Business Marketing

Introduction

Exploring marketing strategies to ensure and increase service quality can be a strong defense against unpredictable market pressures. The greater a company's ability to evaluate its marketing strategies and programs the greater the connection between its consumer base and its products. Creating loyalty starts with creating sustainable relationships. In order to solve internal as well as external problems Classic Airlines must adopt new programs that allow the customer relationship to grow. To explore this concept further, this paper will use the nine-step problem-solving method to identify and offer solutions that will realign company values with customer desires.

Describe the Situation

Current competition in the airline industry has presented new challenges for Classic Airlines. Recent reports suggest that its customer loyalty has heavily decreased and ultimately affected overall profitability of the company. There has been a 19 percent decrease in the number of Classic reward members and the amount of flights per member has declined as well. Classic must find a way to avoid the potential of a financial crisis by developing a new marketing strategy that will re-attract its old customers and gain new customers.

Frame the Problem

In order to effectively move forward with the problem-solving process, it is necessary to identify the proper nature of the problem. There are many challenges that need to be overcome. First and foremost, Classic Airlines has failed to connect with its customers on many levels. Understanding the diverse needs of consumers will increase customer loyalty, which will provide an increase in retention efforts. By finding a way to reconnect with customers, Classic Airlines will solve its internal and external issues. The trick is to find what's most important for its customers... incentives, reliability or costs.

End-State Goals

"Companies must first develop a clear picture of what they want the customer's perception of an experience to be and then design a consistent set of performance and context clues to support that experience." (Kotler & Keller 2006) Classic Airlines seeks to emerge as a leader in the airline industry. Classic Airlines will obtain its competitive edge by understanding the needs and wants of the customers it serves. In addition, by understanding these needs, as an airline service provider, it will be better equipped to provide programs and services that will gain customer loyalty.

Identify Alternatives

After careful review of the presented scenario, it has been determined that Classic could explore the possibilities of the following alternatives:

Increase focus of improving