Marketing Practices in British Airways

This report discusses the key marketing concepts, strategies, and programs used by British Airways to achieve its objectives. It explores the airline's product strategy, promotional strategy, branding, production strategy, business blogging, and societal marketing concept. The report also highlights the relationship of the marketing function with other functional areas in the organization.

Marketing Practices

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Key marketing concepts...............................................................................................................3
Societal marketing concept-.........................................................................................................5
Marketing strategies and programs that helped British airways to achieve its objectives-.........5
Marketing concepts that are used in British Airways .................................................................7
Relationship of marketing function with other functional areas in organization.............................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Not just best airline organisation but the best organisation in britain, British Airways was
founded on 31st march 1974. airline is headquartered at waterside, Harmondsworth near London
Heathrow airport. This airport is also known as main hub of the airline and occupies 40 percent
slots at the airport. Airline has employed more than 40000 employees and earns revenue of more
than 13000 million pounds. This report includes various factors and why it is important for
airline industries to perform marketing functions. For the same reason British Airways'
marketing functions have been discussed in the report. In order to do that report firstly addresses
key marketing concepts which include production strategy, branding etc. Thereafter various
marketing strategies and programs that helped British Airlines to grow have been included which
involves their advertisement and promotional strategies which have proven very effective and
have contributed a major part of its success (Coller, Helms Mills and Mills, 2016). These
strategies are event sponsorship, social media and digital marketing. Also, marketing strategies
are being used in ethical manner by the company. Finally, report addresses relationship of
marketing function with other funactional areas of the organisation. These functional areas
include production, research and development and finance.
MAIN BODY
Key marketing concepts
Marketing is known as a set of activities that are undertaken by organisation to create,
communicate deliver the offerings of the company which are valuable and useful for the
customers, clients and society at large (Tckhakaia, Cabras and Rodrigues, 2015). Marketing
concepts are philosophies that are used by organisation for creating and delivering goods and
services to the customers and societies at large. Marketing concepts that are used by British
Airways are-
Product strategy-
British Airway's product strategy is very effective in terms of satisfying needs and wants
of its customers. British Airway's fleet size is approximately 279 that provides excellent services
to all its customers. Product strategy of British Airways includes a very reasonable price for
those who want to travel from one destination to another. Provides excellent Flight schedules and

connection to the busiest airports in the world adds value in its product strategy. Other most
important part of its product strategy is providing best possible in flight service to all passengers
in terms of seats, food and drinks and even provides entertainment. Customers can choose other
forms of entertainment like movie collection and television programs. Other important part of its
product strategy is that to cater needs of different customers British Airways has classified its
services in three sections like gold executive class, silver executive class.
Promotional strategy-
British Airways is highly competitive company and that makes it very important to
advertise very effectively. In order to do that British Airways advertise through newspaper
advertisement, television and billboards. Advertisements are very classy and message being
delivered through them is very sophisticated. For marketing and advertisement British Airways
also sponsor sports, charity and cultural events. British Airways also promote itself by
appointing various celebrities as brand ambassador. Nowadays most of the customers book their
tickets online and for that airline also have its mobile app and website where passengers can
book tickets and it also manages to promote itself (Hanlon, 2017). All these methods of
marketing have proven vary effective and managed to grow and develop British Airway.
Branding-
Branding refers to image that customers have about any product or service in their mind
and at what category customers place a product in context with its competitors. Brands get this
place from the value they provide to their customers in terms of price they are charging and
quality they provide or the needs that are being fulfilled by this brand (Shaw, 2016). British
Airways has invested around 6.5 billion pound to provide world class services to its customers.
Airline continues to get better and improve itself to fulfil expectations of its customers and that
efforts have led British Airways to become the best brand of the Britain. Airlines current profile,
marketing strategy and development of service have managed to create a holistic picture of the
brand.
Production-
British Airways' production strategy is very effective they have around 279 fleet and they
provide their service at a very affordable price to cater needs of all its customers. This airline is
also easily available for those who are willing to travel and have a very effective schedule at
some of the busiest airports in the world. Main concept of the production is that customers will

choose the product that is available at low price and this airline does the same and also provide
quality with availability.
Business Blogging-
Business blogging is an effective way to promote the brand in modern time. In this kind
of blogging, attributes of blogging are like regular blogging but its adds layer if marketing over
it. It helps marketers to drive traffic to their website and that create leads and establish authority
on a particular topic (Efthymiou and et.al., 2019). These post that are created by the airline are
searched through keywords to their audience and provide helpful and valuable material to the
audience.
Societal marketing concept-
This concept of marketing focuses on the needs and wants of the customers of a
company. In relation to British Airways this concept is very useful as airline is always focusing
on needs and wants of its customers and give superiority of their desires and that is why it has
also divided its services in three parts where customers can choose the kind of services they want
for themselves and airline provides them best possible services to cater their needs.
Marketing strategies and programs that helped British airways to achieve its objectives-
There are various strategies a organisation can use in order to create awareness in
customers about their existence and company manages to do so the next objective of marketing
is to grow and develop their organisation. Companies also try to establish their product as a
brand and marketing play a very crucial role in doing so. In this report British Airways has been
included to discuss its marketing strategies. In order to increase its customers and profit along
with creating itself as a brand British Airways has employed many strategies. Most important in
all these strategies are advertisement through television, newspaper and showing it at billboards.
Other strategies are sponsoring various events of sports, cultural and charity. These are being
discussed as follows-
Advertisement-
Most effective and easy way through which companies can communicate to a large
number of audience at once is advertisement. British Airways has also use this concept and
employed various strategy to advertise about their company and the services it is providing.
These advertisements are ethical way of communicating and marketing about the product only if

