British Airways Marketing Report Essay

Current sh atomic number 18 check up on is 225 with a thread of between 224 and 289. merchandising is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and cheering node requirements internetably. BA used to solve in an oligopoly foodstuff all the very(prenominal) passim the last century this has changed. Previously it was more than over large national companies that had enough silver to provide flights save nowadays the mart op eontes in perfect emulation with mellowed barriers to entry. BA force out use merchandising to labour their merchandise, drive market sh atomic number 18, anticipate customer requirements, satisfy customer inescapably and ultimately make a profit.The trade Mix The merchandising alloy is a combination of 4 Ps ( crop, value, place and promotion) that should be used in conjunction with each other to watch a combative edge over other companies. The marketing mix is designed to produce mutually satisfying exchanges with a position market. proceeds BAs ware in pump relates to the flights offered. However, the product quarter be drill down into specific atomic number 18as ranging from the airport lounges just about the world, the plains that you can buy on bill such as model BA aeroplanes or even package holidays. for each one of these has been specifically tailored to meet customer demandations (which ar highlighted in the section of the declargon titled mastermind market). This circumstances of the marketing mix endure ones on how BAs products atomic number 18 managed and in the shielder fact study bind titled BA, Iberia and American Airlines tie-up heralds new era of transatlantic conk dated 06/10/2010 it yields how BA experience made an executive director finality to link their websites with other companies to sire the possibility to offer a high(prenominal) number of channels (products) to their potential customers. damage Price is simply the amount of money custom ers moldiness pay to obtain a product. BAs be is more often than non high(prenominal) than their competitors although this is because they believe they argon go higher feature. However, in recent quantify BA appear to be losing the bell war against low cost figure competitors such as Ryanair and Easyjet. hobby(a) this, BA contribute undergone marketing strategies to reduce their price and carry out sale discounted periods. BA demand immediate payment for their products, do not give credit impairment or allowances. PromotionIn the earlyish days when BA was a nationalised union and the market was an oligopoly, they didnt catch to promote as much(prenominal), as competition was minimal. However, with the issue of new players in the market BA work resulted to abduceising in the pursuit areas tube stations ( peculiarly the Jubilee Line exhalation towards Canary Wharf to print higher earners), give-and-takepapers (such as the Financial Times and sunlight broadsh eets), airports (mainly in Heathrow and Gatwick their primary hubs) and wait ons between TV programmes, starting from September 2009 such as the countersign, Politics programmes and factual documentaries.BA in addition use personal advertising techniques with their advert Come together its Christmas. This uses mad targeting to encourage community to buy their product to visit loved ones during this period. See appurtenance 2. Place Currently BA do not operate from London Stanstead however a marketing decision could be taken to include this to their portfolio. This would give them a higher percentage of UK airport usance however a cost bring in analysis could prove this move to be not so advantageous.BA induce of late taken on Easyjet and are now offering a Gatwick-Marrakech route at discount prices. This gives customers higher excerpt and allows BA to remain competitive and vex at satisfying the takes of those who wishing to pay less. Once BA project exhausted the 4 Ps, a S. W. O. T. Analysis leave alone be perfect to determine and examine internal strengths and weaknesses and, orthogonal opportunities and threats. S. W. O. T. Analysis Strengths The case study website article on This is Money dated 24/01/2011 undoubtedly highlights one of the major strengths carrying BA at present.The merger between BA and Iberia has strengthened its financial position and is a step closer to creating a transnational multi-brand airlines group. BA take self-conceit in their strong brand, high quality service and offer prestigious initiatory class airport lounges to command that their customers are taken care of to the standard they expect for the prices they are paying. This is what has allowed BA to charge higher fares and gives them the image that higher class riders are pass oning to pay for.By linking themselves to premiere mate competitors (American Airlines) and strengthening their position by association the One World syndicate, BA have enco uraged higher revenues from this tactical decision. spare-time activity the strong decline throughout the world(a) recession, BAs strength is bouncy back according to the BBC News word British Airways in first profit for two years. Although the rise in in lessens and ultimately rise in net profit was linked to higher warhead fares, BA were able to successfully cut cost and meet their carbon dismissions targets also.Weaknesses Despite the preceding(prenominal), BA has been renowned for strong continual losings as highlighted in the other BBC News Article British Airways narrations ? 164m loss. The losings were mainly caused by the volcanic modify cloud and staff strikes both resulting in the cancellation of thousands of flights. Its reported that just 15 days strikes had cost the airline ? 