Art

This paper intends to analyze the Qantas Airline annual report in terms of emotional and rational responses to the images and the text provided in the report. The report is full of graphical images about the company taken at different place and events throughout the year.

The images explicitly describe one or many aspects of the companys values and missions and are intended to attract the potential investors and retain the existing investors.

The report is also useful to general customers and media who can take advantage of the pictures and they can actually relate to the company if they have travelled with the Qantas ever. We would now try to answer the questions asked earlier to explain fully our study of the Annual report of Qantas in terms of rational analysis of the text and images.

1. Is the early material in the report substantial in that it allows potential stakeholders (stake seekers) or shareholders to feel that they have relationships with the corporation (Keep in mind that the aim of corporate communication should be to build two-way symmetrical relationships with stakeholders (publics) - hence the origin of the term public relations).

    The report does a good job on public relations.  The earlier pages mentions about the revenue of 14.6 billion profit before tax and earnings per share 5.6 cents , mentioning of 334,000 flights over 520 million kilometer, 38 million passengers and overall 36 million meals prepared  this information gives the overall idea of the company aggressiveness and gives a very bright picture to the investors and  gives the impression that the company is very passionate about its travelers and actually the travelers also like the company even though the company has pass through some rough times recently.

Later in report the message from the chairman indicates that Qantas has been badly hurt by the economic recession just like any other airline for the similar causes such as H1N1 and overall global aviation downturn and hence reports losses of US 9 billion dollars. The losses, profits and overall all summary of the airlines on the first few pages indicate that the company greatly thinks about the stakeholders and shareholders as they are sharing the good and the bad information about the company with them.

The Qantas group has informed the stakeholders and shareholder of their response to the losses with the liquidity of 3.4 billion dollars of new funding and 514 million capitals rising, and introduction of techniques to increase sales and decrease operational cost and which again is a good public relation policy.
The several pictures including picture on pg 28, 6 and 50 also help the stakeholders and shareholders think they are with the company and their opinion is important since the problems as well as good things are shared with them in detail.

At many times during the report extra information is given which probably would help the stakeholders and shareholders feel that they actually own the company and leave them with the sense of belonging. Such examples are given on page 38 and 42 in text.

The figure on page 20 about the aircrafts shows how big this giant is and the kind of airplanes it has. I am impressed at the fact that Qantas operates 24 B747 apart from other which is a big deal. A380 is top of the line aircraft and it would hugely impress any investor. Maybe some people wouldnt know the difference about these aircrafts but the people who actually travel in the business class and are actual investors really know the difference. This is good for stakeholder as they can be proud of having their stake and share.

2. Is there a balance between negative and positive in the text

There is negative and positive points included in the report but it is not very well balanced, not at least for every aspect. For example products and services on page 25 mentions about moving to new place on the Heathrow airport but it could have been talked about in a more convincing way, right now it seems as if they are moving because of some other technical difficulty on part of the Qantas group.

Catering at Qantas is a very well balanced paragraph on page 26 where it has been detailed that they serve a huge number of travelers with fresh food, although there is no mentioning of any negative view but it is evident that the Qantas is up for only fresh and healthy food.

The picture on 36 gives the opinion that travelers are well served by the Qantas, we would say it is balanced in a way that although there are no customer representatives on the pictures on the first page (air hostess ) but later there is one that is shown talking to traveler in a pleasant way.

The picture on page 30 where an aircraft is being washed gives the impression that Qantas wastes a huge amount of water on washing but the column on the side explains that it is actually to reduce fuel consumption and to increase life of the aircraft, moreover it says that Qantas would try to reduce the water consumption by 25 this is indeed a balanced amount of positive and negative information and would probably help an investor decide more in terms of investing in the company.

The mentioning of the removal of 590 management position gives a negative impression but the way it has been expressed actually turns it the other way.


3. Does the text provides evidence of two-way symmetrical communication, or is it asymmetrical

There is definitely two way symmetrical communication, for example when the report explains the operations and details of the Jet star on pages 31-34 , it actually is trying to do two way communication that the Qantas is committed to providing additional benefit to the customers by reducing cost  while improving the service.

Mentioning of twitter and other social networking sites and then the paragraph about the Qantas.com translates to the two way communication.

4. Is there evidence that some parts of the text are symmetrical while others may be asymmetrical

There are definitely parts on the report which are asymmetrical, one example is of page 43 on sustainable transformation, although the companys commitment is discussed but there is actually no input on this issue from the customer side.

Very little information that relates to the customers, like survey or customer response to the service or shareholders input has been given.

5. Does the text appear to be written for specific, rather than general stakeholders, for example, shareholders, employees or suppliers, rather than customers, media or governments

Well the report is certainly not written specifically for the stakeholders as there have been explanations of several things which a stakeholder should already have know.  Also the report is not only for the shareholders who dont need this much information, they are more interested in figures like how much was the total revenue and the total profit earned by the company and by each share.
Share holders arent necessarily interested in environmental and climate change mentioned and depicted in the picture on page 48, they would also not be interested in safety and security mentioned on page 43-44 but this certainly is a big deal for the travelers and the government 

The route map on page 18 and the details below show how extensive Qantas operations are and they are able to reach the whole world this information is needed by the media and travelers.

The information about Qantas commitment to the pilgrimage and the Pope by flying him with a charter plane shows the QANTAS commitment to the people and the human side of it and is great marketing information for media.

Picture on page 16 shows some beautiful women and other people but the text on the next page (right hand side) explains that that the Qantas is an equal opportunity employer so the picture is not included just as an eye candy but it had some important meaning attached to it.

The text overall is written for a specific class in mind the shareholders but part of the reports can actually help the customers, media and governments to know about the Qantas and may help them in deciding their trip, long term business plan or planning a report about the airline company

A customer would hugely be impressed with the pictures mentioned of an excellent service on page 25 and 38.

The last pages from 50 to 64 may only be interest to the shareholders and stakeholders but not others.

In this paper we have analyzed and commented on the annual report of the Qantas airline, the annual report is of 164 pages but we were required to study only the first 64 pages, the first 64 pages are fully of meaningful pictures describing lots of important things about Qantas and shows why and how Qantas operated in the last year.

The report is an excellent piece of information for the shareholders, stakeholders, travelers media and government agencies looking after the matters of the airlines.