Travel and tourism is an important economic activity in a majority of the countries across the globe. Travel and tourism industry has a significant impact on the growth and development of a country as it has direct, indirect and induced impacts on the countries. Travel and tourism has become one of the fastest growing industries in United Kingdom as a result of the changes and the demands of the people along with the changes in their priorities. Travel and tourism has contributed significantly in the economic development of the country (Xiang, Magnini & Fesenmaier, 2015). The travel and tourism industry in UK comprises of several organizations that offer travel and tourism packages to the customers. There is a strong competition among the travel and tourism companies in UK due to which these organizations extensively use marketing techniques for diverting the focus of the customers towards their organization (Becker, 2016).
Thomas Cook is a British travel and tourism organization, which was established in the year 2007 (“Thomas Cook | Package Holidays, Hotels and Flights, Cheap holidays”, 2018). The report emphasizes upon marketing strategies of the organization, while emphasizing upon the holiday package launched by Thomas Cook that comprises of a trip to Egypt and Morocco. The report shall analyze the importance of strategic management planning for Thomas Cook and shall examine the importance of marketing research to the managers in Thomas Cook. The report shall also identify the impact of marketing on the society.
Strategic marketing planning refers to the management activity, which enables the organizations to set goals, emphasize upon resources, improve operations and assure that the stakeholders work towards the achievement of the common goals of the organization (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2015). Strategic management plan enables the organizational managers to ascertain the most appropriate goal for the organization and the manner in which the goals shall be achieved by the organization. The strategy comprises of a major goal, which is further divided into several segments. Strategic marketing plan helps the organizations in get rid of the organizational activities, which are of no use and waste the time and money of the organization (Schegg, & Stangl, 2017).
Strategic marketing enables the organizations to emphasize upon the important organizational activities by designing a proper framework for the organization, which helps the organization in its functions such as making the customer service more effective, helping in preparing appropriate budget plan for the organization and several other functions (Payne & Frow, 2014). Strategic planning enables the organizational managers to have a greater insight into target market and the needs and wants of the customers. With the increase in the level of competition, the organizations nowadays emphasize much upon the formulation of marketing plans, which help them differentiate their products and services from the products and services of the competitors. Strategic plan not only helps an organization to understand the market in a better manner but also helps the organizations in improving their overall performance (Proctor, 2014).
Strategic marketing planning shall help Thomas Cook in refining its value proposition. The strategic plan shall enable the organization to determine the purpose or goal that it wants to achieve. It shall also help Thomas Cook in distinguishing itself with the other rival organizations. Strategic plan shall enable the company to refine and emphasize upon its unique value proposition. Thomas Cook’s unique value proposition lies in its capacity to provide tour packages at lower costs than its competitors (Armstrong et al., 2015). Therefore, the company can emphasize further upon its cost advantage in order to attract more customers.
An appropriate strategic marketing plan shall help Thomas Cook to determine its target customers along with their requirements. Nowadays, a majority of the online business activities are based upon travel and tourism. A large number of customers search for tour and travel packages over the internet therefore; Thomas Cook must emphasize upon improving its online operations in order to attract the customers, who are entirely dependent upon the online travel sites for their tour requirements (Papadopoulos & Heslop, 2014).
Strategic marketing plan shall help Thomas Cook to reduce its expenses. The organization has allotted 20% of its entire operating budget on its marketing activities (Babin & Zikmund, 2015). Strategic marketing plan shall ensure that the organization allocates its resources appropriately so that the organization is able to reduce its expenses and improve the effectiveness of its marketing activities.
Appropriate strategic marketing plan shall help Thomas Cook to determine several opportunities. Strategic plan shall help the company to determine several opportunities that are available in the travel and tourism industry (Chernev, 2014).
SWOT analysis:
SWOT analysis refers to the planned analysis wherein the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization are measured and analyzed. It is necessary to conduct a SWOT analysis before formulating the strategy for an organization. The following is the SWOT analysis of Thomas Cook, which shall help in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in order to explore the opportunities and safeguard the company from the possible threats:
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Strengths · Thomas Cook is one of the best tour and travel companies of UK · The company offers economical and accessible tour packages to the customers · The company has its global presence and offers services such as flight booking, hotel booking and package holidays in several countries · The company provides employment to more than 20000 people (“Thomas Cook | Package Holidays, Hotels and Flights, Cheap holidays”, 2018) · Thomas Cook has a strong brand image and goodwill and has established its strong presence over media. |
Weaknesses · Intense competition in the tourism industry has resulted in limited brand presence and market share of Thomas Cook · The company has long- term debts, which has become a burden on the company |
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Opportunities · The travel and tourism sector is witnessing high growth and is expected to grow in future, which shall provide an opportunity to the company to grow further and expand its business operations (Hollensen, 2015). · Presence of untapped international markets shall provide an opportunity to the company to further explore other regions. · Increase in the digitalization shall have positive impacts on the company as increase in the use of internet shall help the company to penetrate the global markets. |
Threats · The major threat to the company is the decline in the profitability in the airline business · The uncertainties in terms of changes in Government laws and regulations shall adversely affect the organization (Baker, 2014) · The emergence of a large number of tour and travel companies that offer lower cost services to the customers are a potential threat to Thomas Cook. |
Analysis: Thomas Cook is one of the leading travel and Tourism Company in the UK that has served the UK population over the years successfully. The company develops tourism packages for each season in order to attract the customers. In order make the summer holiday package to Morocco and Egypt successful, appropriate strategic planning by Thomas Cook is essential. Sustaining the competitive host and home country market highlights the strength of Thomas Cook.
