Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency- Touroperator Above the sky & 70 other destionations

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Table of content

Motivation ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Problem statement: ................................................................................................................................ 3 Research question: .............................................................................................................................. 4 Sub-questions: ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Interpretation .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Scope ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Project type: ........................................................................................................................................ 5

Structure and theories: ....................................................................................................................... 6 Data collection..................................................................................................................................... 7 Criticism ................................................................................................................................................... 8 Internal analysis....................................................................................................................................... 8 Company Profile &History ................................................................................................................... 8 Business portfolio .............................................................................................................................. 10 Conclusion on the business portfolio ............................................................................................ 13 Porters Generic Competitive Strategy.............................................................................................. 13 Growth Strategies.............................................................................................................................. 14 Financial Brief .................................................................................................................................... 14 External analysis .................................................................................................................................... 14 Pest analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Customer analysis.............................................................................................................................. 16 Marketing mix ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Product strategy: ............................................................................................................................... 20 Price strategy: .................................................................................................................................... 20 Place strategy: ................................................................................................................................... 21 Survey analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 22 Suggestions............................................................................................................................................ 23 Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................................ 24 List of sources ........................................................................................................................................ 25

Z(s)eppelinUtazsiIroda Touroperator

Motivation
I decided to do my internship at a travel agency in Hungary. The agency is named Z(s)eppelinUtazsiIroda Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency Tour operator in the period of AprilJune, 2012. During these 3 months, I gained a lot of knowledge about tourism, how the industry works, and how is the day-to-day life and working process in this company. In this project I am going to introduce my host company, find a problem I can work with, find a solution and give suggestions to the problem I am working with. My interest to the travel industry and tour operator agencies is still exist, therefore it was obvious I want to work with this field in my project. As I had a really great time with my host company considering the working process, the team work and the atmosphere; it is my pleasure to help them with this project also. I would like to give reliable data, sources, and suggestions to them and for the reader also. The reason why I decided to make a marketing plan is that I think that nowadays one of the most important activity that has an influence on the sales is the marketing campaign. Of course, in Z(s)eppelins case it also really depends on their frequent travellers and the experiences they have. But to reach new customers who are willing to travel, they have to find tools that are easy to use to deliver the message and aware them about the company and their tours, offers. As I have studied marketing management as my AP course, I hope that I have relevant knowledge for such a project.

Problem statement:
During my internship, my colleagues and I tried to find a problem that is relevant to my studies. We came up with many ideas, and found one, that should have been solved a long time ago, but they did not really know how to start it. Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency realized that their marketing campaign they are using might not be that effective as expected, and they cannot reach a great number of their target group. They are now hesitating and do not know where to go, what to do, what marketing tools should be applied in order to have a better campaign.

This issue, the marketing is very important to such a company, where the main goal is to reach and attract more and more people. If their marketing activity is poor, nobody will pay attention to this travel agency, people will not have the basic knowledge and later, the desire to participate in their tours.

Research question:
What marketing plan should be used by Z(s)eppelin Tour operator when introducing their new cultural tours in 2013?

Sub-questions:
1. What are the most important internal factors that are influencing the structure of the program for the new / existing tours? 2. How can we describe the competitors in the travel industry, who are Z(s)eppelins strategic competitors and how competitive they are? 3. Which external factors have negative effect on the sales? 4. Who are Z(s)eppelins target group? What are the characteristics of them? 5. What kind of marketing activities did Z(s)eppelin do in the past two years (2011-12) and how effective can we mea sure them? 6.What marketing / media should Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency use after issuing their new catalog for the season of 2013 spring/summer? By working with these questions, I will mainly focus on the marketing activities and marketing tools. Doing investigations, finding solutions and giving recommendation to my host company, I can help them reaching a greater number of their possible passengers.

Interpretation
Here I would like to go a bit deeper into my research- and sub-questions, and explain what I mean by them, but first of all, to make sure the reader will have a clear understanding about the name of the company, I would like to mention that after most of the company names in Hungary, you can see KFT. That is equal to LTD. Please notice that all the prices listed below are given in HUF, Hungarian Forint. Regarding the average currency ratio: 1DKK=40 HUF, so if the reader wish to know the prices in Danish Krone, please multiply the amount with 40. Under marketing plan, I mean a detailed list of marketing, advertising activities that they
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should do in the given year, in 2013. For this, I will first make a market researchAs there are many internal and external factors that are influencing a marketing plan, I will use several models to see what does really affect it and how. I decided to choose the first coming season to work with, 2013. Z(s)eppelin is going to release their new catalog for the season of 2013 Summer-Autumn in January 2013.After releasing and posting the new catalog they can already start their marketing activities in February. For sub-question number 2, I would like to analyze the whole industry and take out the most successful company and work with them. Afterwards, narrowing them down, and write about the strategic competitors, meaning those companies who are also selling cultural-round trips. To answer my questions regarding the internal factors, I will take a look at their financials, the business portfolio and Porters Generic strategies. Under external factors, and their affects I mean customers, competitors, political factors, so I can see how these affect the sales of Z(s)eppelinKft, if there are threats, how to overcome them.

