Marketing Principles and Practice: A Case Study of the Virgin Group

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the marketing principles and practices employed by the Virgin Group. It begins with an introduction to marketing concepts and terminologies, illustrating them within the context of the Virgin Group's diverse business ventures. The report then delves into the marketing strategies and programs that contribute to the organization's objectives, emphasizing ethical considerations. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to examining the marketing principles and concepts, such as the 7Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process, and Physical Evidence), and STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) used in the Virgin Group's daily operations. The report also explores the relationship between marketing functions and other functional areas within the organization. The report concludes with recommendations and references.

MARKETING PRINCIPLES
AND PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
I. The explanation of marketing concepts and terminologies in context of Virgin Group.....2
II. The marketing strategies and programmes help the virgin group to achieve its
organisational goals and how these objectives are achieved ethically...................................5
III. Marketing principles and concepts used in The Virgin Group's daily organisational
operations...............................................................................................................................6
IV. Explain the relationships of the marketing functions to other functional areas in
organisations...........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
1

INTRODUCTION
Marketing plays a very important role in the business sector in each industry. It highly
contributes in growth and success of an organisation by improving its brand image in market.. In
this assignment, the organisation is Virgin Group. It's a completely British owned multinational
company. It was incorporated in the year, 1989. The owners of Virgin Group are:- Richard
Branson and Nik Powell. The project report here will focus on the principles of the marketing
that are being exercised in almost every industry. The basic principles of marketing are:-
product; price; place and promotion. The assignment will further focus on the key concepts of
the marketing and different terminologies that will explain the importance of marketing within
an organisation.
TASK
I. The explanation of marketing concepts and terminologies in context of Virgin Group
Marketing – Marketing is essential for an organisation to achieve its organisational goals as well
as gaining popularity in the market. Virgin group chooses important marketing strategies to
market its products such as Virgin Music, Student Magazine etc.
Marketing concepts:
 Product strategy and
 Promotional Strategy
 Product strategy: The product strategy is one of the chief component of a marketing
strategy. A product plays a vital role in an organisation's growth and it is important for a
product to perform well in the market. The strategy is developed in order to achieve both
of these objectives. (Skarmeas, Zeriti and Baltas, 2016) To make the product perform
well in the market and to achieve the organisations goals and objectives by making the
sales better. In product strategies the information is designed for distribution, Short term
and long term goals. The overall strategy is created by the marketing team and its final
approval is done by the company's Chief Executive Officer. Virgin group promotes
Virgin Music with the use of efficient apps and technologies on the internet. Also, it

tends to sell its music under its brand name which ensures the organisation reputation
goes along.
 To make a product strategy Virgin Group uses the below mentioned principles:
a. Market Research: Virgin group tends to do the necessary market research while creating a
product strategy. The market research allows the Airline company to identify its consumers and
the types of consumers it is serving. For example, the B2B market research allows Virgin Group
to identify the various special needs of business travellers and later helped the organisation in
launching its unique business class. To create a product strategy to sell its music the group tends
to understand the current trends and customers experiences within the music industry.
(Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes, 2015)
b. Product Development: Product development allows the virgin group to develop its products
in order to make the impact of its overall organisation within the consumers and between the
competitors as well. The airline tends to keep developing its products and services such as better
seating availability, good provision of food to the travellers etc. to create the necessary impact.
c. Product positioning: Positioning also refers to Unique Selling Point of a company. In
its product positioning the company develops a strategy to compete against other
products or services sold by its market competitors. The unique selling point ensures that
the company's products are different from its competitors and Virgin Group ensures that
its services are better than them. Virgin group positions its music in the market with the
use of its brand name that provides the overall goodwill and listeners tend to buy the
music under the name of Virgin Group. (Gomes, Sousa and Vendrell, 2017)
d. Pricing: There are times when strategy is based on the price alone. In this approach,
Virgin Group tends to observe its place within its competitors and its reputation in the market.
After observing its market place the group chooses to set a price that determines its brand value
within the market and prices its services accordingly. The company has recently chosen to
increase its airline tickets in which its Business class passengers tickets value has been increased

to 15%. In addition, the company has provided various benefits to its business class passengers
and has improved their experience as well.
 Promotional Strategy: The promotional strategy is used to market and advertise a
product. The strategy helps to understand what the company is selling. It is essential to
convince its consumers to buy the company's products. For this, the airline explores
different methods in which these consumers can be made aware and can make use of its
provided services. An effective promotion constitutes a particular message that it has
been targeted to a particular audience and is done through the appropriate channels.
Types of promotional strategies that virgin Group uses include:
Radio: It is a less expensive approach and yet an effective one. The advertisement done on radio
is a good way to reach consumers in local areas to promote the products efficiently.
Television: Television is used as another approach where advertisements are visible to the
consumers and the most effective way for Virgin Group to aesthetically show its products and
services.
Print: In printing advertisements the organisation chooses to sell it products with the help of
newspapers, magazines, etc. These prints help an organisation to reach the audience located on a
much larger level.
Other efforts that are used to promote the Virgin Group include personal selling, sales
promotion, public relations or PR etc. In these efforts such as PR the organisation tends to focus
on creating a favourable image of the business. In personal selling the Group employs
salesperson to sell its services door to door and attract people towards its services and providing
them with enticing offers. Sales promotions are mainly focused on strategies that focus on
special offers such as various coupons, incentives, free samples, contests, rebates, loyalty
programs etc. These strategies help the Virgin Group to create a market consumer base that later
is turned into buying its products as services. Virgin group has entered the maket of selling Cola
with the help of providing its customers with cheaper options than Coca Cola and Pepsi.

