...VIRGIN GROUP Resource: Exploring Corporate Strategy Introduction The Virgin Group is one of the UK's largest private companies, with an annual turnover estimated at £3bn per annum by 2000. Virgin's highest-profile business was Virgin Atlantic, which had developed to be a major force in the international airline business. However, the group spanned over 200 businesses from financial services through to railways; from entertainment mega stores and soft drinks to cosmetics and condoms. (Figure 1 shows the breadth of the group's activities.) Its name was instantly recognizable. Research showed that the Virgin name was associated with words such as 'fun', 'innovative', 'daring' and 'successful'. The personal image and personality of the founder, Richard Branson, were high profile; in British advertisements for Apple Computers, together with Einstein and Gandhi, he was featured as a 'shaper of the 20th century'. Origins and ownership Virgin was founded in 1970 as a mail order record business and developed as a private company in music publishing and retailing. In 1986 the company was floated on the stock exchange with a turnover of £250 million. However, Branson became tired of the public listing obligations. Compliance with the rules governing public limited companies and reporting to shareholders were expensive and time-consuming, and he resented making presentations in the City to people whom, he believed, did not understand the business. The pressure to create short-term profit...
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...Assessment: develop organisational marketing objectives Name: Navdeep Student id: 201412246 Introduction: Virgin group ltd. Is a British company founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell. Its associated with the business of travel, entertainment and life style, finance, transport, health care, food and drink, media and telecommunication and have businesses under more than 400 companies. Virgin Group’s date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by companies House, who class it as a holding company, however Virgin’s businesses and trading activities date to 1979s.The brand name ‘Virgin’ aross when Richard Branson and Nik Powell formed a record shop.They consider themselves virgins in business and the select V in the logo as an expressive tick, representing the virgin seal of approval.It’s head office is located in England. a) Mission statement : The company’s vision is to be the shopper victor by delivering brand values , which are: value for money, superior quality, dazzling customer service,pioneering,competitively testing and fun.; to provide a quality service by motivating employees and assist and examin consumer feedback for nonstop enhancement of the customer’s expiriance through improvement;to creat products and services that make the customer life more enjoyable. b) Vision: Virgin vision can be defined by words of Richard Branson . “We are planning a global presence in travel, mobile communications, entertainment retailing...
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...Diploma of Business | |Unit Code & Title: |BSBMKG501B: | | |Identify and evaluate marketing opportunities | |Assessments Type |Report Writing & Presentation | |Assessment No: |One | |Delivery and Assessment Mode(s) |Classroom | |Term |One | |Unit Duration |Three Weeks | Assessment 1-Report Writing & Presentation BSBMKG501B Identify and evaluate marketing opportunities BSB50207 Diploma of Business Version 2.1 Australis Institute of Technology and Education ABN 17 120 701 911 Address Level 2, 25 George St, Parramatta, NSW 2150 AUSTRALIA P +61 2 9633 1222 F +61 2 9633 1888 E info@australisinstitute.nsw.edu.au W www.australisinstitute...
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...THE VIRGIN GROUP CASE STUDY QUESTION 1: What examples does the case give of links between Branson’s strategy for Virgin and the environment in which it operates? The Virgin Group Ltd is a group of separately run British companies with the Virgin brand under the leadership of English celebrity business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle, among others. Richard Branson’s strategy comes from his deepest inner beliefs; “in principle there were no product or service boundries limiting a brand name, provided it was associated with quality products/services on offer” The corporate strategy of the Virgin Group is to operate like ‘a venture capital firm based on the Virgin brand.’ This strategy involves non-related diversification at the individual business unit level. Meanwhile, synergies are created from hierarchical relationships and the interaction of the corporate head office with individual business units. By leveraging on the Virgin Brand which has established prominence in the minds of consumers, Virgin is able to enter new business areas with a bang and shake up existing orders. The unique Virgin culture also allows Virgin to break into new markets and execute its ventures very effectively. Virgin’s corporate strategy is best described in the Virgin Charter – the individual businesses are focused and develop as autonomous enterprises under a single unified brand name. This decentralization...