Scope
When it comes about how the project is done, I have to mention my host company, as I receive a lot of data and information from them. My second help is the internet by doing desk research I will try to find as many data as possible that I can use for the external factors. My third information source are the passengers who decided to travel with Z(s)eppelinKft. The disadvantage of my project can be the change of the trends among the passengers, as it is hard to follow from one day to another. Normally it takes a couple of months to realize if there is a change, so my suggestions cannot be used in those cases. As we are talking about the whole country, potential customers, there are also different trends among regions. For example, it might be a good idea to have a different marketing campaing in the capital, in Budapest, than in the country-side.

Methodology
Project type:
As I would like to give suggestions to Z(s)eppelin Kft about the future marketing activities, it will bring up some changes in their current activities. Therefore the project type is change / implementation oriented.

Structure and theories:

First of all, I would like to introduce the company, the profile of it, how it works, what they are doing, and the history, how they improved to their current business so the reader can have an overall knowledge about the company activities. After the presentation of the company, I will make a business portfolio, where I will categorize the tours by countries, and place them in the BCG matrix. So we can see which tours, destinations are the favorite ones among the passengers, and which ones are those that might not be worth to operate. Porters generic strategy will be examined in order to see what strategy Z(s)eppelinKft. is using in order to be competitive on the market. Growth strategy will be examined to see on what type of market they are working and with what kind of products. This helps me to make the company profile more precise. A financial brief will be given, done, in order to see how the company has performed in the last years; where they are now, and what to expect from the next year. Moving into the external analysis, we will see those factors that influence the companys performance and the sales, and the company cannot really influence them, but by making a good plan, they might be able to overcome them. With the PEST model I will list the political, economic, social and technological factors that influence the sales and the operations. For the industry analysis I will use Porters 5 forces, therefore I can see how hard it is to enter the market, what are the barriers and the competitive rivalry within the industry. One of the most important external factors are Z(s)eppelins passengers. We have to know who are our customers, what are their needs, what is their background, where they are coming from. Therefore a general customer analysis and also a 7O analysis will be done. To build up a reliable marketing strategy, we have to see what are the strengths and the weaknesses of the company, just as we have to see the opportunities and the threats that come from the external factors. Either we can go for the opportunities or find out something to avoid the threats. Therefore a SWOT and a TOWS model will be done to summarize these options. Marketing objectives and financial objectives will be set in order to see where we want to go, what we want to reach. As we have the needed information about the industry and our (potential) customers, we can segment, target and position them in the positioning map. For this, the STP model will be used. Continuing my analysis for the project and to answer my last sub-question I will use the marketing mix, but the extended version that includes 7P as we are talking about a service company. When I described the product, place, price, people, physical evidence and the
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process, I will go into deep details about the promotion. This is the most important part of the whole project, as this will help me find the best tools and channels to communicate the customers. Afterwards the implementation of action plan and a brief budget will be done, and I will finish my project with the conclusion of the project. This is how the structured project will look like: Sub-question 1: Financial analysis + survey + feedbacks + statistics Sub-question 2: Industry analysis + competitors analysis + strategic competitors analysis Sub-question 3: PEST + industry analysis + competitors analysis Sub-question 4: Customer analysis + 7 O framework Sub-question 5: Field research + interview with the marketing assistant and the director + statistics Sub-question 6: Customer analysis + marketing mix + survey + desk research

Data collection
To solve the above mentioned problem, I had to apply field and desk research as well. Regarding to my research question, it turns out that the best and easiest way to find the answers is to make a questionnaire or to use one. For the internal analyses I only used the company history, company profile, to give an understandable picture to the reader, where I did my industrial placement and understand the main concept of the company. I also interviewed and had a lot of conversation with my boss, so I could gather more data, for example the financials, the number of passengers of the last years. This was a field research where I collected quantitative primary data. To answer my research question and sub questions I rather used models to do some part of the external analyses. These models will be introduced later on in this chapter. To collect data for the external factors part, I used secondary data collected by desk research. When it comes about the grading of the currently used methods and describing them, I used the companys own statistics, meaning desk research and primary data. I could easily see the different periods, when they were advertising in different ways, how many clicks did they get, how many people looked at Z(s)eppelins website and on the bookings as well. Answering the question about the possible marketing media tools, communication channels, I mainly used the internet to find suggestions, recommendations. Therefore, it was also desk

