Principles and Practices of Marketing for Virgin Active: A Study

Principles and
Practices of Marketing
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Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3
Positioning of the company Virgin Active......................................................................................3
Marketing mix of Virgin Active .....................................................................................................3
Product........................................................................................................................................3
Place............................................................................................................................................4
Promotion....................................................................................................................................6
People..........................................................................................................................................6
Evaluation of effectiveness of marketing efforts ............................................................................6
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................6
References ......................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Marketing is defined as the process of promoting goods and services in order to induce
customer base of an organisation and to generate more revenues. An organisation is hihgly
indulged in marketing function as to effectively position its brand in the market and enhance
experience of consumers. In present time, the scope of marketing has increased to a significant
and companies are involved in formulation of various constructive strategies to effectively
promote marketing functions. This purpose of this report is to develop understanding of concepts
and strategies related to marketing function in context to an organisation. For the present report,
Virgin Active is chosen as the organisation on which this study is based. Virgin active is a chain
of health clubs which was established in 1999 and is headquartered in London, England. The
club has its presence in UK, Italy, south Africa, Australia, Singapore and three other locations.
This report discuss the elements of marketing mix considering its operations of UK. It also
discuss strategic decisions and relevant taught theories in its marketing efforts. This report
further reflects upon the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
Positioning of the company Virgin Active
Market positioning is the quality to influence the customers view regarding a particular
product or brand. The objective of this method is to maintain the brand image in the eyes of the
its customers. Virgin active is UK based company which runs a chain of health clubs in various
countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Singapore, Australia etc. The company was founded
by Richard Branson in 1999 at Lancashire, UK.
Segmentation is the first step in STP analysis in which an organization has to create
various customers segments based on specific criteria and characteristics that a company has to
choose. It includes four types of segmentation such as Geographic segmentation, Demographic
segmentation, Behavioural segmentation and Psycho-graphic segmentation. Virgin active
segments their customer groups by conducting a research on customer's view about the health
and fitness clubs. The company basically does two types of segmentation that is Geographic and
Demographic (Kotler and et.al., 2019). They conduct geographic segmentation to find the
appropriate place to open a fitness club, so that the locality that lives nearby can afford to pay the
monthly or yearly charges of the gym. They also conduct demographic segmentation to find the
target customers according to the traits like gender, age or income.
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After segmentation the next strategy is to target the segmented groups according to
different factors such as profitability of each group, the potential growth of each group, etc. It
helps the organization to analyse the view of customers towards the company. It has been
evaluated that virgin active health clubs involves the selection of customers groups to provide
them the best services and to enhance the overall profitability of the company.
Positioning strategy is the last element of STP process, in which the company has to
create product positioning and marketing mix that is most likely appeal to the selected audience.
It allows an organization to set their product or service apart from the competition in the minds
of targeted customers. There are three positioning factors that helps a company to gain a
competitive advantage such as symbolic positioning, functional positioning and experimental
positioning (Craig Andrews, Shimp, 2017). With respect to Virgin Active, they develop new
strategies that includes various aspects such as demand of health and fitness club, quality of the
equipments in the gym, etc. to establish a good position in the market. These strategies helps the
company to achieve its goals in more effective and efficient manner. The company had the
whole grip of the fitness market by providing their customers best service by charging a lower
price for the gyms and providing the better quality of the equipments. This organization focuses
on providing each of its customers a better training to improve their health and body structure
that moreover increases the brand image of the fitness club in the eyes of the public.
Marketing mix of Virgin Active
Product
This element of marketing mix refers to the products and services that is provided by an
organisation in order to cater to the requirements of consumers. It is one of the major element
which have direct influence over consumers and their engagement in a company. In context to
Virgin Active, the company deals in providing services associated with health and fitness. This
chain of club has its presence in a number of locations offering a range of fitness product and
services to consumers. This company has effectively promoted its marketing functions through
developing their brand image by supporting a range of fitness activities. It aims at achieving
maximum customer engagement for the purpose of establishing goodwill and generating high
revenues. The company provides its customers with equipments for the purpose of performing
various exercises. This virgin active within UK aims to attract a number of individuals of
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