The Marketing and Communications Strategy of a British Airways - Case Study Example

British Airways Contents British Airways Contents 2 Introduction 3 Company Overview 3 Marketing of British Airways: An overview 4 Product 4 Pricing5 Place 5 SWOT Analysis of British Airways 6 Over All communication Strategy 7 ‘To Fly. To Serve’ Campaign 7 Taking Risks in London Olympics 8 Loosening Up through Social Media 9 Benefits of Social Media Presence 9 Strategy for engagement on social media 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Marketing is not a new word but, it brings new feelings each time it is used. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the concept of marketing mix to create exchange of goods/ services/ideas that satisfy consumer demand and achieve organizational objectives. A company may have a great product, but the product may taste success in the market, if it is not marketed properly. Therefore one of the most important element of the marketing is the communication or promotion; along with the other elements such as product, price and place. Communication is a unique tool used by marketers in attempt persuades to target audience to act in a desired manner. The study looks to focus on the marketing and communications strategy of a British Airways. Over the course of the study marketing and strategic concepts such as the 4 P’s of marketing, SWOT analysis, Integrated Marketing Communication has been used. An overview of the marketing mix of the company has been provided. However, the study looks to focus on advertisement, and public relations strategy of the company. Also the social media marketing strategy of the company has been discusses as social media has emerged as a potent marketing and communications platform (Belch and Michael, 2005, p. 105). Company Overview British Airways happens to be the largest airline in the UK. The company sot privatized in the year 1987. The company provides international and domestic carriage for mail, freight and ancillary services. In association with the franchisee partners and code share the company flies to over three hundred destinations. The company earnings are more than £10 billion in revenue. The airline has carried more than 35 million passengers and has more than 42,000 employees. Marketing of British Airways: An overview Marketing mix is a set of elements which the company can control or manage to its advantage for marketing purpose. Neil Borden termed these manipulate elements as the ‘Marketing Mix’. The key elements of the marketing mix are product, place, price and promotion. The most integral part of the exchange process, without which there is no scope of marketing product covers the term both goods & services. To sell the product in the market the company must fix a price. Pricing of the product particularly pricing as compared to the competitors is a vital part of the marketing. This part of the marketing mix is all about distribution of the products. The company must select the channels of distribution carefully to minimize distribution cost & get competitive advantage. The distribution network of the company includes wholesalers, retailers, franchisees, agents etc. Promotion is used by the marketers to generate demand for a product. Mainly the companies use the promotional mix to promote the product. The elements of the promotional mix are: advertisement, sales Promotion, public relation, personal selling, and direct marketing. The promotional mix happens to the core area of interest of the study. Among the elements of the promotional mix advertisement, sales promotion, public relations would be given special emphasis (Henry, 2008, p. 98). Product To be precise, British airways offers services, i.e. flights across different nations. The main USP of the product strategy is the quality of flights. The company has always been known for esteemed services targeted towards the executive and business class. Pricing The pricing strategy has been derived by the company is such a way so that the consumers may book the seats based on their choice and budgets. For example, there may be some customers paying £100 to buy a ticket to fly from one destination to the other. However, there may be another set of customers willing to pay £400 for the same destination to get additional value added products Place One of the main reasons for the expansion of the company has been franchising. The company has been able to reach out to many customers through the franchisees. Also the there are travel agents selling tickets to the customers. However, off-late the company is trying to achieve forward integration, as there seems to a constant effort on the part of the company to reach out to the end users directly. The company has started selling tickets to the customer through the telephone. Also the customers are able to buy tickets over the online medium. One of the key courses of concerns on relying too much on the intermediaries is the control factor. May be the company wants to lay out a balanced distribution mechanism to keep a firm grip on