Table of Contents
Q.1. What do you understand by term ‘service’? Mention five services provided in a hotel. Discuss the characteristics of these services. (10)
Services
The term service is rather general in concept, and it includes a wide variety of services. There are the business and professional services such as advertising, marketing research, banking, insurance, computer-programming, legal and medical advice. Then there are services which are provided by professionals but consumed for reasons not of business, rather for leisure, recreation, entertainment and fulfilment of other psychological and emotional needs such as education, fine arts, etc.
Kotler offers one such definition: “A. service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product”.
Services can be described on the basis of type of process used in the delivery of the service. The three kinds of delivery processes that are applicable in case of service products are line operations, job shop operations and intermittent operations. Self-service restaurants and shops are examples of line operations.
The most important issue in the service product is understanding what benefits and satisfaction the consumer is seeking from the service. From the view-point of a restaurant’s manager, the restaurant simply provides food. But the customers coming to the restaurant may be seeking an `outing’, an atmosphere different from home, relaxation, entertainment or even status. The marketing of services can be a success only if there is a match between the service product from the consumer’s view-point and the supplier’s view-point.
W.J. Stanton views services as fulfilling certain wants and states that, “services are those separately identifiable, essentially intangible activities which provide want-satisfaction, and that are not necessarily tied to the sale of a product or another service.
To produce a service may or may not require the use of tangible goods. However, when such use is required, there is no transfer of title (permanent ownership) to these tangible goods”.
As in the case of a product, in the case of services also your starting point for understanding the marketing dynamics is the want satisfaction of the customers. It is important to correctly identify the particular want(s) which your service is fulfilling, since this will provide the clue for designing the most appropriate marketing strategy.
Hotel Services:
• Car rental services.
• Catering services.
• Concierge services.
• Courier services.
• Doctor on call.
• Dry cleaning.
• Excursions and guided tours.
Characteristics of Services
Services have a number of unique characteristics that make them so different from products. Some of the most commonly accepted characteristics are:
1. Intangibility
When you buy a cake of soap, you can see, feel, touch, smell and use to check its effectiveness in cleaning. But when you pay fees for a term in college, you are paying for the benefit of deriving knowledge and education which is delivered to you by teachers. In contrast to the soap where you can immediately check its benefits, there is no way you, can do so in case of the teachers who are providing you the benefits.
Teaching is an intangible service. When you travel by aeroplane, the benefit which you are deriving is a service (transportation) but it has some tangible aspects such as the particular plane in which you fly (Boeing, Avro, Concorde, and the food and drink which is served). In this case the service has both a tangible and intangible aspect as compared to teaching which has no tangible aspect at all. This continuum highlights the fact that most services are in reality a combination of product and service having both tangible and intangible aspects. There are only a few truly pure tangible products or pure intangible services.
The distinguishing feature of a service is that its intangible aspect is dominant J. Bateson has described the intangible characteristics of services which make them distinct from products.
These intangible features are:
• Service cannot be touched
• Precise standardisation is not possible
• There is no ownership transfer
• Service cannot be patented
• Production and consumption are inseparable
• There are no inventories of the service.
2. Inseparability
In most cases service cannot be separated from the person or firm providing it. Service is provided by a person who possesses a particular skill (singer), by using equipment to handle a tangible product (dry cleaning) or by allowing access to or use of physical infrastructure (hotel, train). A plumber has to be physically present to provide the service, the beautician has to be available to perform the massage. This is in direct contrast to products which can be produced in the factory today, stocked for the next two, three or more months and sold when an order is procured.
3. Heterogeneity
The human element is very much involved in providing and rendering services and this makes standardisation a very difficult task to achieve. The doctor who gave you his complete attention in your last visit may behave a little differently the next time.
The new bank clerk who cashes your cheques may not be as efficient as the previous one and you have to spend more time for the same activity. This is despite the fact that rules and procedures have been laid down to reduce the role of the human element and ensure maximum efficiency. Airlines, restaurants, banks, hotels have a large number of standardised procedures. You have to reserve a room in a hotel and this is a straight forward procedure for which all the steps are clearly defined. Human contact is minimal in the computerised reservation systems, but when you go to the hotel there will be a person at the reception to hand over the key of your room. The way this person interacts with you will be an important factor in your overall assessment of the service provided by the hotel. The rooms, the food, the facilities may be all perfect, but it is the people interacting with you who make all the difference between a favourable and unfavourable perception of the hotel.
4. Perishability
Services cannot be stored and are perishable. A car mechanic who has no cars to repair today, or spare berths on a train, unsold seats in a cinema hall represent service capacity which is lost forever. Apart from the fact that a service not fully utilised represents a total-loss, the other dimension of this perishability aspect is that most services may face a fluctuating demand. There is a peak demand time for buses in morning and evening (office hours), certain train routes are always more heavily booked than others. This fluctuating demand pattern aggravates the perishability characteristic of services.
5. Ownership
When you buy a product you become its owner-be it a pencil, book, shirt, refrigerator or car. In the case of service, you may pay for its use but you never own it. By buying a ticket you can see the evening film show in the local cinema theatre; by paying wages you can hire the services of a chauffer who will drive your car; by paying the required charges you can have a marketing research firm survey into the reasons for your products’ poor sales performance, etc. In case of service, the payment is not for purchase, but only for the use or access to or for hire of items or facilities.
A service is purchased for the benefits it provides. If we closely examine the reasons why products are purchased, we find that they are bought not because of their physical, tangible features but because they provide certain intangible benefits and satisfactions.
Q.2. What do you understand by tourism product? What is tourism marketing segmentation? (10)
A tourism/tourist product can be defined as the sum of the physical and psychological satisfaction it provides to tourists, during their ‘traveling and sojourn’ en route at the destinations.
