Marketing Plan for British Airways: Strategies and Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of the marketing plan for British Airways. It begins with an introduction to marketing planning, discussing changing perspectives, and BA's ability to plan marketing activities. The report explores techniques for organizational auditing, including SWOT and PEST analyses, and examines factors affecting marketing planning within BA. It then delves into barriers to marketing planning and strategies to overcome them, followed by an overview of the marketing plan, its necessity in strategic planning, and techniques for new product development, concluding with recommendations. The report also addresses factors influencing the implementation of the marketing plan and explores ethical issues influencing marketing planning, the company's responses to these issues, and the impact of consumer ethics. The report concludes with a summary of British Airways' marketing strategies and a list of references.

Marketing Planning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1.1 Changing perspectives in marketing planning....................................................................1
P1.2 BA's ability for planning marketing activity.......................................................................2
P1.3 Techniques for organizational auditing..............................................................................3
P1.4 Factors that affect marketing planning in BA.....................................................................4
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Barriers to marketing planning..............................................................................................6
2.2 Ways to overcome barriers in marketing planning...............................................................7
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Marketing plan .....................................................................................................................8
3.2 Necessity of marketing planning in strategic planning.........................................................9
3.3 Techniques for new product development..........................................................................10
3.4 Recommendations...............................................................................................................10
3.5 Factors which affect proper implementation of the marketing plan...................................11
TASK 4 .........................................................................................................................................13
4.1 Ethical issues influencing marketing planning...................................................................13
4.2 Response of company to ethical issues...............................................................................13
4.3 Consumer ethics and their effect on marketing planning....................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
Summary Of British Airways........................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Marketing plan is a pattern or a business document that outlines the marketing strategy
and advertising plan and plan of action. In other term it is the procedure of examine more than
one interesting places in market where the business can compete (Chen, 2014). It is focused
more on a specific period, say one year or two year. It is not a static document like business plan,
it keeps on changing as the market is changing and business is growing (Chen, 2014). The
purpose of designing a marketing plan is to reach the goals and the objectives set by the
company in effective, more efficient and economical way.
TASK 1
P1.1 Changing perspectives in marketing planning
Marketing requires instinct and creativity. By looking at your marketing goals, available
resources and methods you can create marketing plan. Different viewpoints can help possibilities
and risks that may either help your marketing to get succeed or face failure. Various aspects that
we are using helps in our marketing to be present unique in the market (Samadi, Mirzazadeh and
Pedram, 2013).
Four P's
Marketing planing practices that are been followed since long time laid emphasis on
product, place, pricing and promotion. Marketing planning that makes use of four P's starts with
consideration of product such as benefits, characteristics, brand name and wrapping. By
considering competition or profits pricing issues should be decided. The product will be able to
put into the market after the details given by the marketing plan.
Push vs. Pull
Traditional approach used by the marketer to put the product into the market is refused
by the current marketing planning. According to new marketing theory customers can be
attracted towards the company by giving them quality information and layout that avoids
exaggeration and rather displaying messages continuously we should listen them. This viewpoint
emphasizes on developing different ways to participate and give feedback to customers for
improvements in the product.
Situation Analysis
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Without listening to marketplace and giving focus on your planning can cause you to do
mistakes (Long, 2015). Your perspective may change if you listen. On measuring demand of the
product in the market, taste of customer, competitor's strengths and weaknesses planning can be
adjusted to fit into prevailing conditions.
Perceptions and Science
Perception is reality in marketing. Product's appearance attracts customer towards it.
Although with technical approach by making use of facts, numbers, and group surveys,
marketing plan can be developed. The marketing plan must leave room for unexpected.
P1.2 BA's ability for planning marketing activity
Airlines are considered to be the most important aspects for individuals and organisations
as well. Time required to transport goods and services have drastically reduced. Thereby, it
provides large scale of business opportunities for participants in airlines industry. The other part
depicts the huge competition in the market. The following stated sections analyses the strategies
applied for marketing of the venture that would help BA to attain success.
Market objectives
Marketing strategy of British Airways would include customers, production, employees
and quality service. To gain market share by providing excellent services to customers would be
the main objective. The firm also intended to expand into new areas by capturing short haul
market (Dibrell, Craig and Neubaum, 2014). The company's excellence in service quality would
be ensured for availing its products and services to customers by the availability of the best
resources in the organisation.
