Marketing Concepts and Strategies of British Airways

This report discusses the marketing concepts and strategies adopted by British Airways, including market analysis, customer analysis, promotional strategy, and the 7Ps and STP of the company. It also provides recommendations for the company's marketing efforts.

Marketing Principles
& Practice LSBM101

INTRODUCTION
Marketing within business is very essential factor which is directly connected to sales
and growth and development of the company. This is related to how an organisation is promoting
and advertising it's services and products to customers. Marketing is a discipline which includes
actions that are undertaken by a company for drawing customers and maintaining relationships
with them. This also includes networking with present as well as past clients. The company
considered in this report is British Airways. This is a flag carrier airline of UK and the
headquarters of this company are located in Waterside, Harmondsworth. This is one of the
largest airlines within UK. There is huge development in the aviation industry since years. The
demand of travelling has resulted in the growth of airlines industry (Bernstein, and Johnson,
2019). The British Airways has completed more than 100 years of service. There are lot of
changes and developments since the start of business. The following report is in the form of
report. It includes key marketing concepts and terminology that is applicable to British Airways.
It also includes marketing strategies and programs that help in attainment of organisational
objectives.
MAIN BODY
Marketing concepts
Marketing is the process of selling and purchasing goods and services of a company and
make contribution in running the business of an organisation. It can be an activity of trading
products and services of the firm by following different conceptions of marketing for the success
of the business. There are several marketing concepts which are considered by British Airways
in its business, some of them are mentioned as beneath:
Marketing concept- It indicates to a theory that companies ought to break down the
demands of their consumers and after that put on choices to satisfy those demands, better than
the resistance (Birdir, Dalgic, and Birdir, 2018). In context of British Airways, the advertising
thought based after setting investigation to distinguish business industry shard, their size and
their needs. To satisfy the market needs, the promoting team settles on choices regarding the
controllable parameters of the promoting mixture.
Elements of marketing process- The activity of marketing is waste conception that is an
important component which is required for the growth of a company. In British Airways, the

management of the company consisted several actions and activities in its marketing process and
designing of products, setting prices, developing strategies, promotional and advertisement
activities. All the marketing activities are combined in four key factors of marketing process that
are mentioned as beneath:
Research- It refers to the process of investigation which is conduct by the administration
of British Airways, before launching the product and services at marketplace. It is conduct by the
company to monitor the current situation of the market that how will it create the effect upon the
products and services of the company. It will also help the respective company in getting
information about customers needs, preferences, business opportunities, market threats and
internal & external condition of the marketplace.
Strategy- It indicates to the plan of actions which are devise by the administration of
British Airways to effectively running the business and marketing of the products and services
which are produced by it. The management of the company can devise the formulation of
strategies on the basis of SWOT analysis of the firm. In the respective company, the firm can
design different plan of action with the purpose of beat the rivalry in the market, getting
customer attention, increase customer base, maximise productive, increase profit margins and
market share and success of growth for the organisation.
Planning- It is another effective component and help in getting information about the
actual goals and objectives of the company. In British Airways, the management of the firm can
do market planning in context of prediction of gross sales, fiscal necessitates, abstraction plan of
action, personal necessities and several other criteria that organisation deprivations to accomplish
in upcoming time.
Tactics- It refer to those short term plans and strategies which are used by British
Airways to overcome short period of time issues and problems like maximise market share, high
profitability etc (Camilleri, 2018). These kind of plans also devise by the company to
accomplish short term objectives and convert those plans in to actions. The company also frame
promotional tactics in context of reduction of monetary value, discounts and offers etc.
Marketing strategy
There are a number of marketing strategies adopted within British Airways for
sustaining in market for longer period. The market strategy for this company are mentioned
below -

