Travel Marketing Tools, Part 3.

Essay by MechilUniversity, Master'sA+, February 2006

download word file, 4 pages 5.0

Introduction

Regardless of the type of business one operates, the necessity of a solid marketing strategy is essential to the growth and sustainability of the company. For the purposes of this course, the team selected three e-businesses providing travel packages, which consist of travelociy.com, orbitz.com, and vegas.com. This paper will discuss the importance of developing an effective e-marketing strategy, as well as compare the customer service provided by each of each of these sites.

E-Marketing Defined

What is e-marketing and how does it differ from traditional forms of marketing? Obviously, there has to be some correlation between the two platforms. General observation dictates that e-marketing would perhaps be the more challenging of the two, as it is the more impersonal approach. Traditional marketing appeals to the senses of the audience through look, feel, taste, texture, among other senses. However, an e-business must rely upon the ability to reach out beyond the limitations of a monitor and project the images and usability in such away, the customer will be moved to come back to the website multiple times.

A formal definition if e-marketing is described below:

Moving elements of marketing strategies and activities to a computerized, networked environment such as the Internet. It is the strategic process of creating, distributing, promoting, and pricing goods and services to a target market over the Internet or through digital tools. (http://aede.osu.edu/programs/e-agbiz/pageglossary/main.html)

Unfortunately, for some businesses, e-marketing is merely putting company brochures and materials on a website. However, Louis Columbus writes "e-marketing isn't posting brochureware or doing en mass email blasts; it's adding value to the visitor's experience (http://www.samspublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=20963&seqNum=1).

E-Marketing Strategy

How does an e-business develop an e-marketing strategy that will be relevant to the customer? Clearly, requirement of the website is that it must be "relevant and responsive to...customers" (http://www.samspublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=20963&seqNum=3). The following components...