things. Strengths Strong Brand Image Presence of partnerships and strategic alliances Usage of Terminal 5 Weaknesses History Poor employee relations Some customers perceived the company as stubborn due to poor employee relations Loss of reliability due to poor bag handling issues Opportunities Emergence of new market Exit of some competitors duet o losses incurred during recession Threats Open Sky Agreement Volatile economic condition Low Cost Competition may lead to price war SWOT Analysis of British Airways Over All communication Strategy British Airways had a rough couple of years. Due to the economic downturn the company had incurred a huge loss of £500m. The company also saw a fall in passenger number due to the strike by the cabin crews. Many people even tagged the company as being arrogant. As a matter fact a catch phrase started saying ABBA, i.e. Anyone But British Airways. Therefore it was about time that the company started a fight back. The best way to redefine the corporate image of any company is probably through marketing and communications. Probably that was the reason the company hired Mr. Frank van der Post in the beginning of 2011. And to be real honest that proved to be a game changer. Under the leadership of Mr. Frank van der Post the company started a new advertisement campaign to revive the image (Cowan, 2005, p. 121). ‘To Fly. To Serve’ Campaign This was the first step of the brand revival strategy of the company. The company decided to launch a new advertisement using the tag line to the company ‘TO Fly. To serve’. The 90 second advertisement was launched to pay tribute to the history of the British Airways. The ad showed respect to the really aviators and also showed how the modern pilots followed them. Along with the ad the company also announced a five year plan to invest £5bn on customer experience. This included improved catering services as well as addition of new aircrafts. The TV commercial did incredibly well. In presented a humble and caring image of the airlines in front of the audience removing the perception that British Airways is arrogant. Taking Risks in London Olympics British Airways was tier one sponsor of the London Olympics. Van der Post and his team wanted to carry on with the momentum from the previous campaign and decided to take some risks. The company came with a campaign called ‘Don’t Fly’. Through the campaign the company insisted the fellow Englishmen to stay at home and support the team. This positioned a patriotic and socially responsible image of the company in the minds of the consumers. The company also provided new fir fly planes that brought the famous Olympic flame to UK. (Kolb, 2008, p. 78). Loosening Up through Social Media Van der Post felt that as a brand British Airways needed to be a bit more relaxed as it may help the company to go become main stream. The main objective of the idea was to target and reach out to a wider range of audiences. In other ways the brand wanted gets social. The best way to do so is undoubtedly through social media marketing as it provides a great platform for the company to engage with the users on a personal level. Mainly the company used Facebook and Twitter to engage people. Benefits of Social Media Presence Departments involved on Social Media PR & Customer service: Relates to core customer needs. However, situation may shoot up if not handled well. General feedback: Consumer-generated opinions on a public medium. The response of the company effects customer perception of brand Quick questions: Similar to those handled by call centres. However, some of these questions only need short replies (Anderson, 2006, p. 201). Strategy for engagement on social media Facebook for PR & Marketing: Engage via interesting and relevant content and getting the feedback of the users. Twitter for PR & Customer service: Main focus is on customer service and to maintain healthy brand image. Conclusion Marketing and Communication is an integral part of any business strategy. This can be used to create brand awareness among the consumers. Also marketing and communication can be used by the companies to revive the brand image. The above analysis is a description of the later. The image of the British Airways was hampered by the poor employee’s relations. However, it can be seen that how the creative and interactive marketing and communication strategy has helped the company to revive the brand image. Use of social media has also helped the company the shed away the more serious outlook and present a more contemporary relaxed outlook. This has helped the company to reach out to new target segments. References Henry, A. 2008. Understanding Strategic Management. Oxford University Press: UK Kolb, B. 2008. Marketing Research: A Practical Approach. Sage: UK. Cowan, A. 2005. Risk Analysis And Evaluation. Global Professional Publishing: UK. Belch, G and Michael, G. 2005. Advertising &Promotion-An Integrated marketing Communications Perspective. Tata McGraw-Hill: UK. Anderson, R. 2006. Social Marketing in 21st Century. Sage: UK. Read More