EMIRATES Emirates is an airline company with a mission to provide high quality commercial air transportation services. Its mission statement is 'to deliver the highest standards of service quality to support business in the air transportation industry and to achieve complete customer satisfaction through innovation and refinement of service levels.' The company's global strategy aims at efficient competition, exceeding far beyond the limits of Arabian Gulf and Middle Eastern markets. At the beginning of its operations in 1985, Emirates started with just two aircrafts and since then the airline has served 60 destinations in 42 countries across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. To keep up with aggressive competition the airline has over the years emphasized product, equipment, and excellent service and promoted a quality image. To do so, a multinational crew was recruited and a state of the art fleet was purchased. Today, Emirates' fleets comprise of world's biggest fleets of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s, offering customers the comforts of the latest and most efficient wide-body aircraft in the skies. The airlines aims to inspire travelers around the world with a growing network of worldwide destinations, industry leading inflight entertainment, regionally inspired cuisine, and world-class service.

Required: - In order for Emirates to consolidate its position in the airline industry, it's necessary to formulate and implement a strategic marketing plan.

a) Explain why developing a strategic marketing plan is important for a business like Emirates b) Supposing you are the marketing manager of Emirates and are in the process of formulating this plan, however you know that this cannot be done without making reference to the firm's corporate and business unit plans. Elaborate on the relationship between a corporate plan, business unit plan and marketing plan

c) One of the first issues to address when developing a strategic marketing plan is to review the firm's mission statement. Outline the characteristics of a good mission statement and evaluate Emirate's mission statement on these characteristics.

d) Using information provided above and as well your own hypothetical ideas, provide an outline of a marketing plan that aims to get Emirates become a dominant player in the airline

e) There are a number of pitfalls that prevent marketing planners from realizing the success of their plans. Explain any five barriers to marketing planning that you must avoid if your marketing plan is to succeed.