Passengers should be given a decent meal, which could be served according to some minimal but fair quality standards.
When passengers travel they will chose the airline that provides added value to the flight. Full service, like hot meals on short flights, is one way to satisfy passengers and should be included in both the US and Europe. It is the best way to differentiate yourself from the competition. It can also act as a distraction to overcome boredom.
Passengers should be given low fares. However, if special service is needed, such as connecting flights and hotel service, the carrier should be able to give the fullest service possible.
Hot meals on short flights should be provided. However, continuous feedback should be taken from passengers and employees to monitor passenger satisfaction and possible changes in needs. When they want less, they could fly economy.
Case 2. A British Supermarket's Misplaced Marketing Strategy
A large British supermarket chain took over a successful chain of Irish supermarkets in 1997. The terms of the takeover allowed the Irish cooperative to keep a percentage of the Irish supermarkets open under their former name. Others would be redesigned and new stores would carry the British supermarket name.
The British decided to open their first branch in a prosperous midland town, in a new shopping center on the outskirts of the town. They decided to concentrate all their business in the new store and close down the older supermarket, which was located in the town center. The new store would offer Irish customers many British products that were not available locally. It would also provide a home delivery service, which would be the first in the area.
To the British management's surprise, the new store incurred huge losses in the first weeks of business. In fact local radio and newspapers carried daily complaints from people in the area about the new supermarket's unfriendly policies. The whole town was talking angrily about the home delivery vans, whizzing around the streets with their UK-registered license plates. Customers were annoyed at the disappearance of Irish products on the shelves and their replacement by British-made goods. The union set up a picket outside the new store, protesting at the closure of the original town center store, which they said was against the terms of the takeover agreement.
Management realized they had made major mistakes. How should they seek to rectify the situation?
They should go "Irish" again by quickly registering vans with Irish plates and gradually reopening the supermarket under its former name. The management should apologize to local suppliers, stop importing fresh produce from Britain, and invest heavily in marketing, stressing their commitment to Irish suppliers and workers.
They should communicate the advantages of being part of a British group in terms of economies of scale and logistics and thus lower prices.
They should try to find a balance between Irish and UK products. Some economies of scale are won, some are lost - but that's intrinsic in international business.
They should emphasize the importance of being "Irish" and underlining the strength of community and local loyalties. The strength of British logistics and being part of a larger whole should be aimed at helping to serve the Irish better.
The strength of being part of a British chain will show automatically in terms of logistics and economies of scale and also by importing Irish products to the UK.
Case 3. The Globalizing Beer Company
Frank S. is the marketing manager of a Chicago-based beer manufacturer. He is in Paris to discuss the firm's global marketing strategy with his counterpart in France, one of the company's most important local markets. The main sticking point is whether marketing should be centralized or decentralized, in particular with regard to television advertisements.
The French want the advertisements to reflect local circumstances, while the Americans prefer having one global advertising campaign. The French marketing manager insists that the advertisements be in French. But Frank is convinced that this would jeopardize the firm's global aspirations.
What do you consider the best course of action?
Push for global advertisements. Beer is a global product that requires an internationally recognized brand name.
Listen to the French more carefully, and leave the advertisements to a local agency. In countries like France people are very selective about their choice of beer and favor products with a local attachment.
Use a global advertising campaign as a context within which local adaptations are made. In the French ads, national (French) landmarks can be included.
Leave all the advertising to the local firm with the requirement that beer should shown as a global product.
Agree on a globally acceptable aspect of beer consumption, such as thirst, and gear the international advertisements toward this. This becomes a superordinate value system that transcends cultural differences.
Case 4. German Dairy Products Go Sour in the Netherlands
A German dairy products company had been very successful in the domestic market and so decided to expand internationally. Their success at home was due to their consistently high quality and stylish packaging, delivering products for which the market was prepared to pay a premium price.
The first foreign market that the company chose to enter was the Netherlands. Detailed market research showed that this was a logical choice because it was both very close and had lots of milk-loving consumers. At great cost and with significant fanfare, the Germans marched into the Netherlands with their milk and yogurt.
The German company was very proud of their line of small, stylishlooking, glass yogurt containers, intended for the high end of the market. These containers were very successful with German consumers, who associated it with high quality. After some months the Germans realized that they had encountered an unqualified disaster. Nobody bought their products.
What could you do to avoid this problem next time?
The Germans need to impress their own ideas upon the Dutch environment more and invest more money in advertising the high-class idea to the Dutch.
Adapt the approach to the Dutch market, where people want quality at the lowest possible price and are oriented toward buying very fresh dairy products.
It's give and take. The luxury packaging should still be retained, but for a slightly less extravagant price.
The company needs to focus on the high end of the market by advertising that it is still the best price for the higher quality delivered.
The Germans should adapt to Dutch local conditions but gradually upgrade the product so that it will tap into new market segments and niches.
Case 5. The Importance of Titles
An operations manager of a Korean company kept calling the director of the customer support group of an American supplier to request customer support rather than calling the American customer engineer assigned to his account. The customer support director had told the Korean manager that he should call the customer engineer directly, but the situation had not changed. The American company found out later that the customer engineer did not have enough status to be seen as the point of entry for these requests.
That's all very well, but what can be done to solve this problem, in view of the fact that everyone can't be called "director"?
The company needs to give the engineer the title of Customer Service Manager and clarify his authority to solve the customer's problems.
The company needs to communicate to the Korean that the customer engineer is technically the best equipped person to help solve his problems.
The company needs to increase the age of the customer engineers so that they are respected by the Koreans, even in cases where they lack all the technical knowledge needed.