Jyotsna

Role of Advertisements in Tour Operations
THE ROLE OF ADVERTISEMENTS IN TOUR

OPERATING COMPANIES
A STUDY ON THOMAS COOK INDIA LTD.
Project Report submitted by
JYOTSNA S.
Reg No 1025
In partial fulfillment for the award of degree of Master of Business
Administration Travel and Tourism, (MBA T &T ) University of Kerala
Under the guidance of
V. RAJEEVAN
(IRPS, Director KITTS)
Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies

Residency Compound
Thycaud, Trivandrum-14
(2008-2010)
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V. RAJEEVAN, IRPS
DIRECTOR
Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies
Thycaud, Trivandrum-14
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that this is a bonafied record of project work entitled
“The Role of Advertisements in Tour Operations- A Study on Thomas
Cook India Limited” done by Miss. Jyotsna S. of MBA –fourth semester
under my guidance and supervision during the year 2010 in partial
fulfillment for the award of Master of Business Administration- Travel and
Tourism (MBA- T&T) by University of Kerala.
Date V. Rajeevan
Trivandrum (IRPS, Director)
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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the dissertation entitled
―The Role of Advertisements in Tour Operating Companies- A
Study on Thomas Cook India Limited” is a genuine record of data
and information collected by me under the guidance of Shri. V
RAJEEVAN, IRPS and submitted to University of Kerala in partial
fulfillment of the requirements of Master of Business Administration
(Travel and Tourism).
TRIVANDRUM JYOTSNA. S
Date 4th SEMESTER, MBA
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I wish to express my gratitude to almighty for his graceful
blessings.
It is a great pleasure to acknowledge my sincere thanks to my guide, Shri. V.
Rajeevan, IRPS, Director-Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel studies,
Trivandrum, who consistently provided me encouragement, valuable insight and
suggestions for the project and whose able guidance, critical evaluation,
patience, thoroughness and expertise helped me in completing the project.
I express my sincere thanks to Mr. M. Gopakumar, Senior Manager, Leisure
Travel – Inbound, Thomas Cook ( India) Limited, Kovalam for providing
necessary data and information, needed to complete my project.
My special thanks to Mr. R. Babu (faculty KITTS), pursuing Ph.D. (Eco-
tourism) from Kerala University, for his continuous encouragement, valuable
suggestions, guidance and support for completing the project.
Last but not least, I express thanks to all my friends who have offered necessary
help & suggestion in carrying out my project and also extend my thanks to those
persons who have helped me directly or indirectly in completing my dissertation.
JYOTSNA S.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgement
Contents
List of Figures
CHAPTERS
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 Structure of Project 3
1.3 Objective of the Project 4
1.4 Area of study 4
1.5 Scope and Significance of study 5
1.6 Methodology 5
2. Literature review 6
2.1 The concept and definition 7
2.2 Tools of advertising 11
2.3 Advertising purpose, appeal and message strategies 14
2.4 Role of advertising in marketing mix 15
2.5 Advertising and Elements of marketing mix 16
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2.6 The promotional mix 18
2.7 Sales promotion 23
2.7.1 Meaning of Promotion 23
2.7.2 Two types of promotion blends/strategy 24
2.8 Promotion and Sales promotion 25
2.9 Sales promotion and Advertising 26
2.9.1 Objective of sales promotion 26
2.9.2 Sales promotion at different levels 27
2.10 Brand 31
2.10.1 Brand Image 31
2.10.2 Importance of Brand name 33
2.11 Importance of Brand name 35
2.12 Advertising Communication System 38
3. Relevance of Advertising 44
3.1 Advertising 44
3.2 Features of Advertising 45
3.3 Objective of advertising 47
3.4 Functions of Advertising 49
3.5 Significance of Advertising 52
3.6 Types of Advertising 54
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3.7 Media of Advertisement 60
3.8 Active participants in Advertising 66
3.9 Choice of Advertising media 69
3.10 The future of advertising 71
4. Advertising and Tour operation 74
4.1 History of Advertising 74
4.1.1 Advertising agency and professionalism 75
4.1.2 Emergence of New Mass Media 75
4.1.3 World War II 76
4.2 Advertising and Television 76
4.2.1 Television 77
4.2.2 Evaluation of Television Commercials 77
4.2.3 Historical Milestone in Advertising 78
4.2.4 Advertising Revolution 78
4.3 Importance of Advertising in Tour Operations 79
4.3.1 What tour operators do? 80
4.3.2 Why tour operators exist? 81
4.4 Features of Tour Operators product 82
4.5 Advertising in Tour Operations 84
4.6 Advertising has changed 90
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5. Organisational Profile of Thomas Cook 92
5.1 History 93
5.2 Thomas Cook 96
5.3 Thomas Cook today 96
5.4 Sponsorship 97
5.5 Thomas Cook India Limited (TCIL) 98
5.6 Awards 100
6. Advertising portfolio of Thomas Cook 102
7. Conclusion 109
7.1 Conclusion 110
BIBLIOGRAPHY 113
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LIST OF FIGURES
Sl. No. Titles Page No.
1. MARKETING GOALS 17
2. PROMOTIONAL MIX 18
3. MARKETING COMMUNICATION 22
MIX
4. PROMOTION STRATEGY 24
5. ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS IN ADVERTISING 66
6. TOUR OPERATOR‘S FUNCTION 81
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential
customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. It
is a very small word, but it means in today‘s competitive world. Advertising means
giving a message to the consumers about a particular product. If the message is properly
understood and received by the consumers, then only we can say that advertising done is
worth something; otherwise it is just a waste of resources.
Advertising is powerful medium of mass communication. It is useful for communicating
advertising message in an agreeable and agreeable manner. In the communication process
the message moves from the sender to the receiver i.e. from seller to the buyer. The final
result of advertising as a communication process is the understanding of the message by
the consumers.
The need and importance of advertising is increasing day by day. Advertising helps us a
lot in taking a proper decision about selecting a right product. As the development is
taking place rapidly, the competition is also increasing a lot, hence, the demand for
advertising is also increasing. All the companies want their product to be at the top in the
market. So the companies spend a lot on advertising, marketing and promotion of their
product. Companies spend crores of rupees on advertising. Tourism is also one of the
sectors that spent lot of money for advertising for acquiring its customers.
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Tourism is a particular service, as a service the marketing mix can be applied to it. The
marketing mix includes the four Ps: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. The promotion
is the most visible of the four Ps. In the promotional process the selection and the use of
the tools is crucial. The different promotional tools in tourism are advertising, direct
mailing, sales promotion, merchandising, sales-force activities, printed material
production and PR activity. Promotional techniques are used to make prospective
customers aware of products, to whet their appetites, and stimulate demand; they also
provide information to help customers decide.
Tourism comprises the activities of person travelling to and staying in places outside their
usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other
purposes. Travel and tourism are identified as the total market comprising three main
sectors of international tourism, domestic tourism, and same-day visits Moreover tourism
constitutes such a wide of products that it has to be seen in terms of sectors rather than a
single industry comprising the accommodation sector, the attraction sector, the transport
sector, the travel organizers sector and the destination organization sector. Tourism has
become a popular global leisure activity and therefore advertising plays a very important
part in the tourism sector. This project report focuses on the advertisements strategies and
tactics adopted by tour operating company Thomas Cook for customer acquisition.
1.2 Structure of the Project :
I. Introduction
II. Literature Review
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III. Relevance of Advertising
IV. Advertising and Tour operations
V. Organizational profile of Thomas Cook
VI. Advertising Portfolio of Thomas Cook
VII. Conclusion and suggestion
1.3 Objectives:
I. To study the importance of advertising in tour operating companies.
II. To identify the advertisement tactics utilized by Thomas Cook in Customer
acquisition.
1.4 Area Of Study
Thomas Cook Group
1.5 Scope and Significance of the study:
Advertising was an effective through multiple sales people reaching many people at one
time. Advertising is the most compulsory expense for creating demand for the product.
Services industry especially tour operation companies adopt various advertisement
strategies and campaigns to promote the interests and image of their clients. These
companies utilize the advertising space such as publications, radio, television, and the
Internet; display advertisers—businesses engaged in creating and designing public
display ads for use in shopping malls, on billboards, or in similar media; and direct mail
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advertisers to attract customers. Every tour operating company plans to Adopt the best
advertising strategy so that they always gain an edge over others. Thomas Cook was the
first to launch or introduce advertisements. They first launched the print advertisement
which played a very important part to build a brand image. Though now their
advertisement tactics are more focused , they still maintain their legacy and are the top
most tour operating companies in the world.
1.6 Methodology / Analytical Framework:
In order to meet the objective both primary as well as secondary data is collected. The
secondary data is collected from books, journals, magazines and e-resources. The primary
data was collected from company website and press releases.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE
REVIEW
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CHAPTER II
Review of the Literature
2.1 The Concept and Definition
The term advertising originates from the Latin word advertere which means ―to turn the
mind towards‖. The dictionary meaning of the term advertising is ―to give public notices
or to announce publicity‖. According to Oxford Dictionary the word ‗to advertise‘ means
‗to make generally or publicly known‘, describe publicly with a view to increasing sales.
This suggests that advertising acts as a marketing vehicle and is useful for drawing the
attention of people towards a specific product/ service/ manufacturer. Advertising is an
activity or a process while advertisement is a specific piece of communication appearing
in press, radio or TV.
According to the American Marketing Association advertising is defined as ―Any paid
form of non –personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an
identified sponsor‖.
Advertising is a persuasive communication attempt to change or reinforce ones‘ prior
attitude that is predictable of future behaviour.
Advertising, generally speaking, is the promotion of goods, services, companies and
ideas, usually performed by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an
overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity,
public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion.
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Advertising is the dissemination of information concerning an idea, product. or service to
induce action in accordance with the intent of the advertiser. According to William J.
Stanton, "Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to an audience a
non-personal, sponsor-identified, paid-for message about a product or organization.‖
According to David Potter ―The only institution we have for instilling new needs, for
training to act as consumer for altering men‘s values and thus for hastening their
adjustment to potential abundance is advertising.
This definition suggests that advertising is an institution which makes people aware of
their needs and makes them vigilant consumers. Advertising also provides better
understanding of life and brings their adjustment with potential abundance of goods and
services.
According to Dunn and Barbon ―Advertising is paid, non-personal communication
through various media by business firms, non-profit organizations and individuals who
are in some way identified in the advertising message and who hope to inform or
persuade members of a particular audience.‖ This definition suggests that the advertiser
identifies himself in the advertisement and the purpose of advertising is to inform and to
persuade people of a specific type.
One definition of advertising is: "Advertising is the non-personal communication of
information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or
ideas by identified sponsors through the various media."(Bovee, 1992, p.7).
Advertising is any paid form of non-persona: presentation and promotion of ideas, goods
or services of an identified sponsor. The message which is presented or disseminated is
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known as ‗advertisement'. Advertising is thus, a mass communication tool, which is
essentially in paid form by a firm or an individual and the ultimate purpose of which is to
give information, develop attitudes & induce action, which are useful to the advertiser.
Advertising involves the process where in a massage is designed so as to promote a
product, a thought, an idea or even a service. The concept of advertising has assumed a
dynamic form with the use of the various mediums of communication. From the
newspaper, magazines, posters, neon and fluorescent signboards, billboards to the
commercial on TV, laser shows to inflated high-rise figures and objects, advertising has
come a long way. The work is formidable as it spearheads a process intended to attract,
modify, change and influences public opinion.
From the local business to multinational firm and all need to advertise. While politicians,
social organizations, government special groups need to advertise their motto, national
airlines, auto mobile manufactures, food and consumer goods manufacturers have to
reach the consumer. Specialist products and services are often advertised through trade
magazines and exhibitions. Lately mail-shots, handbill circulation, special offers have
become very popular. There are still other ways of advertising. There are window
displays, display on telephone directories, transit sign on buses, lamp posters, banners,
etc. Advertising through the electronic media has been perhaps the most popular medium.
Advertising, as an effective medium, uses a variety of techniques to create effective
advertisements. A basic appeal is at the heart of advertising. Slogans and product
characters are created to catch the attention of the viewers. Most winning advertisements
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would encompass factual information with emotional appeal. The advertising industry
has three major sectors-
1. Business or organization which wishes to advertise,
2. Media which provides the medium for advertising and
3. Ad-agency which creates the ad to suit the need of the firm.
Synergy is the fundamental concept of Integrated Marketing Communication. It differs
from simple repetition in that it is believed to bring in integrated increment rather than
just simple addition of different components.
As Chang and Thorson (2004) elaborated:
―An advertisement is usually viewed more than once. The effect resulting from
repeated exposure to the same advertisement is called the repetition effect and is assumed
to be the incremental effect of each additional advertising exposure. The effect resulting
from exposure to coordinated advertisement is called the synergy effect.‖
As observed, advertising synergy could be operated into content level and medium level.
The former is usually seen within a single medium, using a series of ads with slight
difference in image, sound or stories, to convey a consistent persuasive message. While
the latter, going one step beyond, employs several media at a time for the same purpose.
Advertising thus, shifts out a consumer‘s demand for the advertised product thereby
distorting the consumers decisions compared to those that are represented by his ―true‖
preferences (captured by the pre-advertising demand). The economic resources that are
used in advertising activities thus may be wasted, since advertising‘s effect is to induce
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consumers to buy the ―wrong‖ quantities of goods that are not well suited to their true
needs at prices that are swollen from the cost of advertising.
Advertising for consumer goods (usually non-durable) for which consumers are not likely
to indulge in costly search before purchase, is believed by many to be of the persuasive
type. Network television is usually the medium of such advertising. The medium has a
very wide reach but often conveys very little information. Nicholls‘ (1951) study of the
cigarette industry shows that from the 1920s on, cigarette manufacturers primarily
competed through advertising and brand proliferation instead of competing on price or
quality.
Dixit and Norman (1978) show that persuasive advertising in an oligopolistic industry
softens price competition between firms resulting in higher prices in equilibrium. As a
result, consumer welfare is lower with advertising than without. This is in contrast with
the case where advertising is informative, where consumer welfare is higher with
advertising than without (Stigler and Becker (1977)).
2.2 Tools of Advertising
Conventional advertising, predominantly TV-commercials and print ads, still dominates
today‘s advertising market. However, a diversity of new advertising formats emerges.
One major ―threat‖ comes from the Internet, which advertising investment is constantly
seen to be on the rise (Janoschka, 2004). As Leong and his colleagues (1998) suggested,
―the phenomenal growth of consumers and businesses connected to the Internet indicate a
viable audience for advertising and promotional messages for many companies‖.
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The Internet is the latest developed electronic mass medium of the 20 th century. With its
decentralized, internationally operating network and multimedia functions, this new
communication tool has soon captured the attention of provident advertisers and became
the 4th largest advertising medium (Janoschka, 2004). Some researchers estimated that
online advertising would begin to get surpluses this year, and the share of advertising
expenditure for webs would increase from 3.5% to 6.5% by the year 2009 (Ads4cn.com,
2005) , U.S. websites will see a triple in their advertising revenue.
There are various types of online advertising, including ―emails, newsletters,
screensavers, e-sponsoring, asynchronous and synchronous chat groups, infomercials,
online games, and web sites‖ (Janoschka, 2004). Provided the scope of the current study,
spotlight will be given to web ads, which encompass a variety of hypermedia formats,
such as ―banners, buttons, and pop-up windows, etc.‖ (Janoschka, 2004).
Similar to other types of advertisements, web ads are paid or unpaid form of
communication aim at informing the existence of a product or service and/or persuading
consumers to take actions. And Janoschka (2004) found one major difference is that web
ads are hyperlinks in nature, which enable activation by their users. They not only contain
promotional messages on themselves which tries to attract consumers‘ attention, but also
embedded with hyperlinks and then point to a much greater information pool, such as the
corporation‘s website.
This inherent difference enables a lot of unique features of web ads. As Leong, Huang
and Stanners (1998) summarized in their study with advertisers, web ads were perceived
to be:
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1). Excellent for conveying information and detail.
2). Cost-effective.
3). Rational and not effective in stimulating emotions.
4). Effective in precipitating action.
5). Effective for both short- and long-term promotional objectives.
6). Less effective for changing and maintaining attitudes.
Findings showed that traditional mass media, such as TV and print resided in the upper
left and lower left quadrants, whereas interpersonal media mainly take up the upper and
lower right quadrants. New media occupied largely intermediate positions, ―in agreement
with Reardon and Rogers (1988), who view new interactive media as combining
properties of mass (impersonal) and face-to-face (personal) communication channels.‖
The three media to be investigated in the current study, namely, TV, print and web were
all found to be mass-targeted (impersonal) media which package their information for a
large group of people. Yet they serve different functions. As Hoffman and Novak
(1996) explained, broadcast media provide relatively short-term exposure with low
information content, print media provide relatively long-term exposure with high
information content, whereas advertising strategy on the web can responsible for both
short-term (decision of which link to select next) and long-term (detail information
reading) exposure.
Web incorporates texts, images, audio and sometimes, video contents as well. It stands in
the central part of the media map, corresponding to a very important strategic
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interpretation that it should be included into the marketing mix and serve as
complementary ad carriers to the two conventional but predominant media.
Other researches (Chang & Thorson, 2004; Brackett & Carr, 2000) further suggested
that: Television contains both intensely moving images and sounds that are effective
attention-getting devices; print media are useful to provide detail information and to build
up distinct brand image; whereas webs, with the interactive nature, could engage
consumers and encourage them to be active in the marketing communication process.
2.3 Advertising purpose, appeal and message strategies
Advertisers create ads with a variety of objectives in mind from getting people to sample
a product, to persuading them to donate money for an environmental cause or vote for a
political candidate. Here are six categories of advertising purpose, arranged from most
direct to most indirect (Jones 1992 and Bovee et al., 1995):
 To prompt action: Direct action advertising is designed to motivate people to act. It
involves ads that try to persuade people to make a purchase, call a phone number, or
mail/fax/email an order form, and includes many of the common ads consumers see in
newspapers, in-store adverting and package advertising.
 To encourage information search: In some cases, it is unreasonable to assume that a
consumer is ready to make an immediate purchase based solely on advertising. In these
cases, consumers need more information – a test drive or a demonstration – before
making up their minds. This is often the case for big-ticket. Items and such ads often
include a telephone number or website so the consumer can seek more information.
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To relate product to needs: A less direct form of advertising, this category includes those
ads that draw a link in the consumers‘ minds between the product and their needs as a
consumer.
 To encourage recall of past product satisfaction and prompt a repurchase: Ads of this
nature are designed to summon memories of past satisfaction and get customers to
purchase a product again.
 To modify attitudes: One of the more challenging objectives facing advertisers is to
modify attitudes towards a product. This is often appropriate when a firm‘s product has
received a bad reputation for one reason or another or if a firm is attempting to recapture
customers they lost to a competitor. Tylenol employed this strategy after its headache
medication was sabotaged with cyanide.
 To reinforce attitudes: The final category of advertising objectives seeks to reinforce
attitudes that customers already have towards a product. Market leaders (such as Coke or
McDonald‘s) often use this to maintain their market share and volume.
2.4 Role of advertising in marketing mix
Marketing mix refers to advertising combination of four elements of marketing useful for
large-scale marketing. Such elements are: Production, Price, Place, and Promotion (4 Ps).
According to W.J. Stanton ―Marketing mix is the term used to describe the combination
of the four inputs which constitute the core of advertising company‘s marketing system:
the product, the price structure, the promotional activities and the distribution system‖.
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2.5 Advertising and elements of marketing mix
 Advertising and product:
Product is the core element in the marketing mix. The market demand finally depends on
the popularity and utility of the product. Popularity again depends on the Quality,
benefits and uses of the product. It is necessary to give publicity to physical and other
features of the product. Such information needs to be communicated to the prospects
through advertising.
 Advertising and price:
Buyers are always sensitive about the market price. They shift from one product to the
other due to quality or price. Price charged should be reasonable. This is necessary for the
support and co-operation of consumers.
 Advertising and Place:
Place relates to physical distribution which is possible through various channels of
distribution. Advertiser has to decide whether to adopt direct or indirect channels of also
useful for large-scale distribution. Advertising plays a crucial role to ensure smooth
distribution of goods and keep the consumers well-informed.
 Advertising and Promotion:
Promotion is perhaps the most important element in the marketing mix. Companies
introduce sales promotion campaigns for capturing market. Price discounts and schemes
like buy one, get one free are also offered as sales promotion. Various sales promotion
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techniques are introduced at the consumer and dealer levels. Window display, provision
of after sales services and coordinal public relations also facilitate sales promotion.
Massive advertising is useful to support the sales promotion campaigns.
(FIGURE 1)
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2.6 The Promotional Mix
PROMOTIONAL MIX
(FIGURE 2)
The marketing plan will be executed by using the tactical elements of the Marketing
Communications, or Promotions Mix. Promotional mix Starting with the first thing
someone reflects of when hearing the word marketing, is advertising. It is and will be an
important way of delivering a message. Alexander (1965) defined advertising almost like
as any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, product, service,
or idea by an identified sponsor. Breaking down the sentence the word paid, means that
one have to buy space somewhere in order to send out the message. The non-personal
could be described as advertising as a mass medium, in other words there is no immediate
way for feedback. Therefore, when one sends a message to the advertiser one must
consider how the audience reacts to the message.
Advertising is a form of reaching a larger mass by sending out a message, though one
should have in mind by doing so, a lot of people are reached but there is a lot of waste
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within the grouped reached, since most of them are not a part of the target market that the
company is going after (Belch & Belch, 2004). Today customers have a love-hate
relationship with advertising, since it is in close relation to entertainment and art (Ries &
Ries, 2002). Further, advertising could focus either on consumer markets or towards
business and professional markets.
According to Belch and Belch (2004) the promotional form of direct marketing is the
fastest growing sectors in the US economy. It focuses on a direct way to influence the
target customers to generate a response (Throckmoroton, 1996). Thus, direct marketing
is more than just direct mailing campaigns and mail order catalogs. It also involves
activities such customer database management, telemarketing approaches and also direct
selling and direct response ads through direct mail. The internet has also increased the
opportunities for direct marketing. Even so, television and their infomercials are forms of
direct marketing (Lehman & Winer, 2005). The direct marketing association defines it
like: ―direct marketing is an interactive marketing system that uses one or more
advertising media to affect a measurable response and/or transaction at any location‖
(Cited in Lehman & Winer, 2005 p.406).
Next step in the promotional mix is not to be confused with the overall concept of
promotion. Sales promotion divides into consumer-oriented sales promotion and trade-
oriented sales promotion. For the names, one could heed that this kind of promotion
involves activities focusing on either consumers or other businesses in order to promote
sales and encourage purchase.
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Sales promotion is offering extra value or incentives to the sales force, distributors or the
ultimate customers (Belch & Belch, 2004). In recent years, several companies have
relocated their budgets from advertising to sales promotion; the reasons could be the
increased emphasis on sales promotion, including a declining loyalty for certain brands.
Publicity and public relations are tools often written in the same sentence. Why is that
then? Firstly, the definitions of the two different key words are of most interest. Publicity
refers to any kind of non personal communications regarding a product, service, an
organization, brand or an idea that not is directly paid (Ries & Ries, 2002). Meaning that
it comes from some kind of media activity like a news story, editorial or an
announcement about an organization and its products. It compares to advertising since it
involves non-personal communication to a larger mass, though what is different is that
one cannot control it since the company does not directly pay for it (Belch & Belch,
2004).
It is a cheap form off marketing, since one can get a lot of media space without any
expenditure, though one cannot control what the newspapers or TV-channels do say
about your reputation. An advantage about publicity is that customers tend to understand
it as more reliable and perceived to be unbiased (Kotler & Mindak, 1978). On the other
hand, negative stories in the media about a company could be really severe. There are
several examples of this and anyone could probably remember some of there own,
everything from racism during the Swedish elections to publicity of soccer players in
England drinking.
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Public relations could on the other hand help control articles published in the media. It
describes as the management function which evaluates public attitudes and tries to
execute action programs to earn the public understanding and acceptance (Frazier
Moore & Canfield, 1977). Though, public relation uses publicity and several other tools,
including fund-raising, sponsorship of special events and other public activities. PR firms
are today increasingly touting public relations as a communication tool that can take
several of the functions of conventional advertising and marketing (Neff, 2002).
Personal Selling is the next element in the promotional mix. It is a form of person-to-
person communication in which a seller attempts to assist and persuade prospective
buyers to buy the own organization‘s products. This is more of direct form of marketing
compared to advertising, this form of marketing involves more of flexibility, and the
seller can constantly feel the buyer‘s reactions and change his sales methods. This form
of marketing also requires a fast feedback procedure and one often knows whether the
procedure worked instantly or not (Belch & Belch, 2004).Interactive/Internet marketing
is the last tool in the promotional mix. This allows more of a back and forth flows of
information, whereby users can participate and modify the form and content of the
information they receive in real time (Belch & Belch, 2004). Internet is a good example
of this kind of marketing where the customers easily can take part in the purchasing
decision and change the features of different kind of products.
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Marketing Communications Mix
The elements of the marketing communication mix or promotional mix
(FIGURE 3)
The Marketing Communications Mix is the specific mix of advertising, personal
selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing a company uses to
pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.
Advertising - Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas,
goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
Personal selling - Personal presentation by the firm‘s sales force for the purpose of
making sales and building customer relationships.
Sales promotion - Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product
or service.
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Public relations - Building good relationships with the company‘s various publics by
obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good "corporate image", and handling or
heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.
Direct marketing - Direct communications with carefully targeted individual consumers
to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships.
2.7 Sales Promotion
Promotion is the final element in the marketing mix. After the nature of product is
decided, its price fixed and the methods of distribution decided, the manufactures has to
take effective steps in meeting the consumers in the markets. In the present consumer
oriented markets it is the duty of manufacturers to know what is required by the
consumer. It is also their duty to make the customers know where, when how and at what
prices. The products would be available.
2.7.1 Meaning of Promotion
The term promotion is the term and includes mainly three type of sales activity:
1. Mass impersonal selling methods (Advertising).
2. Face to face personal selling (Salesman ship).
3. Activities other than personal selling and advertising such as point of purchase display
(P.O.P.) show and exhibitions, demonstrations and other non securing selling efforts.
This form of activity is called ‗Sales Promotion‘.
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2.7.2 There are two type of promotion blends/strategy:-
1. Pull Blend.
2. Push Blend.
Both of these are closely related to the channel of Distribution.
(FIGURE 4)
1. A pull blend is one in which mass impersonal, sales efforts are given the greatest
emphasis. The purpose of pull blends to pre-sell to the final consumers. So that they
demand the product at the retail level of distribution. The firm adopting this strategy
would spend more on advertising and sales promotion rather than in personal selling.
These efforts pull down the product from the manufacturer.
2. A push blend emphasizes personal selling. Naturally firms adopting this method
develop a strong sales force at both the distributor and the dealer level. This method
would tends to push the product through the channel of distribution.
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2.8 Promotion and Sales Promotion
The term promotion is very often used as a synonym for selling. But selling is a narrow
term which includes only transfer of title or personal selling. Promotion on the other hand
is broader in its outlook and includes a variety of activities used ultimately for increasing
sales volume
Similarly the terms sales promotion can not be taken to mean what is commonly does.
Sales promotion, is only a part of the promotion. Basically promotion is an "exercise" in
information persecution and influence. Promotion has come to mean the over all co-
ordination of advertising selling, publicity and public relations. Promotion is a helping
function designed to make all other marketing activities more effective and efficient. But
sales promotion as such helps only the selling activity still, there exit same difference of
opinion on the real connection of the term sales promotion.
According to A.H.R. Delons:-
"Sales promotion means any step that are taken for the purpose of obtaining or increasing
sales".
According to W.Q. Kelly Opines:-
"Muddled misused misunderstood that is sales promotion Acc. to him the field of sales
promotion as a marketing activity is still vaguely defined and organized.
W.J. Stanton defines sales promotion as all those activities other than advertising, personal
selling, public relations and publicity that are intended to stimulate customer demand and
improve the marketing performance of sellers.
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2.9 Sales Promotion and Advertising
There is no universally accepted distribution between these two terms. To same
advertising includes all forms of mass media communication directed towards
influencing the end consumer. Sales promotion on the other hand, includes the form of
mass communication directed towards information and influencing the channel of
distribution (e.g. distributors, retailers etc.). These sales promotions merge on one side in
to advertising and on the other in to personal salesman ship. It is concerned with the
dissemination of information to wholesalers, retailers, customers (both actual and
potential, and to the salesman).
Sales promotion is concerned with the creation of application and dissemination of
material and techniques that supplement advertising and personal selling. Sales
promotion makes use of direct mail, catalogues, trade shows, sales contests, premiums,
samples, windows displays and other aids. Its purpose is to increase the desire of
salesman, distributors and dealers to sell a certain brand to make consumers more eager
to buy that brand. Personal selling and advertising do include prospects to make these
decisions. Sale promotion provides an extra stimulus.
2.9.1 Objective of Sales Promotion
1. To increase sales directly by publicity through media which are complementary to
press and poster advertising.
2. To disseminate information through sales man dealers etc. So as to insure the product
getting in to satisfactory use by the ultimate consumer.
3. To attract new consumer.

