Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism: A Comprehensive Report

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Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism
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Executive summary
In the given report, it can be found that the marketing department in the company helps in
increasing profit by proper promotion and selling methods. The marketing department is
interlinked with different departments of the organisation. A comparison of marketing mix of
Cox and Kings with Thomas Cook gave away the difference in approaches of them. The
evaluation of these tactics had been enough to understand their strategies to reach business
objectives. Then a marketing plan was developed, which suggested a method to improve
their sales and reach objectives.
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Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
LO 1:........................................................................................................................................5
LO 2:........................................................................................................................................9
LO 3:......................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................21
Reference list.........................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
Marketing essentials for tourism department deals with various kinds of strategies and
techniques to generate higher revenue for an organisation. For this study, Cox and Kings
have been taken and the first section is for analysing key roles in this organisation. It will
then perform an analysis of interrelationship between marketing and other departments.
Second section of this study will consists of a comparison between the chosen organisation
and another similar company. The third section is for producing a detailed and evidence
based marketing plan for the company. The establishment of Cox and Kings goes back to
1978 and the founder was Richard Cox. It is based in UK and generating revenue of amount
2569 billion Euros (coxandkings.co.uk, 2019).
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LO 1:
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within a
selected hospitality organisation
M1 Analyse the roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing
environment
Marketing in Cox and Kings Company helps in promoting and selling the products and
services. Marketing methods have been developed gradually to cater to the needs of the
customers. It has been started with the development of internet during the 1950’s and
nowadays, it has expanded in social media for promoting and selling goods and services.
There are some roles and responsibilities of marketing that facilitate increment in profit of the
business. The roles are:
Research- The marketing department in the Cox and Kings has the duty of identifying the
factors that make the customers select a specific place. It helps in understanding the
preference of the visitors and plan accordingly. However, this takes time as surveying the
customers for knowing their preference is not a simple task.
Promotion- Marketing includes promoting services and products to attract customers.
Through promotion, more people would know about the features of the services that the
company is providing (Hussung, 2016). Thus, they would be lured to buy the services.
However, promoting is a costly method, and the company needs a huge investment for the
future profit of the organisation.
Building relationship- The Company should build healthy relationships with the customers
to gain their trust and increase the chance of sales of the services. Marketing helps in
developing a bond between the company and the customers. Thus, it ensures the profit of
the business by maintaining a good relationship with the customers. However, bonding with
the customers and gaining their trust needs time, and the company needs to keep patience
and wait until the customers would be lured into buying services.
Managing and designing the brand- It is the role of the marketing department to define the
company before the prospective customers. It manages the quality of the brand by
developing promotional techniques and introducing new features to the services. Designing
the brand would require designing experts in the company and the recruitment method
needs time to select the perfect candidate. An imperfect candidate in the marketing
department would lead to failure in the business.
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Conducting campaigns- Marketing department has the duty of conducting campaigns in
different regions. In this way, the company would get the support of the local community, as
well as the people, would be aware of the existence of the organisation. However, this
function of marketing needs a lot of money and workforce for conducting campaigns in
different regions.
Managing and controlling social media- The marketing department has the role of
regulating and controlling the activities of the company in social media. Nowadays, people
are addicted to social media; the company’s engagement in social media would help in
promoting as well as attracting customers from all over the world (TWIN, 2019). The
company can get feedback from the customers through social media and plan the features
of the services accordingly. The company needs to remain active in social media and
provide updates to the customers concerning the offers of the company.
Overseeing agencies and vendors- The marketing department must select and manage
the vendors who provide marketing materials to the company, for instance, the print vendors,
PR experts, web providers and such. However, the demands and charges of the agencies
vary in different areas. The marketing department should search for those who provide the
products and materials at an affordable price.
Figure 1: Roles of marketing
(Source: TWIN, 2019)
The responsibilities are:
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 The marketing department has the responsibility to converse with the customers and
gain knowledge about their choices in choosing the destinations. It should solve their
queries and help them with the features of the services of the company.
 The marketing department should introduce offers and incentives to the customers to
attract them and make more sales.
 It should develop relationships with customers by introducing loyalty programs
(Brenner, 2019). In this way, they would choose the Cox and Kings Company
whenever they wish to visit any place.
 It should remain active in the social media and update features of the company so
that the customers would come to know about the added features and benefits of the
company and chooses the organisation over others.
 It should maintain good relations with the vendors for the smooth functioning of the
business.
 It has the responsibility of pricing the products as per the status of the costumers and
alters the changes as per the situation demands for a profit of the business.
 The marketing has the responsibility of adopting strategies to make more sales such
as, developing the online website and providing discounts to the customers.
P2 Discuss how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context
M2 Analyse the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other
functional units within a selected hospitality organisation
The roles and responsibilities of the marketing department relate to other organisational
functions such as the finance department, human resource management, and the production
department. The finance department manages and controls the monetary aspects of the
company and ensures that the company has adequate money to support the business.
Without the finance department, marketing would be impossible because it manages the
cost that would be required in the processes of marketing (McDonald and Wilson, 2016).
Human resource management department recruits and trains the members of the Cox and
Kings Company. It employs the right candidates for the company to ensure the proper
functioning of every department. The marketing department needs skilled personnel who
have communication skills and capability of convincing people to buy products and services.
The production department produces products and services for the customers. The
connection of marketing with this department is essential, as without production there would
be nothing to sell or offer to the customers. The entire business is dependent on the
production department.
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Figure 2: Interrelationship of marketing with other functions of the Cox and Kings
Company
(Source: Taken from the support)
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LO 2:
P3 Compare the ways in which different hospitality organisations apply the marketing
mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives
The comparison between two travel companies is necessary to understand the difference
between different tactics. Therefore, Thomas Cook will be the second organisation for
drawing the comparison between two organisations. The marketing mix of 7ps will be helpful
to understand the variances of marketing mix between these two companies.
