Visit Britain: Marketing - Assignment Example

? Visit Britain: Marketing of the of the Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Company overview 3 Internal Environment Analysis 3 External Environment Analysis 3 Collection of data from market segment 3 Findings and Analysis 5 New product for VisitBritain 6 Pricing strategy 7 Advertising campaign 7 Conclusion 8 Reference 9 Company overview VisitBritain is a tourism agency operating in Britain1. It markets Britain all over the world and aims at developing the tourism industry in the country. This paper looks into the marketing activities of the company and proposes a new product for the firm along with its pricing and advertising strategies. Internal Environment Analysis Strengths Niche destination knowledge of Britain Excellent supplier relationships Reputation in marketplace is strong Adequate financial resources Destination Specialist designations Online Reservation System Weaknesses Less variety of food Lack of training in management and customer service Lack of co-ordination and co-operation among the employees Limited choice of destinations Outdated pricing catalogues External Environment Analysis Opportunities Development of new products with exciting prices Capture new market segments Strengthening eco-tourism Development of brand awareness in new markets Threats Threat of new entrants due to low cost of entry New offers at low cost made by competitors Indirect competition from substitutes, such as, local tourism agencies Collection of data from market segment A group of 50 foreign tourists have been questioned in order to gain information regarding their visit to Britain and their comments on the kind of arrangements made by the agency, VisitBritain. Given below is the summary of the information gathered and followed by it is the analysis and the findings from the analysis of the data. The country from which the visitor has come from: The visitors that have been questioned were all foreign tourists. Their country of origin has been asked to find out the countries from which the majority of tourists come to visit Britain through VisitBritain. In other words, it can be analyzed from their responses the popularity of the company in the different countries and how well the company is being able to draw the foreign tourists. The tourists have come from different countries in Europe, as well as from the other continents. The countries from which the visitors have come are; Poland, Germany, France, Latvia, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Armenia, Macedonia, Monaco, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Japan, China, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Fiji, Australia. The age group of the tourists: The tourists have been asked to reveal their age. The age group has been asked with the purpose of finding out the age group of population that is mainly availing the services offered by the company. By analyzing the data it would be possible for the company to improve its services in sync with the requirements of the other age groups that are availing the services of the company at a lesser rate. It has been found that they are in the age range of 25 years to 70 years. The majority of the visitors are middle aged and the age group containing the bulk of the visitors touring Britain through VisitBritain are aged between 30 years and 55 years. Type of holiday: The type of holiday spent by the tourists is important information for the company for conducting analysis. The type of holiday generally spent by the tourists indicates the kind of the features and attributes offered to them and the evaluation of the tourists regarding the company and its offers. To the questions asked, some of the tourists have answered that they have come to visit Britain as a family tour or to spend a vacation with friends and a number of newly married couples have said that they have come to spend their honeymoon period in Britain. Number of night stays in Britain This questioned is aimed at understanding the kind of packages opted for by the customers in general. Some of the visitors said that they have come on a package tour and that they would spend six nights and seven days in the country while some others said that they would spend fourteen nights and fifteen days in Britain. Comment on cost structure This question evaluates the customers’ perception about the service charges; cheap, moderate or costly. It shows which class of the society mainly avails its services and whether the price structure is affordable by the general citizen of the different countries in which VisitBritain markets its products. The average cost per person depends on the place in which the person stays. While London has been voted quite costly, with per person cost of spending a day in the city is minimum ?50, the places outside the capital city are cheaper. Packages for staying in cities like Manchester, Bath, New Castle or Bristol are in two price brackets; one is expensive that include expensive hotels and food joints and entertainment zones, while the other package includes comparatively less expensive accommodations and charges less. Kind of food offered along with the package This question has been asked with the purpose of evaluating the kind of services offered by the company. Food facilities form a major part of touring packages. Therefore the customers have been asked this question so as to assess the customers’ evaluation of the services and facilities as offered by the company. The customers’ have responded that the food facilities offered by the packages of VisitBritain are average. The dishes are not always too attractive. Some customers have said that that the food is fine, but, according to some others the food is less than satisfactory. Visit through this travel agency before This question is crucial for the understanding of the level of resonance the brand is creating in the market. If the effect of brand communication is deep then the customers would nurture a good feeling about the brand and would nurture the desire to opt for their packages again. Most of the visitors have revealed that it is the first time that they have used the services of VisitBritain. Only one group of visitors, consisting of a group of five friends, said that it is the second time that they are visiting Britain through the packages of VisitBritain. Although the company is a specialist in planning one of the best tours including the most attractive location in the country, customer responses reveal that the packages are rigid, due to which they are not being able to mix and choose among the places in which they want to spend days. Findings and Analysis The above discussion has a number of implications. Firstly, the visitors have been mainly found to be coming from the developed countries of