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Introduction
The Marketing Mix of British Airways will be presented in this report. Marketing mix refers to the actions that an organization do in order to promote its brand in a targeted market and increase sales (Mintz, and Currim, 2013). In this report, the marketing mix of British Airways has been evaluated. British Airways is the second largest airline in the UK on the basis of its fleet size. The fleet size of the airline is 278 (Plane Spotters Net, 2020). It is headquartered at Waterside, Harmondsworth, UK (Airline Transport World, 2020). The revenue of British Airways is £13,020 million and its net income is £1,952 million (International Airlines Group, 2020). It has approximately 45,000 employees, including 16,500 cabin crew and 3,900 pilots (Media Centre, 2019).
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Marketing Mix of British Airways
Marketing Mix:
Marketing mix refers to the set of marketing tools such as price, product, promotion, place, processes, physical evidence and people that are used by companies to fulfil their marketing objective within their targeted market (Gordon, 2012). A marketing mix helps organizations to allocate their resources and responsibilities, facilitate the communication processes, analyse cost-benefit elasticity, etcetera. The marketing mix of British Airways has been demonstrated below:
Product
Product refers to the item which has been produced to gratify the demand of customers’ (Huang, and Sarigöllü, 2014). British Airways delivers the best services to their customers with their product line which makes customers highly satisfied. British Airways has more than 278 aircraft by which they deliver first-class services to customers and make them gratified (Plane Spotters Net, 2020). Cabin crews and all members of the company ensure that the demand of every customer is fulfilled by them and the quality of the services must be good. British Airways provides tickets at affordable prices customers and of all types can afford their services. Customers can reach their destination with the reasonable services of British Airways, and it increases the sales of their tickets. The company makes its flight schedule carefully and covers the important destinations of the world. It is the other reason for the high customer satisfaction with the company. British Airways delivers fresh, hot and healthy foods on their flights which are good for health and customers’ can enjoy their meals on the flight with full gratification. Customers can watch television, read magazines, see movies, and listen to radio channels to entertain themselves during their journey and British Airways provides all these facilities to their customers. As a result, customers can enjoy their flights properly, and it maintains repeatable sales of the company.
Price
Price indicates the value or amount of money that customers pay in order to purchase products or services (Singh, 2012). British Airways sets the price of its services by considering the financial stability of its targeted customers and provides tickets of all ranges. Therefore, customers can afford the tickets of company, and it increases their sales more and more. Customers purchase tickets for their financial stability and can add different services of their choice according to the amount of their spending. British Airways makes sure about the equivalent pricing policy because they consider customers’ as the most dominant stakeholder of the company. Customers do not need to pay any additional cost while purchasing tickets and purchase with the base rates. It has kept the economy pricing approach for customers with lower budgets. Medium-value pricing approach is made for customers who need more facilities, and premium pricing is made for those who demand high-class additional facilities.
Promotion
Promotion is a way of boosting a brand’s recognition and sales (Leonidou, Katsikeas, and Morgan, 2013). British Airways promotes enormously and follow different ways to do promotion. It provides different kinds of vouchers and discounted coupons for the customers which attract customers greatly toward their services. Even they offer discount voucher codes to customers who are not club members. The company offer many reward and benefits to the holiday packages both long and short packages. In that case, customers have to stay in the selected hotels that have been selected by British Airways. British Airways uses billboards, TV advertisements and newspapers to advertise its services by using sophisticated messages that highlight its services.
Place
Products should be distributed in a place which is accessible to the targeted customers (Kim, and Hyun, 2011). British Airways has a great presence across the world therefore, the company get so many customers every day. It covers more than 400 destinations across the world which refers to its enormous presence in the world (Research Methodology, 2016). Customers can buy their tickets from sales agents and other intermediaries furthermore, they have an online service. The online ticket service of the company increases its sales. Customers get 72 hours to pay the number of their tickets (Research Methodology, 2016).
