Internet Marketing Report: Strategies for British Airways' Success

This report delves into the internet marketing practices of British Airways, a leading airline. It examines the elements of internet marketing, including SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, and e-commerce, and evaluates their marketing mix across product, price, place, and promotion. The report compares internet marketing tools with e-tools, explores the interactive order process, and analyzes the mechanics of search engine marketing, providing an example email marketing newsletter and discussing best practices in online public relations. Furthermore, it demonstrates how businesses can use new digital media communities and includes market research components, such as secondary market research and online surveys, to support customer relationship management and the design of an internet marketing plan. The report concludes with an outline of an internet marketing plan and a discussion of pay-per-click advertising.

INTERNET
MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Elements of internet marketing........................................................................................1
1.2 Evaluating the internet marketing mix.............................................................................2
1.3 Comparing internet marketing tools with e-tools.............................................................2
1.4 Interaction order process..................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 The mechanics of search engine marketing......................................................................4
2.2 Email marketing newsletter..............................................................................................4
2.3 Best practice in online public relations............................................................................5
2.4 Demonstrating how businesses can use new digital media communities........................6
3.1 Conduct secondary market research.................................................................................7
3.2 Online survey....................................................................................................................7
3.3 Demonstrating the use of electronic customer relationship marketing............................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Outline of internet marketing plan...................................................................................9
4.2 Pay per click advertising................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Internet Marketing is also known as online marketing which includes advertising and
marketing efforts through using Web and email. Internet marketing refers to the application of
marketing techniques and principles via electronic media and more specifically the internet
(Bailey, 2011). The present report is about the practices of British Airways which is one of the
leading airline industries of UK. This organisation is the largest international airline in the world
which carries customers more than any other competitors. This report includes the description
about the marketing done through internet as well as use of internet for promotion by using
digital marketing communication. Further, it covers market research to support customer
relationship management and for designing an internet marketing plan.
TASK 1
1.1 Elements of internet marketing
Internet marketing has many methods but identifying the best suited method for business
is a tough job. Main objective of internet marketing is to capture a good proportion of share and
attracting more number of customers (Baloglu and Pekcan, 2006). Following are the elements of
internet marketing that lead to be a successful online website: SEO (Search Engine Optimization): It is a process through which new the visibility of
the website can be increased with the help of keywords. Those keywords should be
included in that blog heading, title and all over the blog text itself and should be used
naturally. Every keyword produced is an opportunity which is ranked for new keyword
phrase and a new way to see your content, which is also known as optimizing content of
website to target better audience, increasing website hits and increases brand visibility.
Further, it also provides reviews, existing websites and even analysis of competitors and
more over it does extensive research to decide which phrase and keyword will be
beneficial for the organization. Email marketing: It is a marketing tool which is extremely cost effective but when it is
used systematically it catapults sales to a new level (Blyth, 2013). An effective marketing
campaign would help to generate sales to repeat, sales conversion and make offline
purchases for web users which may help in regular touch with customers. Social media marketing: It plays a vital role in attracting more and more customers.
Social media is a type of two way communication with customers. It is focused on
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understanding the needs of customers and fulfilling those needs and requirements through
which sales can be increased effectively. Further, it even helps in reducing the market
cost and increasing the level of brand awareness. E-commerce: It can be determined as a source through buying and selling is done using
electronic networks, which is internet. All type of transaction like business to business,
customers to business, customer to customer, etc.
 E-business: It is a way of conducting business through internet. It includes providing
technical support, buying and selling of goods, etc. Internet allows the organization to
perform business anywhere around the world.
There are many benefits through internet marketing like it is time effective, cost effective, makes
customers know about the product, etc.
1.2 Evaluating the internet marketing mix
McCarthy's was the one who introduced traditional 4P's of marketing mix which are
related to product, price, place and promotion (Büchner and Mulvenna, 2007). Internet and
technology have a great impact on the development.