Since travel and tourism industry is an agglomeration of too many sectors that promote travel related services. These sectors are referred to as travel vendors and their services and goods are called ‘travel products’. A tourism product includes five main components such as physical plant, services, hospitality, freedom of choice, and a sense of involvement.
Thus, whatever the natural and man-made resources, services brought about the consumption of tourists is called tourism products.
The tourist product can be analysed in terms of its attraction, accessibility and accommodation.
Characteristics Of Tourism Products
1. Intangible
Tourism is an intangible product means tourism is such kind of product which can not be touched or seen and there is no transfer of ownership, But the facilities are available for specified time and for a specified use. For e.g. a room in the hotel is available for a specified time.
2. Psychological
The main motive to purchase tourism product is to satisfy the psychological need after using the product, by getting experience while interacting with a new environment. And experiences also motivate others to purchase that product.
3.Highly Perishable
Tourism product is highly perishable in nature means one can not store the product for a long time. Production and consumption take place while a tourist is available. If the product remains unused, the chances are lost i.e. if tourists do not purchase it.
4. Composite Product
Tourist product is a combination of different products. It has not a single entity in itself. In the experience of a visit to a particular place, various service providers contribute like transportation The tourist product cannot be provided by a single enterprise, unlike a manufactured product.
5. Unstable Demand
Tourism demand is influenced by seasonal, economic political, and other factors. There are certain times of the year that see greater demand than others. At these times there is a greater strain on services like hotel bookings, employment, and the transport system, etc.
Tourism Marketing Segmentation
All tourists are not the same. Just as they may belong to different regions, they may be of different age groups and earn different incomes and have different tastes and preferences to live their lives in a certain manner; the tourists also have different choices when it comes to selecting the mode of travel, destination, and the activities at the destination.
Tourism market segmentation is the strategic tool for getting a clear picture of diversity among the tourists. The tourism researchers and the tourism industry use market segmentation information to study the opportunities for competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Market segmentation is nothing but dividing the total consumer market into groups to be able to communicate with them and provide their specific needs.
Smith (1956) introduced the concept of market segmentation as a strategic tool. He stated that “Market segmentation (…) can be viewed as a heterogeneous market (one characterized by divergent demand) as a number of smaller homogeneous markets”.
The tourism market segmentation can be broadly divided into the following types −
1. Geographic
Geographic market segmentation is done considering the factors such as tourists’ place of origin. This factor is important as the tourists belonging to different places are brought up with different cultures and show different traits of behavior. It is the most basic type of segmentation.
2. Demographic
This segmentation is done by considering the tourist’s gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, occupation, religion, income, education, and family members.
3. Psychographic
The marketing people do this segmentation by taking into account the psyche of the tourists. They gather information about the tourists’ interests, attitudes, their way of living life, opinions, and overall personality.
4. Classes of Tourists
Depending upon the motives and the way of touring, there are various classes of tourists −
• Tourists Travelling with Families
The tourists who visit places with their first and extended families, or families of relatives. One person, generally the head of the tourist family is the decision maker. The families generally travel for holidays and leisure and tend to expend sparingly. They generally are keen on receiving the best services for what they have paid. They tend to carry more luggage.
• Single Tourists
They travel alone and are independent. They are alone but not lonely; as tourism is what they pursue as a hobby. The gap year travelers, unmarried persons, widows/widowers, backpackers, and solitary tourists travel single. They decide for themselves and tend to expend more. They tend to carry less stuff on the journey. They tend to behave balanced if any challenging situation occurs and are rational towards tour schedules.
• Groups of Tourists
Students from schools and universities as members of educational tours, fellows of various fraternities with common interests, groups of newly-weds, or senior citizens.
• Tourists Visiting Friends and Relatives
These tourists travel to meet friends or relatives, or to attend a celebration or gathering. These tourists generally plan their tours in the breaks such as Diwali holidays, Christmas holidays, or any kind of long break when most of the people have break.
• Business Tourists
They are the professional tourists on the business trips. They decide for themselves but do not spend much money. For example, a sales or a marketing person travels to another city to attend a business fair, and business manager travels to another country for business deals.
• Incentive Tourists
They tour for consuming the reward they received in the form of a few days’ family holiday package at some hotel or resort. Such rewards are generally distributed if an employee performs outstanding to achieve the goals.
• Health Tourists
These tourists travels to places with the agenda of health on their mind. They travel to avail some special medical treatment, operation, surgery, medication, or inexpensive aesthetic surgeries available in different country. Some tourists in this category also travel if they are receiving some illness from the climate at their residence such as Asthma.
Q.3. What do you understand by service branding and positioning? Discuss with examples. (10)
Service Branding
Choosing a brand name for a consumer product or service is one of the most important decisions. A well chosen brand name can provide a number of specific advantages to the organisation. These include suggesting product benefits, evoking feeling of trust, confidence, security and simplifying shopping.
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as follows: ‘A brand is a name , term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.’ Though branding has received considerable attention from marketers and academicians, the main focus has been on physical goods rather than services. However, services branding has started to receive considerable attention lately. The intangibility factor associated with services has led to the suggestion that branding and image creation may be even more critical for services. For a service brand to be effective it should possess distinctiveness, relevance and memorability.
Keeping in view the transition of Indian economy to one which is dominated by services, The Economic Times in its survey of India’s most trusted brands has started including a separate category of service brands.
It is important to learn that brand can be a major determining element in the purchase of services and a means of adding differentiation. Service managers should keep their focus on branding and differentiation in order to avoid the shift to commodity status where competition is primarily on price and terms. On the other hand competition in speciality branded services is based on the other elements of the marketing mix including customer service, advertising, brand name etc.
