INTRODUCTION TO TOURISM

MARKETING
 SUBTOPICS
Meaning and definitions of marketing
Basic concepts in marketing
Marketing philosophies/orientations
The objectives of marketing
Features of tourism marketing
Challenges of tourism marketing & relevant
suggestions
 DEFINITION OF MARKETING
Marketing is defined as a process intended to find, satisfy, and
retain customers while the business makes a profit.
Marketing is about anticipating and identifying the wants and
needs of a target market of consumers, then satisfying those
needs in order to make a profit.
Marketing comprises all the activities and processes used to
bring buyers and sellers together, including creating, distributing,
promoting, pricing and innovative ideas to facilitate satisfying
exchange relationships in a dynamic environment (Pride & Ferrell,
1995, p. 4).
Notes: Marketing is concerned with research which is the
foundation for organized planning. Marketing is concerned with
production and pricing and promotion, and not least profits
Other definitions
Marketing as a social process by which individuals and
groups obtain what they need and want through creating,
offering and freely exchanging products and services of
value with others.
Marketing is "the process of planning and executing the
conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas,
goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy
individual and organizational objectives." According to
the American Marketing Association,
 Marketing Philosophies
There are FIVE competing concepts under which
organizations conduct their marketing activities
1. The Production Concept
2. The Product Concept
3. The Selling Concept
4. The Marketing Concept
5. The Societal Marketing Concept

MKT243 - Fundamentals of Marketing

The Production Concept:
Production Concept is one of the oldest concepts in business. It holds
that consumers will prefer products that are widely available &
inexpensive. Manager of production oriented business concentrate
on achieving high production efficiency low cost & mass distribution.

The Product Concept:

The product concept holds that consumers will favor products that
offer the most quality, performance and innovative features.
Marketing manager tasks:
a). Development of product continuously.
b). Make attractive design, color, packaging and form of product.
c). Increase the effectiveness of product.
The Selling Concept
The Selling Concept: The selling concept holds that consumers will
not purchase enough of the forms products unless it undertakes a
large-scale selling and promotion effort. Marketing manager tasks;
a). Increasing promotional activities.
b). Employed skilled and experienced salesman.
c). Ensure customer satisfaction
d). Taking planning shortly
The Marketing Concept:
The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals
depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and
delivering the desired satisfaction better than competitors do.
Marketing manager tasks;
a). Identity customer test, preference and demand.
b). Product planning, development, pricing and distribution
according to the demand of customers.
The Societal Marketing Concept:
The societal marketing concept is the idea that a companys
marketing decisions should consider consumers want, the
companys requirements, consumers long run interest and
societys long-run interests. Marketing manager tasks:
a). Satisfying the needs of customer and welfare the society
and societys people.
b). Participate various types of social welfare programs.
c). Try to solve environmental problem, economic problem use
our minimum resources properly.
BASIC CONCEPTS IN MARKETING
Needs describe basic human requirements such as food, air, water,
clothing, and shelter. People also have strong needs for recreation,
education, and entertainment.
Want: Wants are desires for specific satisfiers of the deeper needs.
Needs are few and wants are many.
An American needs food but wants a hamburger, French fries, and a
soft drink.
A person in Mauritius needs food but wants a mango, rice, lentils, and
beans. Clearly, wants are shaped by ones society.
Demands are basically wants for specific products that are linked
/associated with the ability and willingness to pay for these products.
For example, many desire a car such as Mercedes Benz, Toyota, BMW,
Honda etc. but only a few are really willing and able to buy one.
A market consists of all the potential customers sharing
a particular need or want who might be willing and able
to engage in exchange to satisfy that need or want.
A product is any offering that can satisfy a need or
want.
Exchange is the act of obtaining a desired product from
someone by offering something in return.
Customer satisfaction can be defined as a positive
attitude shown by customer towards a supplier when the
customers expectations are met.
 THE OBJECTIVES OF MARKETING
However, there are some common marketing objectives that
are shared by different organizations. These include the
following.
Raising awareness
This is possibly the most important aspect of marketing. In
order to improve an organizations chances of making a sale, it
is important that customers are able to identify with a brand.
Increasing profits
One of the key objectives for private organizations is to
increase revenue and profits. Techniques used to achieve this
can include increasing sales, raising prices and improving cost
effectiveness, for example, by making staff redundant.
Challenging competitors
Many organizations are involved in challenging their
competitors by offering cheaper prices or better products
and services. Their aim is to increase revenue and profits
by attracting their competitors customers.
Targeting new customers
Commonly, new customers will be offered incentives to
do business with the organization, for example special
deals, discounts and vouchers.
Some organizations also have special phone numbers for
new customers to make initial contact with the
organization.
Retaining existing customers
Brand loyalty is important for organizations. The best
way for organizations to retain existing customers is to
offer consistently high standards of customer service and
customer care.
Introducing new products and services
Organizations often seek to improve sales by introducing
new products and services. It is essential that new
products and services are marketed effectively in order to
maximize sales.
 Scope of marketing
Marketing has a very wide scope it covers all the
activities from conception of ideas to realization of
profits. Some of them as discussed as below:
Study of Consumer Wants and Needs: Goods are
produced to satisfy consumer wants. Therefore study is
done to identify consumer needs and wants. These needs
and wants motivates consumer to purchase.
Study of Consumer behavior: Marketers performs
study of consumer behavior. Analysis of buyer behavior
helps marketer in market segmentation and targeting.
Product Planning and development It includes the activities of
product research, marketing research, market segmentation,
product development, determination of the attributes, quantity and
quality of the products.
Channels of Distribution:Decision regarding selection of most
appropriate channel of distribution like wholesaling, distribution
and retailing is taken by the marketing manager and sales
manager.
Pricing Policies: Marketer has to determine pricing policies for
their products. Pricing policies differs form product to product. It
depends on the level of competition, product life cycle, marketing
goals and objectives, etc.
Promotion, Promotion includes personal selling, sales promotion,
and advertising. Right promotion mix is crucial in accomplishment
of marketing goals.
 TOURISM MARKETING
What is tourism marketing?
Some scholars have attempted to define marketing in relation to
tourism. For example.
The tourism marketing is the application of the principles and
techniques of marketing to the general field of tourism.
The marketing of tourism is simply applying the appropriate
marketing concepts to planning a strategy to attract visitors to a
destination, whether resort, city, region, or country.
Tourism marketing involves discovering what tourists want (market
research), developing suitable tourist services (product planning), telling
them what is available (advertising and promotion), and giving
instruction where they can buy the services (channels of distribution:
tour operators and travel agents) so they will receive value (pricing), and
the tourist organization will make a profit and attain its goals
(marketability).
Tourism Marketing is a continuous, sequential process
through which management in the tourism industry
plans, researches, implements, controls, and evaluates
activities designed to satisfy both customers' needs and
wants and their own organizations objectives.
Tourism marketing is defined as the organized,
combined efforts of the national tourist bodies and/or the
businesses in the tourism sector of an international,
national or local area to achieve growth in tourism by
maximizing the satisfaction of tourists. In doing so, the
tourist bodies and businesses expect to receive profits.
 FEATURES OF TOURISM
MARKETING
The marketing of tourism is different from other products
because tourism is a service product where instead of
selling physical goods an intangible experience is sold.
Tourism industry is commonly referred to as Service
Industry and not a consumer good industry as it
possesses all the classic Service Characteristics.
Some examples of other service industry, other than
Tourism, are banking services, legal services, medical
practice, teaching, accounting and others. It is important
in understanding how these services are marketed.
Service marketing
Services marketing is a sub field of marketing, includes
marketing of services like telecommunications services,
financial services, all types of hospitality services, car
rental services, air travel, health care services and
professional services.
Three types of marketing in
service industries
Internal marketing refers to the way a company
communicates with employees. It includes sharing of
important news by company leaders and effective
support of employees as they do their jobs.
External marketing includes all promotional efforts
aimed at customers to promote the benefits of the
company and its products and services.
Interactive marketing includes direct exchanges
between employees and customers whom they share
product or service information with to induce purchases..
The five commonly referred service characteristics
that differentiates the consumer industry from the
service industry are mentioned below:
Intangibility
Intangibility means that things cannot be seen, tasted, felt
or touched, heard or smelled before purchase but they can
only be felt and experienced during consumption.
Example A tourist while buying a tour package to Egyptian
Pyramids has no way of knowing how the visit will be till
he/ she visits the pyramids and experiences them.
A visitor will know the comfort level of a room and its
services only after the hotel room has been paid for and
the consumer checks into the room.
Marketing strategies to
overcome intangibility
Familiarization (FAM) trips
FAM trips are complimentary trips organized by people
who can shape opinion of tourists.
Visualization
it promotes the tangible element of a service. For
example, a hotel depicts the benefits of dining at its
restaurant with its ads, which shows beautiful interiors,
well laid facilities.
Testimonials
Celebrities such as actors and sportsperson, their words
carry high reliability and value.
Physical representation
services when represented by some physical representation help
in building the trust of the customers
for example: restaurants dress their service providers in uniforms
to emphasize visibility, reliability and cleanliness, attractive menu
cards also help.
Documentation
documentation is sued by service providers to tangibilise their
intangibles.
Examples Hotel advertises the awards received by it in the recent
past and emphasis its hotel as an environmentally sensitive hotel.
Branding.
Brand help in differentiating the service from that of its competitors
in terms of name, logo, and other identifying features and forms an
important component of the communication mix
Inseparability
This means that the product cannot be separated from
the service provider as often the product is being
produced and consumed simultaneously.
In tourism industry, often the participation of the
consumer along with the service provider simultaneously
is necessary for its consumption.
Variability/Heterogeneity
services are delivered by humans to humans. These
services have a high level of variability, when producer and
consumer interacts.
Perishability
The tourism product cannot be stored for use or sale later.
For example, a hotel room if not sold and occupied today
cannot be sold tomorrow for today. The revenue for today
will be lost forever and it cannot be recouped.
Similarly, in case one seat on a flight remains unsold then
the same cannot be sold in the next flight. The revenue for
that seat in the flight is lost forever.
Lack of Ownership
Lack of ownership is a typical service characteristic also
seen in tourism industry. One can go to a restaurant to
enjoy a meal but it does not mean that the consumer is
the owner of the restaurant or the table used for meal.
The consumer only pays for the meal and the service
that accompanies the meal and has no ownership rights.
The Tourism industry also has some other unique
characteristics

Tourism demand is highly unstable.

Tourism demand is influenced by seasonal, economic,
and political and other such factors. For example,
political unrest affects inflow of tourist to a particular
destination.
Thus marketing managers has to generate as much
demand to fill the gap as market conditions permit.
Intermediaries play a dominant role

In tourism, sales intermediaries like tour operators, travel

agents, reservation services and hotel brokers play a
dominant role. They determine to a large extent which
services will be sold and to whom.
Thus marketer has to consider the tourism intermediaries
during designing services, pricing policies and
promotional strategies.
Interdependence of Tourism Products

Most visitors need to combine several products in their

travel decisions, not just one.
A business visitor needs transport, accommodation,
food and beverage, and maybe car rental and
conference facilities.
A vacationer chooses attractions at a destination
together with the products of accommodation, transport
and other facilities such as recreational activity and
catering.
Therefore collaborative marketing is required
High fixed costs of service operations
A fixed cost is one that has to be paid for in advance in order
for a business to be open to receive customers. In the case of
an airline, which must fund the following main costs in order to
be able to provide its flights.
Airport landing charges and crew costs.
equipment
Insurances.
Wages and salaries for employees.
Management overheads and administrative costs.
The bulk of marketing costs.
Hence they impose very daunting tasks for marketing
managers as the principal revenue generators.
 Discussion question
1. Consider how a hotel or a restaurant deal with the
intangibility, inseparability, variability, and
perishability of the service it provides. Give specific
examples to support your conclusions.
2. a. mention general characteristics common to all
services b. discuss at least 4 specific characteristics
relevant to marketing travel and tourism.
3. Discuss why you should study tourism marketing.
4. What are some common management practices that
restaurants use to provide a consistent product?