Following is the evaluation of marketing mix for British Airways:
Product: It has over 220 aircraft which includes 56 Boeing 747s, seven concords, 45 Boeing
777s and 38 Airbus (Internet Marketing Mix, 2015). British Airway includes different types of
airline services namely Club Europe Services, World Traveller Plus, New Club World, World
Traveller, British Airways Executive Club, Europe Traveller, etc.
Price: Price they offer is very much affordable and they have varied prices according to different
classes i.e. Economy class and business class. In economy class, price is comparatively low then
business class but standard and comfort they provide in business class are higher than economy
class.
Place: British Airway provides mobile application which is accessible from anywhere around the
world. This application is available on websites and is also available across mobile applications
(Chaffey and et.al., 2009). There are 441 airports of BA around the world which has made
customers to reach it effectively.
Promotion: British Airways has realized that most of their customers operate email through
mobile devices so they decided to focus on promotion through emailing. This helped them in
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segmenting their campaign into 4 platforms that are Blackberry, Androids, iPhones and desktop
computers which made people to download application through their own mobile devices.
1.3 Comparing internet marketing tools with e-tools
Tools of internet marketing are very helpful in saving time. In addition to this, it helps in
reducing marketing expenditure and improving search engine ranking.
Following are the top tools: Social media: Social media marketing is a type of process which gains traffic from
websites or seeks attention through social media sites. Main aim of social media is to
attract more of the audience towards their product with the help of effective
advertisement and promotion. Mentioned company have almost 2 million fans on
Facebook and they are always keen to know new discount offers and scheme from the
aviation industry. A new term has come up that is EWOM (Electronic Word Of Mouth)
that refers to something which is shared through any social media which could be about
any product, brand, services or a company (Charlesworth, 2011). Social sites like
Facebook, Twitter, Linkdin, etc. are the most used and popular sites. YouTube comes
under social sites which creates own channel. It is ranked second to be the most popular
search engine. British Airways can use these social networking sites for promoting their
services.
 Emails: It has proved to be the most effective tool as it is very easy process to convey
any information regarding the firm. For example, British Airways can set new offers
which can be subscribed. Weekly emails can be send which will be helpful in providing
additional information of changes which takes place on the regular basis.
1.4 Interaction order process
E-commerce is a basic for Interactive Order Processing which presents online businesses
for the customer’s easy services and better products. Following is the process when a person
books ticket through online:
Airways completely rely on interactive processing; computer system operates data immediately
when customers enter their details (Hamill and Gregory, 2009). All the files get updated and user
gets the result regarding their ticket, i.e. whether the ticket is booked or it’s not booked.
Similarly, before landing of flight, immediate processing is done by interactive processing and
data is conveyed to all the staff members who are going to handle luggage. In addition to this,
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interactive processing is helpful in many things like: providing information to those staff
members who are supposed to fuel the aircraft. Along with this, billing department is also
informed regarding the availability of customers.
In spite of this, when passengers book ticket, all the information regarding them
immediately gets available to all the BA’s staffs and from this, they update the passengers list
(Jones, 2008). When a passenger check in with his luggage, all the details regarding his
destination and even the weight of his luggage is immediately entered and that information is
made available to all the staff members who handle passenger’s luggage.
Batch Processing: It is another type of data processing in which computers needs to be available
even when there is no manual interventions. In this all the data is collected into a large batch in a
period, then these all are processed together. Its main advantage is that computers can use to do
all types of work and its main disadvantage is that this method works only when data are not
changed much and when a quick response is needed.
TASK 2
2.1 The mechanics of search engine marketing
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is a type of internet marketing which makes the website
visible for promoting in search engine result pages through advertising and optimizing. It can
also use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which rewrites or adjusts website content for
achieving a higher ranking for search engine result pages or may also use pay per click listings. It
can also include Global as well as Local online marketing (Kiang, Raghu and Shang, 2000).
When a user attempts to search a query, the search engine will broadcast the results according to
a certain criteria or rank. For all search engines the criteria to rank the pages is different but they
have the same mechanism function. It also does its marketing through Bing, Google, and yahoo
and online marketing for both B2C and B2B.
The search engine is formed by a spider or a crawler that follows the link and retrieves
web page. Rebooting text files is the way through which the privacy of content can be controlled.
