Enhancing reach for an online travel agency through effective targeting and product positioning

• Main Author: Valenzuela, Mark Daniel P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Travel agencies; Electronic commerce; Business; Marketing
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/7037
• Institution: De La Salle University

One of the major challenges in the survival of start-up businesses is to come up with products that people want to buy. This problem is magnified by not having a defined target, which makes it more difficult to sell to a market that will be interested in its offerings. In today’s competitive e- commerce environment, reaching a specific audience is even harder as virtually everyone else is online. In this study, the business owner of Navzilla Travel & Tours collaborated with the company’s finance and marketing managers to solve the basic but essential issue of having to redefine a target market, and repositioning product mix to gain more engagements. Over the course of Navzilla Travel & Tours’ annual and mid-year reviews, the owner (action researcher) observed that several tours were not performing despite being advertised and promoted similarly with the best sellers. The issue became more evident when costs have piled up in an effort to make relatable social media content to everyone and, despite continuous marketing campaigns, some tour packages did not generate expected returns. Taking a step back, the action researcher and his collaborators studied the demographics and behaviors of their followers, and the performance of their online advertising efforts, to better understand their interests. Guided by Kotler & Keller’s Marketing Mix Model, the Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning Model, and the adaptation of Tibon’s Push Motivation Model for the Filipino Youth, the action researcher and his collaborators were able to narrow down the company’s target market, and reposition the company’s offerings specific to the travel motivations of the Y and Z generation, which enhanced the business’ reach and engagement rate and have made actual bookings from implementing learning from marketing theories.