Tourism Marketing - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 419

is job is a complex one. Using
knowledge of the consumer market and the competition, the marketing manager must come up with
the proper marketing mix for the resort, attraction, or other organization. The marketing manager's job
begins with planning to allow direction and control of the foregoing factors.
The many elements in the marketing mix have been de ned most frequently as the four Ps , a term
popularized by E. Jerome McCarthy, coauthor of Basic Marketing and Essentials of Marketing. 3 While
the four Ps are an oversimpli cation, they do provide a neat, simple framework in which to look at
marketing and put together a marketing program. The four Ps are

The preceding list makes it obvious that the marketing manager '

product , place , promotion , and

price . The product includes not only the actual physical attributes of the product but also product

planning, product development, breadth of the line, branding, and packaging. Planning the product
should consider all these aspects in order to come up with the

product.
Place is really concerned with distribution. What agencies, channels, and institutions can be linked
together most effectively to give the consumer easy access to the purchase of your product? Where is
the

'' right ''

place or places to market your product?
Promotion communicates the bene ts of the product to the potential customers and includes
not only advertising but also sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling. The

'' right ''

''
promotional mix will use each of these promotional techniques as needed for effective
communication.
Price is a critical variable in the marketing mix. The

'' right

'' right '' price must both satisfy customers and

meet your pro t objectives.
Mill and Morrison have added another '' three Ps '' that they believe are particularly relevant to

tourism. 4

involves special activities, events, or other types of programs to increase
customer spending or to give added appeal to a package or other tourism service. As noted in
Chapter 15, tourism policy views programs as a strategic consolidation of a range of different activities
designed to ensure a clear focus for development and marketing efforts.
The second of the additional three Ps concerns people . This P is intended to stress that tourism is
a people business

Programming

that we must not lose sight of the importance of providing travel experiences that
are sensitive to the human side of the visitor as well as to the functional requirements.
The final P is de ned as

—

. This highlights the high degree of interdependency among all
destination stakeholders, and the need for alliances and working relationships that build a coopera-
tion

partnership

s concept of coopetition, discussed in
Chapter 15, captures the value of partnership in a unique way.

— sometimes with competitors as well as colleagues. Edgell '

Product/Experience Branding

A fundamental concept in traditional marketing is that of the product brand: A distinguishing name

and/or a symbol (such as a logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or
services of one seller, or groups of sellers, and to differentiate those goods or services from
competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be identical.

''

5

''

their destinations. Although the
approach has considerable potential, the transference of its application from traditional products and
services to the tourism setting is not without its dif culties.
Oneparticularlyusefultransferenceof

Recently, tourism marketers have been attempting to '' brand ''

from products to tourism destinations
postulates that place branding performs four main functions. 6 First, destination brands serve
as communicators, where brands represent a mark of ownership and a means of destination
differentiation that is manifested in legally protected names, logos, and trademarks. Second, they
provide an image for the destinations, which is characterized by a set of associations or attributes
to which consumers attach personal value. Third, brands serve as value enhancers that create
brand equity for the destination in the form of improved streams of future income. Finally, a
destination brand can be viewed as possessing a personality that enables it to form a relationship with
the visitor.

branding