Unit 5: Marketing Travel & Tourism Products and Services.
Assignment Task 2 – Know the marketing mix (the 4 P’s) of a
travel and tourism organisation.(M2 and D1)
M2-to explaining how the 4 P’s work together to help Ryanair’s marketing
policies. Consider how the 4 P’s contribute to Ryanair’s operational objective
of maintaining low costs.
The 4Ps in the marketing mix are important and they must work as one for the company to
succeed. For example, if the company does not have a product, they cannot promote or put
a price on it and there is no point in finding a place to sell. Therefore, organisations should
take their time on planning everything so they do not leave out any of the 4PS. Otherwise,
everything will fall apart, and they will lose their money. Ryanair will always carry out a
market research to understand if the customers are going to be interested in the products
, they are planning to create or launch. There must be a need for these products for them to
sell and the company to make a profit.
Product (flights) and Place
As the company is classified as low budget airline, they must maintain the low cost for their
clients. To do this, the Product and Place are working together to help Ryanair’s marketing
polices. The company offers flights at a low price to lots of European destinations, but they
fly only from and to secondary airports, for example Ryanair will fly from London Luton
Airport instead of London Heathrow. Secondary airports offer lower landing fees, fuel costs,
and shorter ground time between flights, therefore Ryanair is using those airports to save
money on landing taxes.
Product and Price
Pricing directly affects a company’s profit and is one of the most important elements of the
marketing mix. Pricing should reflect the following elements: competition, company
objectives, proposed position, cost, defined target groups, and the perceived value.
Establishing a relatively low price for service can stimulate demand and acquire shares
market. Low price makes the most economic sense for the service provider when there is
significant potential volume, or when the customers are price sensitive. Thus, low price
strategy fits Airline business well.
Another P which helps Ryanair to maintain low costs is Product. They offer basic products
which is the flight (seat), they do not provide any kind of entertainment on board, the seats
are basics and not reclining to maintain the costs low, this is reflecting on their prices. They
have low prices because they only offer basics services, however they offer foods and other
Duty-Free products on board but for an extra cost.
The aircrafts they operate also are the cheapest and basics one and they use only the B737.
This has also an influence on their marketing policies as they are saving money on training
for their pilots as they are using only on model of aircraft. As they are one of the main users,
they are getting discount from Boeing. Normally they hire trained staffs such as Pilots and
Cabin Crew members, so they do not have to spend too much money on training, therefore
they are able to maintain the low-cost services for their clients.
Places and Price
Ryanair does not use travel agents, so it does not pay agency commissions. It uses direct
marketing techniques to recruit and retain customers. Booking online saves Ryanair 15%
agency fees. Ryanair is based in Stanstead in Essex, which is secondary airport. It is cheaper
to fly from Stanstead than either Heathrow or Gatwick. Most of Ryanair’s destination
airports are secondary. Secondary airport tends to be smaller regional airports, the cost to
use this type of airport is lower, and aircraft can be turned around faster. Ryanair tries to
keep aircraft in the air as much as possible. Taking advantage of the Internet, Ryanair has
implemented new reservation system called Skylights. The Skylights system allows internet
users to access Ryanair’s host reservation system to pay and confirmed reservations in real
time through Ryanair’s Ryanair.com website. The place is also contributing at helping