Marketing Strategies and Planning for Trailfinders Travel and Tourism

This report analyzes the marketing strategies of Trailfinders, a British travel company. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Trailfinders, emphasizing customer needs, branding, and market analysis. The report then discusses how marketing relates to the broader organizational context, including its interactions with the finance, legal, and IT departments. A significant portion of the report compares Trailfinders' marketing approach with that of Virgin Holidays, examining their marketing mix strategies across product, price, place, promotion, process, people, and physical evidence. Finally, the report culminates in the creation of a basic marketing plan for Trailfinders' new product, the Air Bus, detailing its vision, mission, objectives, and outlining key marketing strategies to achieve its goals within the tourism industry.

Marketing Essentials
for Travel and Tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1: Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Trailfinders.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 tourism organisation apply the marketing planning
process to achieve business objective.....................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4: Produce a basic marketing plan for a travel and tourism organisation to meet marketing
objectives of the organisation.................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process of companies by which they promote and sell there goods and
services in the existing market. This process is used as the mode of communication of existence
of company to the customers, clients, or world at large. It helps in the growth of the firm, as in
this the manager use to analysis the status of market. The present assignment is based on
Trailfinders the Travel Experts. It is the British travel company,privately owned by Mike
Gooley, whose headquarter is located in United Kingdom. It has 39 travel centres in UK and
Ireland. It provides world wide tourism. It is the largest independently owned company in UK
with more than 1000 staff. It has more than 15 million clients. In this report, it is discussed about
the marketing roles and responsibilities of Trailfinders the Travel Experts. Further, it is discussed
about the relation between marketing sector with other fellow sectors in the airlines industry. In
this report there is the comparison between Trailfinders the Travel Experts and Virgin Holidays
in achieving the enterprises objects. Lastly, the report discussed about the marketing plan of the
new product Air Bus to acquire the marketing goal of the firm.
TASK 1
P1: Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Trailfinders.
Marketing functions helps the firm to analysis the potentially successful services for the
market. They promote that for enhancing there market place in existing industry. It has a very
vital role in the growth of the business. They have the significant role like: making plans for
marketing, gather the information of the current situation, to decide the product representation
and its designs, what is the risk the company has to take in launching the product, which are the
targeted customers, and many more (Linden and Linden, 2017). The marketing department of
Trailfinder's plays a significant role in promoting the business and for its growth. They has to
reach out on the prospects, customers’ needs and wants and what the company can serve, who
are the investors while making a good image of the firm in positive light.
Responsibilities of the market departments:
 Listening to customers’ needs: To establish the strategy of market, Trailfinder's has to
analysis the what are the wants and needs of their client. They can take the necessary
feedbacks of the customers (Mau and Sukawati, 2019). They can analysis this by their

internal channels which includes the sales team and customers supports and outside
channels which includes social media.
 The company has to keep an track on the trending products and services, which are
generally taking by the customers.
 They has to make the firm to make it more branding and familiar for customers, so that
they can approach easily. They can search for the new market tools by which they can access to trends in industry
and other fellow things (Vuignier, 2017).
 Innovate the ideas which give hike in industry, by providing the new innovative ideas to
attract the customers, improvement in the communication mode.
 The marketing department of Trailfinder's has to keep in touch with the other competitors
in existing market place. The firm has to make the chain with those company which they
are having the same goal, by this they can maximize the amount of profits, with
respecting the principles of firms moral values.
 Its the responsibility of the department to know the user’s feelings. It can be done by
direct contact with the customers.
 Marketing department of Trailfinder's has to manage the budgets and calculate upon the
Return of Investment on the actions of the company. They have to check the funds of the
company and according to which they have to do expenditure. Above this they have to
check whether that is beneficial for the organisation or not.
 The most important responsibility is Effective Strategic which is planned for long terms
goal. For the effective plan Trailfinder's has to draft a lay out of there plan by which will
be helpful for them in executing it.
P2: Discuss how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational
context: Marketing in relation with Financial Department: It refers to the collective use of the
marketing plan of action by the managers of the company, so that they can attract the new
customers towards the Trailfinders. It is the difficult for the company to stand out of the
bunch of individuals with the different strategies (Chandiok and Sharma, 2017). Financial
sector talks about the amount of investment that the Trailfinders can invest in the its
marketing strategies. The role of managers is to makes plan and bifurcate the expenses.