Marketing Strategies
By using Ansoff model, the strategies applied for the marketing of the firm can be
constructed. Ansoff model defines future scope and strategies of any organisation. Four
strategies are proposed by the model that any firm can use to capitalise onto market prospective.
The four strategies are:
Market Penetration
This strategy involves a situation where a firm tries to enter the market with the product
they already have in the market. By providing improved and better quality services with the
product in a way British Airways can make use of Market penetration strategy. Feedback and
reviews can be taken into consideration to add more customer sections in the market.
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Product Development
New services can be offered like fidelity programs, corporate class customers can be tied
up , packages with new additions includes product development for British airways.
Market development
Development involves to enter into those areas of market which is currently not served by
airlines (Fröhlich and Grimm, 2016). This will lead to business enhancement. For eg, even in
downtime of economy investments can be made into productive and adaptable aircraft, the
number of manpower on the whole terminal can be reduced, by introducing new products etc.
Diversification
Diversification is not a feasible option as it would shift your focus from the present business
markets which would ultimately lead to business loss. Diversification would require migration of
supply chain and vertical integration which is not a viable option.
Evaluation of Strength of BA
BA is an established company that has years of experience. It has skilled employees
which could help in developing new marketing strategies and customer support services.
Innovations in technology has always been adopted by the airlines which form competitive
position in the marketplace. By introducing flights in new areas could be helpful in company's
growth. They have strong capabilities and reach in aviation industry. Competitive strength is
contributing factor in success of marketing activities.
P1.3 Techniques for organizational auditing
An audit activity is conducted by every organisation to inspect and identify faults or
opportunity in the company taking place around it. Organisational audits constitutes inherent
proficiencies of the venture and internal system layout. Basically, organisational auditing
techniques consists of two parts: internal factor evaluation and external factor evaluation.
Techniques that can be used for organisational auditing are given below:
SWOT Analysis
SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis works on two factors:
1. internal factors
2. external factors
Both the factors affects the business. SWOT analysis can be used to identify and decide that
how we can perform auditing:
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 Company should take benefits of new opportunities of business.
 Response for trending things.
 Implementation of the latest technology. Dealing with changing operations of customers.
Porter's 5 Force Analysis
Organisation's behaviour in a competitive market is affected by five forces as proposed
by Porter. These includes the following :
 Competition between the sellers that are already present in the market.
 How sellers are affected by the suppliers. Prospective threat of new sellers invading into market.
PEST Analysis
Growth of market or declination, business status, latent and the way for operations to be
carried can be understand by using PEST analysis (Fleischmann, Meyr and Wagner, 2015). It is a
useful strategic tool. In planning of strategies and business, marketing planning, development of
business and product and reports of research the use of PEST analysis has been seen influencing.
PEST is useful when the firm decides to enter into market that are completely new to them. To
break unconscious assumptions and to relate to the new environment it is great beneficiary.
PEST ensure company performance gets improved with each day by applying various strategies
which will ultimately benefit company's growth and profit.
P1.4 Factors that affect marketing planning in BA
The British Airways was formed through nationalization by the labour Government. The
need for change for BA was driven by number of factors. BA can make use of SWOT analysis
technique for organisational auditing (Gepp and et.al., 2017). A SWOT analysis is a tool that can
be used for organisation's auditing and its environment and to make it enable for making
decisions in every type of conditions in a business. The SWOT can be used for the following
purpose by the BA:
 Market position of BA can be compared with its competitors.
 Services in BA
 A business idea in BA
 Strategic planning Partnership with other companies as it is entering into new market.
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SWOT Analysis for British Airways
Strengths
 Chairman's passion for the need of
change.
 Competitive strength.
 Years of experience in the field.
 BA has its own engineering branch to
maintain its aircraft fleet.
 Reach and awareness of BA in aviation
industry.
Weakness
 No management skills.
 Breakdown of internal barriers failing.
 Motivational skills are lacking to
promote workforce.
 Loss of skilled labor.
 Not long lasting solutions.
 Over dependence in UK market.
Opportunities
 Focus should be on new opportunities.
 Expanding market.
 Pressure on small players.
 Clear strategy should be in place.
 Technology innovation of BA.
 Partnership with other big airlines can
make position strong in the market.
Threats
 Resistance for change in staff and
management of BA in the competitive
market.