Strength: Over the years, Thomas Cook has been ranked as one of the best Travel and Tourism Company in the UK. The company has gained the acclamation of being the best due to its economic and accessible tour packages for the customers from all financial backgrounds. Keeping in mind the financial standard of the customers, the company has tour packages for all the customers. This has provided an opportunity for Thomas Cook to build a large customer base with relevant tourism products for all. In addition to the UK market, Thomas Cook has branches around the world thereby, making a strong global presence. The presence at the global platform allows Thomas Cook to provide service around the world in terms of flight booking, hotel booking and holiday packages in most of the countries. Such huge global recognition and presence has allowed the company to employ more than 20,000 people that serves the customers. Effective service, excellent customer service, unique and accessible travel packages has helped Thomas Cook to build a strong brand image in the market thereby, being one of the strongest in the travel and tourism sector.
Weakness: A rise in the number of travel and tourism has been seen over the years. This has led to fierce competition in the market. In addition to, the increased number of travel and tourism companies in the market has limited the brand presence of and market share of Thomas Cook in the UK market. Increased number of travel and Tourism Company has led to market saturation thereby, making it difficult to attract customers. Thomas Cook has long-term debts that makes business an issue. The debts that Thomas Cook has make it difficult for them to run business in the UK market thereby, hampering their strategic goals.
Opportunities: The potential strengths of the company have led to opportunities for the company. In the past years, the travel and tourism industry has encountered an unexpected growth. As a result, rise in the travel and tourism industry is expected in the future as well. The future growth prediction of the travel and tourism industry provides suitable opportunity for Thomas Cook to grow and expand their business operations. A change has been noticed in the taste of the customers regarding the places they want to visit. For example, customers prefer adventurous travel packages along with packages that allow them to explore the natural landscapes. This provides an opportunity for Thomas Cook to explore the untapped international markets thereby, allowing them to explore the business further. In addition to, the incorporation of technology and digitalization will provide an opportunity for Thomas Cook to penetrate global markets and reach out to customers more effectively.
Threats: Along with providing accommodation and other travel facilities, Thomas Cook also provides flight-booking facilities. However, decline in the profitability in the airline industry is one of major threats for Thomas Cook. The past years have seen a rapid change in the government rules and regulations. Thus, uncertainties in terms of changes in government laws and regulations shall adversely affect Thomas Cook. In addition to, emergence of large number of tour and travel companies offering low cost services to the customers is also a potential threat for the company.
Thus, SWOT analysis allowed Thomas Cook to investigate the internal environment of the company that helped in strategic planning while developing summer holidays 2018 for Morocco and Egypt thereby, fulfilling the aim and objectives successfully.
TALC (Tourist area life cycle):
Tourist area life cycle depicts the destinations that tend to create confusion for the tourists or customers. The tourism companies refrain from disclosing the entire detail about a particular destination however, it is necessary to mention the details to the customers (Woo, Kim & Uysal, 2015). Tourist area life cycle is a model that mentions all the possible details regarding the destinations, hotels and the other popular site seeing areas, which enables a marketing planner to research accordingly and prepare a report (Uysal et al., 2016). Thomas Cook uses the tourist area life cycle model in order to plan its marketing process at different stages and maximize the development of the tourist destinations according to the circumstances.
Figure 1: Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC)
(Source: Uysal et al., 2016)
The above figure suggests the tourist area life cycle for the summer holiday 2018 package for Morocco and Egypt. According to the model, developing summer holiday package for Morocco and Egypt will attract customers, as this is new package offered by Thomas Cook for the customers. Both Morocco and Egypt have heritages that help in engaging the tourists visiting the places. In order to promote the place, the locals of Morocco and Egypt provide additional facilities thereby, marking the recognition of tourist season. As a result, involving the locals provides an opportunity to promote local cultures to the tourists, thereby, making an apparent impact. Increased number of visitors marks the development stage of TALC stage thereby, equaling or exceeding the local population. The development stage is the most important, as this will improve the quality of life for the locals and residents of Morocco and Egypt along with ensuring economic improvement. The tourist will develop natural and cultural attractions. After developing the summer holiday offer for Morocco and Egypt for 2018, stagnation stage is marked by increased tourism and repeat visitors thereby, reaching or exceeding the expectations of the destination. Declination stage is identified by minimization of market share of the tourist destination.