Europe. The number of visitors from the other continents, such as Africa, South America, Asia or Australia is comparatively less. This shows that there is a lag in marketing activities by the company in these countries. Besides, the fact that mainly the visitors from developed countries are opting for the company’s packages shows that people from emerging economies are not being able to afford these services. Secondly, the majority of visitors are middle aged. There is still scope for expanding the services by the company and developing new products such as after-retirement tours. The company accrues mainly to the tourists that visit the country for vacationing with friends or family. There are several other touring packages that might be offered by the company to increase its service arena. The above analysis shows that tourists mainly opt for the medium term packages (6 nights and seven days). Lesser number of people opts for the long term packages (fourteen nights and fifteen days). This shows that the long term packages are not as attractive as the short term ones. For people visiting for business purposes the company might also experimentally start very short term packages (2 nights and 3 days). Responses by customers show that the service offered by the company is not affordable by the average middle class citizens of the less developed countries. Mainly the wealthy people in these countries and the average middle class citizens in the developed countries with high per capita income can opt for the services. Tourists’ responses show that the company has to improve its services in terms of food offerings. The structure of packages is not flexible since the company offers specific locations in their packages. It has to increase the variety of packages according to the choice of locations or it has to offer the customers to mix and match among the different packages and make a customized package of their own choice. New product for VisitBritain The above analysis shows the loopholes of the offers made by the company. These offers are attractive; however, there is opportunity to introduce a new product. VisitBritain can introduce a new service; a special package for honeymooners. This package would be of two types; one would be of 15 days and 14 nights and the other would be of 30 days and 29 nights. These would be long term packages and would provide the facility of customization. Customization would be made on the basis of choosing the destination. There would be facility for the customer to choose up to three places of their own choice and the rest of the locations would be fixed by the agency. There would also be provision for special nights in which food offerings would be exotic along with discounts. Discounts on wine would be heavy on one night for the couple to feel special about celebrating their honeymoon in a location that has a rich tradition of drinking wine with their dinner.2 Wine adds a special flavour to meals and this combination would be effective in attracting large number of customers3. Pricing strategy Hence the pricing strategy has to be selected in such a way that it would provide maximum return on investment. Pricing also forms an important part of the marketing strategy. Developing an effective pricing requires the consideration of many factors, such as, the cost of the product (in terms of the expenses made by the firm), the existing competitors and the new entrants, the target customer and the customer psychology. In this case the firm exists in the market with good reputation and is going to introduce a new product in the existing market. The basis of strategies of pricing that the businesses adopt lies in two types of pricing, ‘penetration strategy’ and the ‘price skimming strategy’4. Price skimming strategy would not fit this situation since the company is already becoming constrained among a specific class of people who are able to afford its offers. The new product is to be launched with the intention of attracting larger number of customers and capture a greater share of the market before other competitors enter the market with similar products. The low price also discourages other new entrants5. Therefore it should adopt ‘penetration pricing strategy’. This strategy is used for introducing a new product in the market and it is introduced at a lower price than the normal market price6. In the initial stage VisitBritain sacrifices a portion of the profit margin; however, it also enjoys economies of scale due to high sales volume. Later on it might increase the product price. Advertising campaign Advertising campaigns are a sensitive part of promotional efforts made by the company. While there are various types of ad campaigns, VisitBritain should adopt the policy of ‘pioneering campaign’ for promotion making promotions of the new product7. The objective of the campaign should be to inform the target audience about the new product. In order to reach the newly married couples advertisements of the touring packages would have to be put on bill boards, television and radio, as well as on the internet (social networking sites, such as the Facebook). Advertisements should also be placed in selected hotels, restaurants and bars which are most visited by young couples. The campaign should be able to overcome monotony and maintain audience’s interest. Along with introducing new and catchy ways of presenting the offer, the campaigns should keep in sync with the previous advertisement campaigns of the company, such as the colours used and the tagline, so that the audience can instantly relate the advertisements with the company. Conclusion The real concern of any tourist enterprise is to ensure satisfactory return on capital investment made8. Hence the above discussion points out the aspects that the company has to improve upon. The new product can be launched successfully following the prescribed pricing and advertisement strategies. It would help the firm to expand its business activities and also increase its revenue. Reference BBC, ‘Business Studies’, BBC, , 2013, (accessed 5 June 2013). Ferrell, O. C. and Hartline, M. D. Marketing Strategy, Cengage Learning, Connecticut, 2010. Gibowicz, C. Mess Night Traditions. Author House, Bloomington, 2007. Moore, C. W., Palich, L. E. and Petty, J. W. Small Business Management with Infotrac: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis, Cengage Learning, Connecticut, 2006. Moutinho, L. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI, New York, 2000. Trehan, M. and Trehan, R. Advertising and Sales Management, FK Publications, New Delhi, 2010. VisitBritain, ‘Welcome to VisitBritain’, VisitBritain, < http://www.visitbritain.org/>, 2013, (accessed 5 June 2013). Zraly, K. Windows on the World Complete Wine Course. Sterling Publishing Company, New York, 2009. Read More