CLASSIC AIRLINE GENERIC BENCHMARKING

Classic airline Generic Benchmarking

Generic Benchmarking Worksheet

Task A: Problem/Opportunity

Instructions for Task A: In the Response row, write out the problem/opportunity statements for the scenario for each of the team members.

Response to Task A:

Member A: Classic Airlines has a 19% decrease in Classic Rewards membership. Create an alliance with Skyway Airlines to enhance customer acquisition and retention initiatives.

Member B: Classic airlines will become a premier airline carrier by providing the best flying experience possible.

Member C: {??}

Member D: {??}

Topic A: Best Practices in Customer Relationship Management

Response to Topic A:

Member A: General Motors

Not long ago Chevrolet led all General Motors lines in sales. However, in recent years the Chevrolet line has been losing market share to domestic and import lines such as Ford and Toyota. After some drastic changes in how General Motors addresses customer contacts and relationship management, the company once again has positioned the Chevrolet line to move ahead of the competition even today. In May of 1988 Chevrolet appointed Mike Erdman as the general marketing manager. Erdman's focus on realigning the voice of the customer into the center of the business caused a major reorganization of internal departments. As a result of these changes the most significant was restructuring the marketing department into teams each being responsible for a vehicle line. The teams then followed a four phase marketing process designed to ensure that every Chevrolet was consumer driven from production. In phase I a marketing consultant determines what consumers want and align those wants to vehicle specifications. In phase II product planners and engineers re-evaluate the specifications. In phase III designers work within the parameters from phase I and II to develop a prototype. In phase IV manufacturing begins (Levine, 1989). This approach has allowed Chevrolet to focus on how consumers purchase products and view quality all while maximizing every customer contact through enhanced marketing relationships. Classic can learn from General Motors by refocusing their marketing strategy based on the voice of the customer. Aligning marketing teams to obtain how consumers purchase services, assess quality and determine brand importance will create a blueprint for success in Classic's customer relationship management.

Member B: Coca-Cola

Customer Relations Management (CRM) is a tool widely used to acquire and retain customers. Coca-Cola benefits from CRM in what is called customer centricity. Coke's version of customer centricity is the reward caps, MyCokeRewards. Not only is the company giving customers the opportunity to win rewards but each time a customer logs into the web site to redeem rewards he/she is providing Coke with valuable demographic and psychographic details. Coca Cola enjoys this form of marketing because it is less costly to produce/distribute the reward caps than to implement a paper marketing campaign. A recent reward tied with diet soda netted more than 100,000 redemptions. The benchmark to Coca-Cola provides valuable insight to Classic on how the company can still cut costs and implement a CRM system (Duque-Ribeiro, 2007).

Member C: JetBlue

JetBlue is a major airline carrier, similar to ...