Critically analyze the impact of price promotion strategies on consumer’s perceived value in the travel industry of UK (GC01398)
Research Proposal
Research Title: Critically analyze the impact of price promotion strategies on consumer’s perceived value in the travel industry of the UK
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction.
1.1 Research Background.
1.2 Research Problems.
1.3 Research aims and objectives.
Aims.
Objectives.
1.4 Research questions.
2.0 Literature review/ theoretical framework.
2.1 What is promotional strategy?.
2.2 Factors that are considered in promotional strategies development
2.3 Promotional strategies applied in the travel industry.
2.4 Consumer’s perceived values.
2.5 Impact of promotional strategies on consumer perceived values.
2.6 Conceptual framework.
3.0 Methodologies.
3.1 Research philosophy.
3.2 Research design.
3.3 Research approach.
3.4 Data collection methods.
3.5 Data sources.
3.5 Research instruments.
3.6 Questionnaire design.
3.7 Sampling techniques.
3.8 Data analysis techniques.
3.9 Research ethics.
4.0 Research Timetable.
5.0 Conclusion.
6.0 Reference.
1.0 Introduction
Promotional strategies are now widely used in the current business world as marketing strategies. According to Bradley (2016), promotional strategies as marketing strategies help a business in the marketing plan, understanding customers and clients, strategic planning, and developing financial goals. Most importantly, the promotional strategies used by marketers target to achieve consumer perceived values. This paper develops a research proposal, where the proposed study will critically analyze the impact of promotional strategies on consumer perceived value in the travel industry of the UK. This paper mainly includes four key sections. The first section outlines proposed research backgrounds, research problems, research aims and objectives, and research questions. The second part of this paper conducts a critical literature review on the proposed research topic and subjective matters. The third part outlines the methodologies for the proposed research work. Finally, the fourth section outlines the research timetable.
1.1 Research Background
The travel and tourism industry is one of the biggest industries in the current world. According to Sharpley (2016), it is the fastest growing industry. Evans, Campbell and George (2013) said, people nowadays spend on average 5%-10% of their total income. Beaver, A. (2015) stated the travel industry is now creating one job within 2.4 seconds and earning around £3 trillion in a year. Therefore, markets in the travel industry are now more focusing on selling strategies to attract their target and potential customers than ever before (Sharpley, 2016). Kotler et al. (2015) said marketers (including UK travel marketers) in the current competitive business world are now taking the term ‘price and promotional’ issue seriously. Therefore, the marketers in the travel industry are applying several promotional strategies to attract their target customers and achieve consumer perceived values. According to Kotler et al. (2015), promotional strategies refer to the strategies that focus on the choice of the target market as well as the formulation of an effective promotional mix to influence the customer buying behavior. Palmer (2016) said promotional strategy can be advertising and discounts used by marketers to attract their customers and promote their products or services to particular market segments. Bradely (2016) said promotion strategies are not only used to gain consumer perceived value, but these strategies are also used to develop an effective marketing plan, understand choices, develop financial goals of the business, and make effective strategic planning for the business.
On the other hand, it is essential for the marketers in travel understory to gain customer perceived value. According to Kokemuller (2016), customer perceived value is related to marketing and branding that focuses on how customers are satisfied with the particular products or services, or how marketers meet the needs and expectations of their customers with their products or services. According to Kotler et al. (2015), it is essential for marketers to know value propositions to understand customer perceived value. Palmer (2016) defied the value proposition as the comparison of benefits (mainly related to prices) offered by-products to the customers. Kotler et al. (2015) also said it is crucial for marketers to conduct market research on a regular basis to understand customer perceived value. The research can be done through focus groups, test markets, surveys, and other market research tools. Johnson et al. (2015) said, if marketers fail to develop effective and efficient promotional strategies, they will fail to gain consumer perceived value. Rather, ineffective and inefficient promotional strategies may affect brand perception, brand awareness, brand loyalty. On the other hand, as Kotler et al. (2015) note, if marketers fail to understand the customer’s perceived values, they will fail to understand the customer changing needs and expectations. Ultimately, marketers will fail to meet their organizational goals and objectives. Therefore, it is very crucial for marketers in the travel industry to understand the promotional strategies and their effects on the consumer perceived value.
1.2 Research Problems
Organizations, mainly in the travel and tourism industry, in the current business world face great challenges from their competitors (Victor, Fyall, Morgan and Ranchhold, 2012). It has also been a challenging issue for organizations in the travel industry to understand consumer perceived value (Sharpley, 2016). This is because the travel and tourism industry is closely connected to hotels, air travel, bus and railway. In addition, fixing product and service pricing of products and services in this industry depends on competitor pricing strategies, local and international government rules and regulation, seasonality, destination, geographic locations, and customer changing buying behavior (Victor, Fyall, Morgan and Ranchhold, 2012). Therefore, marketers face difficulties to define the pricing of their products and services and understand the perceived values of their customers (Ives, 2015).
In addition, customer service is also a factor in the UK travel industry to gain high customer perceive value. This is because customers in this industry look for quicker responses than other industries. The study shows 70% of customers in this industry prefer web-based services, rather than email and other services because web-based services offer fast response times. The technology used in the travel industry is also a factor because 85% of travelers use smartphones abroad and 30% of travelers use mobile apps to find out hotels and tourist destinations (Doyle, 2014). On the other hand, the UK travel industry is now facing challenges. The main challenges are coming from access to and cost of finance, economically or politically risky destinations, new regulations by the government, taxes and capacity, and economic and currency fluctuation (Eye For Travel, 2016). According to Nand (2016), taxation issues, emerging markets, UK airport expansion, and UK holidaymakers are giving hard time to the travel and tourism industry…………