They also have to allocate the resources. Marketing has to be in the specific mode so that
it can be easily approach to the customers. Marketing in relation with Legal Department: Marketing is beneficial for the business
but somehow it is also creates legal issues. Legal plays a vital role in the marketing as it
solves the legal issues which occur during the course of trade (Kubickova and Campbell,
2020). On the other hand, marketing also plays role in legal industry as it creates
strategies to promote law firms, in brand building activities etc. The Trailfinder by
consuming legal aid can create strict terms and conditions in accordance with the
organisation. Thus, both the marketing along with legal department helps to achieve the
organisational goals in accordance with the provisions of the company.
 Marketing in relation with Information Technology Department: One of its tool is the
digital marketing, as its promotes the products or services digitally to reach consumers
timely. It helps in marketing management to improving productivity and also saves major
cost. Further helps in solving customer grievances effectively which led customer
satisfaction (Kang, 2020). With the help of information department, the Trailfinder can
create its digital platform and thus, helps the company to attain the goal effectively and
efficiently.
TASK 2
P3:Compare the ways in which different tourism organisation apply the marketing planning
process to achieve business objective.
Marketing mix is the process by which the organisation designs the elements of
marketplace in a way to achieve the set goals. It is there to update and analysis the status of the
industry. For achieving the market mix firm has to compare with the rivals. With the above
context, Trailfinder's is compared with Virgin Holidays.
Marketing Mix Trailfinder's Virgin Holidays
Product Product includes both goods
and services . It is the thing
which the firm can sell.
Trailfinders provides two class
Virgin Holidays is the another
competitor in airlines idustry.
The Virgin Atlantic has more
than 30 air planes. They offers

of services. The core services
is provided for the lower class
or middle class of people so
that they can also enjoys the
air transportation.
They have supplementary
product services which
includes food on board,
connecting fights,
entertainment services in
flight, Hotels, Cruise,
Motorhome Hire, Car Hire and
many more.
different services like
economics class, premier class,
business class. So that
everyone can experience the
airways journey.
Price Price is the important element .
With context to the
organisation, it has all variety
of price. They provides wide
range of services which can be
affordable by every necessary
individual.
Virgin Holidays uses premium
pricing strategy. They use to
provide quality and quanity in
there packages. It mainly
focuses on high quality by
properly allocation of
resources.
Place Place means where and when
the services of the firm can be
availed. In this context the
Trailfinder's provides there
services round the clock, it
covers more than 30
destinations and provides
online mode to book the
tickets.
Virgin Holidays allows 29
destinations over the world.
They provide there services
around the clock and helps the
customers to access that easily
(Nicoli and Papadopoulou,
2017) .

Promotion Promotion strategies of the
industry must be different so
that they customers can easily
attracted and avail their
services (Baporikar, 2017).
With reference to Trailfinders,
they use the good strategies of
promotion by attracting the
customers with new offers and
vouchers. The firm broadcasts
official mails to the customers
about their upcoming offers.
Virgin Holidays has a different
promotion strategies, which
helps them to survive in the
competitive marketplace.
Using different promotion
strategies helps the
organisation in increasing the
efficiency of work.
Process It is the process by which the
company provides there
services . With context to
Trailfinders, they manage the
policy of transparency. Which
helps the firms to attain the
loyalty from their customers.
Virgin Holidays made the
policies related to the
transparency in the work of the
organisation and procedure of
providing services.
People People includes all those
persons who are directly or
indirectly in contact with the
services of the industry. With
reference to Trailfinders, they
believes the staff to be their
strength. Travel agents will be
provides business to the firm
through the proper channels.
The organisation gives rewards
Virgin Holidays is the famous
airlines which has a employees
from world wide. The airlines
pay the good packages to their
employees including medical
insurance, life insurance,
education related allowances
and may others.

to their staffs and provide
training to them for better
work.
Physical Evidence It means the existing of the
brand in reality. The
consumers will take the
services only when they
believe on it. With reference to
Trailfinders, they have
maintained their physical
existence in the marketplace.
Virgin Holidays has a very
useful and easy to access
website, so that the customers
can reach to them without any
huddles. They have stylish
offices, airports lounges and
many others.
TASK 3
P4: Produce a basic marketing plan for a travel and tourism organisation to meet marketing
objectives of the organisation
Marketing Plan
The marketing plan outlines the strategies formulated by the company in regard to its
products or services in the competitive market. The strategy not only identifies the competitive
market but also creates the position of its brand in the market by initiating campaigns and other
effective measures (Tang and Nathan Abdullah, 2018). The market plan is required to be
flexible keeping in the view the changing business environment. Trailfinders marketing plan is
to make use of marketing tactics in order to derive its organisational goals effectively and
efficiently.
Executive Summary: Trailfinders with the help of marketing strategies is planning to launch its
new product which is the air bus. It is the new innovation in the tourism organisation and thus,
will help to contribute in the company. The air bus will provide tourists air experience, it will
help the tourists to visit the destinations via air.
Vision
The vision of the Trailfinders is to fulfil the expectations of their clients, staff and
suppliers by providing them the best travelling experience with many more countless
achievements from the travel industry.