Boston matrix:
Boston matrix is an analytical tool that is used by the organizations to allocate their resources appropriately for marketing their brand, implementing strategic management and conducting a portfolio analysis. It analyzes the products and identifies the priorities for investing and growing opportunities. It enables the organizations to form new strategies while considering the present situation and past trend. Thomas Cook uses Boston Matrix for analyzing the several tour and travel packages and finally choosing the most appropriate packages to be offered to the customers (Medlik, 2016).
Figure 2: BCG Matrix
(Source: Medlik, 2016)
According to the BCG matrix, the summer holiday to Morocco and Egypt can be categorized under star. This signifies that the summer holidays 2018 for Morocco and Egypt have high market share and high market growth. This is because Thomas Cook has developed the new summer holiday package for Morocco and Egypt based on the current needs and demands of the target market segment. As a result, the tourism package developed by Thomas Cook is expected to have high market growth as well as high market share. As Thomas Cook has been serving the travel and tourism industry over the years, it has high market share. Thus, the launch of the new summer holiday package to Morocco and Egypt by Thomas Cook provides high market growth, as the holiday package is addressing the needs of the target market customers thereby, fulfilling them.
Ansoff matrix:
Ansoff matrix refers to the tool that helps the senior executives and marketers to formulate strategies for future development and growth in the process of strategic planning (Filippov, 2017). Thomas Cook uses the Ansoff matrix in order to determine the tour packages and tourist destinations that have the capability of attaining the desired growth. The model also helps in determining the new potential markets, which the organization can target in order to increase its sales and profitability. Utilization of Ansoff matrix has enabled Thomas Cook to provide superior benefits to its customers by offering them a wide range of products and services (“Thomas Cook | Package Holidays, Hotels and Flights, Cheap holidays”, 2018).
Figure 3: Ansoff matrix
(Source: Filippov, 2017)
According to the Ansoff matrix, the summer holiday 2018 package to Morocco and Egypt is categorized under product development. This is because Thomas Cook is creating new products or variations to sell to the present customers. Thomas Cook undertakes this strategy because the company holds a strong position in the UK market. The customers in the UK market prefer Thomas Cook due to the strong existence in the UK market. Thus, developing he product for the UK market at regular interval allows Thomas Cook to retain the existing customers by providing them something new thereby, keeping them interested. Thus, developing the summer holiday package 2018 for Morocco and Egypt is a product development strategy y Thomas Cook for the UK market.
Product development improves the competitiveness for the business organizations, as it gives new things to the target market customers. In this case, launching summer holiday package 2018 to Morocco and Egypt provided competitive advantage for Thomas Cook, as this package provided an opportunity for the UK population to explore new destination at reasonable price. In addition to, the launch of summer holiday package 2018 to Morocco and Egypt is expected to contribute highly for the sales and output of the company thereby, enhancing competitiveness for Thomas Cook. This is because the summer holiday package launched by Thomas Cook was developed keeping in mind the needs, demands and expectations of the UK population thereby, fulfilling their wishes. The UK market has seen an increase in the number of travel and Tourism Company thereby, leading to fierce competition in the market. This is because all the companies are aiming towards selling the products and travel packages to the UK population. Thus, in order to sustain in the competitive market, competitive advantage is necessary. Thus, developing and launching new travel packages to the UK population provides an opportunity for Thomas Cook for gaining competitive advantage.
Marketing research and market information:
The market research and market information enable the organizations to know the past and present trends as well as forecast the future trends. This enables the organizations to remain competitive in nature and ahead of the competing organizations.
Defining the market:
It is important for any business organizations to define the market before developing and launching the product. In addition to, defining a market also provides an opportunity for the managers to conduct market research easier, as the managers are able to gather information particular and relevant to the particular market. In order to launch summer holiday package 2018 for Morocco and Egypt, it is important for Thomas Cook to define the market initially. This will help Thomas Cook to identify the needs and demands of the particular market and conduct marketing research accordingly. Defining the UK market also allows Thomas Cook to consider the financial standard of the market thereby, developing travel packages that are easily affordable and accessible. This will increase the sales and output of summer holiday package 2018 to Morocco and Egypt.
Current demand and tourism needs:
The travel and tourism industry has witnessed massive changes in the past few years as the travel needs of the people across the globe have gone through a massive change. Earlier, the individuals used to design their own travel plans whereas, at present the demand for travel and tourism packages has increased as a result of which they consult the travel and tourism organizations.
