Company report and promotion plan - Essay Example

This report seeks to provide a competitive analysis of British Airways and create a promotional plan for the company. The promotional plan will include a marketing mix analysis, time plan, and a brief budget forecast for the expenses and revenues of the promotion. British Airways has several competitors offering the same services and which lie in the same operating area. However, the airline industry in the UK has five strategic categories, which include specialist, non-schedule, no frills, local, and mass service (Kotler, 2002:139).

British Airways falls in the mass service category, with other competitors such as Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, KLM, and Air France. No frills airline includes Ryan Air and Easy Jet, while non-schedule airline include Thomson. In local airlines, there is BMI and Palm Air in the specialist category (Bucks, 2010). The other four categories do not offer stiff competition compared to the mass service strategic group. British Airways’ main competition comes from serious contenders, who include Virgin Atlantic and United Airlines incorporated in the Star alliance that is controlling BMI.

Despite not being in the same strategic category, no-frills airlines are a significant challenge to the British Airways, especially due to their low cost fares (Kotler, 2002:134). In addition, the recent sharp increase in oil prices and the economic downturn has led to a war price between the three major airlines plying the London Dubai route, British Airways, emirates, and Virgin Atlantic. Consequently, fare prices have gone down by almost thirty percent, which indicates that competition is still fierce.

The marketing mix, or the 4Ps, is a marketing business tool used for determining the selling point of products and services. This analyzes the current marketing mix of British Airways, emphasizing on the price, product, and promotion elements. The report neglects the place