Examples – Branding of Parle-G, Hero, Maggi, etc.
Service Positioning
Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market’s mind. This requires the companies to examine their markets, determine the structure and nature of markets segments.
The various steps in determining a positioning plan include:
1. Define a market’s segments
2. Decide which segment to target
3. Understand what the target consumers expect and value
4. Develop a service which caters to these needs
5. Evaluate consumer perceptions of competing services
6. Select an image for the product matching the aspiration of the targeted consumers
7. Communicate with the determined customers and make the product suitable available.
Service positioning involves three basic steps i.e. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning . The market segmentation can be done on the basis of a number of variables like Geographic ( region, climate etc.), Demographic (age, family size, gender, income, occupation, education, social class etc.), Psychographic (lifestyle, personality) and Behavioural (benefits, occasions of use, usage rate etc.)
Q.4. Discuss the major promotion objectives that an education services provider may seek. Are these objectives in any way different from those sought by product marketers? Comment. (10)
The objective of promotion in education services is akin to its role in other marketing endeavours. Accordingly, the basic objective that promotion as a marketing tools is expected to play for marketing of education would include:
1. Building awareness of the education offer package and organisation providing it.
2. Creating and sustaining differentiation of the organisation and its offer from its competitors.
3. Communicating and portraing the benefits to be provided.
4. Building and maintaining overall image and reputation of the service organisation.
5. Persuading customers to use or buy the service.
6. Generating detailed information about core, facilitating, supporting and augmented service offer.
7. Advising existing and potential customers of any special offers or modifications or new service offer packages.
8. Eliminating perceived misconception.
Educational institutions however, have not been able to use promotional tools effectively because of certain perceived notional barriers. Some of these barriers are:
1. Most educational institutions are product oriented rather than market or student oriented. They perceive themselves as producers of certain educational programmes, rather than as satisfiers of certain learning needs. This lack of marketing orientation, keeps those managing educational institutions from realising and exploiting the role that promotion could play in attaining their organisational objectives.
2. Professional and ethical considerations may prevent the use of certain forms of promotion. Established educational institutions may regard the use of mass media advertising and sales promotion as being in bad taste.
3. The nature of competition in case of educational institutions like Universities, technology and management institutes is such that they are unable to cope with their present demands and work loads. They therefore may not feel the need to promote for demand generation purposes. What has to be realised however, is that even such institutions need to use promotion for image creation and to sustain as well to maintain a secure market position, and to improve the quality of customers (students) seeking their services.
4. The nature of consumer attitudes regarding education and their perception of mass media information sources may sometimes preclude the use of intensive promotion. For making their choices regarding a particular institution or a course package, prospective students rely mostly on subjective impressions of the institution, or use surrogate indicators of quality like the provider’s reputation or image. They also tend to rely heavily on word of mouth referrals rather than published literature or material supplied by the institution.
Due to some of the above considerations, as also because of prevailing ‘industry tradition,’ promotion of educational service has tended to rely more heavily on the component of publicity rather than any other element.
Studies in the field of marketing of services indicate that the reluctance towards using mass media advertising or sales promotion is partly due to the inherent psychological barrier and partly due to the misunderstood role of these tools.
Restrictions on advertising for several professional services are being slowly relaxed. Growing competition and the threat of losing market shares has awakened many a institution to realise the importance of mass media tools like advertising for organizational as well as service offer promotion. Some guidelines that can be used while applying this powerful tool for generating awareness, interest and enrollment are summarised below:
1. Create Clear, Simple Messages
The real challenge in advertising educational services lies in communicating the range, depth, quality and level of service offers by a given institution, in simple, unambiguous form. The need of giving pertinent information has to be balanced against the need to avoid wordy copy.
2. Emphasise Service Benefits
Based on an identification of benefits sought, advertising for the educational product should emphasise the benefits to be provided rather than the technical details of the offer.
3. Make Realistic, Attainable Promises
Education by its very nature is a high reliability service, where expectations are high. Unfulfilled promises create dissonnance. Promises in terms of performance of services therefore should be realistic.
4. Build on Word of Mouth Communication and Referrals
As noted earlier, non marketer dominated sources in case of education marketing may be more important to the consumer. Educational organisational should therefore build upon the importance of word of mouth communication by
a. persuading satisfied consumers to share their sense of satisfaction with others
b. directing ad campaigns at opinion leaders
c. encouraging potential consumers to talk to existing consumers.
5. Provide Tangible Clues
In terms of certification, records of attainments and past success figures, provide the prospective target population with tangible clues to enable them to make choices.
6. Develop Continuity in Advertising
Most successful institutions position themselves in different ways, so that their images are discernibly different in the eyes of the consumer population.
Positions could be built around innovative teaching methods, faculty expertise, research and development possibilities, international orientation, tradition of quality, range and depth of specialisations offered, progressiveness, delivery system, flexibility, supporting services or a combination of any of the above.
Once a theme has been identified, consistent use of themes, formats, symbols and images enables recognition of the organisation and its association with the desired values.
Q.5. Discuss consumer attitude. How does attitude impact consumer decision making in buying hotel services in India? (10)
Attitude
Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s (1) beliefs about, (2) feelings about, (3) and behavioral intentions toward some object–within the context of marketing, usually a brand or retail store. These components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together represent forces that influence how the consumer will react to the object.
Attitude impact on consumer decision
The decision making is affected by the psychological field i.e. the internal influences. These influences include motivation, perception, learning, personality and attitudes. The output portion of consumer decision making model includes two associated activities i.e. purchase behaviour and post purchase evaluation.