II. The marketing strategies and programmes help the virgin group to achieve its organisational
goals and how these objectives are achieved ethically
Various marketing strategies and programmes helps the Virgin Group to promote its
services and if done effectively these strategies helps the organisation in reaching towards its
organisational goals. For this, Virgin Group ensures that at first the organisations goals and
objectives are set, then it tries to implement and create such strategies and programmes that
match its organisational objectives. Later, along with achieving the objectives of its provided
services and products Virgin Group achieves its organisational objectives too. (Cateora, Gilly,
and Graham, 2016) This approach helps an organisation to achieve both of its products and
organisational goals if done effectively. Along with it, it advantages the Virgin Group to
maintain and imply the same approaches while setting up strategies in achievements of both the
product and organisational goals. Below explained are the strategies in which Virgin Group
achieves its organisational goals:
1. Using social media: The group ensures its reach on social media to promote its services.
This makes the group achieve a good and new consumer base and to efficiently sell its
products and services to a much larger audience in a just one go. Social media has helped
virgin group to increase it consumers by promoting products online.
2. Leveraging Influencers: Virgin group uses this technique to get its word out there. In
this technique it chooses the influencers which are good and successful and have a good
presence on social media. (Schmid, Grosche and Mayrhofer, 2016)
3. Blogging: Blogging is another approach that is used by a number of organisations
including Virgin Group to make the consumers aware about the overall organisation and
its products as well. It can be seen that today people are spending a lot of time on social
media and the internet.
4. Storytelling: A company uses the approach of storytelling in its marketing strategies to
engage its consumers on an emotional level. Storytelling is done in a format of telling the
story about how the product came into existence. Along with it, it describes the product
in such ways that the consumer gets attached to them easily and find more comfortable in
buying or using the sold commodity. Along with it, the sold product or service leaves its

impression on the consumer’s mind. Storytelling has proved itself an effective approach
in selling a buying of a product or commodity. Virgin Group uses this strategy to entice
its consumer base and tell them effective stories about how a product and service came
into existence and what lead them to the idea of that product or how the product or a
service is produced or bought in action while taking care of the needs and necessities of a
customer.
Conclusion: The above explored options showcases how virgin group promotes its products
with the usage of marketing strategies worldwide with the usage of effective techniques.
III. Marketing principles and concepts used in The Virgin Group's daily organisational
operations
The below explained marketing concept of 7P's and STP explains the Virgin Group daily
organisational operations.
The 7P's of Marketing
Product: It is essential for Virgin Group to ensure that the product which they are selling is
having a market need and a consumer from their selected community is having the necessary
needs and requirements for that particular product or commodity. (Vellas, 2016)This is where the
marketing team ensures that how a product is going to be sold in the market. It chooses the
necessary tags and tabs that helps the product to reach its destination and creates a market impact
as well. The group promotes it products such as its Cola, Airlines, etc.
Price: The price of a product helps the marketing team of Virgin Group to set the required price
of the product. It is determined by the observation of various aspects such as the products of
competitors, consumers economical condition etc. The company has recently increased it
business class passengers tickets price by 15%.

Promotion: In promotion various sales tactics is used by the organisation to promote its products
and services. This promotion of Virgin Group is either done in the form of advertising and either
in the form of other techniques such as word of mouth, sales promotion etc.
Place: The place ensures the community in which the product is being sold. It is important for
Virgin Group to ensure at what place their products are being sold and what communities they
are targeting as well. Countries such as America and UK are its major places.
People: The people are one of the major important aspects when Virgin Group chooses a market
to deliver its products. The organisation understands the various needs and demands of people to
observe what products they need.
Process: Process refers to the way of delivering of goods and services to the consumers. Virgin
group uses the methods such as continuously selling a single product or commodity or it tries to
gain increase in overall efficiency of their products.
Physical Evidence: The physical evidence explores the physical conditions in which the
organisation is selling its products. Along with it, packaging and branding are also a part of the
physical evidence. Virgin Group's brand name is a good physical evidence.

