Task 1
Introduction
Marketing refers to a situation whereby producers advertise the value of their goods and services to the consumer. Its main aim is make sales of their products and wares and make a profit because of the same. For instance, marketing Dubai as a tourist destination means informing the rest of the world about the current tourism activities that are being offered in this nation. Consumers from all over the world will be convinced and motivated, as they will be assured of their needs being satisfied. By doing this, the size of the market or rather the consumers of the tourism services will increase and this will result to positive impacts on the Dubai society, the individuals and the state as a whole. It will lead to economic growth that is always very vital for any development of a nation. Marketing informs the consumers of the availability of the product in the market, its price services or its value and the location of the goods and services to be found.
QA
There are some concepts or issues in marketing that are supposed to be observed to ensure that the goals and objectives of the entire marketing process are achieved without any fail. They include wants and needs, products or goods and services, transaction, value, relationship and market (Chekitan 2005). All these issues are to be involved in the marketing process for desirable goals and objectives to be attained. Wants and needs is what should be satisfied. It is the demand that the marketers are to be aware of and put up efforts to settle and solve them fully.
The value is the cost of the goods and services that are to be delivered to consumers by the producers. The cost of production should always be in the minds of the producers in the sense that it should never in any way exceed the profits that are expected in return of the sale of the products and services. Manufacturers should always aim at making profits out of the efforts they make or they put in place (Laurie & Ogden 2009). Market is another issue that is to be observed in marketing. This is the targeted consumers and users of the products that are to be delivered by the producers. They are the people who demands for the provision of the services by the producers.
Relationship is another concept that has to be observed in marketing processes. Producers should make efforts to create good relationships with their consumers through networking (Laurie & Ogden 2009). This can be achieved through the two parties, which are the producers and consumers interacting with each other at the market place. The interactions between them will help familiarise the consumers with the producers.
Goods and services are also concepts in marketing that must be considered in the process. They are the products producers are supposed to supply to the consumers in the market to satisfy their wants and needs in order to improve their lives (Laurie & Ogden 2009). Manufacturers should be well aware of the goods and services consumers are demanding and are willing to have without any problem given even the ruling market prices of the time. The environment of Dubai as a tourism destination is very friendly and encouraging. It is very attractive to the eye and just motivating for tourism activities. The rugged landscape, beautiful scenery, archaeological artifacts and features, its central and strategic position and availability of quality hotels and bars as well as recreational in Dubai makes it a good destination for tourism.
The place is also safe for tourism activities. The rugged landscape made up of a variety of mountains, hills and other beautiful sceneries are often located close to each other and attractive. This helps in saving on expenditure especially on the travel expenses and wastage of time while travelling from region to another (Dacko, S 2008). Travelling to some extent is very tedious. The quality hotels and bars offer quality accommodation that may in turn motivate tourists to stay for longer periods as they enjoy the beautiful scenery and Dubai as a destination in general.
QB
The central and strategic geographical location of the nation motivates individuals to touring the areas. This is because the distance between Dubai and other nations of the world is convenient and motivating, as people find the travelling costs as well as transportation costs to be fairer compared when they chose travelling to other tourism areas. Leisure travelers find it cheaper to travel to Dubai than any other areas of the world, since the distance may be unfavorable and transportation and travel expenses expensive to afford.
The quality hotels and bars that often offered good and quality accommodation services to the tourists who visited Dubai. This encouraged most of the people from within and outside of Dubai to tour there as they were assured of better services of accommodation. The hotels and bars also contained the entertainment like music and a lot of instruments that were being played kept the tourists lively and alert. They could not get bored at any given point, because of this; they were encouraged to visit it more often.
The rugged and beautiful mountainous and hilly scenery of Dubai was also a motivating factor of tourism. The nation had a lot of mountains and hills that were very beautiful, and attractive to the eye. The general site of the nation in itself was a motivating factor to tourism activities. The mountains and hills were closely located to each other and were found in a small area that was easy to tour within one day without getting tired and incurring large costs and expenses on travel and transport.
Presence of archaeological artifacts in Dubai was also tourism attraction site as people from within the country and outside the nation visited these attractive sites for enjoyment and to relax.
Security of the nation was another motivating factor. This attracted a lot of people as they were assured of their welfare while staying in Dubai. Insecurity in an area discourages tourism activities from taking place as people fear areas with many cases of insecurity like war.
QC
Market segmentation is a marketing strategy whereby a targeted market is divided into sections of consumers basing the fact that they have or share similar goods and priorities (Goldstein 2007). They are categorised into sections to help the marketers know how to distribute their goods to the targeted customers that will help them satisfy their wants. To achieve these goals and objectives, they use and observe certain principles that have been put in place to guide them appropriately (Goldstein & Lee 2005). The principles can be applied in strategic marketing and planning for promoting Dubai as a tourism destination by using the market segmentation principles as follows.
The principle of homogeneity argues that market segmentation should be done in such a way that, individuals who share similar desires and priorities are situated in a particular same area (Goldstein 2007). This will help the marketers be able to supply the customers with the required goods hence satisfy their needs and wants.
Behavior is another principle, which states that a producer should in a position to determine the behavior of the consumers in a market place be one supplies them with the goods and services (Goldstein 2007). They should determine the tastes preferences of the consumers at that particular time to ensure the goods and services being supplied are of demand from the users.
Geographical principle states that producers should supply the consumers’ goods and services basing on the geographical areas they are located (Goldstein 2007). This will help them avoid supplying irrelevant goods and services to consumers that may be wastage of resources and time. This will also not meet the demands of the consumers.
