Introduction
The purpose of this report is to discuss the prospect of e-marketing strategy to increase the customer base and to increase profit level of Bliss Travels. However, this report will concentrate on the local competitors, the customer behaviour to select a travel agent, and related factors such as the influence of age, experience, price range and location.
In addition, this paper will focus on the advertising and strategic management system to prepare a guideline for the company to design different Web-based promotional and communication program.
On the other hand, this report will estimate the web development costs, propose website ideas for this business, and assess the performance of programmers, Internet & Web hosting providers to attain highest outcomes from them.
However, this report will also identify the Internal Strengths and Weaknesses, long-term objectives, Marketing Problems and Opportunities, Market Segments, Target Market, and strategies in order to prepare an Action plan for future development.
Situational Analysis
Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson (2001) pointed out that business organisations need to identify situational analysis in order to design future strategic plan or to restructure or develop product and service categories.
Service line: Bliss Travels offers range of travel and tourism services to satisfy the customer such as ticketing and reservations, unique culinary and cultural adventures, meal in a private home, cruise holidays, package for new couples, global hotel reservations, special for holiday package, booking air tickets and so on (Bliss Travels, 2010).
Competitive situation: OECD (2005) reported that there are too many large and medium size competitors exist in the market and most of the companies have long experience to operate business in this industry and the following figure give some information about local firms
Internal Strengths and Weaknesses of Bliss Travels
Strengths
The key strengths of Bliss Travels includes:
- Brand image: Bliss Travels has already created a strong brand image in the industry though it is a family business;
- Human resource: According to the report of Bliss Travels (2010), it has many efficient employees to ensure quality service for the customers. In addition, experience, innovative idea, the communication skills of the employees and guide will encourage the travellers to longer their tour duration;
- Internal control: The top executives have strong control over the company, and they follow local laws where it provides. In addition, it has also follow the provision of memorandum and article of association;
- Organisation structure: It has maintained simple organisational chart to operate more efficiently;
- Experience: The owner of this company has long experience with strong educational background to enter the global market with its outstanding services (Bliss Travels, 2010);
- Customer base: Loyal customers are the main strength for the company;
- Quality: the owner of Bliss Travels is committed to ensure superior quality;
- Rapid Expansion: Rapid expansion in local and international market help the company to increase market share in global travel and ticketing industry;
- Other: However, it experiences many positive issues in case of implementation of the decision in the company, supply chain management, customer relationship management, financial position, growth rate, economics of scale and other factors.
Weaknesses
This company has many weaknesses besides strengths, such as:
- Operating cost: The operating expense increases gradually, which can adversely affect the net revenues;
- Staff turnover: High turnover of the employees is another problem from the company, because they leave the market;
- Investment: This Company need more investment in order to expand its operation all over the world, so unavailability of the fund from external sources is another problem for the company;
- Risk Management: The business segment of Bliss Travels demand to assess the risk to ensure risk management system, which will help the company to increase the confidence of the employees as well as the customers.
Organisational Goals and Objectives
The Bliss Travels in Moonee Ponds has various corporate objectives for the development of its business in the next three years in the existing markets as well as new markets. At present, this company considers few objectives, such as:
- Bliss Travels has target to boost its annual profit from Moonee Ponds market by 25% within next 3 years;
- It has aim to expand customer awareness about the Bliss Travels brand from 20% to 35% over the selected period;
- Doubling the budget within this fiscal year for promotional activities to enlarge loyal customer base of Bliss Travels;
- Fixing budget for R&D in order to research on present market condition, customer’s behaviour and so on;
- Bliss Travels aims to apply a few more life endowment strategies in order to raise its annual sales by 30% over next 3 years.
Marketing Problems and Opportunities
Problems
- Competition: Severe competition among the travel and ticketing companies is one of the major problems for Bliss Travels while competitors quickly copied the new strategies to promote their companies.
- Financial crisis: the purchasing power of the regular travellers has decreased due to the adverse impact of global financial crisis. Therefore, the outcomes of advertising campaign may not reach at expected level;
- Customer behaviour: It is really difficult for the marketers of Bliss Travels to understand customers’ behaviour and take measure accordingly, as their mind change frequently;
- Operating expense: The operating expense of the Bliss Travels is increasing due to many external and internal factors, such as, volatility of the service charge. In addition, the remuneration of the employees need to increase time-to-time to reduce staff turnover, which increase the operating expense;
- Weather: Bad weather condition or natural disaster can reduce the number of customers of Bliss Travels. However, this is the common problem of all companies in this industry;
- Environmental issues: Bliss Travels has corporate social responsibility to save the environment from pollution but many employees are not enough conscious in this issue;
- Legal: Bliss Travels is committed to follow local rules but it may have to face legal problems for several issues.
