Marketing Approaches of Elegant Resorts and Jet2-Com Analyzed - Term Paper Example

1.0 Introduction

The holiday and travel market is one of the vibrant markets around the world, especially in Europe. Holiday companies have taken advantage of this sector by offering their customers a variety of options when it comes to travelling and holiday destinations. More significantly, online holiday companies appear to be dominating the market today. Jet2.com and Elegant Resorts are two examples of online holiday companies based in Europe. Jet2.com is a low-cost airline based in England at the Leeds Bradford Airport (Jet2holidays, 2016). Through its subsidiary Jet2holidays, this company offers a variety of holiday packages to various destinations across Europe, the Canaries and Mediterranean (Jet2holidays, 2016).

Elegant Resorts is a UK-based travel retailer located in Cheshire. This company mainly offers luxury gateways to the Caribbean (Elegantresorts.co.uk, 2016). Started in 1988 by Geoff Moss and Barbara Catchpole, Elegant Resorts has continued to receive recognition in various fields. It was sold in 2014 to Al Tayyar, which is a global travel group at a fee estimated to be £14.3 million (Travel Weekly Limited, 2014).

In the recent report, the operations of these two companies are evaluated with the aim of identifying both the on and offline audiences of both companies. To achieve this, both the SOSTAC theory and the four Classic Marketing Activities of CRM will be used to guide this evaluation. The Unique Selling Points (USPs) utilized by both companies will also be examined.

1.1 Aims and Objectives

The main aim of this report is to identify the similarities and differences between these two companies, and how they can learn from each other.

Objectives

• Identify Jet2.com and Elegant Resorts customers and how they can be targeted both online and offline
• Undertake a critical evaluation of the two websites
• Examine the unique USPs of each company and how they maintain loyalty
• Identify any third party companies that can help both of these companies in their marketing ventures
• Propose possible strategies each of these companies can learn from one another

2.0 Literature Review

The ICT revolution has had a significant impact on the holiday industry by moving these companies towards online commerce (Mayr & Zins, 2009). Many holiday and travel companies are now offering their clients the chance to access services such as flight coordination, hotel bookings and car hiring through online technologies (Gasson, 2003). Customers can now learn about new offers, destinations and prices of holiday companies through the internet, and this has proved to be a major driving factor in this industry (Verhoef, 2003). Companies have thus developed websites that cater for a wide variety of consumers from different backgrounds. This means that the websites developed by these companies provide the competitive advantage that determines the success of such companies. The design and operation of these websites is an important marketing tool that helps in attracting and retaining clients (Wang & Fesenmaier, 2003). These holiday companies have to find a way of attracting both online and offline clients in order to grow their market share.

2.1 Audiences for www.jet2.com and elegantresorts.co.uk

These two companies mainly focus on customers going for holiday or leisure destinations. Jet2.com, through its subsidiary Jet2holidays, accounted for more than 800000 customers in 2014 alone (Dart Group Plc., 2014). These customers are mainly holiday seekers in need of bargain tickets and offerings. The focus of jet2holiday is on far sun destinations such as those of the Canary Islands and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Packages offered include flights, flight transfers and accommodation (Dart Group Plc., 2014). Services offered range from the low-cost self-catering to the high-end five-star luxury hotels. The company has thus aimed at tapping into the high-end market by offering expensive services to this group of customers. Of importance, nearly 50% of the Jet2holidays are sold over the internet (Dart Group Plc., 2014). The company sells through travel agents whereby major travel agent chains from various cities across the continent. The emphasis on online bookings indicates the focus of the company in targeting internet users in boosting their business. Online, customers provide the biggest share of sales to the jet2.com company, and this makes its website an important marketing tool.

