QUESTION 2 [20 MARKS]

TBA (Pty) Ltd was trading for two years before the Covid-19 pandemic caused problems in its operations and markets. The entity provides airline services between four major cities in South Africa and a few regional cities. The major shareholder and CEO, Miss, B wants to be aggressive as there are signs of green shoots after the pandemic. She wants to expand operations. The expansion leverages on marketing strategies, especially using the internet and social media for marketing and sales. She observes that the company could double sales through marketing and selling via online platforms at no additional costs, as the entity had invested in technology before the pandemic. Doubling marketing efforts and sales via online platforms was favourable to doubling marketing and sales through the call centre staff. Increasing call centre staff would result in higher staff costs and health safety issues around Covid-19 protocols. TBA (Pty) Ltd does not need additional costs right now, because the revenue side is not yet stable. Currently, TBA (Pty) Ltd sells tickets via the call centre. The entity has a website and online platforms which are used only for publicity and not for sales and extensive marketing. Its competitors use a mix of selling and marketing media. However, information on the level of successes achieved by competitors on the use of these mixed media is not available to TBA (Pty) Ltd. Miss B has asked you as the marketing director to assist in upgrading TBA (Pty) Ltds website and online platforms. Your focus should be on how these platforms can reduce costs, mitigate Covid-19 challenges, social media for raising awareness of the brand story, technology innovations needed, and social media strategy.

Required:

Advise Miss B on how to establish and implement relevant internet strategy for TBA (Pty) Ltd. The advice should encompass the entitys requirements as outlined in the scenario. Hint: Issues to be discussed are highlighted in the scenario and they range from being strategic to operational (in any case, strategies need to be operationalised). Your discussions should identify a broad range of these issues and show why they are relevant to the advice to be given.