Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism - Assignment

Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
ICON College of Technology and Management
Department of Travel & Tourism Management
BTEC HND in Travel and Tourism Management
Coursework
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Session: January 2020
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................4
THE ROLE OF MARKETING AND HOW IT INTERRELATES WITH OTHER
FUNCTIONAL UNITS AT THE ORGANISATION...............................................................4
The role of marketing at the British Airways (BA)...............................................................5
The interrelation between marketing and other functional units at British Airways.............6
COMPARISON OF THE APPLICATION OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE MARKETING
MIX (7PS) BETWEEN BRITISH AIRWAYS AND THE EMIRATES AIRLINES...............8
Table 1: comparison of the elements of the marketing mix.................................................10
BASIC MARKETING PLAN FOR BA..................................................................................10
Company overview..............................................................................................................10
Company mission and slogan...............................................................................................11
Situational analysis...............................................................................................................11
Objectives.............................................................................................................................11
Marketing strategy...............................................................................................................11
Budget..................................................................................................................................12
Control..................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................13
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
Marketing Essentials
For
Travel and Tourism
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
INTRODUCTION
The travel and tourism industry is rather a vast group of business organisations with one
common goal. This is more often than not aimed at providing travellers with the necessary
services or products in order to facilitate good travel experiences. As a result of the robust
marketing plans and strategies adopted by the various travel and tour companies, the travel
and tourism industry has grown exponentially becoming one of the largest civilian based
industry globally. Marketing plays an important role in the promotion and endorsement of the
various products and services of the travel and tourism industry to the consumers.
While the marketing function of any organisation may be key to the organisation succeeding
in achieving their sales and overall business goals, in is vital that the marketing function is
integrated with the other business functions seamlessly. The British Airways (BA) is one of
the largest operator in the British travel and tourism industry. This has been as a result of the
effective marketing strategies adopted by the company.
The British Airways being the United Kingdom’s flag carrier is located at waterside,
Harmondsworth close to the company’s main Hub at the London Heathrow airport. Based on
the number of passengers carried and fleet size, the airline is the country’s second largest
carrier after Easyjet. With regards to the British Airways, this reports seeks to explain the key
concepts and roles of marketing as well as the marketing function responsibilities at BA. The
significance of the robust interrelation between marketing and other functional units of the
company are discussed in the report. The report goes further and compares how the BA
adopts its marketing mix to achieve its objectives with other airlines such as the emirates
airline as well as developing a marketing plan for a hospitality organisation.
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
THE ROLE OF MARKETING AND HOW IT INTERRELATES WITH OTHER
FUNCTIONAL UNITS AT THE ORGANISATION
Marketing essentially delves into the approaches through which business organisations are
able to identify potential customers, find ways to acquire the target customers and the
processes they apply in keeping the customers. As such, marketing can be basically defined
as a science that entails the exploration, creation and delivery of value to customers in order
to satisfy the needs and desires of the customers while delivering profit to the organisation
(Kotler et al, 2017).
To ensure that marketing remains successful, it is imperative that there are more than two
parties involved in the marketing process with each party having something of value that the
other needs (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). This is key to meeting the core objectives of
marketing that focuses on facilitating the exchange of products and ideas (Armstrong et al,
2018). As such, as a functional unit of a business, marketing is vital in the anticipation and
recognition of the market needs and changes in the market environment as well as ensuring
the business understands the diverse market needs and delivers value to ensure that they are
fulfilled.
Marketing management can therefore be described as a process exploring the various
business operations focused on the acquisition, development and retaining of business
customers through the communication and delivery of superior products or value to the
market (Kotler et al, 2017).
The role of marketing at the British Airways (BA)
The marketing unit of the British Airways is focused on the various aspects of the
organisation, its customers and market environment that have a direct bearing on the
company’s ability to make profits (Shaw, 2016). However, in order to be successful in
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
ensuring that these aspects of the company and its operations are effective in enhancing
business growth, success and customer satisfaction, there are diverse roles and
responsibilities of the company’s marketing function.
With the British Airways operating in a heavily competitive travel and tourism sector, the
marketing function plays an important role of strategy formulation. These strategies are
focused on the diverse business management operations such as product promotion, pricing,
and distribution processes (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). The BA marketing managers are
responsible for identifying the diverse needs within the travel market as well as the consumer
trends in the travel sector. This is crucial to ensuring that the marketing function of the
company is able to create effective strategies that can promote and enhance the business
products and overall sales (Kotler et al, 2018).
