CRITICAL

ANAYLSIS OF VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS WEBSITE

Pam, D.R.
This write up is aimed at analysing how effectively an airline can use the Internet and precisely its website to further enhance its marketing strategies, product promotion and differentiate itself from the competition. It will focus on the activities of one of the popular differentiation carriers; Virgin Atlantic Airlines. The analysis will uncover how Virgin Atlantic is able to implement a successful marketing strategy as well as introduce a differentiating factor from the competition. As a guide, the analysis will consider standards and requirements including security, credibility, site architecture, bandwidth, speed, content, design, layout, ease of use, accessibility and finally conversions. Attributes that span through the customer, the regulator and website evaluators; with special emphasis on the customer.

Introduction:

Why the internet? It is now an incontrovertible fact that the internet has become the single largest gateway in the distribution of air travel. Online ticket sales figures were 1.2% in 1998, 11% in 2003 and 70% in 2007. A general view of the last 10 years showed that Internet access has increased from 147 million people (then 3.6% of global population) to 1.407 billion as at March 2008 accounting for 21.1% of current world population. This has been made possible by the exponential rise in cheap computing power, increased trade links and greater political cooperation. The traditional distribution channels have also taken advantage of the Internets global outreach. Environmental protection and the global mandate for e-ticketing has also been a catalyst for such a pragmatic change.

The red Lady of British skies The entry of Virgin Atlantic into the airline scene in 1984 with a long haul differentiator business model was greeted with scepticism and somewhat disdain by the already established carriers. Hoping itll end up as one of the statistics of haughty adventurers. However, backed by a resilient brand and the ever diversifying nature of the virgin group; comprising over 100 companies in 15 countries, it has become a force that cannot be ignored in global landscape. Though with a modest turnover of 2.14 billion in 2007, Virgin Atlantic does have a comparatively large SOV (Share Of Voice) in advertising circles. Virgin Atlantic embarked on an innovative marketing strategy sporting the word fun as one of their brand values, in addition to Value for Money, Quality, Innovation, Competitive Challenge and Brilliant Customer Service.

Will virgin Atlantic turn out to be the dark horse that has proved a real challenge to the establishment and uncovered one of the true needs of the customer?

The Virgin Atlantic website objectives.

Distribution channel (Place) In true conformance with a global business and marketing fundamentals, Virgin Atlantic wants to ensure that it maintains control of its distribution channel. Technology, reach, flexibility, potentials and cost advantage, amongst other factors have made the Internet the portal of choice. Most forward-looking and early adopters like the Virgin group were quick to realise its potential.

Brand building and promotion Considering that brands like coca-cola, Mercedes Benz and Marlboro took decades to develop, but with the help of the internet brands like Yahoo and Amazon have attained the same global reputation in just a couple of years. This will definitely be vehicle to further strengthen the Virgin Brand. If this is executed with stealth, it could further enhance the differentiating factor as well as the much needed competitive advantage all airlines are hoping to achieve.

Cost effective growth Taking advantage of the customer-computer interactive ticket sales offered by the Internet reduces overall operating costs. It is only wise to invest in developing an effective online marketing strategy that will harness the vast potentials of the Internet. A group that imbibes the strategy of both vertical and horizontal integration of its business interests will find a nexus to link its chain in the publicity presented by this portal.

Conforming to industry standards With the current drive to ensure that consumer rights are adequately protected as well as transparency in distant selling processes, new legislations are being churned out by regulators. The website meets all current regulatory standards as an equitable distribution source in addition to conformity with required Internet usability and accessibility standards.

The consumers analysis and requirements of the Airlines Website

Creating and keeping a customer is the central theme of all marketing strategies and tactics. Making it necessary to know, plan to meet and exceed the customers requirements. If a business is able to gain and retain the customers trust, it would have achieved a strong competitive advantage. Recent research has shown the principal needs of the customer are:

Credibility This can be determined by evaluating multiple dimensions simultaneously. A strong Brand, great reputation, satisfactory assessment of both trustworthiness and expertise should define the consumers perception of credibility. Brand reputation and name recognition are not features lacking within the Virgin group especially when it comes to their flag ship carrier; Virgin Atlantic. A quote from Allan Weber The economy begins with technology and ends with trust trustworthiness as exhibited by the moral values, and the truthful and well intentioned atmosphere exuded by the organisation. This is reflected in the openness you observe, especially when it comes to owning up to past errors; a virtue that is quite common to Virgin Atlantic. Expertise, as shown by the depth of knowledge and competence attributed to the organisation. In my opinion, Virgin Atlantic can be said to score 85% on credibility.

