2.

Introduction
Put simply, a business is more likely to be successful if it designs a specific marketing mix for a
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at the same time the most central concept of the marketing discipline.

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planning, pricing, branding, channels of distribution, personal selling, advertising, promotions,

packaging, display, servicing, physical handling and fact finding and analysis. Later on in 1960, E.
Jerome McCarthy grouped these elements and suggested the four Ps of marketing- product, price,
place and promotion which form the most common variables used in building a marketing mix.

In simple words, the marketing mix is a blend of marketing tools that are used to please customers

3. Concept of Marketing Mix

3.1 Meaning of Marketing Mix

According to The America

and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value

Mix means to combine, blend or consider together.

Thus, Marketing mix is a combination of elements, tools or efforts used to market effectively to a
The marketing mix is a term used to describe the
combination of tactics used by a business to achieve its objectives by marketing its products or

The choice of marketing mix depends upon:

(a). Marketing environment of the organization

(b).Marketing objectives

(c). Resources position of the firm

(d).Marketing organization structure and information system

Tourism marketing is a process of creating a product or providing a service for which there is
actual and/ or potential demand. Thus tourism marketing comprises of the following:

Fact finding, data gather analysis (Market Research)

Communication to inform and promote (Promotion)

Ensuring and facilitating sales, selection of marketing plan (Distribution)

Coordinating, controlling and evaluating (Marketing planning and auditing)

The marketing mix is the totality

3.2 Definitions of Marketing Mix

Definitions of Marketing Mix

The Marketing Mix is the set of tactical marketing tools - Product, Price, Promotion,
and Place - that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target
- Philip Kotler

product, price, and distribution (place), and promotion (and the sub sections thereof)
should be mixed in varying proportions depending upon the industry category of the

Victor P Buell

in elements that ought to be attended to in order

Jed C. Jones

-impinging instruments
that can be combined into a marketing program used by a firm or any other

- Van Waters hoot

3.3 The Traditional Marketing Mix

The framework of marketing mix consists of four elements product, place, price and promotion

Product

Product refers to a good, a service or a unique combination of goods and services offered by a firm
to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. The product includes both the tangible and intangible
elements of the service offering. Product decisions involve product attributes such as quality, brand
name, packaging, product logos, trademarks, the breadth and mix of the product line (i.e., the
number and type of products and services offered by a firm), and services such as warranties and
guarantees. The products can be goods such as food, car, house, books etc and services such as
food service, car service, house maintenance, teaching etc.

Price

Price refers to the monetary value of the product. It is the value placed by a firm on its products
and services. This is what the buyer pays to the seller, including discounts, allowances, credit
terms, payment period etc. In the service industry, the term price often passes under a number of
names- interest, rent, salary, fees etc. Prices should be such that they create profit.

Place

Place refers to the distribution of the products to the consumers. It involves the movement of the
product from the sellers to the buyers, as well as storage at different points to make these available
at convenient time and locations to the buyers. The product can be made accessible in cyber space,
in big shops in big cities, in rural areas or other places.

Promotion

Promotion refers to all the tools and methods used to inform the buyers about the product and to
persuade them to make a purchase. It includes various tools like advertising, personal selling, sales
promotion, direct marketing, publicity, public relations etc. A suitable combination of these
methods of promotion is required to yield good results.
3.4 Expanded marketing mix

For a long time, the four Ps frameworks were used to target markets. But it was felt to be limiting
for services that offered different set of benefits to the consumers. Later, an expanded marketing
mix was proposed by Boom and Bitner that added three more Ps of people, process and physical
evidence as marketing mix variables for services marketing.

People

People imply the human elements involved in the service experience. The buyers and the sellers
are the most visible elements engaged in exchange. The people employed in the organization
decide the quality of services that the customers get. The marketer should understand the
contribution of people to the marketing mix and make efforts to enhance the quality of people
through proper human resource management (HRM) practices. The customers are another category
of people who decide the service experience through their involvement. The marketers need to
know the methods of improving this experience through people.

Process
Process involves procedures, activities, mechanisms, task schedules and routines by which a
product or service is delivered to the customer. The process of service delivery decides the level of
satisfaction of the customers. The deficiencies of a poor process cannot be overcome by any other
element of marketing mix.

Physical evidence

Physical evidence creates tangibility for the intangible services. It portrays a positive image
through physical presence such as buildings, décor, employee uniform etc. Intangible services are
heavily dependent on physical evidence. If the physical evidence is not created, the customers are
likely to perceive higher risk in the exchange process. In creating this evidence the marketers must
ensure its compatibility with the image of the product.