Market analysis in market strategy – There are various political events that take place in
European Unions, US elections, Brexit, rise of militant groups, US elections, etc. affects the
business operations within market. There is decrease in fuel prices and this results in increase of
short haul in flight. This is supplemented by the regional transportation.
Customer analysis in marketing strategy – The target customers of British Airways are
between the age of 20- 50 years (Marketing Strategy of British Airways, 2019). Also, frequent
fliers are the potential customers of this organisation. The global premium airlines have
customers and most of it are from corporate world or from upper or middle income group. The
satisfaction level of customers is monitored by this organisation by using research techniques
and surveys (Kim, 2018). This is done in order to mitigate risk of losing clients and managing
new customer acquisition cost.
Promotional strategy – British Airways has given various offers to customers during the
time of festivals (Blank, 2018.). The individuals travelling in gold and silver class are provided
free upgrades.
Problems faced by British Airways
After the incidence of World trade centre there was development of fear in travellers.
Due to this there was less travelling of individuals. Another problem is increase in crude oil
prices and this has resulted in economic downfall because of the which aviation industry was
affected badly (Sangeetha, and Kumaran, 2018). This Airways organisation faced a lot of
problem due to this increase in oil pricing.
7P's and STP
The marketing mix of British Airways
The marketing mix of British Airways evaluates and analyses the company and
organisation and this covers various aspects including product, price, place, promotion, physical
evidence, process and people (Liu, 2019). The marketing mix of British Airways is listed below
-
Product – The British Airways is the flagship airline carrier that is based out of UK. This
company offers high quality service to clients and customers. This aviation organisation offers
transport from one place to another by flight (British Airways Marketing Mix, 2019). The British
Fleet includes Boeing 777s, 747s and 787s. The services offered by this company are integrated
with high quality (McLachlan, James, and Hampson, 2018). The various services offered in

flight of this organisation include beds, screens, main meal courses, cabins, extra spaces, etc. The
services offered are differentiated into long haul as well as short haul which is duration of flight.
Price – the main aim of this company is to ensure that every individual can afford ticket
prices and this has pricing policy which gives reasonable value to customers and clients. This
organisation has fixed different price for premium, economy and business class (Rybakov,
2018). If the flights are booked early then the pricing is much affordable. It is using
differentiation pricing strategy. This company offers discounts for customers that have frequent
flier miles and they have to ensure that they are earning a sizeable profit for effective
functioning.
Place – There are approximately more than 400 destinations with a fleet of 273 aircraft
that consists of Boring 777s, 747s and 787s. The headquarters of this company are located in
Waterside airport, London. This airline has approximately 40% of the slots at the Heathrow
airport. This airlines has tied up with airport authorities for conducting smooth operations. The
way in which services are operated are through phone applications and websites. The customers
can check different information like arrival departure, features of flights, etc. through website.
Promotion – There is huge competition within airline industry and hence organisations
must ensure that they are adopting right type of marketing strategy to capture more customers.
The promotions of British Airways are very classy and have sophistication. All customers
travelling through the flights of this company find it easy to book tickets online on website or
mobile application. This company has sponsor various sporting, cultural and charitable events
across the world. This has also promoted the brand by film naming “Planes”.
People – This company is owned by CEO naming Willie Walsh and he manages all the
top level management activities. This is followed by management board that includes
engineering, strategy, finance, sales and marketing and customer unites. There is existence of
operations team and customer management which includes communications, flight operations,
engineering operations, operation team and customer management. It also has other departments
such as safety, legal and investments (Pateli, and Lioukas, 2019). There are approximately 4000
employees working in this organisation and 15000 cabin crew, 5500 engineers and 3600 pilots
are present within this airline organisation (O’Brien, 2019). There are tough tests for pilots and
simulations for selecting and induction into British Airways. The cabin crew of this company is
selected from hospitality institutes and they undergo rigorous training.

