British Airways Marketing Plan: Theories, Audits, Ethics & Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of British Airways' marketing planning activities. It explores key marketing theories, such as the marketing mix and product life cycle, and evaluates how British Airways utilizes these theories to plan its future marketing endeavors. The report also examines organizational auditing techniques like SWOT, PEST, and Porter's Five Forces, and assesses their application within British Airways. Furthermore, it identifies barriers to effective marketing planning and the strategies employed by British Airways to overcome them. A proposed marketing plan for launching new services is outlined, along with an analysis of pricing policies, distribution channels, and communication strategies. The report concludes by addressing ethical considerations in marketing and how British Airways fulfills its ethical responsibilities. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Assignment
Marketing Planning
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Table of content
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
1.1: Important theories and the changing perspectives of the marketing planning activity and evaluate the
ability of British Airways to plan the future marketing activity...................................................................3
1.2: Techniques used in the organisational auditing and external factors that affect the marketing planning
activity. Evaluation of the organisational auditing and external factors that influence the marketing
planning activity of the British Airways......................................................................................................6
Task 2........................................................................................................................................................10

2.1: Barriers of marketing planning activity and the process followed by the BA to overcome those
barriers.......................................................................................................................................................10
3.1: Marketing plan for launching the new services of British Airways....................................................13
3.2: Determine the importance of marketing planning to prepare the strategic planning process of British
Airways.....................................................................................................................................................13
3.3: Techniques of developing a new product............................................................................................14
3.4: Analysis of the pricing policy, distribution and communication mix used by the British Airways for
launching the new product.........................................................................................................................15
3.5: Factors that influence the effective implementation of the marketing plan.........................................15
Task 4........................................................................................................................................................16
4.1: Ethical issues that should be considered by the BA in the marketing planning activity......................16
4.2: The responsibilities discharged by BA towards the ethical issues.....................................................16
4.3: Examples of consumer ethics and impact on the BA’s marketing planning.......................................16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
Reference List............................................................................................................................................17

Introduction
Business organisations have to do different types of business activities to achieve different
objectives such as financial activity to increase the profit and financial wealth of the
organisation. Human resource activity is to use the employees of the organisation as much as
possible to do the business activities efficiently. Technological resource management to use the
raw materials, machineries and the production process to increase the productivity, improve the
quality of the products and reduce the production cost of the organisations. In that way the
organisations have to do some marketing activities to provide information to the customers about
the products of the organisations, increase the demand of the products among the customers and
increase the market share of the products and services in the industry. The organisations have to
prepare some plan to implement the marketing activities in an efficient manner to get the
maximum outcome from the marketing activity. The following study will discuss about the
process followed by different business organisations to prepare the marketing plan and the
theories related to the marketing plan. The important ethics and influencing external factors of
marketing planning activity will be mentioned in the study.
Overview of the British Airways
British Airways Company is the largest airlines company based on the size of the fleet. The
Company was established in London on the 31 march 1974. The Company acquire two major
airlines company of London the first one is British Overseas Airways Corporation and the
second one is British European Airways. In 2015, the revenue of the company was £11421
billion.
Task 1
1.1: Important theories and the changing perspectives of the marketing
planning activity and evaluate the ability of British Airways to plan the future
marketing activity
A) Theories used in the marketing planning activity
Marketing planning activity is totally a customer-oriented activity. The organisations have to
collect some information about the customers of the industry to prepare an effective marketing
plan. The major information about the customers should be collected by the organisations are as
follows: The test, preferences and demand of the customers, geography and demography

structure of the economy, purchasing power of the customers etc. based on such information the
organisations have to use some theories to prepare a efficient and effective marketing plan. The
theories are as follows:
I) Marketing mix: The theory of marketing mix used in the marketing plan is totally based on
the test, preference and psychology of the customers. The marketing mix is basically a mix of
four P’s these are pricing, people, place and product. The organisations have to do well research
about the test, preferences and requirements of the customers. As opined by Toledo et al. (2014,
p.50), the product and services should be designed by the organisations according to the
requirements of the customers. The ability of meeting the requirements of the customers create a
value of the products and services in the market. The organisations have to collect some
information about the geographical features of the market to select a suitable market place for the
products. The products should have the ability to meet the geographical requirements of the
customers. The price of the products should be set by the organisations according to the
purchasing power of the customers. The organisations have to prepare the promotional strategies
to launch the product and services in the market according to the cultural preferences of the
customers.
II) Product life cycle: The organisations have to prepare the marketing plan according to the
phase of life cycle of a particular products and services. Basically there are four phases included
in the product life cycle. The first one is Introduction, in the introduction phase the organisations
try to build a market for the products by promoting the product and providing important
information about the product to the customers. In growth phase of the product organisations
tries to increase the supply of the products in the market and including some new features in the
product to improve the quality. In the maturity phase, the organisations try to create some
differentiation with the similar products in the industry to survive in the competitive market. The
organisations use different promotional strategies to build the differentiation. The price of the
products should be lower to make an opportunity to build new customers of the product. In the
decline phase of the product life cycle the organisations lose the demand for the products among
the customers. In this situation the organisations try to shut down the production of the products.
III) Alignment: The organisations must build an alignment among the benefits of the product
with the requirements of the product to customers. The organisations also try to build a
communication with the customers to provide important information to the customers and get the