research, but in this case I was working with secondary data. In the office we also used to do brainstorming about the possible and best ways for advertising. Getting back to the research question, the real problem, the best way to answer it is a survey. This gives the best feedback, all the answer got from there gives the best recommendation and suggestion for the company. Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency already has a questionnaire, its always the same, they didnt change anything in the last few years. I would say, in a way it is old-fashioned, also might be frustrating to those frequent travelers and loyal customers who participates at Z(s)eppelin tours 2-3 times a year. This questionnaire touches the following areas, questions: the bus drivers, the tour guide, the route itself, personal opinion, where did they buy the trip (to which travel agency did they pay their tour), and the most important for me, about marketing, how they are influenced, to what kind of advertisements are they sensitive. These questionnaires are spread out on the buses, on their way home, and normally its the tour guides task to collect the completed surveys and give it to the office. I have randomly picked out over a 100 of these sheets, coming in from different routes. For example I have chosen Toscana, Napoli, Salzkammergut. I have collected and gathered all these answers I need, summarized and analyzed them. The result will be shown later on. This method I used is called field research; using primary data, since these answers I directly get from the passengers. To extend this survey, I asked the owner of the company to let me do another survey that the tour guide will hand-out on the bus, so we can go deeper into their habits, what influences them when deciding, and other questions that help to build up the marketing plan.

Criticism Internal analysis

Company Profile &History1
Z(s)eppelin Tour operator was founded in 1993, 19 years ago. The founder, ZsebkJnosn was enthusiastic about hospitality and tourism, and she saw the future, the possibilities of the tourism industry. Now, the managing/executive director is ZsebkTams, her son.

http://www.zseppelin.hu/index.php?page=groups&gr=14088

Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency is working as a touroperator, meaning that it is their responsibility to plan and fix the domestic and international tours. They are not only selling trips, but also organizing them. They have their main office in Szeged, Hungary, where most of the staff areplaced, and a branch-office in Kecskemt, where they only sell the products and their services. The main office is placed in the center of the city, easy to get there and find them. At their window you can find the actual and best offers, videos are displayed in a small screen, making people stop on the street and attract them inside the office. The main profile of the company is the organized group round-trips. These round trips are mainly focus on Europe. When we talk about company differentiation, Z(s)eppelin can be said as a very special tour operator. Its round trip is a cultural round-trip, meaning that in a given area, country or city, they are always showing the main attractions, museums, statues, historical buildings, churches to their passengers. Basically, passengers are always on the way, it is an active holiday, not a passive one, where they would probably lay on the beach and enjoy the sunshine. The most popular destinations can be found in their offers: Austria, France, Switzerland, Check Republic, Italy, Baltic area, Benelux countries, Spain, and Turkey. By the years, their catalog was extended with some exotic destinations: Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia and India. On the outgoing trips they hire experienced bus drivers, and well-educated and experienced tour guides who has a great knowledge about different destinations. The tours are mainly bus tours, but for some trips, passengers can take airplane as well. The travel agency offers the possibility to organize the tours from their catalog to student groups, companies and other clubs and organizations as well. These groups are called closed groups. If a closed group wishes, the travel agency can plan and organize a different journey regarding their needs. Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency is having different contracts with more than 100 other travel agencies, and all these agencies around Hungary are selling their tours, and get a smaller share of the price of the payed trip. Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency also offers and sells the followings: - other touroperators vocational tours (mainly to the sea-costs) - domestic and international accommodations - transfer services - concert tickets and theater tickets
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- insurance - flight tickets The travel organizing activity is always and totally done in the main office in Szeged. Every decision, email is supervised by the managing director; we can say that the decision making is centralized in that company. Next to the director, there is a smaller group, the staff, meaning 7-8 employees. Four employee out of 8 is working in the front office, where they are communicating and contacting the passengers and those who are interested in travelling. They give them a good reference, recommendation and details, info needed to be known for a specific trip. Their task doesnt end at this point, these 4 employee and one more has the responsibility to keep in touch and contact with their foreign, international partners, meaning hotels, local guides, restaurants, or in some cases, bus companies and other travel agencies. Two employees are responsible for the finance, invoices and to confirm the reservations, sending out the tickets. The last employees task is the marketing, everything connected with research and advertisements. To fulfill the requirements of these positions, everybody has to speak at least one foreign language. It is mainly English, and they hire one German speaking colleague. One more important thing, I have to write about when introducing Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency. These are their memberships within different important organizations. -MIUSZ2 Association of Hungarian Travel Agents and Tour Operators; In these days there are approximately 1000 registered travel agency in Hungary, but only 250 are a member of this alliance. If customers want real quality, or want to make sure that the travel agency is reliable, they just have to search for the logo of MIUSZ. - Austria Club - RDA- InternationalerBustouristikVerband

Business portfolio
It is important to make a business portfolio, as it help to categorize the products (in this case the tours) by their market share and market growth. For this, I will use The Boston matrix, also known as BCG matrix. This model is divided into 4 different segments and it will help Z(s)eppelin Kft. to see which tours are the most successful, which one it might be worth to invest in and which one should be taken out from their catalog. I decided not to place each tour in the boxes, but categorize them by countries. They are
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http://www.muisz.com/index_eng.php

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placed on the basis of the success of the tours, how many went out last year, how many passengers they had on each tour, if it was full, or it was cancelled due to the low interest.