QD
Marketing research is relevant to managers because it enables them acquire information and ideas about the market, the demand and its behavior in general (Riley 2012). The manager gets aware of what is to be supplied in the market and this, in turn, helps him to come up with better marketing plans. Market information, on the other hand, helps managers to know the size of the market hence in turn determines how much to be produced.
QE
Positive impacts
Tourism led to economic growth and development of Dubai as a nation. This is because of income that was obtained from the tourism sector. The latter led to employment of individuals in Dubai. People got jobs from the tourism sector that led to improvement of their living standards.
Negative impacts
Tourism led to degradation of culture in Dubai society, this was because of interactions that were taking place between the tourists and its citizens. This was more evident in change in the modes of dressing, thus tourism marketing needs adequate reforms (Sheth & Sisodia 2006). Tourism also led to collapse of other sectors in the economy as most of the attention was concentrated and directed to the tourism sector living others unattended on.
Task 2
Introduction
Marketing mix is a business tool that is used in marketing by the marketers and is often used to determine the product that is to be sold at a particular price and place at a given period. Ideally, the marketing process involves market research in order to collect information of the actual market (Sheth & Sisodia 2006). Production of the goods and services will then depend on the size of the market as well the demand of the same. Marketing is also done to ensure that the needs and wants of the consumers are met and satisfied.
QA
In this section, I am going to answer the questions by focusing on "MaCdonal Hotel and Resort", which is a famous UK travel company. Indeed, different elements of marketing mix determine the type of goods and services to produce or market because consumers’ preferences vary significantly. The company’s marketing mix is as discussed below.
Product, the goods and services to be offered or marketed in this company should be unique and of high quality to meet the needs of different customers (travelers). The management may use product designing techniques and brand the products differently to improve their market (Sorger 2013). This will help in attracting more consumers of the products as they will look different and unique from the rest of the firms or company.
In terms of place, the company should also be situated at a strategic place where it can provide services conveniently to the consumers and can be easily accessed by all those who require their services.
The price attached to goods and services should be favourable enough to attract customers without exploiting them. It should also be different from the others.
Promotion should be based on methods used to communicate or advertise the presence of goods and services to various stakeholders in the market, which should be appropriate and different from others to get a bigger share of the market compared to others (Tomas et al., 2011).
QB
Service sector marketing mix elements are those business tools that are used by the service sector businesses to market and determine their products. In this company, they include elements such as customer service, production service, accommodation service, and transport services. These services help the company in achieving its goals and objectives by increasing the size of the market as well as the volume of goods and services it provides (Tomas et al., 2011). The services also help in meeting and satisfaction of needs and wants of the consumers who spend their time within the hotel. Furthermore, the communication plan must consider the marketing communication objectives to ensure that the targeted consumers get the most reliable information. The intercourse objectives to be included in the plan should be credible, cost effective, controllable, and reliable. This would make sure that the plan creates an impact in the market by informing and persuading customers to purchase the company’s products. As a result, the shareholders would benefit from dividends.
QC
The provision of effective and total tourism product, for MaCdonal Hotel and Resort is the most important thing. For instance, the core services or products that the firm is marketing and intends to supply it to consumers include accommodation facilities, luxury alternatives, different games, and healthy food stuff. The strategic and central location of the company is also another factor that attracts tourists in the company. Due to this position, clients from other countries feel motivated to tour the resort as they find the transportation costs to be fairer compared to when they travelled to other tourist destinations. Distance is a motivating factor in this case as it is convenient in terms of transportation costs. In addition, transportation is very critical in marketing communication for a travel company because it ensures that the tourists reach far and visit many places. Marketing communication messages must also target specific clientele, thus should be rational and emotional. The marketing communication budget must be within the limitations of the company to avoid overspending that might lower profitability (Bowman & Gatignon 2010). Furthermore, the intercourse schedule must not conflict with other operations in the firm to ensure that each task proceeds without hitches. Finally, the company must put in place effective implementation, control and monitoring strategies to facilitate all operations to ensure remarkable success.
QD
The main role of the promotional mix is to create awareness of the existence of the company’s services and goods in the market. It informs consumers of the services that the company offers, hence urge them to utilise them in advance. Producers and promoters should have clear knowledge and information about the market in terms of what they want and what they can afford to purchase or consume from the market without straining in any way.
Under the marketing communication plan, the tools to be used in creating awareness of the company’s products include advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, and personal selling (Bowman & Gatignon 2010). These tools are very useful and their articulate implementation would ensure that the products reach the intended market. The other important aspect of the plan is the marketing communication media that the company should apply. Some of the best media for marketing communication include print media such as leaflets, magazines and newspapers, broadcast media such as radio and television, outdoor media such as posters and billboards, and interactive media such as internet.
QE
An integrated promotional campaign for this company focuses on the uniqueness of the products and services that it offers. UNIQUE is a travel and tourism business marketing campaign, which shows that the company’s services and products are exemplary. The campaign should include phrases such as “Welcome all and enjoy the services”, “It is located in our main city and is open for all without much restriction”, and we promote clients’ safety while at the resort”. The rationale is that such phrases are what the consumers are longing and desiring to have to ensure better lives through satisfaction of what they want. Transaction is the mode of exchange that the producers use to have their goods and services delivered to the targeted clients (Bowman & Gatignon 2010). This may be done through physical interactions between the resort managers and prospective clients, especially by bargaining. Transaction may also involve lack of personal relationships between the buyers and sellers of the services and goods. This may be through online selling.