Factors Cox and Kings Thomas Cook
Product The company provides
various types of holidays for
their consumers. This
includes tours for places
filled with arts and culture.
They also provide cruises,
rail journeys and tailor-made
holidays. The organisation
also has exclusive offers for
solo travellers. They offer
tourisms package for
different locations across the
world. They also provide
accommodation and flight
tickets (Loveland, 2015).
Thomas Cook provides flight
tickets for customers and
numerous types of travel
packages. The organisation
provides short holidays to
exotic cities in the world.
They have cruise packages
and organises many kinds of
sports events.
Promotion The company uses different
types of online and offline
promotion techniques. They
use newspapers for
advertisement and use
social media for promoting
their brand. The company
advertises about their
services through attractive
promotional techniques.
Thomas Cook gives away
lucrative offers and free
holidays to promote their
organisation. They advertise
the brand through televisions
and social media. It has a
official channel for
promotional purposes. The
company uses different
newspapers to promote
about their holiday packages
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to reach a wider market
(Gretzel, 2018).
Price The company allocates
different prices for their
holiday packages. The prices
vary according to the
destination and exoticness.
The company is presently
offering a tour of Japan for
12 days in 4500 Euros per
head. The company is also
offering a group tour of
Kenya 3500 Euros per
person (coxandkings.co.uk,
2019). They use market
segmentation for allocating
prices.
They are offering a package
tour of Turkey for only 260
Euros per person. The offers
are much cheaper than Cox
and Kings, with wider range
of packages. Their packages
are comparatively low with
the other organisation and
include many services
(thomascook.com, 2019).
They use peak and off peak
pricing for determining
prices.
People The company provides
training to employees to
maintain flawless sales
services and marketing.
They have special
marketing team for effective
promotion of the brand. The
company also have a vast
operating network to reach
out to people in need. They
provide assistance regarding
travel to customers (Camilleri
et al., 2018).
The employees of Thomas
Cook are capable enough to
market their services
between people. They recruit
best people and train them to
become best in market.
Thomas Cook provides
various types of
development program for
employees to understand the
new methods of marketing.
This makes those employees
more able and the can attract
more customers thorough
their techniques.
Process This company focuses on
marketing by conducting
proper market research on
the needs of customers.
They also incorporate latest
Thomas Cook uses dynamic
pricing and market
segmentation to gain more
customers. They allocate
different packages for
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trends in their travelling
business. They provide
customer service for 24
hours of each day to resolve
any complaints. The
customers can avail the
services through the online
portal of Cox and Kings.
various people with diverse
economical condition. They
provide high quality of
service and there is a call
centre available to assist
customers regarding any
kind of problem they face
during travelling (Vellas,
2016).
Place The company offers their
services thorough their
official website and there are
travel agents all across the
world to help customers to
find ideal tour packages.
Travellers can choose their
packages from the official
website of Thomas Cook.
They also have many offices
in all countries to assist
customers for booking their
packages.
Physical evidence This organisation uses
recordings from tour
locations to provide the
evidence of their quality of
service to customers. These
videos give a perfect image
of customer’s experience.
They publish a magazine,
which is named Compass
magazine. This provides
physical evidence.
They have many hoardings
to provide the evidence of
their presence in the market.
They also have an official
YOUTUBE channel to
promote their activities. The
customers can get an idea
about the company by
visiting this channel (Reino,
and Hay, 2016).
Table 1: Comparison of marketing mix
(Source: Created by the learner)
M3 Evaluate different tactics applied by hospitality organisations to demonstrate how
business objectives are achieved
Pricing and services
The marketing mix of 7ps gave the difference between two organisations. Cox and Kings
use market segmentation to allocate proper prices for their services. They divide people
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according to their economical class and provide services for both of these groups. The
company has a tendency to fix higher price in general for its services. On the other hand,
Thomas Cook fixes lower prices for their company and this is why, they attract more
customers, which help it to achieve business objectives. Cox and Kings provide various
types of services including holiday packages, cruises, accommodation to hotels, air tickets
and various other attractive services. This helps them in gaining market advantage by
attracting many customers. It is same for Thomas Cook too and there is not much difference
when it comes to services, as these are same type of organisation. In this way, these
organisations generate more revenues for achieving business goals (Picazo et al., 2018).
The off peak pricing technique of Thomas Cook helps the organization to understand the
changes in the market according to the season. This is a very positive aspect of their
business. The lack of use of market segmentation is harming the company from generating
more revenue, as they are missing the chance to earn more money from people, who have
stronger economical background. Cox and Kings are fixing higher prices in off seasons too
and this is harming their business (Vogel, 2016).
Promotion and physical evidence
Thomas Cook should focus on aggressive marketing strategies to increase their revenue.
Their promotional activities are similar with various other tourism companies and therefore,
these advertisements are not much effective these days. They also lack proper physical
evidence and this is creating a barrier for customers to get a real life experience of their
services. The case of Cox and Kings is same and the lack of promotional techniques is
harming their business performance. There are various attractive channels in social media
and that is why, people do not feel any interest to see these tourism videos as they lack the
attraction (Reino and Hay, 2016).
People and process
The people, who are responsible for the growth of Thomas Cook, have such set of skills,
which can improve their business performance. They are capable enough to make people
understand about their brand value and convince them to use their services more. This is
helping the organization to generate more profit in the market. Their simple and easy to use
website is also smoothing the process for business transactions. Cox and Kings hire and
train employees to match their capability according to the competitors. This helps them to
deliver their best performance in front of customers and in return, it generates more revenue.
The process of availing these services is a bit difficult for some people and it may cause
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