BBPM2203: Marketing Strategy Analysis for Malaysia Airlines Report

This report analyzes the marketing strategies of Malaysia Airlines, examining its product/service offerings, pricing, distribution (place), promotions, and the advanced marketing mix elements of people, process, and physical evidence. It delves into the challenges faced by the airline, including competition and sustainability concerns, and evaluates the effectiveness of its current strategies, such as fleet management, partnerships, and customer retention programs. The report provides a detailed analysis of the existing marketing strategies, including an assessment of the company's strengths and weaknesses, and concludes with recommendations for improving the airline's marketing approach to increase its market share within Malaysia. The analysis considers both the traditional and advanced marketing mix elements, providing a comprehensive overview of the company's marketing efforts and suggestions for future improvements.

MARKETING
MANAGEMENT II

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1
Description of the existing marketing strategy......................................................................................1
Analysis of the existing strategies.........................................................................................................4
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The competition in the market is increasing and this increase in the competition has direct
impact on the way service organisations are performing. Marketing strategies that companies
have made for them plays a critical role in the development of the organisation especially in
terms of fact that the company that is able to design an innovative marketing campaign will
be able to attract more numbers of customers. However the technique and the approach that is
taken by the organisations in order to implement the strategies play a critical role in the
success of the firm. If the marketing mix strategies are developed effectively then it will be
easier for the organisations to do marketing in an effective manner . Malaysia Airlines
Berhad also known by the name Malaysian Airline System has branded itself with a name
called Malaysian Airlines. It has its location in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and
their secondary hub includes Kota Kinabalu and Kuching to the destinations all across to
Europe, Asia and Oceania (Malaysia Airlines, 2020). This report is going to identify and
analyse the existing marketing strategy. In the last section of the report recommendation
regarding the way in which marketing strategy of the Malaysian Airlines can be improved.
Description of the existing marketing strategy
Malaysian Airlines is facing many types of challenges in the industry and it is because of the
competition that exists in the industry and the growing importance of sustainability. The
marketing strategies that are made by the company are highly dependent on the market
dynamics and the strategies that the competitors are making (Writer, 2018). Some of the
existing strategies of the company are:
 Product/Service: The product or the service that this company is of world standards.
Malaysian Airline has three types of services namely first class, economy class and
business class for their international flights. On the other hand for their domestic
flights they only offer economy and business class facilities. Its strategy is to enlarge
the aircraft fleet size where they have a fleet of 75 aircrafts out of which 54 have been
manufactured by Boeing (B737) and the rest are made by Airbus (15 A330 AND 6
A380) (Abdullah, 2010). They are offering flights to more than 1000 locations all
across the globe. They are also offering lounge services at many of the airports at the

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global level. Along with this the firm provides various kinds of in-flight entertainment
system on the basis of the class in the aircraft.
 Price: In terms of prices this firm has been highly competitive. After the great losses
that company has faced, they need to cut down the costs of the flights to hold on to
the flyers and crew. But after that they have been able to distinguish it in terms of
premium quality services that they are offering. Their costs have been generally
higher when compared with other low cost carriers in the nation (Nasir, Ahmed &
Barkat, 2017). They have made their prices similar to Emirates. Its marketing mix
includes a numbers of other kinds of services in their pricing marketing mix.
 Place: This Airline Company is operating in terms of hub system where their flights
are operating from their home base i.e. Kuala Lumpur International Airport and a
secondary hub of Kota Kinabalu. They are operating at both domestic and
international level where they have their access in more than 150 nations with the help
of its global alliance with Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Sri-Lankan airways,
Cathay pacific etc. Along with this they have signed a code sharing agreement with
Emirates in order to give services in 90 destinations throughout Middle East, Africa,
Asia and the Americas (Rosnan & Mahmod, 2012).
 Promotions: After 2014, the promotions and advertisement done by the Malaysian
Airlines is an effort towards rebranding it as a firm that provides premium safe
carrier. They take their public relations in a serious manner where they sponsor
Football clubs like Liverpool FC. They are the global airlines partner of Liverpool FC
(Idris & Wahab, 2018). They are also using traditional mediums for their promotions
such as newspaper, TV advertisements etc. The digital media that they are using is
Google ads. At the same time they are undertaking sales promotions activities that
offer discounts on specific travel routes throughout the year. In order to hold on to
their customer’s base this company has adopted frequent flyer program as a strategy
for their customers that take their services on the regular basis. They are also doing
their online marketing with the help of websites that they have.
Advanced marketing mix elements for services are as follows:
 People: Malaysia Airlines gives special attention to their employees as they
understand the people that they have are their greatest asset. Since in the services that
are provided in the Airlines industry is a highly contact services where experience of
the customers matter a lot. In order to operate with smooth functioning in the areas

