Marketing Planning Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing planning, using British Airways as a case study. It covers various aspects, including changing perceptions in marketing planning, organizational capabilities, techniques for analyzing external factors (PESTLE, SWOT, Porter's Five Forces), barriers to marketing planning and how to overcome them, a marketing plan for launching new services, the importance of the marketing planning process, new product development techniques, recommendations for pricing, distribution, and communication mix, factors affecting effective implementation, and ethical issues influencing marketing planning. The report details British Airways' strengths and weaknesses, analyzes its external environment, and offers recommendations for improving its marketing strategies. It emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations in marketing and the impact of consumer ethics on marketing planning. The conclusion highlights the crucial role of marketing planning in achieving organizational goals and maintaining a positive market image.

Marketing Planning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Changing Perceptive in Marketing Planning:...................................................................4
1.2 Organisation’s capability for planning its
future marketing activity:......................................................................................................4
1.3 Techniques of Organisational Auditing For Analysing External Factors:.......................5
1.4 Organisational auditing and analysis of external factors that affect marketing planning:6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Barriers to Marketing Planning and overcoming barriers:...............................................7
2.2 Overcoming barriers to
marketing planning:...............................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Marketing Plan for The Launch Of new Services for BA:...............................................9
3.2 Importance of Marketing Planning Process for British Airways:..................................10
3.3 Techniques of New Product Development:....................................................................11
3.4 Recommendation for pricing policy and distribution and communication mix for new
product..................................................................................................................................12
3.5 Factors Affecting Effective Implementation Of Marketing Plan:..................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
4.1 Ethical Issues Influencing Marketing Planning:.............................................................14
4.2 British Airways Response to Ethical Issues:..................................................................15
4.3 Examples of Consumer Ethics and Their Impact on Marketing Planning in British
Airways:...............................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
British Airways (BA) is the national airline of United Kingdom. It is the largest airlines
in terms of fleet size. It is only behind easy Jet when it comes to comparison in the number of
passengers carried. It is based in Waterside and have its main hub in London Heathrow airport. It
was established in 1972 by the united kingdom government. It was created out of four airlines,
two of them were nationalised and two of them were regional (Li and et. al., 2011). British
overseas airways corporation and British European Airways were two of the nationalised
airlines, two regional airlines were Cambrian Airways and north-east airlines. These companies
were merged to form British Airways on 31 march 1974. The government after 13 years
privatised the airline. British airlines in 1987 acquired British Caledonian, later on acquired two
more airlines which were Dan-Air and British Midland International in 1992 and 2012,
respectively.
Today British airways have a fleet size of 268 and operates to 183 destinations. It have a
tag line which is, “To Fly, To Serve”. British airways is also the founding member of the alliance
'Oneworld'. Today this alliance is third largest and is only behind Star alliance and Sky Team.
On 21 January 2011, British airways merged with Iberia and it created a company named
International Airlines Group. International airlines group is the second largest group in Europe
and third largest in world in terms of revenue (Renz, 2016). International airlines group revenue
is GBP 11,421 billion(2015). International Airlines Group is also listed on FTSE100 index and
London stock exchange. British airways has divided its cabin and services on 3 basis.
 Short haul,
 Mid haul,
 Long haul.
Under these hauls British airways provides different type of services to its customers.
Like in short haul Economy class and Business class are described differently. In Economy class
for short haul they have derived two terms: UK domestic and euro travellers, while business
class is called club Europe. For Mid haul business class 'club world' is used while economy
passengers are called 'world travellers' (Dief and Font, 2010). They have divided the long haul
in four different categories: First class, Business class, Premium Economy and economy. British
airways is targeting every type of passengers with these type of cabin services offers.

