September 18 2006
Contents
Introduction 3
Most important trends in the airline industry 3
The position of Singapore Airlines and reasons for prior success 4
Current strategy according to Rust, Norman and Dickson 6
The major issues Singapore Airlines is facing 7
Is Singapore Airlines current strategy sustainable for the future? 7
SWOT analysis 8
Future strategy for Singapore Airlines 9
References 10
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to advice the management of Singapore Airline (SIA) which strategy they should follow. By doing so we start with discussing what the most important trends in the airline industry are. Subsequently we look at the current position of SIA and explain there prior success. After discussing the major issues that SIA is facing we give a SWOT-analysis to recommend a strategy for SIA.
Most important trends in the airline industry
In our assignment we differentiate different trends that are mentioned in the case study. We use these trends to develop a strategy for Singapore Airlines (SIA). There are trends mentioned in the case that we think are not relevant trends anymore at the moment. This can be for example because all airline companies have already jumped in this trend or because they happened a long time ago. Some trends are more difficult to decipher. We will give argument if we think one of these difficult ' trends is not a relevant trend at the moment.
The first trend that can be observed is the improving level of service offered by some airlines. Airlines that want to provide a superior customer service compete fiercely for premium passengers by introducing more and more sophisticated and consequently extremely expensive products, like the seatbeds for example. They always try to get the newest gadgetry and to offer the state-of-the-art endowment.
Besides these airlines that focus on customer satisfaction by offering cutting-edge quality service,
References: Rust, Roland T., Moorman, Christine & Dickson, Peter R. (2002), "Getting Return on Quality: Revenue expansion, cost reduction, or both?" Journal of Marketing, Vbl. 66 (October 2002). 7-24 Treacy, Michael & Wiersema, Fred (1993), "Customer Intimacy and other value disciplines" Harvard Business Review, January-February 1993 Woordruff, RB & Gardial, SF (1996), "Know your customer: new approach to understanding customer value and satisfaction" Blackwell Publishers Cambridge, Ma