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...executives on the future of marketing Steve Ridgway CEO of Virgin Atlantic Airways John Hayes CMO of American Express Duncan Watts Principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research There is no quick path to success in the new era of customer engagement. Progress is likely to come incrementally—by listening to customers, making adjustments to engagement strategies, and learning through trial and error. Since diverse perspectives will be essential to mastering this new landscape, McKinsey’s Luke Collins, Tom French, and Paul Magill recently sought out three practitioners with very different vantage points on marketing’s future. Virgin Atlantic Airways CEO Steve Ridgway talks about how his company recently has been pushing the boundaries of collaborating with customers, while experiencing the pleasant surprise of a successful mass-media campaign. American Express CMO John Hayes discusses what today’s “marketing revolution” means and describes some of the organizational steps he has taken to get ahead of it. Duncan Watts, principal research scientist of the Human Social Dynamics group at Yahoo! Research, explains how today’s data-rich environment exposes the limits of intuition in marketing and the need to take a scientific approach to understanding consumers. A summary of those conversations follows. 2 The CEO Virgin Atlantic Airways’ Steve Ridgway If we get our customers off the plane happy, and they go on to talk about it, that’s a huge marketing tool for us. Steve Ridgway...
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...Exam cases: Kodak Virgin Australia Post Pre-seen exam information Semester 2 2012 Global Strategy and Leadership © CPA Australia Ltd 2012 Case Scenario 1 Kodak case facts Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) was founded in the late 19th century by amateur photographer George Eastman in Rochester, New York. With the slogan ‘you press the button, we do the rest,’ Kodak gave consumers the first simple camera in 1888, making a cumbersome and complicated process easy to use and readily accessible. A major multinational organisation, Kodak was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became a powerhouse in the photography industry. The company led the way as an innovator, launching a large range of new products and processes to make photography simpler, more useful and more enjoyable. With the rapid growth of digital photography, competition against its product and being slow to embrace the move to digital technology Kodak has fallen on hard times. In January 2012, Kodak and its US subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 business reorganisation1 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. A company spokesperson said the aim of the business reorganisation was to enable Kodak to bolster liquidity, sell off nonstrategic intellectual property, and enable the company to focus on the most valuable business lines. The process will allow Kodak to continue normal business operations while it attempts to emerge a profitable and sustainable enterprise2...
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...Pearson BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Business (Accounting) | (Y/601/0546)Unit 1 Business Environment | Student name / BTEC Registration Number | Assessor name | Hoang Quang HungHoang Tuan DungDao Tien Hoang | F08-027F08-013F08-024 | Martin Ortega-Azurduy | Date issued | Hand in deadline | Submitted on | TBA | 5/11/2015 | 5/11/2015 | | | Assignment title | Assignment 1 : The Virgin Group and its environment | In this assessment you will have opportunities to provide evidence against the following criteria. Indicate the page numbers where the evidence can be found. | Learning Outcome | Learning outcome | Assessment Criteria | In this assessment you will have the opportunity to present evidence that shows you are able to: | Task no. | Evidence(Page no) | LO1 | Understand the organisational purposes of businesses | 1.1 | Identify the purposes of different types of organisation | 1 | | | | 1.2 | Describe the extent to which an organisation meets the objectives of different stakeholders | 1 | | | | 1.3 | Explain the responsibilities of an organisation and strategies employed to meet them | 1 | | LO2 | Understand the nature of the national environment in which businesses operates | 2.1 | Explain how economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively | 2 | | | | 2.2 | Assess the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on business organisations and their activities | 2 | | | | 2.3 | Evaluate the impact of competition policy and other regulatory...
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...Exam cases: Kodak Virgin Australia Post Pre-seen exam information Semester 2 2012 Global Strategy and Leadership © CPA Australia Ltd 2012 Case Scenario 1 Kodak case facts Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) was founded in the late 19th century by amateur photographer George Eastman in Rochester, New York. With the slogan ‘you press the button, we do the rest,’ Kodak gave consumers the first simple camera in 1888, making a cumbersome and complicated process easy to use and readily accessible. A major multinational organisation, Kodak was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became a powerhouse in the photography industry. The company led the way as an innovator, launching a large range of new products and processes to make photography simpler, more useful and more enjoyable. With the rapid growth of digital photography, competition against its product and being slow to embrace the move to digital technology Kodak has fallen on hard times. In January 2012, Kodak and its US subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 business reorganisation1 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. A company spokesperson said the aim of the business reorganisation was to enable Kodak to bolster liquidity, sell off nonstrategic intellectual property, and enable the company to focus on the most valuable business lines. The process will allow Kodak to continue normal business operations while it attempts to emerge a profitable and sustainable enterprise2....
