Good Report On Marketing

Digital Marketing at the Virgin Atlantic Company

Executive Summary3
Goals of Digital Marketing at Virgin Atlantic4
Marketing Tactics or Strategies for Virgin Atlantic7
Conclusion8

References9

Marketing
Digital Marketing at the Virgin Atlantic Company
Executive Summary
Digital marketing refers to the promotion and sale of brands and products using various forms of electronic media. Digital marketing is different from the traditional forms of marketing because it entails the use of methods and channels, which are instrumental in enabling organizations to carry out an analysis of their marketing campaigns. The analysis enables companies to evaluate the functionality of their marketing campaigns and determine whether the campaigns help in the achievement of marketing objectives or not. The growing use of the internet over the world makes digital marketing a vital tool for marketing both in the United Kingdom and other countries in the world (Li, Li, & Hardley, 2011, p. 3). The goals of digital marketing clarify the specific elements that marketers look for in the market. For instance, marketers concentrate on the elements that the audience is viewing, the periodicity of these interests of the audience, and the manner in which they prefer the contents to be delivered to them. Digital marketing is one of the mechanisms that business organizations can enjoy a competitive advantage over its competitors. Its efficiency can lead to high profitability and large segments of the market share.
Virgin Atlantic is the trade name for the Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited. The company is based in Britain, with its headquarters in West Sussex. The company is associated with the famous entrepreneur Richard Branson, who is then founder of the organization. It began in 1984 and its core business deals with the provision of airline services using a variety of jets and Boeing airplanes (Branson, Breeden, Kendrick, & INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications (Firm), 2012, p. 12). The nature of the industry is competitive such that the participants must embark on the best strategies when marketing and delivering their products to guarantee profitable sales levels. The paper will evaluate the goals and strategies of digital marketing at Virgin Atlantic, which make it one of the best companies in the industry.
Goals of Digital Marketing at Virgin Atlantic
The company uses digital marketing for the achievement of various objectives. The first to goals are traditional because the company has been practicing them since inception. However, competition increased over the years and forced the company to fix its marketing strategy by incorporating a third goal. At Virgin Atlantic, digital marketing has three strategic objectives that must be achieved through the marketing campaigns within 12 months of implementation. These three strategic goals are:
• Convert market leads into active and buying consumers.
• Increase the value of the LTV for the customers
• Win back the lost and inactive customers of the organization
In the first goal, Virgin Atlantic uses digital marketing as a mechanism of increasing the customer base of the company. Most of the budgetary allocation accrues to investment in channels where the company can reach a new base of customers through acquisition strategies. The enables the maximization of all the possible channels that can be used to enlighten customers about the nature of the products offered by the company. The most common channels include Facebook advertisements, affiliations, pop-up notifications on sites frequently visited by the clients, and banners. The growing need and use of the internet poses a real opportunity for the company every year, making it possible to increase the sales revenue of the company every year.
Conversion of market leads to active consumers enables the company to carry out a cost-benefits analysis of the amount of money invested in the venture versus the rate of conversion. The company’s target is to use the leads that require so much investment to acquire the highest number of customers. The measurements bases on the amount of financial resources invested on a particular channel against the number of active conversions (Miller, 2012, p. 45). The marketers use the principle of attribution to ensure that there is value for the money invested by the company such that the marketing practices are not a mere hobby for the personnel. In fact, the company narrows down to measure any increase in the number of conversions achieved within a month. For instance, a marketer may assess the conversion rate and asset that 30 percent of leads convert to active consumers every month.
The second goal of digital marketing at Virgin Atlantic is to increase the Loan to Value ratio derived by the customer. Given that the company has invested heavily in the acquisition of the customers, it must derive the value for its investment through the gross margins on the sales. Virgin Atlantic prides itself on improving performance every year due to the functionality of the loan to value ratio objective of the marketing department. It is attained through the pricing mechanisms of the services of the company where every sale made by the marketers regenerates the values of money invested in acquiring tat customer. Every sale must yield higher gross margins although its must ensure that the services offered to the customer are high quality to ensure that the company retains. As such, digital marketing adds value to the company using this objective that ensures all the investments made to acquire customers adds value in terms of long-term sales through customer retention.