Forecasting and demand measurement:
The increase in the demand for travel packages are deemed to increase in the future years as the travel and tourism industry is growing at a very fast rate. The individuals nowadays prefer consulting the travel and tourism companies and plan their tour in a better and economical way.
Marketing and society:
Marketing activities have a huge impact on the society as it influences the individuals in terms of their buying behavior.
Marketing information refers to the results obtained from market research, which is further utilized to develop a marketing and development plan. A group of professional people such as the marketing manager and several others does the market research. The research team conducts several researches in a market wherein the product specifications, customer demand and the latest market trends are studied and analyzed. Marketing information comprises of all the minute details related to an organization that helps the organization in its future progress. Market research helps the organizations in gaining knowledge about the market, which helps them in designing the most appropriate marketing plans. Market research has gained huge importance due to the increase in the level of competition in the market. Several organizations that produce or offer similar products and services and market research help the organizations to differentiate themselves from the competitors (Pike & Page, 2014).
Market research and market information has enabled Thomas Cook to identify the needs and requirements of the customers and design the tour packages accordingly. The travel and tourism sector comprises of several organizations that closely compete with each other, which acts as a threat to Thomas Cook. However, market research and market information enables the company to identify the strategies used by the rival organizations and develop its strategies accordingly (Bowie et al., 2016). Market research has enabled Thomas Cook to come up with its own unique strategies that has helped the company to differentiate itself from the others. Market research helps the organizations to identify the best methods for attracting the customers and retain them. Thomas Cook has efficiently utilized market research and the information obtained therein for maintaining its service quality. Research enables the organizations to obtain proper information about the market conditions and the rival organizations for determining their strategies and policies. Market research has enabled Thomas Cook to differentiate itself from its competitors such as SOTC and Cox and Kings. Market information enables the managers of the organization to take decisions related to restricting its operations in non- profitable areas and expanding the business operations in more profitable regions. The travel and tourism managers play a crucial role in conducting marketing research and gathering relevant and required market information. The managers working for Thomas Cook help in conducting an in-depth market research and gather required information. Market research conducted by the managers of Thomas Cook provided them with the opportunity to identify and analyze the needs and demands of the UK population. As a result, the managers consider the requirements of the UK market and launched summer holiday package 2018 to Morocco and Egypt.
The availability of appropriate information at the correct time helps the organizations to take the necessary decisions and formulate the appropriate strategies, which helps them sustain in the long- run. This creates the need for appropriate market research methodologies that can help the organizations obtain updated information. Market research enables the organizations to assemble, form, apply and convey the information required for decision- making and strategy formulation. The market research in tourism sector involves research related to the industrial information, changes in the tastes and preferences of the customers, tourism destinations, and several others. Therefore, market research and market information enables the managers of travel and tourism organizations to determine and analyze the market trend and formulate the marketing strategies and the travel and tour packages accordingly (Filieri, & McLeay, 2014). It also enables the managers to obtain benefits from price advantages by determining the pricing strategies of the competitors and formulating the pricing policy accordingly.
Marketing not only has impact on the organizations but also on the society on a whole. The impacts might be positive or negative. Marketing exists in the society and it cannot take place without the cooperation and help of the society. Marketing involves identification of the needs and wants of the customers and the changes in their tastes and preferences along with the identification of the marketing strategies used by the competitors (Risselada, Verhoef & Bijmolt, 2014). The present society highly influences the marketing strategy that the business organization undertakes for communicating the product or service to the customers. This is because what one society accepts might be rejected by another society. As a result, the business organizations have to consider the perspectives society before marketing the product or service to the target market. Developing strategies by considering perspective of the society determines the success of the product and service that is communicated to the target customers. Thus, Thomas Cook needs to keep in account the perspectives of the UK society for marketing summer holiday package 2018 to Morocco and Egypt. This enables the organizations to develop strategies that are superior to the competitors and helps the organizations in satisfying the needs and wants of the society in a better manner. The following are the influences of marketing on the society:
Conclusion:
Marketing and promotion is referred to as the concept that directly and indirectly influences the demand of a product or service. Individuals come across several advertisements in a single day but he or she remembers a few (Jaiswal & Gupta, 2015). These are the advertisements that attract the customers and they tend to remember them in the back of their minds. It is necessary for the organizations to maintain the ethicality of their marketing activities so that they have positive impact on the customers. Therefore, the marketing activities must just emphasize upon financial gains but must also fulfill the expectations of the customers. Thomas Cook must also emphasize upon satisfying the needs and wants of the customers and designing the marketing plan accordingly such that its marketing activities have positive impacts on the society.
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