Key Marketing Concepts and Strategies of British Airways

This article discusses the key marketing concepts and strategies used by British Airways to achieve their objectives. It covers product strategy, branding, and promotional strategies. It also explores the cross-functional relationship of marketing with other departments in the organization.

Editing and
Proofreading
1

Table of Contents
1) Introduction.................................................................................................................................3
2) Main Body...................................................................................................................................3
a) Key marketing concepts and terminology applicable to British Airways..........................3
b)Marketing strategies and programs that helped British Airways to achieve their objectives..6
c) Marketing concepts and principles used in British Airways for daily organisational
operations...............................................................................................................................7
3) Discuss cross-functional relationship of marketing and other departments in British Airways. 9
Covered in Poster...................................................................................................................9
4) Conclusions and recommendations.............................................................................................9
5) Reference List............................................................................................................................10
2

1) Introduction
Marketing principles is defined as ideas which are used by companies for effective
strategy of marketing (Fletcher and et. al., 2017). These are those principles upon that business
focus on building product promotion strategies. It is very important for enterprise to use proper
marketing principles for their goods and services in proper manner. In context of airline, they use
different types of marketing such as social media, unique advertising, loyalty programs and
others to create awareness among consumers regarding their products and service. The airline
business find particular strategies of marketing and transfer into action plan so that they provide
effective customer service and satisfaction to them. The organisation chosen for given report is
British Airways which was founded in 1974 headquarter at Harmondsworth, United kingdom. It
has two hubs named as Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport. This is regarded as second
largest airline in UK having 183 destinations with 282 fleet size. The main aim of report is to
discuss about key marketing concepts such as product strategy, promotional and branding. This
assignment also cover marketing strategies as well as programs which helps in achievement of
objectives. The 7Ps, marketing research and STP of airline is discussed in report. It highlights
about cross functional relationship of marketing and other departments.
2) Main Body
a) Key marketing concepts and terminology applicable to British Airways
Marketing concept is defined as philosophy which is used by business in order to analyse
need and demand of customers and accordingly making decisions to become better than
competitors (French and Russell-Bennett, 2015). This is very essential for business to adopt
proper marketing concept in their business as per size and structure so that better decision can be
made. It is very important for business to have distinct features from competitors. The marketing
concept used by British Airways for their product strategy, branding and promotional strategy
are described below:
Product Strategy
It is defined as strategy which identifies about what product should be achieve, how to
support organisation and brought life with help of product road map. Such strategy should focus
on end to end vision of goods to achieve strategy of products. This is composed of various
process for attainment of set vision and mission of business. While adopting product strategy by
3

British Airway, they have to consider about design, quality, target market, features, branding,
positioning and so on. As product is very important for business, without which there is no place,
business, promotion. British Airways offers different service products, flights across
destinations, quality of flights, business, executive class, security, years of experience, support,
speed, year of experience (Product Strategy of the British Airways, 2020). This mainly provide
all basic product along with different alternatives in order to satisfy various need and demand of
customers. This can be more explained with help of Kotler's five product level theory which are
described below:
Core Benefits- This is defined as those benefits that fulfils need and demand of
consumers whenever they purchase product (Green, Grace and Perkins, 2016). British Airways
has to provide consumer with flight tickets to travel from one destination to another.
Generic Product- This is defined as those version of product that is made up of only
those features necessary for function. In this consumer book seat on schedule flight for specified
destination. Respective airline flies airports to Europe in 95 different countries with 58 other
destination at global level.
Expected Product- This is defined as those expectation of consumers whenever they buy
goods from market (Five Product Levels (Kotler), 2018). In context of British Airways,
consumers are expecting for proper seat, drinks, meals during their destination.
Augmented Product- It is defined as those product variants, services, features which
assist to became different from competitors. This is regarded as extra services which are
provided by British Airways as well as support facilities. They have three executive classes for
several needs such as blue, gold, silver. The members belonging to gold as well as silver class
has executive lounges at main airport where people can easily relax from noisy place and take
shower, eat something and go to gym. On other hand, customers with first class can enjoy their
board sleep at own bed seat.
Potential Product- This consists of all transformations as well as augmentations product
which will undergo in future time period. It helps to surprise as well as delight consumers about
products as well as services. In this product, British Airways can provide discounts, loyalty,
coupons, special offer at time of booking tickets and so on.
Branding
4