Indexer is the one which receives the data during the process of crawling. Indexing is the next
step which includes crawled pages into a database. Sometimes use of crawler is important for
particular search engines, because after the process of indexing it is important to show how a
website will appear in search index.
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2.2 Email marketing newsletter
Dear Customers,
British Airlines has launched a low cost flight from Dubai to US. The flight is set to operate
twice a week, begins this September for ticket going for a low as $50 as the low cost airline
seeks to reach more and more customer welfare.
For ensuring the delivery of this mail, please add it to your favourite list. In case of any
change required in the setting of notification then just visit our website
www.britishairways.com. For unsubscribing this service, then just message
“UNSUBSCRIBE” and sent it to 54454.
Thank you.
British Airways
(Note: for more details you must login to our official website.)
2.3 Best practice in online public relations
Online Public Relations is something which manages communications between
organizations and among its key stakeholders. It mainly focuses on maintaining and building
positive image more over it also targets at specific audience so it could get opinions and can also
measure public perceptions (Mercer, 2011). Mainly Public Relations involves evaluating
opinions, attitudes and exposure publicly. For almost all forms of business public relation is a
cost effective method of marketing approach. The best practices of Public Relations are:
 Evaluates target: It is very helpful in identifying the target audience like customer,
suppliers, prospects, etc. and divide them into relevant sub components.
 Creates a high level of potential media, through these customers get to know about offers
given by company effectively.
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 Customer's would be able to interact regarding the advertisement.
 Mobile is a tool through which customers can buy product through cell phone.
 Determiners various sources for customer information: Representatives should be
communicated regarding the targeted audience and identify the sources from where they
find information related to the firm.
 Identifies journalists and even reviews media sources
 Delivers options and evaluating distributions
 Appropriate time is decided for delivery
 Measuring results
 Selecting the correct Public Relation tools
2.4 Demonstrating how businesses can use new digital media communities
Social media helps to know what people think about their competitors and brand, also
helps in knowing what customers actually needs and more over it is an effective way for
initiating conversations which leads to sales. In addition to this, it helps in generating new leads
and deepens the relation with current clients which drives to purchase again (Miletsky, 2009).
Following are the steps which would help to know better about the use of digital media:
 Connect with prospects in the best way: Before starting up the business one should
approach the client’s through source which involves less expenses and social media is the
smartest way for business prospects.
 Sharing images: Many online communities provide advantage to market the services and
product of the organization. The strategies for uploading photos and sharing are to give
real time incentives, to drive the traffic towards a website and to join people with similar
perceptions.
 Connecting: Facebook is the most effective social site as it is the most popular site
globally (Thomas, 2011). It is also helpful in knowing the preferences of the customers
and what they think regarding the product and services of the business.
 Relationship building: It’s the most important thing in business is the need to know how
to develop relations as relations develops leads. Customer’s information should be
properly used and should be monitored. In addition to this, their quires should be solved
so that relationship between customers and organization could be developed.
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 Meaningful conversations: The message should be interesting so that curiosity can be
developed among customers (Wang, Lee and Wang, 2001). Businesses should be able to
convince the customers that their product could solve their problems which would help
them and they should feel that the organization does care for them.
3.1 Conduct secondary market research
Secondary marketing research is the research which is already done by someone else. In
simple words, research is something which already exists in the environment. Secondary sources
include educational institutes, commercial, public, etc.
The research done on British Airways will help to know the customer satisfaction level, why the
customers are so loyal and satisfied by the services provided by Airways. For such surveys
British Airways have their own research agency that is (BAWC) British Airways World Cargo
which is a specialist in B2B research agency which specifically works on matters related to
customers (Roberts and Zahay, 2012). To know the customer’s behaviour towards British
Airways they interviewed customers to know the customer's behaviour. The surveys were taken
from the following areas:
 Getting satisfaction of passengers from 32 major airlines
 Information of 76 airports from passengers
 Feedback from almost 30,000 passengers per year
 survey details on 60 measured attributes
These type of research and surveys will be very helpful of the firms in order to know the
drawback. Firm can understand the lacking and changes can be made accordingly. In addition to
this when customers’ needs and requirements are fulfilled, then regular customers can be
changed to loyal customers. Moreover, research and surveys will be helpful in know the
effectiveness of the employees. Employees could be given proper training so that they work
more efficiently and effectively.
