Integrated Promotional Campaign For Thomas Cook Summer 2018 Holidays

Assessing the incorporated nature and role of promotional mix

Marketing can be defined as a procedure where goods and services make a move from the concept factor to the customers taking in product, prices, promotion and place. This process takes into account positioning along with segmentation and targeting plays a major role in improving the strategies for promoting the services and the products as per the organizational objectives. Travel and tourism generally refers to the planning of holidays and offering of the accommodation and transportation facilities to the customers through evaluating the obligations that persuades the outcome of the business of the organization (Andrews & Shimp, 2017). This report would take into account the integrated role of the promotional mix and planning of an incorporated promotional campaign for Thomas Cook summer 2018 holidays. Thomas Cook is one of the leading organizations in the sector of travel and tourism that is in the habit of providing global or international standard products and services to the customers inclusive of the value added services. This company possess number of tour operators that facilitates services in transportation across the globe.

There exists an assorted activity that requires to be undertaken with respect to the promotional mix regarding the product and the services. The activities like sales promotion, online promotion, direct marketing, integrated communication, advertising, public relations and certain others has been laid down by the company for delivering their promotional mix in the most systematic of ways (Cirikovi?, 2014). Promotional mix takes into consideration the progression that assists the organizations in transforming the people into customers by making use of various methods through conventional along with online tools (Helm & Gritsch, 2014). 

For carrying out the promotion of the package of summer holidays, Thomas Cook needs to undergo promotional activities through their online website channel as it facilitates in advertisements and integrated or incorporated communication. Companies or associations do have the luxury of going through the proper promotional activities with the assistance of assorted or various elements like that of advertising, travel brochure, public relations, direct advertising and online promotions.

It is one of the widely used promotional mixes that can be stated as the paid form of the promotion made for goods and services. In the context of Thomas Cook, promotional mix would help in making a tour and then promoting the same with the assistance of advertising. They can make use of their advertisements of any of their tour packages in particular and promote the same via the social media platform like the networking sites, television along with the on-site promotions (Adhikari & Bhattacharya, 2016). It would help the company in transferring the information related to tour with their relevant customers. However, for this technique, Thomas Cook needs to pay for the advertising that would be made regarding the tour packages and the services that would be offered regarding the same. This method would lack any face-to-face communication between the advertiser and the customers.

Communication Channels

The objective of advertisement is to raise awareness about a particular product or service. It helps in informing, persuading and reminding the customers regarding the brand. There are different methods of advertising like that of sales promotion, travel brochure, public relations and online promotion. The above mentioned methods of advertising can reach the target audience that comprises of those who belong to the middle age as well as the younger population. Advertising can help in communicating to the customers regarding Thomas Cook Summer 2018 holidays. Advertising can help in creating goodwill pertaining to Thomas Cook and it can be helpful in gaining customer loyalty.

This can be taken into account as making use of promotional activities in short term that has the ability in stimulating the customers in buying any sort of product or making use of any service (Tomczak, Reinecke & Kuss, 2018). If possible, Thomas Cook can apply this technique or method for their promotional campaign with the assistance of discount offers along with the premium gifts.

The travel brochure plays a major role in attracting the new sort of customers, tackling the current ones and assisting the business in growing. Printed material symbolizes the company’s professional image for more information. Most businesses that are tourism related are mostly interested in having the brochures of travelling in attracting more customers.  A travel brochure that is well designed and planned accordingly has the ability in increasing the client base. It has ability in reaching the target market of Thomas Cook that works in the initial stage in attracting the customers to their offers that they are going to provide in their upcoming tour packages to Morocco and Egypt.

It has become imperative for organizations in maintaining better public relations through which companies do get opportunities in creating goodwill. It helps in collecting important information about the opinion of the public along with their activities related to management. Through its assistance, Thomas Cook would be able to easily trounce the complaints made by the customers and offer them better and speedy response along with convincing them in the most appropriate of ways. In this method the sales representative can display the benefits associated with such tour packages and provide them with suitable validation as per their requirements. Tickets can be sold personally too for the holidays in Egypt and Morocco.

With the assistance of direct advertising Thomas Cook can reach out or extend their services to the mass of people. This process can be completed through mails and sending of SMS to registered numbers. The company might approve this scheme in generating huge sales of their tickets and promote several offers of discount to the loyal customers that they have (Liu & Chou, 2016).

