SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMINATION

PROGRAMME Master of Business Administration (General)

Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management

MODULE Strategic Marketing Management

YEAR One (1)

INTAKE January 2019

DATE 09 July 2019

TIME 09h00 – 12h00

DURATION 3 hours

TOTAL MARKS 100

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE CANDIDATE

1. Questions must be attempted in the answer book provided.

2. All queries should be directed to the invigilator; do not communicate or attempt to communicate with any
other candidate.
3. You have THREE HOURS to complete this paper. You are not allowed to leave the examination room within
the first hour and in the last 15 minutes of this examination.
4. This is a CLOSED BOOK examination.
5. Read ALL instructions carefully.

ID3
Read the article below and answer ANY FOUR (4) the questions that follow.

How Virgin Holidays personalised emails to banish the January blues

Virgin Holidays’ personalised approach to email marketing helped it achieve a 49% boost to revenue driven from the
campaign, equating to £17.3m.

The January sales period is an important time for many brands, none more so than travel firms looking to cash in on
consumers’ post-Christmas hangovers and urge to avoid the long nights and cold weather.

Virgin Holidays is no exception. The January sale period accounts for a third of the travel firm’s income as consumers
look to beat the January blues. But with Brexit uncertainty putting the dampeners on Brits’ long-haul travel plans, the
company realised it was time to give its email marketing strategy an overhaul.

The brand hadn’t invested much in email for a number of years, which meant it had settled for achieving the same
results each year. However, it had a new goal for January 2018 – to drive 50% more customers into store and increase
revenue by 30% compared to the previous year.

In order to do so, Virgin Holidays knew it needed to avoid being salesy so decided instead to focus on what it believes is
its key differentiator – customer experience. Rather than focusing on price and treating the sale as a chance to flog its
low-hanging fruit, Virgin Holidays chose to focus on personalisation and make searching and booking a holiday part of
the experience.

To outperform the competition, email became its most important channel. Working with Proximity London, the company
identified what it calls the ‘five moments of maximum opportunity’, using data and human insight to tie in with deals that
would help consumers from November, when searching begins, through to purchase in January. The resulting activity
took home the prize for email marketing at this year’s Marketing Week Masters Awards.

These moments included offering customers the chance to win their dream trip by sharing a competition with friends,
which also helped boost its email base in time for the sale; offering tailored in-store experiences and variable rewards;
and sending out sneak peaks of relevant destinations ahead of the sale.

Virgin Holidays partnered with Phrasee and used AI to drive greater reach by crafting subject lines that were most likely
to resonate with its audience. Emails were also delivered through several algorithms so every member of its user base
received emails with unique send times and destinations depending on their interests. It also prioritised those with high
engagement rates for more content-led emails.

Keeping emails relevant and individualising delivery helped the travel firm achieve 70% more email opens and 65%
more clicks than the previous year’s sale activity.

Perhaps most significantly, Virgin Holidays was able to bring in 49% more revenue than the previous year, dwarfing its
target of 30%. That means £17.3m of revenue can be directly linked to the email campaign.
https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/11/07/how-virgin-holidays-personalised-emails-to-banish-the-january-
blues/

ID3 1
QUESTION 1 (25 Marks)

1.1 Advise Virgin Holidays on how to perform an operations control audit (audit of the 4 Ps) to improve the effectiveness
of the marketing initiatives to increase sales and market-share. (15 marks)

1.2 Discuss why “opt-in” initiatives are more successful than direct marketing initiatives. (10 marks)

QUESTION 2 (25 Marks)

2.1 Discuss the strategies used by Virgin Holidays to increase its revenue by 49%. (10 marks)

2.2 Assess the benefits which accrue from an effective, integrated customer relationship management (CRM)
strategy. (15 marks)

QUESTION 3 (25 Marks)

The distribution of services and the intensity of the distribution rest on the service being offered. Many organisations are
moving to delivery of services through cyberspace.

Critically assess this statement with reference to the delivery of services through cyberspace with reference to Virgin
Holidays.

QUESTION 4 (25 Marks)

It is often said that a service company is only good as its people are.

Discuss the relevance of this statement and strategies that service firms like Virgin Holidays can use to deliver quality
service through its employees.

QUESTION 5 (25 Marks)

Discuss the importance of branding in the service industry, namely the hotel industry and develop marketing strategies
to target the middle to high income market segment to increase room occupancy during a recession.

END OF PAPER

ID3 2