Marketing Week: Marketing Week
22 February 2012 - Marketing Week
SWISS chief commercial officer Holger Haetty has announced bold plans for the firm he joined in 2009 from parent company Lufthansa to get profit margins back up from nearly 7% in 2011 to the pre-2008 levels of 11%.
The growth strategy includes a shake-up of the ecommerce operations to meet the standard expected by what Haetty calls the “Facebook generation”. Service levels are also on the agenda, with ambitions to emulate the standard that Asian carriers are renowned for.
“We want to be the leading European airline,” Haetty tells Marketing Week. “There are many industry measures we can use, combined with feedback from our customers, to determine when we achieve this.”
SWISS is already taking strides towards achieving this goal. In 2011, it won the best business class airline category at the World Travel Awards.
However, competition from low-cost carriers targeting business customers, including easyJet, is the driving force behind a new strategy to differentiate itself further from budget alternatives for both short and longhaul flights. Instead of trying to compete on price, it is aiming to appeal to a wealthier customer, with cabin refurbishments across all passenger levels, particularly in first and business class.
This is the kind of luxury that will appeal to a certain business traveller, argues Haetty. He says: “Our core target is the upper customer segment, a group that can always afford to travel.”
To further distance itself from budget competitors, Haetty says, “the battleground has now moved to longhaul”. New routes to China and the Middle East were added this year and last year respectively to complement its cabin revamp. The kind of business customers it is hoping to attract are the ones with an interest in these emerging markets.
The growth strategy includes a shake-up of the ecommerce operations to meet the standard expected by what Haetty calls the “Facebook generation”. Service levels are also on the agenda, with ambitions to emulate the standard that Asian carriers are renowned for.
“We want to be the leading European airline,” Haetty tells Marketing Week. “There are many industry measures we can use, combined with feedback from our customers, to determine when we achieve this.”
SWISS is already taking strides towards achieving this goal. In 2011, it won the best business class airline category at the World Travel Awards.
However, competition from low-cost carriers targeting business customers, including easyJet, is the driving force behind a new strategy to differentiate itself further from budget alternatives for both short and longhaul flights. Instead of trying to compete on price, it is aiming to appeal to a wealthier customer, with cabin refurbishments across all passenger levels, particularly in first and business class.
This is the kind of luxury that will appeal to a certain business traveller, argues Haetty. He says: “Our core target is the upper customer segment, a group that can always afford to travel.”
To further distance itself from budget competitors, Haetty says, “the battleground has now moved to longhaul”. New routes to China and the Middle East were added this year and last year respectively to complement its cabin revamp. The kind of business customers it is hoping to attract are the ones with an interest in these emerging markets.
Source: Marketing Week
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