Table of Contents

Question 1: Why is it so valuable to a company to create a brand image?.................................2

Question 2: Why does SIA invest so much in the training of its staff?......................................3
Question 3: How does SIA differentiate itself from rival companies?.......................................4
Question 4: What are the benefits that result from successful differentiation?..........................6
Question 5: Suggest three ways in which SIA could raise the bar again................................8
References.................................................................................................................................10

Question 1: Why is it so valuable to a company to create a brand image?

Before we can understand the true value of having a good brand image, let us first discuss about the
concepts relating to the word Brand itself. Whenever we talk about brand, two things come up into
our minds, one is the brand name and the other is the brand image. Brand image refers to the
impression of a product held by real or potential consumers and brand name helps consumer recognize
the product by the name. In todays modern business world an organizations brand image can be as
important as the goods or services it produces. A strong brand image is a powerful asset. A recognized
and trusted brand identity makes people confident that the organization is dependable. This is why
successful businesses work hard at building their brands and present them in a clear and consistent
way.
Moving on to the part that why is a good brand image so valuable to its company; a company must
have a good brand image due to the benefits associated with it. Effective branding Helps you to
differentiate your business, making you to stand out in your customers minds, Gives your business a
personality and identity that people can relate to, effectively delivers and reinforces your key
messaging, drives authority and trust in your business, drives customer loyalty and brand evangelism,
and helps in the positioning your brand correctly can help you to achieve higher prices for your
product or service. As a result the company profits tend to increase because of an increase in sales
revenue, as the ales will become higher due to effective branding.
As far as Singapore International Airlines (SIA) brand image is concerned, SIA is perceived as a
competent, modern, international airline of Asian origin, offering the best in-flight service in the
world. For your information, SIA spent S$35 million per year on advertising during its first 21 years.
The airlines advertising in the early days was based on the Singapore Girl concept of a stewardessdriven service culture. The Singapore Girl is now one of the airlines most recognizable trademarks.
SIAs customer service standards are symbolized by the distinctive uniform of its flight stewardess, a
sarong kebaya in batik material, reflecting its Asian heritage.

Question 2: Why does SIA invest so much in the training of its staff?
Singapore Airlines Group is Singapores largest private sector employer with a 28,000 strong
workforce. The airline has been able to develop its distinctive competitive edge in customer service
through its people. SIA has always placed great emphasis on quality training for staff, which has
established its cabin crew as the hallmark of efficiency and customer service. This has led to greater
competitive advantage as it differentiates itself with its competitors.
According to the research, almost half of SIA spending is on functional training and retraining. Newly
recruited cabin crews are required to undertake at least three-month intensive training courses. SIAs
training aims to enable cabin crew to provide gracious service reflecting warmth and friendliness
while maintaining an image of authority and confidence in the passengers minds. SIAs holistic
training includes not only safety and functional issues but also beauty care, gourmet food, art of
conversation and languages. In addition, SIA group has seven training schools for the seven core
functional areas of cabin crew, flight operations, commercial training, information technology,
security, airport services training and engineering.
As SIAs reputation for service excellence grows stronger, its customers tend to have even higher
expectations, which increase the pressure on its frontline staff. Therefore, the challenge is to help its
staff deal with difficult situations and emotional turmoil of having to satisfy and please every
demanding customers without feeling that they are being taken advantage of. Transforming Customer
Service (TCS) program has been introduced to aim at building team spirit among all the staff. So that
together they will make the whole journey as pleasant and seamless as possible for the passengers. In
TCS, there is the 40-30-30 rule, which is SIA focuses 40% of the resources on training and
invigorating the staff, 30% on reviewing processes and procedures and 30% on creating new product
and service idea. Moreover, SIA staff will be the visitors first glimpse. Therefore, it is vital to create a
positive impression to the visitors as they are the ambassadors for Singapore.
SIA invests huge amounts of money in infrastructure and technology, but ultimately, they need people
to drive it. They believe that people actually do make a difference, so the company has in place a very
comprehensive and holistic approach to develop their human resources.