Opportunities
- Growth: Bliss Travels has competence to perform strongly in existing market and enter new zone with outstanding service range;
- Joint venture: As a new potential company, Bliss Travels has the opportunity to joint venture with local companies or target to merge with multinational companies to get competitive advantages;
- Technology: Bliss Travels can increase number of new customers by using advance technology for promotional activities, for instance, building e-commerce website to sale the products and carry out integrated marketing communication programme create large customer base;
- Ownership: It has opportunity to enter the stock market to generate additional capital by changing the form of ownership from private to public.
Target Market
Travel and ticketing company Bliss Travels deal with many business segments, for instance, ticketing and reservations, offers holiday packagers and many other segments. As a result, the marketer of Bliss Travels targets different range of customer groups though it has a common customer base for different segments.
However, the target customers of ticketing and reservations segments are mainly tourists, new couples, upper and middle class people, foreigners, high profile customers and businessperson. On the other hand, the marketer of Bliss Travels has target tourists because OECD (2005) reported that Australia experienced huge success from tourism sector and number of tourist is increasing per year.
However, OECD (2005) further added that tourism industry contributes 4.2% of national GDP, and 5.7% of total employment; therefore, targeting tourists as main customer group would be prospective for Bliss Travels.
Market Segments
Johnson, Seholes & Whittington (2008) stated that segmentation is the process to separating a market into different groups of customers by considering different cultural background, personality, and behaviour of the customers, consequently, the marketer of this “Bliss Travels” conduct research to understand customer behaviour.
Bliss Travels (2010) reported that it has design special offer for segmented customer because few customers are brand oriented, but significant parts are cautious group.
Control and Review
The organisational structure of Bliss Travels in Moonee Land area is simple like other small size companies in this industry. However, this report will suggest the person who will implement the strategy and action plan and the following table makes it clear that the owner of this business will take major decisions, as he is CEO of the company and maintain management team.
However, Bliss Travels has memorandum, article of asocial and ethical codes to control the company in accordance with local legislation, but this marketing plan recommends introducing efficient governance system to control the company and help its stakeholders, clients, and other workforce.
Strategies of Bliss Travels
E-commerce Model for Bliss Travels
Anckar and Walden (2000) added that the travel agents are long familiar with computerized system for booking and reservation from seventies; online web technology has just facilitated them with a wider opportunity to perform all business function such as ticket and hotel booking and reservation tour operation, customer’s communication, payment and including employees’ management and accounts from a single website.
To do so Bliss Travels has to integrate e-commerce software or it would be capable to develop a customized website, as it needed, but above all Bliss Travels needed to understand its business model that would be implemented in the website.
Dikenelli et al (2005) pointed out that for e-commerce strategy for tours & travel agent has aligned with agent-mediated framework to develop the website, as the Bliss Travels needed to serve customer from any location, it will integrate paramount practice and trials in transport and tourism with agent for network security, IT service providing, engineering and software amalgamation capabilities.
Web site of Bliss Travel Agent
Liu (2005) has scrutinized with the nature of changing requirements of the consumers of tourism industry and added that they are gradually less loyal, most of them are taking regular vacation but for shorter period and spend minimum time to selecting their preferred tourism service.
It is essential for Bliss Travels to understand how the proposed website would generate an accelerated value chain for as a new entry in the industry by satisfying the customer’s wants-
- Value extraction: – Implication of such strategy would facilitate Bliss Travels to increase its operational efficiency by reducing associated costs, upgrading the total process automation including customer and service from airlines, hotels and tour operators;
- Value capture: – The proposed website would smoothly progress the data mining that predict to the management of Bliss Travels how many customers are have visited the site and looking for further information those could be contacted in future for marketing purpose by capturing data;
- Value addition: – This strategy that engrosses Bliss Travels with a linear amalgamation of tourism products to generate more affluent tourism product packages, for instance time worthy mobile SMS services from the website regarding the passengers flight schedule would provide enhanced satisfaction for the customers;
- Value creation: – With this strategic focus, the website would provide an opportunity for Bliss Travels to generate an effectual network connecting service providers, customers, agents, payment processors in a single platform where customers would be capable to take service without visiting Bliss Travels office.
Integration of such strategy with an e-commerce website would shift the existing business process of Bliss Travels while it would be capable to make different product and service offering to the huge customers with a single click from the website expanding the assortment of options for the customers.
The website will provide further opportunities to utilize the contents optimization to appear easy search result of online payment and account maintenance without any additional cost.
