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Blog 3 - COVID-19: A Headache for Airline Digital Marketing Strategies

  • Writer: christinaalberto
    christinaalberto
  • Aug 28, 2020
  • 4 min read

Updated: Aug 28, 2020

This blog will explore how COVID-19 has impacted Qantas' digital marketing strategies and potential suggestions as to how they could adapt their strategy during COVID-19.

London. Paris. Rome. Berlin.


Remember the days when we could travel to these places? I know… it's tough. While coronavirus has had a massive impact worldwide, one industry which has taken a massive hit is the airline industry. The closure of international borders and the tough new restrictions has made it near impossible for airlines to continue to operate at capacity (Department of Health, 2020). However, as with any other industry, airline’s have had to adapt and find new ways to stay in touch with their customers and bring in revenue to their company. To do this, almost every industry has turned to the digital world, and while companies may have been present online pre-COVID, their strategies certainly have needed to be updated. In order to provide a focus for this blog, Qantas will be used to explore what their digital marketing strategy was like pre-coronavirus, what happened when coronavirus hit, and what their future could look like moving forward.

Prior to COVID-19

Prior to coronavirus, Qantas was recognised as Australia’s largest domestic and international airline, providing services to over 50 domestic and 27 international destinations (Qantas Airways, 2020). Upon analysing their digital platforms, it is clear to see that they put a major focus onto marketing their international destinations and attracting overseas visitors/enticing Australians to go overseas. Some screenshots of their Facebook posts from late December 2019 are shown below.

When COVID-19 hit

COVID-19 hit suddenly and threw many businesses into the deep end in terms of how to continue operating. Business had to quickly come up with strategic plans on how to survive, while meeting the ever-changing restrictions. Qantas adapted their digital marketing strategy, focusing on the promotion of domestic travel in Australia, in order to keep their planes in the air. While this strategy was viable for some time, an issue arose when states began closing borders to each other. This is where the industry was put into a digital marketing “holding pattern”. This term refers to Qantas being stuck promoting their brand to ensure their customers don’t forget about the company, but not actually being able to promote travel to their various destinations.

Where to next?

The SOSTAC approach is a digital marketing planning framework, which stands for situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, action and control (Swan, 2020). Using the SOSTAC approach, a suggested framework as to how Qantas could adapt their digital marketing strategy following COVID-19, can be developed.


Situation

The current situation that Qantas is facing is that all of the state borders are closed. This has many implications, such as their staff are out of work and their planes are grounded. It is very hard for Qantas to do much in this situation. While there is the very real threat that the borders remain closed for a long time, Qantas’ focus should be around the opportunities that will arise once the borders do reopen.

Objectives

It is clear that it is not realistic to expect passenger numbers to return to normal instantly. Knowing this, some more realistic objectives can be set. The objectives for this digital marketing strategy will be to have domestic travel back to the 2019 figures by the end of 2022, and by 2025 have international travel back to 50% of the 2019 figures.


Strategy

A suggestion for Qantas’ digital marketing strategy would be to introduce a multi-staged process which would be aligned with the removal of border restrictions. As you want to get passengers back in the air as quickly as possible, using the digital platforms allows you to easily target specific markets, as well as quickly deliver messages as the environment changes. For example, if the border restrictions ease between Queensland and New South Wales using digital platforms will allow you to easily target Queenslanders and NSW residents. These same strategies can be applied when restrictions ease between international countries.


Tactics, Action and Control

In order to develop the tactics, action and control, a lot more detail and explanation is required. For the purpose of this blog, these sections won’t be explained in full detail, however a quick summary of ideas that would be explored are listed below.


Tactics: details of exactly how the strategy will be implemented (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019: 147-8). This includes what digital platforms Qantas will use (e.g. Website, Social Media etc.) and what sort of advertising/promotions they could undertake.


Action: the details of the tactics (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019: 147-8). Once the tactics are decided upon, there needs to be detailed explanations of who is responsible for each tactic and when each tactic needs to be carried out. For Qantas, this will be heavily dependent on the government restrictions.


Control: details of how the plan will be monitored (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019 : 147-8). Control includes measuring KPI’s and monitoring how successfully the digital marketing strategy is in terms of meeting the objectives. For Qantas this would mean looking at whether they are increasing passenger numbers at the required rate to match their digital marketing strategy.

You can see that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the digital marketing strategy of Qantas. From being able to promote international and domestic destinations, to having to strip their strategy right back to align with government restrictions, it is very difficult. However, by using digital platforms, Qantas can ensure that their customers are up to date and informed with current restrictions, and where they can travel to.


References

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2020. State Borders Closed. [image] Available at: <https://www.australianchamber.com.au/news/states-must-reopen-borders-to-save-jobs/> [Accessed 28 August 2020].


Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital Marketing. 7th ed. Harlow: Pearson, pp.147-148.




Qantas Airways, 2020. About Us | Qantas AU. [online] Qantas.com. Available at: <https://www.qantas.com/au/en/about-us.html> [Accessed 28 August 2020].


Scaliger, 2019. Colosseum. [image] Available at: <https://www.fodors.com/world/europe/italy/rome/experiences/news/photos/25-ultimate-things-to-do-in-rome> [Accessed 28 August 2020].


Shutterstock, 2018. Eiffel Tower. [image] Available at: <https://www.fodors.com/world/europe/france/paris/experiences/news/photos/20-ultimate-things-to-do-in-paris> [Accessed 28 August 2020].


South, J., 2020. Qantas Planes Grounded. [image] Available at: <https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/Qantas-gives-passengers-masks-but-not-empty-seats-in-covid-19-plan-20200519-p54u9f.html> [Accessed 28 August 2020].


Swan, S., 2020. A SOSTAC® Plan Example | Smart Insights. [online] Smart Insights. Available at: <https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/sostac-plan-example/> [Accessed 28 August 2020].


Teixeira, M., 2019. Berlin. [image] Available at: <https://blog.lingoda.com/en/moving-to-berlin-german-culture> [Accessed 28 August 2020].


University of London, n.d. London Bridge. [image] Available at: <https://london.ac.uk/news-opinion/london-connection> [Accessed 28 August 2020].

 
 
 

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