 Government regulations.
 Loss of skilled staff due industry
strikes.
 Firing people and cutting budgets and
the new marketing drive of BA.
 Climate change is a big threat for BA.
In order to remain competitive in the market BA will make use of SWOT analysis.
Internal and external factors will be evaluated through it. The internal process is considered with
strength and weaknesses whereas external process is considered with opportunities and threats on
which BA might not have control over it.
Critical Analysis: From the SWOT analysis it can be concluded that utilizing competitive
strengths and innovations BA have potential to grow more in coming years. But on the same
hand unavailability of skilled employees could incur losses for the company. Climatic changes
are major issue in Airline industry. Technology innovation can create business opportunity for
BA. Company is established since years and have strong financial stability but it can turn down
into weakness due to inefficient skilled employees and recession prevailing in country. If
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management skills is properly acquired by the firm it can do wonders in the airlines' industry. On
giving appropriate training employees can be trained to acquire new skills as per current trends
of the market. If BA formulate certain strategies for the solutions then possibilities are there they
may last for longer duration. Currently chairperson is passionate about growth of the company
but if in near future he is replaced by somebody other, then chances are there that he might not
have same potential and enthusiasm for the work which would directly impact working processes
of the organization.
TASK 2
2.1 Barriers to marketing planning
Marketing planning can be defined as the process of occurrence acquired by a company for
defining objectives of marketing and to draw plan for it. It's complexity is high and due to which
during implementation it experiences many barriers.
1. Environmental Barriers
The external environment of the business consists of all together existing social,
technological, economical, political and legal conditions which may cause crucial barriers to
planning of marketing by putting limitations and prohibitions in a way it gets connected with
environment (Filiatrault and Chebat 2015). Current plan of marketing may require modifications
due to competitor's marketing strategies. Proclamation may stop comparison of marketing plan
between competitors.
2. Cultural Barriers
Culture is the combination of the morals, knowledge, custom. It also combines the beliefs
and values and many other capabilities. The habits sharing among by the people also constitutes
culture. The performance of organization is influenced by culture. Culture sensitivities are when
misunderstood or gets failed to understand results into faulty marketing planing. When failing
occurs it directly affects the benefits of the product. Similarly, the application of humour, gender
roles, traditional and classical culture and other promotion techniques depends on cultural
sensitivities (Maile, Kizilbash and Miller, 2015).
3. Behavioural Barriers
Marketing plans is greatly influenced by the behavioural traits in great way. The reason behind
behavioural issues may be:
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 Due to lacking of management support.
 Cross-functional involvement is lacking.
There are some more barriers that may arise in marketing planning which are discussed below:
 Confusion in implementing particular strategy: It may arise due to availability and
formulation of several strategies. Each of them would have certain positive and negative
points which creates confusion. Critical analysis helps in choosing and implementing
strategy to obtain maximum benefits. Analysis is not properly conducted. Organisational barriers might be present.
 Objectives are not clearly defined: Many times targets and goals to be achieved by the
company are not clearly specified which becomes major barrier in its growth. Marketing
plan thus cannot be designed when objectives are not properly mentioned.
 Skilled employees are not available and there might be lack of appropriate knowledge
which affects implementation process. If information about any product and services is
not appropriately gathered than implementation process becomes difficult.
 Marketing approach is not systematically designed: For marketing of any commodity,
proper planning is essential. There are possibilities that some features and stages might
get missed in development process of plan that directly affects marketing activity.
Thus, it is required to have proper planning from the initial stage so that all the aspects
could be covered effectively. It is also essential to identify all the possible factors that may affect
planning either lack of skilled employees or organisational barriers and many more. Critical
analysis of the market helps in successful implementation of marketing plan.
2.2 Ways to overcome barriers in marketing planning
To be successful in business marketing barriers are required to be resolved. Initiatives
should be taken by company to overcome with above stated situations. Following strategies
could be helpful in overcoming issues:
 To avoid confusion, strategic plan should be developed. External environment factors are
given much value.
 Marketing planning should be designed in such a way that it should focus mostly on
customers. For effective implementation of planning specialist and expertise can be hired.
 Activities of the venture should be well organized.
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 In depth analysis should be conducted so that proper information could be collected and
appropriate tools for marketing can be utilized.
 SWOT analysis can be used to avoid disorder between process and results.
