捷蓝的市场营销分析案例英文版

Individual Assignment 2

(30 points)

Due: 5:00pm Mar 07, 2013

Objective: Students will learn how to identify the research questions in the case study; analyze the market situations; and make suggestions or recommendations to solve the marketing problems. Creative suggestions or recommendations are especially encouraged!

Instructions:

-Please read the case study and answer the 5 questions below.

-Individual assignment 2 should be turned in on Blackboard with an attached word file (see the “assignments”)

-Please note the deadline. If you miss the deadline, but turn in the assignment within 3 days (5:00pm Mar 10, 2013), 5 points will be deducted for the delay. After 3 days pas sed the deadline, no late work will be accepted. Please submit the late turn-in to Dr. R ebecca Tang by ISU email.

Background Study: Students are advised to conduct marketing research before answering the questions. . (Background study does NOT need to be shown in the answer sheet students turn in). There are several potential approaches of marketing research:

∙Consider whether JetBlue’s PR response was enough or could they have done more for their customers?

∙Analyze JetBlue’s response to how other airlines have responded to similar situations

∙Prepare a SWOT for JetBlue

∙

Real Choices at Jet Blue

When low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways began operations in 1999, it promised customers cheap fares combined with exceptional service. JetBlue planes offer more leg room and all seats on JetBlue planes offer passengers 36-channel DIRECTTV® service on seat-back screens.

For seven years, JetBlue, with a few exceptions, kept its promise to passengers and shot to the top of customer satisfaction surveys J.D. Powers and Associates conducted. On Valentine’s Day, 2007, however, the airline suffered the worst c risis in its history. Due to an unexpected New York ice storm, nine JetBlue planes full of passengers were stranded on the tarmac for over 6 hours – one plane and its 130 passengers sat on the tarmac for 10 hours. The planes left the gate and then found they couldn’t take off but the airlines, feeling that the storm would let up by midmorning, did not allow the planes to return to the gate. In the end, the wheels of the planes were frozen in the slush, unable to move.

In the next few days things got even worse for JetBlue as a snowball effect (pardon the pun) from the storm caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled –JetBlue’s flight attendants and pilots were not where they were needed and the company’s communication system staff people were not trained to tell them what to do. At some airports, police had to be called in to help calm down the irate customers.

While the airline was far less than satisfactory in its response to the Valentine’s Day ice storm, its response to the crisis was a model of excelle nt PR. Seeking to quickly respond to the crisis and appease angry customer, CEO David Neeleman quickly apologized to customers and explained what went wrong. He said he felt “mortified” and “humiliated.” To get his message across, he appeared on CNN’s American Morning, Today, Fox and Friends, and Squawk Box early the next day. But JetBlue did more than just apologize to consumers. The airline offered passengers who were stranded on JetBlue planes for three hours or more a full refund plus a free round-trip ticket to any JetBlue destination. In all, the airline spent $30 million on vouchers for passengers of the 1,102 cancelled flights.

In addition to its immediate response to the February cancellations, JetBlue cited its dedication to “bringing humanity back to air travel” and established a Customer Bill of Rights retroactive to February 14. The Bill of Rights outlines what JetBlue will provide to its customers in cases of flight cancellations, departure delays, overbookings (customers who are denied boarding will received $1000), and even when the DIRECTTV® is inoperable.

But will these changes satisfy customers? Most customers reacted with caution, saying that they would be watching the airline to see if it lived up to its promise. Other stranded passengers were less positive and some vowed never to fly JetBlue again.

Will the Bill of Rights allow JetBlue to gain the level of customer loyalty it enjoyed before the crisis? While most customers of delayed flights may be satisfied, others may not. What about customers whose delays fall 10 minutes short of receiving a full-price trip voucher? And what will happen when another crisis occurs? JetBlue must continue to develop customer service and PR programs if it is to stay in the air for the long haul.