The stars: In this category there are those countries, destinations where the highest numbers of tours went out last year, and most of the time the capacity of the bus was full. Basically these are the most successful tours, as they have a high market share, and market growth is high as well. These tours are doing well, they give the highest profit for the company, but by the time, as the trends / prices might change, some of them can become a cash cow. As I was told by the director of the company, Italy is the favorite forever, as Italy is the cradle of culture, passengers can meet a lot of memorial places, probably the greatest country for those who like history and culture. The most visited countries in 2012 were: Italy, Austria, CzechRepublic, France (mainly the tours focused on Paris) Spain and Romania (only the Transylvanian area). It is worth to keep these countries as one of the main destinations, as a lot of people are interested and willing to travel into these areas and stay there for a couple of nights do to sightseeing. Just as their catalog shows, the tour operator has a higher amount of various tours going into these countries. For example for Italy, Z(s)eppelin Kft. offers 12 different type of tours. The question marks: In this box we can find those countries and tours that are quite or totally new in the catalog, they are at the introductory stage. These are Scandinavia, North11

Europe, Croatia, Moscow and St. Petersburg. For these countries they only sent a few buses, 2-4 times in 2012. This low frequency can be known for the introductory stage in the lifecycle, they did not know what to expect, if their customers will be interested in such tours. As most of them were really succesfull (Croatia: Plitvice, Istria or cruses on the North-Sea) it is recommended to have more frequent dates for the tours. For example the Plitvice tour was going out in once a month (6 times during the year), and all of the tours were overbooked, it would be profitable to increase the frequency and start tours every second week, as it is only a 2 night-long tour (price: 35 000 HUF). These tours have a low market share, but high market growth- so by increasing the number of tours a year, they could become stars. Of course there is a risk for them that the market growth will slow down, so they can be grouped under the cash-cows. The cash-cows: When I considered the cash-cow tours for Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency, I realized that they do not have too many. They rather earn the profit from the starts nowadays. Though there are some countries which have too many appointed dates, but not all of them are actually operated since the low interest, slow market growth. These countries are Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany (mainly Berlin). To the Benelux countries they had 7 departing dates, but only 3 of them actually departed with the maximum capacity. As these destinations are not so cheap, but as long as there is even a smaller interest for it, it is worth to keep them, and take the income or profit and invest it in the starts or question marks. The dogs: In this category we can find those destinations that used to be starts or cash-cows before. For example Great-Britain and Switzerland used to be starts five-six years ago, but now there is an extremely low interest for them so the market share / frequency of the tours are decreased, they are offered 2-3 times a year, and it is still not sure if these tours will depart. But another example, Malaysia, India, Lapland has eventually dropped down to this segment, since these are luxury tours (prices are: 350 000 HUF- 600 000 HUF) , they cost a lot, so a really few people were willing to travel. Albania, Serbia and Montenegro also belongs under the Dog segment, as people are afraid of these countries as we know a very little about their culture. Also because of the wars they had in the last 20-25 years, people have a fear to go there. 3Though, they are great destinations and offered cheap, Z(s)eppelin had to reduce the frequency of the tours going there because of the low interest. Probably the best idea would be not to indicate these tours in the next seasons catalog, not to start the

http://www.nato.int/kosovo/history.htm

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reservations for hotels, buses, transfers etc. as it only consumes the time of the employees. It generates loss from their income.
Conclusion on the business portfolio: After this overview of the destinations, their market

share and growth, I recommend to my host company to keep the stars as they are, put investment in most of the questions marks, for example Croatia, North-Europe & Scandinavia, as the high interest and willingness from the passengers shows, there is a need for a more frequent time table, meaning more income and profit for the company. Regarding the cash-cows they should still keep them in this category, but decrease the market share, frequency for these tours, so there is less work for the employees who consult with the partners abroad. Then they will have more time to work on those tours that are successful, there is no need for overtime. When it comes about those destinations which belongs under the dogs category, I would recommend to appoint only 1 departing time for a season, since those passengers who wishes to travel to the given country, will do that even though there is only one given date.

Porters Generic Competitive Strategy

Using Porters Generic strategies model is a good way to find out, what strategy, strategies does a company use in order to be competitive and successful on the market. There are three categories in this model: Differentiation, segmentation strategy and cost-leadership. When examing Z(s)eppelins strategies, and their policy, it turns out that they are using two different strategy at the same time, and it is successful in their case. Segmentation strategy is one of them. They narrow down the whole market, and focus on a few groups of people. Their main customers are elder, normally retired people, just as single old people and high-class people, as doctors, lawyers. They do not wish to target the younger generation, since they rather care about parties, and more interested about the sandy sea-cost and pubs. Therefore they target those, who are interested in culture, willing to travel and see a lot from the world. As they mainly use buses for transportation, it is convenient for older people, and providing a tour guide with great-knowledge it is convenient and everything is given for the passengers for a trip, and sightseeing. These people have savings; they might be lonely but would not like to travel alone, so these group tours are ideal for them.

