Current and Proposed Perceptual Positioning Map for British Airways

Brand Repositioning: Case of British Airways
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Brand Repositioning: Case of British Airways
The Company/Products, Current Brand Situation, and Current Consumer Base
British Airways is the biggest globally scheduled airline in Great Britain, with more than 550 destinations worldwide. British Airways operates domestic and international scheduled and charter air services for mail, passengers, and freight (British Airways, 2017). British Airways boasts strengths in size, strong brand recognition, high-level customer service, superior customer loyalty, and environmental friendliness (British Airways, 2017). While British Airways has marketed itself as a strong brand in the above features, it has occasionally failed to replicate its marketed customer service with a high level and consistent service.
Moreover, British Airways experiences weaknesses characterized by poor employee relations, poor communication within the firm, and higher fares to keep off competition (Yu, 2012). The decision to charge lower fares due to high competition reflects a weakness in its marketing strategy whereby it has failed to sufficiently justify to its target market why it should pay premium prices for its services. Furthermore, British Airways has opportunities to increase demand for transatlantic flights, the emergence of new airline routes, and competitors faltering on delivering reliability (YouGov, 2017). These opportunities present British Airways with an opportunity to market it as offering more travel routes and a reliable airline partner. British Airways faces threats characterized by high fuel costs and economic instability (British Airways, 2017). This threatens the effectiveness of the current marketing strategy of the airline in sustaining customer loyalty. The current targeted market is premium customers, which is a vast segment, limiting customer loyalty.
Brand Repositioning Justification
Currently, British Airways has experienced a decline in customer satisfaction levels. For instance, YouGov (2017) points out that in 2016, British Airways encountered a bad reputation due to the withdrawal of complimentary transportation of drinks and food on its short-haul flights, a breakdown in its IT systems, and a series of repeated strikes. As such, this report aims to conduct a situational analysis and propose a repositioning plan that can help British Airways overcome its decline in customer satisfaction levels.
The current positioning of the British Airways brands is comparable to that of Virgin Atlantic but better than that of Ryanair. This is because a decline in the level of customer loyalty amongst British Airways customers has resulted in Virgin Atlantic catching up due to its lower price point for similar services to British Airways. As a result, British Airways has had to lower its premium pricing because it failed to justify its higher price point for similar services offered by competitors and at lower price points. The overall customer service quality of British Airways has experienced a decline due to the unreliability of its service delivery and the negative coverage regarding its withdrawal of in-fight foodservice and breakdown in IT services. Figure 1 below shows the current perceptual map that reflects the comparative position of British Airways to its competitors in the UK airline industry.
34766253139440Customer service00Customer serviceVirgin AtlanticRyanairBritish AirwaysCustomer loyaltyVirgin AtlanticRyanairBritish AirwaysCustomer loyalty
Figure 1: Current perceptual positioning map for British Airways
Source: Summarised by this report
Therefore, there is a need for the company to reposition to restore its reputation and competitiveness. The primary considerations for reposition include customer service, price, and quality of services. Notably, the UK political environment dictates the formal and informal rules under which British Airways operates its short and long-haul scheduled flights (Starkie, 2012). As a result, this has enabled British Airways to showcase to its target market to make previously unreachable routes possible. Economically, an article by Allen (2017) showed that consumer disposable income declined, thereby affecting customer numbers seeking to travel. While rival firms such as Virgin Atlantic gained 5% additional market share, the decline in British Airways' market share and profitability signified a poor marketing strategy in galvanizing its market base. Socially, the a...