Module 07

The Marketing Mix in Tourism and Hospitality

DEFINITION

• Marketing is about anticipating and identifying the wants and needs of a target market of consumers, then satisfying those needs in order to make a profit

• Firstly, travel and tourism organisations must understand their customers’ demands. This is the ‘anticipating’ and ‘identifying’ part of the definition

MARKETING RESEARCH

• Anticipating and identifying demands depends on effective marketing research

• Research into the existing and potential market• We will look into this in detail in the Activity• Classifying customers according to socio-

economic status, lifestyle, family circumstances, gender and so on

• May involve primary research – surveys, observation, questionnaires

• And/or secondary research – statistics and records, quantitative and qualitative

CLASSIFYING CUSTOMER

• A target market consists of a whole group of potential customers, drawn from the whole population

• It’s better to define the target market as a collection of ‘segments’

• Each segment will have different characteristics

• Each segment’s needs and wants must be satisfied

MARKETING MIX

• The way in which current and potential customers’ demands are satisfied depends on the marketing mix of the organisation’s products and services:

• The tools available to a business to gain the reaction it is seeking from its target market in relation to its marketing objectives

• Traditionally 4 elements of the mix – Product, Price, Promotion and Place

• 7Ps – Price, Product, Promotion, Place, People, Process, Physical Environment

Elements of The Marketing Mix

Product or Service

• Methods used to improve/differentiate the product and increase sales or target sales more effectively to gain a competitive advantage e.g.

• Extension strategies

• Specialised versions

• New editions

• Improvements – real or otherwise!

• Changed packaging

• Technology, etc.

Product or Service Cont.

• Core Product• Facilitating Product• Supporting Product• Augmented Product• Product Life-Cycle

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