Question 3: How does SIA differentiate itself from rival companies?

SIA present itself as a premium brand which for the high quality of its product offering and excellence
of service standards. SIA consider the in-flight service to be a critical aspect of air travel. They are
seeking to deliver memorable experiences through its emphasis on service excellence to their
customers. So, all the cabin crews are well trained in order to provide the excellence servicers.
Besides that, SIAs service quality is monitored through regular survey of passengers. Where SIA uses
diverse methods to get to know and understand their customers needs and wants by getting the
feedback from a random sample of passengers in its flights and carefully study benchmarking studies
carried out by International Air Transport Association. SIA also sent out researchers to check on
competitors airlines and their flights. They will track and analyzes all the feedback that it received.
SIA has a geographical advantage as compared to the others competitors, where Singapore is location
is one of the world most important ports. Singapore rapid economic growth is based on the imports
and exports in that nation. That is why the rapid growth in air transports for both passenger and cargo
in Singapore and SIA play the important role in this part.
SIA has been at the forefront of developing new initiatives over the years including:

In the 1940s in-flight refreshments comprised a thermos flask of iced water; this was
later extended to sandwiches and cold drinks; today customers expect a lot more.

In the 1970s: first to offer free headsets, a choice of meals and free drinks in Economy
class and long haul customers were given a complimentary bag of toiletries.

In 1991: first with satellite-based in-flight telephones services across all three classes
(First Class, Raffles Class and Economy Class).

In 1995: the introduction of Kris World, an in-flight entertainment system with

individualized screens for each customer.

This was followed by, gourmet cuisine and non-stop commercial flights.

SIA get ahead of competitors by understanding the customer needs and wants and anticipating their
future requirements, which is the key to achieving the competitive advantages. The more they
understand their customers, the more customers that they can attract, and higher market share create to
make more profits.
SIA continually invest in research and development and in new technology because service innovation
has a short life span. Whatever service innovation introduced by SIA can be copied by competitors and
so it has short lifespan. SIA have to continually search for new ways to differentiate itself from its
competitors.

Question 4: What are the benefits that result from successful

differentiation?
SIA using the differentiation strategy to provide a variety of products, services, or features to
consumers where the competitors are not yet offering or are unable to offer.
SIA developing its competition advantages by:

SIA has seen achieve an industry leadership position in the field of in-flight entertainment by
investment in leading-edge technology. With KrisWorld, SIA customers have access to video
channels, audio channels, popular video games, real-time news, information on popular SIA
destinations and a personal in-seat telephone. In addition, WISEMEN is a major enhancement
of KrisWorld being the first in-flight entertainment system to offer both video and audio on
demand. SIA customers were the first to experience in-flight surround sound offered by Dolby
Headphones. The revolutionary technology brings high quality cinema-style surround sound to

in-flight film viewing in all three classes, First Class, Raffles Class and Economy Class.
SIA has taken in-flight dining to new heights with the formation of its International Culinary
Panel (ICP) and the introduction of World Gourmet Cuisine. Comprising eight worldrenowned chefs including the UKs Gordon Ramsay - the ICP has created world-class menus
for all SIA flights, including signature dishes exclusively for SIA. Other members are Georges
Blanc of France, David Burke and Nancy Oakes of the USA, Dietmar Sawyere of Australia,

Yoshihiro Murata of Japan, Satish Arora of India and Yeung Koon Yat of Hong Kong.
Customers on SIA can enjoy an extensive selection of wines and champagne from the worlds
major wine-producing regions. SIA has also created unbeatable packages in each Class.

SIA meeting the needs of different markets

First Class passengers are able to enjoy individual compartments (Sky Suites) on 747 flights,
providing a private space including sleeper beds. Cabins are fitted out in leather and burr
wood to provide a luxury feel. All amenities and linen have been redesigned, mostly by
Givenchy. To top it off, each individual compartment has a 14-inch personal video screen,
specially produced for SIA, by Sharp of Japan.

