Jetblue Airways Marketing Mix free essay sample

JetBlue Airways Corp. is one of the major American low-cost airline and one of the best examples of a succeeding business because of excellent customer service based on low operating cost relative to the superior product offering (offer a product superior to competitors at affordable prices). JetBlue is established in 1999 by David Needleman and commenced operation only February 11, 2000 with new Airbus A320 aircraft operating between Buffalo and Ft. Lauderdale (Nasdaq 2011). In 2001 during the sharp decrease in airline travel that followed the terrorist attack company could survive the competition of the major airlines and even become one of the airline companies that made a profit (Denison Consulting 2005). Nowadays, JetBlue is the largest passenger carrier in the United States operating 115 Airbus A320 and 45 EMBARE 190 – the youngest and most fuel-efficient aircrafts serving 66 cities with an average of 650 daily flights throughout US and eleven countries in the Caribbean, South America and Latin America. JetBlue has the idea to â€Å"bring the humanity back to air travel†, including friendly, customer-service oriented staff, new aircrafts, with leather covered seats, build-in flat-screen monitors with in-flight movies, over 30 channels of DIRECTV, and 100 channel of XM satellite radio without any additional charge, providing the excellent service product in airline industry with reasonably priced optional upgrades and offering the simple and low fares (JetBlue Airways 2011). We will write a custom essay sample on Jetblue Airways Marketing Mix or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Marketing mix Marketing mix a framework describing the combination of marketing tools that the marketers blend to create a desired response in the target market (Kotler 2011). It is made up from everything the firm can do to stimulate the demand for its product. Traditionally the marketing mix is made up 4 main elements: product, promotion, place and price. Product Author Elliot (2009) defines product as anything that company offers to the market to satisfy customer requirements. In the marketing mix, the product variable is related to making an offering that anticipates and meets the needs and wants of consumers. Because the product is main element of the marketing mix – marketers should carefully design product strategies to achieve marketing goals. Product strategies consist of product quality, packaging, branding, support services, product variety and features which benefit the target customer wants. JetBlue offers its customers air transportation with its productivity, in-flight features and customer service. If we look upon the productivity of the JetBlue, we will come to know that the company buys only 2 planes types (JetBlue Airways 2011), which allows keeping its planes in the air more time, reducing the ground time, holding the highest in-air average in the airline market. JetBlue terminals provides kid’s play area, work spaces, cozy lounge zones, retail stores, excellent restaurants with high end dishes, making travelers feel themselves comfortable during the waiting. On boards it installs in-seat LCD monitors as a key product feature during the flight with 36 channels of DirectTV or over 100 channels of Sirius XM Radio (Wikinvest website 2011). Additionally, it covers seats with leather, add more legroom inches comparing to the average airline seat, accompanying with best selected beverages and snacks, and all of these are free of charge. Due to these features, time in JetBlue aircrafts seems shorter because there is more to do during the flight. With the regard to the customer service, JetBlue concentrates at attracting and motivating a talented personnel, how fit company’s values, such as caring, integrity, passion, safety and fun. The values then provide motivated, productive employees who focus on customer satisfaction and exceed their expectations (Dodds 2007) Price Elliot (2009) explains the term price as the amount of money firm charges for its offerings. Certainly, the price has to match the customer’s willingness to pay in order to obtain the product. Otherwise, all the marketing efforts are useless. Additionally, pricing strategies usually adjust prices the business will take from resellers and wholesalers, before fixing prices for the end user. Cost, demand or the competing products’ prices with the consumer’s feelings about the product’s value may be the base of pricing strategies. We can see that the core strength of the JetBlue airline is in its low fare (Online shopping website 2007). Therefore it is important to think carefully about how company can make this low cost affordable for its customers. The solution lies in the control of operational costs. JetBlue does not offer meals during flights but they offer snacks and drinks to their customers. It also saves money by reservation system that employs part-time working at home and using technology to automate tasks (Carton 2001). Another interesting strategy is booking sales through the website and issuing only e-tickets, saving paper, employee time and postage. In addition, JetBlue have only Airbus A320 and EMBRAER 190 (JetBlue Airways 2011), and all of their workers are qualified to fly these type of planes, thus there is no necessary to provide more training to the staff and further having these type of aircrafts allows being more efficient and saving for maintenance processes. These strategies help JetBlue to charge low prices from users and provide significant advantages for success in such a keen competition (Dodds 2007). Place Place is the marketing activity that makes the product available to the target market at the right time and place (Elliot 2009). The development process of distribution strategy includes the decision either to sell straightforwardly to the public through website and catalogues or through partners as retailers and wholesalers. And the choosing of the retailers should be determined by the product, promotion and pricing decisions. JetBlue serves 66 destinations in 21 states, including Puerto Rico and eleven countries in the Caribbean and Latin America and still continues to broad the market (JetBlue Airways 2011). Until 2008 JetBlue mainly served destinations in the United States, but in October, 2007 it announced to enter to high-demand Caribbean and Latin America markets, because this market is, doubtless, one of the most beloved resorts for vacation in the United States. In 2010 about over 25 percent of company capacity was in these regions (JetBlue Airways 2011). JetBlue by combining service with existing courses in company with its loyal customer base allows increasing significantly company presence there very soon. Airline is planning to continue to gain advantage of changing competitive landscape by extended its presence and adding new routes and frequencies. Promotion Marketer Elliot (2009) considers promotion as the marketing activities that communicate to potential buyers, partners and market the advantages of the offering and persuade them to purchase it. Firms use promotion strategies to create the product’s message that will include slogan, strengthening the product benefits and helping company to develop positioning strategy. Also marketers use the combination of advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotion, and personal selling through which message delivers to target market. With regard to Promotion, JetBlue uses Internet, TV and print media as a main source of advertising its product and services (Wikinvest website 2011). The most distinguishing characteristic of JetBlue that it uses social network and online marketing, such as Twitter and Facebook to affect consumers and motivate positive feedbacks from users around the world, creating surprisingly quickly satisfied flyers’ loyalty (Dodds 2007). In addition to regular promotion efforts, airline also launches the special campaigns such as The Flyer’s Collection, the highly entertaining slideshow illustrating gadgets that all travelers really wished existed, decided that laughter really is the best way effort to increase ticket sales during holidays, supported by advertising mediums such as 35,000 gift guides (Lambrano 2010). One of the gifts in the guide is a â€Å"knee jockey,† for instance. It’s like a bra for your knees,† said JetBlue advertising message. â€Å"It holds your knees up so they don’t have to be smashed in [by] the seat in front of you. † The point here is to emphasize that JetBlue has a lot of legroom. (JetBlue Airways 2011). All of these helped the company to build a brand power and create loyal consumers. JetBlue, undoubtedly, changing the way of promotion should be implemented by any kind of companies.