An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavorable manner with respect to a market offer ( i.e. a brand, a particular shop or retail outlet, an advertisement, etc.). Attitude is a dispositional term indicating that attitudes manifest themselves in behaviour only under certain conditions. Knowing a buyer’s attitude towards a product without knowing the personal goals is not likely to give a clear prediction of his behavior. For example, someone may have a highly favourable attitude towards car insurance but stays away from buying it since he has no use for it, as he doesn’t own a car.
Attitude study is important for the marketers because it affects consumers’ selective processes, learning, and ultimately the buying decision making.
Ad by Value impression
As consumers’ attitudes influence their intention to buy, knowledge of different aspects of consumer attitudes may help marketers make a sales forecast of their products.
Measuring consumer attitudes may help a marketing executive get a better picture of both present and potential markets.
As attitudes often affect the consumer’s decision-making process, marketers must understand attitude formation and change if they expect direct marketing activities to influence consumers.
Awareness of consumer attitudes is such a central concern of both product and service marketers that it is difficult to imagine any consumer research project that does not include the measurement of some aspect of consumer attitudes.
An outgrowth of this widespread interest in consumer attitudes is a consistent stream of attitude research reported in the consumer behavior literature.
It is well understood that attitude has been one of the most important topics of study in the consumer behavior field.
Attitude study may contribute to decisions regarding new product development, repositioning existing products, creating advertising campaigns, and understanding the general pattern of consumer purchase behavior.
Thus, an understanding of what an attitude is, how it is organized, what functions it performs, how it can be measured, and how a marketer can change an existing attitude is very important for a marketer to combat competition successfully.
Following few important and generally accepted findings on consumer attitudes further justify the importance of attitude study for a marketer taken from the studies of Alvin Achenbaum; Henry Assael and George S. Day; Frederick W. Winter; and, Steward W. Bither, Ira J. Dolich, and Elaine B. Nell.
Finding #1: Product usage tends to increase as consumers’ attitudes toward a product become more favourable. Usage tends to decline as attitudes grow less favourable.
Finding #2: The reason for different market shares occupied by different sellers in a product category is the differences in consumers’ attitudes toward different brands.
Finding #3: Marketers may try to change consumers’ attitudes toward their products, aiming to increase sales through persuasive communications. But, they should bear in mind that many other variables determine the effectiveness of such communications.
Finding #4: Consumers may likely change their attitudes toward the existing products if exposed to new ones. It is, therefore, important for the marketers to even reinforce existing positive attitudes.
Q.6. Elaborate on professional support services. Explain the positioning for advertising agencies. (10)
Professional support services
The professional support services pathway includes occupations that assist people involved in education and training systems with personal and family needs, mental health assistance, educational goals, and career decision making.
Examples of Support Services careers include:
• Pharmacy aides.
• Health educators.
• Dietetic technicians.
• Maintenance or electrical engineers.
• Cooks and servers.
• Patient representatives.
Positioning of Advertising Agencies
One way of defining Positioning of an advertising agency could be: “Bringing the right people together and making them work effectively for a brand”. This is an incomplete definition for it ignores the ‘consumer benefit’ approach or the client’s point of view. Clients have specific needs when searching for agencies. Agencies have more strengths in certain areas.
Symbolisation (or positioning) is the ‘value added’ dimension agencies give to these strengths so that the client perceives them as fulfilling his specific needs.
1. Positioning by Size
A client may be looking at a “big” or a “small” agency. The positioning statement for a “big” agency includes “full infrastructural back up, many branches, the ability to think and act big, benefit of experience of handling many product categories etc.” Positioning staement for a “small” agency includes “flexibility, personalised service and attention, innovation, quick turnaround time and ability to go that extra mile for a client and his product etc.”
2. Positioning by Talent
It must be remembered here that an agency has to offer full fledged services. However its positioning may be decided by the strength it creates in one particular area.
• Creative oriented : The client may be looking for agencies which are capable of delivering strikingly different creative output. This positioning can cut across the size barrier. The “small” agency too can position itself in this slot, earning the label as “creatives hot shot” for itself. Clients may find strikingly different creative output very suitable in product categories where technology has matured and no distinct product advantages exist. A client may need to bank upon creative to create a “communication difference”.
• Marketing input oriented : Some agencies may have strengths of having good brand thinkers. This, then, becomes the point of differentiation for the agency. Clients, too, may look for such agencies with whom they can discuss marketing strategies. The benefit offered by this positioning to the client is a better interpretation of the marketing concept into advertising.
• Others : Other alternatives could be based on talent in the agency. For example an agency may be able to offer good “servicing input”, another may have excellent “media planning” skills etc.
3. Positioning by Auxiliary Services
Agencies can position themselves by offering additional services like in-house “market research” services. Further alternatives are “Direct Marketing”, “Public Relations” etc. These package of services can help give and agency the extra edge with clients whose usage level of such services are high. The synergy of advertising with market research or direct marketing is the consumer benefit offered by agencies choosing this positioning alternative.
4. Positioning by Markets
It is possible for an agency to position itself by markets, too. Some agencies in India specialise in “public issue” advertising. Their positioning in this segment is so strong that few consumer product launches are done by these agencies while the bulk of the public issues business in the country is diverted to them.
There are also some agencies whose bulk business comes through publishing “Tender Notices” of public sector undertakings. This is another example of specialisation by markets. It is possible for agencies to specialise in industrial products advertising or retail advertising.
5. Positioning by Price
Though professional code of ethics do not allow any discounting practices on media commission earnings, some agencies position themselves by offering discounts to clients.