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4. To face the competition effectively.
5. To help salesman in selling more to the retailers and consumers.
6. To check seasonal decline in sales. Generally speaking sales promotion involves
rendering the following services:-
(a) Services to dealers.
(b) Services to own salesman.
(c) Special publicity.
2.9.2 Sales Promotional at different levels
1. Sales promotion at Dealers Level:-
It may include various schemes some of which are discussed here.
(i) Advertising Materials:-
The advertising material prepared by the company such as store signs, banners, shelf
signs, board etc. are distributed to sub dealer for display purposes this is in fact a method
of advertising.
(ii) Store Demonstration:-
In the promises of the whole sales or the retailer the products sales personnel will conduct
special demonstration for the company‘s product. A personal demonstration is good to
introduce a new product at its peculiar advantage can be high lightened and the
consumer‘s doubt clear. It can be used to restimulate an old product. A good
demonstration with a great dealer of action will draw heavy crowds in to the store and
will attract attention to the product.
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(iii) Special Display and Shows:-
These are in seasonal in character but could be arranged in an elaborate manner and for
all the products of an company. Usually these are arranged along with trade fair and
exhibition. Besides effecting sales these shows impress the company‘s name generally on
the public.
Sales promotion at consumer’s level
The various schemes of sale promotion at Consumer‘s Level may include.
1. Coupons (A Chit of Stated Value):-
These are given directly to the consumer these coupons are in most cases kept inside the
package. The consumers many receive a price reduction of the stated values of the
coupon at the time of purchase. The retailer receives reimbursement for the value of the
coupon form the manufacturer. Coupons act as a short run stimulus to the sale of the
product, since they are directly tied with the purchase of the item. They encourage the
retailer to stock the product. What is important is that a coupon offer does not spoil the
named price of the brand nor does it un pair the margin of the dealers. But it is not easy to
measure the effectiveness of a coupon offer. One over knows how many customer would
have bought the product without the incentive. It is also difficult to find out how many
customers were held after the coupon offer expired.
2. Price-off-offer (Also known as bargain offer price packs):-
This offer is intended to stimulate the sales during a slump season. In this method the
customer is offered a reduction from the printed price list. It is also used when a
substitute for competing product enters the market.
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Many experts on sales promotion fed that ‗Off Schemes‘ are among the weaker and less
desirable methods of promotion. These can be trade resentment particularly when the
retailer raises the price to retain his margin. Secondly that is not conductive to building
up brand loyalty. Consumers may simply shift to the products that offer this scheme.
3. Samples:-
In the hope of converting a prospect into a customer a sample (Some quantity of the
product) may be given. This helps the consumer to verify the real quality of the product.
Various pair manufacturing companies offer this method. For developing brand loyalty
this method is quite useful. Sampling is a fast method of demand creation because one
knows the result as soon as the consumer has had time to use the sample and buy the
brand.
Disadvantage of Sampler:-
Offering sample in quit expensive. There is the cost of producing samples. The
distribution costs are also high. Samples have to be mailed to potential customers or to be
distributed through retail shops. There are also problems when the real product does not
resemble the sample supplied.
4. Money Refund Offer:-
An offer usually stated on the package is that manufacturers will return with in a stated
period part or all of the purchaser‘s money if he is not completely satisfied with the
product.
5. Trading Stamps:-
A premium in the form of stamps is given by the sellers to consumers while selling
goods. The number and value of stamp that the buyer receives depends on the values of
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the purchase. These stamps are redeemable through premium catalogues at the stamp
redemption centres.
6. Buy-Back Allowance:-
This an allowance following a previous trade deal not offer a certain amount of money
for new purchases based on the quantity of purchases on the first trade deal. It extends the
life of a trade deal and helps to prevent part deal sales decline. It greatly strengthens the
buyer‘s motivation to co-operate on the first deal.
7. Premium:-
There are various forms of premiums provided by the manufacturer as sales promotional
devices:-
(a) Coupons are supplied for effecting price reductions.
(b) Factory in pack premium these are popular in the case of Body food and Tin food
items, Spoons, Cups, Measuring, Glass etc. and such other items are packed with the
product in the box itself. Factory in pack premium are particularly goods for product
meant for children. The Binaca Toothpaste packs contain animal shape toys. These are
very attractive and quite popular among the children.
(c) Self Liquidating Premiums:-
The cost of the premium is collected from the buyer himself. But when the buyers pay for
it, he has to pay only a considerably low price for the premium. This is possible for the
manufacturer purchases the items in bulk at a premium and his cost per unit as is
substantially low.
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2.10 BRAND
An identifying symbol, words, or mark that distinguishes a product or company from its
competitors. The dictionary definition of ―branding‖ usually refers to the name and
image of a product or service. Jon Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing offers a simple
definition "Branding is the art of becoming knowable, likeable and trustable."
2.10.1 Brand Image
Brand image means the image of a particular brand in market and in eyes of people.
Brand image decides the popularity of a brand in market. A brand having good brand
image is considered more popular than a brand with low image.
There are three components to a brand image: attributes, consequences and brand
personality. It is perhaps more inclusive to think of a brands image as encompassing all
the associates that a consumer has for that brand: all the thoughts, feelings and imagery-
even colors, sounds and smells - that are mentally liked to that brand in the consumers‘
memory.
First comes the attributes, attributes means qualities or functions or advantages of a
particular brand. A brand is known by its attributes i.e. the qualities it offers. Attributes
affect the brand image i.e. a product or brand with lot of advantages in comparison to its
nearest substitute is considered more suitable. Thus it enhances the brand image. Then
come the consequences, consequences mean the effect of the product. The product or
brand which gives ultimate good result is considered good brand. Thus, consequences
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also affect brand image. Last component of brand image is brand personality. Brand
personality includes associations with particular characters, symbols, endorsers, life
styles and types of users. Together, such brand personality associations create a
composite image of a brand. It gives the brand a sense of human; it makes you feel a
brand as a person. Thus it characterized it as adventurous, head strong, undependable,
excitable etc. Brand personality also anociate feelings with brand. Like fun, excitement
with Pepsi, taste, health with honey. Brand personality also creates an anociation of that
brand with certain important life values, such as exciting life, the search for self respect,
the need to be intellectual, the desire for self-expression etc. Finally what often matters
more than the specific personality attributed to brand is the question of whether a brand
has any clear personality at all. Thus, it could be said that the brand personality of a
"brand as a person", is used by various advertising agencies and marketing client
companies.
Thus, these are the 3 components of brand image. Brand image is a important tool for
making effective sales. Brand image builds the confidence in customers. A product which
owns high brand image is always at an advantage in comparison to products with low
brand image. Thus, brand image can be described as impression of brand in eyes of
customers.
According to David Ogilvy:
"We hold that every advertisement must be considered as a contribution to the complex
symbol which is the brand image as part of the long term investment in the reputation of
the brand."
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2.10.2 Brand Policies & Strategies :
All companies prior to introducing any product established a branding policy or strategy
especially with a view of future new product.
The manufacturer can use any of the following:
1. Family or Blanket Branding :-
In using a family or blanket branding strategy, the manufacturer chooses to apply the
same brand name to all the products. Firms such as Kissan, Amul, Britannia & Philips
use this strategy. This decision is adopted generally when the products are similar in
terms of marketing mix strategies i.e. they use same distribution channels,
communication channels etc. Family branding strategy have some important advantages
firstly due to it will less time by customers to accept the product. Secondly there will be
no need of brand name research and thirdly consumer response to the new product will be
sooner. Its only disadvantage is that it should be very particular about quality of product,
as it should be very particular about quality of product, as it should be at the level of
existing product. Thus, this is Family or Blanket Branding. It provides a cover over all its
products & all are known by it that's why it is called Blanket Branding.
2. Individual brands :
When a firm produces or sells diverse products, it may not be appropriate to use one
family or blanket brand name. Colgate, General Foods etc. market a variety of products
that would not be amenable to family branding. Individual branding strategy allows firms
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to develop different images and positions for each of their products. Individual brands are
costly to introduce, since each new product must be heavily advertised to establish brand
awareness. Thus, individual branding helps in increasing market share of that company
but under different brand names and products.
3. Mixed branding strategy :
In many large companies, product line expansion occurs in different directions so that
new families of products may be planned when a new product is conceived. In this case,
the firm will use a mixed branding strategy with similar products carrying a family brand
name and different products with individual brand name. The strategy is employed when
the product line expands so that new products are quiet different from other products,
therefore requiring a unique name and marketing strategy.
4. Trade name and individual brands:
The last strategy that may be employed by the firm is to anociate the company name with
an individual brand of each product. In this, the company name provides some
legitimization and the individual name some differentiation for the new product. This
strategy, as in family branding carries the risk of negative association of all products but
it provides with an advantage of low cost of introduction, as brand is known to customer.
Brand plays an important role in promoting the product or the company, let the
advertisement be the best if it won‘t have a particular it won‘t work out in the market.
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2.11 Importance of Brand Name:
Consumer brand preference means to which brand consumers gives importance and
priority.
A brand is a name, term, symbol or design or a combination of these that gives
identification to the maker and seller of a product or service. Brand is an important part
of a product, it gives a name, an identification of product, and moreover branding can add
value to a product. Mostly people choice the product by its brand. e.g. A bottle of white
leinen perfume will be perceived as a high quality expensive product but if the same
perfume is in unmarked bottle it would be viewed as lower quality product even if the
frequency, quality etc. i.e. are other incidents are identical. This clarifies that a branded
product is always preferred in comparison with non-branded product.
Brands also tell the buyer something about product quality; a regular buyer knows that
they will get same feature, quality and advantages each time they buy the product. A
good name can add greatly to a product success.
Attitudes are expressions of inner feelings that reflect whether a person is favourably or
unfavourably pre-disposed to some object or brand. Attitudes are not directly observable
but are inferred from what people say or what they do.
Example : If a researcher carries out a survey and finds that a consumer consistently uses
a product and also recommend it to friend, it will to concluded that consumer have a
positive attitude towards that product.
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To survive in such a competitive environment it is quiet necessary to understand liking
and disliking of the customer. Consumer attitude help to know about what is their view
about product.
Customer is the central point of all marketing activities. Thus, it becomes very necessary
to know about his attitude because customer attitude decides the position of product in
market.
“Advertising, mass media advertising to be more precise, has played a major role in business to
consumer marketing, and enabled companies to meet communication and other marketing
Objective”.( Minh Hou Poh & Adam, 2007)
For advertising to be successful, it is not enough to send out a message and then hope for
a result. Customers are today exposed to more advertisements each day and this can be
annoying to them. On the market today, customers tend to have a more negative attitude
towards advertising and this makes it harder for organisations to reach their audience.
Because of all this advertising strategy is getting of higher importance and it essential for
organisations to have a clear strategy to follow (Zanot, 1981).
Many may believe that creating advertising is all about creating the ultimate message and
choose the perfect media channel, but there is so much more behind all of that. The right
strategies have to be created and an advertising plan has to be set in action. There are
several theories and models on how organisations can create a good advertising campaign
today (Jobber, 2004).
Literature on advertising contains several different models that have been published by
authors over a long period of time. These theories and models are today being taught to
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advertising students around the world and may be seen as essential in the work within
advertising. A high amount of Universities uses literature including these models as their
core texts today (Lincoln University 2007, University of the Sunshine Coast 2007,
Internationella Handelshogskolan Jonkoping 2007, Handelshogskolan Göteborg 2007).
“For several decades, marketing executives and academics have attempted to develop
formal theories of .how advertising works. With the aim of facilitating the design of
advertisements and the practical execution of campaigns. These theories appear in
marketing textbooks and have been taught by marketing educators to successive
generations of students in the business and management field” (Gabriel, Kottasz &
Bennet, 2006, p. 505)
However, the models taught to students today have met a high amount of criticism on the
market. The researcher in this study are one of the students that are being exposed to
these models in the core literature at the University and does together with other students
question how relevant these models are.
As Jobber (2004) says, it is hard to devise a theory on how advertising is effective. To
set up theories and models on advertising is not always appreciated.
Business people, marketing and advertising professionals included, rarely have much
time for theory. Advertising professionals are practical people who develop experience in
particular areas and know what works for them in a given situation (Hackley, 2005,)
Advertising descends from marketing communications and to create a good
advertisement the process must work from the beginning. For advertising to be
successful, the literature claims that the organisation must be aware of the whole process.
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2.12 Advertising Communication System
Advertising communication always involves a perception process and four of the
elements shown in the model: the source, a message, a communication channel, and a
receiver. In addition, the receiver will sometimes become a source of information by
talking to friends or associates. This type of communication is termed word-of-mouth
communication, and it involves social interactions between two or more people and the
important ideas of group influence and the diffusion of information.
An advertising message can have a variety of effects upon the receiver. It can
 Create awareness
 Communicate information about attributes and benefits
 Develop or change an image or personality
 Associate a brand with feelings and emotions
 Create group norms
 Precipitate behavior
Kilbourne writes, ―Advertising‘s role in our society is it is both a creator and perpetuator
of the dominant attitudes, values and ideology of the culture, the social norms and myths
by which most people govern their behaviour‖
Advertising research differs in that it often aims at investigating relationships between
advertisements and consumer responses, in which stimulus factors or elements are central
to studies of media-message effects.
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Tourism is a particular service, as a service the marketing mix can be applied to it. The
marketing mix includes the four Ps: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. The promotion
is the most visible of the four Ps. In the promotional process the selection and the use of
the tools is crucial. The different promotional tools in tourism are advertising, direct
mailing, sales promotion, merchandising, sales-force activities, printed material
production and PR activity.
Promotional techniques are used to make prospective customers aware of products, to
whet their appetites, and stimulate demand; they also provide information to help
customers decide. The promotion cannot be fully effective unless it is coordinated with
the other three P (Middleton, 1994, pp. 63-65).
Tourism comprises the activities of person travelling to and staying in places outside their
usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other
purposes. Travel and tourism are identified as the total market comprising three main
sectors of international tourism, domestic tourism, and same-day visits (Middleton,
1994, p. 8). Moreover tourism constitutes such a wide of products that it has to be seen in
terms of sectors rather than a single industry comprising the accommodation sector, the
attraction sector, the transport sector, the travel organizers sector and the destination
organization sector. Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2007, there
were over 903 millions international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 6,6% as compared
to 2006 (World Tourism Organization, 2008).
Nowadays the tourism industry is extremely challenging. The international market is
changing faster than ever before, it's getting easier to travel and discover new
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destinations. Tourism has evolved during the latter half of the 20th century from a
marginal and locally significant activity to a widely dispersed economic giant. It is
considered as an important economic, environmental and socio-cultural phenomenon
(Weaver & Lawton, 2002, p. 3).
Many aspects of tourism promotion have been developed these last years to attract new
customers. The purpose of this study is to outline and analyse the use and the
construction of three promotional tools (advertising, Public relations, Printed materials),
and find out their goals. These three promotional tools will be represented by TV
commercials, press releases and brochure.
Most promotional activities require an investment of time and money which can reap
excellent rewards if they are carefully planned and executed (Briggs, 2001, p. 89).
The tools available in tourism and travel are:
- Advertising
- Public Relations
- Printed materials
- Sales promotion
- Personal selling
- Direct marketing
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Seaton & Bennett (2000, p. 187) describes advertising as the paid-for sponsorship of a
message in a commercially available medium. It can be very expensive and it is difficult
to evaluate. In the tourism advertising has many uses:
1. Creating awareness
2. Influencing destination image
3. Advertising a special offer
4. Providing information on special services or seasonal deals
5. Improving distribution
6. Overcoming negative attitude
7. Reaching a new target audience
8. Announcing a launch
The selection of media is usually based on three criteria (Briggs, 2001, p. 121):
· Cost of space in the print media and time on radio, TV and cinema screen
· Suitability
· Appropriateness
The choice of media types is wide: newspapers, television, radio, magazines, direct mail,
outdoor, internet. Added to these media, some specific media for tourism are the
following (Middleton, 1994, p. 170):
- Trade press and magazines
- Tourist board brochures and guide (selling space to tour operators)
- Directories and yellow pages
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- Exhibitions
Advertising appropriation in travel and tourism are very small compare to major fast
moving consumer goods manufacturers. The other tools have to be used in complement
or as an alternative to advertising (Middleton, 1994, p. 167).
In recent times advertising strategies have changed. In the ―old days‖ the practice was to
rely on mass media motivating customers to make purchases to achieve marketing
objectives. In the ―old days‖ the choice for advertisers was largely morning and afternoon
city newspapers, TV and radio. Today there are no afternoon newspapers but there are
more ―free-to-air‖ TV channels and cable TV. ―Free-to-air‖ TV has become so expensive
that even some State Tourism Organisations are unable to fund TV advertising and have
turned to cable TV, cinema advertising and other means to communicate with their
markets.
In the ―old days‖, advertising was used to reach a broad range of people usually to
promote a destination or product. Today, tourism uses targeted advertising which is far
more cost effective where generation of business is the priority. A major new
development has been the introduction of the Internet. It‘s widespread use by customers
and the travel industry has had a dramatic impact for tourism.
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CHAPTER 3
RELEVANCE OF
ADVERTISING
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CHAPTER III
RELEVANCE OF ADVERTISING
3.1 Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential
customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service.
―While now central to the contemporary global economy and the reproduction of global
production networks, it is only quite recently that advertising has been more than a
marginal influence on patterns of sales and production. The formation of modern
advertising was intimately bound up with the emergence of new forms of monopoly
capitalism around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century as one element
in corporate strategies to create, organize and where possible control markets,
