First Choice Marketing Strategies: Analysis & Implementation Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing strategies within the travel and tourism sector, focusing on First Choice, a UK-based travel operator. It begins by discussing the core concepts of marketing, including needs and wants, products and services, value, satisfaction, quality, exchange, transactions, relationships, and markets. The report assesses the impact of the marketing environment, using PEST and SWOT analyses, on First Choice and its tourist destinations, specifically Turkey and Spain, considering political, economic, social, and technological factors. It also examines the factors affecting consumer motivation and demand, such as personal, family, social, and situational influences. Furthermore, the report delves into the principles of market segmentation, including geographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation, and their uses in marketing planning at First Choice. The importance of strategic marketing planning for First Choice, with a focus on segmentation, profiling, and development, is analyzed, along with the relevance of marketing research and market information to managers in the travel and tourism sector.

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................10
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................13
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................21
Appendix........................................................................................................................................24
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Introduction
In this jeopardized business environment, every organization is trying to stable their business
sustainability in all sectors. Among the developing sectors in UK, travel and tourism is an identical
one and it has the larger contribution to country's economic growth. Therefore, marketers are
applying different concepts and techniques to retain more customers for maintaining the profitable
growth. First Choice is a UK-based travel operator brand and a subsidiary of TUI group. In 1973, the
organization started their business as a travel agent. This assignment is focused on the core
conception of marketing tactic and importance of it in Tourism company based o the case scenario of
First Cook. Marketing and promotional mix strategies also highlighted through the support of key
findings in regards to current industrial status.
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Task 1
P1.1 Discuss the core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector
Marketing is a set of activities that enable organisations to communicate their offered products
and services to potential customers in an effort to drive their sales and increase their market share
(Armstrong et al., 2015). The set of activities that encompass marketing are therefore vast.
However, the key marketing activities revolve around certain key concepts that have been
described below:
Needs and wants
Needs and wants are innate human qualities that drive the demand for products and services.
Needs and wants arise from the lack of a certain qualities in one’s life and it is the amount of
resources the person has that determines whether or not they can demand for the product or
service that fulfils it (Armstrong et al., 2014). In the travel and tourism sector, the demand for
tourism services arise from people’s desires to go on holidays and travel to certain places for
them.
Products and services
Every industry offers certain product or services to people that demand them. The travel and
tourism sector mostly focus on providing services and is one of the largest service industries,
contributing more than 7 trillion USD the global economy in 2017 (Statista, 2018). The range of
services, range from transportation, hospitality, touring and many others.
Value, Satisfaction and quality
It is of the utmost importance that the products and services provided to consumers be of
satisfactory quality to ensure their repeated investments in them. The services provided to
travellers and tourists must therefore satisfy them thoroughly and provide tangible value in the
eyes of the consumers.
Exchange, transaction and relationships
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It is the core objective of marketing to stimulate exchanges and transactions between consumers
and organisations. Therefore, a number of strategies have been devised to ensure increase in the
number of sales and sustain the customer base. Relationship marketing focuses on creating
relationships between consumers and organisations, thereby ensuring their continued trust and
loyalty in the organisation (Zhanget al., 2016).
Markets
The market of a product is the key relevant factor that drives the marketing strategies to be
implemented (Armstrong et al., 2015). The market consists of current as well as potential
customers of the organisation. Therefore, travel and tourism organisations must first identify the
markets, asses their needs, create services that fulfil them and then market them effectively to
potential customers.
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P1.2 Assess the impact of the marketing environment on individual travel and tourism
businesses such as First Choice and tourist destinations with reference to Turkey and Spain
The environment a certain travel and tourism company operates in dramatically affects its modes
of operations and the strategies it implements (Lawet al., 2015). The environment of an
organisation can be divided into two distinct parts, namely the micro and macro environment.
The micro environment involves the internal factors that affect the organisation, while the macro
environment consists of the external factors. To assess the impact of these factors, a PEST and
SWOT analysis of First Choice and its offered tourist destinations have been conducted.