the content in these is accurate and right. Advertisements through newspaper not just effective
but an old method that companies are applying for marketing. This method communicate
message of a company in a printed form and show precisely what offerings company have for
them and what value they can provide to the customers (Zhang, Liang and Wang, 2016). Other
way of advertisements are digital billboards, companies can create some eye-catching content
and then put it on billboards at streets of the city. These are very effective to grab attention of the
viewers and company can communicate their message when viewers give their attention.
Advertisement through television is also a traditional way of advertisement this method requires
company to develop its content in form of video making it unique and different so viewer give
their attention and understand the message company wants to communicate.
Social media Marketing-
This form of marketing is very effective in modern world. In this type of marketing
companies communicate their message through social media websites and users of social media
gets to see the message. Companies can use this marketing in two ways either directly or
indirectly (Moorman and Day, 2016). In direct marketing ion social media companies create
their page and groups to communicate and their followers can get the message company is
delivering. Other form is a method where companies can communicate their message through
some other sources or pages and groups this is also very effective as company will be able to
communicate to all those who are viewers of other pages. Companies generally use pages and
sources to communicate who have traffic on their websites. British Airways use both the ways to
advertise through social media. It has its own pages and link and also advertise through other
sources and links on social media.
Digital marketing-
Another important way of marketing in the world of internet is digital marketing. Various
techniques are there to use for digital marketing. Companies can advertise through their own
website and other tools are when adds appear randomly on the basis of past search of the user.
This requires collaboration of two or more websites and sharing of user data regarding their
search that shows their interest and companies can communicate to those who are looking for
something similar and this also enables companies to convey their message to a target and
limited audience who is interested and tends to use companies' product (Cacciolatti and Lee,
2016). British Airways also use this strategy for advertisement and it is also ethical if it is used

for right purpose and purpose of British Airways is to communicate their message to those who
are or may be interested in using their offerings.
Event sponsorship-
Providing financial support to organise an event by the company is known as event
sponsorship. These are very effective to create and enhance brand image of an organisation.
According to research those companies who are connected with some kind of event and
contribute in creating memorable moments are more likely to sell their product and enhance their
image (Grohs, 2016). Sponsorship allows companies to connect with audience in real time.
British Airways also sponsor many sports and cultural events in order to connect with audience
in real time.
Marketing concepts that are used in British Airways
7P's of Marketing Mix
Marketing mix refers to a set of strategies and tactics concerned with different factors of
marketing mix of a product. Under this 7 factors that are concerned with marketing are known as
7 P's of marketing. These 7P's in context with British Airways are as follows-
Product- product of British airways is airline services that they offer to the customers. British
airways offers high quality service to all its customers. Airline offers various types of services in
form of various classes as required to the customers (Jackson and Ahuja, 2016). The in flight
services of British Airways are very effective as they provide comfortable seats, food and drinks
and entertainment in various forms. The services that are offered by British Airways are
integrated with latest technology. Tickets of the flights are available in various forms like
economy, business, first class. Other services like beds, extra space, cabins have become more
luxurious and sophisticated with the betterment of travelling. Services of the British Airways
also differ in terms of time and duration of fights.
Price- pricing policy of airline considers that everyone should be able to afford the prices of
ticket and hence have a very reasonable price for its tickets. The price and tickets differ in form
of class like economy class's tickets have a less price than business class and likewise have two
more type of class that are known as premium and first class. Prices also vary ion the basis of
destination and the time on which they are booked ( (Wirtz and Lovelock, 2016)). Like if booked