Process - There is a nee ticketing service used by this airlines i.e. e-ticketing. This
system is made in Germany as well as Britain. This has a cargo service that offers delivery for
perishable and dangerous pets, goods, funerals and scheduled services. The various processes
included in this organisation are booking of tickets, entering the flight, arriving at the airport,
utilising and experiencing the services offered in flight, getting boarding pass, etc.
Physical evidence – The British Airways is about the experiences that this company has
to offer for their customers and the way in which customers perceive brand (Pásková, Hruška,
and Zelenka, 2018). This is intangible concept of business and thus, this is the way in which
service is offered. In context of British Airways, this company offers various services like
designing of lounges, attendant's behaviour, design of cabin, ambience of flights, etc.
Segmentation, targeting and promotion of British Airways
This is defined as the way by which British Airways segments, targets and positions
product within markets. The segmentation includes dividing population into groups as per
various characteristics of the customers. Targeting means the selection of groups that are feasible
for the company to market it's services and products. This airways organisation is providing
services to various individuals which are classified on the basis of three type of classes i.e.
premium economy, economy, first class and executive class (Stuart, 2018). The STP of British
Airways services is mentioned in the following table -

An appropriate and effective market segmentation, targeting and positioning is important
as these are important for success of any business. There is no product or service which can be
valued equally by all individuals of population due to the difference amongst the population
members in different levels (Tzvetkova, 2018). For achieving the long term goal of the
company, it is important for British Airways to focus on enhancing value perception of the
services of the target customers. In British Airways, the service value is increasing from top level
and marketing management by maintaining strategic customer relationships in relation to
different segments and application of creativity and innovation in various business processes.
Cross functional relationship
(Covered in Poster)
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is analysed that effective marketing of an organisation is
important for development and growth of any organisation. The sales objective of any company

are related to the manner in which it does marketing campaigns and activities. The marketing
mix of any organisation is effective as it provides information about how a company can do
marketing and product is advertised to customers effectively. A strong and effective marketing
strategy is important for every company so that they can achieve organisational goals within
specified time frame.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above analysis, it is recommended that British Airways is having a strong and
effective marketing strategy. This is helpful in managing all business operations in an effective
manner. For this company to sustain successful, it is essential that it should find out new strategy
for attracting the potential customers for using services given by this company. It is necessary
that British Airways must conduct all business operations in an ethical manner so that there are
no conflicts and fights within workplace. Also this company must do marketing mix analysis in
proper manner so that new strategies and plans are made effectively within the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Birdir, S.S., Dalgic, A. and Birdir, K., 2018. Destination marketing and destination image. In The
Routledge Handbook of Destination Marketing (pp. 71-81). Routledge.
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. The marketing environment. In Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics
and the Airline Product (pp. 51-68). Springer, Cham.
Kim, J., 2018. Technology Development and Marketing: With Cases & Theories. AuthorHouse.
McLachlan, J., James, K. and Hampson, B., 2018. Assessing whether environmental impact is a
criterion of consumers when selecting an airline. International Journal of Advanced
Research, 6(3), pp.740-755.
O’Brien, J., 2019. Marketing a new route: Norwegian flies london–singapore. SAGE
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Pásková, M., Hruška, J. and Zelenka, J., 2018. YouTube as an airlines marketing tool. Czech
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Stuart, H., 2018. Corporate branding and rebranding: an institutional logics perspective. Journal
of Product & Brand Management, 27(1), pp.96-100.
Tzvetkova, S., 2018. Marketing Approaches for Increasing the Competitiveness of Air
Transport. Научни трудове на УНСС, (3), pp.165-188.
Blank, R., 2018. Cross-functional Productivity Improvement. Productivity Press.
Sangeetha, P. and Kumaran, S., 2018. Impact of shared leadership on cross functional team
effectiveness and performance with respect to manufacturing companies. Journal of
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Liu, Y., 2019. Promoting cross-border knowledge transfer for new product development in
MNCs: a process view. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 44(3), pp.802-821.
Rybakov, D.S., 2018. A process model of a logistics system as a basis for optimisation
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Pateli, A. and Lioukas, S., 2019. How functional involvement affects the transformation of
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Online
British Airways Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning, 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://research-methodology.net/british-airways-segmentation-targeting-positioning-
2/>
British Airways Marketing Mix, 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/17544-british-airways.html>

Marketing Strategy of British Airways, 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-british-airways/>