Marketing

Running head: VIRGIN AMERICA 1

VIRGIN AMERICA 5

Virgin America

Marketing Management MMG 733 OL01

Ronald Sainvil

Cambridge College

Professor Joseph Mary Ann Ph.D.

Dated: 4/11/2021

Virgin America segmented and targeted marketing for airline services.

Virgin America is an airline company owned by Richard Branson. It is also an independent company with four hundred companies worldwide, thus making it an international company. When it comes to the airline business, it is tough to sustain; Virgin American has become popular since the first day they could focus on the target market. Their main aim was to satisfy the potential customers; the airline could talk to tech gurus to install unique Wi-Fi and entertainment facilities during the flight. By that installment, their customers were happy. Since the young generation are attracted to social media apps which includes Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter among others, the airline comes up with the latest hardware and software system that can ensure all these things are working well. , Tthe tech gurus make sure that the services they offer are unique in order to remain to the best and make Virgin America a world-class airline (Messner, 2017). Comment by Joseph, Mary Ann: Branson only owned a minority stake in it when it was first started – and it was bought out by Alaska Airline in 2018. Comment by Joseph, Mary Ann: You are probably referring to the Virgin Group which no longer owns Virgin America

The targeted customers by Virgin America are the young tech-savvy generation; the best way to communicate to them is through social media. Thus, the company uses social media to create awareness to their target audience; they mostly communicate to their audience using Facebook and Twitter. They also created a short video that they uploaded on YouTube; they upload these videos to educate customers and advertisement. Through advertisement, they also enhance emotional connectivity. Virgin America does not use TV ads since its targeted audience uses mobile phones and apps more often. This advertising model using social media is ideal since it is less costly and delivered to only the targeted audience.

What Virgin America is doing to create brand equity for its airline?

An airline brand is what it does to the customers, not what it says it does. Virgin America has proved to be fulfilling brand promises by the way they deliver services to their customers. They have come up with new ways to fly by living up to highly differentiated brand positioning. Sir Richard Branson has created a very healthy environment by coming up with new features that are not available in other airlines like in-flight safety video which continues to linger in the audience's mind long after they leave the plane: , that is why Virgin America is always a cut? winner because of their impeccable brand delivery.

Virgin America fully flights entertainment by that they are always unique airline. They have Wi-Fi access which the customers have a variety of movies to purchase, radio, TV shows, and games (controller-based or touch screen) and make customers their playlist options. The other thing that makes people happy is that they can browse and order food and beverages in their comfort seat; the attentive staff delivers them. They have a slogan that states that, "This is How to Fly, really says it all. I don't know how we ever expected anything less" (Hogan, Almquist & Glynn,2005). Comment by Joseph, Mary Ann: What do you mean? Comment by Joseph, Mary Ann: Was this information from this source? Virgin America was only launched in 2006 .

Brand elements of Virgin America

A brand has more things, more than just a logo, more than a style guide, and more than just a company name. It is explained as differentiating your company from your competitors. Virgin America influences their customer's experience at every possible touchpoint and changes their way of viewing things from their trustworthiness to their value. The brand in Virgin America is the summation of how the company looks, thinks, feels, and sounds; all these elements help customers decide if they want to connect with the company. The backbone of marketing strategies is first building a brand that is essential for business development; Virgin America built their brand; thus, they become the most competitive company when it comes to airline services. Comment by Joseph, Mary Ann: Specific examples of how they do this?

Before Virgin America considered marketing strategies, they first considered how to connect their customers with the digital world. They came up with solid ideas of what the brand should comprise. They created a risk-free brand; since it offers a solid foundation and flexible one, it is also versatile for future advancement. Virgin America took a lot of time to establish their brand, which was very necessary since they were able to analyze all the strongholds and weaknesses when any issue arises, they are to respond positively without any panic.

A positioning statement for Virgin America Comment by Joseph, Mary Ann: This is not a positioning statement

Virgin America's brand was established as Virgin Records in 1970, with one store in Oxford Street London. It had very humble beginnings, which later developed to Virgin Atlantic Airlines, a translation from music to transatlantic travel; when the Owner Richard was asked if he had ideas about flying, he said he has been to many planes he knew all the weakness they have. It later developed into Virgin mobiles and also a Virgin business. The customers much love the virgin logo; thus, it has been used in planes, trains, cruise ships, spaceships, health clubs, hotels, money, music, radio, and sports festivals worldwide (Dorsey,2003). Comment by Joseph, Mary Ann: I cannot imagine what this source you reference here would have to say about the Virgin logo – his article deals with Slavery in Revolutionary America . Please don’t attach random references that you do not actually use information from and have no connection to your paper.

“A positioning statement is a brief description of a product or service and target market, and how the product or service fills a particular need of the target market. It's meant to be used as an internal tool to align marketing efforts with the brand and value proposition”

Please see more about positioning statements at the link below:

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/positioning-statement#:~:text=A%20positioning%20statement%20is%20a,the%20brand%20and%20value%20proposition..

References

Dorsey, P. A. (2003). To" Corroborate Our Own Claims": Public Positioning and the Slavery Metaphor in Revolutionary America. American Quarterly, 55(3), 353-386.

Hogan, S., Almquist, E., & Glynn, S. E. (2005). Brand‐building: finding the touchpoints that count. Journal of Business Strategy.

Messner, W. (2017). Does value for money create advocates? A study in the international airline services industry. Journal of Global Marketing, 30(5), 309-321.