The main barriers to marketing planning
Businesses face several challenges when planning their marketing activities. One of them is the necessity to estimate the demand for their products or services. This task is particularly important for airline companies like Virgin Atlantic Airways. In particular, they have to determine the approximate number of flights to a certain country, city, or region. So, the management should know how many people will be willing to travel to these locations. Nevertheless, the behavior of clients can be dependent on the political, environmental, or economic situation in a country or a group of countries (Ireland 12). For example, the Egyptian Revolution that took place in 2011 reduced the flow of tourists into the country. Additionally, the eruption of the volcano in Iceland resulted in significant losses for many companies. Such events can hardly be predicted. Moreover, they can diminish the revenues of many airline companies, even when these organizations adhere to the highest performance standards. Apart from that, they can be significantly affected by economic crises that can greatly decrease the purchasing power of many people. So, they may be reluctant to travel by air. These are the main challenges that these organizations can face when planning their marketing activities. Overall, these examples show that managers should pay close attention to risk assessment. They should accept the idea that the external environment can profoundly affect their performance.
The ways of overcoming these barriers
Airline companies should adopt several strategies to overcome the challenges described in the previous section. First of all, these organizations should make sure that their services can be purchased by people of various incomes. In this way, they can ensure that their services appeal to a greater number of clients. It should be noted that Virgin Atlantic Airways pursues a flexible pricing policy; for example, the tickets that they sell have six price categories that can suit people who may not have the same purchasing power (Virgin Atlantic Airways unpaged). This policy is one of the main strengths of the organization, and it ensures that the company can better plan its marketing activities and become more sustainable at a time when many people have to overcome the effects of a global recession.
Furthermore, airline companies should increase the number of flights to different countries. This issue is of great importance to a company like Virgin Atlantic Airways. Currently, this organization operates between England and Canada, Asia, the United States, and Australia (Virgin Atlantic Airways unpaged). Nevertheless, they have no destinations in Europe and Latin America. So, to some degree, their marketing planning ability can be limited. So, the management of Virgin Atlantic Airways should respond to this question if they want to be less vulnerable. These actions are essential for improving the marketing activities of this organization.
The marketing plan for the services of Virgin Atlantic Airways
It is possible to distinguish several aspects of the marketing strategies that Virgin Atlantic Airways should adopt. In part, they are connected with the development of technologies. First of all, the company should make an offering to well-to-do customers who can afford to pay more money for the ticket. These clients can be interested in such things as in-flight Internet connection, a variety of meals and beverages, that a customer can order, and the efficiency of personnel. So, the advertisement of Virgin Atlantic Airways should emphasize the benefits that the company can offer to these clients.
The second important aspect of the plan is to set more stress on the flexible pricing policies of Virgin Atlantic Airways. As it has been noted before, the tickets sold by Virgin Atlantic Airways have six price categories (Virgin Atlantic Airways unpaged). The advertising campaigns should advertise the affordability of their services. In this way, they can gain the loyalty of many clients. This is another component of the marketing plan.
Additionally, it is important to mention that the company should increase the number of its destination. At this point, this organization operates only in the United Kingdom, Asia, North America, and Africa (Virgin Atlantic Airways unpaged). Their flights should be available in such European countries as Germany, France, England, Italy, and so forth. In this way, the company will make its the brand more recognizable.
Moreover, the management of Virgin Atlantic Airways should offer discounts to their regular customers. There are many residents of the United Kingdom, who prefer to travel to the United States, Japan, or other countries, and these clients often give preference to this corporation. Its management can gain their loyalty by offering a 15 percent discount to people who have used their services more than five times. In such a way, the management of the organization can attract price-sensitive clients. These are the main elements of the marketing plan that Virgin Atlantic Airways can develop. These actions can give the company over other firms.
The importance of marketing planning for strategic planning
So, marketing is an important part of a company’s strategic planning. It affects the products or services of the organization, its advertising campaigns, pricing policies, and so forth. In other words, marketing planning can shape a great number of business processes within an organization. It can also shape the financial performance of a company. This is why marketing planning is a critical element of a company’s strategies. Additionally, marketing planning is closely related to the goals that a corporation attempts to achieve. Marketing planning is aimed at explaining how these objectives can be achieved. This is why business administrators should not disregard this activity. Without it, the initiatives of the management can hardly be implemented.
