Marketing Principles and Practice

This report discusses the range of marketing concepts and strategies used by British Airways to gain a competitive advantage in the airline industry. It explores their product strategy, promotional strategies, branding, and daily operations. The report also provides insights into the marketing mix, promotional strategies, product strategies, and branding of the company.

MARKETING PRINCIPLES
AND PRACTICE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
2. MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................3
a) Marketing concepts and terminologies....................................................................................3
b) Marketing strategies and programs.........................................................................................5
c) Marketing concepts and principles used for performing daily operations..............................6
3. POSTER......................................................................................................................................9
Cross functional relationships of marketing................................................................................9
4. CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION..............................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
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1. INTRODUCTION
Marketing concepts are the philosophies which are used in business in order to analyse
the requirements of the consumers and satisfy their demands. Marketing principles includes
prices, products, place and promotion; these are denoted as 4P which are basic principles of
marketing. These four elements are arranges in appropriate manner so that it can make the use of
the marketing strategy effectively. This report discusses the range of marketing concepts and
strategies in order to develop the understanding towards marketing approach. Airlines industry,
transports the passenger using air carriers. So this report carries the discussion on the British
Airways about their marketing strategies and concepts they follow to perform their operation and
gain the competitive advantage. British Airways is serving in the airline industry, founded in
1974. It headquarter is located at Waterside, Harmondsworth, UK, its parent company is
International Airlines Groups. British Airways never promotes itself that they provide cheapest
air carriers while they believe in serving better quality of services and facilities to their
consumers. Further this report carries the marketing mix, promotional strategies, product
strategies and branding of the company. It develops the insight knowledge about the working of
the businesses.
2. MAIN BODY
a) Marketing concepts and terminologies.
Product Strategy
Product is considered as main object for any company. Product is the thing which is
provided by the businesses to satisfy the needs of the consumers. Price, promotion, place comes
after the product and these things finalised after the product decided which should be given to the
buyer. In case of British Airways, they provide fights to the passengers for the transportation
form one place to other so it is the main product of the company (Grzegorczyk, 2017). British
Airways provide different categories of classes according to the budget of the passenger for
travel like business class, economy class, executive class, and club class.
In terms of selling the products, organisation applies different strategies
Core product: Core product is always that thing which is purchased by the consumer (Abratt
and Bendixen, 2018). Company provides the tickets of air carriers to consumer, which is
necessary for the customer to buy it in terms to travel from one location to other.
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Basic product: Company’s basic product is fights. British Airways has large number of fleets, it
provides transport from UK to maximum locations in the world. They maintain the schedule of
their flights which facilitates the customer to make their bookings according to the time and
availability (Armstrong and et.al., 2018). It is considered as the busiest network of the airlines at
global level.
Expected product by consumer: An expectation of the consumer varies according to their need.
So, company provides different products along with the flight like complementary foods,
beverages, onboard facility like allocation of seats, entrainment, etc.
Extra services: British Airways is known for its services, as they give the options to the
executive class to choose gold class, blue class and silver class according to their needs.
Promotional Strategy
There are different strategies followed by the company to promote their business.
Promotional mix used by the British Airways to influence the target segment (Bang, Joshi and
Singh, 2016). Promotional strategies of British Airways
Advertising- It is the paid form of promotion, advertising on the TV, print media, radio etc. It is
used for proper communication between brand and public.
Internet Marketing- Promoting the brand on internet, like social media, company websites,
blogs. So, internet helps to gain the publicity in public with cheap prices and easy to reach the
audience.
Direct Marketing- British Airways use to distribute the magazines related to flights and
company’s brochures directly in the airlines or via tourism and travel agencies.
Public Relations- Company develops better and positives relationships with the audiences
through the press meeting, or print articles (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). It is necessary to
spread awareness about the business condition among the public, so they take support of media
and directly tell about their company in front of audience.
Selling Products- this approach supports to personal selling, British airways recruit temporary
staff for promoting their products and services. So it enhances the reach towards potential
buyers.
