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MARKETING PLAN
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A MARKETING PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
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This marketing plan belongs to Virgin Atlantic which is a medium size private
organization that provides airline services to people. The need to come up with the marketing
plan is to curb the difficuties that small sized private copmanies encounter when planing,
producing and implementing a marketing plan. Promotion of growth and attracting new
customers are the main reasons behind the marketing plan. The plan has been produced for 35 year period to improve the future of the business. Virgin Atlantic saw the need to improve
and expand the airline services offered in the country, ensuring that quality, faster and
convenient services are guaranteed to the customers.
For the last 10 years, the market has enjoyed the benefits of quality services from
Virgin Atlantic making the organization among the leading airline companies. Growth in the
economy and improvement in socio-economic status has favoured the organization because
many people have afforded travelling by air. Virgin Atlantic mission is to be the leading
airline service provider in the UK and the world at large. Marketing has played a significant
role in promoting the organization for the last ten years that it has been in existence. It has
opened u more doors and attracted many customers who have been maintained increasing the
number by a large percentage. There has been a lot of completion from British American
Airline but the organization has responded positively by ensuring they offer quality services
to the customers and giving discounts to maintain them and attract more (Gospe 2008, p. 19).
Marketing has played a key role in familiarizing people about the organization and bringing in
more customers across the nations.
Executive Summary
Virgin Atlantic is a medium sized airline organization that has been in existence for the last
10 years and has maintained a steady growth throughout the years. This has been maintained
by the innovativeness in the organization and offerring of quality services to the customers.
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This has also been faced with challenges of the slow economic growth in the country but it
has emerged victorious. It has developed a strategic marketing development divided into
smaller segments to facilitate its growth in the global market. Marketing mix activities have
been proposed over the 3-5 years to achieve the marketing objectives.
Marketing objectives
Virgin Atlantic has corporate objectives that will enable the organization evaluate if the goals
are achieved within the stipulated time.
 The organization aim at increasing the total sales turnover by 40% in the first two
years to make sure the growth is tangible and worthwhile.
 They want to reduce the debt ratio by 5% per annum in the next five years to stablize
the growth development.
 To increase the market shares by 11% in UK by the end of 2013.
 To raise awareness of a differentiated brand positioning by end of the third year.
 To increase distribution channels by 15% in UK by end of 2014.
 To increase sales revenue from existing products by 25% in UK by first quarter of
2014.
 Generate 10% of sales from non-UK and Europeans markets by the end of 2013 and
increase this by 20% by the end of five years.
 Over five years achieve 90% brand awareness of Virgin Atlantic in its customer
service segments in the UK and Europe and 60% in its business-to-business and
professional markets.
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Strategic Marketing
Target Markets
Virgin Atlantic targets the local customers and it has an objective of growing outside UK and
offer their airline services to more people across the world. There are several local stations in
the airports where their services are rendered but they aim at increasing this by opening more
offices where their services can be offered. The main target for Virgin Atlantic is the working
and business class who make frequent trips and prefer using the air in the UK (Yarmosh 2010,
p. 41). In the less developed countries, discounts will be offered to attract and encourage
more people to use the Virgin Atlantic airline for quality, faster and convinient travelling. The
organization will target businesspeople who will be travelling frequently maintaining the flow
of the services. There will be different services to cater for every class of people to thravel
with the airline.
Competitive Advantage
The advantage of Virgin Atlantic airline lie in its reliable, practical,quality and inclusive
offering to specific gruoup of people with specific requirements in delivering their services.
The added value of the quality services offered by the organization to the target customers
enable it to charge medium- high prices compared to low-cost alternatives airlines available in
the market (Stevens 2006, p. 21). Virgin Atlantic looks forward to expanding overseas so that
their services both the existing and new ones can be enjoyed by many people and it be known
internationally.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Virgin Atlantic aims at dividing the total market into smaller segments to improve the
delivery of services. This will enable more people to have the access of the quality airline
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services that the organization offers.The selected segments will be able to create value for the
targeted customers of the airline (McDonald 2008, p. 58). Positioning the mind of the targeted
customers will increase the number in a significant way. Differenciation creates a strong
customer vallue because the customers are able to choose and make sound decisions about the
services availale in the market. Virgin Atlantic will offer quality airline services to the
customers to ensure they are comfortable and happy about them thus will be able to come
back again and travel with the airline again.
