Qantas Airways Media Strategy Analysis

QANTAS AIRWAYS MEDIA STRATEGY ANALYSIS

WITH EMPHASIS ON

1ST CLASS TARGET MARKET USING TELEVISION AS A MEDIA CHANNEL

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the current media advertising strategy of Qantas Airways in the recent past. The research seeks to evaluate these strategies against those used by its main competitors with a view to recommending the most suitable media campaign strategies that can be employed to maintain Qantas Airways dominance in market share in the domestic home market and increase its standing as regards the international flights market. The analysis will take into consideration certain aspects such as the main media objectives, the strategy rationale; the media class selection rationale/evaluation, budget approach, and estimated performance results with regard to the reach anticipated in the television segment. The main target of any media campaign has been identified as the first class sector and so the bulk of the concentration of this analysis is geared towards that end.

Keywords: Qantas Airways, media, advertising, television

QANTAS AIRWAYS MEDIA STRATEGY ANALYSIS WITH EMPHASIS ON 1ST CLASS TARGET MARKET USING TELEVISION AS A MEDIA CHANNEL

Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (QANTAS) Airways according the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, dominates the Australian domestic market with a market share of 65%. This figure is corroborated by the latest January 2012 Qantas report on independent airline review website, Airreview.com. The share allocated to it in the international flights market stands at slightly over 18% by the same source.

The airline sector in Australia, though overwhelmingly Qantas’ semi-exclusive territory, has seen stiff competition for market share coming from other airlines not domiciled in Australia. A study carried out by a leading marketing company, Hoovers, lists the main competitors to Qantas Airways as Air France-KLM S.A., Air New Zealand and All Nippon Airways Company of Japan. Nippon especially has a tight grip on flights originating and terminating in the Asian destinations.

With increasing encroachment on existing clientele base and a bare-knuckled fight for acquisition of new customer bases, it is imperative that Qantas does its best to maintain its position locally and at least steady its international prospects by any means possible. This will by necessity involve a strong advertising campaign both at home and abroad.

 Like its main rivals, Qantas has seen a gradual shift from the more traditional advertising channels of print to contemporary social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, You Tube and online blogs. These media are easily accessible, cost-efficient, and speedy and can reach a large target audience with minimal cost and effort. For the purposes of this analysis however, media advertising strategy is constrained to television as a media channel. Further, with emphasis of such a campaign within the country itself.