especially for mass produced consumer goods. Mass production necessitated mass
consumption, and this in turn required a certain homogenization of consumer tastes for
final products. At its limit, this involved seeking to create ‗world cultural
convergence‘, to homogenize consumer tastes and engineer a ‗convergence of lifestyle,
culture and behaviours among consumer segments across the world‘.‖
Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products
and services through the creation and reinforcement of "brand image" and "brand
loyalty‖. For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message
with factual information. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages,
including television radio cinema magazines newspapers video games, the Internet and
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billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company
or other organization.
Advertising is only a small part of marketing. Advertising is one of the ways in which
you can get the customer to purchase your product or service.
3.2 Features of Advertising
American Marketing Association has defined advertising as "any paid form of non-
personal presentation and promotion of ideas goods and services of an identified
sponsor". This definition reveals the following features of advertising:
1. It is paid form of communication. Advertisements appear in newspapers,
magazines, television or cinema screens because the advertiser has purchased some space
or time to communicate information to the prospective customers.
2. It is non-personal presentation of message. There is no face-to-face direct
contact with the customers. That is why; it is described as non-personal salesmanship. It;
is a non-personal form of presenting products and promoting ideas and is complementary
to personal selling. It simplifies the task of sales-force by creating awareness in the minds
of potential customers
3. The purpose of advertising is to promote idea about the products and service,
of a business. It is directed towards increasing the sale of the products and services of a
business unit.
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4. Advertisement an issued by an identified sponsor Non disclosure of the name
of the sponsor in propaganda may lead to distortion, deception and manipulation.
Advertisement should disclose or identify the sources of opinions and ideas it presents.
5. Publicity and Public Relations
Publicity is a part of marketing and customer relations. Publicity comes from news
reporters, columnists and journalists. It comes to the receiver as the truth rather than as a
commercial. Public relations and publicity taken together are one of the four major
ingredients of promotion-mix. These activities are, however, not controllable by the firm.
Every from tries to create a good public relations so as to get good publicity through
press and electronic media. Publicity has a peculiar feature that it is not a paid form of
communication. Publicity refers to the mention of company/product in any published or
non-published media. For example, a new product is launched, and due to its unique
feature, the product may become a point of discussion among various groups. This
mention adds to the promotion and hence, the product gets publicized. This publicity is
mainly due to good response of customers, or due to quality or can be even due to some
controversies. Anyway, such public exposure of a product forms a crucial part of
promotion mix. If a product is able to draw a lot of attention by the media, the firm will
have to spend less on advertisement and sales promotion activities.
6. Achieving goal
Public relations are important marketing functions in the present-day business
environment. The total process of building goodwill and securing a bright public image
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of the company called public relations. It creates a favorable atmosphere for conducting
business. There are four groups of public:
(I) Customer,
(2) Shareholders
(3) Employees
(4) The community.
The marketers should have the best possible relations with these groups. Public relation,
complement advertising by creating product and service credibility. Effective marketing
communication is not without establishing and maintaining mutual understanding
between the company and its customers. The lubricant making the wheel of marketing
run smoothly is public relations. Bright image is created and maintained only by public
relations. That is why; modern business houses attach great significance to the public
relations activities.
3.3 Objectives of Advertising
The fundamental purpose of advertising is to sell something - a product, a service or an
idea. In addition to this general objective, advertising is also used by the modern business
enterprises for certain specific objectives which are listed below:
1. To introduce a new product by creating interest for it among the prospective
customers.
2. To support personal selling programme.
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3. Advertising maybe used to open customers' doors for salesman.
4. To reach people inaccessible to salesman.
5. To enter a new market or attract a new group of customers.
6. To light competition in the market and to increase the sales as seen in the fierce
competition between Coke and Pepsi.
7. To enhance the goodwill of the enterprise by promising better quality products
and services.
8. To improve dealer relations. Advertising supports the dealers in selling the
product. Dealers are attracted towards a product which is advertised effectively.
9. To warn the public against imitation of an enterprise's products.
The purpose of advertising is to sell something - a product, a service or an idea. The real
objective of advertising is effective communication between goods and clients and
increasing awareness.
Mathews, Buzzell, Levitt and Frank have listed some specific objectives of advertising
are:
 To make an immediate sale.
 To build primary demand.
 To introduce a price deal.
 To build brand recognition or brand insistence.
 To help salesman by building an awareness of a product among retailers.
 To create a reputation for service, reliability or research strength.
 To increase market share.
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3.4 Functions of Advertising
Advertising has become an essential marketing activity in the modern era of large scale
production and serve competition in the market. It performs the following functions:
 Promotion of Sales. It promotes the sale of goods and services by informing and
persuading the people to buy them. A good advertising campaign helps in winning new
customers both in the national as well as in the international markets.
 Introduction of New Product. It helps the introduction of new products in the
market. A business enterprise can introduce itself and its product to the public through
advertising. A new enterprise can't make an impact on the prospective customers without
the help of advertising. Advertising enables quick publicity in the market.
 Creation of Good Public Image. It builds up the reputation of the advertiser.
Advertising enables a business firm to communicate its achievements in an effort to
satisfy the customers' needs. This increases the goodwill and reputation of the firm which
is necessary to fight against competition in the market.
 To increase brand preference: There are various products with various bands. So
we are getting the preference to choose the band of a particular product with the help of
advertisement.
 Mass Production. Advertising facilitates large-scale production. Advertising
encourages production of goods in large-scale because the business firm knows that it
will be able to sell on large-scale with the help of advertising. Mass production reduces
the cost of production per unit by the economical use of various factors of production.
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 To expand product distribution: When the market demand of a particular product
increases, the retailer and distributor are engaged in the sale of that product.
 Research. Advertising stimulates research and development activities. Advertising
has become a competitive marketing activity. Every firm tries to differentiate its product
from the substitutes available in the market through advertising. This compels every
business firm to do more and more research to find new products and their new uses. If a
firm does not engage in research and development activities, it will be out of the market
in the near future.
 To communicate product information: Through advertisement one company can
send its product information to the target audiences.
 Education of People. Advertising educate the people about new products and their
uses. Advertising message about the utility of a product enables the people to widen their
knowledge. It is advertising which has helped people in adopting new ways of life and
giving-up old habits. It has contributed a lot towards the betterment of the standard of
living of the society.
 To urge product use: Advertisement can create the urge within us for a product.
 Support to Press. Advertising provides an important source of revenue to the
publishers and magazines. It enables to increase the circulation of their publication by
selling them at lower rates. People are also benefited because they get publications at
cheaper rates. Advertising is also a source of revenue for TV network. For instance,
Doordarshan and Zee TV insert ads before, in between and after various programmes and
earn millions of rupees through ads. Such income could be used for increasing the quality
of programmes and extending coverage.
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 Provide product or brand information: Although many ads are devoid of
information, providing the consumer with relevant information that will aid decision
making is still the main function of advertising. The information given depends on the
needs of the target audience. In the case of purchasing a new suit, needed information
might simply include price and outlet location. The American diary tells us to "drink
milk". For technical products, the information is likely to be very detailed.
 To distinguish products from their competitors: There are so many products in
the market. Sometime the same types of products are competing in one market.
 Provide incentives to take decision: In most instances, consumers are reluctant
to change established behavior. Even if there are somewhat dissatisfied with the current
product or service, a habit has been established and learning about a new product is
deemed difficult. Advertising provides the consumer with reasons to switch brands by
presenting reasons through copy or graphics. Convenience, high quality, lower price,
warranties, or a celebrity endorser are all possibilities.
 Provide reminders and reinforcement: It‘s amazing how much advertising is
directed at current customers. Consumers forget why they bought a particular brand of
microwave or automobile. Advertising must remind the customer constantly about the
name of the brand, its benefits, its value, and so forth. These same messages help
reinforce the customers decision. Most television advertising seems to provide this
function.
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 To reduce overall sale cost: Advertising increases the primary demand in the
market. When demand is there and the product is available, automatically the overall
price will decrease.
3.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF ADVERTISING
Advertising helps in spreading information about the advertising firm, its products,
qualities and place of availability of its products, and so on. It helps to create a non-
personal link between the advertiser and the receiver of the message. The significance of
advertising has increased in the modern era of large scale production and tough
competition in the market. Advertising is needed not only by the manufacturers and
traders but also for the customers and the society. The benefits of advertising to different
parties are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Benefits to Manufacturers and Traders
It pays to advertise. Advertising has become indispensable for the manufacturers and
distributors because of the following advantages:
(i) Advertising helps in introducing new products. A business enterprise can introduce
itself and its products to the public through advertising.
(ii) It can create new taste among the public and stimulate them to I purchase the new
product through effective advertisement.
(iii)Advertising assists to increase the sale of existing products by entering into new
markets and attracting new customers.
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(iv) Advertising helps create steady demand of the products. For in-stance, a drink may be
advertised 'during summer as a product necessary to fight tiredness caused by heat
and during winter as an essential thing to resist cold.
(v) Advertising help in meeting the forces of competition in the market-place. If a product
is not advertised continuously, the competitors may snatch its market through
increased advertisement. Therefore, in certain cases, advertising is a necessity to
remain in the market and remind the customer as done by soft drink companies.
(vi) Advertising is used to increase the goodwill of firm by promising good quality to the
customers.
(vii) Advertisements increase the morale of the employees of the firm. The salesmen
feel happier because their task becomes easier if the product is advertised and known
to the public.
(viii) Advertising facilitates direct distribution of the product through the retailers.
Retailers are encouraged to purchase and sell the advertised products.
Benefits to Society
The society at large is also benefited because of advertisement:
 Advertising provides employment to persons engaged in writing, designing and issuing
advertisements. Increase in employment brings additional income with the people which
stimulate more demand. Employment is further generated to meet the increased demand.
 Advertising promotes the standard of living of the people by increasing the variety and
quality in consumption as a result of sustained research and development activities by the
manufacturers.
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Advertising educates the people about the various uses of different products and this
increases their knowledge. Advertising also helps in finding customers in the
international market which is essential for earning foreign exchange.
Advertising sustains the press, and other media. It provides all important source of
income to the press, radio and television network. The customers are also benefited
because they get newspapers and magazines at cheaper rate. The publishers of
newspapers and magazine; are benefited because of increased circulation of their
publication; lastly advertising also encourages commercial art.
3.6 TYPES OF ADVERTISING
Types of Advertising:
Advertising is a form of selling. It tries to make consumers buy goods or services.
Advertisers must be aware of the factors that influence people's buying habits and then
use advertising strategies based on this knowledge. Advertising can be classified in
number of ways. According to one such way there exist four basic categories: lifestyle,
testimonial, informative, or repetitive.
Advertising may also be classified on basis of public relations practice as in-house ads,
public service announcements and institutional advertising used for issues, advocacy and
identity. Three other types are used less often, but do occur: specialty, cooperative and
professional advertising. One should note the fact that these classifications are not
distinct and may overlap each other. Let us look each individual category in details.
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1. Consumer. Oriented or Persuasive Advertising
Persuasive advertising surrounds our daily lives, telling us to buy particular products or
services. It helps in creating and maintaining regular demand in the market. Persuasive
advertising also helps attract the attention and preference of the customers. It informs the
target audience about the various schemes of sales promotion. Examples. Rs. 200 off on
every purchase of TITAN watches, free stickers with every pack of three Maggie packets
and 20 per cent off on Bombay Dyeing. The objectives of consumer-oriented advertising
areas under
(i) To inform consumers about new products.
(ii) To hold consumer patronage against intensified campaign.
(iii) To teach how to use the product.
(iv) To promote a contest or a premium offer.
(v) To establish a new trade character.
2. Cooperative advertising
Co-operative advertising offers almost as many advantages as advertising placed by a
single organization. When one advertiser shares a message with other - such as when
cheese dip manufacturer combines with a potato chip manufacturer to buy advertising
space and time - it also shares the production and space / time costs. This enables each to
participate in both the production and the exposure.
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3. Institutional advertising
The objective of some institutional advertising is to convey a particular message. Issue
ads are used by an organization as a forum for its views on a topic or problem.
Companies seeking public support for corporate policies and programs have begun to
invest more in advocacy advertising. Advocacy ads are a form of lobbying to influence
public opinion. They go beyond offering a general comment on issues to urging support
for a position that benefits the organization specifically.
Corporate advocacy advertising often looks like editorial copy, although it may be clearly
identified as an advertisement. Some corporate advocacy is done in partnership with
nonprofit organization and becomes a form of cooperative advertising.
Specialty advertising: without looking can you recall the company whose name is on the
pen you use or on your desk calendar? Advertising specialties are useful, inexpensive
items, such as pens or calendars, imprinted with an organizations name, logo or message.
These are given away to customers or perhaps as souvenirs to those who attend a special
event.
4. Advertising by professionals
Both advertising agencies and pr firms are now learning to deal with advertising by
lawyers, dentists, doctors, and other professionals, who used to be prohibited by their
professional codes of conduct from engaging in such commercial activities. As these
professionals began putting their names in print and their faces on television, a new
market for public relations practitioners opened.
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5. Testimonial advertising
Testimonial advertising uses celebrities, such as movie or television stars or professional
athletes, to endorse products or services. The intention is to leave you with the impression
that the item must be good if these famous people endorse it.
Sometimes testimonial advertising features people whose appearance gives the
impression of authority on a subject. For example, a woman in a white lab coat talking
about a headache remedy could be assumed to be a doctor. Another variation of
testimonial advertising involves ordinary people, interviewed at shopping malls or in
their homes or workplaces, who claim that a certain product or service is better than
competing ones.
6. Repetitive advertising
Repetitive advertising involves the frequent repetition of a product or business name or of
the advertisement itself during a program. The advertiser's goal is to implant that name
firmly in your mind. Companies that offer items that differ little from their competitors'
often use repetitive advertising to "help" you remember their particular brand names.
7. Informative Advertising- Informative advertising presents practical, and usually
detailed, information about a product or service, such as prices, guarantees, ingredients,
and applications of the product. Sometimes this type of advertising involves a lot of text
in a printed advertisement or television program that runs for half an hour or more.
Purchases of durable products are made once in s life-time. These are often expensive, so
the potential buyer requires detailed information about them e.g., TV sets, refrigerators,
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air-conditioners and washing machines. The manufacturers spend a lot on informative
advertising.
8. Institutional or Corporate Advertising-The main objective of this type of advertising
is building a corporate image. Corporate advertising highlights, therefore, the objectives
and achievements of a company. Big companies such as Godrej, TELCO, Reliance, JK
Cement, Bombay Dyeing, etc. resort to this type of advertising.
The institutional advertising campaigns have the following objectives:
 To create a corporate personality of image.
 To build a company prestige.
 To emphasize company services and facilities.
 To enable company salesman to see top executives of various organizations when
making sales calls.
 To increase consumer friendliness and goodwill towards the company.
9. Financial Advertising
Financial advertising refers to advertisements issued by financial institutions like banks,
UTI, GIC. LIC and company's/corporation's sale of shares. These advertisements provide
information about investment opportunities, with its attendant risks and benefits.
10. Classified Advertising
Classified advertisement refers to the messages which are placed under specific or
particular headings and columns in newspapers and magazines
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e.g. Situations Vacant, For Sale and Matrimonial.
11. Government Advertising
It is conducted by Govt. Departments Undertakings to promote public awareness with a
view to overcome social problems like dowry, drinking, AIDS, environmental pollution
and overpopulation. Since such advertising has a social purpose, it is also known as social
advertising.
12. In- house ads
In- house ads is what an organization prepares for is in its own medium or in another
medium controlled by the same owner. For instance, a newspaper that is a part of a chain
of print and broadcast media might promote a special subscription offer or announce a
new "lifestyles" section by running an add or promo o the chain's television stations. No
money is exchanged, although space allotments or ―budgets" are established.
13. Public service announcements (PSA)
PSA are sales or promotional pieces - not news stories - in the form of announcements.
Generally, broadcast stations give unsold airtime for PSA, which are prepared just like
commercials, from organizations such as the united way, the American heart association.
Print PSA‘s are generally, but not always found toward the back of magazines and
occasionally in newspapers. Leftover space is made available for free display ads.
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Commercial parternership with non profits are not new, but they have increased
dramatically as advertising costs have accelerated while the ability to reach audiences has
dropped. The intent is to serve the public, but the commercial partnership takes the
message statement out of the realm of public service announcements and into the area of
cooperative advertising and promotion.
13. Lifestyle advertising is used extensively
Attractive people are featured doing enjoyable or interesting things that either involve a
particular product or service or somehow relate to it. For example, a televisio n
advertisement might open with a skiing scene - healthy; good-looking people dressed in
the latest ski styles and using the best equipment, swooping down a scenic mountain.
Then the camera cuts to a soft drink nestled in the snow at the foot of the hill- the real star
of the advertisement.
There are many variations of this type of advertising but the suggested message is
basically the same: Use this product or service and you too will enjoy life as much as the
people in the advertisement do. Smart consumers are not taken in by the unrealistic
expectations these ads are designed to arouse.
3.7 MEDIA OF ADVERTISEMENT

