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Virgin blue ( marketing concept )

So here is my situation i have an exam due tomorrow. Basically i have to learn two essays off by heart because jane is going to pick one of the essay questions out of a hat and which ever one it is we have to do it. soooo basically we have to memorise two essays. My first essay is on an earlier post. The problem with this one is i don’t really know how to finish this one. hmmm well have a read.

promise i will get onto the recording this weekend, i have been a little slack in the past week on it.  still keeping it real though,

x

Extended Response - Virgin blue

(Marketing Concept)

“Marketing is all about consistently satisfying needs and wants of customers and providing superior customer value, more efficiently and effectively than your competitors”

This statement clearly states all the components of a philosophical strategy used by business’s. It is called the marketing concept. The marketing concept main strive is  satisfying the needs and wants of the customer. The three aims of the marketing planning process are: 

• Understand the needs and wants of the customers
• Create customer value through satisfaction and value
• Operate more effectively and efficiently than any other competitors

 This process makes the business into a very customer orientated business. This can be a very good thing as the customer feels appreciated and therefore the business gets more business off “word of mouth” but it also can be a bad thing for business’s if they start trying to please the customer too much, as in the business doesn’t make a profit. This wouldn’t be a problem if the business was a non-for profit organization. example: a charity foundation.

Customer satisfaction is closely related  topic as the actual quality of the product which is obviously of high importance to the customer. Many business’s embrace the Total Quality management philosophy which “……focuses on continual improvement in all aspects of the business in order to deliver customer value and satisfaction”

Another element of this customer orientated business philosophy is “Relationship Marketing” There are two types of customers: Old and New. Loyalty is the big word when it comes to relationship marketing. All business’s want customers to come back again and for the customer to keep buying their goods/services.  The main “relationship marketing” strategy is basically to get customers to become loyal and they do this this in many ways but usually by “Promising and consistently delivering high-quality products, good services and fair prices” 

Customer satisfaction is the consumers overall rating of the experience with a business and its products. As the marketing concept makes the customers the main focus of all business activities, marketers need to build long term relationships with their important customers as well as trying to win new ones. 

As seventy per cent of all sales come from repeat purchases it is very important that businesses try to create and maintain a strong relationship with their customers to develop customer loyalty. Loyal customers continue to return to the business and purchase more goods and services, as well as tell others about the business. It is widely believed that it costs five times as much money to attract new customers as it does to keep current customers satisfied.

The key to keeping customers satisfied is superior customer value and satisfaction. Businesses have realised that losing a customer could mean losing more than just one sale. It could mean losing all the future sales of that one customer. For example, a company like Ford or Toyota’s long term value of a customer could be hundreds of thousands of dollars if a strong relationship is built and the customer continues to come back and buy more cars over the years.

“Virgin blue” obviously applies the marketing concept to their business. The business is constantly bringing in new services for their old/loyal customers like destination special deals, carbon offset omission tickets, inflight entertainment, numerous amounts of check-in options, extra legroom benefit and the blue room which is obviously directed to their most loyal categorized customer, working businessmen/women. The “blue room” practically a heaven for the business people who have to wait in airports for hours for a flight. The “blue room” provides:

• Complementary wireless internet access
• Private workstations
• Desktop computers with Microsoft Office software
• Printing, faxing and photocopying facilities
• Meeting room hire at competitive rates
• Informal communal tables with data/power outlets, great for networking.

It is clear that “Virgin blue” also embrace the Total Quality Management philosophy as they improve in all aspects of the business in order to deliver customer value and satisfaction. This is one of the main reasons i believe why “Virgin Blue” is such a successful company. This business looks at all their internal and external influences and adjusts to the changes occurring around it. This is transparent to increase customers satisfaction. An example of this is there service of “off-set carbon tickets which are obviously directed at eco friendly people. 

I DONT KNOW HOW TO FINISH IT!

3 years ago | Tags: Business studies

Second draft for “Virgin Blue” case study

I have an exam on friday week on two essays, both with similar content. But it is hard to memorize all the information. This is my second draft of this, it is amazing how much better essay’s get if you keep working at them, not just do it one go. have a read if your game. 

