JetBlue Airways’ strategy can be explained as a customer-oriented approach based on unique perceptions of the needs and expectations of people. The regional airline business succeeds because of unique strategies and the market niche occupied by airline carriers. The regional airline industry consists of independent carriers specialized in short-haul flights. The success is that the regional airline industry services small communities in partnership with large carriers. There is no fierce competition between large airline carriers and regional carriers because of the unique environment and lack of capabilities of large airlines.
The success of JetBlue Airways is directed to:
- Technology,
- Partnership with large carriers,
- The selection of the logical or best strategy under conditions of risk.
Of course, expenditures for certain types of service are declining while others are gaining. It is also important to recognize technology, particularly as it interacts with the strategy and organizational structure of the regional airlines.
- These expansions reflect desires to meet consumer needs and capture a larger part of the discretionary dollar.
- Services are not accorded concrete treatment in marketing since they are intangible and difficult to deal with.
- Lifestyles are leading passengers to larger expenditures on services, which are important not only in the aggregate but also in their influence.
- The strategy of SkyWest is based on a unique brand image and
- partnership with United and Delta.
- The key is to have a strategy for investigating and integrating the various technologies over time.
This is a challenging endeavor, to say the least. The importance of JetBlue Airways’ strategy is that its operational strategy and organizational structure are developed simultaneously with the implementation of new information systems. At some point, new strategies and structures are required on the basis of what the information technology can deliver. It is all too easy to improve the information technology of the firm in increments only to find that it does not mesh well with the existing strategy and structure. As a result, these separate components become impediments to successful implementation. At JetBlue Airways, strategy, structure, and systems must be melded together as an integrated whole.
JetBlue Airways followed a differentiation strategy and tried to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Service differentiation results from different service processes, research and know-how, design and adjustment of products, and the variety of
- Wants and needs to be represented by
- Price,
- Quality,
- Style
- Other product attributes.
Service differentiation, which tries to bend demand to meet supply, has a considerable effect on a firm’s market position and margins. It may be achieved through a totally redesigned product or a technological breakthrough, as in the use of transistors in electronic products. JetBlue Airways is faced with the need to instill an image in the minds of customers that distinguish their products from others and causes the customer to react more favorably toward them. Technology is becoming a primary tool for serving the customer, improving decision making, and streamlining the management of airline enterprises like JetBlue Airways. The key will be to apply technology in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Only by applying technology in this manner can exceptional profit performance be achieved. What follows will reveal the threats to the airline industry from each of these potential competitors due to developing technologies that can be applied by others as well as by current airline carriers.