Processes
Systems and processes of a company such as: a pay system, distribution system, sales funnel etcetera influence the operations of the services (Fan, Lau, and Zhao, 2015). The Process of British Airways starts with ticket booking and goes through many phases such as: arriving at the airport, board a pass, checking in the luggage, entering in flight etcetera. It has e-ticketing for which customers can book tickets within one minute. British Airlines Holiday has nine types of holiday packages from which customers can choose the package of their choice. The cargo service of BA provides delivery service of perishable goods, pets, scheduled services, etcetera.
People
One of the most important factors is hiring and training the right people in organizations to ensure the delivery of better products and services (Luan, and Sudhir, 2010). CEO of BA is Willie Walsh and he is the head of the management teams. The management board consists of sales and marketing, customer, finance, strategy and engineering units. BA has 45,000 employees, including 16,500 cabin crew and 3,900 pilots (Media Centre, 2019). The pilots were appointed after taking tough tests, and they proved themselves in the tests. The cabin crews of BA have been appointed from top hospitality institutes, and the company trained them properly in order to ensure the best services for customers.
Physical evidence
Physical evidence refers to the presence of a brand in customers’ minds (Pomering, Noble, and Johnson, 2011). The design of the cabin, the interior design of the flight, the attendants on the flight, the sophistication of the symbol of BA, etcetera are the physical evidence of the company. British Airways has boosted customers’ experience by providing different types of facilities such as discount coupons, holiday packs, tickets of every range, great food on flights, entertainment facilities on flights etcetera. As a result, the company has become able to create an outstanding image of itself in customers’ minds. Customers who have experienced the services of BA will think of the name BA while thinking about the airline industry of the UK.
Conclusion
British Airways is one of the largest airlines in the world, and it covers so many international destinations. The marketing mix of the company has shown the price, promotion, place, product, processes, physical evidence and people strategy of the company. It provides the best service at an affordable price and covers many destinations which is the key reason of its huge customer base. It uses television advertisements, newspapers and billboards to promote its brand and customers get attracted to its services. BA appoints expert pilots after taking tough tastes and their cabin crews from top hospitality institutes that ensure the delivery of the best services to the customers.
References
Airline Transport World, 2020. British Airways aims to mitigate strike effect. Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20170112132630/http://atwonline.com/labor/british-airways-aims-mitigate-strike-effect. [Assessed on: 5 March 2020]
Fan, S., Lau, R.Y. and Zhao, J.L., 2015. Demystifying big data analytics for business intelligence through the lens of marketing mix. Big Data Research.
Gordon, R., 2012. Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ).
Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E., 2014. How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors. Springer, New York, NY.
International Airlines Group, 2020. Welcome to the IAG Report 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.iairgroup.com/~/media/Files/I/IAG/documents/annual-report-and-accounts-2018-interactive.pdf. [Assessed on: 5 March 2020]
Kim, J.H. and Hyun, Y.J., 2011. A model to investigate the influence of marketing-mix efforts and corporate image on brand equity in the IT software sector. Industrial marketing management.
Leonidou, C.N., Katsikeas, C.S. and Morgan, N.A., 2013. “Greening” the marketing mix: Do firms do it and does it pay off?. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Luan, Y.J. and Sudhir, K., 2010. Forecasting marketing-mix responsiveness for new products. Journal of Marketing Research.
Media Centre, 2019. RITISH AIRWAYS FACTSHEET. Retrieved from: https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/factsheets/details/86/Factsheets-3/33. [Assessed on: 5 March 2020]
Plane Spotters Net, 2020. British Airways Fleet Details and History. Retrieved from: https://www.planespotters.net/airline/British-Airways. [Assessed on: 5 March 2020]
Research Methodology, 2016. British Airways 7Ps of Marketing. Retrieved from: https://research-methodology.net/british-airways-7ps-of-marketing/. [Assessed on: 6 March 2020]
Singh, M., 2012. Marketing mix of 4P’s for competitive advantage. IOSR Journal of Business and Management.