Content: The site provides valuable and rich content which is of fundamental importance to the principal target segments i.e. the business and leisure traveller. Basically, all information needed for a business or leisure trip. Being a long haul only carrier with holiday makers travelling twice a year to different destinations, a link to virgin holidays will mark the end of the labyrinth. Those who intend to plan it themselves have the pleasure of having car rental, hotel accommodation and specialist activities all available on the home page. A sort of onestop shop for the traveller. The sites internal links allows users to navigate between the different areas on the site without getting lost. Links to affiliated and partner airlines are provided at the lower portion of the home page to facilitate seamless information flow. The beauty is that the information is presented in a neat logical manner, where all the links are unbroken.

Finally, in addition to pages dedicated to frequently asked questions, the site has a well located search facility which is very important for a website with over 200 pages and a plethora of information. Testing of the search facility revealed it is also linked to other Virgin group related sites; a brilliant tactic of using all available synergies to execute its integrated marketing strategies.

Design and Layout The design is dependent on the platform architecture. Though it does not need a horizontal slider to view the full width of the page, it requires a vertical scroll bar to view the length of a number of pages. The site name is conspicuously visible behind the signature scarlet colour which is synonymous with the Virgin logo. Headlines and page titles are concise and clear. However, the red background is not really kind on the eyes, thus making the fonts not that easy to read. The graphics are well sized, suitably placed and grouped into logical 'themed' sections.

Figure 1. Top part of the Virgin Atlantic website

Figure2. The lower part of the Home page

The transaction process This is quite secure but rather convoluted; requiring at least six web pages and 45 blocks of information to complete a ticket purchase. This isnt helped by the website speed; which is just average. A little known limitation of the tridion platform architecture on which the site is built. That aside, there is a lot of help from the intuitive graphics and the clearly identifiable friendly progress reminders at the top of the page to guide you through the process. In line with the EU regulations, the ticket price and taxes are clearly indicated before the payment process. A big bonus to Virgin Atlantic is their guarantee to the site users that it provides the cheapest fares that can be found anywhere for a flight on their airline.

Figure 3. Showing stage 4 s in the 6 stage transaction process.

Figure 4 Booking process clearly showing ticket price and additional taxes, fees and surcharges.

Usability and accessibility Making complex and difficult processes simple and easy is the essence of technology. The success of the windows platform is based on the graphic user interface absolving the user from the arduous task of writing complex digital macros to get results from a computer. Finding the site is extremely easy and without ambiguity. Requiring just the placement of the phrase Virgin Atlantic in any search engine. The site is neatly organised making it easy to navigate using the hyper linked text and graphics which are both intuitive. By providing a clear information structure, the web designers have been able to show their expertise thus making it easier for users to navigate. Inbuilt features ensure the font size and colours can be altered by a site user. Making it easy for the deaf, hard of hearing and blind to access the content using their screen readers. The absence of flash imagery shows concern for vulnerable customers. The multi-lingual support of the website allows users of various nationalities access to its features, thus, giving it the much desirable global appeal. Those who prefer to book their flight using the conventional call centres are provided with toll free numbers for that purpose. All transactions are acknowledged, usually immediately by email or the customers chosen method of communication. Sufficient opportunities are provided to leave feedback or contact customer services. The only drawback with this is that the customer service numbers unlike the booking numbers are not toll free.

Security. The website has a high level of online security, a comprehensive privacy policy and is able to provide tracking of all online activity. The website uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption when collecting or transferring sensitive data. SSL encryption is designed to make the information unreadable to an unauthorised source. Most websites have the standard security features, but the true test is how often they have been breached. Luckily for Virgin Atlantic, this is an extremely rare occurrence. This is good for its reputation and public confidence.

Figure 5. The comprehensive privacy and security policies.

Website speed and bandwidth. The web site can be said to be rapidly interactive, giving users quicker access to the much needed information; after all the information super highway was designed to cut time waiting on the phone to speak to a call centre agent. Research shows that inability of web pages to load up quickly is one of the main reasons users abandon a website. The website out performs the 4 seconds loading time benchmark even during peak traffic. Current testing using a 4 MB broadband connection, places the average page loading at 1.5 seconds. Though this may seem impressive, a few competing websites have consistently shown faster loading times. Again this restriction is based on the website architectural platform. In 3rd quarter 2006 in conjunction with conchango; an IT consultancy firm, Virgin Atlantic updated its website to improve customer price search experience. As if in response to the perceived disaffection tridion; the vendor of the current website CMS (content management system) platform has just launched an improved version of the platform the R5.3 and promising improvements to include modular templating, multi-site management, translation management, centralized collaboration, balanced central and local messaging and branding.