Raffles Class passengers have new seats designed by the Swiss firm Ludeke Design, giving a
generous recline and the longest business class seat pitch among major airlines offering three
classes. The cabin colour scheme is blue and rose cloud with alternating seat fabrics to impart
a touch of style and elegance.

SIAs leadership in Economy Class is underlined by KrisWorld the most sophisticated range
of video and audio entertainment. Seats have been updated to provide more room and comfort.
Passengers are able to enjoy World Gourmet Cuisine and even champagne.

SIA get ahead of competitors by examining the current lifestyles of customers and trying to anticipate
their future lifestyles. They understand the customer needs and wants and anticipating their future
requirements is the key to achieving competitive advantages. The benefits that result from successful
differentiation are SIA is able to create the synergistic benefits from working with the best employees
in the world by steadily improving the quality of products by using the worlds best designers and
chefs. While for the passengers, they are invariably delighted with SIA, they can be sure that SIA is
working to make their next flight even better.

Question 5: Suggest three ways in which SIA could raise the bar again.
Basically we will look into the context of Singapore International Airlines (SIA) from the company
philosophy itself which emphasized on product innovation that comes together with extraordinary
services given to the customer. In other word, this simply means by setting a new product and service
quality standards in the airline or the aviation industry.
Currently SIA already excelled in three aspects which are human resources, product innovation and
also in-flight dining. Firstly, SIA have been known in the aviation industry for its excellence in
training and molding the human resources that are being rated by the users as six stars employee. This
is simply because SIA provide and make it mandatory for each employee to go through each training
programs and courses before they are allow serving the users. Secondly, SIA had innovated
prenominal of its existing products and also facilities. For example, SIA had continued to invest in
technology that create edges for them and collaboration with Dolby had further enhanced their
facilities. Last but not least of the sphere that SIA reign supremely will be on the in-flight dining. With
the formation of its International Culinary Panel (ICP) and with the introduction of World Gourmet
Cuisine had greatly established them in the aviation industry.
Next part of the discussion will be focusing on how SIA can turn their current existing competitive
advantages into sustainable competitive advantages.
Planning and Research Committee
We are suggesting to SIA to form up both planning and research committee to better improve
their services from the users or stakeholders point of view. Planning committee will be set up
to serve as a platform for corporate decisions in several aspects such as new market to venture
in, future investment on purchase of sell of flight and facilities and also product expansion or
enhancement. The research committee will explore opinions and attitudes of both users and
stakeholders towards the airline that will help them in making an informed decision.
Enhancement on Current Facilities
SIA can advance themselves more in term of the current facilities that they are providing to the
users. A clear cut example will be SIA provide private suites which are separated from both
open suites and flatbed in the first class category. Spa and Jacuzzi can also be prepared for the
users as this will simply make the customers to feel that they are really in a comfortable and
make it like a home in the flight.
Provide Tablet and Cloud Computing

Next we are proposing that SIA should provide tablet to each of their users who can easily do
and prepare their works when they are in flight (Internet, Wi-Fi, USB Port and AC Power
Adapter). Besides that, SIA can also venture in to cloud computing as currently this is the
latest technology that can be put in aviation industry which will ease the users that are using it.
This technology will also help pilot and flight engineer to better monitor the airplane and are
able to always communicate with the base on their current condition.
Human Resource Training
SIA already well-established themselves in term of great services they provide to the users.
Borrowing the concept of Front house and Back house concept from food service sector
we think that SIA front house has been doing extremely very well in serving the users. Thus,
we are proposing SIA to focus on their back house that will be the mastermind of the whole
success of the airline company in the industry by improving and enhancing their efficiency
and effectiveness of system. This can be achieved by having a simpler and combination of
processing for instance in purchasing for air flight ticket.
Add On Services
Other than all these SIA can also venture into providing add on services or we can say it as a
package for the customer. For instance, SIA can collaborate with hotel to provide a flight
ticket and accommodation in one price. Or they can also provide flight with a tour package
with any local tour company.
Basically all of the mentioned above will helps SIA to further create sustainable competitive
advantages that will differentiate them from other airline company.

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