Marketing Essentials Report: Marketing Mix and Planning for Tourism

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing essentials within the travel and tourism sector, using Thomas Cook as a case study. The introduction defines marketing and its significance, followed by an explanation of the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Thomas Cook, a major player in the industry. It explores the interrelation of the marketing function with other organizational departments like finance and human resources. The report then delves into a comparative analysis of how Thomas Cook and Ryanair, a competitor, apply the marketing mix (7Ps) to achieve business objectives, providing a detailed comparison across product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. Finally, the report culminates in the production of a basic marketing plan tailored for a travel and tourism organization, aiming to meet specific marketing objectives. The report aims to provide a clear understanding of marketing principles and their practical application in the travel and tourism industry.

Marketing Essentials

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within a selected travel and
tourism organisation................................................................................................................................3
P2. Discuss how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context......4
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................................5
P3. Compare the ways in which different travel and tourism organisations apply the marketing mix to
the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives..............................................................5
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................................8
P4. Produce a basic marketing plan for a travel and tourism organisation to meet marketing objectives
organisation.............................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is considered as an important function of business as it helps in influencing
customers choice and enhance sales. This can be define as business actions that includes
advertisements and promotion of products and services (Baker and Magnin, 2016). It is a process
of identifying needs and wants of customers as well as communicating features of company’s
products and services. Chosen company for this report is Thomas Cook. This is a British
company which is dealing travel and tourisms sector. This company was founded in 1841 and
headquarter of Thomas cook company is located in London, England, UK. This company is
providing various products and services such as holiday packages, cruise line, hotels, resorts,
flights and many more. This report consist of role of marketing function in travel and tourism
business as well as interrelation of marketing function with other functions of organisation.
respective report consist of marketing mix of 7 P’s and it comparison with other company which
is dealing in same sector. Apart from this, marketing plan is developed for travel and tourism
business in order to meet with the needs and requirements of market.
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing
function within a selected travel and tourism organisation
Marketing concept can be described as those philosophies of management which help
organisation to attain its set targets as well as increase sales. It is a proposes that emprises that
business success is dependent on efforts of company which includes delivering valuable products
to company. Marketing refers to one of the most important function of organisations as it helps
in attracting more and more customers as well as influencing them to purchase products.
Marketing is a process which includes creating, developing, designing as well as communicating
valuable products to targeted customers. Company cannot achieve its desired goals and
objectives without effective and efficient functioning of marketing. Companies dealing in travel
and tourism sector needs to analyse and evaluate external environment in order to conduct
business activates in effective and efficient manner. There are various factor of external
environment such as market trends, customer’s needs, rules and regulations, society and many
more which can have positive as well as negative impact on Thomas Cooks business.
Current and future marketing trends will help in attracting and influencing targeted customers
towards Thomas cooks business. Currents trends of travel and tourism sector includes social
media marketing, digital marketing as well as providing information to customers thought emails
and messages. Future trends of marketing in respective sector consist of providing personalised
advertisements to customer on the bases of their needs and wants (Boschetti and Massaron,
2015). Role of marketing function in this sector in to provide information to customer in creative
manner so that they will be attractive towards products and services of Thomas Cook company.
Marketing process includes different elements such as analysis, strategic planning and marketing
mix. All of these are crucial components of marketing process as well as helps in effective and
efficient functioning of marketing process. Marketing process of Thomas Cook is mention below
in detail.

Analysis: Thomas cook company have to analyse and evaluate the market environment in order
to conduct business activities in more effective manner. This is can be consider as a first step of
marketing process as in this company needs to understand and analyse customer’s equipments.
Strategic planning: In this step of market process company have to develop effective strategic
plan for development of business. Developed strategic plan should be new and innovative in
order to attract targeted customers.
Marketing Mix: This includes four different elements of marketing such as product, price, place
as wel as promotions. All of these are crucial elements of marketing process and Thomas cook
company needs to take accurate decisions regarding these components of marketing mix.
Different role of travel and tourism marketing
In this different role and responsibility of Thomas cook company marketing function
regarding business to consumer as well as business to business is mention below. These role of
marketing function will help in attracting customers as well as other business. Marketing roles
are very important in accomplished set goals.
Market research: This is consider as an important role of marketing functions as company
dealing in travel and tourism sector needs to have complete knowledge and understanding
business respective industry (Eng, 2017). Market research includes analysing and evaluating
needs and requirement of customers as well as market trends in order to improve products and
services of Thomas cook.
Developing strategies: Marketing function of Thomas cook is responsible for develop effective
strategies for welfare of organisation. Strategies will helps in attracting right set of potential
customer which help in improving sale and profits of respective company.
Developing and designing: Thomas Cook company have to provide such products and serices
to its customers and clients which lead to resolve their problems and help in gaining satisfaction.
This is a role of marketing function to develop and design effective strategies that are able to
meet with the requirement of company.
By performing marketing roles and responsibilites in effecitve and efficient manner so
that Thoma Cook company can achive desired goals and objecitve. This will lead to increase in
overall performance of company in correct manner.
P2. Discuss how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate
to the wider organisational context
There are various functions of Thomas Cook organisation which helps in effective and efficient
functioning of organisations. Major function and department of respective company are human
resources, operations, marketing, production, finance and IT. It is important that each and every
function of company coordinate and interrelate with marketing department on order to achieve
desired goals and objectives. Interrelation of marketing department of Thomas Cook company
with other important functions are mention below in detail.