A manufacturer or a trader can make use of the following advertising media to spread his
message to the people:
(i) Press advertising,
(ii) Outdoor advertising,
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(iii) Film advertising,
(iv) Radio advertising,
(v) Television advertising,
(vi) Direct mail advertising,
(vii) Display advertising, and
(viii) Speciality advertising.
1. Press Advertising or Print Media
Press advertising, i.e. advertising through newspapers, magazines, journals, etc. is
commonly used by modern businessmen- It may be noted that advertising is an important
source of finance for the press or print media. Because of advertisements, the subscribers
get newspapers and periodicals at subsidized rates.
Newspaper Advertising-Newspaper reading is a common habit among most of the
educated people. Besides daily newspapers, there are bi-weekly and weekly newspapers
also Newspapers reach almost every place and are read by all kinds of people. Therefore,
newspaper can be used as a medium of advertisement with great advantage. While
selecting a newspaper for this purpose, an advertiser has to take into consideration the
strength of circulation, the class of readers it serves, the geographical region over which it
is popular, and the cost of space.
Magazine Advertising- Magazine or periodicals are an excellent medium of
advertisement when a high quality of printing in colour is desired. Magazine
advertisements can be directed towards a particular class of people. . Thus, marketers can
avoid wasteful expenditure on advertising.
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Magazine advertising is considered to be superior to newspaper advertising because of
the following merits:
 Magazines are read more carefully and at greater leisure. Advertising through
magazines is more effective.
 The life of the magazine advertisements is longer. Magazines are preserved for a
long period of time and are read time and again.
2. Outdoor Advertising
Outdoor advertising has gained wide popularity these days. Its purpose is to attract the
attention of the people at busy roads and markets. It includes the use of poster displays,
bill board displays and electric or electronic displays.
Poster Displays-Posters are fixed on walls of buildings, bridges, and other public places.
It is also quite common to write slogans and other message about the products in bold
letters on the walls to arrange the attention of the people even from a long distance. That
is why, it is also known as `Mural Advertising‘. Mural advertising is frequently used to
advertise fans, fertilizers, tonics, beauty aids and other consumer items
Bill Board Displays- Painted or bill board displays involve the advertisements directly
painted on the boards meant for this purpose. They are quite big in size and are fixed at
outstanding locations like busy markets and crossings. They are also erected on tops of
bridges and important buildings.
Electrical Displays- Electrical display involves the use of electric electronic lights or
neon tubes to attract the attention of people, particularly during night. Generally, a short
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message is illuminated in tubes of different colors so that it is conspicuous and attractive.
Electrical displays are fixed at heavy traffic consumer centres.
Vehicular Displays- It has become a fashion these days to use modes of public transport
for advertising.
3. Film Advertising
Films are an important medium of advertisement. Business concerns usually get a short
motion picture prepared and distribute it to different cinema houses for displaying it
before the commencement of the regular shows or during the periods of intermission.
Such films are accompanied by running commentary to explain the features, uses and
superiority of the product. But film advertisement, can be adopted only by the well-
established firms. Since it involves high cost, small business firms can get cinema slides
prepared for display in the cinema halls.
4. Radio Advertising
Radio advertisements are gaining greater popularity these days. Advertisements are
broadcast from the transmitting stations of the commercial service of All India Radio and
FM Radio and picked-up by the receiving sets owned by the public. Radio advertisements
are normally broadcast along with popular programmes of music. Even the sponsored
programmes of music, interviews and plays can be broadcast over the radio.
5. Television Advertising
Television is the fast growing medium of advertisement because Of huge expansion of
electronic media and cable network. It makes its appeal through both the eye and the ear.
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Products can be demonstrated as well as explained as in film advertisement. Advertising
may take the form of short commercials and sponsored programmes.
T.V. advertising has all the merits of film advertising. It has greater effectiveness as the
message is conveyed at their homes to the people Selectivity of message can also be
achieved. Commercials may be given during that time period when the prospective
buyers are supposed to watch television programmes.
T.V advertising has got all the demerits of film advertising. Television is a very costly
medium of advertisement and can be made use of by -he well established companies
only. Another limitation of television advertisement is that once it is presented, its back
reference is not possible.
6. Direct Mail Advertising
Direct mail is probably the most selective of all the advertising media. It is used to send
the message directly to the customer. For this purpose, the advertiser has to maintain a
mall list which can be expanded or contracted by adding or removing names from the list.
But a severe limitation is posed by the difficulty of getting and maintaining a good
mailing list.
Advertisements that are sent by direct mail maybe in the form of circular letters, leaflet
folders, calendars, booklets and catalogues. Circular letters are sent to the prospective
customers to inform them about the merits of the product and to create their interest in the
product. Booklets and catalogues contain the information about the products advertised.
Information about the terms of sale and prices of different varieties of the product is
given to the prospective customers through catalogues.