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The other strategy they are using is the differentiation. Z(s)eppelins name become a well known brand among the passengers and the retailer travel agencies. They have organized special tours, cultural round-tours, and when they opened their business more than 20 years ago, it was very new on the market. Back in the 90s, more than 1000 tour operators opened up on the market, so it was a niche market when Z(s)eppelin Kft. entered the market, but thanks for some regulations and their strategies, they could expand and become unique, different from the rest. Later on, I will go deeper into the strategic competitors analysis, but it is quite obvious, that even today they only have a couple of competitors concerning the cultural round-trips. Their customers are not too price sensitive, and the competition on the market is quite low. These customers might have unique or special needs, and Z(s)eppelin has the resources to fulfill some of the needs. Though, Z(s)eppelin should be aware of the use of these two strategies, as the stuck in the middle effect can occur later on. As they have to focus on more strategies, and if they do not focus correctly, they can lose control and fail.

Growth Strategies Financial Brief

External analysis
Pest analysis
Political factors: Hungarys political situation is very bad right now. Unfortunately the government is having a lot of difficulties with Brussels4, since the country is member of the European Union5, since 2004. The current government has increased the VAT last year, in 2011, this caused a general increase in every product. Now, the Vat rate is 27%, 6probably the highest one in Europe. The labor laws and trade restrictions made every Hungarian companys situation harder7,
4

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/04/hungarianeuroscepticism?zid=309&ah=80dcf288b8561b012f603b9fd9577f0e
5

http://userpage.chemie.fu-berlin.de/adressen/eu.html http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/hungary-finance-tax.ecm/ http://www.swisslife.com/content/dam/id_corporateclients/downloads/ebrm/Hungary.pdf

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employers has to pay a lot of money, contributions, health insurance after their employees. All these increased an increase in companys expences, therefore many people were fired, so they could keep their previous financial balance. Unfortunately these regulations made a lot of people unemployed, they do not have as much income as they did before. These are the most dominating political factors influencing the everyday life of Hungarian inhabitants. There is one more factor I would like to mention, even though it does not influence them directly, rather the travel industry and also Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency, as they are tour operators. This law was not made in Hungary, but abroad like Denmark or Spain. This is an environmental law, regulating the buses. This law says that buses with Euro3 engine cannot go in into some distinct and areas of cities. 8 This emission regulation made it quite hard, normally the older buses does not have Euro4 engine, therefore some travel agencies are having difficulties finding the proper bus that can be used on some routes. Economical factors:9 GDP purchasing power parity Real growth rate Services Unemployment rate Legal minimum wage Inflation USD 195.5 billion (2011 est.) 1,8% (2011 est.) 60.3% 11,1% HUF 93 000 /month (before tax) 3,7%

Social factors:10 Age structure in 2011 0-11 years 15-64 years 65 years and over Population Capital population11
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14,9% 68,2% 16,9% 9,976 million 1,7 million

http://miljozone.dk/vognmand_english.php http://www.swisslife.com/content/dam/id_corporateclients/downloads/ebrm/Hungary.pdfpage no. 5. http://www.swisslife.com/content/dam/id_corporateclients/downloads/ebrm/Hungary.pdfpage no. 5.

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Techonology: When we are talking about the technological factors influencing the travel industry and the consumers, it is only the accessibility to the internet I can mention. Consumers can make online bookings and reservations easily via Z(s)eppelin Travel Agencys webpage (www.zseppelin.hu), making their job easier. This is a benefit for the passengers as well, they can do their reservations easily, and it is comfortable, they do not have to go to different travel agencies, or can do the payment via netbank. Also, their catalog can be found on their homepage, if it is the preferred way. Conclusion on the Pest analysis: The economical and the political factors are not too favorable for the travel industry, some of the governments decision made peoples life harder, and their wallet lighter. The high unemployment rate means that less people have job, fix income, so they do not have too much disposable money, they might spend on travelling. The demographical factors are favorable, it is the older age group who likes taking part of cultural round trips, the younger generation prefers sea-costs and parties instead. This 16,9% is an optional target group for Z(s)eppelin. Normally, people living in the capital might have better, more paid jobs, their salaries and income are higher than those who are living in the countryside. Therefore that 1,7 million people living in Budapest might go to holiday earlier, because they have more disposable money.

Customer analysis
I based my 7O framework on the B2C market. This will help me analyze the customer behavior. In this case, when talking about buying tours abroad, we can say that it is an extensive decision making buying behavior. The reason is that some of these tours are expensive, occasionally bought. Normally a family, or a single person goes to travel once, maximum twice a year, so they really have to consider where they wish to go, and how much they are willing to pay for it. Travelling is not an everyday good people are buying. Perosnal factors are also influencing the buying behavior. The sex, age, marital status can be
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http://www.aviewoncities.com/budapest/budapestfacts.htm?tab=population

