Marketing in Travel and Tourism: Promotional Campaign for Thomas Cook

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing strategies within the travel and tourism industry, specifically examining the promotional mix employed by Thomas Cook for their Summer 2018 holiday packages. It delves into the integrated nature and role of various promotional tools, including advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct advertising, and online promotions. The report assesses the communication channels used, highlighting the objectives, methods, and reach of advertising, the importance of travel brochures, and the significance of maintaining public relations. It further explores the nature and role of promotional mix in maintaining public relations, advertising, monitoring and control, budgetary considerations, communication, personal selling, and point of sale (POS). The report also outlines the requirements of a promotional mix, including sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct advertising, and concludes with a plan for a promotional campaign, encompassing advertisements, public relations, media planning, and an evaluation of its limitations. The report emphasizes the importance of an online presence, customer testimonials, and direct booking facilities in the context of Thomas Cook's marketing efforts. A marketing expense budget is also provided.

Running head: MARKETING IN TRAVEL & TOURISM
Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Name of Student:
Student ID:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
4.1 Assessing the incorporated nature and role of promotional mix:........................................3
Communication Channels..........................................................................................................4
a. Advertising:........................................................................................................................4
Objectives, methods and reach of Advertising......................................................................4
b. Sales Promotion:................................................................................................................5
c. Public Relations:.................................................................................................................5
d. Direct Advertising:.............................................................................................................6
e. Online Promotions..............................................................................................................6
Nature and Role of Promotional Mix:....................................................................................7
a. Helps in maintaining public relations:............................................................................7
b. Adverting and Sales Promotion:....................................................................................7
c. Monitoring and control:..................................................................................................7
d. Budgetary consideration:...............................................................................................8
f. Communication:..............................................................................................................9
g. Personal Selling:.............................................................................................................9
h. Point of Sale (POS):.....................................................................................................10
Requirement of Promotional Mix:.......................................................................................10
a. Sales Promotion:...........................................................................................................10

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Aims and Objectives............................................................................................................10
Reasons for Growth of Sales Promotion..............................................................................11
b. Public Relations:..........................................................................................................12
c. Personal Selling:...........................................................................................................12
d. Direct Advertising:.......................................................................................................12
4.2 Plan Promotional Campaign:.............................................................................................13
a. Advertisements:................................................................................................................13
b. Public Relations:..............................................................................................................14
c. Media Planning.................................................................................................................14
d. Evaluation and Limitation................................................................................................15
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................15
References:...............................................................................................................................17

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Introduction:
Marketing can be defined as a procedure where goods and services make a move from
the concept factor to the customers taking in product, prices, promotion and place. This
process takes into account positioning along with segmentation and targeting plays a major
role in improving the strategies for promoting the services and the products as per the
organizational objectives. Travel and tourism generally refers to the planning of holidays and
offering of the accommodation and transportation facilities to the customers through
evaluating the obligations that persuades the outcome of the business of the organization
(Andrews & Shimp, 2017). This report would take into account the integrated role of the
promotional mix and planning of an incorporated promotional campaign for Thomas Cook
summer 2018 holidays. Thomas Cook is one of the leading organizations in the sector of
travel and tourism that is in the habit of providing global or international standard products
and services to the customers inclusive of the value added services. This company possess
number of tour operators that facilitates services in transportation across the globe.
4.1 Assessing the incorporated nature and role of promotional mix:
There exists an assorted activity that requires to be undertaken with respect to the
promotional mix regarding the product and the services. The activities like sales promotion,
online promotion, direct marketing, integrated communication, advertising, public relations
and certain others has been laid down by the company for delivering their promotional mix in
the most systematic of ways (Ciriković, 2014). Promotional mix takes into consideration the
progression that assists the organizations in transforming the people into customers by
making use of various methods through conventional along with online tools (Helm &
Gritsch, 2014).

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Communication Channels
For carrying out the promotion of the package of summer holidays, Thomas Cook needs to
undergo promotional activities through their online website channel as it facilitates in
advertisements and integrated or incorporated communication. Companies or associations do
have the luxury of going through the proper promotional activities with the assistance of
assorted or various elements like that of advertising, travel brochure, public relations, direct
advertising and online promotions.
a. Advertising:
It is one of the widely used promotional mixes that can be stated as the paid form of
the promotion made for goods and services. In the context of Thomas Cook, promotional mix
would help in making a tour and then promoting the same with the assistance of advertising.
They can make use of their advertisements of any of their tour packages in particular and
promote the same via the social media platform like the networking sites, television along
with the on-site promotions (Adhikari & Bhattacharya, 2016). It would help the company in
transferring the information related to tour with their relevant customers. However, for this
technique, Thomas Cook needs to pay for the advertising that would be made regarding the
tour packages and the services that would be offered regarding the same. This method would
lack any face-to-face communication between the advertiser and the customers.
Objectives, methods and reach of Advertising
The objective of advertisement is to raise awareness about a particular product or service. It
helps in informing, persuading and reminding the customers regarding the brand. There are
different methods of advertising like that of sales promotion, travel brochure, public relations
and online promotion. The above mentioned methods of advertising can reach the target
audience that comprises of those who belong to the middle age as well as the younger
population. Advertising can help in communicating to the customers regarding Thomas Cook

