Managing Successful Business: Digital Tech Impact on Virgin Holidays

This report examines how Virgin Holidays utilizes digital technology, particularly the Adobe campaign, to enhance its communication processes and marketing strategies. It assesses the impact of social media engagement, customer satisfaction initiatives, and profit generation efforts. The project plan covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality, risk, and resources, using a work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for project management. Research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, are applied to analyze data and provide recommendations for improved customer engagement and increased sales. The report also reflects on the value of the research in meeting objectives and improving learning and performance.

MANAGING SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS OF
THE VIRGIN HOLIDAYS
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Table of Contents
1.0 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................... 3
LO1............................................................................................................................................................................... 4
DEVISE PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES FOR A CHOSEN SCENARIO........................................4
PRODUCE A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN THAT COVERS ASPECTS OF COST, SCOPE,
TIME, QUALITY, COMMUNICATION, RISK AND RESOURCES..........................................................5
PRODUCE A WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE AND A GANTT CHART TO PROVIDE
TIMEFRAMES AND STAGES FOR COMPLETION................................................................................... 8
LO2............................................................................................................................................................................. 11
CARRY OUT SMALL-SCALE RESEARCH BY APPLYING QUALITATIVE AND
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS APPROPRIATE FOR MEETING PROJECT AIMS
AND OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................................................ 11
LO3............................................................................................................................................................................. 14
ANALYSE RESEARCH AND DATA USING APPROPRIATE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES.........14
COMMUNICATE APPROPRIATE RECOMMENDATIONS AS A RESULT OF RESEARCH AND
DATA ANALYSIS TO DRAW VALID AND MEANINGFUL CONCLUSIONS...................................23
LO4............................................................................................................................................................................. 24
REFLECT ON THE VALUE OF UNDERTAKING THE RESEARCH TO MEET STATED
OBJECTIVES AND OWN LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE.............................................................24
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................................................... 26
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................................... 27
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
Virgin Holidays is one of the UK’s topmost holiday company established in the year 1985.
The company works on the principles of the entrepreneurial spirits and passion towards
innovation among the customer and benefit communities around the world (Den Hertog, et
al. 2010). The use of the technology in the travel and tourism sector creates an exciting
opportunity for the business with disruptiveness. The holiday packages that are introduced
by the virgin holidays helps them to gain the information of the customer at every stage of
the sales cycle and it inspires them progressively.
Virgin Holidays traditional approach to communicate with the customers can often be
reached out with the help of most simple communication method i.e. transactional
messages, plain text emails from an outdated reservation engine. The revolutionary change
in the use of the digital technology named Adobe has aligned the organization to centralize
their channels and department with the single scalable solution (Opelt, et al. 2013). The
Marketing goals of the organization can put the customer experience with the centre of
everything they do.
The assignment focuses on the Adobe campaign of the virgin holidays which are
significantly posted on the social media for the purpose of the marketing of the
organization and develop a long-term strategy for the business. The exploration of the
creative campaign and reach out to the travellers with more engaging communication can
help the Virgin Holiday to consolidate the customers to pre-book to the holiday packages
and upgrade their experiences.