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dominant in peoples needs. Many old, widows are travelling with Z(s)eppelin. As people get older, parties are changed up by family, and when they become retired, they would like to rest, and see the world. Therefore they prefer paying for a cultural round trip, where they can see many cities, tourist attractions and get a lot of information of what they see. It is surprising, but widows like going as well, the reason is that in the old times, the wives stayed with their husbands, and made everything for them they wished. If their husband didnt like going on holiday and tours, women have had to stay home as well. Even though they are sad because they lost the most important and loved person in their life, they also feel relieved and can afford to go abroad. This is an information that many tour guide shared me, and also heard from some passengers. Occupants (who constitutes the market) As this is mainly a Business to Customer market, most of the customers are individuals. It is very rare when it is a Business to Business deal. When so, they sell tours to different groups, for example doctors, friends, colleagues who want to travel together. Therefore I would like to analyze the individuals. Since we are talking about cultural round trips, the target group is pretty narrowed. Passengers are normally pensioners, retired people, normally above the age of 60. These people have a higher income, normally their pension is above 60 000 HUF (1500 DKK)/month. Sometimes younger generation, age 40-50 also buy these tours. They are normally teachers, or those whose job is connected with some kind of culture. Basically not two-hand workers. Geographical factors are not dominating here, Z(s)eppelin is trying to reach as many people as possible, therefore they have the alliance with different travel agencies. This means, all their tours are sold all over the country. They cannot focus only on a few areas in Hungary. Marital status is influencing and does not influence in a way. As I took part in some of their tours, I observed that widows really like going, normally alone, asking for a partner in the hotels. But there are also many couples, long-ago married people. Objects (what does the market buy) Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency sells products to their customers. The explanation why I say these are products is the following: everything is organized by this company, the bus, the hotel, breakfast, dinner, tour guide, information. Therefore, we can look at this as a whole pack. A pack, ready to be sold, ready to be received and used.
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These packs normally contains the following: transport, accommodation, breakfast. The entrance fees are paid separately. Dinner, insurance is not included, but can be bought there as well. I mentioned before, there are over 70 destinations into 30 countries. Objectives (why does the market buy) When talking about travelling, I think the main motivating factors are mainly the psychological and personal factors. Personal factor because their age is dominant, even though they might not know it. When they get old, go retired, they do not wish sea-costs with sunshine and cocktails. They rather want to see the world, get knowledge. Probably their economic circumstances are also influencing here. Their children are grown up, they do not have to take care of them and finance them anymore. Basically, all their income is now really their income, no expenses for other human beings. Psychological in a sense, the desire for these trips are inside needs. They are, lets say thirst of the mind for seeing the world, getting knowledge and experience new impulses. Organization (Who is participants in the buying) Normally there are five different roles in the buying process: Initiator, influencer, decider, buyer, user. I would like to illustrate it with two simple examples: A daughter would like to surprise her parents, and decides to gift them a trip. (Initiator, decider, buyer). The users are of course her parents. In this case, there is no such influencer pointed out, it is her choice where she wants her parents to travel. Second case: An older wife would like to go for a cultural round trip (initiator). Probably her husband also has wishes (influencer) where he wants to go. The decider might be both of them, the buyer is still the wife. And both of them are the end users. Operation (how does the market buy)-buy grid The operation in this process is quite simple. The first step is not influenced by any sudden happening. Normally, most of the people wishes or plan to travel at least once a year. Lets say that the need for the products is inside us. The information search can vary. If the customer does not have any idea or wish where to go for holiday, the searching can be really extended. They can select from over 250 travel agencies offer. The type of the tours also vary: round trips, cultural round trips, passive holiday on a sea cost, ship tours on the ocean etc.
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Basically, people have way too much choice to evaluate. Evaluation might take more time then searching: how many days we want to spend abroad, do we want to go east, or to the south, airplane, bus, ship? Do they want to rest or take a lot of walk, do sightseeing? Warm place or colder area? Which travel agency to use, what are the recommendations, what are the financial limits? So if somebody does not have any idea yet what he/she wants, there are way too many possibilities for them. When the decision is done, there are some alternatives how to buy the products. Pay personally in total, pay periodically just smaller amounts, check, post office, or bank transfer. The last step here is the evaluation of the purchase. This is up to the individual how he/she evaluates, everybody has different expectations, experiences about journeys. Occasions (When does the market buy) Occasions can be seasonal. It is up to the weather, normally it is summertime when everybody would like to go out and enjoy the weather. Also, who are active workers; they normally take their holidays off from a company at summer time. Taking a closer look at Z(s)eppelins selling style, it is a bit unique. They issue two seasonal catalog: summer/autumn and winter/spring. When publishing, they send them out for their customers who already participated and they aware them that those who book their trip 6 weeks within that date, will get discount from the total price. Therefore who wish to travel with them, might do their bookings in that 6 weeks after receiving the new catalog. Outlets (where does the market buy) Customers have a lot of possibilities where to buy the tour. It can be either at Z(s)eppelins main/branch office, via their homepage, or other travel agencies with whom they have contract with. In most of the cases it is a personal buying, but some of them choose to do it via internet, fax, or email. Conclusion on the 7 Os framework: In Z(s)eppelin Travel Agencys case, we could conclude that the main target group are the older, retired generation. They buy complex packs, products from this travel agency since everything is already organized when purchasing. The occasion of the purchase cannot be set into limits, people can travel whenever they want and wherever they wish to. It is normally the initiator, the buyer and the user having a role in the buying process. These tours are

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available for anybody who has time and money, it can be purchased all over the country, there are no threats and barriers why the business would fail.

