Effective Marketing Strategies: A Case Study of Qantas and Walmart

This report presents a case study analysis of the marketing strategies employed by Qantas and Walmart. It examines how these organizations have achieved and sustained competitive advantages within their respective markets. The report begins with an introduction to the importance of marketing strategy and its role in organizational success. It then delves into two distinct case studies: Qantas, focusing on its adaptation to the aviation industry's challenges, and Walmart, highlighting its ability to navigate difficult times and regain profitability. Each case study explores evidence of market-related success, analyzing the specific marketing processes and strategies used. The analysis includes market segmentation, marketing audits, and the integration of marketing with overall corporate strategy. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of identifying target markets, developing integrated marketing approaches, and creating customer bonds to achieve sustained competitive advantages. The report also references academic literature to support its arguments.

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MARKETING
Student’s name
Course code and name
Professor
University
State
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Marketing
Introduction
A proper marketing strategy and process is vital for the growth and success of an
organization. Without one, an organization’s efforts to attract as well as retain customers can be
inefficient and haphazard (Chernev 2018). Marketing allows an organization to build and
maintain a long-lasting relationship with its target market. It helps an organization to flourish
and achieve its strategic goals and objectives. A proper marketing strategy allows an
organization to identify and then communicate to the target market the benefits of its offerings.
Businesses are also required to align their marketing strategy with the overall business strategy to
ensure that they implement the strategies in an efficient manner hence leading to growth, success
and profitability (Hillebrand, Driessen & Koll 2015). The paper shows how the adoption of
effective and efficient marketing strategies and processes has allowed both Qantas and Wal-Mart
to gain a sustained competitive advantage hence achieve success in the market.
SECTION 1
Qantas case study
The case study looks at how Qantas has been able to change and adapt to the difficult
conditions that are being experienced in the aviation industry. According to the case study, it has
become a mission for many airlines in the aviation industry to make a profit since a significant
number of airlines have made losses for a number of years (Suzan 2016). It also argues how
Qantas was not considered as one of the best airlines. However, a combination of strategies
including marketing strategies has enabled the company to be regarded as one of the best in the
world (Qantas 2018). It has been able to adequately align its marketing strategies with its overall

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strategy to achieve business success. Qantas has been able to employ advertisement and lucrative
offers to attract a huge customer base.
SECTION II
Wal-Mart case study
Wal-Mart marketing case study focuses on how the company was able to align the
marketing strategy with the overall corporate strategy to navigate difficult times and return back
to profitability hence creating a stronger brand. The case study talks about how the company’s
stock experienced a sharp decline between 2005 and 2010 and suffered reputational loss amid
claims of unethical practices (Mujtaba & Maxwell 2012). The company decided to employ a new
marketing approach where it used the tagline Yes! "Save Money. Live Better." The new
marketing approach allowed it to attract new customers without affecting the already existing
customer base. Wal-Mart founder together with his management team was able to employ
marketing as a tool to tour around the fortunes of the global retailer. The global brand has been
able to employ different marketing strategies and approaches to compete effectively with both
brick and mortar and online giants in the industry (Neff 2013).
SECTION III
Evidence of Market Related Success and Analysis
Qantas Corporation
The company's consumer marketing strategy has allowed it to gain a monopoly in the
region. Its ability to develop proper marketing strategies has significantly contributed to its
strong brand name and presence in Asia-Pacific region. The marketing strategy employed has
resulted in more than 8 million visits each week to Jetstar.com and Qantas.com. It also boasts of

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high traffic on its websites and has a lot of social media, mobile and web interactions. The
marketing processes have also significantly contributed to having more than 50 million
passengers each year across the group. Its frequent flyers membership program has more than
11.7 million registered members. The company designed a brand campaign referred to as "Feel's
Like Home" campaign and launched the same in 2014. It has done the same in 2016 and 2017.
This has allowed it to emotionally reconnect with the Australians and the campaign films have
garnered more than 20 million views on different platforms to date (Qantas 2018).
According to research three-quarter of Australians who have had the chance to see the
company's television commercials feel more positive about the brand. 59% of those who have
seen the television commercial have stated that they would wish to fly with Qantas. The
enhancement of social media channels and mobile apps has led to a 50% increase in the
company's app flight bookings compared to the previous year. Queries via different social media
platforms have increased by almost 20% compared to the previous year. Its marketing strategy
has ensured that it is viewed more positively by customers and has allowed it to create a strong
brand across Asia-Pacific (Qantas 2018).
Wal-Mart Corporation
The marketing process and strategies employed by Wal-Mart has been an integral part of
its current success. It is regarded as one of the biggest companies in the world and is highly
ranked under the fortune 500. The retail giant earns significant revenue from the target market by
placing online gifts (Neff 2013). It has also been able to use different slogans effectively which
pulls customers and increase both revenue and profitability. For instance, the "Grab It Before Its
Done" slogan allowed it to push customers to buy the offered products before the deal for those
products expired. This strategy has always raked in significant earnings for the company