142m. The strikes had also had a negative impact on their declining reputation making some people not wanting to fly with them anymore. BAs reputation was also strike when they were sued ? 10K by competitor Virgin for accessing their closed-door files and consequently trying to poach business. If this wasnt severe enough, in 2009 BA were fined a massive ? 110m for price fixing cognise as a cartel and this is illegal. Although passengers drive that flight propel can be dangerous, BA adds to its weakness with its own incidents. These hunt from a mid-air collision in 1976, a pilot organism sucked out of the aircraft when a windscreen exploded and in 2008 a BA plane at Heathrow confounded the runway and crash-landed.More recently, BA has been investigation prices of flights to some destinations that were being charged at 10 times the normal price owing to a system fault online. This is going to make people estimate twice when booking with the community. Opportunities While the to a higher place 2 sections focus internally, opportunities and threats highlight those factors that can influence BA externally. The lifting of the recession in recent months has all owed passengers to re pick up their spending habits and hopefully create higher disposable income in households and allow the loosening of the belt for those bodily alliance credit cards.BA need to paying attentionly position their marketing strategies at the right time in commit to capture these people with that bit of extra money to spend and the report will focus on this issue in the following few pageboys. BA change its Gatwick hub airport for ? 1. 5bn, although this was reportedly at a loss (as BA originally paid ? 10. 1bn for it 3 years prior), it gave BA the prospect to invest its interests elsewhere and concentrate on a smaller number of airports. BA also sold its interest in the London Eye now sponsored by EDF, to focus on other projects. ThreatsBA has been hit by threats in recent years ranging from terrorism, bad weather, volcanoes and more recently the devastating earthquake and tsunami in japan and the civil unrest in Libya. legion(predicate) flights have been cancelled to the Libyan chief city Tripoli costing BA millions of pounds. Following this, BA has been forced to cancel their consummate summer 2011 season of flight programmes. The events in Japan have also stirred BAs programmes with flights to Tokyo disrupted. The case studies provided highlight how BA went into meltdown following the heavy snow suffered in the UK during celestial latitude 2010.The conditions caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled for both cargo and passengers and the title of the article British Airways says bad weather could cost it ? 50m sums up the berth perfectly. The terrorist events in the USA in 2001 quiesce continue to make passengers nervous of flying, especially Trans-Atlantic and this is always going to be a sensitive subject that BA would stimulate hard to market against. By doing so, they would not want to seem like they are publicising terrorism but at the homogeneous time have concentrated their marketing strategies on the highest stand ard of comfort and relaxability.A final threat is shown in an article by the Telegraph where BA is attacked by a social media Facebook campaign where Gatwick workers have criticised BAs Terminal 5 at Heathrow calling it shambolic and the page was even designed with videos showing the chief operating officer of BA wrestling with baggage and trolleys. This redress BAs reputation and makes a mockery of their brand. wholly of the factors mentioned above in the marketing mix and S. W. O. T. Analysis are important for BA to consider however if the company does not have a target market to aim their products at, the company would not be able to survive.British Airways Target Market and Positioning strategy In dictate to ensure BAs products are directed at the correct audience to maximise revenues and profits, careful market research demand to be invested in to find a target market. The basis of target marketing is market segmentation which stops the market into groups of potential cust omers that have the same characteristics. From the 3 marketing strategies, its believed that BA use a separate strategy as they focus on several specific areas of the market to target. The characteristics downstairs offer ome possibilities that link all of BAs customers together. Watch the News on television Celebrities Speak a second language Middle/Upper enlighten Holiday in non-European destinations Read non-fiction In full time employment or retired Have higher disposable incomes By segmenting the customer base to determine a target market BA split the market depending on the following variables * demographic age, gender * Geographic where the target is found * Geo-demographic size of households, number of cars etc.. depending on mending * Psychographic lifestyle, attitudes Behavioural the relationship between the target market and the product As the points show in the circle above, BA focus their marketing strategies on those that have higher income and appear in the middle/ hurrying classes of the population, this is evident from the prices of their products and the quality of the service offered. both genders are targeted equally with the age range (generally) being between 35 to 65.The BA advertising strategies are positioned to target those situations that their customers can relate to and dream about i. . highlife holidays, comfortable flights and a reliable service. This concentrates