Direct Mails- Company sends mails or messages to the large group of potential customers and
existing consumers. It contains information about the products and services along with the prices
and discounts they offer with their products.
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Branding
Branding is the core process which is used in product strategy, this is considered as major
tool because it contains the brand name and the products and service they offer to consumer’s
which distinguish them from other brands or competitors in market. British Airways has brand
value in market, people recognise their products and service by only their name. Also they
possess safety, assurances, comfortableness and luxury in brand trade which they have built in so
many years (Atwal and Williams, 2017). Branding also conveys different meanings like
attributes, values, personality, user, benefits and culture. So basically it indicates symbol, sign,
design, name etc and combination of all these things which help the company to differentiate it
from competitors.
Branding help to develop an image of the company in the consumers mind, which affect
their buying decision. Also, it gives the positive value to the company and help to earn high
market share. Company’s brand value ensures safety and security of the passengers,
responsibility, warm, thoughtful and professional (Izquierdo and Blanco, 2020). So British
Airways can reach to international consumers and influence their mind to purchase their products
and services.
b) Marketing strategies and programs.
British Airways possess good reputation in market comparatively to other airlines services.
They use specific strategies for the development of the business at both global and local level.
User friendly strategies, this helps the customer to feel free and they will not hesitate in order to
use any services and facility provided by the company. Also, this helps in retention of the
customer, acquisition new customer group, also taking feedbacks in post purchase by the
consumers (Nadda, Dadwal and Rahimi, 2017). Like greeting and welcoming the passengers
with smile, allocating seats, asking for help time to time, etc. to develop the friendliness with
customer.
Strategies to lower the cost of Operation, company try to lower the cost of the operations
they perform to meet the requirements of the passengers. As the increment in the labour cost, this
has loss the increases the investment cost and lowers the profit amount for British Airways. So
company consider the strategies include cut in man power, modernising the flights and
increasing the operational hours.
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Managing prices of tickets strategies, so company can cover huge market part. It enhances
their reach towards more potential buyers. Also they can consider modifying their aircrafts so
that people attract more towards their brand.
Loyalty Programmes
British Airways launched loyalty programs in which they provide access to specific things like
special lounges and fast queues for executive club (Ryan, 2016). So that they customer maintains
their loyalty towards the brand.
Premier incentive programmes
Company invites their premium customer who is from top in the list in their corporate
accounts. They give them special treatment and form the on boarding to landing to their
destination. They have private lounge and offer luxurious facilities to them. So they feel
comparable and relax during their journey.
The marketing strategies and programmes discussed for British Airways were in ethical
manner. It does not harm anybody’s emotion and feeling. It does not cross it limit to grab the
audience. Advertisement done by the British Aiways was in limits and follows the ethics and
moral values (Haider and et.al., 2019). These programs were not launched to hurt any person and
make the fun of the other customer’s economic condition, while they only want gain the
maximum customer and enhancing their reach towards potential and existing buyers.
c) Marketing concepts and principles used for performing daily operations.
7Ps of British Airways
7Ps of marketing mix concepts help to know the company’s approaches in order to
understand the price, promotion, place, people, product, physical evidence , process. So this
section contains 7Ps of British Airways.
Product- Products are the core thing which is provide by the company. British Airways gives the
tickets of fights for the travel across the world to their consumers (Brueckner and Flores-Fillol,
2020). Along with this, they provide the other services like onboard meals, allocation of seats,
beverages, etc. So there products and services are related to transport the customer from one
place to other.
Price- Costs of the products are fixed according to the production or raw material cost along
with labour and service charge. So British Airways has pricing strategy in which they provide the
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tickets prices according to the budget of the consumer. Also they are concerned for their
passengers so they provide better quality service which is possible in that cost of ticket.
Promotion- Company promotes their brand applying different promotional strategies like
advertising, direct marketing, internet marketing, direct mails, public relations, etc. British
Airways takes support of these promotional strategies for gaining the competitive advantage.
Place- place is where the end user can get the product and services, also it involves the place
where product and services are kept by the company.