Q.7. What do you mean by Reference group? What are different types of reference group? (10)
Reference Group
Reference groups are defined as groups that a person refers to, and identifies with, to the extent that the group becomes a norm, standard or point of reference. A reference group is, in other words, a group to which a person will compare himself or herself, to determine his or her own relative standing. Consumers also look to reference groups for guidance and advice.
Reference groups are usually small groups, and are not as broad as an entire social class. The reference group concept was, in fact, originally developed in connection with small groups. These include the family, close friends, neighbours, religious groups, work groups and also, athletic groups. The family is recognised as an important reference group. In addition, various family members may play different roles in the purchase consumption process. Like the family, there are several other social groups that have an enormous influence on our lives. They regulate our lives through establishing standards of dress and conduct, and the accomplishment of tasks on a face-to-face basis.
Reference groups influence consumer behaviour in two ways:
1. They set levels of aspiration for the individual, i.e. they offer cues as to what lifestyle should be led.
2. They define items appropriate for a member of the group to lead that lifestyle.
Types of Reference group
There are many different types of reference groups, and they do not need to be in physical contact in order to be effective. Often, individuals called referent others will serve in a reference group role.
The groups are:
1. Membership or Non-membership groups
Membership groups are those to which an individual belongs. In contrast, non-membership groups are those that an individual may aspire to belong to.
2. Formal or Informal Groups
This depends on whether reference group tend to take on a formal or informal structure.
3. Primary or Secondary Groups
A group may be primary or secondary depending on the frequency of contact. Primary groups can be either formal or informal groups. If a person is in regular contact with certain individuals such as families, friends, peers and business associates, then these can be referred to as primary informal groups. Secondary formal groups meet infrequently; are well structured and not so closely knit. Thus, shopping groups and club membership groups constitute secondary groups because of their less frequent contact.
4. Aspiration groups are classified into two types: Anticipatory aspiration groups & Symbolic aspiration
Anticipatory aspiration groups are those that a person anticipates joining at some future time. The appeal of the group is in the anticipation of eventually arriving at the top.
Symbolic aspiration groups are those that an individual is not likely to belong to, such as professional sports groups, even though the person may be attracted to them. Marketers appeal to symbolic aspirations by using celebrities to advertise certain products.
Each type of reference group has importance in marketing, depending on the type of influence exerted. The common factor among these various types of reference groups is that, each is used by consumers as a point of reference at different times, to evaluate actions, beliefs and attitudes.
Or What is the importance of tourism industry? Devise a tourism promotion strategy for any destination of your choice. Mention the media used, target audience and USPs. (10)
Tourism is an activity of the movement of people that deserves the praise of all human beings. It can further be called activity of movement of people (visitors) and activities of the provider (the person or agency which supplies various services and products to the visitors) during the course of the travel. Tourism is a temporary movement of people to destinations outside of the place where they normally live and work and their activities during their stay at these destinations.
Importance of Tourism
The tourism industry is important for the benefits it brings and due to its role as a commercial activity that creates demand and growth for many more industries. Tourism not only contributes towards more economic activities but also generates more employment, revenues and play a significant role in development.
1. Economic Progress
The tourism industry aids and supports foreign exchange reserves. It benefits our country in generating foreign currency. Every year a large number of tourists visit India and other places. They visit places; stay and shop in our country. All this contributes to a significant amount of foreign currency generation. Despite the global recession, Indian tourism grew 6.9 % to approximately $42 billion in the year 2010.
2. Source of Income
Tourism is a continual source of income for public & private income. The government charges various forms of tax that is called government revenue. The income generated through these taxes is the public income. The profit earned by a seller, by selling items like local artifacts, handicraft items, etc, to the tourists is called private income. Tourism also helps in employment generation. It created jobs specifically in the hotel industry, hospitality industry, service sector, entertainment, and transportation industry.
3. Development of Infrastructure
Have you ever noticed how the look and status of a place change when it is declared a tourist place? Actually, tourism aids and encourages infrastructure development by making way for dams, roads, connectivity, airport improvements, and any other activity that helps a tourist in visiting a place in a much better way!
4. Societal Progress
Tourism is a wonderful method for cultural exchange. It also encourages societal progress as tourists learn to show respect, tolerance, and love for each other when they visit new places.
5. Cultural Heritage
Tourism helps explain the beauty, art, history, and culture of our country. Different people visiting any country take beautiful cultural concepts along with them and spread those concepts to others while visiting other places in the world. Similarly, the local skills, languages, and art get wide exposure through tourism. For example, Chokhi Dhani in Jaipur.
6. Educational Significance of Tourism
Tourism has been of great importance for education always. Study tours, short time courses, educational exchange programs, all these are a part and parcel of International Tourism resulting in better knowledge about host countries. Even sports exchange programs can be considered under this.
7. Tourism and Environment
Tourism also has spill over benefits such as preservation of environment which covers up an area of historical sites and cultural values. PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) and WTO (World Tourism Organization) have laid down laws for its preservation and conservation. India has given a new lease of life to endangered species of animals by making laws on forbidding the hunting of lions, deers, peacock, and many other birds and animals. India has also set up a separate ministry of environment and forests to monitor the use of land from the environment point of view.
Tourism Promotion Strategy of Coorg, Karnataka
Coorg or Kodagu is one of the popular tourist destinations in Karnataka. Coorg, which is situated in the south-western part of Karnataka in the Malnad area of Western Ghats, is primarily a mountainous district that lies at a varied altitude of 900 m to 1715 m above sea level.
Coorg, is aptly termed as the Scotland of India and the Kashmir of Karnataka. The place is famous for its evergreen forests, lush green valleys, misty hills, sprawling coffee plantations, tea estates, orange groves, lofty peaks and fast-flowing streams. It is a popular weekend getaway in Southern India, especially for people from neighboring Dakshina Kannada, Hassan and Mysore districts of Karnataka and Kannur and Wayanad districts of Kerala.