Through market studies, the marketing function of the company is able to gather valuable
customer feedback through various approaches such as customer interviews and surveys. As
such, the marketing function is able to acknowledge the trends, tastes and preferences of the
travellers (De Mooij, 2018). The information gathered through this processes in vital to
ensuring that the company is able to design products and services that are up to date and meet
the consumer needs and preferences thus ensuring customers satisfaction. Furthermore, the
company is also able to improve on its development as a brand as well as ensuring that the
company products compete favourably in the market (Armstrong et al, 2018).
For the company to be able to generate effective market operation strategies, the company
monitors the various changes in the market trends and market environment (Chaffey and
Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The role of monitoring the market environment is imperative to
ensuring the company is able to make strategic changes timely to suit the market changes.
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
This is usually achieved through research and analysis of the market at regular intervals
(Shaw, 2016).
As a business operating in different multinational markets, monitoring is an important role
that ensures the company is able to adapt its operations. This will make certain that they suit
the diverse market needs unique to different markets such as demographic trends, economic,
political traits as well as the legal and socio-cultural traits of the market (Armstrong et al,
2018).
The interrelation between marketing and other functional units at British Airways
The core role and purpose of the British airways marketing function is based around the
promotional aspects of the company products and sales volumes (Shaw, 2016). However, the
company objectives associated with this aspects can prove difficult to accomplish when the
marketing unit of the company works in isolation. As such, it is imperative that the marketing
functions undertakes its roles in collaboration with other functional units of the company in
order to collaboratively facilitate effective accomplishment of the common or overall
business objectives (Kotler et al, 2017).
The British airways slogan “To Fly’ To Serve” highlights the company’s aim of ensuring that
their customers are not only provided with the transportation services, but also satisfied with
the company services (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). As such, the key goal of the company
is not limited to the provision of services to the travellers but also provision of high quality
services.
The marketing unit of BA monitors and evaluates the diverse changes in the market
environment within the aviation industry. This is accomplished through market studies that
provide them with in-depth insight on the market needs and trends (Keegan, 2017). However,
they lack the capacity to change business products to suit the market. As such, it is vital that
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
the marketing unit collaborates with the production function of the company. For instance,
the competitive strategy for both the British Airways and the Fly Emirates entails
differentiation, by analysing the market trends, the Fly Emirates airlines were the first airline
company to introduce TV services for all classes of their flights (Morrison, 2018). While BA
marketing unit may also find an innovative differentiation strategy, they would have to seek
the services of the production unit to actualise the strategy as they are the ones with the
resources and capabilities to make such changes on the panes. For example, the marketing
function of BA relied on its production and maintenance unit to install the Euro Traveller
cabin on all of its narrow bodied planes as well as the next generation Club World seats on
their wide bodied planes (Keegan, 2017).
The various operations undertaken by the marketing unit of the BA require funding in order
to succeed. For instance, the marketing function recommended and advocated for the need for
more comfort on the BA aircrafts in order to effectively compete and meet the luxury needs
of the contemporary travellers (De Mooij, 2018). However, In order to accomplish this, BA
had to install the next generation Club world seats on the company long haul wide bodied
aircrafts. While it was the novelty and in-depth market studies by the marketing unit that led
to this development, it was the accounting and finance department that facilitated the
accomplishment of this novelty by providing the financial resources required to the
production units through budgetary allocations (Kotler et al, 2018).
The finance department of the company plays an important role of facilitating the various
undertaking of the marketing unit (Keegan, 2017). For instance, in celebration of the British
Airways ninetieth year in operations and a new slogan in 2011, the marketing unit launched
the company’s biggest ever advertising campaign that entailed a 90 second cinematic
advertisement on the company’s heritage. This was only made possible through funding from
the company’s finance department.
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
Conducting market research is an expensive venture. Considering that the British airways
operates in over 183 destinations, each of these routes experiences its unique market
conditions. As such, the marketing function must be properly funded by the finance and
accounting units of the company in order to get the necessary resources they need to study all
these markets effectively (Bowie et al, 2016). For instance the market environment in New
York is dissimilar to that of Berlin. The distance differences and socio-cultural aspects of the
tourists visiting the UK from both locations necessitate different measures. For instance with
the flights from New York being longer, larger planes that are more comfortable are
customarily used on the route as compare with the Euro traveller smaller planes flying to
Berlin. As such, studying the markets can enable the company identify the needs of different
markets and how to address them (Shaw, 2016). However, the market researches must be
provided with sufficient financial backing to conduct the studies effectively.
The mutual interrelation between the human resource function of the company and the
marketing function is key to the success of the marketing unit (Morrison, 2018). The
complexities of market analysis and strategy development requires very experienced and
highly skilled personnel for the British airways in order to succeed in the aviation industry.
