Introduction
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Service Marketing can be termed as the strategy that promotes some intangible advantages, which are delivered by the business to the customer. The report is based on Virgin Atlantic which is a British Airline headquarter in the UK. In the present scenario, the company expanded its business to many products like Virgin cola wedding gowns along with financial services (Spitz, 2022). The report includes the SWOT analysis of Virgin Atlantic and the challenges faced by the company in service marketing. It also covers the discussion about threats through the lens of theoretical principles of the Virgin Atlantic.
Organisation’s key service marketing challenges
As it’s by now already can be identified that Virgin Atlantic has made a brand name Within the UK among its top competitors like British Airways and EasyJet, but one important point cannot be noted that because of the Covid-19 situation across the world the company is going through few of the issues, particularly in the service marketing segment. Particularly for the service based industry keeping the services high end to satisfy its customers has become one of the major challenges in the current days. And in the same manner Virgin Atlantic is also going through the issues which have been discussed in detail below:
- Considering the intangibility as one of the major service marketing challenges it can be said that Virgin Atlantic is going through this issue for a long or it can be said that before the starting of the pandemic. The comfort and the satisfaction of air travel are usually identified as intangible service which the passengers usually do not takes home rather they experience. In the case of Virgin Atlantic, it has been seen that due to the Covid-19 situation major airbase firms like Virgin Atlantic are confronting huge challenges in offering adequate client amenities, particularly the client comfort and needs. Before the pandemic, the company used to provide lots of additional facilities like food, seating comfort, etc. but this all has been stooped keeping in mind the safety of the client. But the customers didn’t positively take this and the service marketing image of the company has impacted a lot (Bello, 2020).
- Now considering the heterogeneity challenges of service marketing it can be said that Virgin Atlantic is confronting issues in setting the prices of the airfare and client holding. Because of the pandemic issues, passengers are voicing travel if it’s not urgent due to which Virgin Atlantic is facing the loss. Also considering the loss of providing tickets below cost is another major issue the company is facing and due to high prices of the airfare passengers are opting for the low-cost airline due to which Virgin Atlantic is facing issues in retaining the customers.
- Acknowledging the perishability issue within the service marketing segment it might be said that the sudden augmentation in the prices of petrol also possesses a threat to Virgin Atlantic. At the time need is inferior it automatically augments additional costs which give generation to upcoming challenges to survive in the rivalry. High fly petrol expenses directly influence the airplane's money-related arrangement of Virgin Atlantic. With the number of transporter associations expanding consistently, the cost of petroleum was at an unparalleled high, creating an unending circle that will keep on affecting the services of Virgin Atlantic (Whitehorn, 2020).
Analysis of the threats through the lens of theoretical principles of services
Seeing the principle of service marketing, particularly for this situation using the service marketing mix as the theoretical principle will work best. Usually, the concept of the service marketing mix can be defined as the mix of various factors of amenities advertising which organizations deploy to interact their corporal as well as brand message to the clients.
- Acknowledging the foremost service marketing mix element which is known as people it might be noticed that Virgin Atlantic their people are the regular as well as new travelers who fly with Virgin Atlantic and also their employees. Now considering the threat segment that has been seen in the case of passengers facing in VA is that sudden increase in the price of tickets and lessening of the inflight services dues to Covid-19 situation. And in the case of employees, the main threat for them is the sudden firing of the employees to cut down the airline expenses.
- Now seeing at the next element of the marketing mix it can be said that the process segment will be best suited in the case of Virgin Atlantic. The process in general defines the background a company introduces with a plan to help the delivery of the services. In this segment, Virgin Atlantic is again facing some of the issues where the process of on-boarding has changed a lot due to Covid-19. Prior to the coronavirus attack, it has been seen that the onboarding system of Virgin Atlantic was very smooth and people easily get their preferred seats comfortably. But now the situation has changed a lot and the onboarding system has changed a lot and become more difficult which aged people face difficulty understanding.
- Lastly, the physical evidence shows that sudden augmentation in the expense of petrol has greatly affected the functioning of the company which they considered a s major challenges.
Below mentioned are some of the suggestions that might help make the threats into opportunities in the upcoming times.
- To retain back the client as well as to keep safe the employees' roles Virgin Atlantic will require to understand as well as fulfill customer satisfaction to some extent and also need to change the roles of employees so that they can’t lose their job.
- Now in order to deal with the threat of on boarding system Virgin Atlantic needs to hire more employees who will be proficient in handling the onboarding system and also helps the aged people in a smooth flight journey.
- An increase in the fuel issue is a kind of issue which cannot be ignored in that case VA will need to increase the number of per-day flights to cope with the threat (Whitehorn, 2020).
Conclusion
The overall study has helped in understanding how service marketing plays a very important role in the case of Virgin Atlantic. From the study, it has also been identified that apart from various strengths and opportunities still they are facing some major challenges that are affecting the brand image, and also due to the threats they are losing customers and employees too. Also, in order to deal with the threats some suggestions have also been provided that might help the company in dealing with it.
Bibliography
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Bello, A.T., 2020. A Strategic Analysis of Virgin Atlantic's Customer Relationship Management (CRM). University of Bedfordshire.
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Rajee Olaganathan, D., Miller, M. and Mrusek, B.M., 2020. Managing safety risks in airline maintenance outsourcing. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace, 7(1), p.7.
Spitz, M, D., 2022. Service Marketing Tips & Tactics For 2022. [Online] Available at: https://www.mayple.com/blog/service-marketing [Accessed on 12 July 2022]
StudyCorgi. 2020. 'Virgin Atlantic Airways in the United Kingdom'. 14 October. Available at: https://studycorgi.com/virgin-atlantic-airways-in-the-united-kingdom/ (Accessed: 12 July 2022).
Whitehorn, W., 2020. RICHARD BRANSON AND THE VIRGIN GROUP OF COMPANIES IN 2002. Marketing News.