A Haven For Tourists – Tourist Places In And Around Coorg
• Media Used- Social Media, Newspaper, Internet
• Target Audience– Adventure Tourist, Leisure Tourist
• USP – Weather of the Coorg, Also known as Scotland of India
Q.8. What is lifestyle marketing? Discuss the characteristics of lifestyle. (10)
Lifestyle Marketing
Lifestyle marketing is a marketing technique that positions the product or service to possess ideals, aspirations, and aesthetics that the target audience identifies with. In layman’s terms, it means that brands marketed in this way are a way of life for their audience. They are immersive, encapsulate their customers’ ideas or values, and fit seamlessly into the consumer’s life.
Lifestyle marketing goes beyond the product or service being sold––it’s selling an ideal. Think of Nike. Sure, they started with and continue to sell athletic shoes. But what makes them a lifestyle brand is their empowerment of the athlete inside everyone. Nike and its products are a way of life for its fans (I mean, you don’t see a diehard Nike fan with Adidas on. Ever. ). They eat, live, breathe, and sweat the brand’s ideals.
What makes marketing these brands even more special is the idea that “specific foods, products, and apparel can help us to connect more with our ideal version of ourselves.” When you’re marketing to these higher level needs for a consumer, you’re in a whole new playing field.
Lifestyle marketing criteria
If only branding were as simple as having a checklist to mark off when you meet certain criteria. Unfortunately, many brands that set out to be in the lifestyle category can miss the mark by not doing their due diligence and research.
Application of Lifestyle Marketing
1. Positioning of new products
2. Repositioning of old/existing products
3. Developing new products
4. Creating Promotional Strategies
Characteristics of Lifestyle
Feldman and Theilbar describe lifestyle by the following characteristics:
1. Lifestyle is a group phenomenon
A person’s lifestyle bears the influence of his/her participation in social groups and of his/her relationships with others. Two clerks in the same office may exhibit different lifestyles.
2 Lifestyle pervades various aspects of life
An individual’s lifestyle may result in certain consistency of behaviour. Knowing a person’s conduct in one aspect of life may enable us to predict how he/she may behave in other areas.
3 Lifestyle implies a central life interest
For every individual there are many central life interests like family, work, leisure, sexual exploits, religion, politics etc. that may fashion his interaction with the environment.
4. Lifestyles vary according to sociologically relevant variables
The rate of social change in a society has a great deal to do with variations in lifestyles. So do age, sex, religion, ethnicity and social class. The increase in the number of double income families and that of working women have resulted in completely different lifestyles in the 1980’s in India.
Or What is marketing of educational services? Develop a sales strategy for an university? (10)
Marketing of Educational Services
Marketing of education is a subject with very wide coverage if one considers that formal education begins at the school age and depending upon the choice, vocation and circumstance of the persuants, matures into intermediate and higher levels of learning including professional and specialised fields. Apparently, benefits sought from higher and professional or vocational courses are more tangible or measurable in terms of entry qualifications to a chosen profession, certification to enable practicing a profession or relative ease of access to a suitable form of livelihood. Not attempting to cover the marketing of education per se, the scope of this unit is limited to the post school or higher education.
It has been pointed out in almost all studies on the subject of services marketing that strategic management and marketing strategy for each organisation needs to be unique in itself as it is organisation and situation specific. Some directions for marketing strategy for education may, however, be drawn keeping in mind the special characteristics of education as an intangible dominant, people based, high contact consumer service. These are outlined below.
1. The dominantly intangible nature of education service may make the consumer’s choice of competitive offers more difficult.
2. In case of delivery systems where the performance of the service demands the presence of the instructor, marketing of education would need to be localised and offer the consumer a more restricted choice. Of course, as institutions build up their “pull” in the market, consumers are willing to relocate themselves to avail of the service.
3. Perishability may prevent storage of the service product and may add risk and uncertainty to the marketing of education, specially in the event of fluctuating demand for courses/instructors/disciplines.
The basic question for strategic marketing planning that need to be answered are:
i. What business are we in?
ii. Who are our customers and what benefits do they seek?
iii. How can we build or defend own competitive position?
iv. How should we offer new service offers that help/strengthen the competitive position?
Sales Strategy for an University
Whether it’s to attract students or motivate current ones, universities put a premium on marketing. After all, education isn’t exactly cheap and higher education institutions need to let the community know how their university experience is worth the price.
Marketing strategies for university are-
1. Social Media
2. User-generated posts
3. Define brand image
4. Focus on the students
5. Video marketing on all platforms
6. Statistics
7. Promote sitting in classes before enrolling
8. SEO and similar programs
9. Showcase success
10. Embrace Diversity
11. Use infographics
12. Interactive webinars
13. Downloadable Guides
14. Email Marketing
Q.9. Differentiate between the term household and family. What are family life cycle stages? (10)
Those two terms — household and family — are often used interchangeably, but the Census Bureau draws a careful distinction:
• A household consists of one or more persons living in the same house, condominium or apartment. They may or may not be related.
• A family has two or more members who live in the same home and are related by birth, marriage or adoption.
Think of it this way: All families are also households, but not all households are families.
Family Life Cycle
The life cycle of families has been conceptualised as a progression involving several stages:
1. The Bachelor Stage (Young and single)
In the bachelor stage of the life cycle, income is low relative to future earnings, since most bachelors are just beginning their careers. However, there are few financial burdens. They therefore have relatively high discretionary incomes.