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........................................................................................................................ 2 External actors ........................................................................................................................................... 2 I.C.A.O................................................................................................................................................... 3 I.A.T.A. .................................................................................................................................................. 3 EUROCONTROL.................................................................................................................................. 4 The digital flight, how the e-business revolutionized the Airline Industry ...............................................4 Can we make the journey experience different? Should we do it?........................................................ 5 Multi Channels CRM and e-Business: a converging path .........................................................................5 The long path started with SITA and SABRE ....................................................................................... 6 Distribution History: toward the customer into the supply chain .......................................................... 6 Internet:...
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...1.0 Context Analysis of British Airways In order to understand an organisations key market and communication drivers which will in turn influence how their brand is perceived by consumers, analysing the context of its current marketing communications instalments is essential (Fill, 2006). Fill highlights 4 key stages for context analysis: Customer, Business, Internal and External which are crucial in order to form a marketing communications plan. Context | Dimensions | The Customer -Brand Awareness, perceptions & attitudes-Segmentation criteria | British Airways is an added value airline with a leadership brand that charges a premium. They target an array of affluent citizens, consisting of predominantly ABC1’s, willing to pay extra for the ‘enhanced experiences’ that British Airways have to offer within their business – a commitment to consistently high standards of service (British Airways, 2010). The airline adheres to six main brand values: Safe and secure, Professional, Responsible, British, Warm and Thoughtful, designed to ‘refresh the brand’ as a whole as well as represent the upgraded experience offered to their customers (British Airways, 2010). British Airways target this set of customers for two reasons: high quality airline services are a popular lifestyle choice amongst these groups of people, especially those who travel often and appreciate luxurious comforts, and secondly because they have a higher disposable income so can afford to pay extra for the...
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...COOPER: MARKETING STRATEGY, DIGITAL MARKETING, BRAND & ETHICS 10.2478/cris-2013-0005 MINI COOPER: MARKETING STRATEGY, DIGITAL MARKETING, BRAND & ETHICS MARIIA MOISEIEVA The report is designed to examine, analyse, and evaluate where appropriately the current Mini Cooper’s marketing strategy, its digital marketing initiative, branding, and the importance of ethical values in Mini Cooper as well as other organisations. That is important for understanding of the practical applications of marketing is achieved by applying theory to them. It is determined that Mini’s marketing strategy has shifted in terms of targeting and brand positioning. As previously it was an affordable iconic British car, now it has become a cool luxury car dominantly for a young segment. Its international marketing strategy is differentiated in a way that a brand is built up on the historical iconic image of Mini for the UK and associated market, but it is not associated with any values in the past for the US customers. Overall, Mini’s marketing strategy is considered to be innovative, creative, and sometimes ‘silly’, which is of great value for its young energetic target audience. Digital marketing initiative also corresponds to the latest IT and social trends worldwide by ‘digitalising’ marketing initiatives and active social networking with the consumers. Brand is a core competence and ‘everything’ for Mini. Marketing is centered on its brand, not vice versa. An analysis of the Mini’s strategy shows...
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...http://www.easy-strategy.com/strategy-gurus.html Home Sitemap Contact Us Articles Speaker Seminars Consulting Negotiation War Room Osama El-Kadi Easy Strategy Videos Stories Gurus 36 Strategies Art of War News Build a Site My Books History Management & Strategy Gurus and Masters The complete A to Z Guide ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ A point of clarification before you start your journey with the gurus and masters: a Guru is a person who is very knowledgeable and teaches a particular strategy. A Master is a practitioner of the art of strategy in life and in business. Management & Strategy Gurus Main Guru's Index ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1 of 41 9/21/2014 3:38 PM http://www.easy-strategy.com/strategy-gurus.html Military Gurus Blog Ask me! Newsletter Clients Privacy Policy Motivational [?]Subscribe To This Site A Igor Ansoff Igor Ansoff The father of Strategic management Igor Ansoff (1918-July 14, 2002) was an applied mathematician and business manager. He is known as the father of Strategic management. He was a distinguished professor at United States International University (now Alliant International University) for 17 years, where several institutes continue his work in strategic management research. Igor was recognized worldwide as the Pioneer and Father of Strategic Management. He was the first management strategy guru to recognize the need for strategic planning for firms operating in the increasingly complex and turbulent environment. ...