TASK 1
1.1 Changing Perceptive in Marketing Planning:
Marketing Planning is one of the most important aspect of marketing strategy of any
organisation. Today market planning is not limited to the conservative approach. The marketing
managers has to look at the current marketing trends and factors which can help the company in
promoting its products and services to much wider population (Hollensen, 2015). It has become
so important with time as it helps in facing the increasing competitive environment which makes
it difficult for the organisation to maintain the loyal consumer base.
With time the whole marketing planning concept changed. World saw many concept
which changed the perceptive of people towards marketing planning (Taghian, 2010). The
production concept which focused on production of product which are inexpensive and highly
efficient in producing, product concept which focused on the offering of the most qualitative,
innovative consumer favourable product production, selling concept focused on selling product
'anyhow', marketing concept focused on finding right product for customers and today the mass
marketing concept is in existence which focuses on numerous micro markets, with its own needs
and wants.
As mentioned above marketing has changed completely in last 30 years. Today it has
become more customer oriented. Marketing is also focusing on customer future requirements.
Companies today use marketing as a to create product demand which is not required today but
will be useful in future. Marketing has evolved from being product oriented to being need
oriented. Ten years back marketing was the function which was used by MNC's but today even
the small enterprises spend huge sum to get better marketing function.
1.2 Organisation’s capability for planning its future marketing activity:
British airways can be evaluated for its plan for future activities on the basis of the
market trends and the organisational strengths and weakness. Organisational capacity is about
the skills, quality, shortcomings, impacts, assets and conduct (Moutinho, et. al., 2011). It
describes what are the limitations an organisation have and what are its strengths.
British airways strengths are:
 Strong Brand name: British airways is a trustworthy name with high reputation in
national and global market. This reputation is built after serving customer with better

quality for so many years. Also the strategic approach used by British airways in
marketing has helped it in gaining this brand name and recognition.
 Backed by the UK government: British airways was made by the British government as
to serve as a national carrier. Even after being privatised, it is still backed by British
government as to serve its purpose.
 Its own engineering branch: British airways have its own engineering branch. This
enables British airways in servicing its aircraft's regularly and also avoid any technical
issue which could turn into an accident.
 Tech-savvy company: British airways keeps itself updated with all new technological
advancements happening in the field of airlines. It has already acquired new dream liner
series which have better efficiency and control. Also it has a very attractive online
presence which help them in converting potential customer to actual user.
Weakness of British airways are:
 Dependence on UK market: British airways is actually to much dependent on UK
market. It needs to find a way to make its presence felt in the international market. Such
as: growing its traffic in developing nations like China, and south east Asia.
 Employee unions: The employee unions at the British airways are one of the weakness.
This weakness exist because of salary and compensation or some HR policies.
 Less penetration in global market: British airways needs to focus on the developing
nations as well as on other developed nations. This will help the airways in opening up
of new profits source.
1.3 Techniques of Organisational Auditing For Analysing External Factors:
Customer is the keystone of marketing planning, it is necessary to understand what
customer really wants. For better understanding of customer needs organisation do Auditing and
Analysis of external factors (Lee, K.C., Lee, Lee and Lim, 2013). British airways will use the
following techniques of auditing of external factors:
 PESTLE: PESTLE refers to Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and
Environment. These factors directly impacts the organisation. PESTLE is a technique
which can be used by British airways as to increase its understanding about various
changing factors in the environment.

 SWOT: SWOT analysis is one of the most used tool to identify the strength, weakness of
the organisation. Also the available opportunity and threats in the external environment.
This helps the company in analysing various factors which have direct and indirect
impact on the organisation. This technique will help British airways in identifying its own
strengths and weakness which it has to keep on improving. While it will also help in
identifying various opportunities and threats it have in the external environment.
 Porter's five forces model: This model describes about the five forces which exist in the
market. Supplier, Buyer, Threats of new entries, threats of substitutes and industry rivalry
(Ogunmokun and Tang 2012). Any change in these factors lead to changes in the
marketing planning of the company. Porter five forces model is based on the insight that
companies plans and strategy should meet external opportunity and threats. It helps an
organisation in improving its corporate strategy as to face the factors defined by porter.
This strategy will help British airways in preparing and modifying its corporate strategy
ion order to enhance its capability to grab new opportunity while dealing with threats.

1.4 Organisational auditing and analysis of external factors that affect marketing planning:
British airways can use porters five forces model which will let it analyse its customer
requirements, suppliers demands, competitors plans, upcoming new entries in same market, and
substitute to air travelling, like Hyperloop.
 Competitors plans: Pricing of packages, destinations targeting. Basically this will help
British airways in analysing its competitors plans and strategy for market. Once BA
understand how the competitor is going to invest its resources for growth in market. It
can develop its own strategy or modify its strategy to counter competitor.
 Customer needs: Cheaper packages, better services. It is very important to fulfil
customer requirements and demands. British airways will have to keep on analysing the
market trends and customer needs.
 Suppliers demand: High rate of fuel and jets, high charges of engineering assistance.
British airways also have to keep monitoring the suppliers. As this will help the company
in identifying various determinants which can cause price rise and fall.
 New entrants: What they are offering? How well we can compete. The new entrants
pose a real threat to the British airways. Some of the new entrants in the UK market can
be a established airways in some other country. This can cause a war of pricing which
will result in loss.
 Substitute: Bus, train, sea travel. How much cost it charges, service quality, etc. British
airways has to keep a track of substitute and their prices.
This is how British airways can audit its external environment and the challenges it has to
face in the future.
TASK 2
2.1 Barriers to Marketing Planning and overcoming barriers:
Barriers are the challenges or obstacle which prevents access or movement. There are
many barriers for marketing planning (Chang, Park and Chaiy, 2010). These factors restrict new
entries in market as well as create difficult situation for the existing players. These barriers can
hamper any organisation customer base as it can present an situation which will be very difficult
for the organisation to overcome. Barriers to market planning are:

