Marketing Analysis: Thomas Cook Group and the Tourism Industry

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the marketing strategies employed by the Thomas Cook Group within the travel and tourism industry. It begins with an introduction to marketing principles and then delves into a detailed examination of the marketing mix, comparing Thomas Cook's approach with that of Cosmos Holidays, highlighting aspects like product offerings, pricing strategies, distribution channels, promotional activities, and customer service. The report then constructs a marketing plan for Thomas Cook Group, focusing on the potential launch of a mobile application. This includes an overview of the company, its mission, vision, and objectives, followed by the application of the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) model and a SWOT analysis to evaluate the company's internal strengths and weaknesses, along with external opportunities and threats. The analysis aims to provide insights into how Thomas Cook can leverage its strengths, address its weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and mitigate potential threats to achieve its marketing objectives and maintain a competitive edge in the market. The report provides a well-structured overview of marketing concepts and their practical application within a real-world business scenario.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS FOR
TRAVEL AND
TOURISM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................................3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................3
P3: Marketing Mix.................................................................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4: Marketing Plan ................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process in which a relationship with customers is created by fulfilling
their needs and wants. It can be defined as a method of management that is responsible to
identify, anticipate and satisfy requirements of customers profitably. Marketing is a core function
of every business which helps it to develop its activities by promoting and selling its goods and
services. Thomas Cook Group is a United Kingdom based multinational company that was
formed in 2007. It owns a number of tour operators like Thomas cook, Airtours, Thomas cook
airlines, condor and so on. It has expanded its business in 16 countries and provide services all
over world. This report determines role and responsibilities of marketing function in Thomas
Cook Group and its interrelation with other functions. This project also includes the ways in
which this organisation use marketing mix to achieve overall objectives and a proper marketing
plan is also formulated in this report.
TASK 1
Covered in PPT
TASK 2
P3: Marketing Mix
It is a mixture of various factors which organisation can control in order to influence
potential customers to purchase its product and services. It consists of 7P's of marketing which
are product, price, place, promotion, people, physical evidence and process (Jobber, D. and Ellis-
(Chadwick, 2012). All these factors helps marketers in identifying the needs and demand of
customers and to determine the prevailing marketing conditions. Thomas cook group , a
travelling and tourism company use these elements of marketing mix to know the present
marketing environment. Following, the comparison of marketing mix between Thomas cook
group and another tourism company, Cosmos holidays is defined in detail
Marketing Mix Description Thomas Cook Group Cosmos Holidays

Product It defines as an item
that is offered by
marketers to its
potential customers in
order to satisfy their
need and desire.
This organisation
provides travelling and
tourism services in
around 16 countries.
Its mainly deals with
group tour operator,
group airline, etc. This
organisation has 105
aircraft and has around
200 hotels and resorts.
The basic services
provided by this
organisation are
travelling,
accommodation, hotel,
insurance, etc.
It is an independent
tour operator which
offers a certain range
of packaged holidays
in UK market. Some of
the services offered by
this organisation are
accommodation,
travelling, food, travel,
etc. Although it
provides different tour
and travelling
packages but its
expansion is limited
(Möller and Parvinen,
2015).
Price It is an amount or cost
that is charged by
marketers to customers
in exchange of product
or service (Nagle and
Muller, 2017).
Thomas cook group
target people who love
travelling. It offers
moderate price to
customers for its
services. It charged
reasonable price in
order to stay
competitive in market.
This organisation has
adopted a half way
premium policy in
order to attract
potential customers. It
also offers discount at
Cosmos Holidays
offers budget friendly
vacation which a
middle class person
can easily afford. It
focus on low price
strategy in order to
attract large number of
customers. It has
charged low package
for travelling in
Britain, Italy, Central
Europe and Spain.

the time of off season
which makes it easy
for customers to afford
travelling.
Place It is defined as a
method by which
product or service is
made available to
customers. It is
basically a distance
between product and
its potential user.
The online and
physical stores of
Thomas Cook Group
are available all over
the world (Tanner and
Raymond, 2015).
Customers can easily
get details regarding
travelling packages
from these stores or
they can simple get
detailed information
on its online site.
This organisation deals
with online availability
of its services.
Customers can easily
get information about
tour and travelling
packages offered by
this company.
Moreover, they can
book the package of
their preference and
convenient.
Promotion It consists of all those
activities that act as a
source of
communication
between marketers and
buyers (Viswanathan
and et. al., 2014).
The promotion
measures used by
Thomas Cook Group
are magazines,
newspaper, television,
internet, hoardings and
YouTube. This
organisation promotes
its services under
different themes like
adventure holiday,
group tours,
honeymoon special,
Cosmos holidays
promotes its services
with the help of social
media, YouTube and
television. It also give
details about the
packages available on
its official webpage. It
also use social media
for covering large
umber of customers.

