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Discuss the core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector Marketing in the travel and tourism sector is an important factor in making a travel business successful in terms of market share. Within marketing there a numerous known concepts that piece together the defined definition of marketing, these include the customer’s needs, wants and demands, products and services and value. Core concepts In the process of marketing your business it is important to factor in your customers ants, needs and demands making your business match the criteria of what they want.
This then would give you an advantage over competitor market sharers as you can offer the customers something they may not be able to find anywhere else. For example, TU UK (Thomson) have gained an advantage over market sharers with the introduction of their own branded Dreamlike. By taking into consideration customer’s wants, needs and demands they have created something that customers are unable to get anywhere else with the same elements making It completely unique to their business.
To keep their place in the market they are constantly making new innovations to gain advantage of their competitors with new plans to revolutionist holiday flying with their new 5 year plan in introducing a state of the art aircraft with new concepts that will change the face holiday flying. ‘We want to define and lead a new category of flying – the holiday airline category. This describes an airline designed for the specific needs of the holiday maker and fully connected to the holiday experience in the destination. (YMMV. Thomson. Co. UK- 20/11/14) Another incept that needs to be taken Into account when marketing a business Is the products and services It offers. Quite often It Is known that many businesses will offer their consumers the products and services that are currently trending or what everyone would expect from a business, however to market a business successfully there needs to be variety and choice that cult deferent types of consumer markets.
For example, when booking an holiday at a travel agents there are going to be other consumers that are looking for something different to everyone else there, however if he travel agent Just sold your standard 7 night -14 night holiday and there isn’t any other choice then consumers will look elsewhere for products and services that meets their specific criteria. The concept of value within travel and tourism companies has become an important factor in ensuring the success of a business due to the deferent aspects being taken into consideration when making a marketing decision.
The different aspects include the perception of price, quality and image of a product or service as well as taking Into consideration the social and economic aspects of the consumer population at present. An example of this would be leading tour operators such as Thomas Cook ensuring they develop their delivery of value to its consumers. Thomas Cooks has done this by introducing their new Connects resorts offering their consumers a way to stay connected throughout their holiday. Sun Connect will give our customers access to the full strength and end-to-end value of Thomas Cook and our innovative offerings of our services and products. These new 1 OFF experience that families can trust. ” Marketing environment (wry. Thomson. Mom – 27/11/2014) The Micro environments of a business are factors that are linked directly to an organization and have an impact on its business operations and the success of that business. These factors can be put into components that singly affect the way a business will run and the success of that as well.
Some of these include intermediaries and customers; Intermediaries are firms that work with an organization to sell, promote or distribute their goods to its final buyers. These firms can be divided into four different components including wholesalers and retailers ho can resell the company’s products, distribution firms who can transport or stock the product of the organization, marketing firms who will help to promote and market the organizations product and financial companies such as banks and insurers who help with transactions and insure against risks.
An example of this would be Thomas Cook reselling Disneyland Paris holidays for the organization Euro Disney S. C. A. (wry. Thomson. Com – 27/11/2014) Customers play an important part in the contribution to the micro environment of an organization due to its implementation on the success of an organization. Organizations need to study their customer markets deeply and effectively as each customer market has its own characteristics that they will need to match.
An example of this would be the organization Walt Disney and how they characterize their products and services to suit the characteristics of their consumers, making them a demanded organization. The Macro environment of a business refers to forces that indirectly and directly influence all businesses however is unable to be influenced by any business. These include influences by society and Technology; The impacts from society can influence the success of an organization directly and indirectly.
This could be for a number of reasons including new current trends, work entitlement and lifestyle. Specific reasons can contribute to the influence of negative and positive effects on an organization and its success, for example work entitlement could be a pro or a con due to the increase in paid holidays for employees, however employees are being asked to be more flexible with working days and hours meaning they could be asked to work on a day they initially had off. The same implications can be caused via new advances in Technology.
Every day new ways of using or designing technology are being created making it harder for organizations to compete with the rest of the market. Although these advances create a better experience for the consumer the organization needs to be able to support this new advance in technology or something similar to keep themselves in demand of particular market demands. A perfect example of this particular implication would be the introduction of the New Generation Shops for Tour Operators. The first New Generation Shop to open last summer in 2013 was TU Travels, opening in Blurter Shopping Centre in
Greenish (I-J). “Our next generation store recognizes the importance of people when it comes to choosing and booking a holiday, whilst integrating technology into themselves in stunning, rich and evocative content as they research and browse our unique holidays in-store. ” (www. Attributable. Com – 02/12/2014) Consumer markets The consumer decision process can be broken down into five sections in which the consumer takes into consideration when choosing a particular product or service.
These sections include the recognition of need, the research of information, valuating other alternatives, the purchase of product or service and finally the buyers purchase behavior post purchase. The needs of a consumer are explained in many different ways, however ultimately link to Mascots Hierarchy of needs. (Business & Economics – James F. Engel, Roger D. Blackwell, David T. Kola, Dryden Press, 1978). Mascots Hierarchy of needs is a pyramid of humans motivational needs, it starts with humans basic needs at the bottom then gradually increasing to its peak at the top of the pyramid. “People are motivated to achieve certain needs.
When one deed is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. ” (www. Cosmologically. Org – 02/12/2014) Moscow also concluded: “when one set of needs is satisfied, it ceases to be a motivating factor. Thereafter, the next set of needs in the hierarchy order takes its place. ” types of buyer behavior Market segmentation Any business in the travel and tourism sector uses the life cycle stage to determine how and to which age group they market their products and services. The life cycle stage process includes the business analyzing the age market and its wants and emends connected to different age groups and life styles.
An example of this process would be Thomson new branding of their entity brand, replacing it with the new upgraded version Thomson Scene. By refurbishing this concept Thomson have analyses the current life cycle of their young consumers catering more to their needs. (homonyms. Co. UK) Although most tourism companies offer a wide range of products and services, all companies like to segment their market in different ways. This can be done by dividing their consumer interest into groups such as age, gender and race.