Introduction

Marketing audit is a systematic and thorough analysis of all marketing activities involved in a marketing planning process (Wilson, 2002). The concept of marketing came into existence when companies feel to review the marketing work of the company. In this report, British Airways one of the global airline service providers will be conducted a marketing audit. In the first part of this report the marketing audit and its benefits are being discussed.

In the second part the report discusses about the opportunities and threats of British Airways. The analysis of this environment is also being conducted here. The report also includes the kind of market the Airways is operating in and about its competitors in the market.

Benefits of Marketing Audit

Audit is an important part of an organization as it covers the analysis and review of each function of an organization (Khalifa & Sharma, 2007). Marketing audit is also one of the parts of audit. Marketing audit is the answer to the problems of evaluating marketing performance of an organization. Marketing audit is a broad, systematic and comprehensive evaluation of marketing functions for the better productivity of the organization. It covers both internal as well as external factors that influence the productivity of marketing planning (Westwood, 2005).

Marketing audit can be performed in different ways but its main function is to collect the data to find out the areas of lacking and providing solutions to those problems. In today’s competitive environment organizations need to conduct a marketing audit in order to survive (About Audit benefits, 2010).

Benefits of Marketing Audit:

In-depth picture of organization: Marketing audit provides an overall picture of the organization. What are the marketing plan of an organization and how it can be accessed?

Foster awareness: Marketing audit helps to foster awareness within the organization. It creates awareness among the employees to perform better. This awareness further helps in organizational development (Baker & Holt, 2004).

Internal relationship: It also helps to build strong relation among the employees and higher management of the organization. As the auditing involves the function of different departments so coordination between the employees is very important.

Improve marketing efficiency and effectiveness: Through the proper evaluation of marketing functions it also improves the efficiency as well as effectiveness of the marketing.

Evaluate competitive environment: Marketing audit also helps in evaluating the competitive environment around an organization. It studies the various methods of marketing plans adopted by the competitors and analyzes itself (Westwood, 2005).

Opportunity for input from other areas: It also helps the organization to input into the function from other business areas. Different areas of business can be used for this purpose.

Improve marketing planning: It also improve marketing planning of the organization through proper investigation to find problems related to the plan (Jackson, 2007).

Clear identification of future opportunities: Marketing audit provides a clear view of the future opportunities as well as future threats to the organization to make him already prepared to face this.

Marketing Audit of British Airways

British Airways is one of the largest global airways in the world. This UK based airways is operating in international and domestic schedule and almost flies over 550 destinations globally and is the leader in the industry (About British Airway, 2010).

It is very important for an organization to understand its internal as well as external environment to provide better services to its customers. The marketing environment in airline industry is ever changing and there for it is essential for British Airways to go through the detailed and structured analysis of business environment in which it operates. In this report, an analysis of opportunities and threats, macro and micro environment and competitor analysis for British Airways will be carried out.

Opportunities and Threats:

Though British Airways is one of the leaders in the industry, it has many opportunities as well threats. Although the Airways is financially strong but some opportunities as well as threats for the Airways are also available for the firm.

Opportunity:

Bankruptcy of United Airlines: The bankruptcy of united airlines has opened the door of success for the British Airways. Now the airlines can attract the customers using United Airlines for their business purposes. It can take over all the functions performed by the United Airlines (Gilligan & Wilson, 2009).

Global reach through ownership scheme: The airway can use its ownership scheme to reach globally. It can take over the small airlines in different countries and make its presence more global.

Marketing arrangements with carriers: The airline can tie up with different airlines like American airlines to extend its market in the industry (Great Britain: Parliament, 2009).

Attract business travelers from EU: The Airways can also attract travelers from European Union as its emergence has made it possible. European Union has made possible for the airways to enter any European country (Great Britain: Parliament, 2009).

Threats:

Downturn in economy: The downturn in the economy has created a problem for the company. Because of downturn people are avoiding using their services. This has created a problem in maintaining the expenditure of the airways also.

Centralized and bureaucratic management: The centralized bureaucratic management has created a problem for the company. The poor decision of the management has made impossible its further growth (Ledwidge, 2007).

More focus on local market: Though it is a global Airway, its main focus is on the problems related to local and always has ignored the international problems. This can further affect the company in long run and its global image might be affected.

Change in technology and consumer behavior: Change in technology is another threat to the company if the company is not changing itself accordingly. Now a day’s technology is changing rapidly so the airways also need to change its structure according to the technology (Ledwidge, 2007).