As such the BA HR unit is tasked with the role of ensuring that the company’s marketing
function has enough competent workforce to fulfil its roles.
On the other hand, the marketing function of the company has the responsibility of analysing
market conditions and predicting the high and low seasons of the travel and tourism needs
(Bowie et al, 2016). As such, it is able to advise the HR function on the possible projections
of service demand in order for the HR unit to prepare in advance. For instance, in the event
there is a probable significant influx of travellers to the UK, based on informed
recommendations from the marketing unit, the HR is able to adjust the number of short-term
contract employees to address the increased demand (Morrison, 2018).
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
COMPARISON OF THE APPLICATION OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE
MARKETING MIX (7PS) BETWEEN BRITISH AIRWAYS AND THE EMIRATES
AIRLINES
The marketing mix delves into the various aspects of marketing that focus on the
development of an effective and efficient program aimed at improving an organisation’s
presence in a market and its profitability (Armstrong et al, 2018). When the basic elements of
the marketing mix are strategically applied by an organisation, they are in turn able to
enhance their prospects of accomplishing their sales objectives (Taneja, 2017). As such, it is
imperative that the BA adopts an incorporated marketing approach. This is for the reason that
the company will be able to not only balance its demand and supply needs in the market but
also enhance various aspects of its marketing mix regarding its products, processes, price,
people, promotion and physical environment.
Similar to British Airways, the emirates is a state owned airline company. Founded in 1985,
the airline company is also international and is based in Dubai United Arab emirates.
However, there are similarities as well as differences in the approach that is used and the
ways the two airline companies apply the elements of the marketing mix (Wilson et al, 2016).
Element British Airways Emirates Airlines
Product The company offers its customers high
quality products across its fleet of over
295 planes. The company flies to
various destinations globally while
offering travellers with various inflight
services such as drinks, meals and
entertainment (Wilson et al, 2016).
Their next generation seats ensure
comfort for its passengers as well as
timely arrivals through scheduled
The emirates airlines maintains a large
fleet of planes and a consistent high
standard services. The company focuses
on luxury and comfort. For instance it
was the first airline to supply
customised video entertainment services
in all classes of its aircrafts (O’Brien,
2019).
The seats in their business class have
wide head rests and are partitioned for
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
flights. With associations across the
various airports, BA passengers are
offered exclusive services at their
executive lounges in different
international airports (Taneja, 2017).
privacy.
Place Despite the company being
headquartered in London, the company
has subsidiary operating bases in each
of its destinations to ensure effective
and efficient operations. As such,
working collaboratively with the local
airports as well as the international
ones, the company is able to have a
presence in over 190 destinations.
The main channel of distribution for BA
is through call centres, travel agents and
the BA websites (Taneja, 2017).
All operations are managed from its
headquarters in Dubai. The company
operates in six continents with over 78
destinations. One of its major
distinction is the company’s unique
operation of non-stop flights over the
longest international routes such as
Dubai to Houston and los Angeles in
US (O’Brien, 2019).
The company distribution strategy is
based on ticketing through travel agents,
and tour operators.
Price The company shrewdly keeps its
pricing policy thus ensuring that all
classes of people are accommodated by
the company’s diverse services. As
such, their pricing is directly related to
the quality of services offered in
different classes. This way, the
customers are the ultimate decision
makers on the amounts they wish to
spend on a flight (Haider et al, 2017).
For instance, customers can get tickets
at the base price without extra value
added benefits or procure different
custom services at a higher price.
Economy pricing offers customers low
cost services, the medium value pricing
Dubai being a link to both the east and
the west, the emirates is able to offer
low cost tickets to its customers. Its
direct flights to various destinations
enables it to maintain a stable pricing
policy.
The high volumes of travellers seeking
direct flights has enabled the company
to maintain lower prices when
compared to organisations offering
similar products (O’Connell and Bueno,
2018).
The dynamic pricing of the company
caters for travellers of all classes.
However, using premium pricing, the
company offers exclusive highly
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
offers people services with fringe
benefits while the premium pricing is
for people preferring high end service
benefits
luxurious services for its rich customers.
Promoti
on
The company uses various approaches
to promote its products such as
advertising, sponsorships and discounts
(Atwal and Williams, 2017). For
instance, the company offers special
prices in the name of Christmas gift
vouches, was the official airline for the
Wimbledon championship tennis
tournament and 2012 summer Olympics
(Haider et al, 2017).
The company’s slogan “fly Emirates.