Through this the organization will have worn a good position in the customer market
that is good for the business. Icreasing the number of handling of customers in the airports
and providing car hires and internet to the customers will increase the positioning of the
organization.This will play a key role in the market place because existing products will be
improved by new ones leading to market development. Strategic marketing and STP are
appropriate for Virgin Atlantic organization because they help in improving the means of
offering services to the customers by giving a clear view of the market place, and helps in
advancing the means of rendering the services to the customers to be able to compete with
well established airlines like the British American Airline. They are able to establish the
strategies to use to attract new customers and maintain the existing ones at affordable prices
with improved quality services. Introduction of new airlines in the market will not pose a
great threat to the organization because they will be able to handle it accordingly and
overcome by use of exception services (Luther 2011, p. 41).
Marketing Mix
The marketing activities that support the strategies to achieve Virgin Atlantic objectives
include: price, products, communication channels, internal marketing and services. The mix
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of components utilised to achieve success requires planning and integration at various
organization levels in conjunction with stakeholders and partnership.
Services
Virgin Atlantic has a range of services to offer to the customers and this varies from one
customer to the other locally and internationally due to different preferences. The organization
will ensure customer satisfaction in the service being rendered. They range from 1st class
travel services, business and common travel services. The services given will be quality by
well trained and qualified personnel to make sure that customers are satisfied and will
definitely come back.
Price
The price of the services will be different according to the level to support the differentiation
and innovative value added solution of Virgin Atlantic services offered. The mix of services
will be reflected in the actual context of the prices in service delivery. The services will be
priced to reflect the brands positioning against the competitor and it will reflect in the prices.
New services will also be priced based on penetration policy in the market for long term
growth.
Communication and Promotion
Virgin Atlantic will have to create awareness of the airline and this will be achieved through
integrated communication plan for both local and international customers. The plans include
push and pull communication, which will revolve around communication directly to the
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customers. The organization aims at achieving this communication by a launch of magazines
which will be distributed across and events that will familiarize people on the airline and the
services (Johnson 2004, p. 70). There will also be exhibitions where the organization will
showcase its services to the customers. The marketing manager will be in charge of the whole
marketing plan while the sales managers will be responsible for customer and sales related
issues.
Internal marketing
The staff within Virgin Atlantic will need to be aware of the mission and objectives of the
organization especially its innovation platform. Internal marketing communication
programme will be included in the marketing plan. This includes staff meetings, sales and
marketing recognition, rewards schemes, email updates and internal newsletters and
magazines.
Monitoring and Control
There will be set up systems to monitor the financial and non-financial performance, against
targets and regular reporting systems be introduced that will be directly through the marketing
managers, sales managers to the directors of Virgin Atlantic airline. Introduction of new
services in the market will be closely monitored and the movement in the market. This will
ensure that mistake is corrected and appropriate actions taken through the marketing mix. It
will also help in revising in case of an unplanned event to help enacting it.
Marketing Objectives
Virgin Atlantic wants to ensure that customers are satisfied by the services they offer to them
and maintain them as business partners to maintain a regular clientele. The organization aim
at increasing the profit margin by 20% and above for the first three years. There is a big
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volume of sales expected in the first quarter in the organization by ensuring that there are
more new customers. Market share value of the organization is expected to increase together
with the levels of service awareness.
Marketing Strategies
Virgin Atlantic targets the working and business class customers because they make frequent
travels and they will maintain stability in the business. The organization will compete with the
other airlines on the basis of quality and convenience of the services that they offer. Their
competitor British American Airline offers their services at a high price and they at times
discriminate against the Blacks and Asians (Stevens 2006, p. 25). The organization to have
the services rendered is the best that customers can get in the market.
Marketing Mix Programmes
The organization will use integrated marketing strategies in order to be able to achieve its
objectives. This will include partnering with other service providers to enhance the quality of
services. It will also look for stakeholders who can own part of the organization and help in its
development. Use of internal expertise will improve the marketing of the organization
because quality service will be guaranteed. Resources needed about the organization will be
made available like the newsletters and magazines containing the information that the
customers may need (Logan 2005, p. 87).
Implementation and Control
The scheduling of the organization activities will be set out in a detailed Gantt chart in line
with the achievements of the specified objectives. Human resource provides management
expertise to provide quality personnel to the company although they may be resistance to
change. There will be systems to be implemented to constantly control and evaluate the events
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in the organization (Beamish & Ashford 2005, p. 32). This will enhance smooth running of
the organization because any mistake that happens will be corrected in time and measures
taken to prevent it from happening again.
Supporting Documents
Previous SWOT Analysis plays an important role in determining the future of the
organization. The strength of this organization is that it offers quality airlines to all customers
irrespective of their background (Baker 2010, p. 60). It has a weakness of cash flow problem
of limited funds for development and investment in marketing plan. There is an opportunity of
long term growth in the organization and a threat of technological development by
competitors. Research information shows that there is a promising future for the organisation
together with the Gantt chart that shows the achievement of objectives.
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