PEST:
The PEST analysis consists of Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors that dictate
an organisation’s operations. The framework applied to First Choice and its proposed
destinations in Turkey and Spain have been discussed below:
Political
First Choice is dependent on the political environments in their country of operations for their
continued operations. The company must also consider the political situations in their offered
tourist destinations. Both Spain and Turkey have gone through significant political turmoil in the
past few years. The attempted coup d'état in Turkey has propelled the country into substantial
political instability, while the Catalonia crisis in Spain has turned into a constitutional crisis for
the country (Esen and Gumuscu, 2017).
Economic
The economic state of the country determines the level of demand for any travel and tourism
organisation. First Choice must also consider the economic conditions of its chosen destinations,
which dictate a multitude of factors including security, availability of resources, infrastructure
etc.
Social
The social factors that First Choice must consider are the cultural norms in their country
compared to that of the chosen destinations. The company must ensure that their guests are
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comfortable with their destinations and vice-versa. Spain, being in Europe has considerably
similar culture to that of the UK, but the same cannot be said for Turkey. Thus, the company
must ensure their guests are comfortable in Turkey and are compatible with their culture.
Technological
First Choice must keep itself updated on all the relevant technologies that are used in the modern
travel and tourism industry. The company must embrace the use of digital technologies such as
online booking systems, cloud computing technologies and must have a strong social media
presence. These would ensure that the company does not fall behind their rivals and gains an
effective market share.
The internal factors can be determined with the help of a SWOT analysis, which has been
conducted below:
Strengths Weaknesses
 High demand for travel and tourism
industry
 Large customer base
 Good track record
 High competition in the market
 Dependent on suppliers
 Relatively small share of market
Opportunity Threats
 Increasing number of travellers and
tourists
 Providing internet-based services
 Expanding into other markets
 Political instability in the chosen
destinations.
 Shifting consumer preferences
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P1.3 Discuss the factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and
tourism sector
Consumer motivation and demand is determined by the following key factors:
Personal and family influences
These include the age of the consumer, their family life cycle, their gender. People in certain age
groups go to specific locations for holidays. Consumers can also be segmented according to their
genders; men are more likely to travel alone and chase adventurous holidays while women are
more likely to travel leisurely and go to resorts and spas. Their age and stage in the family
determines their chosen destination and activities to a large extent (Grunert et al., 2014).
Social and situational influences
Social and situational influences include their nationalities, their profession and their societal
standing and income group. The nationality of a person can impose language and legal barriers
upon the consumer. Their profession might not offer them much leisure time and their income
group ultimately decide whether or not they can afford the services they want.
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P1.4 Analyse the principles of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning at
First Choice
The market of any industry can be divided into segments that allow for better targeting and
efficiency in operations. The key principles that organisations can use to segment the market are
discussed below:
Geographic Segmentation
Geographic segmentation divides the market on the basis of the individual consumer’s
geographic background. This can include broad divisions such as continents and countries to
minute segmentations such as cities and neighbourhoods (Liu et al., 2018). The geographic
location of a consumer determines a host of factors such as their cultural background, economic
status etc. Thus, First Choice can assess the specific needs and wants of each of their geographic
segments and devise specific services for them.
Psychographic segmentation
Physiographic segmentation divides consumers along the lines of their social class, their lifestyle
choices and their personalities. First Choice can use these segments to determine which
advertising techniques they can employ that would ensure maximum brand outreach to people
most likely to purchase their services.
Behavioural segmentation
The behaviours of consumers consist of the benefits they perceive in products, the qualities they
look for in products and services, their experience with the service, frequency of use, their
loyalty to the brand and their buying readiness (Liuet al., 2018). This segmentation can be
utilised by First Choice to determine the behaviours of their most loyal consumers and the
factors that affect that.
All of these segmentation techniques can be used simultaneously by First Choice to determine
the attributes that would enable them effectively leverage themselves to specific markets that
have a higher chance of purchasing their services and consequentially increase their market
share.
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Task 2
P2.1 Analyse the importance of strategic marketing planning for a selected travel and tourism
business (First Choice) or tourist destination (either Turkey or Spain).
Organizations primarily achieve their target mission and vision through the support of strategic
marketing. As commented by David et al., (2017), segmentation, profiling and development are
the two important components for achieving proper market growth. Spain has been a touristic
country for many years and the previous report reflected that the number of visitors increased to
57.7 million during 2012-13. Border Tourist Movement Survey publishes this report. However,
marketing o product is different from tourism marketing. It is related to destination image of the
country, where national branding is an important marketing approach. In the viewpoint of
McCamley and Gilmore (2018), the brand is a mental schema for the countries and consumers.