Figure: The expanded marketing mix

4. The tourism marketing mix

Tourism marketing mix is a mechanism by which a tourism enterprise provides services to its
target market through the various market offerings. One of the fundamental responsibilities of the
tourism service provider is to develop a marketing mix. It is concerned about allocating and
adjusting marketing inputs to create a unique offering that satisfies the wants and needs of the
guests and thereby achieve the organizational goals.
Figure: Marketing Mix of tourism

Product

Product includes a combination of all goods and services offered by an organization including both
tangible and intangible elements. The products of tourism industry are many and varied. For
example, it includes the broad array of elements offered to the consumer such as accommodation,
transportation, attraction, catering, tour packages etc. A key point to keep in mind is that once a
hospitality consumer leaves the hotel or restaurant, there is nothing tangible to show. Because the
consumer has purchased and consumed the service, the largest part of the tourism industry product-
service mix is indeed the intangible elements of service.

As far as tourism is concerned, the product a tourist buys covers the complete experience from the
time he leaves home to the time he returns to it. The tourism product is not an airline seat, or a
hotel bed, or relaxation on a sunny beach but rather an amalgam of many components or a
package- all tourists buy packages whether or not they use travel agents.

mpany in
the country offering a comprehensive range of services that include Foreign Exchange, Corporate
& Leisure Travel, Visa, Insurance, & Passport services which is their Product Mix.

Price

In addition to the actual price a firm charges, the pricing mi

perception of value. The pricing mix includes variables such as volume discounts and bundling
multiple products together for an overall discounted price. Product bundling pricing strategy has
been well used by tour management companies. They typically offer the tour package which
includes air tickets, sightseeing, hotel accommodation and food at a price which is less than the
price of purchasing each separately.

Prices in tourism fluctuate with season, days, time, demand-supply, markets and occasion. This
makes pricing in tourism a challenging task in which many factors such as costs, fixed capacity,
variation in demand, behavior of the tourists and other factors needs to be balanced.

Place

Tourists want tour experiences and the

moving tour benefits to tourists such as giving tickets, assisting in documentation, opening hotels
or resorts in their towns. A larger part of tourism experience takes place at immovable sites such as
hills, beaches, etc. and it requires moving tourists from their places of residence to destinations.
The access of tourists to both moveable and immovable benefits is made possible through a
distribution system. This is a network of distribution channels. Five types of intermediaries i.e. tour
operators, outbound and inbound travel agents, online travel distribution firms, specialized agents,
and national or regional tourism organizations form a channel.

The growth of internet and online companies is changing the rules of distribution and consumers
are bypassing the established channels for purchasing services such as airline and train bookings.
This increases the profitability for tourists and suppliers but is forcing middlemen to adopt newer
roles as consultants and advisors.

Example- Indian online travel company Make my trip offers special packages for website and app
users.

Promotion

Promotion involves all the communication that takes place between travel organization and the
customer.

A few promotional tools, such as brochures, events and movies are more apt for tourism because of
their distinct nature.

Brochures

Brochures are defined as the booklets or pamphlets used for sales and promotion. The marketers
mail these to the potential buyers or use these for the personal selling. These create initial interest
that can later culminate in purchase under the right circumstances. Mailing is used to keep market

Events

Events are organized occasions of significance. These are used to promote and highlight the
tourism potential of a destination. International trade fairs, cultural fairs, cultural events, historical
commemorations, commercial fairs and sports events are a few examples of events that attract
tourists to visit a place and see its attractions.

Movies

Movies are good tools used for tourism promotion where destinations are used as a backdrop for a
story. Many destinations selected and shown in movies became popular among tourists. Many
people have been taken a trek Hai

Corsica, France which showcased the wide range of

natural beauty of Corsica, sure this must become a tourism destination in future. Goa and Australia

religious tourism gets a boost after a movie or serial on it.

People

Tourism and travel is a people industry. It is a business of people (staff) providing services to
people (customers). Staff recruitment, selection, orientation, training, supervision and motivation
all play a very important role in this industry. For hotel industry, it is significant that different
levels and categories of staff working in hotels have been imparted education and training facilities
in the areas concerned so that they have knowledge of delivering the promised quality of services
to the tourists. The professionals need to ensure that all the staff members working in their hotel
have competence of performing and serving the guests or tourists in the restaurants, bars, cafes or
in rooms where they stay. For travel agencies, the travel agents need to develop a team of quality
people bearing the potentials of communicating well, responding well, looking well and behaving
well. Converting the enquiries into bookings and transforming the potential tourists into actual
tourists and actual tourists into habitual tourists are some of the areas where professional
excellence and personal touch need an overriding priority.
Physical evidence
In the hotel industry, the design, furnishing, lighting, layout and decoration of the hotel as well as
appearances and attitudes of its employees will influence customer perceptions of the service
quality and experiences. In the tourism industry we find involvement of a number of organizations
because tourism is an amalgam of different industries. The hotels, airports, railway stations, bus
stations, seaports, offices of travel agents are some of the sensitive points for creation of a service
ambience.
If you walk into a restaurant/hotel your expectations are of a clean, friendly environment. If you
travel first class on an aircraft, you expect enough room to be able to lie down. Hence physical
evidences are an important part of tourism experience.

