BRAND MANAGEMNT

Virgin Group

Virgin Group

Introduction

The Virgin Group, created by British billionaire Richard Branson, is a set of companies linked to various sectors of the consumer society, and present in many countries. The main feature of these companies is to use the Virgin brand, also carrying a standard image for all.

Its activity started in the music world, when Richard Branson created Virgin Records, whose first publication was launched in the first group megastore Virgin Megastore in the 70's in London. He quickly decided to expand its business in several areas, which led to the current diversity of the group.

Discussion

Virgin Group business expands around several fields that are:

Aviation and rail

Business: Virgin Trains (privately owned railroads, UK), Virgin America (low cost airline, USA), Virgin Atlantic Airways (airline international flights, United Kingdom), Virgin Blue (low cost airline, Australia and New Zealand), Virgin Express (low cost airline, Belgium), Virgin Nigeria (airline, Nigeria).

Music

Business: Virgin Records (one of the largest music publishers worldwide, is now owned by EMI), V2 Records (record label), Virgin Radio (a popular radio in the UK), V Festival (organization of festivals Music, UK and USA), Virgin Megastore (large stores specializing in music, movies and video games).

Telecommunications and media

Virgin Mobile (mobile operator in: United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Chile, South Africa, USA and France) and Virgin Media (cable TV operator and Internet).

Other Virgin Group companies

There are many other enterprises and the Virgin brand, for example in the area of food and drinks (Virgin Cola, Virgin Coca), rental cars and limousines, travel, credit cards, teams of Formula 1 and more recently, the Space Tourism Virgin Galactic. There is also a network of gyms (Virgin Active) with presence in several countries.

Evaluation of Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies of the Virgin Group are very famous in the industry and among the students who study marketing and business. The founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson personally takes part and formulates marketing strategies (Rey et al., 2004, 591-605). The following part of the paper discusses and evaluates marketing strategies of the Virgin Group.

Customer Relationship Marketing Strategies

The Virgin Group attracts customers for being a fun and innovative products and service. Taking an example for Virgin Group, the experience comprehensive agreements, state of the art products and services, and most importantly a high level of customer service are valuable factors that are considered by customers and Virgin Group offers all these advantages. In addition, Virgin Group offers first-class exclusive business class prices (Lamb et al., 2008, 55-61).

Marketing Communication Activities and Strategies

Virgin Group uses different communication modes for the internal as well as external communication processes. These communication modes range from ATL to BTL activities. Virgin Group effectively communicates its brand with the internal also the external customers of the organization (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990, 79-91). While communicating the brand with the internal customers, Virgin Group arranges different seminars and quarterly meetings for encouraging its employees and enriches their jobs by promising new incentives and career development opportunities (Fleishman, 2010, 87-93). Nevertheless, Virgin Group communicated the brand with external customers by ATL marketing using conventional media ...