Introduction
The present world of the business market is very competitive. Businesses need to be innovative to win demands. So they plan different marketing techniques by understanding the market through market research. In the unit, Virgin Atlantic Airways was used to describe various situations of marketing. Virgin Atlantic Airways is a UK based global airline business.
1.1 describe how marketing techniques are used to market products in two organisations
Comparison of marketing techniques
The marketing techniques of famous UK based airline business Virgin Atlantic Airways and another small, fast food business based in London ‘Foodies’ will be compared. Both companies have different business strengths and significant differences in reputation and goodwill. So they also differ in marketing strategy (Zaman and Qureshi 1-11, 2014).
For marketing foodies mostly use flyers and posters in the local area. Virgin Atlantic Airways operates a billboard, newspaper, television advertisements and internet marketing. Foodies also use internet marketing. But their attempt is limited only to the local sites. Value addition is a strategy followed by both businesses. Where Virgin Atlantic Airways operates mass marketing, Foodies find undercover marketing more profitable and cost-saving. Seasonal marketing is another strategy followed by Virgin Atlantic Airways in tourism (Young, 2011). But Foodies find all the seasons similarly effective for business. Direct marketing is preferable and effective for foodies, but indirect and mass marketing is more effective and cost-saving for Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Evaluation of effectiveness
Virgin Atlantic Airways needs to attract national and international customers. Besides keeping customers loyal, they also need to get more and more passengers to expand businesses. Tourism seasons vary in different countries. Virgin Atlantic Airways needs to promote its airline in those seasons. They cannot go to consumers one by one for their large numbers. So they must use mass marketing for greater effectiveness and target more (Reardon, 2016). Where foodies can effectively use their strategies in a small area, Virgin Atlantic Airways need to do the same in vast regions. So they cannot use a similar method. They use a more extensive form that will be cost-effective and bring more customers. But value addition is a technique that needs more cost but keeps customers loyal. On the other hand, the poster technique of foodies is nearly impossible for Virgin Atlantic Airways.
1.2 describe the limitations and constraints of marketing
Few factors will obstruct businesses on their way to freely market their products. The elements are primarily rules from the government and other ruling organisations, and some also originate from the ethical ground.
Limitations and constraints from ruling organisations are discussed first.
The sale of goods acts 1979 primarily ensures quality and safe products for the consumers. The law provides consumers’ right to get their products as promised. The law limits businesses to enlighten their products highly over reality. The law also compels companies to stay on track to maintain safety and quality. It is a limitation for businesses as they are obliged to spend more on products (Dubois, 2016).
The trade description act is another similar act that ensures the accurate description of products. Products must not be described untruthfully. In addition, the act limits businesses their ability to make their products more attractive than they are.
Consumer protection from unfair trading regulations acts 2008 is an act to protect consumers from dishonesty and lying to businesses for their profit. A lie like the early closure of business hours will compel consumers to buy fast and early. Such lying is prohibited by law.
Data Protection Act 1998 helps consumers and restricts businesses to misuse any consumer data. In addition, the law prohibits companies from misusing consumer information for business purposes.
There are more acts like the distance selling act; consumer credit acts 1974 & 2006 are also available to protect consumer rights and limit free but fraudulent marketing.
Some constraints are voluntary but followed by businesses for their sake. Companies need to use acceptable languages and cannot go through all languages even if they are more valuable. The voluntary code of advertising is also another code to be maintained for personal business gain. The pressure groups and consumerism have some power to practice over business organisations to limit their businesses (Pousttchi and Wiedemann, 2010). In fear of these groups, companies need to be consumer-oriented and think about them first over profit.
2.1 describe how a selected organisation uses marketing research to contribute to the development of its marketing plans
Planning needs information. Any planning has two directions. They are; what to do and how to do it. To know what to do, one needs to understand why to do it. To understand how to do this, one needs to know what the available resource is—the answer to why and the availability of resources can be only found from market research. The development of the marketing plan of Virgin Atlantic Airways will be described here. The limitation and contribution of market research in the product will be analysed.
Limitations
Virgin Atlantic Airways uses market research before the expansion or introduction of any new business section. But it creates some limitations. Marketing researches are run on consumer behaviour and the business environment. But both of these two are changing continuously. The plan that will be created based on the information found from the research will be then ineffective with the changes of time. Marketing research is a kind of social science (Malhotra, 2010). It can only project a blurred image of the solution, not bring an exact answer. If the plan’s development is based on marketing research, the cost and time will increase (Chadwick 6-7, 2014). As market research is a matter of time and cost, it will ultimately add to planning, though it can help business planning. But the creative decision and the creating plan are out of reach for it.
