This assessment will cover the following questions:
- TUI group is a leading tourism business. Discuss the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional areas of the TUI group.
- Make a comparison in a way in which travel and tourism organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to achieve overall business objectives
- Develop a basic marketing plan to meet marketing goals for a travel and tourism organisation.
INTRODUCTION
Market is a place or a ground where two or more individuals meet for making sales or purchase or business transaction with the motive of earning profits. A marketplace is a ground full of opportunities and of different sizes depending upon the area and the economy. This assignment is exploring unique aspects related to the market and activities that company undertake for introducing its offering and that process is known as marketing. There are various departments which are available in an organisation, performing tasks for achieving the ultimate goal of company. The duties of marketing and other functional units are interrelated which interlinks them with one another. For this report, TUI is selected which is a multinational travel and tourism company founded in 1923 and headquartered in Berlin and Hannover. The company deals in hospitality industry, and is one of the biggest travel and tourism company owning five European airlines and known as one of the largest holiday fleet. Moreover, in this report, a comparison is done between strategies which are adopt by TUI for surviving and sustaining in marketplace and becoming huge threat for its competitor. At the end, a marketing plan is formulated for TUI in order to meet its strategic objectives and being very effective.
TASK 1
P3 Application of marketing mix plan and its comparison with other organisation or competitor
A company make use of tactics to promote its brand name and goods in particular market. It is an essential technique that strengthen the image of product and service in front of customers and help the firm to sell out the same in an unique way. Companies always try to come up with distinct game plan which keeps them in competition and also they seek different marketing approach (Pappas, 2017). Traditionally, there were four 'P's' product, price, promotion and place but in modern time people, physical evidence and process are also added. Marketing mix strategies differs from company to company, every organization use their own promotional designs to sustain its position and for survival in the market.
This could be understood by following table:-
BASIS |
DESCRIPTION |
TUI |
BRITISH AIRWAYS |
PRODUCT |
Product refers to the tangible thing which has to be sold to ultimate customer. It is an item which satisfy the wants and needs of buyer at marketplace. Service is intangible in nature and it has to be consumed on the spot. |
TUI trade its services in five vast divisions and each of them provides diversified product lines. It sell out various different kinds of products, which enables customers to choose according to their preferences. It offers peculiar features which differs its services from its rivals. The company has number of hotels and resorts, owns 17 cruises, offer package holidays, these are some products in which TUI deals. |
Company provides its services and target superior segment of population as high level of customised products are developed which leads the firm towards competitive advantage. Also, the airline is associated with high digitization (Boniface, 2017). It is an airline organisation rendering all travel related services. |
PRICE |
This element of marketing mix explains that how much the buyers are willing to pay for product or service. Price refers to a value for an item. |
The pricing strategy used by TUI is Competitive based pricing because the information regarding other rivals are easily available due to huge existence. Presently, the organization adopted product bundle pricing strategy (Aung, 2019). This strategy reflects the bundle of products that sold out at low price than the sum of single items. It also make use of optional product strategy where it set a value for base product and charge independent prices for accessories. |
It uses deferential pricing strategy because it aims at acquiring different class of customers belonging to various segments of society. The value of tickets may differ according to destinations, it also offer discounts on festival periods. |
PLACE |
This element describes that how the product is being distributed to final consumer. Company has to make sure to provide the product at the right place, in right quantity, on right time (Tripon and Cosma, 2018). |
TUI make use of two promotional tools (direct or indirect) for making sales. Direct marketing channel use when the firm directly sells its products to ultimate customer via online portal. Second, When company make use of intermediaries like wholesalers to sell its items to retailers then final customer is called indirect marketing. It make use of intensive strategy where it tries to create a chain of more retailers to ensure that products are available at ease to its buyers. |
Airways provides its services in more than 400 destinations. It also has a tie up with different airport authorities so that operations could be conduct smoothly. It follows online and offline channel to sell out its tickets. |
PROMOTION |
This element describe that how the group of buyers is going find out regarding the product or service (Pappas, 2017). It is an activity through which an organization communicate with its target market. |
It follows multimedia channels to communicate with target customers regarding its products. First, way of promotion is advertising through radio and TV because of its broad capacity to influence the huge number of audience. Secondly, it make use of social media advertising because of its cheap nature. It make use of trade events once in a year and go through with personal selling. |
