Product Strategy of the British Airways
1.1 Introduction to product strategy
Product is the most important component in an organization. Without a
product there is no place, no price, no promotion, and no business.
Product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want
or a need. It is the core ingredient of the marketing mix and is
everything favorable and unfavorable, tangible and intangible received
in the exchange of an idea, service or good (Kotler 11th edition,
2003). British Airways is a business offering service products,
flights across destinations, in the transportation industry. Service
is an intangible product involving a deed, performance or effort that
cannot be stored or physically processed, were customers directly
participate in the production process.
Product strategy is therefore very vital for the organization's
success. It needs to be developed and manage very careful in order to
be successful. British Airways product strategy includes flight
services, quality of flights, various destinations across Europe and
the world, executive class, business class, speed, security, support
facilities and years of experience. It provides the basic product and
various alternatives to satisfy all the different customer needs.
1.2 Product Levels
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If we have a brief look at Kotler's five-product levels theory, there
are five products levels in regards with the quality and the
expectation of the customers and each level adds more value to the
customer (Kotler 11th edition, 2003).[1]
1. At the beginning is the core benefit, the fundamental service or
benefit that the customer really buying. The most fundamental level is
the core benefits; what the customer really buys. In British Airways
customers buying flight tickets to satisfy their basic need which is
to flight from one destination to another.
2. The second level is the basic product, were customers book their
seat on a schedule flight to a particular destination. British Airways
flies to the busiest airports in Europe in 95 different cities and to
58 other destination across the world.
Sociocultural factors embody the various culture aspects in which a business functions. It is of great significance that a firm has the ability to appeal to the culture that they are working within as it reflects their customer knowledge, determining their performance (David & Fahey 2000, pg. 113). One central issue in regards to sociocultural factors playing an important role in a business’ marketing mix is firm’s ability to adapt marketing strategies in regards to demographics. The universal aging population is a clear indicator of marketing strategies for airlines companies to evolve so that it caters to the needs of the population as a whole. In addition, with Qantas operating as a global company and multiculturalism as a universal force, it is crucial to cultivate innovative marketing plans to accommodate the diverse preferences and needs of other cultures (Teo 1994). As cultures differ in their forms of attitudes and behaviours, consumers coming from these diverse cultures, backgrounds and countries are susceptible to dissimilar intensities of service anticipations (Donthu & Yoo 1998).
Air France - KLM Organized under French law, Air France – KLM SA, is a limited liability company that operates one of the largest airlines in the world. The core business of Air France-KLM is passenger transportation, however, other activities include maintenance, aeronautics, cargo, and additional air-transport-related activities involving, mostly, catering (Air France-KLM Group, 2016, p. 13). Both Air France and KLM are amongst the few airlines that were founded before World War II. Both bearing the founding day of October 7th, the first, in 1919 originally named Koninklijke Luchtvaartmaatschappij for the Netherlands and Colonies, and in 1933, the other was founded, resulting from five French airlines, which included, Société Générale de Tranasport Aérien (SGTA), Air Orient, CIDNA and Aéropostale ("History | Air France KLM," 2016).
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For instance, Primark 's products offer customers clothing as a base product, of witch actual benefits are being to be cheap and trendy, and they may have some return policy as augmented benefit in case of defects. Each product may be realised following a new product development process to improve its success rate (Harris and Schaefer, 2015, p.43-47).
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But a year later, at the age of 52, Gopinath began service in south India with a leased 48-seater, $10 million in investment and a conviction that India's burgeoning middle class, which was already buying color TVs and cell phones, would buy air tickets.
The aim of this report is to carry out a strategic analysis of Ryanair. This will involve investigating the organisation’s external environment, to identify opportunities and threats it might face, and its strategic capability, to isolate key strengths and any weaknesses that need dealing with. Finally, a SWOT analysis will be carried out to assess the extent to which Ryanair’s strategies are suitable to what is happening in its task environment.
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From the article that I have read recently by Rizal Ahmad in Asian Journal of Management Cases, he described the development of Air Asia Malaysia from 2005 to 2008. Within only four years, AirAsia managed to expand its operations into another ten countries. This article also documents Air Asia's marketing strategy and its approach towards 'market development' and 'product development'. The Blue Ocean Strategy concept is used as a tool to examine Air Asia's strategic moves.
In order to fulfil the customers’ needs, the ultimate concern for Airlines Corporation is the service provided. The contributing factor for the latter is...
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