Extended Response - Virgin Blue

Marketing is a system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want- satisfying products, services and ideas to customers in order to achieve business objectives. “Virgin Blue” is a low-cost airline and the second largest in Australia. It is owned by the man who started Virgin record, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin mobile. “Virgin Blues” is reported to be Australia’s most on time airline. Steven Townend, Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy Managing Director of BOC Aviation said that

“Virgin Blue is an established name in the Australian market for business and leisure travel”

To achieve a successful marketing planning process you have to begin with a situation analysis which involves doing a marketing analysis ( external and internal influences ) a production analysis and a competitor analysis. Once that is done you have to establish the marketing objectives which involves using the S.M.A.R.T analysis. The next is identifying the target market and then develop marketing strategies which includes the four key elements of the marketing mix.

After all this is done you must implement, monitor and control, this is the process of turning the marketing plans into actions and also looking at all the marketing expenditures. This also involves constant reevaluating of your marketing strategy through the process of monitoring your product’s/service’s sales and where possible introduce control measures to ensure the success of your product or service.

To do this one must undertake a situation analysis which involves firstly doing a marketing analysis. This looks at the external influences impacting “virgin blue” such as general economic conditions, government policy and regulations, over seas influences, demographic patterns and technological changes and by also looking at internal influences such as financial resources, human resources and production facilities.

In the case of “Virgin blue” these impact the company severely when change is occurring. for example : Obviously “Virgin blue” would have to keep a close eye on economic conditions, especially with the recent financial crisis. People will not be flying as much and definitely not going on as many holidays. The economic depression has affected “virgin blue” greatly and will continue for quite a while. “virgin blue” would also have to comply with new government regulations and policies like the upgrade of security in airports due to 9/11. And of course looking at the demographic patterns of the area would have huge impact on the airline with natural disasters increasing by 15% in the last 10 years. The company would be 

What “virgin blue” must proceed to do next is a production analysis. This looks at the life cycle of your product/service. “Virgin blue” as a service started in 2000, it is now in the mature stage of the service life cycle. “Virgin Blue” started off in the year 2000 and came at a perfect time as another big airline company “Ansett” closed down, it started off with two 747 planes. Today they have over sixty 737’s and 18 E-jets.  Not only has the product/service progressed since 2000, but so has their marketing strategies. To match the main competition being “Qantas” “Virgin Blue” formed frequent flyer agreements with Emirates Airline, Hawaiian Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. They have also made interline agreements with Vietnam Airlines. But as most business’s know there is always competition and whatever “Virgin Blue” puts out Qantas will try its very best to match them.

Next is a competitor analysis which consists of working out the competitors objectives. This part of the marketing planning process would be a very important one for “virgin blue” because the competition for air lines in Australia is of high standard. “Virgin blue” would look at the competitors and do a SWOT analysis which they would use on their own company as well as its competitors. A SWOT analysis looks at the strengths, weakness’s, opportunities and its threats to other business’s. It looks at both the internal and external factors of the business. It gives the business a good idea of their current strategies and suggests what they might do in the future. For example:

S - low-cost airfares, it is a “no frills” airline, it basically looked at the Australian airline market and found its flaws. As their operating costs are lower, they can afford to to lower cost of airline tickets this giving them a strong competitive advantage in the airline market. Very relaxed and young people speaking on customer service phone lines, good flying record, good aircraft, good human resources. They are also Australia’s most on-time airline.

W - It is not an Australian owned company, but as Qantas has now sold out and have now had their planes serviced in other nations this would weakness would not be so evidential.

O - others destinations, more services and partnerships with other International Airlines.

T- Jet star and Qantas and other Australian airlines with low-cost tickets.

Following, this one must establish the marketing objectives. The objective plan involves …….

Identifying the target market is also a very vital part of the marketing planning process. “Virgin blue” uses a differentiated marketing strategy which means they group their customers according to age, income size, family size, desire for image and prestige. They provide for a wide variety of customers as they do publicize themselves as a low-cost airline. A main target market for “Virgin Blue” would be business travelers as they are a low cost airline they would and mostly domestic flights, they would target these certain type of people this is shown through their newly introduced frequent flyer point strategy and their “blue room” which is dedicated to their loyal customers.