Interrelation of marketing with finance department
Finance is the main body of the organization. Finance department of the cadbory has set
some pricing for all the departments of the company. Function of marketing department is to do
research over marketplace, consumer, promotions, advertisements and distribution of products to
the customers. Marketing department of the company mainly focus on doing sales and to expand
it's business to gain a market share for the company who's budget is set by the finance
department. Market activities can be calculated in number of ways such as percentage of sales,
planning of budget needed to invest and other marketing plans (Halpern and Graham, 2013).
Thus all the decisions of the company is totally related to finance department. As marketing
department need funds for doing sales and expanding their business so it is the responsibilities of
finance department to arrange funds as early as possible. Hence, marketing and finance
department are closely link to each other.
Interrelation of marketing with human resource department
The prior function of the human resource department is to hire suitable employees for the
company and to give them training accordingly. Thus, this function of the human resource
management help marketing department to build a strong marketing team by hiring well
educated and talented candidates. Each and every member of the company help to grow its
company. Training session of the cadbory company help employees to gain knowledge about the
company. Marketing department has to work according to the HR. They have to work even when
any deviations or strategies are set by HR.
TASK 2
P3. Compare the ways in which different travel and tourism
organisations apply the marketing mix to the marketing
planning process to achieve business objectives
Marketing mix includes all those elements of marketing that helps in developing effective
strategies as well as gaining competitive advantages. It includes multiple area which focus on
creating marketing plan. Marketing mix consist of 7 P's such as products, prices, place,
promotion, people, process as well as physical evidences. It is important to compare these & P's
of Thomas cook company with its rival company that is Ryanair.
Basis of marketing mix Thomas Cook Ryanair
Product This is a travel company which
is providing different products
and services which is related to
travel and tour. Thomas cook
company products line
includes airline services, tour
provider, hotel services. Its
Product and services of this
company includes air travel to
European destinations.
Ryanair company is dealing in
airline services sector and its
is providing airline services.

products includes luxury
destinations, flights, foreign,
exchange facilities, hotel
details and services, cruise and
travel advice and facilities.
Price This company is targeting
selected segments who can
afford products and services of
Thomas cook company. Its
prices are set by considering
customer as well as services
that is provided by company
(Kongstvedt, 2013). Thomas
cook company pricing strategy
includes travel as well as other
financial services in order to
increase profits.
This is a very low budgeted
company which is providing
its products and services at
very cost. This pricing strategy
helps in attracting more and
more customers towards this
airline services. This helps in
gaining more profits and sales.
Place Thomas cook company is
providing its services to
different parts of the world.
This is offering tour services
of many international countries
includes Egypt, Greece, Spain
and many more. This company
is attracting customers of
different countries and offering
them various facilitates.
This company is providing its
services to different parts of
the Europe. Ryanair company
does not have any agents who
are generating sales for these
business so its customers can
contact through online
medium.
Promotion This company is aggressively
promoting its products and
services in order to provide
complete information to its
customers. promotional
strategy of this company
includes television, radio,
newspaper, travel magazines as
well as billboards at popular
places.
There are various promotional
methods used by this company
in order to increase sale as
well as earn profits. Ryanair
company is using online as
well as offline methods to
attract and influencing
customers (Malhotra, 2015).
this company is posting new
and creative advertisement on
different websites which have
impact on decision making of
customers.

People Thomas cook company is
dealing in a service sector so
its employees play a crucial
role in its business. These are
those people who are
responsible for conducting
business activities in effective
and efficient manner. There are
many employees who are
working with their full
capabilities and skills in order
to increase business and
achieve organisational
objectives.
People of this company is
considered as its employees
who are the most important
assets of the company. This
company is hiring highly
knowledge and capable
employees who can enhance
its business activities as well
as conduct its operations in
effective and efficient manner.
Process There are many process which
is used by Thomas cook
company in order to increase
its business and earn more
profits(Malhotra, Birks and
Wills, 2013). Its business
process include generating
leads through its creative and
innovative advertisements.
This company is taking care of
all the documentations that is
required during visa process
and well as currency
exchange.
Its business process is quite
simpler a compare to its rival
companies. this company is
only dealing in airline sector
which includes airline
services. Customer only have
to show hire passport as well
as reference number in order
to get a seat in flight.
Physical evidences Thomas cook company has
numbers of hotels which can
be considered as its physical
evidence. This company has
also launched a mobile
application that is providing
each and every detail to its
customers. all of these are
considered as a physical
evidence of respective
company.
Physical evidence of Ryanair
company includes its aircraft.
They are very expansive plan
which is highly maintained.
These aircraft and plans are
the physical evidence of
respective company.