feedback from the customers about the products and services. The company also try to know
about the new requirements of the customers and request them to provide some idea and opinion
to improve the quality of the products (French, 2017, p.27).
B) Changes in the perspective of the marketing planning
According to the traditional marketing planning activities the organisations only pay their
attentions to product, price, place, people and promotions to prepare the marketing plan for the
new products. However, Due to the changes in the perspectives of the marketing planning the
organisations include some new factors in the preparation of the marketing planning activities.
The factors are as follows;
I) Features of the products: The organisations have to consider the features of the products to
prepare the marketing plan for the product. The features should be prepared according to the
requirements of the customers.
II) Innovativeness: The organisations have to include some creative features in the products to
increase the innovativeness of the product.
III) Build a brand: The organisations also try to build a brand for the products in the market by
using some unique promotional strategies.
IV) Global network: The organisations also try to build a global network to prepare a global
market for the products by promoting the products globally.
V) Strength and Weaknesses: The organizations also consider the strength and weakness of the
products to survive in the industry for a long time. The organisations try to use their strength as
much as possible and resolve the weakness the products by creating some effective solutions.
VI) High prices: The organisations have to collect important information about the purchasing
power of the targeting customers. The company can build some differentiation in the market to
justify the high prices of the products. The company also try to build some competitive
advantages to reduce the production cost for setting a low price for the products.
VII) Potentiality of the market: The organisations also try to know the potentiality of the
market and the customers. The organisation can build a broad segment of the products and
services according to the future potentiality of the market.
VIII) Competitors: Organisations can try to know some important information about the
competitors. According to

Goretzki et al. (2013, p.50), organisation should be aware about the marketing and production
strategies used by the competitors to increase the market share.
IX) Availability of the products: Organisations also manage the distributors and the supply
channels of the products in an efficient manner to ensure the availability of the products in the
market.
X) Quality of the products: Organisations try to include new features in the products
continuously to increase the ability of meeting requirements of the customers and improve the
quality of the products. Organisations have to increase the quality of the products to build loyalty
among the customers towards the product.
C) Evaluation of the ability of British airways to plan the future marketing activity
As the British Airways is an old player in the airlines industry therefore, the organisation have a
greater knowledge about the demand and requirements of the customers. The Company also has
a strong base of loyal customers in the industry. For this reason, The airlines company know
about the expectations of the customers towards the services provided by the Company. The
Company also have some qualified employees in the marketing management department for
preparing the marketing plan. The marketing manager use the marketing mix, life cycle,
alignment theories in an efficient manner to produce an effective marketing plan (Shank and
Lyberger, 2014, p.36). The managers also use the different factors such as Features of the
products, Innovativeness, Build a brand, Global network, Strength and Weaknesses to design the
services provided by the British airways to the customers. The good quality of the services also
increases the loyalty among the customers towards the British Airways.
1.2: Techniques used in the organisational auditing and external factors that
affect the marketing planning activity. Evaluation of the organisational
auditing and external factors that influence the marketing planning activity of
the British Airways
A) Techniques of the organisational auditing
Organisations use the organisational auditing process to know some information about the
activities done by the organisations. As stated by Shaw (2016, p.27), the auditing sources provide
different information about the activity such as strength and weakness of the activity, the
problem faced by the employees to complete the activities, new process can be applied by the

