Boeing 787 debacle - Assignment Example

Within this particular case study, the author will discuss the case of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner; the newest addition to Boeing’s fleet of commercial passenger aircraft. Although the design and engineering of the aircraft has taken years and untold tens of millions of dollars to effect, the rate to which it has been able to integrate with the consumer/public has been stymied as a result of a seemingly perpetual hemorrhaging of negative information and news regarding this aircraft and the problems associated with it in the media.

As a result of the high number of negative news stories that have been witnessed with regards to the reliability, safety, and construction of the aircraft, the following analysis will serve as something of a communications plan for what this author has deemed the most effective means of gaining the consumer’s trust once again and continuing to move forward with the development and improvement of both the Dreamliner as well as the many future developments that Boeing doubtless has planned. The fundamental importance of such a report and a clear and differentiated communications strategy is concentric upon the realization that with such a plan, the means by which Boeing could continue to function, sell its aircraft, retain the public’s trust, and derive profitability would come fundamentally in question (Dvorak et al., 2013). The first plan of approach that the Boeing firm should necessarily engage with is an active form of marketing for the aircraft.

Although the product is not new, it is still relatively new so that an aggressive form of marketing with regards to the aircraft, directed at the end consumer (the passenger) could seek to have an effect (Newman, 2013). As with the current situation, the public is being inundated by a flood of negative images and understandings with regards to the overall safety of the aircraft. Though it is something of a dangerous approach, seeking to engage the consumer with an understanding that the firm prides itself in maintaining one of the best safety records in all of aviation, it will work tirelessly to continue to ensure that this remains in effect into the future of the firm (Jacob, 2013).

Moreover, such an approach should not spend any large length of time retelling the safety and/or engineering problems which have already been encountered as this will only serve to remind the viewer/participant that these problems exist. Rather, a fundamental approach to relating the core competencies of the firm and engaging the public with the understanding that the firm will continue to exhibit these well into the future represents a far better approach with a higher chance of overall success.

Naturally, another aspect that Boeing can seek to pursue as a means of improving its image is by actively engaging with the media within the form of integrating a higher level of media relations. Currently, almost each and every single one of the articles which have been reviewed as a means of informing this particular piece of research have uniquely illustrated the complete lack of Boeing’s stance or response to the information presented therein (Cooper, 2013). This represents a massive breakdown with regards to the media relations approach that Boeing has formerly sought to integrate with the media.

In such a way, actively participating with the media outlets that report on such stories is the first step in enacting such a plan. Naturally,