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like flight-crew, procurement and on-ground staffs the workforce needs to be effective
and highly skilled. They have more than 12000 people in the 53 cities and it is critical
for the firm to train their employees on regular intervals hence they are using
international training module to develop the leadership skills in their employees. This
is also done for improving the service quality and also ensuring the safety of the
passengers as they understand that the role of the employees in passenger’s safety is
highly critical (Farooq, Salam, Fayolle, Jaafar & Ayupp, 2018). This is why they are
investing high on the training of their workers. For training their employees they have
a training Academy that they have established back in the year 1994. This training
academy also develops aviation professionals and fosters the culture of ‘Malaysian
hospitality’ within their workforce. In order to find out their potential employees this
company has a dedicated career portal on their website.
 Process: This Company is dedicated towards doing process improvement and hence
giving set of facilitating services to their consumers for the same. Higher technology
involvement in every process i.e. from doing reservations for the flight with the help
of websites makes the process easier for both customers and the company. When
passengers arrive at the Airport they can take the benefits of lounge facility provided
by the company if they have booked tickets for first or business class. All the
additional services like baggage handling to entertainment of customers all the
processes are dealt in a proper manner (Wong & Musa, 2011).
 Physical evidence: This Company provides services that provide maximum value to
the customers. They are known for delivering what they have promised. They give
tangible proof of the quality in their services that they have promised to their
consumers. Ground services, lounge facilities, booking counters, interiors, cleanliness,
and interiors are some of the areas on which this company gives their priority too and
this is done by them to improve their service quality (Vrontis, Thrassou & Zin, 2010).
Apart from these there are other strategies that are used by Malaysia Airlines:
 Fleet strategy: It is the part of the ongoing five-year 12-point MAS Recovery Plan that
was introduced on 29th August 2014. In this strategy company focused on redesigning
their operational model towards a competitive cost position having focus towards the
network and revenue management (Malaysia Airlines, 2017). This is done by them to
grab the opportunities that are available with the firms. In this strategy they are

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refining their fleet where they are only choosing those aircrafts that they are going to
need as per the future operational environment.
 Sustainability strategy: Malaysian Airlines Company understands that in the long term
it is the sustainability of the strategies that can help the firm in bringing sustainability
in the operations. They are working towards logistics and supply chain development
that could help the firm in managing their resources so that it could help them in
providing best services to their employees. Land utilisation and other types of energy
resources are used in the firm with a plan that could help in improving the
sustainability of the firm (Ong & Tan, 2010). They are also upgrading the fleet in
order to ensure that lesser amount of fuel is used. This can give the firm competitive
advantage in the market where there is higher business potential to invest.
Analysis of the existing strategies
The existing strategies of the firm were designed on the basis of the skills that they have and
the resources available with them. This is also the major reason why this company has been
able to gain competitive advantage over the rivals. The services that they have designed for
their business looks at rebranding the firm to be a premium service company. All their
marketing mix also illustrates the same about the company. Most of the elements of the
marketing mix are designed checking the fact that their strategies distinguish them from the
others especially in the premium category. Their existing strategies are inclined towards
improving the quality of the services and the way in which service is given (Suki, 2014).
They believe on product diversification where they are working towards adding more
numbers of services in their portfolio. The change in the plans is done on the basis of the
demands in the market and the scope they have in their future.
Their pricing strategies illustrate the fact that company thinks of the customer satisfaction and
hence the quality that they are delivering and the prices of the services is finalised wisely.
This helps them in maintaining their competitiveness (Tiwari & Kainth, 2014). Since the
additional facilities that they are offering in the same premium prices range are better than
their rivals hence it gives them competitive advantage over the rivals. However they need to
improve the places where they operate at the global levels. This is because most of their
operations are conducted from the two locations only hence they might get behind their major
competitors. There are many bigger firms then Malaysia Airlines that are flying to much
larger numbers of destinations when compared with their bigger competitors (Lian & Yeoh,

