Marketing Analysis

Marketing can be many different things. Many people, particularly those never work
in marketing, see marketing as an action in business process. From this view,
marketing parallels other business action such as research, production, human
resources, accounting and management. The master commerce organization in this
area, the American Marketing Association, changed the conception of marketing in
2005. From 1985 to 2005, the AMA defined marketing like this: Marketing is the
process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution
of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and
organization objectives. In 2005, the AMA changed the definition of marketing to
better reflex the relationship of competitors in market place today: Marketing is an
organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communication, and
delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that
benefit the organization and its stakeholders. (American Marketing Association)
The factors in the marketing environment such as target market, market voice, market
share and market growth revenue are crucial to judge its success. Total profit for the
financial year and the number of travelers who used its services are the basic
information for its evaluation. Newly acquired assets by the company are also the
representative of its success.
Thomas Cook is one of the leading leisure travel brands in the industry, given our
173-year heritage. This Thomas Cook master brand is supported by a number of wellknown local brands across our source markets, including Condor, Neckermann,
JetTours, Ving and Spies, which are integrated with the Thomas Cook Group through
the Sunny Heart logo. We recognise that trust and consistency are two of the most
important drivers of conversion across our source markets: 66% of travellers want
help in choosing the right experience and more than 80% of travellers read numerous
reviews before making a decision on a hotel.
Target Market
Thomas Cook Group is number one or two in its industry market. Operating in the

UK, India, North America, and across Europe, the group books flights, hotels, and
vacations, including mainstream and independent holiday options, and provides
travel-related financial services for 23.6 million consumers. The table below shows
the different kind of brands in the countries Thomas Cook operates.
Table
Country

UK & Ireland

Germany

Austria
Switzerland

Brands
Thomas Cook; Airtours; Hotels4u; Club 18.30; Flexible
trips; Crest; Escapades; Thomas Cook Tours; Tc Airlines;
The co-operative travel; Direct holidays; Thomas Cook
Sport; Thomas Cook Signature; Thomas Cook Cruise &
Stay
Thomas Cook; Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline; ger
Tours; Sunwing Family Resorts; Sunprime Hotels;
Sunconnect Resorts; Bucher Last Minute; Air Marin;
Tourvital
Thomas Cook; Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline; ger
Tours; Sunwing Family Resorts; Sunprime Hotels;
Sunconnect Resorts; Bucher Last Minute; Air Marin
Thomas Cook; Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline; ger
Tours; Sunwing Family Resorts; Sunprime Hotels;
Sunconnect Resorts; Bucher Last Minute; Air Marin
Thomas Cook; Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline; Pegase

Belgium
Hungary

Thomas Cook; Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline; Klub

Oazis; Last minute.hu
Thomas Cook; Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline

Poland
Thomas Cook; Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline; Vrij Uit
Netherlands
Neckermann; Sentido; Smartline
Czech
Republic
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland

Thomas Cook; Globetrotter; Sunwing Family Resorts;

SunConnect Resorts; Sunprime Hotels; Ving
Thomas Cook; Sunwing Family Resorts; SunConnect
Resorts; Sunprime Hotels; Ving
Thomas Cook; Sunwing Family Resorts; SunConnect
Resorts; Sunprime Hotels; Spies
Thomas Cook; Sunwing Family Resorts; SunConnect

France
Russia

Resorts; Sunprime Hotels; Tjreborg

Aquatour; Jet tours; Villages; Club Eldorador; Club junbo;
Intourist

Resource: http://www.thomascookgroup.com/
In these operated countries, Thomas Cook has created new branch or innovated
original scheme adopting to local marketing demands. They can satisfy almost every
social group. From travel purpose perspective, their programs ingratiate business,
holiday, wedding, educated and even special interest market demands. For type of
services, they operate travel agency, airline, hotel and cruise. And speaking of
different types of tourists, singles, families, couples without children, groups, business
travellers, youth, senior market are all included.