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7. Window Display
Window display is an on sight method of advertising. Goods can be exhibited in
artistically laid out. Windows at the shop fronts or at important busy centres like railway
stations and bus stops. Large show rooms are organized by big manufacturers and
wholesalers in the main markets to advertise their product; and attend to the queries of
the prospective customers. The retailers also organize attractive display of goods in the
windows of their shops. Window displays are very popular with the retailers since it
helps in informing the customer about the types of goods available with them.
The main objective of window display is to draw the attention of the public and arouse
their interest in the products displayed. Almost all the manufacturers insist that their
products should be displayed at the retail shops. If a product is displayed properly at the
point-of-purchase (POP) by the customers, it can attract many customers. Many people
having no preference for a particular brand may discover a particular brand quite
appealing and attractive and may purchase it. Thus, window display creates the demand
for the product. Window display acts as silent salesman. In order to achieve the purpose
of window display, cleanliness and a well-furnished appearance for the window are
essential. Articles should be arranged in a systematic way and if possible price tags
should also be attached with the articles. It is better if window displays are changed
regularly to make the customers look at the displays every time they visit the shop.
8. Speciality Advertising
Many business firms (like Jiyaji Suitings, Vimal, etc.) offer speciality articles to the
present and prospective customers. These articles may be diaries, pen holders, desk trays,
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key chains, purses, paper weights, cigarette cases and calendars. The name and address of
the advertiser is printed in or inscribed on the speciality items. They also bear the brand
name of the firm. Since these articles are of daily use, they have greater capacity to
remind their users about the brand name of the firm offering such articles.
3.8 ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS IN ADVERTISING
(FIGURE 5)
Advertising is a type of collective activity which needs the support and participation of
certain individuals or organizations. They are called active participants in advertising.
Such participants are called:
1) Advertisers
2) Advertising agency
3) Audience
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4) Advertising media and finally
5) The government authorities
1) Advertisers
Advertisers are the individuals/firms/organizations which desire to advertise their
products or services. They support the whole advertising process as they provide finance
by paying the advertising charges. They initiate entire advertising process. It is the
advertiser who takes broad decisions about advertising. He decides the advertising
budget; select the audience, media and agency for the purpose of advertising. He is the
key participant in the entire advertising activity
2) Advertising Agencies
An advertiser can implement his advertising plan directly through his own sales or
advertising department or may transfer the entire responsibility of advertising to a
specialized professional agency called advertising agency. These agencies provide expert
services to their clients that are advertisers. They prepare advertising plan and execute
them the same on behalf of their client. An advertiser can transfer his botheration about
advertising to such advertising agency. Such agencies charge commission of 15% from
media owners on the media bills. Such agencies offer benefit of their skills and
experience to their clients. HTA, Lintas Mudra, Everest, O & M are some leading
advertising agencies operating in India.
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3) Audience
Advertising is for giving message about goods or services to readers, viewers or listeners.
They constitute the audience. It is for their information and guidance that advertisements
are given. An advertiser desires to cover his target audience/market for promoting sales.
Efforts are also made to make advertisements attractive and agreeable to the audience.
Moreover, waste in advertising is possible when the advertising message is not received
or accepted by audience.
4) Advertising Media
Advertising media act as a connecting link between the advertiser and the audience. The
media act as a channel of communication for giving message to two or more media for
advertising purpose. Newspaper, magazine, radio and T.V. are some popular advertising
media and are used extensively by advertisers. In India T.V. advertising is popular but is
equally costly. The advertising agency guides their clients in the selection of convenient
advertising media that is media planning.
5) Government Authorities
Government authorities act as a one important participant in the advertising field.
Government acts as a supervisory authority in the field of advertising. It makes rules and
regulations as regards that use of media for advertising purpose. Some advertising media
such as radio and T.V. operate directly under the control of central government.
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3.9 CHOICE OF ADVERTISING MEDIA
For the purpose of choosing the appropriate medium or media or advertisement,
following factors should be taken into consideration.
(i) Nature of Product
Nature of the product to be advertised has an important bearing on the medium of
advertisement. Products should be classified into two broad categories, namely, consumer
and industrial goods. Consumer goods can be advertised in newspapers, magazines, radio
and television and through outdoor displays, but industrial goods can be advertised
profitably in the specialized trade, technical and professional journals.
(ii) Nature of Market
Nature and extent of market can be determined by various factors like geographical
region, size of population and purchasing power of the population. The market may be
either local or national. Film advertising and outdoor advertising are more suitable for
local products. Newspapers are the most suitable for advertising products which can be
sold throughout the country.
(iii) Objectives of Advertising
The objectives of the advertising programme are very important to determine the choice
of advertising media. The objectives may be introduction of new product, to increase
demand of an existing product, or to avoid competition by the rivals. If advertising is not
to be carried on a mass scale to have big impact in the short and long run, a combination
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of various advertising media may be chosen. Sometimes advertisements are inserted in
the newspapers and magazines to complement the readers in order to enhance the
goodwill of the advertiser.
(iv) Circulation of Media
If the media have greater circulation, the message of the advertiser will reach a larger
number of people. It may be mentioned that newspapers have the widest circulation, but
other media have limited circulation.
(v) Financial Consideration
The cost of advertising media is an important consideration and it- should be considered
in relation to (a) the amount of funds available, and (b) the circulation of the media. In
the first instance, the amount of funds available may dictate the choice of a medium or a
combination of media of advertisement, and secondly the advertiser should try to develop
some relationship between the cost of the medium and its circulation. The cost-benefit
analysis will enable the advertiser to take right decision in regard to selection of the
advertising media.
(vi) Type of Audience
If the message is to be conveyed to illiterate or less literate people, radio, television and
cinema advertisement will serve the purpose in a better way. Newspapers, magazines,
displays and direct mail may be used to convey the message to the educated people, since
different languages are popular in different regions, advertisements in different languages
may be given to popularize the product.
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(vii) Life of Advertisements
Outdoor display and magazines and direct mail have sufficiently longer life but the life
of newspaper, radio and television advertisements is very short unless they are repeated
regularly. Therefore, the advertiser should also take into consideration the duration for
which he wants to create the impression in the minds of the prospective customers.
(viii) Media used by Competitors
The choice of advertising media also depends upon the media used by the competitors. If
a product is being advertised in a newspaper, the producers of its substitutes will find it
better to advertise them in the same newspaper. This practice has become more common
these days in order to fight competition in the market.
3.10 The Future of Advertising
Research from the Institute of Information Policy at Pennsylvania State University
consistently finds that the poor use five times more telephony and cable services than
suburban families. Also, female head of households dominate as low-income subscribers
to cable TV.
Many believe the growth of cable TV is so parents can keep their kids at home with them.
Supporting this theory would mean as more ITV programs are added, the switch to
interactive television will increase.
WebTV is doing their best to speed up that switch. They recently introduced their new
Click-To-Video ads. When a WebTV subscriber clicks on a banner ad, they view a full-
screen, full-motion commercial for the advertiser's product and are then taken to that
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company's Web site. Advertisers can submit their current banner ads and TV
commercials and WebTV Networks converts their materials to the advertising product.
Some of the current Click-To-Video advertisers are Ford, Maytag, Hewlett-Packard and
Volvo Cars of North America.
These new services are designed to attract both low- and high-income families. While the
future of this new advertising medium remains to be seen, the digital divide seems to be
taking a hit.
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CHAPTER 4
ADVERTISING AND
TOUR OPERATIONS
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CHAPTER IV
ADVERTISING AND TOUR OPERTIONS
4.1 History of Advertising