It is defined as major issue in terms of product strategy. This is referred as term, symbol,
name, sign, design to identify products and services from their competitors (Kubacki and et. al.,
2015). British Airways is regarded as safeness, confidence, assurance, comfortableness, luxury
brand at marketplace. Symbol of BA is simple but it present luxury as well as safety airline in
mind's of consumers. The logo or symbol should be very attractive and eye catchy for consumers
so that they can attain goal and objectives. The branding of BA is explained with six level of
meaning which are described below:
Attributes- This is defined as attributes of brand in mind's of consumers. In context of
BA, it is safety, convenient, reliable airline that helps in transferring people to various
destinations.
Beliefs- It should be translated into emotional as well as functional beliefs (Brand
Meaning and Types of Brand Designations, 2020). Attributes should be durable that can be
translated to functional benefits. Here, luxury denotes functional beliefs where people can have
own comfortable seat with good food, beverages of choices along with providing comfortability.
Safety is emotional beliefs which assist consumers to feel them safe, reliable as well as
scheduled flights which is always on time.
Values- Brand has to mainly focus on value of producer. BA always stand for glamour,
safety, reliability, prestige, comfortableness which is liked by all consumers.
Culture- In modern era, culture impact on brand in effective manner. BA is airline
business that is based at UK which represents about English culture in terms of organised,
kindly, reliable and safety.
Personality- The brand helps in denoting personality of products and services in
effective way (McDONALD, 2016). The consumer who fly with BA always provide them
personality to feel like executive leader or business man. It is always on time for consumer who
are in hurry.
User- This denotes about type of users as well as customer who uses or buys brand at
marketplace. In context of British Airways, large number of business people uses service rather
than students. As people from all types of background can afford for using such services.
Promotional Strategy
It is defined to persuade, remind and inform target audiences about products. This
includes unique and attractive collection of personal selling, public relations, advertising, sales
5

promotion, social media, e-commerce for promoting products and services at marketplace. The
respective organisation has to used different promotional strategy for their customer and users so
that they can avail their services in proper manner. Some of promotional strategy used by British
Airways are described below:
Social Media- This plays an effective role for promotional strategy where customer are
aware about products, services through social media (Moravcikova and et. al., 2017). In current
scenario, large number of people are connected to social media which assist them to know more
about business and their services. BA is largest airline organisation which has high brand value
and goodwill at marketplace. It should unique and attractive feature to create awareness among
users in best manner.
Mobile Application- It is also the way of promoting products at marketplace. In context
of BA, they have their own mobile application that shows all details of flights, offers, discounts,
time duration, prices and so on which makes easy for consumer while booking online tickets.
This is one of promotional strategy adopted by respective organisation for attracting large
number of consumers in appropriate way. This helps visitor to make easy booking by knowing
all details and information of flights and their fare.
b)Marketing strategies and programs that helped British Airways to achieve their objectives
In order to run business activities and operations at marketplace, it is very important for
organisation to set proper objectives which can be attained through making marketing strategies
as well as programs. The main objectives of British Airways are providing of top quality
services, airline of choice, global city growth and meeting customer needs. Some of the
marketing strategies and programs for attainment of objectives are as follows:
Promotional Advertising- In order to meet need and demand of consumer, it is very
important to use different promotional advertising such as sales promotion, use of social media
and so on (Nowak and et. al., 2015). This helps in creating awareness among themselves in
effectual manner regarding products and service. The respective organisation has to take
comments of their users and clients for better improvement of their products and services.
Product Development- In order to achieve objective of airline of choice, product
development strategy should be applied by organisation in proper manner. In this context, they
have to develop different product for their consumers to fulfils their requirements. BA provide
6

variety of products to their consumer but have to enhance themselves as per market need and
demand to compete with their competitors.
Differentiation Strategy- For meeting of global city growth, they have to adopt
differentiation strategy so that they can compete at global level (Pettigrew and Jongenelis, 2016).
As it is highly recognised brand at marketplace but with change in market requirement, they have
to adopt differentiation strategy.
Feedback Program- This is the most important program which should be adopted by
BA for improving their goal and attainment of objectives. They have to take feedback from their
passengers on daily basis to enhance their weak areas.
c) Marketing concepts and principles used in British Airways for daily organisational operations
Marketing principle is defined as strategy which is used by organisation in terms of 7Ps,
STP and others. It is essential for business to analyse such strategy for running their daily
operations in effective manner. In context of British Airways, 7Ps and STP are described below:
7Ps
It is defined as collection of seven elements of marketing which has an aim to work
together for attainment of goal and objectives of marketing strategy. This includes product, price,
place, promotion, people, physical evidence, process. They are described below:
Product-BA offers airline service in context of premium segment. The providing of high
level products and services leads to create high level of satisfaction (Poltavska, 2017). The
product of BA includes charging of reasonable price for ticket, excellent providing of scheduled
flights from one destination to another, providing all flight services with comfortable seats,
meals, drinks and so on.
Price- BA focus on charging reasonable as well as affordable prices from their
consumers along with providing value to them. They provide different classes such as premium,
business and economy. Price varies due to destination which leads to following of differentiation
pricing strategy. Along with this, they provide offers, discounts on festivals.
Place- BA is serving more than 400 destinations with 273 aircraft along with 787s, 747s
and 777s boeing (British Airways Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy, 2019). It has covered 40% of
slot at their headquarter airport i.e. Heathrow. They have tied up their airport authorities of
global airport in order to conduct proper operations and also providing of services through
websites and phone app.
7