 Confusion with Objective: The objective behind the whole strategy should be
communicated properly in the organisation. This will help in reducing confusion
regarding strategy and objectives. British airways need to communicate about its
objectives clearly to its employee as to reduce chances of any confusion.
 Isolation of marketing function: If the marketing function is isolated and not integrated
then this barrier will occur. Organisations need to integrate marketing function with their
organisational activities as to understand the actual requirement.
 Barriers related to organisational structure: If the organisation structure is rigid then it
will stop any changes which are required to be made. Organisation structure needs top be
modified in British airways to be capable enough to absorb market shocks.
 Customer expectation: Customer expectation are always changing with the change in
season or market trends. They also form a barrier. If British airways fails to deliver as per
customer expectation than next time customer will choose another carrier.
 Social changes: Social reforms which can cause damage to the companies.
 Absence of inspiration: If the employee's in the organisation lack inspiration and
motivation than the task will not be achieved.
 Hostile corporate culture: If the corporate culture and working environment of the
organisation is hostile towards employee, then this barrier will occur.
 Lack of in-depth analysis: Company sometimes lack in-depth analysis of the situation
which make it lose many opportunities.
 Failure of systematic approach towards marketing planning: If companies approach
towards its marketing planning fails then it suffer huge losses.
 Differentiating between marketing concept and function: Sometimes employees get
confused between the marketing concept and function.
2.2 Overcoming barriers to marketing planning:
British airways has to strict if they want to overcome the barriers (Chaffey and Smith,
2012). These obstructions are faced by every organisation but it depends on the organisation as
how well they will deal with it. British airways has to follow these factors:
 Properly imparting the information about the organisational objectives.
 Advertising while imparting values
 Providing better services at reasonable prices

 Coping up with the demand for the destinations
 Analysis of all the internal and external factors affecting the planning.
 Properly structured advertising
 Integration of marketing function with other organisation functions
 British airways will need to keep on modify its strategic approach towards the marketing
function as to improve productivity.
 They need to define marketing concept and function as to clarify about the strategic
approach and path which is needed to be followed.
 Proper in-depth analysis of various internal and external factors is required as company
will need to modify their strategic plan accordingly
British airways has to use its marketing function as to cater the demand of market. The
marketing function should also be utilised as to understand the future market and demand. This
will help British airways in preparing itself for a future. This will help in reducing future
uncertainties to a great extent. British airways will also be able to develop better communication
channel internally and externally. This will help them in communicating information to all
related parties on time.
The Marketing planning has to be changed while the British airways is improving the
factors which can enhance the quality of its services (O'Cass, Ngo and Siahtiri, 2012). British
airways has to be more efficient while providing services and also while taking services of the
suppliers. It is very important for the British airways to be at par with the competition to gain
more and overcome barriers.
TASK 3
3.1 Marketing Plan for The Launch Of new Services for BA:
Marketing Plan is a blueprint of the idea which has shown better results in the
developmental stages . A well defined plan will help the British airways in building and
improving its business to better level (Whalen and Holloway, 2012). The marketing plan for
British airways has to follow the following marketing plan :
 Company Background: all the strengths, weakness has to be summarised and the past
performance under different strategies has to analysed.