 Proper training can be provided to the employees of the company so that they can acquire
proper skills.
 Objectives of the company should be properly framed so that strategies could be planned
to achieve this.
TASK 3
3.1 Marketing plan
A plan of marketing is a subset of a business plan. Well written plan of marketing can be
formed with influential strategy of marketing. A plan of marketing constitutes a record of
actions, plan with a little use of business. Marketing plan can be defined as a blueprint or
document which depicts company's efforts for the coming year. It describes business activities
involved to accomplish the goal (Donnelly and et.al., 2015). A marketing plan may also involve
current position the company in the market, what are the resources they have discussion of the
target market and their goals to be achieved. Marketing plan is not a static document like your
business plan. It is needed to be changed with current market, services and trends. Purpose of
marketing plan to provide you direction towards your goal. It needs to be referred and assessed
frequently. Importance of marketing planning:
 Future uncertainties can be avoided.
 Objectives can be easily managed.
 Objectives can be achieved by the help of it.
 Departments can coordinate and communicate with the use of marketing plan.
Marketing plan of BA: Objectives: BA is planning to grow in their business by introducing new aircraft and
reducing number of employees so that overall cost can be balanced. Market segmentation: BA has to compete with others in the market on the basis of cost of
tickets and services provided to the customers. BA provides facilities to travel in the
country as well as overseas.
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 Target Market: BA is planning to start flights at new destinations so that more number of
passengers can be pulled. Product Differentiation & Positioning: Services provided to the customers always get
much attention by the customers. BA always try to implement the latest technology to
facilitate comfort for the customers and provides security as well. Marketing Strategy: it is based on introducing improvements by considering costs and
profit that would be generated by BA. At particular destinations, low prices are offered to
the passengers and food facilities to attract them. Infrastructure has also been improved
using trending technologies.
 Return of investment: Huge amount of investment is required for increasing number of
aircraft, security systems and facilities provided to the customers. Thus, strategies are
planned to make profits.
3.2 Necessity of marketing planning in strategic planning
The objective of strategic planning can be defined as the process of providing marketing
plan to an organization and sub departments and even individuals to attain specific goals.
Internal and external opportunities are identified by the strategic planning to create strategies and
tactics (Maile and Kizilbash, 2015). Number of steps are involved in strategic planning process
to include marketing planning process. These includes :
 Identification of planing goal
 Team participants selection Data related to internal and external environment is gathered.
Benefits
 The key advantage of a plan of marketing is it is providing written blueprint for a
business to be followed to achieve the objective.
 Secondly, with strategic marketing planning it allowed for the business to design
and employ constant messaging both internally and externally. Consistent
messaging offers customer to understand what company offers and how it is
offered. Company with good marketing plan encounters an increase in and market
share and income.
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3.3 Techniques for new product development
Developing new product should not be a difficult task to perform. It is quite easy
method. To develop any product development plan is required. Development process
includes process of collecting the raw idea and to bring the product into the market.
Following proper steps development becomes more flexible. The basic steps involved in
the product development are as : Idea generation – Any product development starts with the concept. Further, gathered
ideas are needed to be tested to be used into reality. Practicality of collected information
is checked. Concept and idea can be gathered from anywhere. The best way is to start
with SWOT analysis where strengths, weakness, importunities and threats can be
identifies at earlier stage (Salmani, Daraei and Bayazdi, 2014). Idea screening - As we know, ideas are collected randomly and therefore they are needed
to be screened before they put on use. According to market potential certain screening
idea are needed to be set. Development of concept and testing – At this stage the concept has been screened but the
end user is customer. They are needed to be asked. On a small group of people , idea can
be tested to get their reaction. Business Analysis and Product development – Once the concept has been finalised, it can
be put together to analyse whether the product will be profitable or not. If the new
product is approved, it is then transferred to technical and development department.
 Marketing – Marketing proposes the plan as a whole rather than individual elements.
Marketing is the most important stage as it leads your product to reach customer.
3.4 Recommendations
To run any business developing new products is common feature. To market these
products Businesses must ensure the best possible way to price the product to a limit so that
customers feel convenient and affordable to buy it. Various pricing techniques exists to introduce
new product to market (Abulehyeh, and Al-zoub, 2017). All such strategies commonly depends
on prevailing conditions of market.
Penetration Pricing
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