Qantas online community

[thewinchester]

I think that your quote provides the answer as to why Qantas does not want to see this website as a useful forum!

“…enjoyed some fabulous bargains…”

This is the ethos which binds everyone together on here. Whether you consider a “bargain” to be; a $5 Tiger Flight to the Gold Coast, a One World DONE4 fare booked from Colombo/viaAA or a Virgin Blue Premium Economy Sale - generally our take on “value” is not suitable to the Qantas business model.

Nope, I'm going to disagree with this.

Yes, the opportunity to save some cash is one of the many motivations of participation in these and similar forums - but it isn't the primary motivation. I see that statement as a fundamentalist misunderstanding of AFF, FT and others.

I'm sure its been said ad nauseum, but the main motivation of any forum is to build community, one of the key visions of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and various pioneering users of the internet we've come to know and love today.

With the shared power of this specific community, members have been able to do things they have to fork out millions of dollars and spend lots of time doing - such as;

• Upsell & word of mouth marketing - find out more about premium travel experiences (first and business trip reports) and see just what their missing
• Improve service - avoid some of the complexities of airlines through experienced sharing of information, in order to achieve their desired goal (paid flights regardless of where) much easier
• Ancillary revenue - gain knowledge and insight into locations, destinations, the best things to do and places to stay
• Loyalty - encouraging members to build loyalty and increase revenue with one or more specific carriers, most relevant to their flying needs

The Qantas brand does NOT want to represent its value as a bargain: since the inception of Jetstar, Qantas has been re-positioning itself towards a market where its target customers consider value to involve paying a premium to receive a “premium product”.

Obviously “bargain” based positioning plays a part in Qantas marketing, or they wouldn’t have sales, specials or red e-deals. But this is not the area of the market that Qantas wants to target and grow with its brand message.

QF is a flag carrier, which will represent different things to different people. It will never represent value to those who's sole focus when purchasing air travel is the almighty dollar - and QF has never positioned its brand in this way.

The problem with the Internet, is that Qantas can’t control it. A happy, convivial selected members' room, that spreads the love about Qantas, is simply NOT going to work. Qantas doesn’t understand that it must participate OVERTLY in forum sites which rank highly with the search engines that its target customers use everyday. And, quite frankly (amongst others) that means this one!

Marketing and communicating with customers via the internet has never been, nor should it be considered as an issue of control. This is an old school way of thinking which will doom companies to certain failure.

What it boils down to is a lack of understanding at, or an inability of those on the ground to communicate to the E-suite and C-suite boffins about the value of 'letting go' and engaging openly.

One only has to look at the unmitigated disaster visited on Nestle at the hands of Greenpeace recently, thanks in part to their complete misunderstanding of how online engagement with consumers works.

If the company took the time to understand the medium, they would be able to harness the value and use engagement through public forums and social media as a force for corporate good.

This is a lesson Optus has also learned the hard way. It has finally changed its corporate strategy to engage directly with consumers via social media channels - after nearly 18mths of being unable to influence or correct negative views.

On twitter alone, the hatred of the company or any reports of their failures were met with a hashtag of #badoptus, which was even used by some prominent Australian technology bloggers.

They've correct path, and if something goes wrong with your Optus service you can almost expect they'll be in touch within 24hrs to create a more personal connection and a better path to service if something hasn't worked out right.

It's not that QF can't control the message and view if outside their borders, its that they don't want to, or nobody has the requisite intestinal fortitude to let go and step outside the assumed safety of a walled garden.

A community like AFF represents massive value to QF and other carriers, because the people here are generally those with influence over spending (theirs, business or others).

As you alluded to can make serious dents in a carrier's performance and perception as customers, particularly as members of the public access high traffic sites for information on their chosen carrier or an issue they have.

Ok, I'll end my slight rant before I burst a blood vessel.

 

[dk4]

@thewinchester - thank you for your considered & articulate reply, so I would like to respond.

...the opportunity to save some cash is one of the many motivations of participation in these and similar forums - but it isn't the primary motivation. I see that statement as a fundamentalist misunderstanding of AFF, FT and others.

Community comes from a commonality of some description.

So we will have to agree to disagree: I think that in the case of this forum (and FT for that matter), the PRIME commonality expressed in the majority of posts is a desire for “bargain based” value from air travel.

As I said previously, that physical bargain means something different to different people, but the structure of this website (and the majority of postings) revolves around getting that “bargain” (in this case - something more than the “run of the mill, passive-punter” will receive: this can be perceived “simply” in threads regarding best seat selection or more “complexly” in threads regarding status runs). I hope it is clear why Qantas wouldn't want to champion this purpose.

While I agree that there is a social networking side to this forum (demonstrated by the various physical events/meetings which are organised, as well as more generalist posts about the industry/news/gadgets), I do not think, however, that it is the over-all prime consideration for commonality. And unlike broad-based, generalist social networking sites, community in and of itself (more akin pre-communication age “geographic” community), would not seem to be the prime motivation for many members posting here.

In regards to the rest of your post, we seem to agree that Qantas can not succeed in creating an engaging, captivating and ultimately profit driving Internet Destination, when it seeks to control it in a traditionally managed manner.

QF is a flag carrier, which will represent different things to different people. It will never represent value to those who's sole focus when purchasing air travel is the almighty dollar - and QF has never positioned its brand in this way.

One more thing though, Qantas will always represent “value” to its target customer base. [Although, perhaps we are arguing from a position of agreement.:!:] Value (at its simplest) is a function of price and quality. So, I’ll end where I originally began: in that equation, Qantas wants to position itself toward targeting customers who value quality at a significant “premium” to price, and Jetstar wants to target customers more in the middle zone where the trade off between price and quality is more even (or perhaps even slightly oriented toward price).

P.S. All Australian based carriers are currently “flag carriers”, there is even an Aussie flag on TT airbuses ;-) [We have yet to enter an era of “flags of convenience” in the airline industry, although Jetstar (and its varying flags) certainly seems poised and ready to pounce on any future deregulation.]

 

[harvyk]

dk4, I'm with thewinchester on this one...

Finding that "Bargain" is only one part of what this community does. There are questions from where is good to stay, through to what is good to do, and what was peoples experiences with "this subject". Unlike other topics which forums may cover, there is no "try before you buy" with travel, thus asking people who have been in similar situations as the one you want to enter can be invaluable.

Just a quick look at the "Your Questions" forum right now, out of 15 topics there are only 4 which relate to finding the best price. Out of the remaining 15, 2 are regards to passports and entering countries, 3 are in regards to seats, 1 is price vs quality and in this instance the person isn't travelling on price alone, and a couple of lounge questions.

Now I do know that the airlines have representatives here from time to time, QF \ JQ \ DJ have all had representatives here answering questions in the past, so one can also assume that they are using these forums as feedback. (they'd be crazy if they didn't)

 

[maggies1]

Today I received an email saying thanks for your interest in the online community but we have been overwhelmed by the interest from QFFers and we do not need you at the moment. Will put you on a wait list should spots become available in the community.
thank you Ryan Mckenzie

Oh well maybe next time

maggies1