Firm promotes its brand through TV advertisement, newspaper and hoardings. It use practical and classy messages in its promotional activities. Also, the firm has a sponsorship with rooftop film club, silent picture house and official partner with Olympic and Paralympic games. |
PEOPLE |
This element refers to the employees who attend and communicate with the customers regarding an issue or query. |
The firm operates its function with its sales team. These employees are trained with impressive techniques which helps them to honour its business customers along with their demands. Company recruit people who work in customer service department which handle the complaints regarding product issue. |
Organization has approx 40000 employees. There are two teams one is operational team managing all flight related operations and other is customer service team, who handle all customers queries and communicate with them. |
PROCESS |
This component states the procedure while delivering a product to customer. How the service or product deliver to customer plays a crucial role because again this is what buyer is paying for. |
Firm follows online delivery procedure, where orders are received online and the product is shipped to delivery service provider. It do research constantly regarding market opportunity to understand the need and demands of buyers (Othman and et. al., 2019). |
For the availability of tickets for buyers with ease and comforts, the firm make use of online e- Ticketing facility so that customer can book tickets easily without facing any troubles and delays. |
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE |
This element refers to the things which customer experience while interacting with the business. It involve the environment (market), layout(design), packaging and branding. |
Firm provides its products in different colour, size and design which are easily recognizable by customers. It provides user friendly online platform that allows buyers to view images at high quality. |
In case of British Airlines, the experience that is being offered by company is intangible. It is based on popularity of brand name and how the firm is offering its services like design of lounge, behaviour of attendants, interior and all (Kumar and Nayak, 2019). |
M3 Examining tactics used by company for attaining business objectives
The marketing mix tool or 7P's analysis is bunch of strategies which are used by TUI covering various aspects and areas in which entity needs to apply tactical knowledge in order to be most effective in the marketplace. The marketing mix strategies assist TUI in attaining best results and be most productive. They also helps in acquiring competitive advantage over others in marketplace and stand one position ahead of others. For instance, in order to conduct promotional action company use advertisements and social media and make effective use of digitalisation. They make attractive advertisements using digital tools and techniques, by which gains attention of mass public. Also, company offers unique innovative products for maintaining their competitive position in marketplace.
TASK 3
P4/M4 Development of basic marketing plan for TUI
Marketing planning is a process of anticipating future data and formulation of strategies in accordance to them for achieving organisational objectives. It involves number of activities such as analysing current scenario, gathering information, forecasting and making plans according to the selected target audience (Eletxigerra, Barrutia and Echebarria, 2018). Marketing plans sets the structure and act as guidelines for the organisation therefore, it is necessary for company to develop their marketing plans. Also, marketing actions involves huge amount of money and investment which makes it important for organisations to have a thorough studied plan.
The marketing plans are linked with the company's strategy and objectives in order to attain better results. There are three strategies which company can adopt that is cost leadership, differentiation and niche. According to the strategy which is chosen by entity the objectives are set and the marketing plans are developed in accordance with the objectives.
Marketing plan
Company overview
TUI is a multinational tour and travel company which was established 97 years ago. The company is UK's largest travel and tour operator, owns around 1600 travel agencies, five airlines, nearly 380 hotels and 17 cruises. The company serves in all major markets and holiday locations around the globe. The TUI airways stands at the third position in the world having 62 aircraft's and covering almost 88 destinations in different countries. Company has huge customer base and good reputation in marketplace (Suhartanto, 2018).
SMART Objectives:
- To increase the profits by 10% in next 6 months.
- To enhance its market share by 15% in coming one year
- To increase the sales by 25% in next one year.
Vision
The company's aim is to acquire the largest marketplace and be the best tours and travel operator. The company's vision is to be effective and efficient enough so that whenever people consider of travelling, they think of TUI (Zhang, Cheung and Law, 2018). The organisation aims at creating and serving best services to customers and giving them best experience.
Mission
The small term objectives are refers as mission of company, TUI's main goal is to provide the best quality services to its customers. Also, another motive of company is to serve innovative and creative services to all potential buyers
Strategy
TUI has huge customers share and operates on higher level, giving great competition to others in marketplace. In recent years, company is facing problems in managing their competitor and to be better and attaining competitive advantage, TUI is bringing a new package for collage students. The company's strategy is differentiation as before and for that they developed a package for students. In which they give them a service of hostel and allows them to live in a hotel room availing all services in particular price (Kolb, 2017).
