Circumventing Setback, Boeing no April Fool [2 of 2]

The role of organizational and marketing leadership in the setback

General consumer sentiment rightly focused on Southwest Airlines, who handled its own mea culpa and projected its own sense of responsibility swiftly and effectively (for which, by now, there is a successful template).

But to the degree to which there was any looking over at Boeing, there not only seemed little or no poor PR, but rather the reverse (in the immediate aftermath their stock price had gone up!). Aside from not being directly culpable, they become inextricably associated nonetheless. Boeing has developed its own template, and it includes immediately responding with resources, support of checks, etc. This seems wise from every angle.

Kotler & Keller delineate a broad brushstroke model for such B2B in figure 13.2, under Industrial Marketing Channels, and couched in terms of the various types of intermediaries (here, manufacturer) are Merchants, Agent/brokers and Facilitators. Clearly, even if we are speaking of an agent or broker, this role is one of Facilitator.



Conclusion

What could they have done differently?

This writers sense is not only was Boeing not in a position to do anything much differently, yet they also did everything correctly. Such pro-activity and responsibility taking on their part assuredly goes a long way in maintaining (and even building) trust.

Should the day ever come when the industry can open its margins, Boeing would then be in a stronger position to hold accountable its own consumers and could then reengineer its marketing operations to insist on certain standards being upheld. This might also include buying back old planes and recycling them (keeping dying garbage out of the hands of those who would milk profit over people numbers).

Surely Boeing is working on it through alternative fueling, nanotech in its architecture, etc. But until that day arrives (and) Boeing seems to be stuck with the best response one presumes is possible.



References

AirSafe.com, LLC. (2011). Fatal Boeing 737 Plane Crashes (reference). Retrieved from AirSafe.com: http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/b737.htm

Boeing. (2011). 737 Family, About Our Market & Suppliers (corporate website). Retrieved from Boeing (various internal web page resources): http://www.boeing.com/commercial/737family/; http://www.boeing.com/commercial/industry_info.html and http://www.boeingsuppliers.com/

Freeman, S. (2009, July 15). NTSB Studies Jetliner, Records After Rupture. The Washington Post Company. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071400856.html

Hoang, L., Thompson, D., Weintraub, A., Koenig, D., Lowy, J., Evans, M., & Seavey, B. (2011, April 3). Southwest Grounds Dozens Of Jets After Mishap. The Associated Press / NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/04/03/135084784/southwest-grounds-dozens-of-planes-after-mishap

Kotler , P., & Keller, K. L. (2009). A Framework for Marketing Management, Managing Marketing in a Global Economy (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall .

Staff (2009, July 14). Southwest checks fleet after hole forces landing, Hole in fuselage causes pressure-loss scare on Boeing 737. Associated Press. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31902513/ns/travel-news/

Staff (2011, April 02). Southwest to ground 81 planes after hole prompts emergency landing. Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-02/us/arizona.flight.diverted_1_emergency-landing-southwest-flight-regional-sales-manager?_s=PM:US

Yahoo Finance; Boeing (2011). Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=BA+Interactive#chart1:symbol=ba;range=5d;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined