MARKETING

Marketing

Marketing

Background

The Happy Sunshine Travel Agency is a new Travel Agency in the Black Country which focuses on holidays in South Sea Islands, the Caribbean and other exotic long distance locations. The company's main aims are currently to survive/establish itself but longer term it aims to be the leading agency for exotic holidays and outward bound holidays in the region.

I have been asked to develop an effective marketing strategy for the Agency. This is a report to Gary Sobers, the Managing Director, which explains the 7Ps version of the Marketing Mix. I will identify proposed policies under each of the 7Ps and explain how they can help achieve the company's objectives.

Introduction

A marketing plan is a "road map" for you to use as you go about selling your business to potential clients. A marketing plan allows you to be organized, efficient, and effective in the process of attracting guests. It also allows you to evaluate your efforts in a quantitative way (Zafiropoulos 2006).

The first issue to address in creating a marketing plan is deciding who your customer is. The more specific you can be, the better chance your strategy will have to be successful. The next issue is the budget. Some money needs to be spent in order to attract customers. Although no hard and fast rules apply, a good guideline, at least in the first few years of business, is to spend from 10 to 30 percent of your expected or actual gross revenues (Zafiropoulos 2006).

Constructing a marketing plan is very simple, once the research phase has been completed. Whereas major companies may have a marketing document of hundreds of pages, a two-four page plan is appropriate for most small businesses.

It is important to remember that a marketing plan is only a guideline, and as such should be changed as needed to meet your goals. In your first years, the marketing plan may need to be revised frequently to suit your needs, your cash flow, and even your customers. You also should be ready and able to take advantage of any favorable situations that may arise. For example, you may learn midway during the year that a targeted magazine is offering terrific rated for new advertisers. You should have the ability to adjust your plan for such a situation (Schmitt and Pfeifer 2005).

On the other hand, enough time and thought should be spent on constructing a marketing plan that does not require that changes be made on a weekly basis. The concept of flexibility should not be used as an excuse for not accomplishing a particular task.

The marketing mix is the combination of marketing activities that an organization engages in so as to best meet the needs of its targeted market. The Travel agency deals in selling services therefore due weight age in formation of marketing mix for the Travel agency are needed. The marketing mix includes sub-mixes of the 7 P's of marketing i.e. the product, its price, place, promotion, people, process & physical attraction (Schmitt and Pfeifer ...