Resource: http://www.thomascookgroup.com/
The figures above illustrate the number of customers Thomas Cook Group serves and
the figure for revenue it sales over 170 years. It can be seen that Thomas Cook is a

strong brand with leading market positions in key source markets. It operates in a
large and growing international leisure travel market, and track record of successful
product developmentSunwing, Sunprime, Sentido, Smartline, SunConnect concept
hotels. Thomas Cook has diversified operations and distributions channels also
excellent management team
Market Shares
The percentage of an industry or market's all sales that is earned by a particular
company over a specified time period. Market share is evaluated by taking the sales of
a company over a period and distributing it by the total sales of the industry over the
same period. This metric is used to give a general idea of the size of a company to its
market and its competitors. Investors look at market share increases and decreases
carefully because they can be a sign of the relative competitiveness of the company's
products or services. As the total market for a product or service grows, a company
that is maintaining its market share is growing revenues at the same rate as the total
market. A company that is growing its market share will be growing its revenues
faster than its competitors.
Thomas Cook travel group merged with My travel in the year 2007. This merger was
of great significance as it placed Thomas Cook at the 2nd position in the UK travel
industry, with a market share of 27% in the travel industry and revenues up to 6971
million pounds. The merger was used as a strategy for lessening the debt and cutting
back on costs faced by the company. The market shares of both the companies, when
combined, was 21%. Thomas Cook retained its No.2 position for another three years
giving competition to TUI AG. As a result, the share prices of Thomas Cook went
down.
Another big merger of Thomas Cook with the Cooperative group in the year 2010 is a
noteworthy development. It is predicted to raise capital to as much as 35 million
pounds. This sort of integration was brought about in the hope that costs would
significantly reduce and the business would be restructured to bring synergy. Manny
Fontela, the proposed chairman of the merged unit describes the purpose of this
merger in these words: "By consolidating the high street in tandem with delivering on

our existing e-commerce targets, we are realising our strategic aim to increase inhouse distribution and strengthening our proposition to consumers. (Thomas Cook
share price up on FTSE 250 after news of merger with The Co-operative Group,
2010). As a result of this merger, the share prices have risen and deteriorating position
of the stock market in UK has recovered.

Source: Summer holidays trend, Adthena data. (http://www.adthena.com/summerholiday-companies/)

This figure is particularly impressive in light of the fact that the competition appears
to be far stiffer around this time of year, with industry giants like Thomas Cook
investing significantly more in Pay-Per-Click campaigns to get more travelers into
their sites.
Our initial analysis of trend data reveals that On the Beach took the lead in the paid
share of voice (SOV) rankings at several points throughout the year. Their targeted
success tells us that where the company invested its budget, it reaped the rewards in
its ranking on search results pages.

Source: https://www.brandwatch.com
This pie chart shows market share of Thomas Cook travel group comparing other
travel agents like Virgin Holidays, Thomson, Expedia, Co-operative Travel, First
Choice, STA travel, TUI Travel PLC and Hays Travel (2013). Of the Travel agents we
looked at, Thomas Cook was mentioned by far the most in the past month, accounting
for a 31% share of the conversation about all nine. Thomas Cook was followed by
Virgin (26%), Thomson (13%) and Expedia (9%) as the most mentioned agents. Hays
Travel was the least mentioned, accounting for only 1% of conversation

Source: www.adthena.com/

It is significant that we view these figures in light of the spend used to generate them.
Thomas Cook earned the greatest visibility on search results pages, but it also spent
the most money by far 22.19% share of spend, compared to the 16.89% posted by
the second biggest spender, Sunmaster, and On the Beachs 11.06% share.

Source: https://www.thomascookgroup.com/
Performance of market capitalisation since 31 July 2012. The graph set out below
shows the increase in the Companys stock market capitalisation during our ongoing
Transformation, in the period 31 July 2012 to 24 November 2014 (the period between
the appointment of Harriet Green as CEO and the date of signing this Annual Report)
Market growth

Source: https://www.thomascookgroup.com/

Source: UNWTO

Source: ONS International Passenger Survey

It is obvious that the latest upgrade in information systems has clearly given Thomas
Cook an edge over the other tourism agencies. Although it has gone through rapid
changes in the organisational structure but it has effectively managed its resources and
is able provide one of the best services in the world to desired tourists. In the process
of adopting new skills and systems, the mindsets and cultures have to develop and
resistance at any level of the organisation need to be handled with lot of care.

Resource:

American Marketing Association (http://www.marketingpower.com)