In this context, strategic marketing is linked with place branding strategies, which is referred to
improvement in place image. Therefore, First Choice can get positive market stability through
applying important marketing concepts.
Segmentation
Segmentation is a primary marketing process, where organization becomes able to narrow the
large base customers into the smaller group based on the consumer's perception. For First Choice
Group, segmentation is important for opting best service facilities for the consumers, who are
actually want to use it. According to Kipnis and Broderick (2017), segmentation activity is a part
of the marketing mix for marinating positive market communication within specific consumer
set.
Profiling
Profiling strategy primarily adopted for segmenting the customers based on the revenue
generation capability. It is supportive for the first choice for developing the strategy
segmentation within Spain market. In addition, profiling can be structured here based on the
consumer’s taste and their buying power. In this section, First Choice can identify their market
position in comparison to other competitors within the market.
Strategic Development
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In this stage, First Choice can develop the specific marketing plan for their holiday destination
package in Spain. Here marketing strategy can be decided for identifying the organizational
capability to achieve mass marketing through direct as well as indirect sells. In addition, through
this stage, the First choice can ensure various facilities on tactical marketing that can provide the
advantage to an overall plan. According to Line and Runyan (2014), proper planning can convey
the consistent message to the consumers, which can proportionally enhance the operational
efficiency. In addition, through the strategic marketing plan, First Choice can minimize their
expenses for profitable gather growth in Spain market.
P2.2 Discuss the relevance of marketing research and market information to managers in
the travel and tourism sector with reference to First Choice
First Choice has effectively undertaken the market research in an effective manner and this
would help them to understand the different taste and preferences of the customers. This would
help them to analyse and strategise the ways in which they should develop the tourism. This can
also be used in order to develop the services that they offer its customers. This in turn would also
help them to develop their packages of 2019 tour to Spain and Turkey. They can develop their
services and attract more customers in the market. In the view point of Babin and Zikmund,
(2015), the concept of Ecotourism has become one of the most craving trends among the
customers or the visitors and therefore undertaking proper research, First Choice can make
proper arrangements for the eco-tourism in this case.
The equipments of the market research system are mainly used in order to study the behaviour of
the visitors who are going to use the services of the organisation. The study enhances the
information regarding the changing trends of the customers (Lamberton and Stephen, 2016). In
addition to this, it would help First Choice to develop the strategies and the policies that are
being used by their competitors so that their services can achieve the competitive advantage in
the market thereby enhancing the quality of the services that are being offered to the customers.
This in turn would also help in expanding their business in an effective manner. The company
has also focused on conducting online surveys and interviews of the customers so that they can
understand the demands existing in the market. This in turn would also help them to study
regarding the countries, Turkey and Spain so that they can design the travel packages
accordingly.
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P2.3 Assess the influence of marketing on society
Social and cultural responsibility
Positive impact: it has been observed that tourism has been able to generate job opportunities to
several of the people in the locality. Therefore, the people or the community of the country has
also supported the tourism industry by maintaining the beauty and culture of the places.
Negative impact: as increase in the visitor’s leads to the shifting of the local citizens, it leads to
the disruption of the local people.
Environmental
Positive impact: the concept of marketing has also evolved the ideologies like eco-tourism that
has enabled them to be eco friendly. The tour operators have also started their eco-tourism and
plants more trees to continue with the process.
Negative impact: as the level of tourism has increased, it has led to the damaging of the
environment including the increase in the wastage being dumped in the soil and air (Jaiswal and
Gupta, 2015). The eco-system is getting damaged due to the increase in the level of tourism in
specific countries.
Economic
Positive impact: the tourism helps country to generate more revenue and in turn it enhances the
economy of the country (Lusch and Vargo, 2014). It generates job opportunities for the local
people, increases the gross national income and increases the industrialization.
Negative impact: as the government is supporting the tourism industry this can also result in
investing on other factors for their development. Thus, this can disturb the economic growth.
Ethics
Positive impact: the marketing would also enable First Choice to maintain its promises and help
to retain the expectations of the visitors. The ethical value of Spain and Turkey must be complied
with by First Choice.
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