micro perspective

• Marketing consists of all those activities necessary to bring a product or service from the manufacturer to the end users, including the product or service itself, methods of distribution, methods of pricing, methods of promotion, form of selling, and form of advertising.
• Marketing strategies on price, product, promotion, and distribution are developed within the context of a market planning approach.
• Product Life Cycle: A product, service, or destination moves through distinct stages.
• Specific marketing strategies on price, product, promotion, and distribution are developed within the context of a market planning approach.
• Rapid change of consumer lifestyle and technological changes made life cycle of products and services shorter.
• Marketing is the systematic process by which an organization tries to maximize the satisfaction of tourist demand through research, forecasting, and the selection of tourism products and services to meet that demand, balancing the needs of the organization or destination, emphasizing tourism research which leads to the selection of tourism demand, and stressing the proper placement of tourism products on the market through concepts of the product life cycle and positioning.
• Tourism is a service, not a physical good that can be inspected before it is bought, and production and consumption take place at the same time, necessitating effective planning and use of facilities.
• The service provided is composed of several components, and the degree of success of any one component influences the success of other components.
• Travel intermediaries are a necessity, bridging the gap between the producer and the tourist and exercising much influence over the services offered, dictating to whom, when, and at what price they are sold.
• Demand is highly elastic, seasonal in character, and subject to changes in taste and fashion.
• Marketing orientation emphasizes the products or services that are available when there is more supply than demand, and societal-marketing or societal orientation focuses on the satisfaction of tourist needs and wants while respecting the long-term interests of the community.
• Marketing segmentation is a universally accepted way of analyzing demand, grouping together people with several needs and wants for the purpose of serving the market better, with assumptions that the market for a product or service is made up of particular segments whose members have particular needs and preferences related to the product or service being marketed, and that these potential tourists can be grouped into segments whose members have similar characteristics.
• A single product offering will appeal to some segments of the market more than others, and some firms and orgs can improve marketing efforts by developing specific product offerings to reach specific segments of the market.
• Recreation and Tourism Market Segmentation uses socioeconomic & demographic variables, product-related variables, and psychographic variables, with socioeconomic & demographic variables being commonly used due to ease of collection, and psychographic variables being expensive and difficult but useful.
• Geographic variables are used to identify primary, secondary and tertiary markets.
• Positioning is the process of selection and the corresponding decisions to develop a marketing program suitable to meet the needs of these segments, after identifying the segments, selecting which the destination would like to attract and serve (target market), and decision comes after analyzing which market segments will bring the greatest benefit to the destination.
• Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) involve both tourists and non-tourists, have the potential to attract national & international visitors, and are related to business and professional activities.
• Meetings can be clinics, forums, seminars, symposiums, or workshops.
• Conferences are formal meetings of professionals for the exchange of opinions and information.
• Conventions are large meetings which include some form of exposition or trade show.
• Colloquiums are informal discussions on group-selected topics.
• Panels are two or more speakers stating their viewpoints.
• Lectures are expert speakers addressing an audience.
• Meetings are usually organized by corporations, associations, or social, military, educational, religious, and fraternal groups (SMERF).
• Expositions/Exhibitions are events designed to bring together suppliers of products and services who will demonstrate these to the attendees in order to make sales or establish contacts.
• Conventions are larger meetings which include some form of exposition or trade show, raise a large part of the association’s budget, and are usually held in large hotels (3-5 days).
• Incentives are rewards for achievement used by corporations to motivate employees to higher sales efforts, and can include goods or trips to glamorous and exotic places.
• Key players in the MICE industry include Convention and Visitor Bureaus (CVBs), meeting planners and their clients, convention centers, specialized services, and exhibitions.
• Meeting planners may be independent contractors who offer their services to associations and corporations as the need arises or they may be full-time employees of corporations or associations.
• The activities of a meeting planner include planning meeting agenda, establishing meeting objectives, predicting attendance, setting meeting budget, selecting meeting site, selecting meeting facility, selecting hotel(s), negotiating contracts, planning exhibitions, preparing exhibitor correspondence and packet, creating marketing plan, planning travel to and from site, arranging ground transportation, organizing shipping, and organizing audiovisual needs.
• On-site activities of a meeting planner include conducting pre-event briefing, preparing executive plan, moving people in/out, troubleshooting, approving invoices, and post-meeting activities such as debriefing, evaluating, providing recognition and appreciation, arranging shipping, and planning for next year.
• Interactions with hotels include negotiating the room blocks and rates, escorting clients on site inspections, and interacting with the catering/bouquet/conference department associates especially the services manager and captains because these frontline associates can make or break a meeting.
• Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) are non-profit organizations that represent an urban area that tries to solicit business to pleasure-seeking visitors.
• Specialized Services include transportation, entertainment, audiovisual, escorts and tour guides, convention set-up, and destination management.
• Convention and Special Events Management Companies are private companies that offer services for inbound customers, exposing clients to opportunities available in the surrounding area and preparing a proposal describing the preferred costs and events, selecting and organizing special events for the convention attendees.
• A senior event manager assigns an event manager to work with the client throughout the pre-event, event, and post-event.
• Major Event Promotions produce sophisticated and highly technical events and political events, requiring a high level of technical knowledge.
• Types of Events in the Special Events Market include corporate events, meetings, conventions, expositions, public events, retail events, social/private events.
• Travel Management Companies organize destination management companies as part of their larger travel services product offerings.
• Many Convention Centers have subcontractors who handle staging, construction, lighting, audiovisual, electrical, and communications.