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...P A R T I Discovering Momentum 1 1 The Power of Momentum Where’s the Impetus? Momentum. Most businesses get it at some point: the impression that everything they undertake succeeds effortlessly, as if they’re being carried along by a tailwind that increases their efficiency and propels them on to exceptional growth.1 Some hold on to it. Most don’t. Slowly, imperceptibly, the tailwind turns around and the momentum disappears, without anyone quite realizing what has happened. The company is still growing, but not as strongly as before, not as efficiently. Everyone’s maxing out, but it seems like there’s molasses in the works. Sound familiar? Sooner or later, it hits you in the face. Imagine you are meeting up with a senior analyst whose opinion counts with some of your company’s biggest investors. You think you’re on safe ground—after all, your company is doing better than the competition. But the analyst is in full gimlet-eyed, illusion-killing mode. “That’s nothing to crow about,” she says. “Yeah, you’ve got reasonable growth, but it’s nothing exceptional. You’re a safe bet, nothing more. Okay, I might tell my mom to buy, but 3 The Momentum Effect then she’s happy with inflation plus one. The way we see it, you’re really grinding it out. We reckon the strain’s getting harder, too. There’s no impetus—no momentum.” Words like that can really take the gloss off a day. The next time you gather your team, you don’t congratulate them on beating their targets—you...
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...marketingWhite PaperThe future of marketing 1 >> • 2. Foreword In these challenging times, marketing and a marketing orientation have rarely been more important. Yet time and time again we see the value of marketing being questioned and marketing budgets cut. White Paper: I believe marketing is essential to the success of organisations. However, sometimes marketers are their own worst enemy, failing to account for their often considerable Marketing’s decline: budgets, falling back on dull and uninspiring campaigns, and floundering when questioned on the financial impact of their strategies. a wild exaggeration? Dr Evmorfia Argyriou, Aston Business School, UK This White Paper, the result of research completed for The Professor Peter Leeflang, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands Institute by Aston Business School, reveals how marketers themselves perceive their role and importantly how they are Professor John Saunders, Aston Business School, UK and AUDENCIA Grade École, Nantes, France perceived by their colleagues in the finance department. Professor Peter Verhoef, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands Whilst marketing is unquestionably central to business success – with marketing orientation and the influence of marketing within a firm critical to business performance – our Paper shows that marketers must overcome their own Contents weaknesses if they are to prove the value they add and earn the respect of their peers. 2 Marketing’s decline? 4 Marketing now David Thorp Director...
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...Research on Virgin Galactic Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has us all excited about space travel, but we are slightly less excited about the Virgin Galactic cost. Those tickets into suborbital space are not cheap, and most of us will not be able to afford the trip for a while. What is the Virgin Galactic Cost? A 2008 book about space tourism stated that, "The cost of suborbital flight advertised by private space companies such as Virgin Galactic and Starchaser Industries is in the order of U.S. $200,000." [Source: Erik Seedhouse, page 27]. Virgin Galactic's webpage confirms that $200,000 is still the cost of a ticket of admission, and that at least 100 people have already paid that fare in full. [Source: virgingalactic.com]. Apparently, the company intends to keep the cost of tickets at this level for the time being. Will the Virgin Galactic Cost Come Down? In a 2008 interview, Stephen Attenborough, commercial director for Virgin Galactic said he thought competition would eventually drive ticket prices down to $50,000 or lower. [Source: The Independent]. He did not give any timeframe for this decrease. It seems inevitable that competition will force Virgin Galactic and other space flight companies to lower their prices. Low price is, after all, the most obvious way for a company to distinguish its product. But with $200,000 spaceflights still a thing of the future, it might be a while before the average Star Trek fan can afford a trip to space. Conclusions...
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