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LO1
DEVISE PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES FOR A CHOSEN SCENARIO
The customer services and aims that are targeted by the Virgin Holiday experiences to be
the most successful transatlantic tour operators and market leader for travel and tourism
in the other different regions of the world. The customer those who are passionate about
travelling finds the way of creating the best holiday packages across the world with the
help of virgin holiday. It can present the on-going way of dealing with the customer and
their specific requirements (Achtenhagen, et al. 2013). The aims and objective to carry out
the project for influencing the customers in order to increase their sales can be done
through their marketing campaign Adobe. The key aim of the study is to produce the
awareness in the people by attracting them towards the exciting offers. The use of the
social media can engage the people and connect them worldwide. The objectives of the
study are:
 Customer Satisfaction: To evaluate customer satisfaction by providing best
packages to their customer
 Effective Communication: To provide discounted offers to the customer those who
are using social media tools such as Facebook
 Profit Generation: To promote the campaign like Adobe campaign in order to
increase the sales of Virgin Holiday
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PRODUCE A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN THAT COVERS ASPECTS OF COST,
SCOPE, TIME, QUALITY, COMMUNICATION, RISK AND RESOURCES
The project plan covers different stages of the management which helps in identifying
scope, time, and communication, Quality, Risk and Resources of the organization. Digital
and social media has changed the way of performing the business activities. It has added
the stimulating economies and driven consumption with the most crystal clear way of
doing business (Gebauer, et al. 2010). The utilization of the Product life cycle helps in
optimizing the situation of the project. Following are the phases that are identified under
the PLC cycle are:
PROJECT IDENTIFICATION
The project covers working prospects of the Virgin holiday which utilizes Adobe Campaign
as the comprehensive method for adapting the change in the management activities and
promoting their services across the world.
PLANNING PHASE
The planning phase provides different measures of the project. They are:
 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT: The project helps in boosting the sales of the holiday
packages offered by the Virgin Holiday. It can also help in gaining the customer base
and generating revenue with the discounted offers (Achtenhagen, et al. 2013).
 IDENTIFICATION OF RESOURCES: The value proposition of the Virgin holidays is
enhanced with the help of the financial exposure from the revenue which is
generated. The human resources and intellectual property of the organization helps
in building the blocks and assets of the business. The fund collected from the
promotional events and revenue of the business along with the support of finance
banks tied up with the company is the major resource for boosting the performance
of the company (Achtenhagen, et al. 2013).
 SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT: The scheduling of the project helps in gaining the time
duration to complete the task of pre-booking of the customer holiday packages in
order to manage the sale in the peak business time.
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ACTIVITIES DAYS 1 2 3 4 5 6
INITIATE
PLAN
EXECUTE
CONTROLLING
CLOSE
 BUDGETING/COST: The financial statistic of the project can help in sustaining the
advantage of the business through the marketing or promotional activities. The
concept of the promotional selling helps in incurring the demand and supply of the
services (Gebauer, et al. 2010). The business can help in generate profit with the
attainment of the objectives within the fund provided to the project.
COST OF THE PROJECT IN MILLION
FIXED COST $246 MILLION
MATERIAL COST $15.99/ MONTH
CONFIDENTIAL DETAILS FOR THE RESEARCH
FROM OTHER SOURCES
$0.56
TOTAL BUDGET $ 438.44/ PER YEAR
Table 1: Cost Management
Source: Gebauer, et al. 2010
 RISK ANALYSIS: In case of the marketing, if the products or service that are offered
for the low prices are not provided to the customer at those effective prices which
were schedule can result in risk for the stakeholders and organizational planning
(Ahmed Dine Rabeh, et al. 2013). The promotional over social media is cost-effective
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but the data can be misused by the users and can present the negative aspect of the
business.
PERFORMANCE PHASE
The project budgeting was forecasted to $438.44 million per year but the actual cost for
promoting the Adobe campaign took around $546.12 million. This has subjected to risk
factors which are generally constructed in order to build up the resources within the time
duration. The evaluation of the use of the social media tools for effective promotion
requires proper strategy and stages to execute the plan. For example- the customers
receiving a personalized email as to book their appointment for the trip. The location and
data can guide them to the nearest retail office and can easily provide them 100% retail
appointment (Ahmed Dine Rabeh, et al. 2013).
The campaign encourages the people’s engagement in the outstanding the success with an
uplift market through the rates of 300%. The Virgin Holidays can send the email to the
customer with the local weather forecasts and sunny weather details for the vacation in
particular duration. The campaign can reach to the increase in the click-through rates by
67% and increase in the appointment to only 50% (Hull, et al. 2011). Further, the campaign
was also widely shared on the social media in order to increase the margin by 22% which
rose to 33% with the outstanding support from the customer and make the Adobe
campaign easy for the marketers as well as for customers.