Elegant Resorts, on the other hand, offers a wide variety of services including restaurant bookings, rearranging private transfers, car rental and spa treatments among others (Elegantresorts.co.uk, 2016). The company has a wide variety of hotels, private islands, and villas in areas such as the Indian Ocean, Middle East, Mexico and Asia (Bloomberg.com, 2016). Elegant Resorts thus aims to offer services to wide range of consumers from various parts of the world. It has offices and representatives in Dubai, Antigua, Mauritius and Barbados (Bloomberg.com, 2016). With such a huge client base from different regions of the world, the company’s website plays an important role in coordinating activities and bookings. Just like Jet2holidays, Elegant Resorts heavily relies on the power of the internet to reach its customers. Most of the Elegant Resorts customers are high-end consumers willing to spend extra money for their holidays. This means that due to the different segments of customers targeted, marketing tools and approaches employed by Elegant Resorts will differ to those used by Jet2holiday. However, these two companies share similarities in their marketing techniques and approaches.

2.2 Marketing approaches by Elegant Resorts and Jet2holidays

By focusing on high end consumers, Elegant Resorts uses a variety of hi-tech tools and innovative marketing strategies. First, in order to target its off line consumers, Elegant Resorts runs advertisements across various forms of media. These advertisements are placed alongside those of other luxury brands and products (Elegantresorts.co.uk, 2016). More importantly, this company uses its magazine as a powerful marketing tool aimed at appealing to the off line consumers. The Elegant Traveller’ is the magazine used by this company to promote its products and services. In addition, the company uses editorial features in various magazines and newspapers to appeal to its consumers. It has also entered into marketing alliances with other luxury brands such as Mercedes, Boodles and Krug (Elegantresorts.co.uk, 2016). This has helped the company reach to a wide variety of audiences who may not have access to the company’s website.

The Elegant Resorts website is just more than a marketing tool- it’s a brand asset the company (Eqtr.com, 2016). The design of the website has been made to attract online users in many aspects. The pages on the website are not only easy to navigate but also very engaging (Eqtr.com, 2016). Images of holiday destinations and other products greet the users whenever they visit the website. Some of these images are illustrated in the Appendix at the end of this report. The writing used is easy to read, and this has been made to appear attractive as well. In order to cater for audiences in the Middle East, Elegant Resorts contracted Wild Dog, a website deigning company, to build a dual language website launched in its offices in Dubai (Wilddogdesign.co.uk, 2016). The menu on the website ensures that users get all the information they need at an instance. This includes information of special offers, luxury destinations, luxury holidays and holiday enquires (Wilddogdesign.co.uk, 2016). Therefore, Elegant Resorts has used the internet as a powerful tool to reach out to its wide audience in a friendly and attractive manner. The website helps grow the reputation of the company, and this has a great effect on the number of bookings.

Jet2holidays has also made efforts to attract its off line users. Just like Elegant Resorts, the company has used the media to market itself to its off line users. As noted in its 2013 annual report, the TV is the most important marketing channel used by the company (Dart Group Plc., 2014). Elegant Resorts not only focus on TV but also print media such as magazines and newspapers. In addition, Elegant Resorts have their own magazine publication which acts as a powerful marketing tool. This is the major difference of these two companies in the sense that whereas Elegant Resorts focuses more on print media, Jet2holidays mainly uses broadcast media to reach out to its off line consumers. Jet2holdiays also has limited partnerships with other brands in appealing to off line consumers. Elegant Resorts has used other luxury brands to market itself to the various markets it operates.

When it comes to its online consumers, Jet2holidays website, just like Elegant Resorts, is a powerful marketing tool that has been used to grow customer numbers. This company has used the Akamai Web Performance solutions to enhance its website design (Econsultancy.com, 2016). Akamai has helped Jet2holidays and Jet2.com to maximize content delivery across a variety of devices, especially through mobile phones (Econsultancy.com, 2016). The website is now characterized by faster speeds, personalized contents, easy navigation and highly engaging web pages. This is a similarity between Jet2holiday and Elegant Resorts because they both make their websites attractive and appealing to the consumers. In addition, they have both employed the services of website design firms in order to enhance the appeal of these websites to online consumers. Jet2holidays has benefited from this design by experiencing high online bookings and enquiries. As earlier noted, half of their earnings in 2014 were through its website. However, although Jet2holidays uses images in its design, the volumes and clarity of these images is not comparable to those used by Elegant Resorts.