In developing marketing strategies “virgin blue” must use a marketing mix. This involves “virgin blue” looking at their service and deciding on what they would like their reputation to be? what their brand name and image might represent? e.t.c It looks at how they set a price on the service they are providing the customer ,taking into consider research costs, service development costs, service costs, promotional costs and distribution costs. It includes looking at the promotion of the business (the different ways of promoting) and then  of course looking at where the placement of the product might go. for example: Virgin blue” must look at the population increases in area’s all over Australia to know where to keep planes there and offices. 

The next stage is to implement-ate which is the process of turning plans into actions and involves all the activities that put the marketing plan to work. Then the business must be controlling which is important because it keeps the business informed about its performance. “Virgin blue” would do this by using a sales analysis, a market share analysis   and do a marketing profitability analysis. I imagine “Virgin blue” doing this very regularly because as an airline business one would think it would be as important/more important to be informed about their sales, their market shares and look at their profitability. This is an example of one of the many graphs “Virgin Blue” and its competitors would look at when doing a marketing planning process. 

3 years ago | Tags: Business studies

Rock Steady Records Marketing Plan

This is an essay i wrote for business studies a little while ago, just reading it again as i have been doing another one on similar topic. Which is on the company “virgin blue”

anyway have a little read if you can be bothered.

Synopsis

This report will provide Rock steady records with a structured marketing plan. This report will contain information on the marketing planning process which includes the situation analysis and how to establish market objectives, identify target markets, develop market strategies and implementation, monitor and control.

Market planning process

The marketing planning process is basically an executive summary/overview of the planning process of marketing. The are several stages of this process and they are all important in determining how you can market your new band successfully.

1. The Situation Analysis

A situation analysis is made up of four different sections. 

(A)Marketing analysis- the business environment affects how successful the marketing plan will be and a number of issues must be considered first. This is very relevant in the music industry, a record company must be aware of all changes in the market.

THE EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

General economic conditions: The current economy is experiencing a recession and this may affect the amount of money people spend on entertainment. It will be necessary to look at research that shows the amount of spending taking place in the industry of entertainment.

Government policy and regulations: You need to make yourself aware of any current legislation regarding the music industry. The NSW government for example is restricting licenses in some areas and this may influence the venue selection for your band.  Overseas influences: Australians are always supportive of local artists. This should not be a concern. That is, Overseas competition. 

demographic patterns: It is important to understand the demographics of your selected market. What is the age group, sex etc that the band will be marketed too.

technological change:

changing consumer attitudes: Make yourself award of trends in the music industry at the moment. What genres are getting the bigger share of the market.

THE INTERNAL INFLUENCES

Financial resources: Have all balance sheets, revenue statements and cash flow statements up to date. Marketing will need funding and the financial institutions that you will be talking to will want to see your long term vability.

Human resources: Do you have employement structures in place to deal with the marketing and management of this band.

Production facilities: The market demands that quality is high. Do you have these facilities? 

The second section is called production analysis. This involves examining various issues relating to the different goods and services provided by the business. As an example when “Rock steady records” is dealing with a band, they would have to review the product being the band and seeing where they are in the product life cycle.

 The main feature of the product analysis is product life cycle. There are four stages to the product life cycle, introduction, growth, maturity and post maturity. This displays how the product is going in its sales and its competition.

The third analysis is the competitor analysis which is working out the competitors objectives which gives the business a good idea of their current strategies and suggests what they might do in the future. This is very important in the music business these days as there is a lot of competition and it is good to know ones competitors. Just like the saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”

The final analysis is the SWOT analysis which presents the strengths, weakness’s, opportunities and threats of the business and their competitors. This is a great tool to use as a business and one that would be a great help if in the music business. As a record company you would want to know what your competition is doing, what is their new idea’s, who are there new bands? e.t.c

One way of establishing the marketing objectives is using the acronym SMART.

S- specific

M- measurable

A- achievable

R- realistic

T- timed

By using this objective plan, it will give a more specific example rather than a general objective.