CLOSURE PHASE
Virgin Holiday focuses on the Adobe campaign in order to provide the better view of
channels through which they enable the CRM team through which the direct measure of the
margin and revenue from the communications. The single campaign promoted with the
retail agent to call the customer to encourage a response. The customer experiences
enabled the organization to create different multi-touch communication point in order
leverage the huge amount of the personality (Den Hertog, et al. 2010). The travel market is
ever changing and increases the demand of the customer with the booked high-end holiday
services.
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PRODUCE A WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE AND A GANTT CHART TO
PROVIDE TIMEFRAMES AND STAGES FOR COMPLETION
The essential elements for the Virgin Holidays to transform the customer experience can be
based on creating a seamless experience with customer interaction on the holiday with the
return of the services. The Merkle helps in implementing the Adobe campaign for the Virgin
Holidays as to deliver the best possible way to attract a number of the travellers.
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
The work breakdown structure helps the team to sizable understood the implementation
of the phases of the campaign. The project, however, consolidates the flows of the Adobe
campaign into entire working day along with the technical specialist in the e-mail
campaign. The promotional activities are carried out in the form of posting the pamphlets
of the discounted offers and other survey experiences on the page on the Facebook or any
other social media sites (Drucker, 2012). The best possible way to communicate with the
customer is through pay per click advertisement directed with the links from the sidebar
on the social media sites.
Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure for Virgin Holiday
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Source: Higgins, et al. 2012
GANTT CHART
ACTIVITIES/
MONTHS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
INITIATION OF
PROJECT
ORGANISATIONAL
ALIGNMENT
FEASIBILITY
CHECK
CONSTRAINTS
HUMAN
RESOURCE
REQUIREMENTS
PROJECT
SCHEDULE
BUDGET
ESTIMATION
RISK
MANAGEMENT
ETHICAL AND
OTHER ISSUES
CHANGE IN
MANAGEMENT
ACTIVITIES
COMMUNICATION
MANAGEMENT
PRODUCTS AND
DELIVERABLES
APPROVALS AND
FINAL EXECUTION
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The Gantt chart helps in gaining the timeframes and stages of the project. The execution of
the project can be measured with the help of the stages pre-determined with the help of the
chart.
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LO2
CARRY OUT SMALL-SCALE RESEARCH BY APPLYING QUALITATIVE AND
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS APPROPRIATE FOR MEETING PROJECT
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
According to Scott et al. (2017), the impact of the digital technology has minimized the
traditional way of booking the travel measures. The marketing in the business is
particularly providing the wide array of inward flow of capital revenue, human capital and
skills along with the tourist and so on. The Virgin Holidays has utilized the Adobe
technology to promote the destination places and nature of the promotion means has
changed with this rapid invention.
By Ryan (2016), the e-Marketer report of 2015 has forecast that the UK would be the first
to become the topmost digital advertiser of the products and services. Virgin Holidays has
provided new heights to the digital advertising with the equated expenditure of 50% of the
total advertising on the Social media sites. The adoption of the mobile technologies has
rapidly attracted people towards the social media. It can be foreseen that the increase in
the advertising of the ratio of the social media platform like Facebook has provided
different stances on the business expenditure across the world.
According to the Virgin Holidays (2018), different technologies have been examined within
the Virgin Holidays for promoting their services. They are using the Twitter helps them to
track and manage their database of the multiple e-mail accounts from our Smartphone’s.
The Virgin Holidays has played an integral part in the company’s ongoing digital
transformation.
It has been experienced by Ginger Conlon (2014) that the changes from the digital
transformation have led to enhancement of the performance of the Virgin Holidays to 149
per-cents in the total attributed revenue from communication over the past three years.
The online holiday travel booking by the customer was increased with the help of the social
media promotions through which the ever-increasing demand of the customer has been
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