organisation to do the business activity. These information help the organizations to improve the
efficiency of the activities by creating the solutions of the problems faced by the employees to
complete the activities and use the strength of the activities to resolve the weaknesses. The
organisations use different techniques for the organisational auditing. The activities are as
follows:
i) SWOT analysis
ii) Market research
ii) PEST analysis
iii) Competitive analysis
iv) Internal marketing environment analysis
v) External marketing environment analysis
vi) MCKinsey's model
vii) Porter’s Value chain model
viii) Porter's five forces
B) External factors that influence the marketing planning activity
There are different environmental factors that influence the marketing planning activities of the
organisations. The external factors are as follows;
i) Political: Organisations have to consider some legislations produce by the government while
preparing the marketing plan. This kinds of legislation provide some restrictions to the
organisations in the preparation of the marketing plan.
ii) Economical: The organisation has to consider the employment rate, purchasing power and
per capita income of the targeting customers while preparing the marketing plan for the products
(Kaynak and Kucukemiroglu, 2015, p.177).
iii) Social: The structure of the society and the culture of the customers also influence the
marketing plan of the organisation.
iv) Technological: The development of the new technologies also influences the marketing plan
of the organisations.
C) Techniques use in the British Airways for organisational auditing
British Airways use the following techniques for the organisational auditing:
I) Inquiry: British airways use some communication process to know the problems faced by the

employees to complete the operations and the organizations try to create some solution to solve
the problems.
II) Examination: The Company also take the exam of the employees to know the skills and
knowledge that require for completing the job in an efficient manner.
III) Observation: The Company also observe the process followed by the employees to
complete the job. The company also can prepare the organisational charts and flowcharts to
provide an appropriate process to the employees to complete the job (Mahzan and Lymer, 2014,
p.330).
IV) SWOT analysis: The Company also acquire some knowledge about the strength and
weakness of the Company. The company try to increase the strength of them to reduce the
weakness. The company analyze the future potentiality of different regional market to improve to
know about opportunity of the Company in the market. The company analyze the future threats
of the organisations from the new competitors or the new decision of the government that change
the scenario of the market.
V) Competitive analysis: British Airways always analysis the competitors in the market to get
different information such as market share achieved by the competitors, the competitive
advantages acquired by the competitors and the marketing strategies followed by them to
increase the market share. This information help the company to create an effective marketing
plan.
VI) Market research: The market research technique help the company to acquire different
information about the customers such as test, preferences, habits, requirements, purchasing
power etc (Jayawardhena et al. 2016, p.779). These information help the company to design the
products and services with effective features.
VII) Internal and marketing environment analysis: Internal marketing environment analysi
help the company to acquire the information about the resources and budgets of the company to
prepare a marketing plan. The marketing managers of the British Airlines Company also forecast
the performance of the marketing plan by analysis the internal marketing environment. The
external marketing environment analysis help the company to acquire important information
about the economy such as such as employment rate, per capita income, requirement of the
customer, purchasing power, cultural structure of the customers etc.
D) External factors that influence the marketing planning activity of the BA

There are different external factors that influence the marketing plan of the British Airways. The
incident of BREXIT had a great impact on the marketing plan of the British Airways. Some
other external factors influence the marketing plan of the British Airways. The external factors
are as follows:
Political: There are different resolutions and legislations has to consider by the BA to prepare
the marketing plan such as Consumer protection from unfair trading regulations and the business
protection from the misleading marketing regulations 2008. These regulations and legislations
provide some restrictions the Company to prepare the marketing plan without any illegal,
misleading and untruthful content.
Economical: During the economic recession in 2009 and the incident of Brexit in the 2016 had a
great impact on the on the British Airlines Company. The Company had to prepare a new
marketing plan to increase the demand of the airlines services.
Social: The changes in the society are the only one consistent factor of the society. Therefore,
the dynamism of the society influences the company to change the marketing plan with the
changes in the society.
Technological: The continuous development in the technology is influencing the Company to
use the new technologies and marketing strategies in the marketing plan to increase the demand
of the customers.
vi) McKinney’s model
McKinney’s model helps the British airways by providing knowledge about the appropriate
structure of the organisations to develop effective management department in the company. It
also provides some brief knowledge about the required skills, staff, style, system and strategy in
the organisation. British airways can use their resources in an efficient manner by applying the
McKinney’s model in the organisation culture.
vii) Porter’s value chain model
Porter’s value chain model provide a brief knowledge about the firm infrastructure, human
resources management, technology development and procurement, inbound logistic, market and
sales, operations, outbound logistics, services etc. British airways develop their entire firm
infrastructure in a proper manner; manage the different resources such as financial, human and
technological by applying the porter’s value chain model in the company (Jayawardhena et al.
2016, p.779).

