Virgin Atlantic Advertising Practises - Case Study Example

Report Advertising Practices Name of Student: Student No: Date: Name of Supervisor: Introduction Virgin Atlantic is a well-known airline with a strong brand. This is because of the corporate image promoted by the Virgin Group which prides itself for its reputation for good service and innovation. Richard Branson, a well-known British entrepreneur founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984. It joined the Virgin group with a reputation for being front-runners in many in the industry. This included introducing the entertainment system on an airline, pioneers in introduction of complementary limousine pick-ups for its customers and in-flight beauty treatments. They were also the first to introduce the business economy cabin. This is one of the most well known brands recognised and respected worldwide. For this reason, it makes a good choice for this report as the advertiser we shall be studying. This study will examine Virgin’s advertising practises with a view to providing a comprehensive critique of their methods and coming up with recommendations on how they can best maximise their advertising dollars. We shall begin with an examination of the advertising agency used in Australia, and how they assess and pay this agency. The ethical and regulatory issues that arise will be mentioned as well as what advertising theory is applicable in their case and how functional their advertising campaigns are. An examination of how realistic their objectives are will be done as related to buyer behaviour and their level of creativity will be assessed as well as their execution of the branding itself. We shall find out whether any testing is done and how their advertising success is measured. All this will lead to the recommendations to be made as a result of the study. Virgin Advertising Practises In May of 2012 a joint effort by Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America collaborated to initiate the ‘Virgin Skies’ joint entertainment, digital and out-of-home publicity promotion. This campaign was carried out by Eleven agency, based in San Francisco and was aimed at the Los Angeles market. The campaign has at its core a short film produced by the three airlines, Eleven as well as the entertainment arm of the Virgin Group known as Virgin Produced. It was scripted and directed by Kat Coiro, who is a renowned writer and director, and featured such stars as Ben Feldman, Nicky Whelan, Luis Guzman, Max Brown, Janeane Garofalo and Philip Baker Hall. The movie was shot in the First Class and Main Cabin of Virgin America as well as the Upper Class and Economy cabin as well as the Onboard Bar at Virgin Atlantic and the International Business Cabin at Virgin Australia which features a Ladies-Only bathroom, sit-down bar, and exclusive Row Five. This movie will be screened exclusively at the Regal Cinemas at the L.A LIVE event scheduled for June. According to Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder, this event is built on the foundation of Virgin’s reputation as having the best entertainment systems in the skies. The promotion will also include digital media advertising, and out of home advertising around L.A such as digital billboards, and a video billboard located on Sunset Boulevard (Newswire, 2012). Another campaign involves the introduction of Virgin Atlantic’s own lipstick shade. This is a collaboration between bareMinerals and Virgin Atlantic to produce a specific shade known as ‘Upper Class Red’ which is the same shade as is worn by the Cabin Crew. This new lipstick was set to be launched at the same time as the revamped Upper Class Cabin. The ‘Red hot lips’ sported by the cabin crew is said to embody strength and confidence according to the Senior Spas and Grooming Manager, Rebecca Creer. The lipstick has a number of virtues geared specifically toward the Virgin customer. The first is that it has the coverage of a lipstick but the full gloss effects that enable it to blend with every skin tone. Frequent flyers will benefit from the micronized fresh water pearl powder that will hydrate their lips, creating relief from cabin air pressure. It is also comfortable and longwearing making it suitable for long-haul flights (Bera, 2012). In 2010 Virgin sought to reinforce its message of recovery from the recession with a UK launch of a global marketing campaign valued at ten million pounds. This was aimed at building Virgin’s global brand and fuel demand for travel. The campaign aims at print, outdoor, and online advertising which highlights the Upper Class nature of the Virgin product. It is aimed to appeal to the glamour; style and comfort that identifies the Virgin brand (RKCR/Y&R, 2010). The common thread that binds Virgin Atlantic’s advertising practises is the sale of a glamorous lifestyle. Its advertising gimmicks are over the top, aimed at offering something exclusive and different that is found nowhere else and identifying these luxury items with flying with Virgin. They utilise the power of implicit memory to associate this glamorous lifestyle with Virgin. They also employ high and low involvement through appealing to the consumer’s sense of entertainment when they are not paying attention as well as incorporating messages for when they are. This has led consumers to associate Virgin with fun, glamour, exclusivity, and uniqueness. Critique of Advertising Practises For RKCR/Y&R1 when pitching to Virgin Group, the first point that needs to be clarified is what the goal of advertising is. In order to measure success of the advertising campaign, it is important to know what they aimed to achieve. All the advertising campaigns for Virgin wish to depict strength, innovation, and glamour. They use out of the box methods to promote themselves, such as making a short film and debuting a lipstick. On the surface, these features have nothing to do with flying but Virgin manages to link them in a way that engages with their target clientele. Items like the lipstick also have an inbuilt way to measure the success of the campaign through sales figures and/or inquiries for the product. This type of advertising can be categorised as image advertising and the measure of its effect on the viewer is very intricate. This is because the effects may not