Objectives, methods and reach of Advertising

Promotion is stated to be one of the significant tools of marketing along with being the vein of the marketing mix. It takes into account all the facets of the products along with the promotion related to it. For Thomas Cook, promotion mix would help in making a tour and the related promotion with it. It assists the company in communicating the information related to tour with the customers (Oke et al., 2016).

Strong online presence of Thomas Cook can help in the growth of the company. The graphics along with images used on the company website should be of high quality. Photography is key in attracting the attention of the audience. The “Contact Us” Page should reveal all the important aspects related to Thomas Cook and the customers would be able to contact them in case of any query (Palaniswamy, 2016). The social media platforms of Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter can be made use of in order to attract the customers. Videos on that of the social media posts can help to a great extent in getting the attention of the customers. Interaction with the customers is more important as compared to selling the services and engaging the people in conversation can help in the process of online promotions of Thomas Cook. Leveraging customer testimonials can help in the online promotions of Thomas Cook. Positive reviews can help the company to flourish and increase the customer base.

The facility of “Direct Booking” can be of great boon for Thomas Cook. The modern booking button can even help in the process of supporting custom made tour (Font & McCabe, 2017).  It can effectively help in the process of responding to that of the inquiries of the customer. The online booking benefits can be conveyed to the customer. Monitoring all the customer experiences can help in the online promotion of Thomas Cook. 

The nature and role of promotional mix at Thomas Cook are as follows:

Promotional mix assists Thomas Cook in maintaining relations with the customers. This process can be done through the various campaigns for knowledge about the tour, the logos and slogans associated with the tour. This promotion would not be requiring any sort of monetary factor and in turn the customers would be advertising for the company in indirect fashion (Romanova, Vetitnev & Dimanche, 2016).

Promotion mix plays an important role in the factor of advertising and promotions related to sales for the tour of the company. According to Andrews & Shimp, 2017, it can be processed through several sources like the print media, marketing related to social media, online advertising and certain other factors. It helps the organization in creating the much required awareness about the upcoming tour of Egypt and Morocco through the use of the promotional channels.

Importance of Travel brochure

Promotion mix has the aptitude in monitoring all the strategies of promotion in order to ensure whether it is working in proper manner or not. It maintains control over the strategy from the beginning to the end. These would help the association in finding definite advancement of its campaign so that consequently the company can make proper decision. 

As per Huang & Sarigöllü, (2014), promotion mix has been playing important role in the assortment of exact channels of promotion in the right market so that it assists in reducing the cost related to the company. It assists Thomas Cook in identifying the cost related to tour promotion for them to plan in according manner related to the budget and the customers that have been targeted by them in the process. The marketing costs can decrease the overall profit margin of Thomas Cook. A business often has debt obligations along with expenditures fow whom it is responsible. Carefully constructed budget in relation to the marketing of Thomas Cook can help in tracking the business in financial terms. This can assist in the process of strategic planning from that of current operating cost to that of potential expansion. 

Figure: Marketing Expense of Thomas Cook

Source: Created by the Author

This is one of the primary aims of promotion in communicating with the customers. It takes into account the three main objectives of promotion which are to enlighten, convince and repeat (Trehan & Trehan, 2015). These helped Thomas Cook in targeting its prospective customers along with communicating with them. Marketers can take recourse to different kinds of media in order to communicate message regarding the brand. The arrival of that of social networks has facilitated the process of interaction of the companies. The different kinds of social networks like Twitter along with that of Face Book is taken recourse to by Thomas Cook for the promotion of its Summer 2018 holidays.

This is one of the personal forms of communication that encourages face to face conversation in direct manner. In the tourism sector it is between the company operating the tour and its customers. It is stated to be one of the efficient tools for promotion in the businessman’s hands for augmenting sales. Moreover, it helps companies like Thomas Cook in minimizing the wastage of the efforts when being compared to other promotional tools.

Personal selling helps in development of relationship between the potential customers and the sales person or the travel agent. This assists in making sales. Personal selling facilitates in lot of flexibility, presentation of sales can be modified easily or even adjusted as per the individual customer’s requirements.