They tend to spend substantial amounts on personal consumption items, food, clothing, transportation, certain luxury goods entertainment, vacations, and possibly even a car. A few basic furniture items may be acquired, as well as some kitchen equipment. However these purchases tend to be on a non-systematic basis and also minimal, because possessions restrict their freedom of movement.
2. The Newly Married Couples (Young, no children)
With marriage, the requirements and resources change. Household requirements increase. In addition, in some cases, both partners may be working. This stage therefore represents a high expenditure period. Purchases include durable goods such as refrigerators and other appliances, inexpensive durable furniture, home entertainment items such as TV sets. These items often take priority over other purchases.
3. Full Nest 1 (Young, married, with child)
The arrival of a child creates major changes. Some wives may stop working and they suffer a reduction in income. The financial resources thus change significantly. Child rearing and educational responsibilities increase. Money is now directed to baby furniture, toys, chest rubs, vitamins, baby foods and baby medicines. While more shopping is done, the family also faces more medical bills. This is also the period that they become dissatisfied with their income and with their inability to accumulate earnings.
4. Full Nest 2 (Older, married, with children)
The family’s financial position starts to improve because of career progress and also because many wives return to work. They present an active market for a wide variety of food products, bicycles, music lessons, magazines and also educational services as children are growing up.
5. Full Nest 3 (Older, married, with dependent children)
Income is high for the family at this stage. However, they now represent experienced buyers and tend to be less interested in new product purchases.
Expenditures continue to be high due to replacement buying in the later phases of the stage.
6. Empty Nest (Older, married, with no children living with them)
With no children living at home, the financial position stabilises., Savings accumulate. There may be a resurgence in self-education. Hobbies also become an important source of satisfaction. More is spent on luxury appliances, magazines. and health products. Major expenditures are on home ownership, home improvements and also on medical care.
7. Solitary Survivor (Older, single, retired people)
Simple, often more economical lifestyle. A lower income due to retirement may be a restrictive factor. Health care and other services become important.
The stages at which families find themselves thus affect the nature of the goods and services required, their wants and consumption patterns, as well as the volume of consumption on specific products. At each stage there are unique needs, different patterns of object accumulation, and different demands that are placed on the family.
Or Write short note on any two (2×5=10)
a. Cultural Values
Cultural values are important to the organised and integrated nature of culture. A cultural value can be defined as a widely held belief that endures over time. Values therefore produce inclinations to respond in standard ways. They serve as standards or criteria for behaviour. Values deal with modes of conduct and, therefore, transcend specific situations. We therefore have in a culture, two types of values:
1. Instrumental value (or modes of conduct)
2. Terminal values (or states of existence)
These values together influence consumer behaviour in several ways such as methods of shopping, tastes and preferences. It is necessary, therefore, to understand a society’s basic value structure before marketing to it.
Different social classes may respond to cultural values in different ways. Consider the cultural value of achievement, for example. While all individuals may share the same ‘cultural values, their methods of responding to them may differ greatly, depending on the sub-culture and social class. each culture has what is termed the core values.
These are the dominant or basic cultural values. It is not necessary that the core values be exclusive to a particular culture. Several values are borrowed as people emigrate to societies.
While somewhat obvious to you, the important fact is that these values are pervasive and accepted as givens. For example, core values that have been cited may be any of the following.
1. Progress, achievement and success: These values lead to progress for society
2. Activity: Being and keeping active is widely accepted as a healthy and necessary part of life.
3. Humanitarianism
4. Individualism
5. Efficiency, Practicality
Commonly held cultural values shape consumption choices to a large extent. Marketers therefore try to appeal to consumer values through advertising. These values influence both, product and brand choices. It has been found that terminal values such as comfort, security, pleasure, are influential in the choice of product class. Instrumental values such as broadmindedness become important in the brand choice decision.
Though limited amount of research has been done on how to measure values, Milton Rokeach has created a Rokeach Value scale consisting of two sets of values, eighteen terminal values and eighteen instrumental values. Ranking or agreement scales are used to find out the importance of these values to the individual respondents.
b. Information processing
Information processing is a relatively recent addition to the lexicon of consumer behaviour and therefore, a fair amount of unanimity exists in defining the term. Thus, it is described as “a series of activities by which stimuli are transformed into information, stored and used” It thus serves the purpose of linking an individual with groups, situations and, in our present context, with marketing influences.
Information processing consists of two separate terms: Information and Processing.
1. Information
Information is a commonly used word which makes us most of the time immune to its powerful meaning. Thus, information is “all facts, estimates, predictions, and generalized relationships which affect a decision maker’s perception of the nature and extent of uncertainties associated with a given consumption problem or opportunity”
Facts: are the simplest form of information and have the characteristic of being either directly observable or verifiable as an accurate representation of a given phenomenon or event. Thus, that Hero Cycle is made by the Hero Cycles is a fact.
Estimates: as a form of information is based on inferences. The inference may be drawn either logically or statistically derived. Since collection of facts all the time, may be unnecessary as well as expensive, the estimates are used. In the context of the Hero cycles, the estimates are that it is the largest selling bicycle in India.
Prediction: Unlike the first two forms of information mentioned so far, prediction is futuristic in nature since it makes forecasts of events yet to happen. Thus, Hero cycles as a brand will continue to dominate the Indian Cycle market in many years to come is an example of prediction.
Generalized Relationship: This form of information is a form of linkage between the past and the future or links the facts with inferences. Thus, we can say that Hero Cycles adopted the policy of large production, low cost, and branding in order to achieve the large sales volume that they have made.
In the context of consumer behaviour, the precision is necessary in clarifying as to what form of information is being referred to.
2. Processing
Processing refers to the act(s) by which the stimulus is converted into response.