Mission
The mission of this new product i.e. air bus is pioneer in the tourism organisation which
will give our customers a unique experience in visiting destinations along with friendly
environment and a competitive spirit among the travel industry.
Objectives
The objectives of air bus introduced by the Trailfinders in tourism organisation are:- Unique Experience: It will provide our customers the best travelling experience with the
unique innovation (Hamid and et. al.., 2020). Time-consuming: The product main objective is to travel more in less time. It will help
the customers to save a great deal of time and explore more new destinations. Brand Image: It will create a prestige brand image among the rivalry companies. Thus,
the air bus will increase the goodwill of the company. Customer Attraction: The innovation will attract the customer to try the product. Thus,
tourists would give priority to the company and will be able to maintain in the
competitive market (Walker and Lee, 2019).
 Profitability: Increased tourists will ultimately help the company to gain its profits. Thus,
the company will be able to achieve its profits through its annual sales.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Some of the strengths of the new product are:-
 The premium brand image created by
the air bus enables the company to
maintain its quality .
 One of the strength is its pioneer
innovation in the tourism industry.
Thus, creates a monopoly in the market.
 The contribution towards infrastructure
development is also considered as
strength.
Weakness
Negative factors of the air bus are:-
 It is associated with high status symbol.
Thus, cannot be afforded by the lower
class people which ultimately creates a
division in society.
 Long term growth of the company gets
affected as the company will raise more
fund to invest in the air bus.
 The company rely on same group of
people to generate its revenue. This
unique selling will create negative

impact (Amar Raju, Roy and Mandal,
2018) .
Opportunities
These are:-
 The air bus will fulfil new trends in the
customer behaviour and meet the new
demands of the customer. It will led to
smart tourism.
 In the pandemic situation, the tourism
has undergone many breakthroughs
thus, this advancement can help to
improve the business.
Threats
The threats in relation to air bus are:-
 There are many other tourism
organisation which can threaten the
market position of the Trailfinders.
 The increased cost due to the advance
innovation will led a direct impact on
the growth of company.
 The toughest competition by other
tourism industry can be a threat. The
usage of roadways like bus, cars etc.
by rivalry company. Nowadays in
Virtual Reality Tourism trends
customer can experience all from their
home.
STP Marketing Strategies
STP marketing stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning. The aim of this
strategy is to create segments of the consumers then targeting such segments according to the
costumers demand and preferences and finally positioning such strategies in order to fulfil their
demands (Hall, Prayag, and Amore, 2017) .
Segmentation
 Demographics: The air bus is suitable for all age group of people, aimed at
younger audience. In respect of income criteria, classes can be divided according
to the comfort of people. For example economic, business class etc.
 Psychographics: It bifurcates the segments based on interests, values, beliefs,
lifestyles etc. The air bus will be of great help for the people who likes to explore
more.

 Geographic Segmentation: Its time consuming behaviour will have a positive
impact on the customers. Such mini jets will help to save time and also space
consumed shall be less (Malasevska, 2018) .
 Behavioural: The behaviour of the customer depends on the services provided by
this new product. Thus, the product focuses on behaviour of the costumer and
aims to satisfy its customers.
Targeting
The air bus targets those group of people who want to explore more but in limited time
period. Also it targets the youth audience to explore destinations in a short period of time. Youth
gets attract easily because of new innovation as they want to try new opportunities. As the
product creates a monopoly in the market thus will target the customers who are users of rivalry
company. Heavy discounts and offers may also attract price sensitive consumers (Pride and et.
al.., 2017).
Positioning
It is important to position a brand in the minds of the customers in terms of awareness.
The monopoly factor will help to create the awareness of new product easy. Further the service
of the air bus and its highly skilled crew members will help to maintain position of the company.
Four P's
Product Strategy
The air bus somehow will help the company to fulfil the upcoming needs of the
consumers. The services provided by the air bus will ultimately maintain the brand image.
Services may include the refreshments, music, clean wash rooms and other which the tourists
enjoys while exploring.
Pricing Strategy
As the air bus is pioneer in the tourism industry, the prices can be kept high with highest
quality. Thus, the focus is to offer great quality with a premium price.
Place
Since the product will have a limited tourists, the company will be diligent in creating a
strong network of its product.
Promotion

As the product is associated with high class of people thus mass media and other
techniques will not make sense, instead mouth to mouth promotion, usage by rich class of people
and using celebrities face to promote will help to make a powerful tourism brand (Kelley and et.
al., 2019).
Action Plan Budget
The budget means making a plan in respect of cost. The marketing budget means
estimating the cost which is required in applying marketing strategies to promote products or
services. It is crucial as it helps the business to cover the other cost during tough time. The
budget for the new product is as follows:-
Particulars Amount (£)
Marketing 10000
Promotional activity 20000
Plant and machinery 120000
Print media 7000
Total 157000
Controlling and Monitoring
This process provides the necessary measures to check whether the company's objectives,
its products or services or projects are within the scope and budget. This process compares the
actual performance with the planned performance and carry out the course of actions in case of
differences to achieve the desired outcomes (Foroudi and et. al., 2018).
To attain goal effectively, Benchmarking should be implemented as it is best practice that
allowing the feedback process. Thus, the process will help the company to measure its product
with the products of rivalry organisation. Feedback under this process will help the company to
improve the product.

CONCLUSION
With the above context, it is concluded that the marketing plays an important role in
achieving the organisational goals. Marketing Strategies are formed with the help of marketing
plan which helps the company to highlights its strength and formalise its mission and vision
statements. The field of marketing is wider as its plays its vital role in all the organisational
sectors. Further the tourism companies also needs the marketing strategies and tactics to build its
brand and attract tourists. Also, it creates product or service awareness and provide valuable
audience by targeting the buyers. Therefore, appropriate marketing strategies and planning help
the organisation as well as country to achieve their objectives.

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