2.3 Differences between Jet2holidays and Elegant Resorts

Based on the analysis of these companies, major differences exist in six main areas:

Interactive ads: Jet2holidays uses more of online marketing approaches where interactive ads are on their website. Elegant Resorts on the other hand uses print media, mainly through magazines and newspapers. An example of an interactive ad from Jet2holidays is shown in the screen shot below.

Third Party Link: Through third parties, Jet2holidays offers services such as car hire and hotel bookings among others services. For Elegant Resorts, most of the operations are stand-alone and no third parties are involved.

Online Services: although these two companies offer almost similar online services, Jet2holidays has additional services for car hire and flight only information.

Customer Relationship Management: For Jet2holiday, the internet is the main platform through which customer relation are built. Emails, social media and online brochures are mainly used by this company. For Elegant Resorts, the use of these online platforms is somewhat limited with focus given to magazines, social events and news paper publications.

Online Partnerships: Although both companies have online partnerships, Jet2holidays partners with Trip Advisor while Elegant Resorts partners with Adventure Travel trade Association (ATTA). These partnerships are aimed at promoting these businesses.

Offline communication: jet2holidays has little focus on print media when it comes to offline communication, emails, leaflets and televisions are mainly used to reach these customers. For Elegant Resorts, heavy emphasis is on the use of print media, mainly newspapers and magazines. In addition, direct mail packages are delivered to customers.

3.0 Opportunities for Elegant Resorts and Jet2holidays in Reaching Online and off line Consumers

In order to enhance the reach to their users, these two companies can take advantage of the various marketing approaches and theories. In this report, the SOSTAC planning framework and the Classic Marketing Activities of Customer relationship Management are be used to illustrate the opportunities that can be utilized by these two companies.

3.1 The SOSTAC Planning Framework

This plan, developed by PR Smith, offers the framework that helps businesses structure and manages the implementation of its plans (Chaffey, 2009). It helps a business understand its current plan, where it needs to go and the steps and actions to be taken to reach its destination. There are six main areas contained in this model: Situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, actions and control (Chaffey, 2009). These six areas will be applied to the two companies discussed in this report.

Situation Analysis

This step involves a company identifying its main customers and competitors, and this will be used to evaluate possible opportunities and weaknesses (Fletcher, Bell and McNaughton, 2004). When applied to the present case, both Jet2holidays and Elegant Resorts target the holiday seekers as their main customers. However, the major difference is that whereas Elegant Resorts targets high class customers, Jet2holidays appears to target customers from all categories mainly focusing on low-cost offerings. Using this approach, both of these companies should focus on the main competitors in the industry, and look for ways of taking advantage of the shortcomings of these competitors. Examples of such competitors include Expedia, Travelocity, firstchoice.co.uk and ebookers.com (Ispionage.com, 2016). For Jet2holidays, focus should be on reducing fare prices and offering a wide variety of low-cost services and holiday destinations. This will help tap into the market of low-cost holiday markers. Elegant Resorts on the other hand should consider not only enhancing the quality of services offered but also featuring into the low cost category.

Objectives

Under this category, businesses are required to identify their goals; both in the short term and in the long term. These objectives should be realistic and should be communicated throughout the organization (Mohammed, et al, 2004). For both of these companies, the main objectives are to offer quality holiday destinations and services to its customers. For Jet2holidays, these objectives should focus on cost reductions and at the same time diversification into other destinations. Elegant Resorts on the other hand the objective should be mainly on increasing their services across the various holiday destinations.