viii) Porter’s five forces: As stated by Shaw (2016, p.27), the adoption of the Porter’s five
forces model by the British airways help them to apply the process of bargaining with the
suppliers of the energy in the market. Company also fights against the new competitors and
substitute of the services in the market by applying this model in the organisational culture. In
other words this model helps the British airways to survive in the competitive market by
providing some competitive advantages.
Task 2
2.1: Barriers of marketing planning activity and the process followed by the
BA to overcome those barriers
Marketing planning is a brief explanation of the future marketing activities of the business
organisations. In the process of marketing planning the business organisations prepare a
blueprint of all the future marketing activities, schedule and cost associated with those marketing
activities. The organisations also try to include all the targeting market, people and areas by
which the organisations expand the size of the market in the industry and increase the demand of
the customers for their product and services. British Airlines also prepare their marketing
strategies to expand the size of the market in the airlines industry and increase the demand for
their airlines services among the customers. British airways use different types of techniques,
tools and models for the preparation of the marketing planning. The SOSTAC model used by the
British airways plays a major role in the preparation of an effective marketing planning. The
following factors of the SOSTAC model help the British airways to prepare a successful
marketing planning. The factors are as follows:
Situation analysis: In the situation analysis British airways try to know about the current status
of them in the market. The company also tries to acquire a brief knowledge about their
performance in the market by using the key performance index. British airways also try to know
about the pattern of demand of the customers, the status of the competitors in the market and
their capabilities to implement a marketing planning in a proper manner (Carrington et al. 2014,
p.2760).
Objectives: In this factor British airways try to target the customers to whom they want to sale
the airlines services and try to improve the quality of the services to retain the existing
customers. British airways also try to design and develop their services according to the

requirements of their targeted customers in the marketing planning. .
Strategy: The SOSTAC model also helps to divide the market into different segments according
to the nature of the customers and market. The strategy helps the company to divide the entire
objective into different sequence that made easy to achieve those objectives.
Tactics: As opined by Grünig and Kühn (2015, p.80), the tactics help the company to prepare
some plan for the marketing mix to develop some new services according to the people, place,
price, product and promotion.
Action: The application of SOSTAC model also provide some knowledge about the use
application of the different resources such as Human resources, Financial resources,
technological resources in the marketing plan in an efficient manner.
Control: SOSTAC model also help the company to control different marketing activities
included in the marketing plan by measuring the performance of the marketing activities
included in the marketing planning.
There are different kinds of barriers faced by the organisation to prepare the marketing plan.
However, British Airlines face the following barriers mostly:
A) As opined by Grünig and Kühn (2015, p.80), a confusion can be rise between the tactics and
strategies followed by the organisation to prepare the marketing plan. The Company has to clear
the confusion between the tactics and strategies to prepare an efficient marketing plan.
B) The isolation of the marketing functions from the marketing plan always create a barrier for
the company. The company has to consider the different marketing functions to prepare the
marketing plan.
C) The confusion between the marketing function and marketing concept also create some
barriers for the British Airlines Company. The company has to provide an appropriate
description of the marketing functions and marketing concept to clear the confusion.
D) The different views and perspectives towards the marketing plan of the different persons
associate with the company can create some barriers in the organisation. The company has to
consider the views and perspectives of the associate person to omit the organisational barriers
from the marketing plan activities (Carrington et al. 2014, p.2760).
E) The weak analysis of the company also creates some barriers in the marketing plan. The weak

analysis of different factors of the marketing plan reduces the effectiveness of the marketing
plan. The company has to increase the depth of analysis to reduce the barriers from the
marketing plan.
F) lack of knowledge and skill also create some barriers in the marketing plan. The Company has
to recruit some qualified marketing managers marketing department to reduce the barriers of
knowledge and skills.
G) The confusion between the process of the marketing plan and the outcomes of the marketing
plan also create some barriers in marketing plan. The company has to clear the confusion
between the process and outcome to reduce the barriers.
H) The failure of the objectives of the marketing plan also create barrier for the company.
Therefore, the company has to prepare a proper plan to reduce the barriers of the marketing plan.
I) The board of directors of the British airways try to design and develop some new cargo and
passenger services for the customers but the lack of resources create some barriers for the
development of new services in the company.
J) British airways also try to include seven new destinations in their services to expand the
market in the industry but the external environmental factors such as political, economical and
technological included in such new destinations create some barriers for the company.
Preparation of the plan of the British airways for Brexit
Due to the British exit from the European union the British Airways suffering a huge loss in both
financial and market. Therefore they have to prepare some plan about the increment of their
market in the other destinations of the world to recover the losses incurred from the Brexit. The
British airways also try to develop some new services according to the demand of the new
market in the industry. They try to increase their ticket price due to the increment in inflation rate
and the price of the oil. British airways try to change their organisational culture according to
the new of the world. During the period of the March 29/17 and March 29/19 British airways ret
to increase the size of the market by expanding the business in other new destinations of the
world and try to develop new services to increase the demand of the customers among the
services.
Task 3