Cases in Marketing SBS BBA AAE Assignment STUDENT ID UNIT TITLE UNIT CODE Name (in Full) __________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Please submit your soft copy of the assignment on or before 18th May 2017 to [email protected] , [email protected] and cc to [email protected] 2. Please submit the Hard copy on 19th May2017. 3. Assignment extension request has to be applied 5 days before the submission date with valid evidence as a proof, please note being busy or out of country will not be accepted as a reason of extension. 4. Penalty of late submission – 10 % deduction of marks with every 24 hours delay and after 3 days assignment will be graded as Zero. Total Marks: _______ / 30 Read the following Case Study and then answer the question that follows. Each question Carries 5 marks Lufthansa: listening to customers A Lufthansa ad runs as follows: ‘When an airline has a young fleet, experienced pilots, attentive cabin crew and the pickiest ground technicians in the world, it is free to concentrate on what is really important: you.’ A decade ago, this German airline company could never make such claims to offering the customer its undivided attention and care. Today, it remains one of the world’s largest airline operators and the most profitable carrier in Europe, despite tough times in an industry hit by global excess capacity and the recent war in the Balkans. Lufthansa is taking great pride in its well-earned reputation – not just for quality, but also for being a ‘good listener’. It knows that superior-quality service pays off. Most importantly, everyone in Lufthansa recognizes that doing what the customer wants is the key to customer retention. Lufthansa takes the pursuit of customer satisfaction seriously. Extensive, comprehensive passenger surveys are undertaken to research the views and gather comments from the thousands of air travelers who fly with them and other airlines. However, it is not so much the survey results that are noteworthy, but Lufthansa’s commitment to respond to what customers want. One early survey of international business travelers highlighted a ‘wish[want]-list’ for a better flight: business passengers wanted more leg-room and elbow-room, designated lounges and non-smoking aircraft, and separate check-ins and passport control. Lufthansa responded by redesigning business-class seats to make them wider. Heavy demand on business class often means an overspill into economy class. The redesign allowed any overspill into economy class to be met by telescoping seats on one side of the aisle and extending them on the other to make the seats wider. In economy class, the centre seat of the three can be removed by telescoping it into two. On the right of the aisle, the usual three seats could be extended into wider ones. Other conveniences (e.g. modern communications systems and credit-card-operated telephones) were also incorporated in the arms of the new seats. To ensure that Lufthansa got things right first time, from the design of the new seats to the introduction of new in-flight services, processes are carefully thought out. For example, when redesigning or improving seats, the airline seat manufacturer commissioned to do the redesign is typically brought in to work with Lufthansa’s marketing and technical staff. Finding out what target customers require or desire is one thing. Responding to these demands and to the satisfaction of customers is another. But as the story above shows, a customer focus can benefit service businesses. To improve service quality, the firm must listen to what customers want and then commit resources to deliver precisely that. Marketing developed initially for selling physical products, such as toothpaste, cars, steel and equipment. However, marketing principles can also be applied to organizations that offer services, such as Lufthansa. Answer all the questions. (Total: 30 marks) 1. For a traveler flying with Lufthansa, what exactly constitutes the ‘service offering’? 2. Identify the tangible and intangible aspects of the service. 3. What are the main aspects of the service that distinguish it from physical products? 4. What criteria might customers consider when selecting an airline for business travel? 5. For physical products, the buyer can touch, see or feel and compare alternative offers before deciding which brand to purchase. Taking into account the relative intangibility of airline services, how might an airline customer determine the choice of carrier? 6. How would the marketing of a service offering differ from that of physical products? Identify the main ways in which the service provider would adapt its marketing strategies to create a competitive advantage.