Nature and Role of Promotional Mix

Personal Selling Functions

The travel business relies to a great extent on the element of personal selling. Useful services delivered by that of the travel guide and the agents can aid in the promotion of Thomas Cook. The sales personnel who provide useful service to the customers can help in reassuring the customers regarding any particular service. The resort representatives of Thomas Cook help in catering to the needs of the tourists after they reach a particular destination. The people who are involved in the process of personal selling play a significant role in the process of ensuring that the the services along with products have been able to satisfy the customers of Thomas Cook.

 A display of point-of-sale is stated to be a specialized form of promotion of sales that is generally found in the checkout counter for drawing the attention of the customers towards something new like Thomas Cook’s 2018 summer holidays. This also refers to the systems that are being used in recording of transactions between the commerce and the customers. The POS system intended for Thomas Cook’s tourism generally represents several industries like the sale of the ticket, shops and restaurants.

The next section would take in the promotional mix required for promoting the holiday plan:

This method is used in attracting the customers and this process is only for short-term instant goal. The department of marketing would be making promotion of this tour to Morocco and Egypt through organizing of contests, giveaways, free coupons and sweep-sticks (Liu & Chou, 2016). 

The objective of marketing promotion is on the basis of goals of the company. Marketing objectives in relation to the promotional efforts is aimed at gaining new customers and raise awareness relating to Thomas Cook summer holidays. It can help in reaching the potential customers and providing them with an incentive so that they can patronize the business. Another marketing objective is to increase the spending of the customers. The rewards card of the customers that tracks the purchases of the customers can help Thomas Cook in understanding whether the marketing aims has been achieved. Their primary aim is to turn the one-time customers into that of repeat customer. Contact information pertaining to the customer can be collected and those who are one-time buyers can be put in the email advertising list (Jamal & Camargo, 2014).  Special offers provided to these customers can help Thomas Cook in reaching their objective pertaining to retention marketing promotion.

Monitoring and control

There are different reasons that have led to the growth in relation to sales promotion. They are that of increasing competition, price sensitive customers, standardized products and that of consumer acceptance. Sales Promotion can help Thomas Cook in competing with that of the lower tier brand between that of the price sensitive customers. Sales Promotion helps in the process of price discrimination and will allow the brand to compete in different market segments. Sales Promotion is facilitated in the present age owing to that of increasing competition and it helps in creating a positive impact on the arena of sales. The companies find it difficult to compete on the basis of quality and this is the reason why they are taking recourse to innovative methods pertaining to sales promotion.

Business Development Managers are stated to be the driving force in the promotional activities of travel and tourism globally. They are being supplied with the materials of marketing along with the various promotional offers by their organizations. They indulge in face-to-face approach of sales promotion compared to the internet marketing along with the personal contemporary techniques. People does matter, with BDM offering human contact can go a long way in increasing the sales of travel and tourism. A business development executive helps in the growth of a business and they act as that of high-level sales professionals. They primarily help in getting new customers and selling the services to that of the existing ones.

1. Travel Agents and Sellers:

Travel agents along with sellers might be of great help for the destination of the travel products in increasing sales and reaching broader audience without the expense of forming a larger network. It is important in contacting the travel agencies along with sellers having a customer base nationally suiting the target demographics and signing a contract of marketing with the same. The travel agents can assist in the process of booking and it can help in saving time and the overall travel experience. The travel professionals can help in reducing stress and it can help the corporates in making their journey smooth.

The public relation would help in developing a positive temperament of the organization to the general public related to the new services or product (Yang, Zhang & Mattila, 2016). The organization also assumed this sort of strategy by distributing the tickets in the charity functions. The health related matters of the tourist is of utmost important in foreign tours and if it is being taken care of in the best possible ways by the travel and tourism company, customers will start having faith in the services that is being offered to them by them (Gholami, Roushanghias & Karimiankakolaki, 2016).

It can generally be stated as the one to one communication between the seller and the buyer. The company is in the habit of personally selling tickets to the buyers of potential nature. This is however, expensive but for promotion of the new plan this is one of the necessary elements.

It takes into account the advertising that is being manufactured for a targeted group instead of the mass (Lomova et al., 2016). This is generally being done through the help of the emails. This tactic can be adopted in generating the sale of the tickets. The company might also look for feedback through the inquiries of the customer and bulletins.