People- people are the main factor for running the business and within the company people are
the representatives of the organisation because they interact with the customers. People who are
working within the company should be well behaved and well trained, so the consumers feel
friendly to use the products and services of the company (Jeng, 2016). British Airways possess
top level of the employees, not just crew members, each and every staff member of the company
have the knowledge of working and they accomplish their task with full efforts. Organisation
trained their employees to interact with passengers as they shown in advertisements so this helps
to develop market reputation for them.
Physical Evidence- Physical evidence indicates to the place where the products exactly sold and
where those services which are provided by the company take place with quality. Physical
evidence basically distinguish the company form others in terms of their products and services.
British Airways provides the tickets according to the budget of the customers and they also
consider making the pricing of the tickets low and provide as much as possible services along
with the given cost to buyer (Dana and Greenfield, 2019). This will attract more consumers
because of they expect that quality of the products would be better for which they paid.
Process- Every company follows different procedures to manage the customer, so the criteria of
execution the services impacts the organisation. Products are different from services which are
provided to the consumers is gone through some structure followed by the company is denoted
as process. British Airways has various processes like they ensure the quality of the services they
provide onboard to the passengers, also they have to consider the food quality and on time
service to their customers.
Segmentation Targeting and Positioning (STP)
STP model explains the condition of the market to the company, this model help to evaluate
correct situation at global and local levels of the market. This involves three steps
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 Segmenting the market
 Targeting consumer
 Positioning the products and services in consumer’s mind
These stages help the British Airways to develop marketing strategies, STP explained below-
Segmentation
Segmentation indicates towards the division of the market into sub parts, so that is easier
to target the audiences (Tegar, Lestari and Pratiwi, 2017). It helps to evaluate who are the
customers for the company. British Airways categorise the market on the basis of demographic
and geographic segmentation
Demographic- it support the division of the market on the basis of the age, income, gender of the
people. Most of the people prefer low cost tickets for travelling so to compete with the other
airlines that has lower the fare, British Airways adopted pricing strategy to fulfil the requirement
of the audience.
Geographic- According to the density of consumers and region, British Airways divided the flits
into two parts; one is domestic flights and second is international flights (Hanlon, 2017).
Domestic flights are for the UK and Europe and global flights are for those who want to travel
outside the country.
Targeting
Choosing the specific market segment for selling the products and services is denoted as
targeting. Targeted market is dependent upon various patterns, like the company want to provide
the single product in single market, it is also possible that organisation target different market to
sell their single or different products and services. Concentration of single segment is used by the
British Airways, as they provide the same product with different packages like they give
different facilities in which economy, premium, executive and first class are included. These are
the levels of their services they offer to their passengers (Lawton, 2017). British Airways focus
to attract diverse set of customers to use their products and services. Also, they target to high
class people to use their services and products.
Positioning
It supports to marketing mix used at suitable targeted segment of customer. So the company
can position their products and services in the customers head. British Airways believes that they
provide better services to their passenger, it will position their value in their mind and it helps to
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retain the customer’s loyalty. They never promote themselves as the lowest air carriers, while
they focus on the businessperson class to target and try to fulfil their expectation in terms of
luxury and comfort (Abratt and Mingione, 2017). So the company has to position their services
and products effectively for achieve long terms success.
3. POSTER
Cross functional relationships of marketing
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Marketing Relationship with Production
Production department handle the inventory of the items. Marketing
department has to consult with the production manager in terms to
know the availability of the products and which products are not
available in the inventory. So the marketing manager can design the
strategies to sell those products which are available in access. It helps
them to maintain the balance between the supply and demand chains in
market. So, it indirectly affects the sales of the products of the brand.
British Airways maintains coordination between the production and
marketing departments (Askoul, Khan and Lalitha, 2016). It is very
important to have the knowledge about the availability of the seats in
the scheduled flights for the passengers. Otherwise it leads to
customer’s disappointment.