Marketing mix
Product strategy:
As I mentioned before, Z(s)eppelin is selling products. Their products can be categorized as intangible products, since you cannot touch them, but you can see them and experience it. I cannot exactly determine the life-cycle of the product, because every destionation has a different one. For example when we talk about Great Britain, United Kingdom or Switzerland, I could observe, and I was also told that nobody is really interested in these countries. Somehow, they could not start any of these tours because they did not have enough bookings. Therefore these packs life-cycle is declining. But on the other side when we talk about Transylvania, Austria, Istria or The wonderful Plitvice National Park, these tours are always overbooked. These tours are in the stage of growth. The core product what Z(s)eppelin is offering is the travelling itself. To transport people from point A to point B. The second layer is the actual product, where we are talking about the 3*** hotel, the comfortable bus, the appointments and guided tours. The augmented products that the customers can get are for example the dinner, insurance, and the helpful staff.

Price strategy:
Since we are talking about a travel agency, a tour operator, they have a very special pricing strategy. They cannot really base it on the market and on the supply and demands relationship. They cannot just simply use the penetration pricing or the skimming pricing. They are rather cost + profit oriented. Their pricing is the following: As they have fix costs, like the fee of hiring a bus, hotels, tour guide, these are already counted in the selling price. Additional variable costs are the staff inside the offices and the commissions for other agencies selling their products. All these are added together, and as they want to work with profit, they have to put a determined amount on the price so it is profitable for them. Of course this determined amount is based on the value of the product. On a 3 days/2 nights long tour they cannot have as much profit as they can have on a 7 days / 6 nights long tour. They must also count with the discounts. Frequent travelers get 5% off, when doing online booking customers get 3% off, paying the whole amount in one also means 3% off, and the
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season start booking is also 5% off. Therefore Id say they have a profit based pricing strategy.

Place strategy:
Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency does not have a special distribution strategy. They are all over the country, their offers can be found in many travel agencies, mainly in bigger cities. They are working with intermediaries, in this case, agents. Their channel of distribution is very simple, it is either the company and the buyer; or the company, intermediaries (agencies) and the buyer. By co-operating with so many agencies, they have an intensive distribution strategy. Promotion strategy: This is the most exciting stage, the actual marketing part about advertising. Here I would like to collect those methods that Z(s)eppelin used before and currently using and make a list of them. a, Catalog: This is the main advertising tool they are using. This seasons catalog is 80 pages long, and every information can be found that a customer needs: company presentation, terms & conditions, prices, detailed program description, start dates of the tours and it is illustrated with a calming background and color pictures. Every year there are 2 catalogs published. Every catalog is very planned, under the supervision of the managing director and with the help of the employees. When it is pressed, the next step is to spread it all over the country. Z(s)eppelin has a database where they collected the names and addresses of their older passengers, and also those who just requested a catalog via internet or telephone. Therefore they send out a catalog to every email address, this winter they sent out more than 8000 envelops to these addresses. Also, their contractual partner gets a pack of them. This means 20-40 catalogs/ agency. b, Flyers: While I was working there, we used to make and print different flyers. The logo of the company was placed on the top, and some tours were listed below. We indicated the name of the tour, the starting dates, what is included in the price, and the price itself. We printed them on eye-catching colored papers in the size of A/5. To test this tool, I took 200 sheets of these flyers onto my hometown, and spread it around, put them on the car windows. Within two months, we looked back on the bookings to see if there were more bookings coming from my hometown than before. Unfortunately we had to realize this is not a really working way of

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communication with the market. We did not have more than 3 bookings in those months from the mentioned city. c, Radio: Until the 20th July, 2012 they had a short, 30 second long advertisement running in the most popular radio. This ad was really creative, it seemed as a short program in the radio, and it was called 1000 faces of our World. It was always told to the listeners that its Z(s)eppelin Travel Agency who supported this ad. Every day, they gave a 30 second long brief of chosen city, of course the chosen city was always one where they had a destination. Unfortunately I cannot present any statistics, on the mentioned day the radio went to bankrupt, so there is no information available at all. d, Newsletters: It was sent out once a month to those email addresses that was registered and stored in their database. These emails, just as the flyers were consist of the actual, coming tours, where they had available seets. e, Posters: Posters were created by Z(s)eppelins marketing assistant, and sent out to the agents. Then it was their task to print it and hang it in their window, attracting customers in with their offers.

Survey analysis
In the methodology part I have mentioned that I am going to use the answers of the questionnaire that Z(s)eppelin is giving out at the end of every trip. Z(s)eppelins own survey. One of the questions I have decided to pick out and investigate is: What influenced you when decided to travel with us? The respondents had the chance to thick the
Where are you looking for travel offers?
Catalog

What influenced you when decided to travel with us?