The first advertisement may have been a sign painted on a wall of a building. The early
outdoor-advertising competitors were town criers employed by merchants to praise their
goods. It was Gutenberg‘s invention of the moveable-type printing press in 1450 that
resulted in the mass production of posters and circulars.
The first advertisement printed in English was a handbill printed in 1472. It was primarily
an announcement of a prayer book for sale. Two hundred years later, the first newspaper
ad appeared offering a reward for finding 12 stolen horses. By the 17th century, classified
ads were appearing frequently in England‘s newsweeklies. These ads featured simple
descriptions of products and their prices. Illustrations and color appeared in
advertisements in the late 19th century.
The first advertising agency, which was set up by Volney Palmer in Boston in 1841,
introduced the commission system to the business by offering a discount of 25% on ad
space in newspapers. This move marked the formal beginning of space selling. Initially,
most ad agencies were nothing more than brokers for ad space in newspapers. Advertisers
created their own ads. N.W. Ayer & Son became the first full-service agency in 1869.
One of the earliest highly successful advertising campaigns was launched by Pears Soap.
In the late 19th century, Thomas Barratt, whom many consider the father of modern
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advertising, launched a series of ads featuring children, animals, flowers, and beautiful
women to promote the company‘s products.
4.1.1 The advertising agency and Professionalism
F.Wayland Ayer began his full service advertising agency in 1869.He felt that clients
would not trust him with business. His son provided clients with ad campaign planning
,created and produced ads with his staff or artists and writers and placed them in the most
appropriate media. Three factors combined to move the advertising industry to established
professional standards and to regulate itself.
 First was the reaction of public and the medical profession to the abuses of patent
medicine advertiser.
 The second was the critical examination of most of the country‘s important institutions led
by the muckrakers.
 The third factor was the establishment in 1914 of the federal trade commission
(FTC),which had among its duties monitoring and regulating advertising.
 The Audit bureau of circulation was established to verify circulation claims.
4.1.2 The Emergence of New Mass Media
When new mass media—radio and cinema—became commercially available in the first
part of the 20th century, the advertising industry quickly took advantage of their reach,
spread, and popularity. This period of prosperity came to an end with the Wall Street crash
of 1929, followed by the Great Depression and World War II.
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Initially, a single business would sponsor a radio program for a brief mention of its name.
Later, sponsorship rights for a show were sold to multiple businesses, a practice that soon
became the norm.
4.1.3 World War II
During World War I, advertising became a medium for propaganda. Governments used
advertising to persuade their citizens to join the military. This period also saw increased
mechanization of the industry, making ads more costly.
Consumer products came to near halt during the war (1941-1945) and traditional
advertising was limited. When the war ended the group now called the advertising council
directed its effort toward a host of public service campaign on behalf of countless
nonprofit organizations. The impact of World War II on the size and structure of the
advertising industry was insignificant. One result was an expansion in the number and size
of manufacturers advertising departments and of advertising agencies.
4.2 Advertising and television
Manufacturing capability was turned toward the production of consumer products for
people who found themselves with more leisure and more money. People were also able to
think realistic about owning their own houses.
Advertising was well positioned to out products and people together not only because
agencies had expanded during the war but also because of television. Television later
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became the primary national advertising medium. Advertisers bought $12million in
television time in 1949, 2years later they spent $128million.
Television commercials people can see and hear the product in action which is different
from the advertising of all other media. Ads are offering little information about the
product, yet people were increasing their spending. This led to growing advertising and its
growing contribution to the consumer culture. The immediate impact was the creation of
an important vehicle of industry self –regulation.
4.2.1 Television
The market did not embrace television initially because of the high cost of TV sets and the
lack of programming. However, as the American economy improved in the 1950s,
television‘s popularity surpassed that of radio. Soon, the industry considered it the
number-one medium for advertising. With the establishment of the DuMont Television
Network, the modern trend of selling advertising time to multiple sponsors became a
permanent feature of the commercial television industry in the U.S.
4.2.2 Evolution of television commercials
Brand Awareness is an identification of a product with a particular manufacturer. It was
achieved through slogans and jingles.
Early days commercials were highly product oriented. In 1971 the FCC banned cigarette
commercials from airwaves. The number of commercials spots grew and so too did the
number of commercials minutes allowed on television. Today the price of commercial
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time continues to rise, production costs for programming continue to increase and the air
time available for advertising continues to expand.
4.2.3 Historical Milestones in Advertising
Advertising goes back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Archaeologists working
in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea have dug up signs announcing various
events and offers. An early form of advertising was the town crier. Another early
advertising form was the mark that trades people placed on their goods, such as pottery.
As the person‘s reputation spread by word of mouth, buyers began to look for his special
mark, just as trademarks and brand names are used today. As production became more
centralized and markets became more distant, the mark became more important. The
turning point in the history of advertising came in he year 1450 when Johann Gutenberg
invented the printing press. Advertising no longer had to produce extra copies of a sign by
hand. The first printed advertisement in the English language appeared in 1478. In 1622,
advertising got a big boost with the launching of the first English newspaper, The Weekly
News. Advertising had its greatest growth in the United States. Ben Franklin has been
called the father of American advertising because his Gazette, first published in 1729,had
the largest circulation and advertising volume of any paper in colonial America. The
invention of radio and, later, television created two more amazing media for the spread of
advertising.
4.2.4 The Advertising Revolution
The industry became more scientific in the 1960s. This period witnessed some of the most
creative ads of all time. Instead of focusing on the product, ads endeavored to strengthen
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the brand and create an image for the company. Advertising also became subtler and more
intelligent, often adopting a conversational style.
Advertising also turned into a major industry in the 20th century. The advertising of the
age cleverly used all media, including newspapers, television, direct mail, radio,
magazines, outdoor signs, and, of course, the Internet.
4.3 Importance of Advertising in tour operations
Tourism industry is a visual industry. ―Seeing is believing‖ so tourist websites need to
offer visual treat to visitors visiting their site which has a tremendous impact on visitors
interest in the site. It increases their probability of visiting the destination. The website
designers should focus on how the site can ‗up sell‘ and get new visitors to visit the
destination. The role of these tourism websites is also to encourage those who have
already decided to visit to stay longer, include more attractions and take more trips. As far
as visual treat is concerned tourism websites have videos and pictures which demonstrate
scenic beauty and richness of the destinations.
Advertising products and services: Advertisements earn revenue to the ministry of tourism
and state governments who maintain the websites. Studies say that visitors are turned
down and put off by related ads on the home page. There is a risk that the credibility of the
website is lost by usage to many advertisements on the website, so proper care needs to be
taken by the concerned authorities to select the right few advertisements on the website.
A tour operator is a person or company who purchases the different items that make up an
inclusive holiday in bulk, combines them together to produce package holidays and then
sells the final products to the public either directly or through travel agencies. The
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Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 (known hereafter
as the EC Package Travel Regulations) use the expression òrganiser‘ to refer to a tour
operator.
Building on a definition originally developed by the Association of British Travel Agents
(ABTA), the EC Package Travel Regulations define a `package‘ as meaning:
The pre-arranged combination of at least two of the following components when sold or
offered for sale at an inclusive price and when the service covers a period of more than 24
hours or includes overnight accommodation:
a) Transport;
b) Accommodation;
c) Other tourist services not ancillary to transport or accommodation and accounting for a
significant proportion of the package.
The expression `package holiday‘, `package tour‘ and `package travel; all have the same
meaning. Package holidays can also be referred to as ìnclusive tours‘ (ITs), `fully
inclusive tours‘ (FITs), or, where they include flights, àir inclusive tours‘ (AITs).
4.3.1 What tour operators do?
The traditional package holiday is made up of three elements which are bulk purchased by
tour operators:
 Transport – flights, ferry crossings, etc.
 Accommodation – rooms in hotels, self-catering apartments, etc.
 Transfers – by coach, taxi, etc.
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In the chain of distribution, tour operators can, therefore, be seen as the wholesalers of the
travel industry, buying from its principals and reselling through its retailers, the travel
agencies (see Fig)
Travel Principals = Producer/Supplier (airlines, hotels,

