STC

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
International Marketing | Behavioral
Economics | Strategy | Negotiation |
Market Research & Analysis

Case Study
Wales Market Entry Strategy
 Personal Brand
Accelerated growth from the
Ground-up & turn around
marketing leading to >3x
revenue growth | Lead
motivated, high-performing

ground-up; driven by thought and globally distributed

marketing, inside & outside
sales teams | Marketing

leadership, strategic action & strategy that ensures an

exceptional client journey
grounded in deep

bold new ideas. understanding of consumer

behavior through
behavioral economics
studies, market research &
analysis.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
 Case Study
Brand Communications |
Product, Digital, Social Media
& Content Marketing |
SEO/SEM | Lead & Demand
Generation | Email Wales
Automation | PR | Budgets &
Forecasts | Marketing Market Entry
Strategy
Calendars | Project &
Campaign Management |
Customer Journey Mapping |
Partnership Development |
Cross-Functional
Collaboration | Presentation
Delivery | Team Leadership |
Sales Incentives |
Performance Management |
KPI & Market Analytics |
Customer Acquisition &
Retention Sandra Thomas-Comenole
Objective
The tour operator currently sold Wales product but only
as an add-on and only when requested by the clients.

Therefore, the objective was to introduce Wales as a

regular destination, to increase sales to Wales through
co-op promotions with the Wales Tourist Board and to
increase all sales to the UK.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
 Market Research
Initiated market research
and analysis including
primary research and
secondary data analysis to
discover new market entry
opportunities.

When Wales was chosen as

the new destination market,
performed market research
and analysis to assess
strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats.

Developed market entry

strategy based on market
research data.
Sandra Thomas-Comenole
 SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS As part of market
research, performed
SWOT analysis to uncover
strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats
in order to develop a
market entry strategy.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
 STRENGTHS
Well-known tour company to the UK | Wales has a lot to offer a wide
variety of clients | Proximity to more popular destinations: Ireland,
Scotland, England.

Not a very well-known destination | Wales doesn’t sell well by itself

WEAKNESSES and needs to be coupled with other UK destinations | In house sales

teams and travel agent partners are not very informed about Wales |
Lack of product and product knowledge in Wales.

Wales can be used as an add-on or to up-sell clients. Could develop

OPPORTUNITIES new products that combine Wales with our other destinations | Not
many competitors are promoting and/or selling Wales | Offers a new
destination for clients that have traveled to the UK previously.

Low market demand | Other tour operators could follow suit and

THREATS enter the market | Travel agents might not feel comfortable selling a
destination they do not know | Inside sales staff may object to a new
destination.
Strategy - Product Development
Vetted, negotiated and secured contracts with hotels.

Researched destination and feasible routing for

vacation packages.

Built marketable Wales vacation packages that

included England and Scotland options.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
Strategy - Co-op Marketing
Developed Co-op marketing proposal for the Wales
Tourist Board to secure marketing funds.

Created go-to-market plan to educate travel agents on

Wales as a destination and sell vacation packages.

Negotiated with media vendors for optimal pricing

and placement.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
Strategy - Asset Development
Developed marketing collateral such as a landing page,
print advertisements, flyers, online banner ads,
Facebook banner, email blasts, promotional video, blog
posts, powerpoint and a handy, quick reference travel
guide for travel agents to use as a desk reference.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
Strategy - Educate
Educated our inside and outside sales staff on Wales as
a destination through collateral creation including a
quick reference travel guide, a promotion video and
webinar content.

Brought in the Wales Tourist Board to educate inside

sales staff.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
Strategy - Incentivize
In cooperation with Visit Wales Tourist Board,
incentivized travel agents to book their Wales trips with
the company with the possibility of winning a free
familiarization trip to Wales.

Incentivized inside sales department for the reservations

agent who made the most bookings to Wales.

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
 High Growth >500% 50%
Wales sales Sales from
OBJECTIVE: To
introduce Wales as a increase new partners
regular destination, to
increase sales to Wales
through co-op
promotions with the
Wales Tourist Board
and to increase all sales 82% 120+
to the UK. UK sales Webinar Views
increase

Sandra Thomas-Comenole
 Brand Communications |
Product, Digital, Social

“We are confident that Media & Content

Marketing | SEO/SEM |
Lead & Demand

Sandra will be an Generation | Email

Automation | PR |

important asset to help

Budgets & Forecasts |
Marketing Calendars |
Project & Campaign

our organization reach

Management |
Customer Journey
Mapping | Partnership

its goals” Development | Cross-

Functional Collaboration
| Presentation Delivery |
Team Leadership | Sales
Linda P
Incentives | Performance
VP of Operations
Celtic Tours Management | KPI &
Market Analytics |
Customer Acquisition &
Sandra Thomas-Comenole Retention
 STC
Sandra Thomas-Comenole
International Marketing | Behavioral Economics | Strategy | Negotiation
| Market Research & Analysis

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-
thomas-comenole-5015226/
E: sandra.thomascomenole@gmail.com