Reccomended by a friend Travelled with us Catalog Didn't find simlar Other

Website newspaper ads other travel agencies internet

followings: recommendation of friend, previously travelled with us, the offer of the catalog, didnt find any similar tour
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at other agency, or other, where they can write the influencing factor. I have collected 100 passengers answer. 10% chose the first answer, the recommendation by a friend. 38% had been participating on a Z(s)eppelin tour before, so they have experienced the quality of the product. 43% said that they have decided after checking our catalog and they just liked the offers so they chose one from there. 6% of the correspondents didnt find any similar offer at other travel agencies and the rest 3% chose other, but didnt mention what it was.

The other question I have used is the most helpful for Z(s)eppelin. It asks: Where are you looking for travel offers? There were 70 marks saying in the catalogs, 50 for Z(s)eppelins website, only 1 said that he/she is looking for it in the newspapers. Other travel agencies got 22 marks, and the internet got 40 marks. This means that all of the marketing media are useful for my host company, except the daily newspaper advertisements.

Suggestions

After making the analysis of the promotion strategy and the survey, I would like to come up with new ideas that might help Z(s)eppelin to improve their communication channels toward their target group. Here are some recommendations: a, Merchandising products: Even though it was not mentioned anywhere above, I find it still a useful tool. Some of these products could be: rain jackets, umbrellas, mugs or baggage stickers. People like free products, and they love to use them! Rain jackets and umbrellas are used, not surprisingly in rainy weather, but if the Z(s)eppelin logo was big, it is easy to recognize and remember. People use these 2 items out on the streets, while going to the super market, the local market, dog walking etc, meeting a lot of people on their way. Therefore people would have knowledge about the company. Mugs are rather used home, but it can be seen by visitors. All these merchandising products can be given out on the buses on the way home. Some tour guides normally make a quiz and ask questions about the last days, so the winners could take these items home. b, Direct marketing: agents, agencies. One problem we discussed in the company, but couldnt find a proper place to mention in my project is that our agents are not really motivated to sell Z(s)eppelins products, routes. This is a huge barrier that we have to deal somehow. As it turns out in my survey analysis, people like going into the local travel
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agencys office and ask for help, advices. So we have to motivate these agents somehow. Id recommend a competition among the agents. Lets say there are 3 prizes at the end of the competition, and all 3 are a Z(s)eppelin trip, but of course in a different price category. They will be graded after the number of the bookings they collect and send us. c, internet: Facebook and Google AdWords. In the survey it turns out that people like searching on the internet. Google AdWords is a great tool, since the process is easy. Users just have to set a money limit each day they are willing to pay for the ads. These paid ads are the first ones in the searching result list. People normally click on the first few results that comes out, Z(s)eppelin could be one of those. It is almost the same with Facebook. On the right side there are ads coming up. But this one works with a filter, and the method is called clickmarketing. User just have to set a money limit here as well, and set the filter as he/she wishes. This could be age, location, personal interests. All they have to watch out is to choose the correct words that people might search for, so their ad will come up.

Conclusion:

To answer my main research question, I had to get a clear picture of my sub questions. Some of the marketing media that Z(s)eppelin is using at the moment are really useful at the moment, but there are some that should be changed, not used, and replace it with new communication channels. The catalog is necessary to use, this is one of the greatest marketing tool they are using. All the information that is needed is found and written in there. Newsletters help them to remind their old customers and everybody in their database that they are still existing, still selling better and better trips. As if their agencies are willing to use and put out their posters in their windows, this is a good tool to attract the possible customers. Flyers doesnt seem to be useful, probably it is because not that many takes seriously a small piece of paper and these kinds of ads. Therefore to edit such a flyer is just a waste of time, energy and paper. Z(s)eppelins main target group are elder people, mostly retired humans. These people have a lot of time to search for possibilities to spend their freetime somehow. Probably that is also why they sit in front of the PC and searching for tours and other activities. They also have a lot of time, they do not have to go to work 5-6 days a week. On the other side, their interest

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has changed by the years, they prefer sightseeing than passive holidays. Therefore people above the year of 50-60 is their main target group. As I mentioned before, the communication channel should be modified. This means to come up with new tools, new channels to communicate and reach the market. These could be any of the following ideas: merchandising products, direct marketing via the agents, a bit more aggressive internet promotions, the use of Facebook and Google Adwords. All these are new possibilities to reach their target group, to aware them, give them knowledge and awake the desire inside them.

List of sources www.zseppelin.hu http://www.muisz.com/index_eng.php http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/04/hungarianeuroscepticism?zid=309&ah=80dcf288b8561b012f603b9fd9577f0e http://userpage.chemie.fu-berlin.de/adressen/eu.html http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/hungary-finance-tax.ecm/ http://www.swisslife.com/content/dam/id_corporateclients/downloads/ebrm/Hungary. pdf http://miljozone.dk/vognmand_english.php http://www.swisslife.com/content/dam/id_corporateclients/downloads/ebrm/Hungary. pdf http://www.aviewoncities.com/budapest/budapestfacts.htm?tab=population

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