professional and personal purposes. On the other hand, Qantas is having number of schemes for maintaining the loyalty level of the customers and this ensures that customers buy the service of Qantas on the basis of loyalty.

• It is recommended that Qantas airways should initiate the market growth strategies. This will enable them to target the new potential markets and increase their revenue. It is also recommended to them that their growth strategy should also include the tier II cities, which will further help them to target larger section of customer segments. It should be noted that in the current time, tier II cities are developing faster than that of the Tier I cities.
• It is also recommended that Qantas airways should also initiate the market penetration strategy by means of introducing the shorter haul services. This is due to the reason that Qantas airlines are not having shorter haul services as of now. Thus it will help in further penetrating in the existing market.
• Qantas airways should also initiate the continuous process of technological advancements and this will help them to have lower cost of operation in the long term and thus the profitability will get increased. This will act as their competitive advantages in the market.

Conclusion 

This report concludes that Qantas airlines are facing number of negative factors in terms of internal and external business factors. In this report, all these factors are being identified and discussed along with identifying their potential impacts on the organizational success of Qantas. In addition, this report has also discussed about the consumer behavior of the target customers of Qantas airlines. Segmentation variables are used to determine the consumer behavior of them. In accordance to the negative factors identified in this report, there are few recommended steps also being discussed in this report.

References

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Murray, P. and Benvenuti, A., 2014. EU?Australia Relations at Fifty: Reassessing a Troubled Relationship. Australian Journal of Politics & History, 60(3), pp.431-448.

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Qantas.com 2018. Fly with Australia’s most popular airline | Qantas AU. [online] Qantas.com. Available at: https://www.qantas.com/au/en.html [Accessed 22 Oct. 2018].