Strategy

This step requires companies to set the strategic tools that will be used to achieve the set objectives. This is achieved by understanding the various segments of the market and how to reach each of these. For both of these companies, online and off line customers are important to their operations. This demands that each should come up with specific strategies of reaching these sets of consumers. For Jet2holiday, the off line market segment appears not to be well reached, and this calls for mechanisms such as use of print media and partnership with global brands. For Elegant Resorts, there is need to segment their customers into categories such as villas, cruises and resorts.

Tactics

This involves the choice of marketing publicity tools to communicate to the current and potential consumers. Because their websites play a major role in their operations, these companies should focus on enhancing their websites in order to attract customers (Gruen, Summers, and Acito, 2000). In addition, this should also involve further targeting the offline consumers as well.

Action

This step is the choice of the required resources, personnel, and skills. This involves partnering with external agencies. For both of these companies, the use of the right processes and systems, coupled with the required internal resources will help achieve the set objectives in time.

Control

This will demand focus on key performance indicators and the reviews from users. Both companies should seek to gain maximum feedback from their clients and looking for ways of enhancing their experiences. In this case, the power of social media can help get this feedback together with the reviews on their websites.

3.2 Classic Marketing Activities

There are four classic marketing activities that help in managing customer relationships (Chaffey et al., 2013). When applied to these two companies, these four activities can help enhance the ability of these companies to reach to their customers and enhance the services offered. In addition, these companies will be in a position to retain the customers they already have, and this will enhance brand loyalty.

Customer selection

It is important for both Elegant Resorts and Jet2holidays to understand the specific groups of customers that will be served by their customers. For Elegant Resorts, their main target will behind end holiday travellers while for Jet2holidays; focus will be on categories, with emphasis on low-cost travellers.

Customer Acquisition

This requires optimizing the quality of services offered to attract the customers each of these companies’ targets (Gurau, 2008). This should be done at the lowest cost possible and use of the right channels to acquire these customers. For both of these customers, the focus should be on the demands and characteristics of their market segments.

Customer Extension

This segment demands that companies have to understand how to expand the volumes of customers. This will involve vigorous marketing and target customers from regions and segments that have never been explored before. To achieve this, enhancing service quality is also important.

Customer Retention

Both Elegant Resorts and Jet2holidays should understand the specific needs of their segments. Whereas those of Elegant Resorts are mainly driven by quality and promptness of service, those of Jet2holidays are generally driven by cost. This will also involve offering promotions and competitions to allow customers enjoy services are subsidized rates.

3.3 Taking advantage of the world internet penetration

The websites of both companies play an important role in promoting the businesses they engage in. These companies should therefore take advantage of the growth in internet numbers to reach to more online users. As shown the graph in the Appendix, internet penetration in Europe stands at 18%, and this is a factor that can drive sales in future (Internetworldstats.com, 2016). Furthermore, given that the Asian continent has 48% of its population using the internet; both Jet2holidays and Elegant Resort should penetrate this market (Knox, et al., 2007). Countries such as Japan, China, and India provide a good market for these companies.

4.0 Conclusions and Recommendations

Jet2holidays and Elegant Resorts have taken advantage of the internet to engage in online commerce. In order to achieve this, the websites of both companies play a critical role in ensuring that a good relationship with customers is maintained, and at the same time enhance the number of online services. Furthermore, offline consumers have been targeted as well. It, however, appears that Jet2holidays focuses more on online users whereas Elegant Resorts have strategies to reach the offline users. Also, whereas Jet2holidays focuses on low-income holidays, Elegant Resorts serves high-end consumers with five-star services. Based on the analysis of the operations of these two companies, this report proposes several recommendations for both:

• Jet2holiday should use print media extensively in order to target its online consumers. For example, they could come up with a magazine like Elegant Resorts
• The Asian market remains largely untapped, yet the region has the highest internet penetration in the world. Both companies should start operations in this region.
• jet2holidays should make its website more appealing by including more images and videos like Elegant Resorts
• Jet2holidays should focus on a particular market segment; say the low-cost holiday markers, as opposed to taking a general approach.