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allowing it to achieve its set targets. Other companies are trying to adopt Wal-Mart marketing
strategies showing that it has a competitive edge over them and its ability to quickly develop new
marketing strategies and tactics allows it to gain a sustained competitive advantage.
SECTION IV
Analysis and Explanation
Qantas Corporation has been able to adequately segment the market and target that
segment that it thinks has the highest capability to make it more profitable. The company has
targeted the medium level or middle level of income group and also targets professionals and
families. This has allowed it to rank among the top twenty airlines in the world (Shaw, 2016). An
organization must determine the best market segment that will allow it to achieve its vision,
mission and strategic goals and objectives (Park 2007). This allows the organization to employ
the best marketing strategy and achieve adequate results.
Qantas has also been able to employ a marketing audit and develop a proper marketing
plan. It has also been able to integrate its marketing strategy to align with the overall corporate
strategy adopted. Marketing audit enables a company to adequately assess its performance and
compare the same with the competition (Darke, Ashworth & Ritchie 2013). It also allows it to
evaluate the external environment before developing an effective marketing plan. This then
ensures that an organization develops proper marketing objectives hence achieves its strategic
goals and objectives. It also ensures that the marketing strategy develop aligns with the overall
strategy. For instance, in recent years, Qantas has embarked on an expansion strategy and has
heavily relied on marketing to create awareness in different regions in Asia.
Wal-Mart management claims that advertising alone cannot help a company to succeed
and argues that marketing is more than just advertising and should be customer focused (Moth

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2013). Wal-Mart has been able to effectively employ segmentation to determine the best target
market. It employed demographic and psychographic segmentation strategies. This has allowed
it to customer psyche and understood that its target market required everyday products that were
price competitive. This ensured that it could adopt an integrated marketing approach that would
create awareness about its products and allow it to expand to other regions.
It is no coincidence that the retailer significantly improved its operations once it
employed effective business and marketing strategies. The company marketed itself to the target
market as a retail chain offering quality products and low prices. It came up with the promotional
name "Black Friday" where it offers customers with products at throwaway prices. This day has
become very famous and other retailers in different parts of the world are copying this concept
due to its success.
The company has also ensured that stores manager have the autonomy to determine the
best marketing strategy to be adopted in individual stores (Goworek, McGoldrick & McGoldrick
2015). This ensures that managers are able to employ marketing strategies based on their
competitive environment and this has increased the company’s marketing success. Wal-Mart has
over 26 million fans on Facebook which represents a 9 million increase within a year and has
over 300, 000 followers on twitter (Kumar & Reinartz 2018). These platforms have allowed the
retailer to create conversations and interactions with fans hence acquiring new customers as well
as guiding others on how to purchase different products.
CONCLUSION
The above case studies show that adequate marketing processes and strategies that have
taken into consideration the current business environment, the problems to be solved and how to
solve these problems among other important aspects allows an organization to achieve its

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strategic goals and objectives, mission and vision. The case study also shows that the two
companies have been able to employ marketing to create a bond and an emotional connection
with their customers. Looking at the case studies, one can conclude that the ability to identify
the target market and develop an integrated marketing approach based on the needs of the
company and the needs of the market will ensure that the concerned business creates the much-
needed awareness, bond and emotional connection with its target market hence gain a sustained
competitive advantage over rivals.

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List of references
Chernev, A. (2018). Strategic marketing management.Cerebellum Press.
Darke, P.R., Ashworth, L. & Ritchie, R.J. (2013). Damage from corrective advertising: Causes
and cures. Journal of Marketing, 72(6), pp.81-97.
Goworek, H., McGoldrick, P.J. & McGoldrick, P.J. (2015). Retail marketing management:
Principles and practice. Harlow, UK: Pearson.
Hillebrand, B., Driessen, P.H. & Koll, O. (2015). Stakeholder marketing: theoretical foundations
and required capabilities. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(4), pp.411-428.
Kumar, V. & Reinartz, W. (2018). Customer relationship management: Concept, strategy, and
tools. Springer.
Moth, D. (2013). How Walmart uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. [online]
Econsultancy. Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/61827-how-walmart-uses-pinterest-
facebook-twitter-and-google [Accessed 14 Jul. 2018].
Mujtaba, B.G. & Maxwell, S. (2012). Wal-mart in the global retail market: Its growth and
challenges. Journal of Business Case Studies, 3(2), pp.1-10.
Neff, J. (2013). Why Walmart Is Getting Serious About Marketing. [online] Adage.com.
Available at: http://adage.com/article/news/walmart-marketing/137132/ [Accessed 14 Jul. 2018].
Park, J.W. (2007). Passenger perceptions of service quality: Korean and Australian case
studies. Journal of Air Transport Management, 13(4), pp.238-242.
Qantas (2018).Positioning the Qantas Group for Growth and Sustainable Returns. [online]
Available at
http://investor.qantas.com/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/doLLG5ufYkCyEPjF1tpgyw/file/
presentations/QAN-Investor-Day-2017.pdf [Accessed 14 Jul. 2018].

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Shaw, S. (2016). Airline marketing and management.Routledge.
Suzan, M. (2016). Qantas Airways Limited. [online] Available at
https://www.academia.edu/9278526/Qantas_-_Marketing_Case_Study [Accessed 14 Jul. 2018].
Suzan, M. (2016). Qantas Airways Limited. [online] Available at
https://www.academia.edu/9278526/Qantas_-_Marketing_Case_Study [Accessed 14 Jul. 2018].