Strategic Reservation Services and Market Analysis

Posted on Jan 3, 2025 in Geology

Strategic Reservation Services

Phase 1: Competitor and Internal Analysis

In this first phase, the possible competitors are identified, along with what they are offering in the market and how they are doing it. Also, an internal analysis of the company is carried out to determine if it has the necessary conditions to undertake a new project. For example, a company might conduct research for the celiac market.

Market Research Tools

What additional information allows the company to generate insights that help them make decisions regarding commercial activity?

Objectives:

  • Provide the company with the necessary information on the markets and existing competition.
  • Provide information that is relevant to the company’s situation.
  • Define the market segments that are significant to the company.
  • Analyze the needs and desires expressed in the market.
  • Define the market segments that are significant to the marketing company.

The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix consists of a combination of product, price, promotion, communication, and product distribution.

Product Policy

  • Product Differentiation: The concept that a product or service acquires for the consumer to satisfy their needs. Differentiated products are those that are distinguished from the rest according to the consumer’s perception. This can be based on physical attributes (quality, size, brand, label, packaging, etc.).
  • Product Positioning: The situation that a brand occupies in relation to others, according to the attributes that consumers perceive in them.

Product Life Cycle

  1. Introduction or Release: If the product is new to the market, it has the advantage of having few competitors. However, the disadvantage is that consumers have not tried the product, know little about it, so sales are slow. This stage requires a major promotion effort, and the costs are usually high, while sales and profits are low.
  2. Growth: As the product becomes known, sales grow, attracting competition. Distribution is expanded to new markets, and promotion and advertising expenses remain high but are reduced compared to the previous stage. As production increases, unit costs are reduced, allowing for some price reduction.
  3. Maturity: Sales growth slows down and stabilizes, as do costs and profits. The product is well-known, and consumers have repetitive behavior. To prolong this stage, the company must differentiate its products and look for new uses.
  4. Decline: Sales begin to decline due to changing consumer desires and the introduction of new substitute products. The company will be forced to reduce production, which will increase unit costs and reduce profits. This may lead to product withdrawal or modification. Since products eventually die, the company must constantly be attentive to market needs and create new goods and services to offer.

Sales Promotion Policy

This includes all those marketing activities, other than personal selling and advertising, that stimulate customer purchases and vendor efficiency, such as exhibitions, fairs, demonstrations, and other non-repetitive sales efforts that are not part of the usual routine.

Key Differences Between Sales Promotion and Advertising
  • Advertising is controlled by the company itself.
  • Sales promotion decisions are sporadic and less routine than advertising decisions.
  • Sales promotion uses prescribers, who are people whose opinion and influence determine or condition the consumer’s selection (e.g., a physician in medicine).
Merchandising

Merchandising is based on the following principles:

  1. What is seen is sold.
  2. Better locations (entrance, exit) and sudden steps (crossroads of hallways).
  3. Better locations on the shelves are those that are at eye level and within reach of hands.
  4. The volume of sales of a product depends on the volume displayed.
  5. The better or worse image of a product depends on the good or bad image of those that surround it.
  6. Products should be placed in homogeneous groups (bakery and pastries) or complementary groups (shaving foam and blades).

Public Relations

Key Differences Between Public Relations and Advertising
  • The message is more credible in public relations than in advertising.
  • Public relations seeks to create favorable business news that is recognized by the media, such as events, and not paid advertisements.
  • The communication of news in public relations is not as repetitive as in advertising.

Distribution Policy

  • Distribution Channel: A set of intermediaries that participate in all those activities through which products are brought from the manufacturer to the final consumer. These intermediaries are wholesalers, retailers, and semi-wholesalers.
  • Wholesalers: They buy from manufacturers or other wholesalers and sell to other intermediaries. They provide a complete service, transporting the product, storing it, dividing it into lots adjusted to the needs of retailers, granting financing by allowing payment deferral, providing after-sales services, and collaborating in the promotion of the product. Wholesalers are almost like product warehouses.
  • Retailers: They buy from manufacturers or other wholesalers and sell to consumers. They sell in small quantities, also called retail. There are different types of retailers, from hypermarkets to small specialized stores.
  • Semi-Wholesalers: They sell to both intermediaries and final consumers.

Production Process

The production process is one in which, through the application of technological procedures, production factors are transformed into finished products. These factors can be very diverse (raw materials, energy, labor, fixed assets). These constitute the factors or inputs of the process. By transforming these inputs, finished products are obtained, forming a system of outputs. The inputs are controlled so that they adjust to the desired outputs.

Factors of Production (Inputs) ...} Transformation ...} Finished Products (Outputs)

Break-Even Point

The break-even point indicates how many units the company must produce and sell to obtain a profit. If it sells fewer units, it will incur losses, and if it produces and sells more products, it will obtain profits equal to that quantity. If the profit is equal to 0, it will neither win nor lose.