Increasing rate of fuel: Rapidly increasing fuel rates are also a big problem for the company. With the increasing price in fuel it is not possible to provide cheap flight services to the customers.

Competitors: Presently, competitors are one of the major threats faced by the organization. Increased number of competitors has made it difficult to retain the customers for the company.

The micro and macro environmental analysis:

In order to gain competitive advantage over the competitors it’s important to know the surrounding environment of the company. The environmental analysis of British Airways would find out the relative problems related with its growth.

Customer and Supplier: The customer and supplier play a vital role in the organizational growth. Consumer preference and changing income can adversely affect the Airways (Ledwidge, 2007). The agents who are the main element of any airways services can also affect the company. The high rate of commission from the agents is always a problem for the company and needs to be considered by the British Airways.

Employees and the shareholders: Satisfied employees are key elements in any the development of the company. British Airways has seen many lockouts due to unsatisfied workers (Hooper, 2005). The Airways should look into the issues related to the employees and try to solve them. In order to expand the market any organization need to good faith of the shareholders in itself. Shareholders are the true owners of the company, so it’s very necessary to satisfy them. Satisfied shareholders can play a better role in organization tactics employed in the organization. So the Airways need to resolve shareholders as well as employee’s problems.

Political and legal factors: The time today is going to be the difficult ever for airlines industries. Terror attacks have created an unpredictable crisis and government instability. Due to this new security regulations have come into effect that further led to fall in customer travelling confident. There are many political prohibition of travelling to certain countries (Butcher & Mangan, 2008). The power of trade union has another major problem faced by the organization. The British Airways should consider legal regulation on employee’s rights and ecological issues in order to support its development.

Economic factors: Airline travelling is the result of high income elasticity so therefore its demand changes according to the changing economy. Change in the exchange rate and in taxation also badly impact the British Airways services as the services cost higher due to these reasons. Therefore the company should always consider these factors.

Social and technological factors: The social influence on business is different from country to country so it needs to consider by the British Airways as it operates globally (Butcher & Mangan, 2008). The consumer behavior is different in different country, so the airline should consider it and provide the services accordingly. Competing technology development in Airline industry is another major factors to be consider. Today there is lots of new technology in the market, so it needs to be introduced by the British Airways to provide better services to its customers.

Operating Market

Oligopoly is a market condition in which the market is dominated by few players (Puu, 2010). Being with the presence of different players British Airways is also operating in oligopoly market.

Competitor analysis of British Airways:

Competitor’s analysis is very much important for the organization to sustain in the present market condition. It is very important to know competitors strengths and their strategies to formulate its strategy accordingly (Fahey, 2003). Following are the competitors to the British Airways.

Ryan air: It is one of the world’s favorite airlines operating globally with more than 1400 flights per day across 27 countries (About Ryan Air, 2010). The airline also provides low routes in different countries. It is one of the major competitors of British Airways. From being popular among the customers through its services has also created a threat for British Airways. So the airways need to consider its lacking in order to retain the customers.

Virgin Atlantic Airways: From very early, it has been a rival to British Airways. The customer interaction of the Virgin Atlantic Airways is very good across all class which provides it a competitive advantage over its competitors. It mainly operates between United Kingdom and North America (About Virgin Atlantic Airways, 2010). The online facilities provided by the company are very good in compare to other airline service provider. There is need to consider these factors for British Airways in order to better services to the customer.

Air France: It is also one of the main competitors of British Airways. It is a France based global airline company operating in 88 countries (About Air France, 2010). It has provided better sitting and online services to its customers. High class facility is being provided in the best price. British Airways need to think on this for its future growth.

Lufthansa Airways: It is a German based airline the largest in the Europe and has third largest passenger airline fleet in the world. It provides services in almost 78 countries (About Lufthansa, 2010). With its prior services provided to customers it has created threat among the other competitors like British Airways. So the services provided by the company needs to considered in order take advantage over these competitors by the British Airways.

Conclusion

From the above report it can be conclude that marketing audit is an important part to analyze the marketing process and find solution to the problems occurring. Marketing audit is essential for the organization to know the surrounding environment of the organization. The analysis of British Airways has shown various lacking in its services which need to be considered.

The services of British Airways especially online service and customer interaction need to be considered in order to gain competitive advantage. Apart from this the industry is also affected by government rules and regulation and from terrorist attacks. Various competitors have also created a threat to the British Airways through their better services which need to be considered.

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