VIRGIN TRAINS

VIRGIN TRAINS



Table of contents

Introduction3

Virgin Trains3

Task 1:3

Task 2:5

Task 3:7

Task4:10

Business Mission13

The Charter14

Number of customers using competitors15

Internal Analysis16

Marketing Objective16

Product life cycle16

Technical Competence17

Personnel18

Customer Relationships18

Competition18

Task 5:20

References22

VIRGIN TRAINS

Introduction

Virgin Trains

Virgin Trains operates two rail franchises in consumer market, West Coast Trains and CrossCountry Trains. The West Coast network operates from London Euston to West Midlands, NorthWest, North Wales and Scotland. CrossCountry, with Birmingham at its hub, operates services to SouthWest, South Coast, and North of England and Scotland. CrossCountry has some of longest services in UK such as 'The Wessex Scot' which travels 470 miles between Glasgow and Bournemouth, and 'The Cornishman' which connects Dundee and Penzance, more than 700 miles apart. (Births 1950:1)

Task 1:

Economic - This is worry for Virgin Trains since if economy goes into recession then amount of spending that people can do is decreased but if economy succeeds then people will get more spending and are likely to want to go out more. In all countries economy fluctuates Britain has had streak with Base interest rate being held at 4%. The taxation rates have also been held at low rate while. This has caused public to have spare money with which they can spend on extras like Night outs and day trips on which they may use train to reach.

Technological - Important for Virgin since any advance can cause great increase in use of their trains since any commodity that can be catered for on journey will increase how enjoyable it will be. Currently it is advancing on GPS technology aboard trains, which is safety feature where, all trains are fitted with satellite hardware & software that will allow close check on situations of trains. Then there will be chance of updating times of arrival and departure by text message or Email that will create less stress at stations. Any extra technology will give competitive advantage to company and place them ahead of their competitors.

The fruits of Virgin Trains £2 billion investment are being borne out as their new Voyager trains are being rolled out on their Cross Country network. By summer of 2002, over half of all trains on this network will be Voyagers, with full service of 75 Voyager trains scheduled for January 2003.

In meantime fleet of 55 new tilting electric trains called Pendolinos will be introduced. The Pendolino will bring massive improvements in travel en from coursework.info vironment, coupled with innovations in on-board entertainment and service.

The much documented investment programme into 550-mile West Coast main line is well underway. The route will be transformed to one of best in country, with new track and new signalling which will support operation of Virgin's new fleet of tilting trains at 125mph.

Task 2:

Virgin is leading branded venture capital organisation and is one of world's most recognised and respected brands. Conceived in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group has gone on to grow very successful businesses in sectors ranging from mobile telephony to transportation, travel, financial services, media, music and fitness.

Virgin has created more than 300 branded companies worldwide, employing approximately ...