3.2 Online survey
NAME: _________.
1. GENDER?
 MALE
 FEMALE
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2. AGE GROUP?
 15-30
 31-55
 56-70
3. Do you often use British Airways?
 YES
 NO
4. Where you satisfied with the services?
 Yes
 No
5. How much satisfied were you satisfied?
 Not at all satisfied
 Somewhat satisfied
 Satisfied
 Very Satisfied
 Delighted
6. Why do you use British Airways?
 LOW PRICE
 GOOD FOOD
 COMFERT
7. Which travel class do you choose?
 FIRST CLASS
 BUSINESS CLASS
 PREMIER ECONOMY
 ECONOMY CLASS
8. Have you ever contacted customer service?
 YES
 NO
9. Please share your views for improving our services: ___________.
This questionnaire would be sent through email to different customers of British
Airways. In addition to this, different advertisement would be send on social sites through which
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questionnaire would be send. Further, interviews would be conducted and analysis would be
done in order to know the outcome out of the questionnaire.
3.3 Demonstrating the use of electronic customer relationship marketing
ECRM is to understand the relationship between the customers and market through
internet and extranet. The main aim of CRM is to understand the need and wants of the
customers and to make marketing strategies (Shih, Chen and Chen, 2013). It is a type of
managerial strategy which aims to develop long-term relationship with customers which will
help in the growth of the organization. The main uses of Customer Relationship Marketing are:
Data analysis: British Airways can use ECRM to analyse the data records in the past of the
consumers which will be help in suggest them with efficient and similar suggestions regarding
the services and products of the organization. This also helps the firm in analysing the
preferences and trend of its consumers.
Segmentation of customers: Database of the firm is used by British Airways for the marketing
purpose. This helps the company in segmenting and examining customers on various basis. Thus
it is helpful for driving the crucial information regarding the customer’s preferences, tastes and
choices. Through this segmentation to target the consumers of the company can be developed.
Collaborative filtering: For extracting the required information e-CRM is very helpful for the
organization (Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels, 2009). The organization uses its database for
collaborative filtering through which firm can analyse and extract the group results.
In addition to this, it is also helpful in following ways:
 Decreases the cost of marketing, fellow up, contacts, fulfilment services etc. and even
lowers the cost on attracting customers.
 Loyalty of customers improves when Airlines shape their brand and maintain the position
in the market.
 Increases customer’s profitability with the increase in customer up-setting, follow-up
sales and wallet-shares.
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TASK 4
4.1 Outline of internet marketing plan
A proper marketing plan will help in attracting more and more customers, enhancing
companies brand and products. For internet marketing plan following are the indicators which
would help to develop a proper and systematic internet marketing plan: Online Branding: Attracting customers by providing high comfort in low price, it is the
most important component for success in airlines especially in a competitive world were
travellers tempt for low cost carrier (Beal, 2015). Airlines should build their brand to
shape and maintain the position in the market and by helping the customers to value their
loyalty over price. Examination of business strategy: In order to make the business plane effective it is
essential to make strategies through which firm would be able to achieve their targets. Competitors analysis: In all the areas there would be competitors who aim at attracting
customers and in this context they use different way to achieve their goals. Analysis on
competitors would help in developing strategies through which competing with
competitors would become easy. Having a Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Quality information on the websites will
make the customers more loyal for the companies which are able to create unique selling
proposition USP is created when the customers are put in on their own shoes, to know
from what their customers are motivated, uncovering the reasons that why their travellers
adopt other companies services.
 Integrating CRM and online booking: If a customer makes their own personal account
then it would help the organisation to make their own CRM strategies and to provide
their customers with attractive offers.
4.2 Pay per click advertising
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
From this report, it can be articulated that internet marketing has proved to be the
strongest and most important tool for companies as it is helpful in increasing the budget and has
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