Airlines Hotels Restaurants

Sight Interiors, uniforms Interiors, uniforms Interiors, uniforms
Sound Music Music Music
Smell Perfumed sprays Perfumed sprays in Perfumed sprays in
rooms, lobby and so rooms, lobby and so
on; clean air and on; clean air and
avoiding mixing of avoiding mixing of
food smells in food food smells in food
service areas service areas
Taste Through quality Through quality Through quality
catering catering catering
Touch Soft furnishings Soft furnishings Soft/metallic/wooden
furnishings

Table: Elaborate Physical evidence in Tourism

Process
In context of process mix, the professionals need to give due attention on a number of factors such
as the flow of activities, customization etc. The flow of activities is found related to the use of new
generation of information and communication technology and equipment used for increasing the
speed and frequency. The customization focuses our attention on modifying the services
commensurate with the taste and preference of tourists or the nature and types of services delivered
by a particular organization. The process might be simple and complex. The processing of tourism
services are of complex nature because of the involvement of a number of organizations,
instruments, equipments and people. The involvement of customers may be preferred for
understanding the customers of a particular segment. Even for modifying the services, the
professionals may involve customers. Perishability of services makes it essential to manage the
process factor. Hotel rooms not occupied and airline seats not purchased cannot be reclaimed.
Since services are created as they are consumed and because the customer is often involved in the
process, there are more opportunities for customizing the service to meet the needs of the
customers. Processes are very important in service delivery: an easy, on time, error-free check-in at
the airport cannot be compensated by anything else. Over a period of time, tourism service delivery
has seen many innovations such as online transfers, mechanization, self-service, direct service etc.

ine Check-
customers. The customers can check in online and save time at the airport. They can also choose
their seat at no extra cost, and then print their boarding pass or receive a mobile boarding pass.
This allows the customers to enjoy a smarter check-in experience.

Tourism as a product has its own marketing mix. Using the seven Ps frameworks, it can be
expressed as shown in the figure below:

Product Place Price Promotion

Attraction Channel type Price level Promotion mix

Beaches Direct Terms Salespeople
Theme Parks Indirect Differentiation Number
Hill Stations Intermediaries Discounts Selection
Events Travel agents Allowances Training
Transportation Tour operators Package Incentives
Aircrafts Movement of tourists prices Advertising
Cruises Type of transport Targets
Trains used Media types
Accommodation Stoppages given Types of
Hotels Time taken ads
Resorts Facilities en route Copy
Guest Houses Managing channels Sales
Tour packages Selection promotion
Terms and conditions Integration Public
 of tour Agreements relations
Product lines Movies
Branding

People Physical evidence Process

Employees Facility design Flow of activities

Recruiting Equipment Standardized
Training Signage Customized
Motivation Employee dress Number and sequence of steps
Rewards Others Simple
Teamwork Reports Complex
Customers Business cards Customer participation
Education Gifts and takeaways Level of automation
Training
Host population
Education and
Training
Participation

Other tourists at the

destination

Table: Marketing Mix of Tourism

5. Summary

Marketing mix is a combination of the controllable elements of a firm. These are designed to
respond to the environment. Traditionally, the four elements of product, price, place and promotion
were discussed as a mix but the growing service industry changed that and an expanded marketing
mix adding people, process and physical evidence was accepted. The product is the offer of a firm,
the place also known as physical distribution is making the product available to the buyers, the
price is deciding the monetary value of the offer, the people are engaging concerned parties in the
exchange, the process is deciding the transfer mechanism of the product and its benefits o the
buyers and the physical evidence is creating tangible evidences for the intangibles. All these
elements are integrated in a mix for the total effect. The marketing mix varies from one
organization to another according to the available resources. To attain success in marketing a
tourism organization, a marketer must closely examine and understand all of the elements of the
marketing mix. To be successful, these elements must be blended into well-conceived marketing
programs and managed properly.