Marketing Plan for a Travel Company Research Paper

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Top Travel Marketing Plan

"Explore the world on your terms"

Top Travel is a well established travel agency which cares not only to satisfy the most specific needs of its wide customer base, but also to understand the forces affecting the domestic and global tourist sector and to integrate well crafted responses to these new challenges in the services it provides to its clients. Top Travel's slogan "Explore the world on your terms" invites customers to create the journey of their dreams, aligned with their preferences, time availability, financial constraints and unique needs and guarantees that the company will provide all the necessary and customized support in this sense. The company targets middle income consumers, of all ages and both familiarized with technology as well as using the more traditional methods and its ultimate scope is that of delivering customized, complete and current travel options to all customers, be these certain of what they want, or undecided as to where to go, how much to spend or what to do once they arrive.

2. Branding, pricing and distribution strategies

As the business environment becomes more dynamic and competitive, economic agents have to place a greater emphasis on their branding strategies, namely the face they show to their customers, the promises they make, the reputation they put forward and the totality of their image. And branding is quintessential for Top Travel as it constitutes, alongside research and development, an orientation towards the consumers, adaptability, employee engagement and operational efficiency, a strategic asset "that can provide long-lasting competitive advantage" (Kapferer, 2012).

The central focus on the Top Travel branding strategy is represented by the company's slogan "Explore the world on your terms," which encompasses the company's messages and commitment as follows:

Dedication to meet the unique needs of customers

Dedication to serve clients with specific needs, as well as dedication to helping clients understand and identify their unknown preferences

Past success in creating customer satisfaction (including testimonials from customers in different travel experiences)

The benefits of collaborating with Top Travel

The engagement of employees to create perfect holidays with the given or uncertain customer specifications (financial resources, time, preferred destination etc.)

Flexibility, deliverance, commitment and the guarantee of a beautiful vacation, through a reliable and mutually beneficial collaboration with the dedicated and skilled team of Top Travel agents.

In terms of the pricing strategy, Top Travel has so far employed a penetration pricing strategy by which it provided lower prices in order to gain a competitive advantage over the other agencies and also establish its name within the market place. The strategy has been successful in attracting customers to the new business, but as the number of customers grew sufficiently large, it is now time for the company to shift to another pricing strategy, which is more sustainable within the long-term. In this order of ideas, the decision has been made to implement a cost-based strategy, by which the prices offered to the customers are established based on the costs incurred in the provision of the respective services, such as costs with the staff members, with utilities, technologies and so on, and also including a reasonable profit margin. In establishing the final price, emphasis will also be placed in aligning the cost-based price with the price offered by the competition, in order to ensure that the company does not provide prices higher than the competition, losing as such its customers. The pricing strategy, similar to the rest of the marketing strategies, will also be placed under constant evaluation and new changes will be applied when necessary (Martinez-Lopez, 2013).

Last, in terms of the distribution strategies, these will be twofold. On the one hand, the company will provide its services within its own physical offices, located in the central area of the city. This will ensure that the firm is easily reachable by the consumers. In addition, the firm also seeks to open new spaces in populated spaces, such as malls, as soon as it affords to expands its operations. Aside from the physical offices, the company will also provide its services online, through its own website, which can be reached from virtually every corner of the globe.

3. The competitors

Top Travel faces competition from similar size travel agencies, targeting the same sector of middle income consumers. These competitors represent inter-competitors, in the meaning that they are different companies, seeking to serve the same pool of available and limited customers. The strengths of these competitors over Top Travel include:

An already established and consolidated position within the market

Customer loyalty and Grater brand awareness

Still, in spite of these strengths, the inter-brand competitors of Top Travel also reveal some shortages.

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For instance, some of them have lost their ability to adapt to the rapid changes in the domestic and international tourist sector, whereas others might be unable to serve the diverse customers. For instance, one competitor might be specialized in elderly tourism, whereas another in youth tourism, but Top Travel has the ability to provide top quality services to both of these segments.

In terms of intra-competition, in the case of Top Travel, this represents a complementary service, in the meaning that the same branded services will be offered in the physical offices, as well as via the company's website. In terms of prices, a difference will exist in the meaning that the services offered in the store will have a higher price, to also include the consultancy of the staff members. The holiday packages sold online will have a lower price due to their need for less assistance from the staff members.

4. The differentiation strategy

Up until recently, a major component of the differentiation strategy at Top Travel was the lower price employed by the firm it its relationship with the customers. This pricing strategy allowed the firm to penetrate the highly competitive market place and draw new customers, but it has become inefficient and unsustainable within the long-term. In other words, the competitive advantage of lower prices has allowed the company to penetrate the market place, but it is unsustainable in helping the firm to consolidate its competitive position within the market place. In such a context then, it is necessary for the firm to create new traits that differentiate it from its closest competitor and drive new consumers in, as well as motivate the already existent customers to return at Top Travel. This strategy then will revolve around a specific approach of the specific customer segments. Particularly, the company's strategy will:

Approach its younger and hi-tech consumers through the channels most suitable for them, including social media

Approach its more traditional customers through printed and more traditional channels

Create segment specific materials

Frequently update its offer and information in order to integrate and answer to the new and changing customer demands, and last

The creation of travel services which integrate and respond to the changes in global community, affecting also the touristy sector.

This differentiation strategy will be continually reassessed in order to identify and integrate new dimensions, given that the travel sector is rapidly changing as a result of not only sector competitiveness, as well as international shifts and events which impact global tourism (Nilanjan, 2015).

5. Intended position within the industry

In terms of positioning within the industry, Top Travel does not seek out to follow the specific business model of any other company. The goal is that of observing the customer needs and the shifts in global tourism and creating products and services which best respond to these new needs. Furthermore, the company does neither seek to become an industry leader and become a model for other travel agencies, be these local or international. The company's main objective remains that of delivering high quality services for its wide sector of customers.

In terms of competitive positions however, outside of the company's core goal, Top Travel would seek to position itself as an industry leader and innovator, rather than a follower. In this direction, its scope would be that of inspiring the travel agencies to provide widely comprehensive travel services, which are able to respond to highly different customer needs, across a wide pallet of customers.

6. Media tools employed

Top Travel will place emphasis on two specific media tools, namely:

Facebook and Television.

These two media tools will integrate two different media campaigns. As such, the Facebook campaign will address the younger, more hi-tech consumer, whereas the television campaign will address the older, more traditional consumers. The characteristics of using these two media tools are revealed in the table below:

The Facebook campaign

The television campaign

- Young consumers, spending a lot of time on mobile devices, connected with friends in the virtual environment

- The advertisements are easily to be spread around, from one person to the other

- The advertisements are created with visual and audio aids that appeal to the younger consumer

- Mature consumers detailing their travels with the company, their satisfaction of the services and their recommendation

- Advertisements created….....

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