ferry companies)
Tour Operators = Wholesalers/Bulk Buyers
Travel Agencies = Retails Shops
Passenger = Customer
4.3.2 Why tour operators exist?
There is a sense in which tour operators can be seen as redundant. In an age of easy
international communication by telephone, fax or telex, and when computer technology
makes information much easier to obtain, it might be argued that people could put their
own holidays together perfectly well without operator or agents as intermediaries. Indeed,
in the 1990s an increasing number of people were doing just that. However, the travel and
tourism business suffers from greater than usual difficulty in matching up supply with
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demand. For example, many of its products (hotels, restaurants, etc) are small business
attracting their clientele from a huge geographical catchment area. Without an
unrealistically large advertising budget such enterprises could not hope to make contact
with all of their potential clients. Instead, the operators do that for them by combining
what they have to offer with the means of reaching it and advertising the two together.
As far as the customer (particularly the first-time customer) is concerned, there is also a
problem in that they cannot know much about a particular hotel in, for example, Cyprus,
and booking to stay there could be an expensive mistake. The operator, as intermediary,
does the vetting for him/her and ensures that getting to the hotel, etc, will be as pain-free
as possible. What‘s more, by virtue of its bulk-buying ability, the operator can often book
the same hotel more cheaply than the client could on his/her own.
4.4 FEATURES OF THE TOUR OPERATORS
PRODUCT
The product sold by the tour operator differs from that sold by most wholesalers in five
crucial ways:
1. It is an intangible product that must be bought `blind‘ because it cannot be seen,
touched or experienced by the purchaser before consumption. Instead tour
operators prepare brochures which represent their products in words and pictures.
The consumer makes his/her purchase on the basis of these words and pictures,
supplemented with advice from either the tour operator or a travel agent.
Inevitably words and pictures cannot give a complete impression of how any one
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particular client will experience the product, so sellers of travel products are often
described as `selling dreams‘. What‘s more, the client uses up the product as
he/she experiences it. In this way, buying a holiday is more like buying a bar of
chocolate than a refrigerator; only memories are left behind afterwards. Since the
product cannot be exchanged if faulty, the accuracy of the tour operator‘s
brochure is vital to the sales process.
2. It is a discretionary product, meaning that clients do not have to buy it in the same
way that they do food or fuel. During a recession clients may opt to forego a
holiday altogether or trade down and buy a cheaper one. When finances are tight
they may choose to spend the money that would have gone on a holiday on other
consumer durables such as a compact disc player or new washing machine.
3. It is not a heterogeneous product. You could buy a fridge like your neighbour‘s
and expect it to look identical and operate in exactly the same way, but holidays
are by their very nature varied. If you go to Greece in August, with the blazing
heat and crowds of visitors, you will experience a different product from the one
you discover in cooler, quieter May – even if you‘ve booked into the same hotel,
travelled on the same flight and used the same tour operator.
4. It is a perishable product. Although holidays don‘t go off in the same way as,
say, yoghurt seller. This explains the spate of late booking special offers – the
tour operator‘s equivalent of the supermarket‘s `reduced for quick sale‘ shelf.
5. Package holidays also suffer from inseparability, in that, as with other services
industries, the behavior of everyone involved in the product – from the
chambermaid to the waiter to the resort rep – can have an effect on the outcome of
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the experience. This is markedly different from other consumer products: when
we buy a washing machine, for example, our enjoyment of the product will not be
reduced by the irritating behavior of the plumber who installs it. The difference
lies in the fact that we continue to et benefit from the washing machine after the
plumber has left, while a holiday become nothing but memories once we return
home.
4.5 ADVERTISING IN TOUR OPERATIONS
There is a wide range of options available where regional destinations and tourism
businesses may spend their marketing budget. Some of the choices include:
 Print media –newspapers, magazines
 Industry publications-
Destination brochures produced by tourism organisations in regions, Private
sector publishers.
Directories produced by automobile Clubs through AAA Travel, private sector
publishers, In-flight magazines.
Trade press: Travel week and Travel Trade.
 radio - Packages ,Travel auctions
 cinema
 Internet -Tourism Data Warehouse, Regional websites
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Print media
Decision process- when deciding whether or not to advertise in print media, there are
certain
fundamentals which should be considered. They are
1. Circulation figures for the publication. Circulation is the number of copies of the
newspaper or magazine that are sold directly or through subscription. Advertising rates for
these publications are based primarily on circulation figures.
2. Readership of the publication. Readership is the total number of persons who are
estimated to read the publication. This figure is usually higher than the circulation figure
because, in most households or offices, more than one person may read the publication.
3. Area of distribution. How widely circulated is the publication? As an example, with
suburban newspapers they can supply a map of the area that shows where the newspaper is
distributed. Does it cover your target market segments?
4. Demographics. This is a description of the composition of the market being reached by
the publication. This applies particularly to consumer publications. This information is not
as relative with specialist publications designed to target a particular segment such as
backpackers. Demographics can give an indication of age groupings, sex, religions,
income levels, family sizes and other information which can be valuable when targeting
marketing and advertising.
5. Editorial support. Does the publication include editorial with travel information eg a
travel feature in a newspaper? This information is usually available free from the
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organisation trying to sell advertising pace. By using this information, the first step is
being taken to address whether there is a target market or target market segment in the
area covered by the publication. It will also assist to evaluate whether the advertising rates
are giving value for money
Metropolitan newspapers
Metropolitan newspapers have weekly travel features with a high readership particularly
amongst potential travellers. Well worth considering. These newspapers can be a valuable
option for advertising destinations, special offers, events or packages.
The advertising rates for casual advertisements can seem expensive but these regular
features do enjoy high circulation and readership figures. Some metropolitan newspaper
travel features also have a classified section which is used by customers who have chosen
their destination and are looking for somewhere to stay or perhaps book a houseboat
holiday. The value of these sections can be assessed by looking at several issues to see
how many regular advertisers appear. If there is a lack of regular advertisers - be cautious.
Suburban newspapers
Suburban newspapers have a mixed reputation for tourism advertising. Some are very
effective while others are not.
Tips to assess whether a particular suburban newspaper offers potential are
1. Ask if the newspaper has a regular travel section? If no - show caution.
2. Ask for details of circulation, readership, area covered and demographics of the area
that the paper covers.
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3. Ask to see a complete copy of the last issue of the newspaper. If there is a strong
emphasis on, say real estate, and little evidence of coverage for tourism – show caution
Some further tips
1. If the target segment is the seniors market and the demographics show the area mainly
has young families - show caution, there may be better value elsewhere.
2. If readership levels are low, exercise caution. However this may mean the publisher
is being frank and readership figures are conservative estimates.
Regional newspapers
Regional newspapers have cheaper advertising rates but don‘t necessarily have a large
readership. If the regional newspaper covers one of your target markets, it may be worth
considering particularly if there is a regular travel feature. If your regional tourism
organisation also conducts destination marketing activities in this market this should be
regarded as a ―plus‖ when deciding whether to advertise.
Magazines
There is an endless list of magazines including some general interest magazines which
have travel sections. Well read are magazines in weekend newspapers. Any magazine
should be assessed on its circulation, readership, demographics and its coverage of travel
and tourism. Another important question is to ascertain whether a magazine you are
considering reaches your target markets and target segments.
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If the product being marketed is an up market B&B or fine restaurant then the magazine
needs to reach the type of clients that would patronize such properties. This principle is
the same for other products.
Industry publications
Destination brochures produced by tourism organisations in regions- large destinations
(Often known as the Holiday Guide or Visitor Guide.
The most important merchandising tool for any destination is the destination brochure.
The primary functions of destination brochures are to attract customers (visitors) to the
destination, and to introduce customers to the advertisers who fund the brochure.
Both functions are very important although too often the second function can be over
looked.
What is of paramount importance is the need to make destination brochures thoroughly
comprehensive. Many customers and travel industry contacts judge the appeal of a
destination by the contents of a destination brochure. If the range of reasons to visit and
range of accommodation choices are only a small percentage of the total range of options
available, customers can form an adverse impression and business can be lost to the
destination
Trade press
Travel week and Travel Trade
These are the two leading national travel publications read widely by in the travel
industry. For destinations and tourism businesses that rely on business from travel agents,
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they can be very effective for announcing marketing initiatives or reminding travel
consultants about the destination or individual tourism and travel products.
Radio Packages
Advertising on radio can prove effective. Normally the radio station will offer a ―run of
station‖ package of say 25 x 30 sec commercials (advertisements) for a set price. These
are spread over a variety of programs to reach a wide audience. This would be the
minimum size package to have any impact. Desirably there should be other marketing
activities to support these commercials.
TV
Metropolitan TV Like radio, TV stations like to offer packages. Metropolitan TV is
beyond the budget of many regional destinations and tourism businesses. Cost of
producing the TV advertisements also calls for an additional budget.
Regional TV With regional TV, stations like to offer packages and in some instances
include the production costs for the commercial. Some regional stations offer very
attractive low cost packages. However such packages can prove to be a waste of money if
there are no bookings forthcoming.
Cable TV This is an emerging advertising medium and may be worth considering if the
advertising rates are attractive. However any assessment of advertising on cable TV
should be the same as for TV shown above. Also the TV commercial needs to be of a very
high standard.
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Cinema
Cinema commercials can be effective for destination marketing. Apart from the cost of
producing a professional standard commercial suitable for cinema screens, this can
sometimes be a cost/effective means of reaching a wide audience. Again any assessment
needs to consider the films that are being shown, number of people in audiences, the
demographics and whether the cinema is in a target market.
Internet
The Internet is already a force to be recognized in terms of tourism marketing.
Considerable numbers of customers are using this facility to learn about tourism
destinations and products.
4.6 ADVERTISING HAS CHANGED
In recent times advertising strategies have changed. In the ―old days‖ the practice was to
rely on mass media motivating customers to make purchases to achieve marketing
objectives. In the ―old days‖ the choice for advertisers was largely morning and afternoon
city newspapers, TV and radio. Today there are no afternoon newspapers but there are
more ―free-to-air‖ TV channels and cable TV. ―Free-to-air‖ TV has become so expensive
that even some State Tourism Organisations are unable to fund TV advertising and have
turned to cable TV, cinema advertising and other means to communicate with their
markets. In the ―old days‖, advertising was used to reach a broad range of people usually
to promote a destination or product. Today, tourism uses targeted advertising which is far
more cost/effective where generation of business is the priority.
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A major new development has been the introduction of the Internet. It‘s widespread use by
customers and the travel industry in major markets in Australia and overseas has had a
dramatic impact for tourism. Consumer media is increasingly directing customers to
contact their website to access further information and to make purchases. This
development is seriously under-estimated by large numbers of regional tourism
organisations and businesses - to their detriment. Anecdotal evidence from regional
tourism businesses with their own website is that commercial benefit has been so
significant they would not be without this new medium.
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CHAPTER 5
ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE
OF THOMAS COOK
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CHAPTER V
Organisational Profile of Thomas Cook
5.1 The History
Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, founded
the travel agency that is now Thomas Cook Group. The History of Thomas Cook Travel
The name Thomas Cook is synonymous with affordable, worldwide travel, but this hard-
working English cabinet-maker did not start out to popularize tourism for the middle
class. His initial goal was to boost attendance at temperance meetings. Walking in the
northern English countryside in the middle of the 19th century, the 32-year-old devout
Baptist had a flash of inspiration when he realized the growing railway system could be
used to carry large numbers of fellow temperance advocates to a regional gathering. The
success of that first outing evolved into today's worldwide travel company.
Inspiration
1. Thomas Cook was a religious man who believed alcohol was a scourge,
particularly among working men and women in England, and that temperance coupled
with education would benefit working people and English society. Once he saw how
popular his first railway excursion--500 temperance advocates paid a shilling to make a
12-mile railway trip--he realized affordable group travel could expand their horizons.
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The Birth of Middle Class Tourism
2. Initially, Cook used the group travel concept to move temperance advocates to
mass meetings. In 1845, Cook ran his first profit-making, low-cost leisure outing to
Liverpool, quickly expanding his business venture with trips to neighboring Wales and
Scotland. In 1851, 150,000 Cook customers from England's industrial north rode the train
to London to see the Great Exhibition. Four years later, Cook began offering overseas
trips to Europe.
Worldwide Travel
3. Cook's son, John Mason Cook, joined the family business in 1864. A year later,
founder Thomas Cook was exploring and expanding his company's presence in the
United States. An inveterate traveler himself, Thomas Cook also led a small group of
travelers to China and the Far East, quickly establishing a new Cook innovation: the
guided world tour. He also was instrumental in the introduction of the traveler's check.
Patriotic Service
4. The Victorian world was riveted in 1884 by a rebellion in Sudan and famed
British Gen. Charles Gordon was dispatched to Africa to bring the region back under
British control. The government turned to Cook to plan and execute the logistics, moving
18,000 men and 140,000 tons of supplies to the staging area. Cook fulfilled his mission,
but Gordon died a year later under siege in Khartoum.
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Innovation and Growth
5. Cook and his son died in the 1890s, but his three grandsons ran the company and
continued to innovate. They embraced air travel and expanded adventure travel in Africa,
including one continent-wide five-month trip that included a month-long safari.
Somewhat unexpectedly, Cook's two surviving grandsons sold the company in 1928 to
the Belgian Wagons-Lits travel company, which owned the famed Orient Express train.
When Paris fell to the Germans in World War II, the Wagons-Lits Paris headquarters was
closed and the British government assumed ownership of Cooks.
Modern Travel
6. The Thomas Cook travel company revived after the war and passed to a series of
private and then publicly traded companies, including American Express at one point.
The company continued to innovate, buying airplanes, expanding its publishing
company, operating high street agencies in England, offering travel insurance and
financial services, developing a television travel channel and establishing an online
presence.
Worldwide Affordability
7. The legendary company--the second largest travel company in the United
Kingdom with 19,000 employees--emphasizes its worldwide presence, affordability and
comprehensive travel services with its slogan: "Don't just book it ... Thomas Cook it."
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5.2 Thomas Cook Group
The name Thomas Cook is synonymous with affordable, worldwide travel, but this hard-
working English cabinet-maker did not start out to popularize tourism for the middle
class. His initial goal was to boost attendance at temperance meetings. Walking in the
northern English countryside in the middle of the 19th century, the 32-year-old devout
Baptist had a flash of inspiration when he realized the growing railway system could be
used to carry large numbers of fellow temperance advocates to a regional gathering. The
success of that first outing evolved into today's worldwide travel company.
Thomas Cook is the world‘s best-known name in travel, thanks to the inspiration and
dedication of a single man. Thomas Cook began his international travel company in
1841, with a successful one-day rail excursion at a shilling a head from Leicester to
Loughborough on 5 July. From these humble beginnings Thomas Cook launched a whole
new kind of company – devoted to helping Britons see the world.
5.3 Thomas Cook Today
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. is the largest integrated Travel and Travel related Financial
Services Company in the country offering a broad spectrum of services that include
Foreign Exchange, Corporate Travel, Leisure Travel, and Insurance. The Company
launched its Indian operations in 1881 and is celebrating its 127 years of world-class
service in India. Thomas Cook (India) operates in the following areas of business,
namely: Leisure Travel, Corporate Travel Management, MICE, Foreign Exchange,
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SWIFT Network, Travel Insurance, Credit Cards, Pre-Paid Cards, Life Insurance
and E-Business.
TCIL presently operates in over 72 cities across over 180 locations. The company has
overseas operations in Sri Lanka which is a branch of TCIL and Mauritius which is a
subsidiary of Thomas Cook (India). The Company employs over 2,200 resources and is
listed on both the Bombay Stock Exchange as well as the National Stock Exchange.
Today, Thomas Cook UK & Ireland is the second largest leisure travel group in the UK
with around 19,000 employees. It is now part of Thomas Cook plc
(www.thomascookgroup.com) which was formed on June 19th 2007 by the merger of
Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc.
Thomas Cook UK & Ireland today operates a fleet of 45 aircraft, has a network of more
than 800 high street stores (Thomas Cook and Going Places), leading websites
(www.thomascook.com and www.mytravel.com), its own television channel Thomas
Cook TV (Sky channel 645) and some of the world's favourite travel brands. These
brands include Airtours, Club 18-30, Bridge, Cresta, Cruise Thomas Cook, Direct
Holidays, Flexible trips, flythomascook.com, Latitude, Manos, Neilson, Panorama, Style
Holidays, Sunset, Sunworld Holidays, Thomas Cook, Thomas Cook Signature, Thomas
Cook Sport and Tradewinds. The company's airline, Thomas Cook Airlines, flies from
various regional airports to destinations worldwide.
Thomas Cook offers a range of financial services, including foreign exchange at
competitive rates, the Thomas Cook Credit Card in conjunction with Barclaycard, the
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cash passport and a wide range of travel insurance policies. It is the only major travel
company to be FSA regulated for its travel insurance, which is underwritten by AXA.
The company also owns White Horse Insurance Ireland Ltd.
One reason for the company's longevity and continued success is its commitment to
providing exceptional service. Thomas Cook once described himself as 'the willing and
devoted servant of the travelling public'. Today, more than 160 years after his pioneering
excursion, these words remain a fitting epithet to the company he founded.
5.4 Sponsorship
Thomas Cook is a main sponsor of Manchester City and Peterborough United football
clubs. On May 22, 2009, Manchester City announced that the six-year partnership with
Thomas Cook would conclude at the end of the 2008/09 Premier League Season. Thomas
Cook has become a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics. As one of the UK's biggest
and most popular providers of package holidays, Thomas Cook has been appointed to
provide "affordable and accessible" holidays and accommodation throughout the games.
Thomas Cook's CEO commented: "More than a century after Thomas Cook escorted
British travelers to the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, it is a privilege to
once again have the chance to give British families and sports fans the opportunity to
experience such a rare and special event in their own country".
5.5 Thomas Cook India Limited (TCIL)
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd is the largest Travel and Financial Services Company in the
country offering a broad spectrum of travel-related services that include Foreign
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Exchange, Corporate Travel, Leisure Travel, and Insurance. The Company launched its
Indian operations in 1881 and is celebrating its 125 years of world-class service in India.
Thomas Cook (India) Limited- National Network TCIL has offices in Mumbai, Pune,
New Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Agra, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Baroda,
Bhubhaneshwar, Chennai, Cochin, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kolkata,
Trivandrum and Vishakhapatnam. TCIL has Foreign Exchange Counters at the
international airports of Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Cochin and Trivandrum,
open 24 hours and 365 days a year to cater to the needs of the international and domestic
traveler. TCIL also has a round-the clock Foreign Exchange counter at the New Delhi
Railway Station.
Thomas Cook India Ltd recently launched a premium holidays brand - 100% Holidays.
The new brand would offer international group holidays segment as well as for the
customized individual holidays products. With 100% Holidays Thomas Cook India will
strengthen its position in the outbound leisure travel business; the new brand will operate
as a product brand under the corporate Thomas Cook India brand
Thomas Cook (India) effectively "manages" the travel budgets of several large national
and multinational companies. For personalised service at corporate doorsteps, Thomas
Cook sets up 'On-sites', which are CRS-linked and offers comprehensive end to end
travel solutions. Thomas Cook (India) Ltd is a leading foreign exchange provider and
offers a wide range of innovative products and services. These include Global Money
Card, a pin protected pre-paid card which enables travellers to withdraw local currency
from more than 1 million VISA ATMS and use the card for goods and services at over 22
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million VISA Merchant Establishments; Wire transfers of funds worldwide. Thomas
Cook (India), over the years has received several prestigious awards such as the Golden
Peacock Award for excellence in Corporate Governance and the Pacific Asia Travel
Association (PATA) Golden Award for Best Travel. Recently, the Company won the
Best Tour Operator at the CNBC Awaaz Travel Awards 2008 and was also accredited the
P1 rating which is the highest financial rating given by Crisil.
5.6 AWARDS
Thomas Cook (India), over the years has received several prestigious awards such as the
Golden Peacock Award for excellence in Corporate Governance and the Pacific Asia
Travel Association (PATA) Golden Award for Best Travel. Recently, the Company
also won the Best MICE Operator Award and was also accredited the P1 rating which
is the highest financial rating given by Crisil.
Recently, Thomas Cook has been awarded the 'Best Tour Operator' by CNBC Awaaz
Travel Awards for the Second time in a row and the 'Best Forex Company in India' by
CNBC Awaaz Travel Awards 2009.
 Best Travel Agency Award 2004 given by TTG Asia - Part of Pacific Asia
Travel Association (PATA) for the 5th year in succession.
 The Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance, for the
second time in a row. The Criteria for this award are transparency, excellence in
conducting business, various levels of management, social and environmental
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responsibility, ethical business practice and Consistent creation of value for all the
stakeholders.
 The National Tourism Award for 2001-2002 & 2002-2003, winning the second
rank in category 1 for the company that achieved the highest foreign exchange earnings
from Ministry of Tourism.
 National Tourism Award - Best MICE Operator 2006-07
 National Tourism Award - 3rd prize Inbound Operator 2006-07
 The Association of Business Communications of India (ABCI) where the
company won the first prize for its website - www.thomascook.co.in
 Awarded "The Best Outbound & Inbound Tour Operator of the Year" award
at the Hospitality India Awards 2006 hosted by Hospitality India.
 Recipient of the prestigious Government of India Ministry of Tourism award for
"Excellence in Conference Tourism"
 Best Travel Agency - India for the year 2008 by TTG Asia - Part of
Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)
 Best Tour Operator by CNBC Awaaz in 2008
 Best Outbound Tour Operator in the 4th Hospitality India & Explore the world
Annual International Awards - 2008
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Advertising portfolio
of Thomas Cook
111
Thomas Cook produced a newspaper, Cook's Exhibition Herald and Excursion
Advertiser, in order to promote his tours. By the end of the season Thomas had taken
150,000 people to London, his final trains to the Exhibition carrying 3,000 children from
Leicester, Nottingham and Derby.
Great Exhibition of 1851
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1903
Thomas Cook & Son issues its first winter sports brochure.
1922
Thomas Cook & Son organises the first tour to cover the whole length of the African
continent. The tour lasts five months and includes a one-month safari.
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Thomas Cook & Son Cruise -1925 Supreme Cruise (1924)
This paper cruise ad, taken from a 1924 magazine, is for Thos. Cook & Sons and lists dates
of departure for both the Franconia and the Homeric ships for the Cruises Supreme 1925 .
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1939
Holidays by air on specially chartered aircraft to the French Riviera are included in Cook's
summer brochure for the first time.
Marking a legacy, 2009
A luxury tour of Europe 2009 celebrated the 200th anniversary of Thomas Cook’s
birth. A 34-day round-the-world trip is arranged to commemorate this occasion, and a re-
enactment of the first railway excursion from Leicester to Loughborough
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FEW LATEST BROCHURES
116
CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION
117
CHAPTER VII
Conclusion
7.1 CONCLUSION
Advertising has become part of producers‘ lives to win consumers‘ hearts. A product
needs an effective advertisement to attract people and make good competition. There are
different types of approaches advertisers use to attract the buyer to the product.
Advertising is an investment in your business, similar to other investments to improve
and expand your business. Advertising is a way of bringing information to people. Some
adverts inform people about meeting or event‘s. However, according to Thomas Cook
most advertisements are from companies that make goods or provide services and the
core function of advertisements in tour operation companies is to tell people about the
tourism products and services they have to offer. Nowadays, advertising is a very big
business. Very often is the major means of competing among firms. Furthermore,
supporters of advertising claim that it brings specific benefits for consumers.
Thomas Cook claims that advertising provides information to consumers about the
quality or the availability of several products. Advertising is of great importance in the
present world of competition. It is important for both seller as well as the buyer. Even the
government cannot do without it. Thomas Cook believes that it is through advertising that
the company offers new packages and services to the general public.
118
The company utilizes advertising to introduce different services of the company.
Advertisement tells about qualities of each brand and we can easily select. Company also
advertises its latest schemes and initiatives undertaken and maintains a transparency
which in turn promotes the company‘s brand image.
Creating an impulse in potential customers to purchase the product is very important
when it comes to advertising. The company believes that it is the responsibility of every
advertising and marketing company to create new strategies in order to promote their
products. They can also use old ones, but give them a certain twist so they would look
original. In the realm of advertising and marketing, the fresh and exciting advertisements
always get the greatest deal of attention.
When this happens, the packages and services featured by the advertisements spark the
curiosity of people, leading them to try out. Imitating advertising styles may work for the
first few times but not in the long run. Inconsistent advertising just does not allow your
business to grow; while scatter shot advertising is a waste of time, effort and money.
Thomas Cook makes sure that their advertisements are not boring and unappealing but
telling people exactly what they are offering.
Advertising is a very important aspect of tour operation business as it can either make it
or break it.
119
BIBLIOGRAPHY
120
References:
1. Advertising – Franc Jefkins, Mc Millan, New Delhi
2. Advertising – B. N. Ahuja, Surjeet, New Delhi
3. Advertising Management - Rajeev Batra, JohnGMyres, David A Aaker
4. Belch. G, Belch. M., (1995) Introduction to advertising and promotion: an
integrated marketing communications perspective, 3rd Ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston
5. Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S. (2003), Principles Of Marketing, 3 rd Edition,
Prentice Hall, London
6. Copley, P. (2002), Marketing Communications Management, UK, Elsevier
Butterworth-Heinemann.
7. Fill, C. (2002), Marketing Communications - Contexts, Strategies and
Applications, 3rd Edition, UK, Prentice Hall.
8. Hart, N. (1990), The Practice of Advertising, 3 rd Ed, Oxford, Elsevier
Butterworth-Heinemann.
9. Huey, B. (1999), Advertising double Helix: A proposed new process model,
Journal of Advertising Research.
10. Jobber, D. (1995), Principles and Practice of Marketing, UK, McGraw-Hill.
11. Jobber, D. (2000), Principles and Practice of Marketing, 3rd Edition, UK,
McGraw-Hill.
121
12. Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2000), Marketing: An Introduction, 5 th Edition,
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
13. Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2006), Principles of Marketing, 11th Edition, Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
14. Kotler, P. (2006), Marketing Management, 12th Edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
15. Moriarty, S. taken from Huey, B. (1999), Advertising‘s double Helix: A proposed
new process model, Journal of Advertising Research.
16. Peter, J. and Olson, J. (2005), Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Strategy, 7 th
Edition, UK, McGraw-Hill.
17. Ratchford, B. (1987), New Insights About The FCB Grid, Journal of Advertising
Research.
18. Wilson, R. (2004), Which Brand has the Best Advertising? Honda, Creative
Review.
19. Brackett, L. K. and Carr, B. N.(2001). Cyberspaces advertising vs. other media:
Consumers vs. mature student attitudes. Journal of Advertising Research, 41(5),
pp.23-32.
20. Chang, Y. and Thorson, E. (2004). Television and web advertising synergies.
Journal of Advertising 33(2), pp.75-84.
122
21. Calisir, F (2003). Web advertising v.s. other media: young consumers‘ view.
Internet Research 13(5), pp.356-363.
22. Leong, E. K. F., Huang X. L., and Stannners, P. J. (1998). Comparing the
effectiveness of the web site with traditional media. Journal f Advertising
Research, 38(5), pp.44-49
23. Hackley. C., (2005) Advertising and Promotion: communicating brands, SAGE,
London.
24. Mackay. A., (2005) The practice of Advertising, 5th Ed, Elsevier Butterworth-
Heinemann.
25. Palda, K.S. (1966), The hypothesis of a hierarchy of effects: a partial evaluation,
Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 3 No.13, pp.13-24.
26. Lavidge. R. J, Steiner. G. A., (1961) A model of predictive measurement of
advertising effectiveness, Journal of Marketing, 52, p. 59-62
27. Hackley. C., (2005) Advertising and Promotion: communicating brands, SAGE,
London.
28. Brierley. S (2002) The Advertising Handbook, Routledge, London: UK
29. www.thomascook.co.in
30. www.thomascook.co.uk
123