STP
- Segmentation- This is a process of dividing the market in small groups according to their features and characteristics. The segmentation is done according to the gender, beliefs, values and other social features. TUI is using demographic segmentation technique.
- Targeting- This phenomena is performed once market is segmented, in which company targets one group according to their suitability and offerings. The targets here are the college students who are coming from different countries for their studies.
- Positioning- It states the methods by which company will position itself in front of the targeted audience. TUI is adopting and making full use of social media for promoting their service and reaching to maximum number of students.
Marketing mix
- Product- The product is the new service package which is introduced by company for the students and more specifically college students.
- Price- The pricing strategy earlier used by company is competitive, but now as this is a new service which is created for college students, TUI is adopting low pricing strategy. This is because it is entirely a new package which is introduced for college students which is why company is keeping prices low in order to make progress and slowly move towards success.
- Place- At initial stage, TUI is approaching and introducing this package in UK market only, but as soon this project proves to be a success, the company will introduce it in other potential markets.
- Promotion- Digitalisation is increasing day by day and due to which the use of internet and social media is also enhancing. Therefore, TUI is using different social media for promoting new package and reaching to wider customers and potential buyer.
- People- Few new employees will be by TUI for handling this service but they all are experts in their job, as this project is introduced at a very lower level. Also, existing staff is given orientation about new package by giving brief information (Gowreesunkar, Séraphin and Morrison, 2018).
- Process- The process of company is same as before online and offline. All the information of the package is available online on official website of the company also, students can buy their preferred packages through internet.
- Physical evidence- The promotional tools and advertisements which company is using for spreading word about the package, the same actions will work as physical evidence. Moreover, online presence of company and information about the new service is another physical evidence
Also read: MG412 Principles of Marketing - Pantene
Monitoring and Control measures
Monitoring measures refers to the supervision and knowledge seeking about the existing and new products and services which company is offering for knowing their effectiveness. Control measures are taken afterwards for improving their operations and removing any mistakes from it. For monitoring and controlling, TUI will use various methods in order to learn about the success of the package and take respective control measures (Nedelea, Ali and Alamgir, 2017) .
- Sales analysis- TUI's finance department will compare the current and past accounts of company for knowing the increase or decrease took place in sales digits. Revenue units will automatically help company to analyse and know the % change in their sales numbers and know if the project is profitable after comparing it with all the expenses.
- Market share analysis- Another tool for gathering information about the success of the service is seeking the information about increase in customer base, this is known as market analysis.
D1 Tactical application of 7P's in TUI
The 7P's strategy of company which are described above can be modified and better suggestions are presented here:
- Product- The service is mainly for college students who are coming form different countries for studies, TUI can made this package available to other public such as to business professionals who are visiting for longer duration (Gardiner and Scott, 2018) .
- Price- Lower pricing strategy is adopted by TUI, but this can also turn into negative promotion as people can think of it as less productive service.
- Place- The service is only introduced in UK market and company can enhance it and introduced it in new markets also, which are potential.
- Promotion- Social media is used as main promotional tool, but TUI can use other methods such as approaching different college and guiding students about their service.
- People- More staff will be employed for making this service more efficient and a success.
- Process- Online process is used for making sales and more emphasis is put on online bookings.
- Physical evidence- For making effective physical presence TUI make use of advertisements using digitalisation and making them attractive.
CONCLUSION
The market plays a vital role in success and growth of an organisation and development of their marketing plans. The report is based on some essential tools, techniques and concepts of marketing. It is an effective and essential process of promoting company's goods and services into different marketplaces. The marketing teams, tasks are necessary for the organisation and helps other departmental units for conducting their actions. Therefore, the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions are interlinked with other functional units and assist them for attaining their sole objectives along with contributing to company's ultimate goals. One marketing plan of company involves various strategies which are affecting in several sectors and the tool which is used for developing those is marketing mix. It has seven elements covering broad sections and helping company to be effective in each area. Furthermore, a marketing plan is create for the entity by which strategic objectives are achieved and monitoring actions are taken to see if the suggested plan is appropriate enough for the organization. If you are Looking for Online Assignment Help services in the UK contact Instant Assignment Help, We offer all types of Assignment help services for UK students. We have the best writer who can solve all your educational problems at a reasonable price.