There are five stages of processing-Exposure, Attention, Comprehension, Yielding and Retention. Ideally, it is the wish of every marketer to ensure that his message passes through all the five stages of the information processing. In reality, most of the times such wishes are belied as the stimulus may die during any of these stages.
c. Economic models
The economic theory, which largely explains behaviour on the basis of allocation of scarce resources among unlimited needs and wants, has given alternative views of the consumer from the view point of its sub-disciplines, i.e. micro-economic and macro economics. That these models were powerful influences is evident from the fact that they still influence the contemporary view of consumers.
A. Micro economic models
The micro economic approach was based on the way an `average’ consumer allocates his resources and then develops generalisation about aggregates of such average consumers in the economy. The focus was on the act of purchase in terms of what customer bought and how much would be purchased. The inter play of needs and motivation, the priortisation of these preferences was not considered in developing the actual models.
The model adds to our understanding of certain aspects of consumer behaviour, but the explanation provided are rather limited. This inadequacy arises out from the unrealistic basic assumptions on which the theory of the model is based.
Research shows that consumers for most purchases seek adequate levels and not maximum levels of satisfaction consumers almost never have perfect knowledge about the utility of each item they seek to decide upon. Consumers are not rational in all their purchases. They use a variety of variables to assess the `sacrifice’ or cost they will bear while purchasing goods and services in addition to the ‘price’. In addition, in some cases, high prices may actually be preferable, when in absence of other available cues, the consumer uses the price as an indicator of quality. The model is also silent about the processes that precede and follow the actual act of purchase.
In spite of above limitations the model provides a useful prespective and many marketers believe that the greater the rational nature of a given purchase (e.g. of buying of equipment in an industrial setting) the closer will be the application of the micro economic model to the act of purchase.
B. Macro economic perspective
Macro economics, the field focussed on aggregate flows in the economy, their direction and change over time, tries to draw generalisations about the behaviour of consumers, who by their decisions, influence these flows.
Two inputs from the Macro economic field are important for our understanding of consumer behaviour. These are the relative income hypothesis and the permanent income hypothesis. The relative income hypothesis concerns a very interesting fact. Higher income families spend a lower portion of their disposable income as compared to the lower income families. With the rise in economic progress, these proportions do not change as there is a rise in all income levels. The relative income hypothesis contends that as peoples’ consumption standards are more influenced by their social groups and peers, the proportion of the families income relative to others is likely to change only when the rise in income is significant enough to put the family in a different social setting.
The permanent income hypothesis on the other hand explains that individuals are slow to change their consumption patterns even when there are sudden changes in their income. According to the hypothesis, consumers are influenced by their own perception of some average amount that can be consumed without disturbing their accumulated wealth rather than using the estimate of “actual” income in a given period to determine the level of their consumption expenditure.
d. Post purchase behaviour
The post-purchase behaviour plays an important, part in developing a relationship between the customer and the marketer. On the part of marketer, an attempt to recognize consumer’s post-purchase behaviour indicates his desire and commitment towards the implementation of marketing orientation or marketing concept in business. In this, the marketer identifies with his customers and thinks from customer’s perspective. If purchase represents customers consumption motives and purposes, the post-purchase behaviour indicates whether or not those purposes and motives have been achieved. Thus, purchase activity is the means while post-purchase is an evaluation.
Post-purchase Use and Disposal
Marketer should also monitor how the buyers use and dispose of product. If consumers find a new use for the product that should interest the marketer because this use can be advertised. If consumers store the product (not using it) that indicates that the product is not very satisfying and word of mouth would not be strong. If they sell or trade the product, new product sales will be depressed. If they throw the product, the marketer needs to study how they dispose of it, especially if it can hurt the environment.
The formation of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is, however, a function of many factors. These factors are:
• Use, occasion of Product/Brand
• Cost/Investment involved in choice making
• Number of outcomes and their desirability
• Prior experience of product/brand
• Personal expectations and norms
• Group expectations and norms
• Cultural forms
• Outcome endurance – the duration for which the outcome persists
• Time lag between the choice and use of the product
Q.10. Choose the correct options (1×10=10)
1. The service economy of the world was/were:
a. Countries which participated in World War-II
b. USA
c. USA and Japan
d. Russia, Japan and United States
Ans – b. USA
2. The marketing solution to the problems posed by service characteristics “Intangibility” are all the following except:
a. Use of brand name
b. Increase the tangibility
c. Increase the production of services
d. Create “Word of mouth”
Ans – c. Increase the production of services
3. The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust describes which of the service quality dimensions?
a. Assurance
b. Empathy
c. Reliability
d. Responsiveness
Ans. – a. Assurance
4. AIO stands for:
a. Activities and Interest
b. Activities, Interest and Opinions
c. Demographics
d. None of the above
Ans. – b. Activities, Interest and Opinions
5. VALS system is :
a. Value System
b. Value and life line system
c. Value and life style
d. None of the above
Ans. – c. Value and life style
6. Characteristics of services include:
a. Intangibality
b. Inseparability
c. Heterogeneity
d. All of the above
Ans. – d. All of the above
7. Cattell had listed __________ personality traits:
a. Four
b. Sixteen
c. Nine
d. Twelve
Ans – b. Sixteen
8. ATO model consists of:
a. Lifestyle
b. Attitude towards object
c. Attention
d. Desire
Ans. – b. Attitude towards object
9. Full nest 1 comprises of:
a. Older married with children
b. Solitary Survivor ( Older, single, retired people)
c. Young married with child
d. Newly married couples (Young, no children)
Ans. – c. Young married with child
10. The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust describes which of the services quality dimensions?
a. Assurance
b. Empathy
c. Reliability
d. Responsiveness
Ans. – a. Assurance