The last goal of digital marketing is to win back the clientele that the company lost in previous years or recent months. Customer retention is not an easy task for any organization and Virgin Atlantic is not an exception given that it is operating in a rather competitive environment. The third objective seeks to expand the company’s market segment backward in the sense that it targets people who have ever enjoyed the services of the company. The category includes two groups of customers who may have shifted to another company or customers who are still part of the company’s consumer cycle, but they are inactive towards the center of the customer activities. They make minimal, or no purchases and they have no interest in the new products developed and advanced by the company (Mathieson, 2010, p. 45).
In this objective, the goal is to measure the number of customers who turned away from the company against those who turned away but made a purchase again in the subsequent period. The marketer must identify the specific channels of electronic media that was used to reach out effectively to this group of consumers. Such customers may have access to media that they could access in the previous years, and the may be attracted by a new product that the company is offering now. Virgin Atlantic exploits this weakness and reaches out to such consumers before their competitors do.
Marketing Tactics or Strategies for Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic must have an appropriate mix of digital marketing strategies to overcome the challenges faced in marketing its brand. In addition, the mix will help to attract new customers and improve the sales revenue of the company through the purchases made by the additional customers. First, the company should use its best customers to market its brand through the customer advocacy strategy. Besides their marketing staff tasked with ensuring that the brand sells in the target markets, the company can create a platform where customers who are satisfied with the services they receive to share their customer experiences with others (Turow, 2006, p. 17). Consumers know what they need from a service provider, and if they can derive such a service from Virgin Atlantic, they are better placed to market the company than the marketers. Every time the company makes a sale, the marketers could use banners to remind the clients to share their experiences with others. Marketers may have the tools to carry out advertisements and other forms of marketing but the inability to understand the needs of the customers may inhibit their efficiency.
Secondly, Virgin Atlantic should overhaul its marketing strategy and set itself as a global brand that targets consumers all over the world. It should promote its strategy to establish global consumers and compete with other airline firms that operate in various markets in the world. The strategy will enable the company to explore and expand its operations into markets that it had not established itself in the previous years. It will also help the marketers and the management of the firm to mitigate the risk of loss of customers in light of the growing competition both domestically and internationally (Ryan & Jones, 2009, p. 5). By taking its operations on a global perspective, the company will be able to have access to other opportunities such as mergers and acquisitions, which will help in the expansion of its market segment.
Lastly, the company should engage the use of all media in its advertising. These channels include television shows, popular websites, and other channels frequently used by customers. The practice should move away from the contemporary advertising and use features that will create a lasting impact in the minds of the consumers. For instance, the advertisements should feature popular celebrities to promote the image of the company. Besides the marketing channels used, the company should also have various methods of reaching particular segments of the market. For instance, the company should have special advertisements targeting groups that have not been regular users of the services. A good example is the leisure travelers.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is a trending aspect in the world of marketing today. Several high profile companies use it to market their products and services given that it enables them to reach their consumers easily. Virgin Atlantic is one of those companies that has invested heavily in digital marketing to enjoy a competitive edge over its competitors. Digital marketing is advantageous in the sense that it creates a virtual world in which the consumers and the marketers can interact and initiate the process of buying and selling. However, the advantages come with several challenges that are inherent to the use of digital marketing. First, it is expensive, and most of the companies may not be able to have the necessary resources to allocate to the effective application of digital advertising. Secondly, it requires skilled and responsive marketers who can identify emerging needs of the customers and initiate the right type of marketing.
References
Branson, R., Breeden, J., Kendrick, M., & INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications (Firm). (2012). Leadership case study: Virgin Group of Companies. (At the helm.) Pasadena, CA: INTELECOM.
Li, S., Li, J. Z., & Hardley, F. (2011). A Mathematical, Computational and Symbolic Representation Framework Towards Digital Marketing Planning. doi:10.1109/ICMSS.2011.5999080
Mathieson, R. (2010). The on-demand brand: 10 rules for digital marketing success in an anytime, everywhere world. New York: AMACOM.
Miller, M. (2012). B2B digital marketing. Indianapolis, Ind.: Que.
Ryan, D., & Jones, C. (2009). Understanding digital marketing: Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. London: Kogan Page.
Turow, J. (2006). Niche envy: Marketing discrimination in the digital age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.