Company Description
Marketing plan is a significant document of an organization, which is created when a company plans to brings its new products and services to the marketplace. It includes various aspects of marketing, which need to be considered in development of marketing plan. This report consists of different marketing concepts for Eurostar, such as; its objectives, market segmentation, positioning and target market. Eurostar is the high speed train, which has started its services in the year 1994 and connects London with different destinations, like; Lyon, Lille, Brussels etc. via channel tunnel between France and United Kingdom (Eurostar, 2017). In this report, there is the discussion regarding the marketing strategies of Eurostar and these strategies are discussed by using 7Ps under marketing mix tool. In addition to this, it summarizes the situational analysis, which is conducted in the presentation part.
Eurostar is a high speed railway service, which is connecting London with Paris, Brussels, Avignon, Lyon, Marseille and Lille. It is the only high speed train, which links France and United Kingdom through Channel Tunnel and it owned and run separately by Getlink. Since 1994, the organization carried more than 150 million travelers. Currently, it takes thousands of people every day to Brussels, Paris, Lille, Disneyland and Calais. It has its London terminal at St. Pancreas International with other British connecting points, which includes Ebbs fleet International and Ashford International station in Kent (Eurostar, 2017). Since its establishment, Eurostar has doubled the number of travellers between London, Paris and Brussels. It is the most innovative organization in its industry. After becoming one of the top train companies, it has introduced its loyalty programs and business lounges. As of 2010, Eurostar has become most dominant operator on the routes, where it operates, carrying the passengers more than all airlines (Ward, 2014).
In the presentation part, situational analysis is conducted by using internal and external analysis. Under external analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis is used to evaluate the industry and its competitors. Five forces analysis of Eurostar indicates that company is confronting major competition from Eurail, Deutsche Bahn, Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, Southeastern etc. These companies are also introducing their high seed trains, which may affect the number of Eurostar passengers (Bennett, and Chorley, 2015). Moreover, there are some substitutes of Eurostar trains, like; local bus, car, personal vehicles, which can be cheaper than these trains. This analysis of the company indicates that company’s situation in the railway industry is moderate as it had monopoly in railway industry for the UK to Paris route.
Summary (Situation Analysis)
For analyzing the micro environment, SWOT analysis is conducted for evaluating its internal and external components, i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Stokmans, Teijink, Cuypers, Buth, and van Sambeek, 2013). This analysis shows that Eurostar is one of the leading players in the high speed railway service from and to London. The competition from new entrants is posing threats and weaknesses for the organization, which it needs to overcome by using its strengths and opportunities. The company has different opportunities, like; it can expand its business to more locations, like; Spain and Portugal. It should make strategic alliance with the Deutsche Bahn to eliminate the competition in the railway industry (Clarke, Friese, and Washburn, 2015).
In addition to this, internal analysis is conducted by analyzing the resources and capabilities of a company. It shows that company is conducting training and development program for training its human resources, which are the major part of the company’s operations. The technology resources of Eurostar are very effective for linking different routes to and from London. There are some issues, which need to be considered by Eurostar, while planning for this marketing activity. These issues are such as; competition, higher prices of tickets, changes in UK inflation rate and interest rate etc. These issues are affecting the position and performance of Eurostar. It should implement effective strategies to overcome these issues, so that it can be on the top position in UK high speed railway industry (Eurostar, 2017).
Objectives are the final outcomes, which each and every organization wants to attain within a timeframe by the use of its available resources. To attain its objectives, the organization makes strategies and manages the operation effectively (Eurostar, 2017). Under this business, the major objectives of Eurostar are such as; to make the customers feel a premier experience whether or not they are travelling first. The company is operating its business operations to show the customers that Eurostar is the smartest way to travel to and from the Europe. It aims to increase the number of passengers by considering several factors, like; punctuality, enhanced journey time and facilities on stations (Eurostar, 2017). In addition, it is targeting to attain significant revenues from its fast railway services.
Market segmentation is an important approach, which can be used by an organization in targeting its customers. These segments are created of the customers, who have similar interests, locations, needs and characteristics (Brown, 2014). Under market segmentation, Eurostar is segmenting the people on the basis of demographic characteristics and targeting active business travellers, students, older people and families. The trains of Eurostar take the people from one city center to another city center, so it is most suitable for the people, who need to travel daily for their office, business meetings and colleges. By targeting these people, company is expanding its operations in various countries, like; Paris, Brussels, Lille. After making changes in the Paris, Lille, Brussels, its customers can connect to more than 100 European locations, such as; Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany also (Cross, Belich and Rudelius, 2015). Eurostar is offering various innovative services, which makes it able in attracting more passengers to travel with Eurostar rather than with other transportation system, like Buses, planes etc.
Objectives
Positioning of a company refers to the strategy, which targets to make a brand to get a better position as compared to its competitors. It is the process to identify a right market for its products and services and place sits value in the customers’ mind. It is the most powerful concept for marketing the products and services of the company. This statement describes how its target audiences perceive the offering of company in comparison to its competing brands. It is completely based on the perception of customers, which may or may not look like characteristics of products and services (David, 2008).
For placing its services, Eurostar has placed itself as a firs train for the cross channel rail travel. It wishes to show that this is the most sophisticated way to travel to and different locations of Europe. By placing this organization in United Kingdom, it is offering them experience of travelling by train that is more comfortable than other ways of crossing the channel. Looking at the needs and requirements, the company has introduced business lounges and loyalty programs.