The techniques for product development
It may be difficult for airline companies to introduce new services. Nevertheless, they can only add several innovations such as the availability of in-flight Internet connection or online distribution of tickets. Moreover, such organizations can increase the number of destinations where their customers can travel. In this way, Virgin Atlantic Airways can create extra value for their clients. These are some of the techniques that companies can adopt to differentiate their services among others. Additionally, they can achieve these goals by adopting well-developed pricing policies. In this way, they make their services more available to middle-income clients who are normally more price-sensitive. These are the main ways in which airline companies can develop and improve their services. By adopting these techniques, these businesses can become more competitive. To a great extent, these practices are quite applicable to Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Justification of recommendations
The marketing plan described in the previous section contains such elements as pricing, communication mix, and distribution. One of the main issues mentioned before is the flexible pricing policies of the organization. Only in this way, airline companies can make themselves more sustainable, especially at a time when the purchasing power of customers can decline. Similarly, the management of Virgin Atlantic Airways should continue the policy according to which the price of the ticket has six levels of categories (Virgin Atlantic Airways unpaged). The second element is the distribution of services. One of the recommendations proposed in this paper is to make sure that the services of the company are available in different European countries. This step is necessary for attracting more customers who may be interested in finding a good airline company. The quality of services offered by Virgin Atlantic Airways can be of great benefit to them.
Another element that one should mention is communication with clients. Special attention should be paid to how the company explains the advantages of its services. The main suggestion put forward in this paper is that Virgin Atlantic Airways should lay stress on such benefits as the quality of its services and the flexibility of their pricing policies. So, these are the main recommendations that the leaders of Virgin Atlantic Airways may consider to become more sustainable.
The factors affecting the implementation of the plan
It is possible to distinguish several forces that can affect the implementation of the plan. First of all, one should speak about external forces such as the purchasing power of the population. This problem is greatly relevant nowadays when people are strongly influenced by the economic recession. This risk has been addressed by Virgin Atlantic airways through the adoption of pricing policies that suit people who have different annual incomes. Secondly, the management of Virgin Atlantic Airways should be aware of the practices adopted by their competitors. The company can gain a competitive advantage by offering good training to the personnel and expanding its services. Secondly, external risks can be managed by increasing the number of locations where the company operates. So, this diversity of services and destinations is crucial for the implementation of the plan.
The influence of ethical issues on marketing planning
Ethics should be an inherent part of the marketing activities that a company carries out and it can profoundly affect the marketing planning of many businesses. Every organization should make sure that it takes into account the interests of stakeholders, in particular, customers, employees, stockholders, environmental organizations, and so forth. Without this approach, an organization may become less competitive. For-profit organizations must demonstrate that they care about the community. To illustrate this point, one may look at Virgin Atlantic Airways. They should focus on such aspects as the safety of passengers and appropriate compensation of employees. These are the main stakeholders of this company. The management of this airline company must demonstrate that they take every precaution to ensure the safety of clients; in this case, one can speak about the regular monitoring of jets and assessment of employees’ skills. This organization has to invest in its infrastructure and the development of employees’ skills. These activities are very costly, and managers have to find ways of covering these costs. Sometimes, it is done by increasing the price of a ticket. This example shows that ethical constraints can restrict the marketing strategies of an airline company.
Ways of responding to ethical issues
Companies should immediately respond to ethical issues. As it has been said before, the management of Virgin Atlantic Airways should pay close attention to the monitoring of its jets, especially their safety. Even if there is the slightest suspicion that the safety of passengers is imperiled, the management should immediately respond to this threat. Secondly, these people have to focus on the compensation of their employees because they play a crucial role in promoting the best interests of clients. For example, they must eradicate every form of discrimination against a worker. By addressing such problems as quickly as possible companies can demonstrate their corporate social responsibility and gain the loyalty of clients. These are some of the steps that business administrators should take.
Consumer Ethics
The ethical issues that have been described in the previous sections should not be regarded only as some moral obligations that a company imposes on itself. The main issue is that customers pay much attention to the practices of for-profit organizations and their policies regarding employees, clients. So, they can choose the products or services of companies that genuinely care about the community. Such behavior is particularly typical of well-to-do clients who are not very price-sensitive. Thus, the ethical responsibility of companies is important for the retention of clients. These individuals may be reluctant to use the services of an airline company if they know that this organization does not adequately compensate its employees. Again, ethical consumerism influences the marketing activities of an organization, for instance, its pricing policies.
Works Cited
Ireland, Duane. Understanding Business Strategy: Concepts and Cases, New York: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
Virgin Atlantic Airways.Book flights, hotels, and more. 2012. Web.