Deborah Thomas
Classic Airlines Classic Airlines is the world’s fifth largest airline ("Classic airlines,"). Classic airline is marketing air travel. The marketing challenges it faces are the increased uncertainty about flying and a drop in frequent flyer customers in a declining economy. Classic Airline’s current corporate culture has drifted away from a customer centered organization to cost control. Current corporate culture Classic Airlines corporate culture needs to be brought back to a customer-based focus to keep customers happy and continuing to use Classic Airlines. A competitor, GlobalAir recently implemented a change for frequent flyer incentives that had a negative impact on the business. It resulted in quite a few angry customers. The customers were so unhappy that they created their own website as part of a formal protest ("Classic airlines,"). Classic Airlines can use this example as what not to do with changes to the current program. The top concern with Classic Airlines should be to keep the customer as the center of the business. This should increase the customer base and frequent flyer customers in the future. Marketing challenges The frequent flyer customers are dropping due to the lack of attention to customer wants and needs. The current customer relations management (CRM) system is a newer and more than capable system but is not fully utilized. The current system needs to connect the web and phone customers so that they can flow seamlessly between the two when interacting with a phone call representative better to meet customer needs. When Classic airlines can show that its concern is for what the customer wants and needs it will bring customer loyalty back. The customer was the center of the organization focus, and Classic Airlines can make it be again. According to Kotler and Keller in Marketing, management winning companies will be those that can communicate effectively with customers to economically and conveniently meet their needs (Kotler & Keller, 2006). The current CRM system is not being used to its marketing potential. It creates reports and customer feedback that can be used to better meet the