Source: MARKETING THEORIES – THE MARKETING MIX – FROM 4 PS TO 7 PS, 2012
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
The segmentation, targeting and positioning approach is one of widely used concepts in
marketing. It explores the ways in which a product is going to be placed in the market and how
efficiently it can be done with the best results. Below explained how the overall concept takes
place:
Segmentation: In the process of segmentation Virgin group identifies the needs and
requirements of the consumers. (Kotabe and Helsen, 2014) It is done with the usage of various
methods such as from the identification of the demographics, performing psycho graphics,
(taking interviews, surveys, and collecting consumer data etc.) or by observing brief values,
Illustration 1: 7P's of Marketing

geography, behaviour etc. Virgin group takes surveys from its existing customers to segment its
products.
Targeting: After segmentation, the targeting approach takes place in which the marketing team
uses methods and strategies to identify the criteria size, difference, accessibility, money and
profits along with focusing on different benefits. The idea of targeting ensures that the product
find its right place in the market between its consumers and the community for which the product
is created. Also, targeting ensures that the production is being done as per the market
requirement of the consumers. Virgin group tends to target younger consumers worldwide.
Positioning: It is the last stage in the cycle of segmentation, targeting and positioning. In
positioning an organisation creates a perception of its products in the mind of its targeted
audience. Virgin group tends to use strategies such as organising events, using newspapers,
television and radio to promote its products. Along with it, positioning ensures that the products
which are targeted are creating the right space within the market. In the last stage things become
clear about how the product will perform in the market and the necessary improvements required
to make it performance better. Virgin group used social media to create impression of th products
in the mind of its consumers. Also, its USP is to use creative presentation to entice its customers.
IV. Explain the relationships of the marketing functions to other functional areas in organisations
Marketing department interrelated with the other functional departments in the
organisation. Marketing department makes existence in the organisation to develop the strategies
which runs in the organisation. Marketing department relates with the many departments in The
Virgin group. The functional areas are following-
Production department relates to marketing department- In Virgin group organisation both
departments are linked with each other. Marketing department plays major role in the
organisation. Research and development is planned to satisfy the customer and their needs.
Marketing department sets the deadline for the production department. In the limited time period
the operational department has to follow the guidelines principles which made by the marketing
department. Marketers will wish to get produce the competitive advantage. The volume of the

products set by the marketing department and production department works on it (Hakansson,
2015). Marketing department provide information regarding needs and demands of customers to
production department so that products and services are produce accordingly.
They both are in cross functional relationship. They work on the same project with same team
members.
Marketing and sales department- Sales and marketing department interrelated with each other.
They both are in close link with each other. Sales department works in the market to sale the
product and they have to follow the guideline of the marketing department. Marketing
department sets the rules and guidelines for them for their better performance in the market.
Through market research, segmenting and targeting the marketing department set the areas
where the sales department has to go for sale and to attract customers. In The Virgin group the
marketing and sales department work together because they are closely linked with each other.
Marketing and human resource department- The marketing department need to work closely
with the human resource department for better running of organisation. (Papadopoulos and
Heslop, 2014). HR department create plan for the new product development and innovation and
the marketing departmnt works on their idea of an innovation. In recruitment and selection
process the human resource department recruit the employees who are able to achieve the sales
target.
Finance and marketing department- In Virgin group the marketing and finance department
work with each other for achieving the target. Marketing department have work of advertising,
promotion, market research etc. and these all things needed the money and finance department
helps in it. The marketing department focuses on sales volume and building market share and
the finance department focuses on cash flows, covering costs etc. It is very important thing to
run the business smoothly. Marketing department approach to the many ideas and innovations
and the innovations are new and unique. So if the marketing department want to establish that
particular idea or innovation they need the money. After that they work for it and this thing will
give the organisation profitability. Finance department allocate budget to marketing department
so that its all the activities can be carry out in proper way.

Customer service department and marketing department- They both department linked with
each other. The work of customer service department is to provide the best service to the
customer. Marketing department works for customer satisfaction and to understand the market in
which they run the organisation. Marketing department understand the need and wants of the
customer and try to satisfy them. On the other hand the customer service department works for
provide better service to the customers. They both departments work in the same manner. The
main aim of any organisation is to satisfy the customer and they both department directly or
indirectly works with the same manner. Customer service department also do research for that
how to satisfy the customer and marketing department also work for the same.(Cadogan, 2014).
For example: Marketing department convey information of needs and demands of customers to
customer service department which enables it to provide services accordingly.
Cross functional relationship- These all departments are in cross functional relationship with
the marketing department. They have different team with different members but the project is
same. They all work for same target and same goal but having different members. Without each
other they are nothing in the organisation because cooperation of these all make the organisation
profitable.
CONCLUSION
The above report explores different methods and principles of marketing that helps the
organisation in being a market leader. It emphasises on the points from which the organisation
has created a strategic framework with the motive of standing out from the crowd that is
prevailing in the industry. The report lays further emphasis on the ways of segmentation;
targeting and positioning of the product in different manner. From the above assignment it has
been concluded that, the various ways an organisation has adopted various techniques and
methods of branding its product. And also on the promotional strategies that help the Virgin
Group in reaching to its target customers and occupying a large market share. Finally, the report
ends up by concluding the concepts and the principles of marketing.