Destination management company

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A Destination Management Company (DMC) is a term for a professional services company possessing extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources, specializing in the design and implementation of events, activities, tours, transportation and program logistics.[1] A DMC provides a ground service based on local knowledge of their given destinations. These services can be transportation, hotel accommodation, restaurants, activities, excursions, conference venues, themed events, gala dinners and logistics, meetings, incentive schemes as well as helping with overcoming language barriers. By acting as purchasing consortia, DMCs can provide preferential rates based on the buying power they have with their preferred suppliers. While the term DMC is being widely used to identify a travel trade professional service, the service being offered is essentially the use of those ingredients, services and products already available at a particular destination and to which the user has provided no contribution other than use. These functions are performed by Travel Agents and Tour operators. DMCs can therefore be contrasted with other organizations:

Travel Agent: a store offering travel products such as air tickets, hotel bookings, cruises, tours offered by tour operators; the store-keeper key skill - product knowledge.

Tour Operator: A company that amalgamates travel products into tour itineraries; the tailor key skill product tailoring.

Conference Bureau: An agency that handles conference and conventions DMC: An organisation that manages a tourism destination; the creator (presently state tourism departments) key skill - product vision. A DMC providing DMS (destination management services), is basically the Creator who recognises the potential available in a place and creates the infrastructure, both tangible (infrastructure, training) and intangible (marketing, sales) to harvest the fruits of that potential.

The tourism potential of Singapore is the result of destination management. Another example of this approach is Manx National Heritage. However Destination Management need not be at a national level like Singapore, but could be at a district or zonal level. An example of destination management at a local level is the destination of the Khajuraho Group of Monuments in Madhya Pradesh

Market research

Marketing
Key concepts

Product marketing

Pricing Distribution Service Retail

Brand management Account-based marketing

Ethics Effectiveness Research

Segmentation Strategy Activation Management Dominance

Marketing operations

Promotional contents

Advertising Branding

Underwriting spot Direct marketing Personal sales Product placement

Publicity

Sales promotion Sex in advertising

Loyalty marketing Mobile marketing Premiums

Prizes

Promotional media

Printing Publication Broadcasting

Out-of-home advertising

Internet Point of sale Merchandise

Digital marketing In-game advertising Product demonstration Word-of-mouth Brand ambassador Drip marketing Visual merchandising

v t e

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy.[1] The term is commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is concerned specifically with markets.[2] Market research is a key factor to get advantage over competitors. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size and competition.

Market research, includes social and opinion research, [and] is the systematic gathering and interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical methods and techniques of the applied social sciences to gain insight or support decision making.[3] Contents
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1 History 2 Market research for business/planning 3 Synonyms 4 Financial performance

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4.1 Top 9 of the market research sector 2009 4.2 Global market research turnover in 2009

5 See also 6 References 7 Other reading 8 External links

[edit]History
Market research began to be conceptualized and put into formal practice during the 1920s, as an offshoot of the advertising boom of the Golden Age of radioin the United States. Advertisers began to realize the significance of demographics revealed by sponsorship of different radio programs.

[edit]Market

research for business/planning

Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product. Peter Drucker believed[4] market research to be the quintessence of marketing. There are two major types of market research. Primary Research sub-divided into Quantitative and Qualitative research and Secondary research. For starting up a business, there are some important things:

Market information

Through Market information one can know the prices of the different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation. Information about the markets can be obtained from different sources, varieties and formats, as well as the sources and varieties that have to be obtained to make the business work.

Market segmentation

Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences, demographic differences, technographic differences, use of product differences, psychographic differences and gender differences. For B2B segmentation firmographics is commonly used.

Market trends

Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during a period of time. The market size is more difficult to estimate if one is starting with something completely new. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer segments. [Ilar 1998] Besides information about the target market, one also needs information about one's competitors, customers, products, etc. Lastly, you need to measuremarketing effectiveness. A few techniques are:

Customer analysis Choice modelling Competitor analysis Risk analysis Product research Advertising the research Marketing mix modeling