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Summer 2018 holidays. Advertising can help in creating goodwill pertaining to Thomas
Cook and it can be helpful in gaining customer loyalty.
b. Sales Promotion:
This can be taken into account as making use of promotional activities in short term
that has the ability in stimulating the customers in buying any sort of product or making use
of any service (Tomczak, Reinecke & Kuss, 2018). If possible, Thomas Cook can apply this
technique or method for their promotional campaign with the assistance of discount offers
along with the premium gifts.
Importance of Travel brochure:
The travel brochure plays a major role in attracting the new sort of customers,
tackling the current ones and assisting the business in growing. Printed material symbolizes
the company’s professional image for more information. Most businesses that are tourism
related are mostly interested in having the brochures of travelling in attracting more
customers. A travel brochure that is well designed and planned accordingly has the ability in
increasing the client base. It has ability in reaching the target market of Thomas Cook that
works in the initial stage in attracting the customers to their offers that they are going to
provide in their upcoming tour packages to Morocco and Egypt.
c. Public Relations:
It has become imperative for organizations in maintaining better public relations
through which companies do get opportunities in creating goodwill. It helps in collecting
important information about the opinion of the public along with their activities related to
management. Through its assistance, Thomas Cook would be able to easily trounce the
complaints made by the customers and offer them better and speedy response along with
convincing them in the most appropriate of ways. In this method the sales representative can

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display the benefits associated with such tour packages and provide them with suitable
validation as per their requirements. Tickets can be sold personally too for the holidays in
Egypt and Morocco.
d. Direct Advertising:
With the assistance of direct advertising Thomas Cook can reach out or extend their
services to the mass of people. This process can be completed through mails and sending of
SMS to registered numbers. The company might approve this scheme in generating huge
sales of their tickets and promote several offers of discount to the loyal customers that they
have (Liu & Chou, 2016).
Promotion is stated to be one of the significant tools of marketing along with being
the vein of the marketing mix. It takes into account all the facets of the products along with
the promotion related to it. For Thomas Cook, promotion mix would help in making a tour
and the related promotion with it. It assists the company in communicating the information
related to tour with the customers (Oke et al., 2016).
e. Online Promotions
Strong online presence of Thomas Cook can help in the growth of the company. The
graphics along with images used on the company website should be of high quality.
Photography is key in attracting the attention of the audience. The “Contact Us” Page should
reveal all the important aspects related to Thomas Cook and the customers would be able to
contact them in case of any query (Palaniswamy, 2016). The social media platforms of
Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter can be made use of in order to attract the customers. Videos
on that of the social media posts can help to a great extent in getting the attention of the
customers. Interaction with the customers is more important as compared to selling the
services and engaging the people in conversation can help in the process of online promotions

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of Thomas Cook. Leveraging customer testimonials can help in the online promotions of
Thomas Cook. Positive reviews can help the company to flourish and increase the customer
base.
The facility of “Direct Booking” can be of great boon for Thomas Cook. The modern
booking button can even help in the process of supporting custom made tour (Font &
McCabe, 2017). It can effectively help in the process of responding to that of the inquiries of
the customer. The online booking benefits can be conveyed to the customer. Monitoring all
the customer experiences can help in the online promotion of Thomas Cook.
Nature and Role of Promotional Mix:
The nature and role of promotional mix at Thomas Cook are as follows:
a. Helps in maintaining public relations:
Promotional mix assists Thomas Cook in maintaining relations with the customers.
This process can be done through the various campaigns for knowledge about the tour, the
logos and slogans associated with the tour. This promotion would not be requiring any sort of
monetary factor and in turn the customers would be advertising for the company in indirect
fashion (Romanova, Vetitnev & Dimanche, 2016).
b. Adverting and Sales Promotion:
Promotion mix plays an important role in the factor of advertising and promotions
related to sales for the tour of the company. According to Andrews & Shimp, 2017, it can be
processed through several sources like the print media, marketing related to social media,
online advertising and certain other factors. It helps the organization in creating the much
required awareness about the upcoming tour of Egypt and Morocco through the use of the
promotional channels.