TASK 3
P4. Produce a basic marketing plan for a travel and tourism
organisation to meet marketing objectives organisation.
Marketing plan includes all those activities that is necessary for outlining business
strategies as well as gain more profits. These plans are specially developed for conducting
business activities in effective and efficient manner. Marketing plan for a travel and tourism
company includes developing a smart objective which should be timely achieved by the
company (Nirschl and Steinberg, 2018). In this plan business environment as well as market
situation is clearly understand and analysed in order to develop effective and efficient marketing
strategies. A proper action plan is also developed in order to identify complete information about
the product and marketing budgets also created in order to estimate the cost that is required by
company in order to conduct marketing plan in effective manner.
Objective: This refers to aims and goal of a company that should be achieved by conducting
marketing plan in effective and efficient manner. It is important for Thomas cook company to
develop a SMART objective which should be achieve in specific time period. SMART objective
stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely achievement of goals.
Objective:
 To increase its market, share by expanding its business activates in new country in order
to increase 25% profits within six months.
 To increase sales of company by 30 % within 3 months’ time frame.
Situations: In order to achieve goals and objectives Thomas cook company needs to analyse and
evaluate all factors of business environment in order to develop effective and efficient strategies.
This company have to analyse internal and external environment so that they can identify
accurate situation (Pike, 2016). For this company needs to conduct SWOT analyse as this will
helps in identifying internal environment which includes strengths and weakness as well as
external environment that consist of opportunities and threats. Strengths: This is one of the leading and largest company in travel and tourism sector.
This company have various innovative and creative products and service in order to meet
with the requirement of target customers. Weaknesses: It's weakness is that it is only targeting potential customer which is able to
afford high prices. This affect the market share of Thomas cook company in negative
manner. Opportunities: There are various opportunities that is available to Thomas cook in
external business environment. Respective company can improve its market share by
expanding service to new market area and segment.
 Threats: This company is dealing in a high competitive environment so other strong rival
companies can be considering as its biggest threat.

Strategy: After analysing market situation and evaluating business environment Thomas cook
company should develop strong and effective strategies in order to achieve set objectives
(Puddle, 2015). Effective strategies could be developed through analysing segment which
company is targeting as well as positioning strategies should be developed in order to attract
more and more costumes.
Segmentation: This refers to a process of dividing large number of customers into
smaller parts. There are many customers with different needs and wants so it is important to
categories customer on the based on their requirements and sub divide it into small segments.
Segmentation is important in analysing target customers.
Targeting: This is important in analyse the targeted audience as per market segment.
Thomas cook company is targeting customers who have potential to effort expensive products
and services. It is expanding its business to new market area of Europe that is Poland. This is
targeting that customer who are interest in travelling as well as have potential to afford high
prices.
Positioning: Positioning refers to creating a positive image in customers mind through
different promotional activities. This includes marketing and promotion of products and service
through traditional as well as modern methods such as digital media and T.V advertisements.
Action plan: This refers to actual implementation of plan in order to successful achieve
organisation goal. Action plan consist of product, price, place as well as promotion.
 Product: Product of Thomas cook company include various services which are related to
travel and tourism sector (Purvis, 2015). It includes tour facilities, hotel services, flight
services and many more.
 Price: This company has set high prices according to quality of its products and services.
It is targeting potential customers for its premium products.
 Place: Place refers to market segment for offering Thomas cook products and services is
Poland. This company is planning to expand its business activities in new market area.
 Promotion: Thomas cook company is using various marketing and promotional tool to
attract more and more customers towards business. Promotional activities include
television and radio advertisements, online and social media and many more.
 Process: In order to introduce business operation in new market, organisation requires to
implement several strategies in their business process so that they can implement new
modifications effectively. In this, process includes market research and planning for new
strategies according to them.
 People: These are the individual who provides their quality services in business in order
to attain desired goals and objectives effectively. Therefore, Thomas cook can provide
training to their employees to enhance their capabilities in order to attain desired
objectives effectively.

 Physical evidences: For an organisation, it is required to provide several facilities to their
employees so that they can visit stores frequently. Thus, for Thomas cook, it is required
to analyse requirement of their new customer who are new country in order to providing
them facilities easily.
Marketing budget:
MARKETIN
G BUDGET
PARTICULARS I Year II Year III Year IV Year V Year
Initial amount 3000 7500 11500 15660 15540
Investing 8500 9000 20000 28000 13500
TOTAL 11500 16500 31500 18460 29040
MARKETING OUTLAY
Promotion 5000 2850 3050 3560 3000
Sales advertisements 2000 1800 3000 1500 1100
Direct selling 3500 1600 4500 2500 4600
TOTAL 10500 6250 10550 7560 8700
Control actions: This is the last step of marketing plan and in this company have to control and
evaluate activities. There are various method through which company can control its marketing
activities and identify whether set targets and objective have been achieves or not (Simkin and
Dibb, 2013). In this step Thomas cook company have to take various controlling measures and
evaluate actual activities with standards.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that marketing is an essential part of organisations has
it helps in attracting customer as well as improve sales of organisations. This is a crucial function
of business and it lead to identify different needs and wants of targeted customers so that
company can provide products and services is able to meet with customers requirements.
Marketing mix is a significant tool of business and it helps in taking major decisions regarding
products price place as well as promotion of product and service.
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