You work for a successful, small airline operating out of small regional airports in the north of England to 20 European destinations (all near either a seaside resort or major city). The airline leases a fleet of 5 Boeing 737-600 planes carrying 110 passengers. It would like to upgrade these with planes carrying 150 passengers as well as increasing its number of destinations to 30. To achieve this goal it wants to expand its operation by offering package holidays including short breaks. The airline is currently seeking a marketing director to establish a marketing department focusing exclusively on the European holiday market. It is seeking expressions of interest in the position. All candidates have been asked to initially write a 3,000 word paper detailing how they would establish a marketing operation to continually focus on researching the market to develop and maintain competitive advantage over its much bigger rivals. More specifically the airline is expecting the paper to discuss the importance of ongoing research, analysis and strategy development.

Your task:

To prepare a paper to meet the airline's brief which demonstrates that you understand and can apply the concepts discussed in the course (and only those concepts) i.e.

• MIS & Environnemental Scanning
• Environnemental analysis
• Market segmentation
• Market Research
• Competitor analysis
• Customer analysis / Buyerbehaviour
• Strategic planning tools
• Product and branding strategies