In the promotional campaign, a series of advertising are being used through the several tools of marketing and they have been sharing the most common of ideas along with messages that are relevant to the tour packages offered by Thomas Cook. They are generally been used by the tour operators in attracting the customers towards the product or services offered by the firm making proper use of the sources of media like the newspaper, radio and television (Lumsdon, 2016). For the efficient promotional campaign, Thomas Cook will take account of steps like:

The firm has to do proper research about the marketplace in identifying the requirements and demands of the tour packages for Morocco and Egypt. The firm would segment the customers as per their facets. The targeted customers would then be identified which would be presented in an attractive way to them as per their age and gender. As per the requirements of the customers who have been targeted, the plans related to tour would be created in fulfilling the demand. The other competitors existing in the market along with their services are being recognized in this segment by the company. This would help in setting the prices of the tour to Morocco and Egypt. Appropriate resources for marketing like television and newspaper can be made use of in letting the customers know about the tour packages of Morocco and Egypt. A brochure can be created in containing the detailed information about all the tour related information to Morocco and Egypt.

Progression within the technology has brought about complete changeover in the ways of promotion like in the present scenario the tour operators have been making use of various platforms in reaching to the larger number of the customers. The advertisement of the services along with the offerings is one of the effective ways in attracting the people’s attention. Ads are generally been printed in the pamphlets, magazines and newspapers that is being released by the industry related to hospitality. Moreover, it is being promoted on the platforms of social media that is in the habit of posting details of the provided services in Twitter and Facebook.

It is essential for any sort of an organization in maintaining healthy relational constructs with the suppliers, partners of trading along with customers in consolidating larger stream of the people within the organization and provides them the required services. Thomas Cook is one such tour operating company that has a monopoly at the market place that has enabled the association in building good relations with various groups. The services of Thomas Cook have been promoted by pooling resources with the places of adjustments like the villas, hotels and apartments. Adding to that is the arrangements provided collaborating with the suppliers of auxiliary services like the insurances, financial services, banking and certain others that has led to the promotion of the Thomas Cook offerings. Another such approach is personal selling that can be made use of by the management of Thomas Cook with an aim of marketing the services that is being offered by them. For instance, with due respect to the given approach firm can employ certain individuals who would be making personal visits to the home of the buyers of prospective nature of the firm, thus providing important information about the offers that has been made by the firm. Adding to this, with the motive of attracting the customers, the manager of Thomas Cook can take help from the process like the sales promotion. Through this the company can proffer discounts to the first 30 buyers who have taken up the responsibility to approach the firm after seeing the exact packages of tour.

A social media content calendar can be used by Thomas Cook  in order to organize the process of marketing. Keeping track of the business that has already been published can serve as a useful marketing strategy for the company (Minazzi, 2015).  The content that was posted previously and generated a lot of likes can be posted one again. Time should be kept within a week in order to brainstorm new ideas. This can assist in the process of elimination of coming up with new ideas on the spot.

Thomas Cook has made use of the advertising, sales promotion, public relation, direct advertising and online promotions in order to serve the purpose of attracting customers. The development of the factor of social media marketing has helped Thomas Cook in drawing the young population. The facility of online booking along with answering of complaints via the online platform has been of great convenience for all kinds of customers. Mobile marketing is taken recourse to by Thomas Cook however it should be used all the more because it helps in the process of promotion at quite a low cost. Progressive mobile technologies like that of Augmented Reality and that of Near Field Communications (NFC) can be used by Thomas Cook (Gregori, Daniele & Altinay, 2014).  Augmented Reality can help in expanding the travel experience and NFC can be implemented in the brochures of Thomas Cook for the active promotion of the company.

Conclusion:

There has been a steady growth in the travel and tourism sector along with the growth in the people’s awareness of understanding and their knowledge about the industry. For attracting and influencing more people along with the society, companies have been making use of creative and innovative marketing strategies. Thomas Cook is being deemed to be one of the best known and popular travel and tourism firm in this industry. Their marketing has played an important role in the successes that have come their way in the long run. The holiday package is doing the rounds in UK and people have been showing interest along with the overseas customers that has led to the earnings of the company. Promotion of the same would only be benefitting the company with the 2018 summer holidays to Morocco and Egypt. 

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