Keep Discovering” is very apt. as such,
the company leverages it during its
promotions through sports sponsorships.
For instance the company sponsors
arsenal and PSG football clubs as part
of its European marketing strategy
(O’Brien, 2019). The special package
for parents that allows them to travel
with two children under the age of 16
also promotes the company as a brand.
Process The BA focuses on employee
recruitment and training as well as other
processes such as flight booking and
cargo handling (Hanlon, 2017). The
robust training and selection processes
has enabled the company to enhance its
services across all its operations.
The Emirates airline undertake similar
processes such as the BA. These include
flight booking, recruitment and training.
However, the high standards and robust
mandatory training programs for the
airline has enabled the company to
stand out in terms of flight service
quality (O’Connell and Bueno, 2018).
People Under its chairman and CEO Alex
Cruz, the BA has a large and diverse
workforce. The employees of the
company are compensated for their
services in addition to social benefits
and career development programs that
help in building the company’s repute
as a good workplace and overall brand
image (Hanlon, 2017).
With a diverse workforce of employees
from over 160 nationalities, emirates
airlines is able to cater for all its
passengers in different routes with ease.
This is because of their ability to
communicate with passengers from
different cultures and languages
(O’Brien, 2019).
Physical Both the emirates airline and the British airways have very user friendly websites.
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
Evidenc
e
This is evident in their ease of use with appropriate images and videos that add
beauty and direct users creating a good physical environment.
The British airways and emirates airlines cabin crews wear unique and stylish
uniforms in addition to a standard code of practice. As such they are easily
recognisable in flights (O’Connell and Bueno, 2018).
Both companies have stylish high quality offices and lounges that enhance the
comfort of the travellers as well as easily recognisable aircrafts due to their unique
large Logos painted on the sides of their planes.
Table 1: comparison of the elements of the marketing mix.
BASIC MARKETING PLAN FOR BA
Company overview
The BA has a few challenges in how they adopt their marketing mix to suit the constantly
changing market environments. As such, with the intense competition in the airline industry,
it is imperative that the company develops a workforce that can leverage the contemporary
employability skills to highly perform in a demanding and competitive market environment
(Halpern, 2016). This will make certain that the company is able to not only effectively
compete in the market but also develop their brand image due to enhanced customer
consummation.
Company mission and slogan
The company slogan being “to Fly. To Serve” means that the company is focused on not only
facilitating air travel but also ensuring that they serve their customers by meeting their
expectations through quality service (Halpern, 2016). As such the company adopts various
practices that focus on ensuring that the company offers the best standards of services in the
country as well as internationally.
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
Situational analysis
Through analysis of the business environment the BA has been able to maintain stability in
its market operations. The British airways relies on technologies to increase the efficiency of
their service delivery as well as providing value added services. However, there have been
concerns in recent times on the working conditions of BA employees (Atwal and Williams,
2017). This has led to industrial actions and Go-slows that affected the company’s brand
image internationally. Furthermore, inconsistent service delivery and quality has affected the
company. As such, BA must adopt various approaches that can help improve their employee
performances in order to enhance their repute and service quality (Atwal and Williams,
2017).
Objectives
The objective of the marketing plan is to enhance the service delivery and service quality at
BA. This will increase the brands reputation and brand image internationally (Chaffey and
Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
Marketing strategy
The marketing strategy that will be adopted by BA will be based on the People element of the
marketing mix. This will encompass extensive and robust mandatory training of the company
staff. As such, the company’s HR will develop an elaborate and modern training program that
will ensure that the employee skills are up-to-date with the current market needs (O’Connell
and Bueno, 2018). As such, employees will be competent enough to provide the best services
and contemporary industry practices.
Budget
With the company making significant revenue increments consistently, the company will
invest £500,000 in the training program. This will entail the facilitation of the diverse training
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
program for the cabin crew and pilots, as well as the office and backroom staff such as
mechanics, cargo handlers and front of the office staff (O’Connell and Bueno, 2018).
Control
Department managers will be responsible for evaluating the actual performance of the
employees. This will be accomplished though performance appraisal and supervisions after
each stage of the training is completed (Halpern, 2016).
CONCLUSION
The marketing function of each organisation is key to the success and growth of the
organisation. It is through effective marketing that organisations operating in competitive
industries are able to ensure perpetual sustainability. This is evident in the longevity of the
British airways in the airline industry. As such business organisation must strive to adopt the
best marketing strategies and practices. This report has successfully discussed and analysed
the various aspects and concepts of marketing such as the marketing mix, marketing plans
and the role of marketing in travel and tourism.
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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
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