Figure 6. Score card for the Virgin Atlantic website.

Recommendations

Virgin Atlantic has been able to endear its brand values to the public as shown by its share of voice among its peers in the airline industry. Reports show that growth in its website site conversions has averaged 45% in the last 4 years. It has won the website awards for best airline website UK for 2005 and 2007. However, in order to achieve its marketing objectives the following recommendations should be implemented: 1. The website CMS (content management system) platform and architecture need urgent upgrading to a more up to date, robust and versatile platform; possibly a change from the tridion platform altogether.

2. Since internet use is set to increase dramatically in the next 2 years, website traffic growth should be anticipated and a bandwidth expansion plan should be in place to support both the traffic and the high quality of graphics and data that will accompany such growth.

3. Usability testing should be carried out both pre-launch and regularly, to ensure that the navigation and design are allowing for a seamless consumer journey through the site. These testing uses methods such as eye-tracking technology to test and understand how a user digests the information on the site and to help advise how to improve on the appropriateness of content and use of the screen real estate.

4. The home page needs to be made more appealing to the user. The website appearance has been improved with a systematic toning down on the harsh red glare on most pages of the site. However, further aesthetic improvements are required, .e.g. eliminating the red glare that greets you when you open the home page.

5. Regular updates of the website content with information that will enhance both the web experience as well as benefit the traveller.

6. Search engine optimisation should be re-enforced to ensure that the relevant keywords are placed in the html Meta tags design coding. This helps to secure top listing positions in search results.

7. The use of web analytics to monitor the success of the website. The website currently has over 200 pages. Understanding which pages users are responding to (or not) can help identify fundamental flaws in the website which could be reducing the ROI (return on investment). If a high percentage of users are exiting on a certain page this should prompt the site managers into action, before a drop in sales occurs. Chances are that the content could be out of date or there could be a link distracting users and leading them away from completing the purchase transaction.

8. Regular updating of website content with accurate information on product enhancements, special offers, new routes, that are guaranteed to interest the target segment. This is a pivotal issue that brings the credibility of the site to question. Inaccurate information even if erroneously placed on a site may result in irreparable damage to the brand reputation. 9. Relationship management and marketing. Increased focus on customer service. A functional toll free customer service helpline with a guaranteed call back feature as well as online chat help should help further improve the user friendliness of the site.

10. Integrated marketing concept requires a cross-functional arrangement where all departments understand the need for customer and product focus. The idea is building of back links in their web based publications which will serve to direct potential customers to the companys website. This is guaranteed to increase the website traffic and corresponding sales completion. 11. A more visible carbon off-setting initiative should be promoted to further maintain the patronage of frequent fliers. This could take the form of using some of the air miles earned to partner with the Plant a tree re-forestation campaign currently spear headed by Greenpeace and other environmental protection charities. This will appeal to growing number of environmentally conscious business and leisure travellers who use the website.

Conclusion
Overall Virgin Atlantic has done a great job by harnessing group synergy on its website. It has been able to align its reputation and brand values into a visually differentiated Internet portal. However, innovations in technology will quickly erode past gains unless organisations remain proactive. Evidently Virgin Atlantic airline flies the kite with innovation as one of its brand values; it will be good to see that reflected in the quality of its website architecture. From a laymans point of view, it is hard to perceive a real innovative differentiating feature between its website and those of the competition when it comes to the use of technology. It is expected that the site designers and managers will surprise us by coming up with something new. Historically, Virgin Atlantic always comes out with great surprises.

Figure 7. The top part of the contact us page.

Figure 8. The lower part of the contact us page.

Figure 9 The Virgin Atlantic Mission statement page.

References: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Airline marketing and management ( Shaw 2007) Straight and level; airline economics ( Stephen Holloway 2003) Buying the Big jets; airline Fleet Planning ( Paul Clark 2007) www.consumerwebwatch.org www.webmarketingassociation.org Internet advertising Bureau. The British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing. Straight and level, Practical airline economics, Stephen Holloway.