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c. Monitoring and control:
Promotion mix has the aptitude in monitoring all the strategies of promotion in order
to ensure whether it is working in proper manner or not. It maintains control over the strategy
from the beginning to the end. These would help the association in finding definite
advancement of its campaign so that consequently the company can make proper decision.
d. Budgetary consideration:
As per Huang & Sarigöllü, (2014), promotion mix has been playing important role in
the assortment of exact channels of promotion in the right market so that it assists in reducing
the cost related to the company. It assists Thomas Cook in identifying the cost related to tour
promotion for them to plan in according manner related to the budget and the customers that
have been targeted by them in the process. The marketing costs can decrease the overall
profit margin of Thomas Cook. A business often has debt obligations along with expenditures
fow whom it is responsible. Carefully constructed budget in relation to the marketing of
Thomas Cook can help in tracking the business in financial terms. This can assist in the
process of strategic planning from that of current operating cost to that of potential
expansion.

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Marketing Expense Budget ( Pound)
Advertisement 20,000
Printed Material 2000
Public Relations 10,000
Others 2000
Total 34,000
Figure: Marketing Expense of Thomas Cook
Source: Created by the Author
f. Communication:
This is one of the primary aims of promotion in communicating with the customers. It
takes into account the three main objectives of promotion which are to enlighten, convince
and repeat (Trehan & Trehan, 2015). These helped Thomas Cook in targeting its prospective
customers along with communicating with them. Marketers can take recourse to different
kinds of media in order to communicate message regarding the brand. The arrival of that of
social networks has facilitated the process of interaction of the companies. The different
kinds of social networks like Twitter along with that of Face Book is taken recourse to by
Thomas Cook for the promotion of its Summer 2018 holidays.
g. Personal Selling:
This is one of the personal forms of communication that encourages face to face
conversation in direct manner. In the tourism sector it is between the company operating the
tour and its customers. It is stated to be one of the efficient tools for promotion in the
businessman’s hands for augmenting sales. Moreover, it helps companies like Thomas Cook
in minimizing the wastage of the efforts when being compared to other promotional tools.
Personal selling helps in development of relationship between the potential customers and the
sales person or the travel agent. This assists in making sales. Personal selling facilitates in lot

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of flexibility, presentation of sales can be modified easily or even adjusted as per the
individual customer’s requirements.
Personal Selling Functions
The travel business relies to a great extent on the element of personal selling. Useful
services delivered by that of the travel guide and the agents can aid in the promotion of
Thomas Cook. The sales personnel who provide useful service to the customers can help in
reassuring the customers regarding any particular service. The resort representatives of
Thomas Cook help in catering to the needs of the tourists after they reach a particular
destination. The people who are involved in the process of personal selling play a significant
role in the process of ensuring that the the services along with products have been able to
satisfy the customers of Thomas Cook.
h. Point of Sale (POS):
A display of point-of-sale is stated to be a specialized form of promotion of sales that
is generally found in the checkout counter for drawing the attention of the customers towards
something new like Thomas Cook’s 2018 summer holidays. This also refers to the systems
that are being used in recording of transactions between the commerce and the customers.
The POS system intended for Thomas Cook’s tourism generally represents several industries
like the sale of the ticket, shops and restaurants.
Requirement of Promotional Mix:
The next section would take in the promotional mix required for promoting the holiday plan:
a. Sales Promotion:
This method is used in attracting the customers and this process is only for short-term
instant goal. The department of marketing would be making promotion of this tour to

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Morocco and Egypt through organizing of contests, giveaways, free coupons and sweep-
sticks (Liu & Chou, 2016).
Aims and Objectives
The objective of marketing promotion is on the basis of goals of the company.
Marketing objectives in relation to the promotional efforts is aimed at gaining new customers
and raise awareness relating to Thomas Cook summer holidays. It can help in reaching the
potential customers and providing them with an incentive so that they can patronize the
business. Another marketing objective is to increase the spending of the customers. The
rewards card of the customers that tracks the purchases of the customers can help Thomas
Cook in understanding whether the marketing aims has been achieved. Their primary aim is
to turn the one-time customers into that of repeat customer. Contact information pertaining to
the customer can be collected and those who are one-time buyers can be put in the email
advertising list (Jamal & Camargo, 2014). Special offers provided to these customers can
help Thomas Cook in reaching their objective pertaining to retention marketing promotion.
Reasons for Growth of Sales Promotion
There are different reasons that have led to the growth in relation to sales promotion. They
are that of increasing competition, price sensitive customers, standardized products and that
of consumer acceptance. Sales Promotion can help Thomas Cook in competing with that of
the lower tier brand between that of the price sensitive customers. Sales Promotion helps in
the process of price discrimination and will allow the brand to compete in different market
segments. Sales Promotion is facilitated in the present age owing to that of increasing
competition and it helps in creating a positive impact on the arena of sales. The companies
find it difficult to compete on the basis of quality and this is the reason why they are taking
recourse to innovative methods pertaining to sales promotion.