 Situational Analysis: Company has to carefully analyse the industry competitors, new
entrants and substitutes (Li and et. al., 2011). Company also has to analyse the customer
needs and wants and for this we will be using Porters five forces model.
 SWOT analysis: Finding out the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity and weakness of the
organisation. SWOT is considered to be the best tool to analyse the company internal
environment.
 Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning(STP): Company need to segment the target
destination, BA is looking to provide both premium and economical services. what type
of people will be travelling to the destination chosen by BA, Company need to target
those customers. position its product in a way which will make it be an attractive choice
to the customer.
 Marketing Strategy: Company need to bring more customers meaning it is trying to
bring its best days back when it was number one in the market (Renz, 2016). They have
to provide safety with quality service at a very low cost. They have to pinpoint their
strengths in front of the customers to convince them to travel with the BA. British
airways has to consider three different factors while preparing marketing strategy:
◦ Price: Marketing strategy should have a proper plan of expenses which will be
required to market and distribute the product. All resources which will be required by
the function to perform the required task needs to be collected. All the recorded
expenses should be documented.
◦ Distribution: Marketing function has to prepare a proper distribution policy as to
deliver products on time. Marketing will help British airways in preparing better
distribution mix. Distribution mix is made to make a efficient and effective
distribution channel via which the products and services can be delivered to
customers easily.
◦ Communication: Advertising and promotion has to be done in the most efficient
and effective way. Also better channel of communication in the organisation will
help in effectively communicating all the required information to involved parties.
 Marketing Mix: Marketing mix is the key ingredient for any marketing strategy. BA
will need to place its new services in the market while keeping the 4P's in mind.

 Implementation, Evaluation and Control: British airways has to be careful while
doing the marketing planning. Proper budgeting and implementation with evaluation can
stop the over expenditure and will help in improving the efficiency with effectiveness.
3.2 Importance of Marketing Planning Process for British Airways:
Marketing planning provides an overview to all the stakeholders. It is a blueprint which
needs to be implemented. It also let the managers in achieving the standardised results (Mishra,
Barfield and Chin, 2013). The effective marketing plan results in high increase in the sales and
increased company profit margin. There are many advantages of the market plan as it contains:
 Company focuses on target market
 It helps in reducing the future uncertainties.
 Identifies the ways to smooth-en the marketing function
 It let the Company identifies Customer requirements
 Identifies Product Demand and need for update
 Determines Potential customer
 Determines the competitors
 Analysis ways to achieve competitive advantages
 A proper plan to manage operational activities and long term activities.
Basically, Any marketing plan will help the company in determining the ways to achieve
the organisational goals and objectives (Dief and Font, 2010). The management is forced to
reflect upon the future in a systematic way, It Helps in Monitoring and evaluating all the
operational,Minimises the risk of failure, Prepares the organisation to accommodate change,
Enhances the human behaviour and response rate, Promotes co-ordination and co-operation
among the departments British airways can use the marketing planning for enhancing the overall
organisational objectives and capabilities. Marketing planning is done to avoid incorrect actions,
find the pre-determined path and reduction in the frequency of failure to grab better
opportunities.
3.3 Techniques of New Product Development:
New product development is a complete process which helps the company in developing
an idea, screening it, finding the best resources for it, testing it and commercialising it (Wymer,
2011). It also distinguish the growth and survival of the company. There are various steps in
development of new product, such as:

 Idea generation: Idea is generated. The idea to launch new services to the new
destinations is generated in the board of directors meeting.
 Idea Screening: Idea is screened by the many stakeholders as well as by the analyst.
 Concept development and testing: The packages will be developed for the testing in the
organisation. Basic thought behind this is to turn the idea into proper developed concept.
 Market strategy development: It depends on the product what type of strategy the
company need to use (Terpstra, Foley and Sarathy, 2012). If the product is mixed
package like the British airways package for long haul and short haul (economy and
business class) then will need the extended marketing strategy which will reach the
maximum number of target customers.
 Product development: Product is developed and has taken a form in which it can be
presented.
 Test marketing: This pack will be tested out in the target market (Chaffey and Smith,
2012). It can include giving promotional offers to try out the package. Or it can be just a
casual survey.
 Commercialisation: After test marketing is done, the company will need to
Commercialise the product meaning launch it in the market for customers.
3.4 Recommendation for pricing policy and distribution and communication mix for new product
Pricing policies are most important for the company as it directly affects the levels of
customer attraction towards the offered packages of the company (Chang, Park and Chaiy,
2010). The pricing of product have direct impact on the sales of the product or loss and profit of
the company. Pricing is done while keeping the companies expenditure for the project and the
profits which will make the whole package feasible. The managers need to be sensitive towards
the production cost and marketing cost of the product. British Airways pricing needs to be
competitive as to gain competitive advantage in the market. Better packages pricing will help
them in gaining customer attention. Also British airways has to analyse the expenses it incurs in
distribution and communication of product.
The Distribution of the package is also important as it plays an important part in reaching
the target customer. Once pricing is done while keeping all the expenses in mind, its the
distribution which has to be done. In the case of British airways it will need to target the market
where it wants to deliver the products and get the customers (O'Cass, Ngo and Siahtiri, 2012).