Marketing Relationship with Legal
Marketing department maintains the relationship with legal team who
manages the legal procedures of the company. It helps to design the
marketing strategies like promotional activities for example marketing
department design an advertisement for the products and service provided
by the company. So, the legal department’s manager would decide that this
is in limit or in ethical manner and it should follow the laws. Breaking any
laws will be affect the company’s image and if anybody registered case
against the business then they have to pay the penalty or it leads to severe
losses to the company. British Airways possess strong bond within internal
environment, as the legal department and marketing department have
proper coordination (Woods, 2016). If any marketing strategy is planned by
the marketing department it is consulted by the legal department that it is in
ethical manner or not. Also, the laws and legislation are not hampered. So,
it maintains the brand value in market.
Cross Functional Relationship of Marketing and Other Departments in
British Airways.
Marketing Relationship with HR
Human resource (HR) is the main department for any business because it is
responsible to recruit and select the eligible employee which possesses
greater efficiency towards their work. Also, the HR designs the job profile
along with roles and responsibilities which are designated to the eligible
person. The HR manager maintains the relationship with the marketing
manager in terms to understand the roles and duties in marketing
department, so it helps them in recruitment and selection process. Marketing
department get the knowledge about the working criteria of their HR
department. This enhances the performance of the marketing department as
well as HR department because they work with mutual understanding and
cooperation among them. British Airways has better understanding between
the marketing and HR departments which helps them to appoint right person
for the marketing (Bardhan and Pattnaik, 2017). Also, the training and
developments for the employees is handled by the HR departments to
increase their skills. It enhances marketing departments approach to
potential consumers which gives profits to the company.
Cross Functional Relationship
Cross functional relationships defined as the teams from different working areas in the organisation establish harmony to achieve the
common objective for the company. Cross functional team denotes to group of people from different functional areas helps each other. Basically,
it consist staff members from all levels of company.
Marketing Relationship with Production
Production department handle the inventory of the items. Marketing
department has to consult with the production manager in terms to
know the availability of the products and which products are not
available in the inventory. So the marketing manager can design the
strategies to sell those products which are available in access. It helps
them to maintain the balance between the supply and demand chains in
market. So, it indirectly affects the sales of the products of the brand.
British Airways maintains coordination between the production and
marketing departments (Askoul, Khan and Lalitha, 2016). It is very
important to have the knowledge about the availability of the seats in
the scheduled flights for the passengers. Otherwise it leads to
customer’s disappointment.
Marketing Relationship with Legal
Marketing department maintains the relationship with legal team who
manages the legal procedures of the company. It helps to design the
marketing strategies like promotional activities for example marketing
department design an advertisement for the products and service provided
by the company. So, the legal department’s manager would decide that this
is in limit or in ethical manner and it should follow the laws. Breaking any
laws will be affect the company’s image and if anybody registered case
against the business then they have to pay the penalty or it leads to severe
losses to the company. British Airways possess strong bond within internal
environment, as the legal department and marketing department have
proper coordination (Woods, 2016). If any marketing strategy is planned by
the marketing department it is consulted by the legal department that it is in
ethical manner or not. Also, the laws and legislation are not hampered. So,
it maintains the brand value in market.

4. CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION
According to the discussion on various marketing strategies and concepts used by the
British Airways for gaining the competitive advantage, it helps to evaluate that it is very essential
to apply suitable marketing approach. Marketing mix in which the 7Ps used to identify the
company’s products, prices, promotional strategies etc. Also, the STP model helps to identify the
target segment of the company and how they position their products and services in the mind of
the customer. In airline industry there are various competitors existing in the market so to save
the market, British Airways have to use the unique promotional strategy along with different
branding criteria. Company already possess good position in market as they are usually identified
by their brand name. Company follows specific marketing programs and strategies to maintain
the customer’s loyalty. So the businesses have to prefer suitable approaches for growth of the
company.
RECOMMENDATIONS
 British Airways have to consider the pricing strategy according to the middle and lower
class people, so they can also afford their tickets. Also, this help them o gain the completive
advantage because its competitors follows the cost strategy.
 Company have to modify their aircrafts with technology. As they implement latest
technology, more audience attract towards them.
 British Airways has to prepare the strategies which help them to save the marginal profits
due to fluctuations in fuel prices. Otherwise it leads to loss to company.
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