and so on.
Physical Evidence It involves elements
which are incorporated
into a particular
product or service that
makes it intangible
and measurable.
It has large number of
hotels available around
16 countries. It had
also launched its pen,
caps, jackets and bags
which act as an
physical evidence of
this brand. It also has
its offices in different
places which makes it
easy for customers to
directly meet
employees face to face
(Chang and Lu, 2015).
This organisation has
an online webpage and
headquarter which is a
physical evidence of
this company.
People It consists of all those
people who are
associated with a
company and are
responsible for growth
of an organisation
Thomas Cook Group
consists of well trained
staff who work hard in
achieving
organisational
objectives. It has more
than 3000 workers all
over the world who
work together to
improve the
performance of an
organisation.
This organisation
consists of efficient
digital marketing team
who keeps updating
about packages in the
webpage and social
media page of Cosmos
holidays. Moreover,
tour guides makes an
effective impression of
this organisation in
customer's mind.
Process It involves the process
and steps that is
required to deliver the
This enterprise follows
certain processes like
promoting its services
Its process is simple
and easy to
understand. This

goods and services to
potential buyers
(Gengler and Mulvey,
2017).
and make it available
for customers. Then,
customisation of
services is done as per
their requirement. It
also take care of
certain documentation
required from
customers to make the
process easy.
organisation makes
customers aware of its
services online.
Customers after
booking a particular
package can easily
enjoy the travelling
experience (Anche
Hozouri Mehdizadeh,
2014).
TASK 3
P4: Marketing Plan
It is referred to a report that covers marketing strategy of an organisation for future
perspectives in order to achieve organisational objectives. It helps in identifying target audience
and competitors existing in market. It includes an overview of business and objectives towards
which organisation is working (Aswathappa, 2013). An appropriate marketing plan consists of
objectives of an enterprise, the overview of an organisation, its vision and mission. Thomas
Cook Group is thinking about launching a mobile application in order to maintain daily
interaction with customers. It can prepare an appropriate marketing plan in this context by using
SWOT analysis and STP model in following ways-
Overview
Thomas Cook Group is an United Kingdom based multinational company. This
organisation deals with travel and tourism and provide various travelling packages to its
customers. It has expanded its business in around 16 countries and serves its services there. It
carry on its business in two operations which are tour operator Thomas cook group airline. It
provides various tour and travel packages which covers various places like Australia, India,
Europe, Mauritius, Thailand, Bali, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Switzerland , etc. It has its online
website but now it is planning to launch mobile friendly application.

Mission
The mission behind launching mobile application by Thomas Cook Group is ,“ to attract
new customers and enhance customer's loyalty.” Its basic aim is to attract large number of
customers and increase in the number of loyal customers.
Vision
The vision behind introducing mobile application is ,“ to be the number one travelling
and tourism company in the world ” Thomas Cook Group wants to become the most loved
tourism company by providing customer satisfaction (Glanz Bader, 2012).
Objectives
It can be defined as an set of goals and aims towards which organisation works in order
to achieve them. The objectives of Thomas Cook Group are -
 To become most popular travelling and tourism organisation and increase its revenue by
15% in upcoming year.
 To increase the market share up to 25% in upcoming year by increasing customer
satisfaction.
STP Model
This model is utilised by marketers and researchers in order to pursue its marketing
activities in an effective manner. It consists of segmentation, targeting and positioning. It
basically means to segment customers into different groups , to target potential audience and to
position product or service in the mind of prospectus. Thomas Cook Group can use STP model
in order to identify audience and provide services accordingly.
Segmentation: This method involves distributing and dividing market into various
groups and divisions and provide services thereby. This organisation can use both forms like
behavioural and demographic and distribute market according to that.
Targeting: This includes the category of people whom the company is targeting. This
organisation target people who like adventures and love to explore new palaces. Mostly it target
youths or couples who recently got married (Gummesson Kuusela and Närvänen, 2014).
Positioning: It is the image that is created by marketers in the minds of customers.
Thomas Cook Group had successfully positioned its brand image in customer's mind as an
''travelling with free mind and soul''.
SWOT Analysis

It is an framework that helps an organisation to evaluate its competitive advantage. It
includes internal factors like strengths and weaknesses and external factors opportunities and
threats. Following is the way by which Thomas Cook Group can use this analysis-
Strengths Weaknesses
These are the internal factors which are
beneficial for growth of an company. This
organisation is the largest travelling and
tourism company in UK. It is loved by people
all over the world. People can easily afford its
holiday packages which makes it budget
friendly (Henriksen, 2012).
The weakness which can be seen in Thomas
Cook Group is that it has limited market share
because of high level of intense competition.
This can lead to limited brand presence. To
eliminate this, respective organisation is
planning to launch mobile applicatiion.
Opportunities Threats
It boost its share prices by expanding its
services in more countries. Company can also
digitalise its services and operations in order to
cover more customers.
The basic threat of Thomas Cook Group is its
competitors existing in market. There is low
profitability in the business of airlines which
can be act as a threat for the company in
upcoming times (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick,
2012).
Budget
MARKETING BUDGET (£)
PARTICULARS Ist Year IInd Year IIIrd Year IVth Year Vth Year
Initial money 4000 7400 13100 15260 18870
Investment 9300 10500 23830 31630 13550
TOTAL 13300 17900 36930 46890 32420

MARKETING OUTLAY
Promotion 5646 2559 5693 2975 2111
Sales publicity 1365 800 2452 1492 1050
Direct selling 2135 1800 4751 1000 4334
TOTAL 9146 5159 12896 5467 7405
Monitoring and Controlling
It involves keeping an eye on objective of a company and to make sure that all marketing
activities are properly executed in order to achieve organisational goals. It helps in monitoring
that all tasks performed in an appropriate manner (Möller and Parvinen, 2015). Thomas Cook
Group can monitor and control its marketing activities in order to record, evaluate, and track the
progress of work. It will make ensure that the digital marketing team should do all activities
relating to launching mobile application.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that Marketing is the key function for the
growth of business of every organisation and it has various roles in an enterprise. Thomas Cook
Group is a British based travel and tourism company that provide its services in around 16
countries. In this report, it has summarised that how marketing function is related to other
functions of this organisation. Further it has been conclude that the usage of 7P's by respective
company. Thomas Cook Group is planning to launch mobile application in order to make it
services accessible to customers. For this purpose, an effective marketing plan is also formulated
in this report by describing the objectives, mission, vision, STP model and SWOT analysis.

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