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Role of Advertisements in Tour Operations

THE ROLE OF ADVERTISEMENTS IN TOUR

Project Report submitted by

In partial fulfillment for the award of degree of Master of Business

Administration Travel and Tourism, (MBA T &T ) University of Kerala

Under the guidance of

Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies

This is to certify that this is a bonafied record of project work entitled

“The Role of Advertisements in Tour Operations- A Study on Thomas

Cook India Limited” done by Miss. Jyotsna S. of MBA –fourth semester

under my guidance and supervision during the year 2010 in partial

fulfillment for the award of Master of Business Administration- Travel and

Tourism (MBA- T&T) by University of Kerala.

Trivandrum (IRPS, Director)

I hereby declare that the dissertation entitled

―The Role of Advertisements in Tour Operating Companies- A

Study on Thomas Cook India Limited” is a genuine record of data

and information collected by me under the guidance of Shri. V

RAJEEVAN, IRPS and submitted to University of Kerala in partial

fulfillment of the requirements of Master of Business Administration

(Travel and Tourism).

Date 4th SEMESTER, MBA

It is a great pleasure to acknowledge my sincere thanks to my guide, Shri. V.

Rajeevan, IRPS, Director-Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel studies,

Trivandrum, who consistently provided me encouragement, valuable insight and

patience, thoroughness and expertise helped me in completing the project.

I express my sincere thanks to Mr. M. Gopakumar, Senior Manager, Leisure

Travel – Inbound, Thomas Cook ( India) Limited, Kovalam for providing

necessary data and information, needed to complete my project.

My special thanks to Mr. R. Babu (faculty KITTS), pursuing Ph.D. (Eco-

tourism) from Kerala University, for his continuous encouragement, valuable

suggestions, guidance and support for completing the project.

persons who have helped me directly or indirectly in completing my dissertation.

1.2 Structure of Project 3

1.3 Objective of the Project 4

1.4 Area of study 4

1.5 Scope and Significance of study 5

2.1 The concept and definition 7

2.2 Tools of advertising 11

2.3 Advertising purpose, appeal and message strategies 14

2.4 Role of advertising in marketing mix 15

2.5 Advertising and Elements of marketing mix 16

2.6 The promotional mix 18

2.7 Sales promotion 23

2.7.1 Meaning of Promotion 23

2.7.2 Two types of promotion blends/strategy 24

2.8 Promotion and Sales promotion 25

2.9 Sales promotion and Advertising 26

2.9.1 Objective of sales promotion 26

2.9.2 Sales promotion at different levels 27

2.10.1 Brand Image 31

2.10.2 Importance of Brand name 33

2.11 Importance of Brand name 35

2.12 Advertising Communication System 38

3.2 Features of Advertising 45

3.3 Objective of advertising 47

3.4 Functions of Advertising 49

3.5 Significance of Advertising 52

3.6 Types of Advertising 54

3.7 Media of Advertisement 60

3.8 Active participants in Advertising 66

3.9 Choice of Advertising media 69

3.10 The future of advertising 71