Marketing Essay

Lebanese University

Faculty of Business And Economics

Gestion 1

Name : Mohammad Wafik Zalzali.

Subjet : International Marketing.

Instructor : Dr. Salem Darwish.

Title : Virgin group.

Virgin Group :

Private Company
Founded: 1973 as Virgin Records
Employees: 24,000
Sales: £3 billion (US$5 billion) (1999 est.)

Company Perspectives:

'Virgin is about doing things that really work, not just looking the part. We are passionate about running our businesses as well as we can, which means treating our customers with respect, giving them good value and high quality and making the whole process as much fun as it can be.' --Richard Branson, Chairman

Company History:

Virgin Group is a diversified grouping of more than 200 privately held companies. The largest of these are Virgin Atlantic Airways, the number two airline in the United Kingdom; Virgin Holidays, a vacation tour operator; Virgin Rail, the second largest U.K. train operator; the Virgin Retail Group, which operates numerous Virgin Megastores, a retail concept featuring videos, music CDs, and computer games; and Virgin Direct, which offers financial services. Other Virgin businesses include beverage maker Virgin Cola, a record label, book and music publishing operations, hotels, an Internet service provider, movie theaters, a radio station, cosmetics and bridal retailing concepts, and a line of clothing. Holding this disparate group of companies together is the combination of Richard Branson and the Virgin brand name. British entrepreneur Branson dropped out of boarding school at the age of 17, in 1967, to start his own magazine. That venture was an immediate success, establishing the foundation for what would become a multibillion-dollar conglomerate during the 1990s. Along the way, Branson would attain cult status in his home country--the result of his business exploits, quests for adventure, and unique personal style. The Virgin brand had meantime become, according to the...