In identifying the business’s target market there are five marketing targets one could look at………

Undifferentiated marketing: When a business tries to provide one product for the whole market, it is taking an undifferentiated marketing, or “mass market” approach. This business provide a standard product for everybody in the marketplace. The one marketing mix is used for all customers. Basic utilities such as water, electricity and gas are good examples.

Differentiated marketing: Car manufactures such as ford try to provide motor vehicles for a wide variety of customers. They group their customers according to age, income level, family size, desire for image and prestige.

Concentrated marketing: Some business’s select one part of the business such as Rolls royce aim for a high income level.

nice market: Some business’s select one part of the business such as Rolls royce aim for a high income level.

When developing marketing strategies a business must use the marketing mix which involves …..

Product- all the different goods and services offered to customers, the range of style, colours and features available, the reputation, brand name and image of the product.

Price- the cost of the product in the marketplace which includes setting the base price of the product, deciding on discounts, credit terms and conditions and other price tactics.

Promote- the different methods used to let customers know about the product ad to persuade them to buy it, more than just once. Methods such as media advertising, shop displays, free samples and competitions are all ways of promoting the product.

Place- the methods and channels that can be used to get the product to the market place. This involves things such as transportation and storage of the product, as well as what type of stores will sell the product.

Conclusion

This report provided Rock steady records with a structured marketing plan. This report contained information on the marketing planning process which included the situation analysis and how to establish market objectives, identify target markets, develop market strategies and implementation, monitor and control.

3 years ago | Tags: Business studies

Analysis of apple and the ipod shuffle

Business homework for the weekend. I am not sure if i did this right exactly, but hope to fund out monday morning from the teacher. Apple is one of my favorite business’s.

Analysis of the Ipod Shuffle.

I have chosen an organization/company called Apple and their product is the ipod shuffle.To analyse any product one has to do find who your target market is, do a marketing mix analysis and a SWOT analysis at the very least.

Apples target market for the ipod shuffle is obviously sporty, healthy and athletic people, this is obvious because of their promotional ad’s which are on their web site.

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/guidedtour/

 Apple use differentiated marketing strategy as they have a wide variety of ipods. They target each ipod as a different product according to four main subjects. Any business when defining their target market must consider the target markets geographical location, their demographics ( age, gender, family size, income, education ) their socioeconomic life style and the behavior of the customer ( whether they are loyal to this particular company/business, which many apple customers are )Apple generally target artistic, smart, out going minded people. Their mission statement supports this:

 ”Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings”

The marketing mix which is the process of matching the business capabilities with the customer needs is something that is needed. This involves Apple looking at their Product and what research and more development they can do on it, how they set the price of the product, what promotion is needed for this particular product and place ( distribution ) 

Apple uses 75% of their profits for R and D which is obviously helping them produce innovative products to capture the markets imagination. The price apple set is usually quite high, but very reasonable considering no other business is evolving at the same speed as Apple. Of course considering apple has to take into account product development costs, product costs, promotional costs and distribution costs when deciding on price for one of their products. Apple’s approach to marketing is of high standards, the apple logo is the most well known logo in the world, second is nike. And lastly placement, Apple’s products are sold around the world in computer stores, Clothes stores and they have their own stores which are of the highest quality of computer stores around the world and are only found in major cities. They now distribute them in some sport stores now as well, keeping with their sporty image.

A SWOT analysis is used by business’s to evaluate themselves and their competitors. It determines their strengths, weakness’s, opportunities and threats. Strengths to the ipod shuffle are in many, but the main strength it has to offer and that apple tries to present is that the size of it means the athlete who is using it does not have to carry around a big heavy music player in his/her pocket. The weakness of the product is that the user of the ipod can not see what songs they want to hear because the music on the ipod is shuffled around. The threats to the ipod shuffle is now other ipods are getting smaller and light, so the main strength to the product is decreasing as the other products get smaller. As well as other business’s making new products similar to this. for example. mp3’s

In conclusion apple has a business very well run and to be still in its growth stage as a business after 35 or more years is amazing. May they keep growing as a company because in my personal opinion i think they are doing great!

3 years ago | Tags: Business studies