early then price of tickets are very affordable. Along with these strategies company also offers
discounts on various occasion and to customers who frequently fly in the British Airways.
Place- British Airways have flights for more than 400 destinations with a fleet of 273 aircraft.
Head office of the airline is in Waterside near Heathrow airport London and have around 40
percent slots at the Heathrow airport and have most operations there. Airline have also tied up
with the airport authorities around the world for smooth functioning of the its operation. Services
of the airline can also be availed from its website and applications.
Promotion- being a highly competitive organisation British Airways has to ensure that it has
right strategy for promotion. Hence, airline advertises through television, newspaper and
billboards. Promotions of the company are very classy and content is very sophisticated.
Company also promote itself through event sponsorship and also have celebrity brand
ambassador.
People- having total 40000 employees including 15000 cabin crew, 3600 pilots and 5500
engineers British Airways is managed by its CEO who is also head of Management teams these
teams are strategy, engineering, sales and marketing, customers and finance units. Pilots are
selected through tough tests and simulation and induction into the organization. Cabin crew is
also recruited from top institutes of hospitality and undergo training once they are selected in the
organization.
Process- to reduce the time of booking its ticket airline has launched a new service which is
known as e-ticketing. This service is only available in Germany and Britain. Company also
offers holiday package and cargo services which offers delivery for perishable and dangerous
goods and scheduled services (Abdul-Hamid and et.al., 2017). Services of the airline starts right
from booking tickets, arriving at airport and then it ends when passengers get their luggage back
also includes excellent in flight experiences.
Physical Evidence- the way customers perceive the brand and experience that they have to offer
their customers is only physical evidence they have. This is an intangible aspect of the business.
The services that are offered in form of behaviour of the attendants, design of the cabin and
interiors of the cabin are used in form physical evidence.
STP strategy
Segmentation- British Airlines has segmented itself on demographic and psychographic basis.
This helps in identifying and determine nature and characteristics of each segment of customers.

Targeting- As varied segment of the customers has been rewarded for their loyalty. Company
uses differentiated targeting to identify attractiveness of each segment.
Positioning- company has positioned itself as leader in strategic market alliance and diverse
customer groups. Company also uses positioning based on customer class.
Relationship of marketing function with other functional areas of organization
Marketing function is a very essential function of an organisation that contributes in the
survival and growth of an organisation. Marketing function's relationship with other functional
areas in organisation is very important in order for its effective and smooth operation. Marketing
function and its relationship with other functional areas of British Airways are as follows-
IT(websites and internet)-
British Airways' marketing function has a very important relationship. There are few
reasons for that first one is that companies in present marketing environment are engaged in
marketing through digital and internet. Companies are running their campaign on social media
and that is why relationship of marketing is very important and crucial. Other major reason that
this airline provides services of its business over internet and through websites that is not only
concerned with customer services and business process but is also important for marketing and
sales that is an integral part of marketing.
Finance department-
British Airways is a company that seeks to grow and increase its profit and that is all
about finance. Relationship of marketing can be justified as finance department allocated budget
for marketing operations and marketing's effectiveness in form of investment and profit earned is
also evaluated by finance department (Morrell, 2018). That is why finance department and
marketing have to work together and maintain relationship to increase each other's effectiveness.
Customer service department-
All the major business activities run around earlier it was a supportive function but in
present business environment this has become very important for all the businesses as this
provides information about customers in form of complaints and their needs. Marketing
department also mainly work on identifying and understanding customer needs and requirements
(Ho, 2018). That is the reason that marketing and customers service department in British

airways work jointly. Customer also help in evaluating success of marketing activities like
campaign launched by marketing, customer service can help to understand its success.
Human resources department-
Marketing function needs humans and manpower to effectively perform themselves and
their most important role is played by human resources department. Human resources are
responsible for recruitment, selection, induction, training, performance management and
measurement (Karami, 2017). Hence, all the requirements of British airways in form its
employees are fulfilled by human resource department and when marketing needs manpower it
will require help of human resource department. They are skilled to hire and retain efficient
manpower and when marketing functions are performed by efficient employee’s chances of its
success also increase.
Production department-
Production department which is concerned with developing products that is required to
customers of an organization. In relation with British Airways as it is providing transport service
its production activities involve providing facilities and services that are needed to customers.
These exist in the form of inflight services and services before travel and after travel that are
concerned with flight and airline like efficient services related to giving back luggage.
Research and development-
Research and development department which seeks to find scope in which products and
services of the organization can be improved. Aviation industry is no different and changing
models of business in aviation industry are requiring hoe services can be improved while
lowering cost of the services. Marketing department play a crucial role in this as marketing
department is responsible for identifying needs of the customers and then provide the
information to research and development department so that they can work in that direction. For
instance prices of the company are very high and customers are not satisfied with that marketing
department will provide this information to R&D and then it will work on how the prices of
services that are being provided by the company can be reduced. This can take technological
improvement or improvement in process and system of the company.

CONCLUSION
On the basis of report it can be concluded that marketing functions of British Airways are
very effective and company is constantly working on improving these functions. Not just
marketing functions but company is constantly working on how it an improve its other functions
like providing better services to its customers and keep its prices that are affordable to everyone
who wish to travel through British Airways. Marketing and promotional strategies of
organisation employs various strategies that include promotion and advertising through
newspaper and television. Promotion strategies also involve display of the company's message at
billboards as this medium is very effective in catching attention people. Other than these
traditional methods company also have strategies that promote itself on social and digital media
to the audience who is actaully interested in the services that are being provided by the airline.
For improving its effectiveness company can also use methods like one to one marketing and
experiential marketing as company claims to provide memorable experience to those who uses
its services. Lastly report also includes relationship of marketing with other functional areas of
the British Airlines and success of the company is enough to justify their effectiveness.

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Online
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