impact directly on the brand but may cause small, gradually increasing segmentation between that brand and the others in the industry. Thus Virgin has gradually carved a niche for itself as the airline with a difference. Another effect of image advertising is that it may not just change the user’s perception of the brand but also who we expect to be a typical user of that brand. In this case, glamorous people are expected to be the typical consumer for Virgin and therefore a user may select it as their preferred option because they associate themselves with glamour or would like to. This is known as User Image and is widely used by many premium brands to sell their product. This means that while perception of the product among consumers may not change, the user-stereotype of its typical consumer does or else the situation in which that product is used. Thus when advertising in Los Angeles, which is the town where dreams of stardom come to die, the airline used a short film of love found in their cabins. This would associate the Virgin brand with movies to consumers, and the typical user image for the typical traveller going to L.A would be that Virgin is the go-to airline for movie people, thus encouraging them to fly with Virgin if they are interested in the industry, or in meeting people from the industry. The lipstick campaign signifies beauty, strength, and glamour – virtues any woman desires. Thus flying with Virgin would attract women looking to be associated with this image, as well as men looking for women who are associated with this image. This choice is not aimed at appealing to rationality in making choices but more to the emotion behind it. User or situational image perceptions are not a subject of rationality and selection of airline by examining practical advantages but if these factors are equal among airlines, then the user image becomes that extra incentive that distinguishes one airline from another. The cueing effect is used to associate fun, glamour, and uniqueness with Virgin group. These cues are not in form of specific words but with images that depict these virtues and with additional offerings such as the lipstick, spas, treatment centres which depict the lifestyle which these attributes embody. The Institute of Advertising Ethics (2011) sets out eight principles of ethical advertising. These principles are; The point of journalistic work, advertising, and public relations is to serve the public good by sticking to the truth and having high ethical standards. The personal ethics of advertising executives should be exemplary in their work. There should be a clear distinction between news and entertainment in all media. If payment has been done either in cash or kind for the advertiser to endorse a certain product or person, this should be disclosed to the public. The advertisers need to be fair to the public based on the nature of product or service being advertised. The privacy of consumers must be safeguarded and any information given should be treated as confidential. It is necessary for advertisers to comply with all relevant laws in the course of their work. It s necessary for the advertising team to be able to discuss ethical issues in-house and be given an opportunity to air their ethical concerns. In the case of the Eleven agency and RKCR/Y&R the various ethical issues they are able to comply with ethical issues by linking their brand to an image that they can back up. While the lipstick does not in fact cause consumers to develop strength of character or glamour, the perception that they are associated with such virtues may cause the consumer to tap into their own inner strength and glamour and therefore make the perception a reality. A lot of time, there is an overlap between news and entertainment when it comes to Virgin advertising because of their innovative ways of advertising, the advert itself becomes a news item. This may violate the third principle of ethical advertising. Recommendations It is simpler to understand image advertising in the context of high-involvement products such as flying Virgin. Traditionally, Virgin has built up a strong reputation for innovation, uniqueness, fun, and glamour. This has built it up to the second largest airline operating out of the UK after BA. However it is still far behind BA in terms of numbers, doing five million passengers in 2011 as compared to BA’s 33 million. This is because it caters to a very narrow niche. Not many people consider themselves part of the glamorous elite that Virgin personifies. Even with the lowering of fares that has been done within the last two years, the Virgin’s image as the airline for fun-loving, luxury oriented, well to do individuals is very much embedded in people’s minds and therefore in the face of the current recession, it may find growth a challenge. However, because of the niche they target, they are able to charge higher prices and they may be doing less in actual numbers but have a solid profit to show for it nevertheless. Certainly, there has been expansion into many markets implying that indeed profits are good. In order to expand that niche however, the group could consolidate their reputation as the go-to airline for anyone seeking to add a little luxury to their travel plans. So that instead of expanding their brand to include the less glamorous, they could consolidate it so that they capture the entire market in that sector. References Bera, E. (2012). Virgin Atlantic Airlines Debuts Exclusive Lipstick. Retrieved from: http://www.dailyglow.com/virgin-atlantic-airlines-debuts-exclusive-lipstick-0329.html Institute for Advertising Ethics. (2011). Principles and Practises of Advertising Ethics. American Advertising Federation. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Newswire. (2012). Virgin Australia Launches "Virgin Skies" Campaign. Retrieved from: http://www.travelagentcentral.com/australia-new-zealand/virgin-australia-launches-virgin-skies-campaign-35150  RKCR/Y&R. (2012). Virgin Atlantic Press Release. Retrieved from: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/ke/allaboutus/pressoffice/pressreleases/news/ad.jsp Sutherland, M. (2008). Advertising and The Mind of the Consumer what works, what doesn’t, and why. Revised International 3rd Edition. Allen & Unwin. Crows Nest. Read More