Introduction to Marketing
Marketing is a very important component in the tourism and travel industry because it enables businesses to promote and increase the sales of their products and services in different market segments. Thomas cook has been focusing on diverse marketing campaign to promote attractive and new holiday packages and other related services. In the current case, the organization intends to promote tourism packages in Morocco and Egypt in 2016 and thus, it seeks to exploit promotional mix and integrated campaign in ensuring that it reaches the largest numbers of customers.
Task 1
1.1Marketing concepts
Marketing mix
Marketing mix is one of the main concepts of tourism marketing. It indicates the relation of product, price, promotion and place. In establishing a tourist business, there is a need to develop a service package that serves the needs of the guests. This may be in form of attractive food, as well as taking tourists to fascinating destinations. In regards to price, such services need to be priced in a manner that generates profits sustainably. Place is another key element in hospitality. Guests are interested in visiting areas that are exciting and meets or surpasses their expectations. At the same time such tourists expects that the place that they are visiting are safe and hence promoting their satisfaction. At the same time, it is important for the organization to ensure that the location of elements such as hotels is accessible (Bagdan, 2013). No matter how attractive a tourist destination may be, it may not end up attracting a high number of customers'.Identification of destinations is also critical in the marketing environment within the tourist and the hotel industry.
Market environment
Another concept that needs to be considered in marketing in hospitality industry is market scanning. It is important to assess forces emanating from the eternal environment that impact on the operations of the organization. For instance, organizations operate in an environment characterized with varying levels of economic viability, political stability and social cultural norms and believe. At the same time, such firms are faced with legal restrictions and cultural challenges. Understanding these elements increases the viability of the business (Christou, 2011). For instance, firms are expected to invest in environments where the economy is fast growing, there is no political unrest, culture is being used as a source of attraction and the government is supportive of tourism.
Segmentation and market targeting
In tourism and hospitality, it is important that organizations segment in the right manner. For instance, when opening a guest house and restaurant in Egypt, it would be important for the organization to engage in demographic segmentation in particular, the segmentation would be based on the social class and economic capability. By developing the facility in an exciting location, establishing unique services and charging highly, the organization would be segmenting on the rich who like leisure (Bagdan, 2013).
Brand positioning
Positioning refers to the position that a brand occupies in the mind of the consumer. For instance, by establishing guests' restaurant in countries such as Egypt, the organization would position its brand as adventure based unique tourist experience. It would position its trips as adventure without borders. This would increase the attraction of the customers towards the services provided by the organization especially those seeking high level of adventure (Bagdan, 2013). Through proper positioning, the organization would be in a position to attract as well as retain high number of