Marketing mix is the tool, which is used by an organization to create and implement market strategies for promoting its products and services. It includes different marketing strategies of the company, which is related to its different components of products and services, like; product, price, place, promotion, people, processes and physical evidence (Rogers, and Davidson, 2015). The marketing mix for Eurostar is stated below;
Eurostar is operating high speed train between Mainland Europe and United Kingdom. This train connects London to Brussels and Paris. It can travel at the speed of 300 km/h. Travelling with the train of Eurostar is the best example of style and comfort. In addition to this, it is offering seasonal routes in winter and summer in Europe. In the summer season, from May month to September, it has operated the services between Avigon and London. In winter season, Eurostar directly connects London to Moutiers. The high speed trains operated by Eurostar are faster and comfortable than airplanes. By offering these services, the company has become the best rail service provider in the world (Eurostar, 2017).
The prices of Eurostar trains are higher than other trains in the country for the same routes. On the website of Eurostar, most the tickets are very expensive, but it provides different offers on one way and return rides. These offers are only available on limited number of tickets. Eurostar has revised its website, which will help the travellers to get low fare. However, traveling with the Eurostar is cheaper than airplanes and it provides different credit vouchers between Paris and London. In the summer season, the passengers of Eurostar can currently getting 30% off on its standard premium prices (Gómez-Ibáñez and de Rus, 2006).
Market Segmentation and Target Market
Eurostar is a perfect form of transportation for the passengers more utilized to the trouble of crowded airports than to the comfortable environment of high speed train. The stations of Eurostar train are very convenient for the people and these stations are well-managed and provides relaxed atmosphere to the travellers (Grant, 2016). Currently, it has renovated some of its stations, like; St. Pancras International, which is a Victorian station, situated in Central London. As this Europe takes its passengers from one city center to another city center, so it is very easy and convenient to approach the train. For business travellers, it is very easy to avail the tickets and services of Eurostar from Business premier check-in kiosk.
For promoting its services, Eurostar is using different promotion and advertising techniques. The organization is providing various deals and offers for promoting its services. It is developing partnership with different hotels and museum and other visiting places, so that it can offer a combo pack to the visitors in London (Horlick?Jones, 2008). It is advertising its services on social media, like; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. People can get the best and latest offers on the website of company and there are some promo codes, which can be applied on the booking of seats in trains for availing the benefits.
Eurostar provides most excellent travel experience and it includes brilliant people in its team, when they are on stations, board, in depots and in its offices. The company has created a team, which handles all the complaints of travellers and other safety related issues (Laurino, Ramella, and Beria, 2015). All the related people like; Loco Pilot, ticket checkers and railroad engineers are trained by conducting training and development programs.
All the processes at Eurostar, like; booking, check-in, boarding etc. are managed in an effective manner. Booking its ticket is very easy as the travellers can make reservation on its website. Collecting the tickets is also very convenient and quick, as it provides Eurostar self-service machines (Max, 2017). People can book the tickets by clicking on “Paris calling” then on Book now”. It will show a calendar of 4 week availability, which will advise on low, medium, high or no availability of seats.
Physical evidence at Eurostar includes managing the different aspects, like; stations, lounges, booking windows, food and board environment. On-board, the travellers get a sophisticated environment, beginning with the excellent carriages all the way via drink and food menus that are developed in the association with the French chef. Business travellers can use Business Premier check-in kiosks and provides them business lounges (McCabe, 2014). Standard Premier Class in Eurostar trains offers an amazing experience with the large and comfortable seats. Under the standard class, there is no scope of disappointment, as it provides quite environment and spacious cabins, which will take the passengers to Paris, London, Lille, Brussels and some other destinations.
Positioning
Conclusion:
In the limelight of above report, it has been concluded that Eurostar is a leading organization in railway industry, which is operating its high speed trains connecting London with Paris, Brussels, Avignon, Lyon, Marseille and Lille. The report includes external and internal analysis of the company by using different tools of strategic management. The analysis shows that company has been on good position since its establishment. It is targeting the business people, who need to travel routinely. In addition to this, the firm is making efforts to retail its existing customers and attract more customers towards its services. From the situational analysis, it can be founded that Eurostar cannot afford to implement cost-leadership strategy due to its charges and debts. To attract more passengers, Eurostar should introduce some reward scheme for its routine customers.
References:
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Brown, L., 2014. Eurostar brings Wi-Fi on board. EURAILmag, 26, pp.189-190.
Clarke, A.E., Friese, C. and Washburn, R. eds., 2015. Situational analysis in practice: Mapping research with grounded theory (Vol. 1). Left Coast Press.
Cross, J.C., Belich, T.J. and Rudelius, W., 2015. How marketing managers use market segmentation: An exploratory study. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 531-536). Springer, Cham.
David, M. 2008, Eurostar services could be disrupted by strike in run up to Christmas”. The Daily Telegraph. London.
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Eurostar, 2017, Rail Europe: Inspiring Connections, Retrieved from https://www.raileurope.co.in/train/eurostar?lang=en&var_mode=calcul.
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Laurino, A., Ramella, F. and Beria, P., 2015. The economic regulation of railway networks: A worldwide survey. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 77, pp.202-212.
Max, D. 2007, Eurostar: welcome to the new age of trains, The Daily Telegraph.
McCabe, S. ed., 2014. The Routledge handbook of tourism marketing. Routledge.
Rogers, T. and Davidson, R., 2015. Marketing destinations and venues for conferences, conventions and business events(Vol. 14). Routledge.
Stokmans, R.A., Teijink, J., Cuypers, P., Buth, J. and van Sambeek, M., 2013. Contemporary Real-world Evar Outcomes in Perspective: An Early Comparison of the Engage and Eurostar Registries. Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, 24(1), pp.145e3-145e4.
Ward, J.R., 2014, New trains for Eurostar. In Professional Development Course on Electric Traction Systems, IET 13th (pp. 1-3). IET.
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