Marketing Strategy of Thomas Cook: Detailed Overview

Thomas Cook- Company Overview

Source – Wikipedia

Thomas Cook, one of the most well-known tour operators in the world, was a popular option for travellers searching for a low-cost holiday because it offered affordable package trips to several international locales.

He was a pioneer in developing the “package tour,” which included housing, travel, and other conveniences.

The business was started in 1841 by cabinetmaker Thomas Cook, and it first focused on one-day rail trips. The Thomas Cook website states that Cook established a special train to convey temperance proponents to an event 12 miles away.

Cook planned railroad excursions for Sunday schools and temperance clubs during the ensuing years until the summer of 1845, when he planned his first business trip, a journey to Liverpool.

He finally ventured outside of the UK, into Europe, and much further. Targeting Britain’s middle class, the corporation diversified during the decades that followed into airlines, hotels, resorts, cruises, and more.

Don’t just book it — Thomas Cook it! was the slogan that helped the company become well-known.

QUICK STAT:

Marketing Strategy of Thomas Cook:

The company uses the following themes to showcase its holiday packages: festive holidays and fusion holidays. group tour, special holiday on a cruise, and adventure holiday. vacations at the beach or on a honeymoon.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Segmentation:

The geographic segmentation splits the market into submarkets based on places like cities, countries, and regions.

Demographic factors include gender, age, income, and ethnicity.

Behavioural segmentation is based on purchasing habits, such as frequency of use, benefits sought, occasions of use, and brand loyalty.

Psychographic segmentation is based on lifestyles, interests, attitudes, values, and other characteristics.

Thomas Cook has segmented their audience into Frequent Travelers.

Targeting:

Targeting is carried out by assessing the commercial allure and expansion potential of specified sectors. Thomas cook’s target audience is people from 18 years to late sixties looking to travel places.

Positioning:

By responding to the following inquiries, create the positioning statement for Thomas Cook Group Plc’s marketing plan.

• What does your company’s brand represent?
• What are the requirements and preferences of your intended market?
• How does your brand meet its needs?
• How distinct is your product from those of your rivals?

Thomas cook’s positioning is as one stop for all travel issues and the option for all-inclusive holidays.

Marketing Campaigns

1. Summer marketing campaign:

Featuring the strapline “This Is Thomas Cook” the new campaign aims to remind holidaymakers what Thomas Cook’s holidays are about. From fun in the sun to cocktail sipping, pool dipping, and life living, the campaign targets both families and adults using imagery that is designed to let consumers picture themselves by the pool, on the beach, and in the sea.

2. The brand’s relaunch as an online agency on its first anniversary:

The company has changed its catchphrase from “Don’t Just Book It” to “Love It, Book It, Thomas Cook It” and encourages users to post their vacation memories on its new app.

Users can create, upload, and browse holiday material on the app before clicking to book.

Thomas Cook asserted that combining the popularity of sharing and watching movies with online booking, is “the first of its sort.”

3. THOMAS COOK: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

 #NeverTooOld campaign

Thomas Cook India’s digital advertising campaign aims to inspire older people to travel and persuade the younger generation to challenge their elderly relatives to step outside of their comfort zones.

Social Media Marketing

Facebook: 1Million

Instagram: 55.4k

LinkedIn: 128k

The Thomas Cook Company is primarily well-known on Facebook, where they have uploaded photos and videos to promote their services and brand. They have also posted helpful information about their service and how to use it in the interim.

SEO Strategies

Source – Ubersuggest

According to the SEO Standards organic keywords around 500 are bad, above 1000 are good and above 10000 are amazing as seen in the above image thomascook.com has 1,089,242 organic keywords which is amazing and its organic monthly traffic is 3,163,644 which is impressive as above 20000 monthly traffic is considered good.

E-commerce Strategies

Thomas Cook makes use of cutting-edge technology and the online ecosystem to promote its products and services. To increase the flexibility of their web usage and to provide a rich user experience, they introduce their e-commerce platform.

Utilizing a dependable, high-availability availability hosting provider, the platform gives the business the option to increase performance. Thomas Cook’s digital business has been driven by this eCommerce, which also acts as a key sales channel.

This internet channel accounts for 20% of the total sales. It offers a one-stop shop for all travel requirements.

Influencer marketing

For many travel firms, collaborating with social media influencers has become a standard procedure in recent years.

Along with the obvious advantages of increased consumer trust and brand knowledge, this can also be advantageous for SEO.

In the tourism industry, as in any other area, influencers are crucial.

Influencers can, in my opinion, be even more successful in areas where audience engagement and excitement depend on communication. Here is where the tourism industry capitalizes on influencers’ capacity for storytelling and experience promotion, harnessing their genuine potential.

Their whole marketing plan now includes influencer marketing as an integral component. When it comes to promoting important places, launching new routes, and sponsoring brands, we have invested in influencers and will continue to do so (such as Manchester and Brighton Pride).

Mobile Apps

It’s Thomas Cook again. Additionally, you may choose and book your ideal vacation with Thomas Cook with the help of the Thomas Cook Holidays app, which functions as a portable travel agency.

You can choose the ideal home away from the home hotel, an incredible city to lose yourself in, or a stunning new beach to fall in love with right here.

Source – Playstore

There are 2 apps of Thomas cook available on the google play store from which one app i.e Thomas Cook India Holiday App is for Indian customers. 

• Thomas Cook – Business Travel: This app has ratings of 3.3 and 10T+ downloads.
• Thomas Cook India Holiday App – This app has 2.7 ratings and 5T+ downloads, with the ratings and reviews showing that people are not much satisfied with this app.

Content Marketing Strategies

The Thomas Cook marketing plan was primarily available in marketing periodicals. Despite the “huge hurdles” the change will bring, Thomas Cook is on pace to embrace a real-time content marketing strategy, according to the travel company’s marketing and e-commerce director.

Speaking at the International Content Marketing Association Summit in London, Queen disclosed that Thomas Cook was going to start targeting its customers in real-time as it continues to pour more money into content marketing and programmatic to better understand and target them.

He acknowledged that there are considerable obstacles involved in switching to a real-time paradigm, saying “Yeah, it’s fair to say we are doing it.” We are producing more creative materials than ever before, especially for our most recent advertising campaign.

Conclusion – What’s Unique in Thomas Cook’s Marketing?

In conclusion, we think Thomas Cook has a solid marketing plan in place that will help them achieve the objective they set for the next years. We think they may benefit more from social media marketing to attract the target audience to the marketplaces.

Additionally, implementing a reward program would reinforce their brand value of being individualised and customer-focused. They have established for themselves important, reachable goals, and they are already moving in the correct way to meet those goals.

Digital marketing is becoming more and more important. Businesses are recruiting digital marketers. If you’re interested in upskilling, check out IIDE’s Online Digital Marketing Course.

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