Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
using the right promotion. An airline, for example, will
invest a lot of time and money fi nding out exactly what
its customers want from the company, e.g. when they
want to travel, what facilities they would like, which
destinations they want to travel to and how much they
are willing to pay. It will then try to provide services
geared to its customers' needs, using a whole host of
ways of letting them know what's on offer, for example
through brochures, advertisements, mailshots, posters
and via the internet.
In reality, the functions of marketing are much more
complex, involving identifying customer needs,
developing products and services, promotion and
evaluation, as shown in Figure 5.1.
Figure 5.1 demonstrates a number of important points
about the functions of marketing:
•
The marketing process starts with identifying
customer needs. Knowing the facts about your
customers, such as whether they like your holidays,
how much they are willing to pay, whether they are
satisfi ed with the service you offer, where they live,
and so on, provides essential information when
marketing decisions are being made. Different
types of market research are used to fi nd out this
sort of information.
A more formal marketing defi nition from the Chartered
Institute of Marketing (CIM), the UK professional body
for marketing professionals, is:
'Marketing is the management process for identifying
and satisfying customer needs profi tably'.
This defi nition stresses the importance of marketing
as a management process, to be considered along
with personnel, fi nance and human resources in
organisations of all sizes. Identifying customer needs
is crucial and involves a range of market research
techniques that we will investigate later in this unit.
•
Once you know your customers it is much easier to
develop products and services that they will want
to buy. By giving attention to matters such as price,
location, access and features, you will be able to
give your customers what they want.
•
Having developed your products, you must
decide the best way of promoting them to your
customers, which could include advertising, direct
mail, sponsorship or any one of a wide range of
techniques that we will investigate later in this unit.
Function of marketing
Many people think that marketing is just about
advertising - this couldn't be further from the truth.
•
Evaluation is an important part of
the process since marketing is a
dynamic activity that must adapt
to changes in people's tastes and
fashions. It is only by constantly
monitoring and evaluating its
marketing that a travel and tourism
organisation can make best use of
its resources.
Identifying customer needs
Developing products and services
Marketing mix
Promoting products and services
The 'marketing mix' applies to
all industries, but is particularly
important in travel and tourism. It is
also known as the '4 Ps', which are the
cornerstones of the marketing mix -
product, price, place and promotion.
Travel and tourism organisations must
strike a balance between the 4 Ps of
Monitoring and evaluation
Fig 5.1 - The marketing process in travel and tourism