Implementation of the website
For Bliss Travels to build a website enabled for e-commerce, the necessary elements and stepping are as follows:
Managing the Domain Names
It is necessary for Bliss Travels to select the domain name with a unique identity of in the online community, which may not be used by any other company and typing this domain name in the address bar of web browser all customers can visit Bliss Travels and can purchase any travel product or service.
There are lots of companies offer domain name with dot com, dot net dot org, for Bliss Travels it would be wise to take a domain name similar to its company name with dot com or dot biz, the cost for domain registration would be US$ 35 to US$ 60 per annual. Bliss Travels would register for at l lest 3 to 5 years at a time.
Website Design
For website design Bliss Travels would prepare a project clarification document its describing its business model and necessary tools that it intend to get in the website and the website developer could understand the requirements and details specification from this document.
It is necessary to be the description in easy language for better understanding of the developers. There are huge website developers available in online and in the Bliss Travels would choice to select outsourcing the website developers from Bangladesh, India or China for cost effective solution and the approximate cost would be US$ 750 to US$ 1000.
Utility software
Bliss Travels may need different software for accounting and CRM purpose, which would be integrated with the website, in this context the cost would be around US$ 1500 to 2000 and would purchased online.
Merchant Account for Online Payment
For online payment system, Bliss Travels needed to integrate Merchant account API for which the company may not to have any upfront fees but have to pay 1 to 3.5 % for each transaction;
Website Site Content
It is very important aspect for Bliss Travels to secure the contents of the website to protect copy and paste by any other similar companies, as content need to write with appropriate measure of keyword with the aim to optimizing for web browsers.
Thus, Bliss Travels would appoint a content writer where the cost would be US$ 20 to US$ 30 per page.
Security measure
For an e-commerce enabled website of Bliss Travels, security measures are the major issue to emphasis customer’s and employees individual password integration, SSL certification, VeriSign’s Authentication and so on.
For the user’s password and captcha generation, it would be website developers responsibility and other security measures would be integrated with website hosting package.
Hosting and Trail Run
Bliss Travels would select suitable hosting company with high bandwidth to host its website with unlimited web space and the associated cost would be US$ 50 to US$ 75 per year depending on the bandwidth.
After competition of the website, Bliss Travels will first upload it to the hosting server for trail run with the objective to remove errors and then go for commercial use.
Action Plan of Bliss Travels
Phase 1: Web designing and hosting
It has already included that the owner will take the advantage of e-marketing to attract new customers, so, it should need design a web designing and hosting in order to step forward in next activity.
Phase 2: IMC Campaign
Bliss Travels notes the importance of “building close relationships with customer”; therefore, it will conduct the IMC campaign in order to aware people about the importance of visit in a new place, and the contribution of this company to make the journey more interesting way.
The owner of Bliss Travels should appoint two new employees to co-ordinate the IMC campaign and to complete initial activities, such as, they will make promotional video, select target audience, and prepare suitable slogan, write web content and so on.
Phase 3: Reducing Service Charge and operating costs
This marketing plan recommend the owner of Bliss Travels to conduct research on the market situation, external business environment, the position of the competitors, the influence of global economic downturn, market demand, and buyer attitude to redesigning the pricing of its services.
In addition, Bliss Travels has experienced intense competition to operate business in Moonee Ponds area, which affects the integrated market share of the company; consequently, reform of pricing structure is one of the most crucial criteria to sustain in competitive market while all local competitors setting price considering customers’ financial capability.
However, it is important to mention that the marketers of Bliss Travels would like to reduce its operating cost by 15% within the fiscal year 2013 because Kotler & Keller (2006) and David (2008) stated that cost control is an effective strategy for the company.
Table 1: Action Plan of Bliss Travels.
Reference List
Anckar, B. & Walden, P. (2000) Becoming Your Own Travel Agent: A Web of Potentials and Pitfalls. Web.
Bliss Travels (2010) About Us. Web.
Bliss Travels (2010) Special Offer. Web.
Bliss Travels (2010) Travel Services. Web.
David, F. (2008) Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. 12th ed. London: Prentice Hall.
Dikenelli, O. Topaloglu, Y. N. Erdur, C. Ünalir, O. (2005) An Agent-Mediated E-Commerce Framework For Tourism Domain. Web.
Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2001) Strategic Management. 4th ed. South-Western Thomson Learning.
Johnson, G. Seholes, K. & Whittington, R. (2008) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text & Cases. 8th ed. London: FT Prentrice Hall.
Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2006) Marketing Management. 11th ed. Prentice Hall.
Liu, S. (2005) A Theoretic Discussion of Tourism E-commerce. Web.
OECD (2005) Tourism Industry in Australia. Web.