Making the Decision
When deciding the optimum solution, Classic Airlines must understand what their goals are, what their end-state vision is, and also what challenges they have faced with product development. These factors will help the company decide how to move forward and become the leading airline provider. Classic Airlines is currently unengaged with its customers. Some of the senior leaders do not believe that the best use of their resources is by reconnecting with clients, which has hurt the company significantly. Classic Airlines leadership is divided on the strategic vision for the airline’s future. Furthermore, the investment that Classic Airlines has made into a customer relationship management (CRM) system was not sufficient, which has affected the customer service department ability to work with the clients (Case Study, 2008). The best solution for Classic Airlines is to focus on their strategic marketing process.
A company’s strategic marketing process is the approach used “whereby an organization allocates its marketing mix resources to reach its target markets” (Kerin et al., 2006). The result of the strategic marketing process is the development of the company’s overall marketing plan “which is the roadmap for the marketing activities of an organization for a specified future period of time” (Kerin et al., 2006). The marketing plan of a company serves to direct primary functions within an organization including supply chain management, demand forecasting, sales initiatives, and finance strategy as well as customer service programs. A primary challenge for the company is the need to coordinate all programs, processes, and functions to meet the goal of making the customer the primary focus of all company efforts.
Classic Airlines needs to create a unified company-wide effort, to develop marketing programs that link customer relationship initiatives to its overall organizational goals. The beginning of this process will need to include the company-wide commitment to make the needs of the customer the number one priority. The company will then need to create business and marketing strategies that increase synergies. The company will be able to prosper by having organizational synergy and a united team working towards the same vision. The company must be able to make strategic decisions and capitalize on their competitive advantages.