on the behavioural variable. Geographically, as BA is a British company, the target market is centralize in the UK however following partnerships with peer companies such as American Airlines for example, a wider global base is reached. BA have positioned their product away from their low cost budget competitors acknowledging that they offer a more hedonic alternating(a) to cheap travel. Their localisation strategy can lso be seen in the product class membership which again, separates BAs service away from the Easyjets and Ryanairs. By doing this, BA ha ve created their own competitive advantage and have taken an alternative route to satisfy other customers require that are not centered roughly saving money. merchandising Recommendations In order for BA to evaluate how successful their target market strategies and their positioning tactics are, the report recommends that the company should see how many levels of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs are being satisfied from a purchase of a BA flight. This can be seen in Appendix 3.Psychological needfully SATISIFIED hold dear from the cold, provision of food and oxygen * prophylactic needs SATISIFIED provision of a in force(p) environment and reassuring customers * Belongingness and love needs N/A * Esteem needs N/A * Self-actualization needs maybe relevant to those who are over-coming their fear of flying. Secondly, BA could conduct marketing research to determine why customers buy their products in the first place. This could be conducted as a straightaway questionnaire either in-flig ht when the customers are all in one place at the same time or as a mandatory set of questions when booking flights.This will help BA to see what criteria are satisfied during the stage of the buyer decision process. There are 3 possibilities however the report recommends that BA would come across the most popular varible down the stairs * Routine Response Behaviour Customers who are frequent flyers, possibly members of the Executive Club, they are aware of the low cost competition however have a devotion towards BA and favour their service. Appendix 4 shows where the report deems BAs product to currently be in the market.By carrying out the market research above and with the new strong group quarter the company, the brand could move backwards in the graph and back and return to the harvesting stage. This can also be state of Appendix 5, by moving BA from a question mark in the Boston ground substance and positioning it in the star category. The report recommends BA to upgrade run for their marketing strategy to concentrate on holidays and not just flights. This colligate closely with an interview carried out by Marketing Week and BAs Head of Marketing, Richard Tams. We are devoting more and more of our reativity in any given campaign to talking about holidays. BA should extend this further and working with tourist boards of foreign countries to promote cheaper package holidays with the keep going of the presidential term in those further to reach luxurious locations. Tams states we are looking to move BA. com to much more into the space of a travel website rather than a flights website. The report strongly agrees with this marketing strategy and would fully support BAs proposals. This widens their product mix and allows a larger more different target market to be captured. deathThe report has analysed the company British Airways first off concentrating on the product mix and a S. W. O. T analysis. The report has described the companys target aud ience and commented on the current positioning strategy of British Airways. The report has concluded with marketing recommendations that could be put in place to ensure the long time success of the company. future events that British Airways will have to be aware of include the UK Government adjusting passenger air tax and carbon emission regulations. 2,682 words. Bibliography All referenced throughout. Books Jobber, D. 2001 4th mutant Principals and Practices of Marketing, McGraw Hill International, P 810 * Kotler, P. 2010 9th variation Principals of Marketing, Pearson * Lamb, C. 2009 6th edition Essentials of Marketing, Neil Marquardt * The Chartered Institute of Marketing, LSBU lecture notes Websites All accessed between 24/03/2011 and 30/04/2011 * www. bbc. co. uk/news * www. dailymail. co. uk/travel/article-1369100/Libya-action-hits-British-Airways-flights. html * www. guardian. co. uk * www. google. co. uk/finance? q=garden pink%3ABAIRY * www. iagshares. com www. letsstartt hinking. org/quickreference/maslow-need-hierarchy. asp * www. marketingweek. co. uk/sectors/travel-and-leisure/airlines/qa-with-ba-marketing-head-richard-tams/3019560. article * www. news. airwise. com/story/view/1300492770. html * www. news. cheapflights. co. uk/ /ba-takes-on-easyjet-on-gatwick-marrakech-route * http//phx. corporate-ir. net/External. File? feature=UGFyZW50SUQ9ODMyOTJ8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1 * www. telegraph. co. uk/travel/3366187/British-Airways-staff-attack-passengers-on-Facebook. html * www. thisislondon. co. k/standard/article-23431527-london-eye-looks-for-new-sponsor-as-ba-pulls-out. do * www. thisismoney. co. uk * http//uk. reuters. com/article/2009/10/21/uk-baa-idUKTRE59K1D820091021 * www. utalkmarketing. com/UTMImages/2/BA_terminal5_2. jpg Appendices 1. ) Group structure of IAG 2. ) BA advert 3. ) Maslows Hierarchy of Needs 4. ) Product Life Cycle 5. ) Boston Matrix 1 . www. iagshares. com 2 . http//www. google. co. uk/finance? q= beg%3ABAIRY 3 . Lamb, C, 2009 Essentials of Marketing 6th edition. Neil Marquardt,