Promotion- BA has adopted different promotional strategy such as advertising through
TV, billboards, newspapers and so on. They provide classy as well as sophisticated promotion
for their people. They possess brand ambassadors like Justin Rose along with sponsoring through
charitable events, sporting and so on.
Physical Evidence- In context of BA, the experience gained by consumers and offers
provided by business to their people is physical evidence (Resnick and et. al., 2016). It is
intangible in nature which includes behaviour of attendants at flight, interior, design, ambience,
symbol, logo and other are regarded as all physical evidence.
Process- BA has launched their new system of ticket where time taken for booking of
ticket is less than one minute. Such facilities is made available at Germany as well as Britain.
This has also launched holiday offers and packages along with delivering cargo services for
goods like pet, scheduled services, funerals and so on. Process of BA start with ticket booking
which goes through different stages such as arriving at airport, boarding pass, checking luggage,
entering flight, experiencing services and getting back luggage.
People- The management board contain engineering, sales, finance, marketing units and
so on. Also customer as well as operation team that includes flight operators, executive
engineers, communications and so on. It has more than 40,000 employees working in different
locations.
STP (Segmentation Targeting Positioning)
Segmentation- It is defined as procedure to divide total market into sub sections on basis
of various categories like geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural (Roberts,
Kayande and Stremersch, 2019). BA has segmented market on basis of education, gender, age,
income where they have charge low cost from consumers in context of demographic variables.
Under psychographic variable, it is providing high quality drink, soft, spacious seating and so on.
Under context of geographic, this is providing domestic flights at Europe and UK in different
places.
Targeting- BA provide different types of service packages to their various consumer
segments such as premium, first class, economy and executive. It has also targeted segment of
citizens that involves in primary market of ABC1 who focus on high class.
8

Positioning- This is regarded as last stage of respective model. BA does not promote
their products and services at marketplace (Saunders, Barrington and Sridharan, 2015). It has
positioned at market through providing of high quality services to their consumers.
3) Discuss cross-functional relationship of marketing and other departments
in British Airways
Covered in Poster
4) Conclusions and recommendations
From the report, it has summarised that marketing plays an effective role in attainment of
business goal and objectives. In context of airline industry, they have to adopt proper product
strategy, promotional and branding strategy for creation of awareness among customer regarding
products and services. This is very essential to analyse market in proper way to know
requirements of their consumers and accordingly decisions should be made. In order to attain
objective of business, marketing strategies as well as programs has to be made in ethical manner.
The 7Ps of marketing mix helps in knowing about product, price, place, promotion, process,
physical evidence, people. Before initiating any business, it is significant to know about STP
factors such as segmentation, targeting and positioning. Marketing functions has relationship
with other department such as legal, HR, production for running of business operation and
activities of organisation. This helps in maintaining cross relationship among department to
attain set goal. Moreover, it is also recommended to Airline industry to analyse market on
regular to introduce new services and products for their consumers to beat competition at
marketplace. Along with, it is also recommended to enhance brand value and goodwill by
providing high quality products and services.
9

5) Reference List
Books and Journals
Fletcher, J. & et. al., (2017). Tourism: Principles and practice. Pearson UK.
French, J., & Russell-Bennett, R. (2015). A hierarchical model of social marketing. Journal of
Social Marketing.
Green, A., Grace, D., & Perkins, H. (2016). City branding research and practice: An integrative
review. Journal of Brand Management. 23(3). 252-272.
Kubacki, K. & et. al., (2015). A systematic review assessing the extent of social marketing
principle use in interventions targeting children (2000-2014). Young Consumers.
McDONALD, M. A. L. C. O. L. M. (2016). Strategic marketing planning: theory and
practice. In The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
Moravcikova, D. & et. al., (2017). Green marketing as the source of the competitive advantage of
the business. Sustainability. 9(12). 2218.
Nowak, G. J. & et. al., (2015). Addressing vaccine hesitancy: The potential value of commercial
and social marketing principles and practices. Vaccine. 33(34). 4204-4211.
Pettigrew, S., & Jongenelis, M. I. (2016). promoting public health: Understanding the limitations
of marketing principles and the need for alternative approaches. In Making a Difference
Through Marketing (pp. 61-72). Springer, Singapore.
Poltavska, O. (2017). Development of enterprises of restaurant industry based on marketing
principles. Електронне наукове фахове видання «Соціально-економічні проблеми і
держава». (2 (17)). 144-153.
Resnick, S. M. & et. al., (2016). Marketing in SMEs: a “4Ps” self-branding model. International
Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
Roberts, J. H., Kayande, U., & Stremersch, S. (2019). From academic research to marketing
practice: Exploring the marketing science value chain. In How to Get Published in the
Best Marketing Journals. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Saunders, S. G., Barrington, D. J., & Sridharan, S. (2015). Redefining social marketing: beyond
behavioural change. Journal of Social Marketing.
Seddon, J. (2015). The Brand in the Boardroom: How Ogilvy & Mather Reinvented The
Marketing Principles of Brand Valuation. Journal of Advertising Research. 55(2). 146-
161.
Warner, L. A., & Schall, W. L. (2015). Using social marketing principles to understand an
Extension audience’s landscape water conservation practices. Journal of Human
Sciences and Extension. 3(1).
Online
Brand Meaning and Types of Brand Designations. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bbalectures.com/meaning-of-brand-and-brand-designations/>.
British Airways Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/17544-british-airways.html>.
Five Product Levels (Kotler). 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/10/five-product-levels/>.
Product Strategy of the British Airways. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=121683>.
10

11

12