Short Discourse — Critically Analysing the JetBlue Strategy
--
Using the strategy diamond to review the JetBlue company.
Firstly, a strategy is a plan that is made for the sole purpose of achieving a specific desired outcome or a goal. For organizations whose main goal is to make money, a good strategy will describe how the company will thrive in the face of competition and succeed profitably. When an organization plans out its goals, the strategy to achieve these goals comprises of five elements; “arena, vehicles, differentiators, staging and economic logic”. These elements are referred to as the “strategy diamond”. Each element in the strategy diamond has relevant questions associated with it, this helps a manager or organization have an idea of what it consists of. Listing the responses to these questions helps to give wholeness to the strategy and also gives insight into the areas that the strategy may be lacking. In this paper, we will be analyzing the JetBlue company’s strategy, using the strategy diamond to understand why it was successful.
JetBlue’s core business is transportation via air, it is a low-fare, low-cost, scheduled airline that provides excellent service. With an average of over 1000 flights per day, this airline conveys millions of travelers across 99 destinations within the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
As earlier stated in the opening paragraph there are five elements in the strategy diamond and we will be outlining brief details of each one as it relates to our analysis.
Arenas: This consists of information on where the organization will be operational or function from, the actual geographical location, product offerings, services, the distribution channels, the target market, etc. JetBlue is very specific about the countries or areas they wanted to do business, mostly focusing on North America with the inclusion of some Caribbean countries in South America. They are also specific about the kind of services they want to offer — high-quality services, and they provide these high-quality services with low fares to individuals who want to move from one place to another and enjoy inflight entertainment.
Vehicles: This refers to how the organization plans to participate within the specified arenas, and the steps that will be needed to get there. It involves partnerships, alliances, and sometimes acquisitions. JetBlue partners with numerous private and commercial airlines, to provide more route options for their customers, and make it easy for customers to book and use these partner airlines with added loyalty benefits. They also invest in hospitality and travel startups with the aim of building and improving the sector.
Differentiators: Differentiators focus on how the organization plans to stand out in the industry, in the face of numerous competitors. This consists of several factors like product or service price points, product or service quality, early market advantage, product or service reliability, brand image, etc. In JetBlue’s case, they make an effort to provide high-quality service while maintaining low costs on airfares and internal operating costs. They were also early to the market with digital ticketing, which made check-in faster and reduced physical paper trails associated with boarding passes. JetBlue’s brand is also known for its “Air to Humanity” campaign that fosters and communicates its core values. All these give them a competitive edge over the other airlines.
Staging and Pacing: As the name implies, this refers to the timing and sequence of events that surround a strategy or a set of choices. When planning out the timing and pace, the availability of resources should be one of the most important determinants. JetBlue started off with just two cities but they went ahead after some time to some West coast routes, they have been expanding all through North America and most recently have started with some routes in some parts of Europe.
Economic Logic: This refers to how the business plans to make a profit over its running or operational costs. JetBlue’s operational costs are relatively low compared to other airlines, they save more by serving less expensive and competitive airports. Their planes are low maintenance and do not require much fuel. Also, they provide only one class of travel, which improves consistency and reduces costs on maintenance and food services.
REFERENCES
JetBlue Airways Corp. Available at: https://sec.report/CIK/0001158463 (Accessed: 5 June 2022)
JetBlue Official Website. Available at: https://www.jetblue.com/ (Accessed: 5 June 2022)
From Back to Front: How JetBlue Airways has maintained its low price leader position through optimizing its operations. Available at: https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/from-back-to-front-how-jetblue-airways-ha s-maintained-its-low-price-leader-position-through-optimizing-its-operations/#:~:text=JetBlu e%20also%20differentiates%20itself%20from,integrity%2C%20fun%2C%20and%20passion (Accessed: 5 June 2022).