Recommendations
Consumer behaviour and the environment cannot be controlled but may be predicted. The change of behaviour pattern and environment can also be researched. The results can be used in planning to create a dynamic plan for the future to react to a changing situation. Marketing research cannot provide a solution. Is it necessary to provide a solution? Solution providing is a human thing. Marketing research is just giving multiple options. So the limitation can just be ignored. In order to reduce cost and time, research should be done to the point. Despite extensive research, research on only the necessary information will save both time and money. For example, Virgin Atlantic Airways recently completed a study on tourist’s choice. Despite researching overall civilians, they analysed over the only clients of different tourism organisations.
2.2 use marketing research for marketing planning
At the first step of marketing planning, a situation analysis is run. In the situation analysis, the strength and weaknesses of Virgin Atlantic Airways are analysed. The analysis information comes from market research. Next, Virgin Atlantic Airways finds their target audience for their new expansion of business. The most profitable and lucrative audience is also selected using market research. In the third step, goals for the organisation are chosen. Virgin Atlantic Airways needs to present market conditions, competition, economic situation, and many other things to consider for setting goals. For consideration, information has its highest value. All this information comes from market research. At the final step of marketing, a planning budget is set. In order to set a budget cost of different products, logistics cost, labour cost and operational expenses need to be known (McDonald, 2011). In order to understand all these, marketing research plays an essential role in this way. The study helps Virgin Atlantic Airways get information for planning, and information has the highest value in modern business purposes.
3. explain how and why groups of customers are targeted for selected products
A consumer is an individual who uses a product or service. On the other hand, a customer is an individual or business that buys products or services. It may be used even for further sales.
Why
Groups of customers are targeted to satisfy them to the best. It is easier to serve a choice group than to suit all. It also helps businesses to add the correct value for customers. Products can be marketed easily using segmentation. Customers can be satisfied more with little cost in the way. As a result, businesses can keep customers loyal and make more profit. The profit of companies will be increased by the increment in customers and reduction of cost for targeting. Targeting also makes product distribution easier and makes retailers keep the proper inventory for the customer groups.
How
The target group of customers are created under multiple heads. For example, customers, groups can be divided according to geographic variables counting their location and area. They can also be segmented by their age, gender or ethnic groups. The process is called demographic segmentation. Behavioural segmentation is used to consider consumer behaviour and attitude. Another target market can also be created by psychographic segmentation (Harrison, 2016). Some popular bases for segmentation business markets are the market size and value for profit or sale. The type of business also matters. The demand for products of the public/private sector is not the same. The consideration of industry like daily goods or logistics materials also count in the case of targeting. For example, it is not good to target a residential area for a security exchange business.
4. develop a coherent marketing mix for a new product or service
There are four elements of the marketing mix. They are; product, price, place and promotion. All the elements make a product successful in the market. Every part depends on each other. For example, reduction of price increases promotion. That is why cohesion is essential among these elements.
A new flight service from London to Sumatra of Indonesia as a part of the tourism business will be inaugurated by Virgin Atlantic Airways. The service will be described herein as a marketing mix.
Product: the service will remain on for five months of the year in the tourism season only. The plane will serve in another route for the rest of the year. The service will be arranged, making it tourism-friendly. Indonesian people will be appointed as flight crew to represent Indonesian culture. On flight service and foods will have a touch of the culture too. With the boost of tourism, the service is expected to attract more customers (Ciriković, 2014).
Price: the price will be minimal like other services of the company. But business class passengers will have to pay more to get premium service. A honeymoon package will also be included.
Place: the tickets for the flight will be available on the company website, airport and t different booking agents.
Promotion: the promotion of the service will be done by adding other promotions. The company plans to join different tourism fairs and provide a discount for instant booking for the flight. Like other tourism flights, Virgin Atlantic Airways will also go for electronic and print media promotion.
Conclusion
Virgin Atlantic Airways is using marketing mix and market segmentation for business growth. The company has a very efficient DMU. They are collecting information through market research putting information together. The selection of marketing techniques depends on the condition discovered by market research.
References
Chadwick, Simon. “Market Research Is Dead; Long Live Market Research!”. Research World 2014.49 (2014): 6-7. Web.
Ciriković, Elida. “Marketing Mix In Tourism”. AJIS (2014): n. pag. Web.
Dubois, John. “What Is A Constraint In Marketing?”. Smallbusiness.chron.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
Harrison, Matthew. “Market Segmentation In B2B Markets | B2B Segmentation”. B2B International. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Malhotra, Naresh K. Review Of Marketing Research. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2010. Print.
McDonald, Malcolm. Malcolm Mcdonald On Marketing Planning. London: Kogan Page, 2008. Print.
Pousttchi, Key and Dietmar G Wiedemann. Handbook Of Research On Mobile Marketing Management. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference, 2010. Print.
Reardon, Craig. 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Young, Laurie. The Marketer’s Handbook. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley, 2011. Print.
Zaman, Fawad and Ijaz Mansoor Qureshi. “5D Parameter Estimation Of Near-Field Sources Using Hybrid Evolutionary Computational Techniques”. The Scientific World Journal 2014 (2014): 1-11. Web.
