Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

part of a shake-up ordered by competition 
authorities.
On the first day of its busy summer sea-
son, Global Infrastructure Partners, which 
bought Gatwick last December, unveiled a 
new signature-style logo and a campaign 
aimed at giving Gatwick a friendlier image. 
Gatwick seeks greater competition with BAA
By Bob Sherwood, London and South-East correspondent
Source
: Ian Leonard/Alamy Stock Photo.

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INTRODUCTION
Introduction 
Sun Tzu (see Clavell, 1981 , for a very accessible translation), the great fourth-century BC 
Chinese general, encapsulated the importance of competitor analysis: 
If you know your enemy as you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred 
battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory you gain you will suffer 
a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Some of the ideas expressed in Sun Tzu’s writing are equally valid and applicable in 
modern business markets. However, one of the main issues facing business strategists today 
is the degree of complexity faced in some competitive markets, and it is now possible that in 
a modern business, the main competitor, customer and collaborator are the same company! 
For example, in the construction industry, many large capital projects require firms that 
might normally be seen as competitors to collaborate for mutual benefit. The complexity, 
and hence ambiguity, faced by executives in many modern markets underlines the impor-
tance of identifying and understanding competitors. 
Without knowledge of competitors’ strengths and likely actions (or reactions), it is 
impossible to identify a central component of marketing strategy – a group of customers 
It will start running an advertising campaign 
on Wednesday with the slogan: ‘Your London 
airport’. 
The push to win passengers from Heathrow and 
Stansted is just the kind of move the Competition 
Commission hoped to stimulate when it ordered 
BAA, the dominant airport operator, to sell Gatwick 
and Stansted airports, as well as either Glasgow or 
Edinburgh. 
The plan to differentiate Gatwick from BAA air-
ports heralds the roll-out of a £1bn investment pro-
gramme to overhaul the airport’s facilities. While 
Heathrow’s image was dented by the so-called 
‘Heathrow hassle’ factor of delays and outdated 
facilities, Gatwick has also suffered from similar 
complaints. 
Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s chief executive, said 
the new owner had accelerated the delivery of new 
facilities and introduced plans for faster check-in 
facilities and new security lanes. 
A new inter-terminal transit will open in July and 
an extension to the airport’s north terminal will cre-
ate a plaza for passengers. There will also be a new 
check-in system, allowing passengers to tag their 
bags themselves and drop them more quickly, and a 
‘fast-track’ system aimed at reducing the queues for 
security screening. 
Gatwick said the programme would mean 
improvements to almost every part of the airport 
including ‘the South Terminal departure lounge, 
entrance forecourts, immigration hall, baggage sys-
tems and the North Terminal Interchange’. 
The airport hopes to increase passenger figures 
from 33m to more than 40m by 2018. 
Mr Wingate said the new brand was important not 
just to attract new passengers but also to ‘galvanise 
our staff internally now that we are competing with 
BAA’. 
He said: ‘This is an important milestone as we 
compete to make Gatwick London’s airport of choice 
for passengers and airlines. We want it to be some-
thing fresher, a lot more innovative and creative.’ 
While the sell-off of Gatwick prompted specula-
tion that a new owner might attempt to win permis-
sion for a second runway at Gatwick, the coalition 
government has expressly ruled out new runways at 
London airports. Mr Wingate said that although an 
area of land for a possible second runway had been 
safeguarded, Gatwick’s focus at the moment was 
solely on the one existing runway and two terminals. 
Source : from ‘Gatwick seeks greater competition with BAA’, Financial Times, 21/06/2010 (Sherwood, B.).
Discussion questions 
1 
What are the issues that Gatwick is trying to address?
2 
How is Gatwick addressing these issues?

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