Marketing Essentials Report: TUI Group, Competition, and Marketing Mix

This report provides a detailed analysis of marketing essentials within the travel and tourism industry, focusing on the TUI Group. It begins with an introduction to the importance of marketing and its role in driving sales and business growth, particularly within the rapidly expanding travel sector. The report outlines the core roles and responsibilities of marketing functions, including market research, customer awareness, service promotion, and customer relationship building. It then explores the interrelation of the marketing department with other key departments like Human Resources, Operations, and Finance. The report includes a marketing plan for a new sightseeing service in London, encompassing vision, objectives, SWOT analysis, the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence), budget, and monitoring measures. Finally, it presents a comparative analysis of the marketing mix of TUI Group and Thomas Cook, highlighting key differences in their approaches to product, price, place, and promotion. This report offers valuable insights into the application of marketing principles in the travel and tourism sector and is available on Desklib for student use.

Marketing Essentials for
Travel and Tourism

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an essential business functions that helps the company to enhance the sales revenue,
attain business growth in terms of profitability and helps in various activities such as building up
brand, expansion of business etc. Travel and tourism industry is the fastest growing industry in
the world with a maximum growth rate than any other sector of business. Marketing is a role of
in which the company place their products at market place and
promote them to influence the customers to buy them.
This report is based on the marketing essentials topic for TUI group which is a travel company
founded in 1965 and
currently being headquartered in Luton, England. TUI group deals in passenger airlines, package
holidays, 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. It will highlight the roles and responsibilities of marketing
function in an organization
and will include how these roles interrelate with other functional
departments in tourism company.
ACTIVITY 1
The role and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing function involves management of various elements of business such as sales
, promotion, advertising, Market research and all other activities that involves dealing
with the customers. The following are the roles and responsibilities of marketing
function in Tourism industry-
Conducting market Research
Maximise Customer Awareness
Promoting the services
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Build up customer relationships
.
Conducting market Research- It is the important role of every marketing department that is to
identify the relevant factors of market that will help the business to grow up at certain locations.
It involves activities like location of hotel or resorts, location of travel packages and other
activities. It is done through obtaining customer reviews, research on tourism sector and trends,
availability of facilities, transportation, financial feasibility etc. All these activities are been
performed by the marketing department of Tourism company for ensuring a uniform functioning
of the business activities of the companies.
Maximise Customer Awareness- It is important role of marketing department to make it easy for
the customers to access the company products and services. Here the marketing manager has to
keep the company website up to date containing all the information regarding its services, ensure
a proper and reliable payment gateway, quick response to customer queries etc. This will make
the customers to opt for the company services due to its easy accessibility and variety of options
available for them.
Promoting the services- Promotion of services and products is the most vital and primary
component of marketing department of Travel and Tourism industry. As this component
encourages and influences the customers to buy the company services and initiate their purchase
for company products. It includes various benefits and offers provided to the customers on their
purchases, reward points for the referrals, allotting complimentary services and coupons for their
next travel, offering discounts on bill payments for advance pay and all other services that
promote the company brand. All these activities are undertaken by marketing department to
ensure higher sales revenue and customers enlargement.
Build up customer relationships- In order to build a stability in revenue earnings and ensure
high levels of repeat transaction of sales,
the company must build up strong customer relationship. It includes framing the customer
loyalty program that will reward the customers
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who incur regular visits or opt the company services, this will keep them engaged with the use of
company services frequently and also help the
company to create a stronger customer base for its business. It will also include the activities
such as targeting corporate individuals and
customers who are the most frequent visitors and providing them extra benefits so that they
prefer their first priority to the company in terms of travelling or other purposes.
All these activities are been initiated by marketing department of Tourism company
Roles of marketing and its interrelation with other
functional areas in travel and tourism
Marketing department of TUI group has to coordinate with other functional departments
in
the company like Human Resource, Finance Department and operations department for
initiating its operations and tasks as per the strategies of the company. Following are the
interrelationship of marketing function with other functional units in TUI group-
Marketing with Human Resource Department
Marketing with Operations Department
Marketing with Finance Department
.
Marketing with Human Resource Department-
TUI group deals in various products and services related to travel and tourism activities.
Marketing department has to conduct all the activities to promote these services, ensure higher
sales and build customer relationships. For all this purpose marketing department of TUI group
will require skilled employees and personnel so that it can fulfil the marketing objectives of the
company. The hiring and selection of these marketing personnels is being done by the Human
resource department of the company. Marketing department informs HR managers the required
skills and qualities in an individual for marketing of the company and accordingly HR
department design the job description and hire those candidates for the company. In this way the
marketing and HR interconnects and coordinates with each other to perform and support each
other activities efficiently.
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Marketing with Operations Department-
Operations department of TUI group includes performance of all the activities and day to
day tasks and services and ensure its proper completion on time as well as maintain uniformity in
work. Marketing Department design the various packages, generate the customers as per their
service demand and the further process is undertaken by operations department of performing the
tasks to provide those services and ensure the customers made available with the products and
services as per his requirements. Hence this shows how both of the departments interconnects
and coordinate each other to perform the organizational activities of TUI group.
Marketing with Finance Department-
Finance department is also known as the backbone of TUI group. Marketing department
conducts its promotional activities and advertising for the company products and services in
order to influence the customers but there is a need of finance for initiating these activities and
hence it is being fulfilled by finance department of TUI group. Both Marketing and finance
department of the company coordinate with each other and design the attractive packages and fix
their prices accordingly as per the company's profitability. Finance department also advises the
marketing team of what costs shall be incurred for various activities and what will be the rate of
return or profitability from it etc.
ACTIVITY 2
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
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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
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.
High intensity of competition from other
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
 Risk of foreign exchanges, interests and
political environment of different
countries.
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markets.  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.
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.
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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
categories that includes Holiday
packages, airline services, Hotels
and accommodation, Ticket
Booking facilities and Resorts etc.
Thomas cook is the Travel and
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.
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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
over its own websites etc to promote
its products and services.
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
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.
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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 its 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.
It is also summarized regarding the understanding the importance
of marketing function of the company. The report stated the roles and responsibilities of
marketing function that are necessary for conducting business operations. It can also be
concluded that interrelationship of the activities between marketing and other
departments in Travel and tourism company their coordination to each other is vital for
performing
their task.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015. Essentials of
marketing research. Nelson Education.
Henríquez, F.A.G., 2018. Destination marketing essentials.
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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