Marketing Plan and Analysis of Thomas Cook

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Thomas Cook's marketing plan, including its promotion techniques, online delivery process, physical evidence, and people. The report also compares the company's marketing mix with that of its competitors, highlighting the differences between them. This is useful for students studying travel and tourism marketing, as it provides a real-world example of how a company approaches its marketing strategy.

Marketing Essentials for
Travel and Tourism

ACTIVITY 2
INTRODUCTION
This report is based on the marketing essentials topic for TUI group, UK. It is an travel
and tourism company that deals in services like airlines, ticket booking facilities, Holiday
packages, Hotels and Resorts etc. The report will include the Marketing Plan for dealing up with
the competition by organization in the market. The report will also include the comparison of
marketing mix of two organizations in same industry.
Marketing Plan
Executive summary- In order to beat the competition in the industry, TUI group is planning to
add up new features in its services list. The new feature will be adding of 3 sightseeing locations
in London and the company will provide the sightseeing experience to the people along with its
basic services. This marketing plan is based on tis new service launch concept of TUI group and
will contain the company objectives along with the situational analysis describing company’s
strengths and weaknesses. It will include marketing mix of new product and services launch and
the budget of launching it as well as monitoring and controlling measures.
Vision and mission- The mission statement of TUI group is “Putting Smiles on people’s Faces”.
The statement states that the company aim to provide customers an unforgettable experience
during their vacations.
Objectives- The objectives of this plan are stated below-
 To increase the customer base of 5% of the current one, till the end of first quarter.
 To increase the sales revenue of 10% after adding up this service list and at the end of
2019.
 To increase the company’s overall profitability for about 5% at the end of 2020.
STP-
Segmentation- Middle class and upper class of people.
Target group- Age group of 20 and above population.
Positioning- Premium service offerings.
SWOT analysis-
Strengths Weaknesses
 The company has fleet of aircrafts and High intensity of competition from other
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chartered planes that fly over more than
150 destinations across the world.
 High Profitability rate.
 Major hold and domination over UK
and France markets.
 More than 50000 workforces of
employees.
 Unique and customized holiday
packages.
companies and limited brand loyalty(Vellas,
2016).
 Social and cultural issues worldwide in
managing offices.
Opportunities Threats
 Travel and booking applications for
holidays and other services.
 Business expansion in emerging
markets.
 Risk of foreign exchanges, interests and
political environment of different
countries.
 Economic policies of different
countries and the issues regarding
inflation rates and purchasing power of
individuals.
Marketing Mix-
Product- The products will include- Tourism at London that will include Photo stop at
Buckingham Palace, Saint Paul Cathedral, river Thames and entrance to London eye. The
destinations outside London will include Windsor Castle, Lunch in English Pub in Salisbury and
entrance to Stonehenge. The customers will be picked from Hotel while informing them before
the time in order to ensure that the arrival and departures are on time. Customers will be guided
by professionals regarding the place during the course of visit.
Price- The prices offered will be based on the equivalent prices of the other Tour operators and
competitors to ensure the demand for the products. The company will adopt competitive pricing
strategy and the price will be included in the package holiday service list.
Place- he company has its 650 retail shops in London which is a major competitive advantage
for the company. However, the services will be offered at 3 sightseeing destinations in London.
The services will be offered to the customers worldwide.
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Promotion- The promotion of this service will be done through the advertising activities on the
TUI websites for attracting the new as well as existing customers. He banners and Brochures will
be placed at all TUI hotels in London to promote this service offered by company. Also, Social
media marketing will be preferred in the list of advertising this service by TUI(Reino and Hay,
2016).
People- There will be different teams of individuals for this service delivery. A group of
professional guides, a team of IT staff, Logistics team and other teams in relation to Transport
and operations will be formed to undertake this process.
Process- TUI will ensure the making of Time able and the schedule of activities and will monitor
the process is followed along with the product delivery of holiday packages. A support staff team
will ensure the timey arrival at places and ensure that the activities are done on time t avoid any
delays.
Physical Evidence- The retail shops and offices of TUI will be served as physical evidence of
the company products and services.
Budget-
Particulars Amount (Monthly) £
Transportation expenses 2000
Salaries to Guides 2000
Other Expenses 1000
Total 6000 per month
Monitoring and controlling-
The monitoring and controlling of the activities will be don through supervision of the
activities and the evaluation of the financial statements of the company by observation of te
revenue fluctuations after implementing this service offering. The reviews of the customer will
also be taken in order to make the modifications in the services. A team of experts will monitor
the entire process and will be responsible for any sort of issues occurred.
Comparison of marketing mix of the organizations.
7 Ps TUI group Thomas Cook
Product TUI deals in 5 types of product Thomas cook is the Travel and
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categories that includes Holiday
packages, airline services, Hotels
and accommodation, Ticket
Booking facilities and Resorts etc.
Tourism company and deal in the
products and services like charter
airlines, Hotel bookings, Tour
operator etc.
Price The company follows competitive
pricing strategy and generally the
prices of the products and services
are higher as compared to
competitors so that it can build a
premium brand image(Camilleri,
2018).
The company offers its products and
services by offering them at affordable
rates that are generally lower than the
competitors. This makes the company
earn higher profitability and the
revenues around 7,834 million pounds
and the net income of 19 million
pounds.
Place TUI group has more than 500
retailers in UK and also has its
online website which makes he
company provide access to the
customer from different countries.
Thomas Cook has its presence in
different countries like UK, Egypt,
Greece, Spain, Caribbean, Italy, India,
US and other countries of Asia and
Europe. The company has wide
distribution channel various European
countries as well consists of 2936
stores and 97 aircrafts to serve its
customers worldwide.
Promotion TUI group depends on multiple
media for its promotion of products
and services. The company uses
traditional promotion technique
such as hoardings and banners on its
Hotels, television advertisements
and other activities. It alo uses
social media marketing,
advertisements on social sites and
Thomas Cook spends a lot in its
marketing activities to increase its
brand awareness. It uses various
media channels such as radio, print
media, television, billboards,
newspapers and travel magazines etc.
The company has also launched its
social media campaigns on Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, Travel blogs
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over its own websites etc to promote
its products and services.
etc(Xiang and et.al., 2015
).
Process The company has an online delivery
process in its business operations
the company collects the payments
online through online bookings and
the services are offered on the travel
date by the customers accordingly
The services are delivered through
online booking system over the
website as well as the offline stores
present across the countries. The
process is same as an ordinary travel
company.
Physical evidence The company has its retail stores in
London and also consists of its
websites that shows its physical
evidence.
The stores present in different
countries act as a physical evidence
for Thomas Cook.
People The sales team of TUI group plays
an important role in marketing
activities, the company consists of
50000 employees worldwide who
work interconnected with all the
branches of TUI group.
Thomas cook consists the team of
different departments that operates
together and integrate their efforts to
perform its business operations. The
company consists of 37,722 capable
employees as apart of Thomas Cook.
CONCLUSION
From this report it is summarized regarding the framing of marketing plan and adding up
of new services in the list of offerings by the company and how the objectives will lead to the
success through tis concept by the company. Further the report concludes by comparing the
marketing mix of the company and its competitor and evaluating the difference between them.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product. An
introduction to theory and practice. Springer.
Reino, D. and Hay, B., 2016. The use of YouTube as a tourism marketing tool.
Vellas, F., 2016. The international marketing of travel and tourism: A strategic approach.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Xiang and et.al., 2015. Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism:
Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 22, pp.244-249.
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