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2011). However their partnerships with other airlines help them in reducing the cost of
operations and connecting larger numbers of destinations in different parts of the world.
Malaysia Airlines promotions are done checking the objectives that they have and they aim to
reduce the cost of operations while improving the visibility of the firm. For this their
marketing strategies like improving their public relations is very much effective. They are
official airlines partners of Liverpool which gives them a boost to improve their visibility in
the European market. They know the fact that it is an age of over information hence they use
all the mediums possible to ensure that they can reach to as many customers as possible
(Pearson, O'Connell, Pitfield & Ryley, 2015). Customer retention strategies used by the
company is also effective and aims to improve their relations with the customers. This is
because their customer retention strategies have long term scope and they are also able to
make strong relationship with their customers with the help of frequent flyers program.
It is seen that Malaysia Airlines have also incorporated the strategy of process development
on regular intervals. The processes are operated with the help of technology so that maximum
efficiency can be achieved in the processes. Malaysia Airlines also has partnerships with
other airlines firm which allows them to gain different kinds of knowledge and hence assists
them in their processes. They understand that the process improvement can be done if the
company is able to improve the quality of the employees they have and the skills that they
possess (Yeoh & Chan, 2011). This is why they have invested heavily on employee
development. For this they have opened their training academy that focuses on improving the
quality of staffs they have. The additional services that are provided by the firms for their
consumers can be improved if the employees of the company are skilled and able to deliver
things as per the demand of the individuals. The process and individual development is done
by the organisation in the areas like technology. They have been regularly upgrading their
expenditure capacity on the interior development. This helps them in improving their
customer satisfaction level which has a direct impact on the development of the growth of the
service firms (Boey, Ekiz & Kamarulzaman, 2012). In terms of service strategy they have
also worked towards the development of process in a manner that their overall physical
evidence goes on the higher side. They work towards improving their physical evidence by
improving on the way in which they are doing their operations. They have a quality team
within the organisation that ensures that their physical evidence gets better.

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They are developing fleet strategy as per the operations they aim to do in the future. For
airlines industry that aims to improve their functionality, it is critical that they have the fleet
size that is This Company also focuses on sustainability strategy where their prime focus is
on the lesser utilisation of resources to gain optimum benefits (Arokiasamy, 2014). They are
working towards reducing the wastages of primary resources available with the firm as they
have direct impact on the growth of the firm. In the development of the fleet strategy the
major focus is on finding out the suitability of the airplanes according to their operational
demands. For any airlines it is critical that they have airplanes that are able to reduce the
challenges that they are facing and can add to the sustainability that they aim to achieve and
also helps them in their motives to improve the safety of their flights.
Recommendations
On the basis of the above analysis there are certain things that can be recommended for
Malaysia Airlines that could help in improving the effectiveness of the strategies that are
made by them:
 Data utilisation strategy: It is clear from the analyses that the strategies that are made
by the firm is on the basis of the data that they have accumulated from the market.
The utilisation of data will provide evidence that will support the firm in making the
strategies. The use of advanced technologies such as data analytics and predictive
analytics will help the firm in providing support to their operations (Saadat, Tahbet &
Mannan, 2018). The use of data will also allow the firm to find out challenges that are
restricting them in their growth. Data utilisation will also help them in optimising
their path which is critical for improving the sustainability in the firm and reducing
the cost of flights which will have direct impact on the profits made by the company.
 Collective decision making strategy: Since there are many stakeholders attached with
the Malaysia Airlines. If the company at the time of strategy making takes the support
of their stakeholders in strategy making then it will be easier for the firm to make
better plans. Collaborative strategy making allows an organisation to have new set of
ideas and understand the challenges that is faced by the firm which will allow them to
fulfil the interest of all the stakeholders (Johan, Noor, Bahar, Yan & Ping, 2014).
 Adding more investors: It is critical for the company to understand the fact that the
nature of the environment is becoming more complex. The global financial health is
also not very good which has impact on the expenditure power of the individual. The

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major impact of it can be seen on the domestic airlines market. With the help of
investors they could be ready to invest in the areas that are causing challenge for them
and hence they will have their mitigation strategies ready with them (See & Rashid,
2016).
 Low cost airlines: It is critical that this firm also invests in strategy of lower pricing.
This will also help the firm in enhancing the product range that they have and hence
they will be able to target larger set of customers in the market. They can also do this
with help of strategies like acquisition of the firms that are operational in the low cost
segment. This will also help them in improving their position in the local market
(Adapa & Roy, 2017). This is because domestic customers are mainly focusing on
saving their money.
Conclusion
From the above based report it can be concluded that it is the strategies that is made by the
organisation that helps them in achieving the success. Malaysia Airlines is facing tough
competition from different big companies in this industry which is not allowing the firm to
grow at the pace they aim to. The existing strategies in the form of marketing mix as well as
fleet strategy and Sustainability strategy has helped them to remain competitive. However it
is recommended that company must also focus on certain strategies like Data utilisation
strategy, collective decision making strategy, adding more investors and Low cost airlines
strategy. It will open new dimensions for the company and will ensure sustainability in the
long term.

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