Analysis of Marketing Mix Elements for Thomas Cook's Holidays

This report analyzes the marketing strategies of Thomas Cook, specifically focusing on the product, price, and place elements of the marketing mix in the context of their summer 2017 holiday packages to Morocco and Egypt. The report discusses the product life cycle of the holiday packages and various pricing strategies, such as market skimming and market penetration. It also examines the significance of place, considering both the tourism destinations and the location of Thomas Cook's offices. Furthermore, the report explores the importance of the service sector mix, including the 7Ps of marketing, with emphasis on people, partnership, packaging, and programming. The concept of the total tourism product is also defined in relation to Thomas Cook, highlighting the company's role as a one-stop shop for travel-related services. The analysis provides insights into how Thomas Cook can effectively market its services and attract customers in the competitive tourism industry, referencing key marketing principles and concepts. The report also considers the impact of external factors such as terrorist attacks on the company's marketing strategies.

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Name
Institution

Issues in the product, price and place
elements of the marketing mix with
reference to Thomas Cook’s summer 2017
holidays to Morocco and Egypt
Marketing mix which is also referred to the Ps of marketing refers to
marketing components that are integrated to formulate marketing
strategies that will help an organization serve its client better. They
include
Place
 Product
Place
Promotion

Product
 This refers to various services or items offered by Thomas Cook. This
company offers the intangible tourism and travels services to its
clients all over the world. This company has a product which is the
2017 holiday package to Egypt and Morocco.
 This product has a life cycle that should be keenly observed to
achieve the desired outcome. This product is still in the
conceptualization stage. At this stage several adjustments can be
made including pricing, setting the duration among others.
 The product is expected to be launched, grow and finally mature.
After maturity, the product will be abandoned and forgotten.

Price
 It is the monetary value of the product.
 There are various pricing strategies the company can choose to utilize
(Armstrong, Adam, Denize & Kotler, 2014) . For example;
 Market skimming strategy
 Market penetration strategy.
 Market skimming strategy involves setting high prices for the new
product above the market for other companies. This strategy is effective
in areas where the customer believes that quality is defined by the price.
 On the other hand, market penetration strategy involves setting low
prices for goods and services below the market price. This pricing
approach attracts customers by appealing to their financial capabilities.
Thomas Cook needs to understand the characteristic of its clients to
determine which pricing strategies will be applied.

Place
 Place refers to the geographical are where the service is offered.
 In Thomas Cook case, the place can be viewed in terms of:
 The tourism destiny
 Location of its offices
 Thomas Cook locates its offices near airports, railway stations and
other convenient areas that are easily accessed by clients. In
choosing the tour location, Thomas Cooks choose a place that can
hinder many customers from taking the package.
 After terrorist attacked Egypt in November 2015, many people fear
to tour in this nation thus the place may be inconvenient to many
people.

Importance of service sector mix
elements to the travel sector
 The service marketing mix is composed of marketing elements that
communicate the brand of the company and attract customers. In the
tourism industry, a company needs to provide effective services
which will automatically make it popular in the region.
 Service sector mix consists of the 7ps of marketing. In additional to
the popular 4ps, the other Ps represents people, packaging,
partnership, and programming (Armstrong, Adam, Denize & Kotler,
2014).

service sector mix elements
The service sector mix elements consist of:
People
Partnership
Package
Programming

Service sector mix
elements cont’dPeople
People refers to the employees or staffs employed by the company to offer their
services. Customers look for organizations where they can be treated well in a
friendly manner. Thomas can train its employees to equip them with world-class
communication skills.
Partnership
In this tour to Egypt and Morocco, Thomas Cook company should enter into a
strategic partnership with local tourism company in these countries for effective
customized services. The company should also consider collaborating with local
hotels and restaurants in providing products and services to its clients. Through
this partnership, the organization can learn the host culture as well as benchmark
what local companies do.

Service sector mix
elements cont’d
Packaging
Packaging refers to the manner in which the company presents its
services to its consumers. The 2017 summer holiday product should
have some attractive services that customers will enjoy. All these
services are what we refer to as the package. A good tourism package
should include food, accommodation and conveyance.
Programming
Programming highlights the order of marketing activities a company
intends to take. Tomas Cooks programming element should ensure that
activities to be taken are well arranged and communicate to avoid
overlapping some marketing option.

Concept of the total tourism
product to an individual tourism
business (Thomas Cook)
 Total tourism product can be defined as the group of all components that
are offered to clients for attraction, acquisition as well as consumption .
 Total tourism covers the tourism journey from the planning stage to actual
tour (Dolnicar & Ring 2014). It includes planning tourism activities that
meet the needs of customers and mind customers budget. It also includes
the arrangement for;
 Transport
 Accommodation
 Contrary, an individual tourism business caters for one aspect of tourism
for example traveling. Currently many organizations, for example, Thomas
Cook has become a one-stop shop that offers all traveling related services
to their clients. An individual just expresses the desire to visit a certain
place and leave all the arrangement to be done by the company.

References
 Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of
marketing. Pearson Australia.
 Dolnicar, S. & Ring. A. 2014 tourism marketing research: past,
present and future. Annals of Tourism Research, 47. 31-47