Brand Management Group Assignment

Amit Mukim 2009022Abhishek Pandey 2009038 Abhay Verma 2009056Aman Mishra 2009060Ankit Kukreja 2009063

Cox and Kings

The Long and Short of Cox and Kings

Cox & Kings is the longest established travel company in the world. Its distinguished history began in 1758 when it was appointed as general agents to the regiment of Foot Guards in India under the command of Lord Ligonier.Cox & Kings now thrives as an independent tour company with offices in the United Kingdom, India, the United States and Japan. Its global headquarters are in London.

The principal services offered by the company are:

Destination Management Outbound Tourism Business Travel Incentive & Conference Solutions Domestic Holidays NRI Trade Fairs Foreign Exchange Insurance

Benefits of choosing Cox & Kings

Expertise

Their regional specialists have all travelled extensively in their regions meaning you can

be reassured that your hotels, excursions and journeys have been fully considered by an

expert.

Values

Their buying power and long-standing relationships in the travel industry generated over

many years by the network of associated Cox & Kings companies worldwide enables

them to contract flights, hotels and ground services at highly competitive rates.

Heritage

As the oldest travel company in the world, (established 1758) they have the experience to

make travel arrangements of the highest calibre.

Additional Services

Complimentary travel accessories, free subscription to their in-house magazine Compass

and access to sponsored events such as the recent Royal Academy of Arts Van Gogh

Exhibition.

Choice

As well as offering a huge variety of destinations, holidays range from their excellent-

value small escorted group tours to completely flexible tailor-made holidays, luxurious

city breaks and art history tours.

Protection

C&K has full industry bonding, including ATOL , ABTA and AITO protection, meaning

your money is safe with them.

Positioning of the brand

Well-positioned to gain market share on the back of a strong brand franchise and apresence across the value-chain

C&K has a history of over 250 years, making it one of theoldest travel brands in the world. Over the years, the company has built a strong brand franchise for itself in overseas markets as well as in India. The travel market is highly fragmented, with a large number of travel agents catering to most of the demand. We believe that C&K's strong brand, coupled with services across the value-chain (inbound and outbound), would act as a key driver in garnering a higher market share in the future.

a. Strong Brand Equity Cox & Kings was ranked #1 among the Top Brands in India, and ranked 152 amongst the Top 1000 Brands in the Asia-Pacific region. The tour-operator industry is dependent on brand awareness and recall in the long-run, as customers need to believe in the capabilities of the operator to provide quality services and that their products will lead to a satisfied experience, even before they have approached the service provider.

b. Presence across the value-chain: C&K offers complete travel solutions, and serve as an integrated provider of all travel and travel-related products. The company provides a 'One-Stop Shop' for all travel requirements, from visa formalities to ticketing, holidays, insurance and foreign exchange. Besides, the company is in the process of rolling-out a pan-India, luxury train, under the brand 'Maharajas' Express', through a joint venture with the Indian Railways.

Wide geographical reach: In India, C&K has 255 points of presence, covering 164 locations, through a mix of branch sales offices, franchised sales shops, General Sales Agents (GSAs) and Preferred Sales Agents (PSAs). The company has 14 branch sales offices located in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Pune, Nagpur and Goa. Besides, it also operates through 56 franchised sales shops spread across India.

Moreover, the company has a global presence, with operations in 19 countries (besides India)through subsidiaries, branch offices and representative offices (in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, US, UAE, Singapore and Hong Kong).

C&K's focus on emerging markets to help garner higher growth: C&K derives overhalf of its earnings from the emerging markets (mainly India) and is focused on increasing itspresence in other high growth geographies (mainly the Middle-East and South-East Asia).This, we believe, would bode well for the company, as it is ideally poised to benefit from astrong growth in demand for outbound and inbound services in these areas, enabling it toachieve a high growth rate in the future.

Different from competitors: C&K offers customized business travel solutions for corporate clients with an endeavour to optimize their travel budget. They continuously innovate the product offerings with the flexibility to meet the changing needs of customers and to address their needs better. This also helps them differentiate their products vis–a–vis the products offered by their competitors.

Major Competitors

SOTC

They provide services in segments like Escorted Tours, Free Individual Travel, Special Interest Tours and Domestic Holidays amongst others.

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.

They offer a broad spectrum of services that include Foreign Exchange, Corporate Travel, Leisure Travel, and Insurance. The Company launched its Indian operations in 1881.

Local Tour Operators

The local tour operators such as Raj Travels also pose stiff competition to Cox and Kings with their relatively inexpensive packages.

Socio – economic environment at time of introduction of C&K

The Indian economy was characterised by extensive regulation, protectionism, public ownership, pervasive corruption and slow growth prior to liberalization.

The Travel and Tours industry is cyclical and sensitive to changes in the economy in general. The sector is unfavourably affected by such factors as changes in the global and domestic economies, changes in local market conditions (i.e pre 1991).

At that time, there wasn’t much willingness for people to travel. Although the Indian Economy has sustained growth in the last few years, soft economic conditions before 1991 put pressure on the profitability of the tourism industry and business.

At present Cox and Kings deals in Inbound tourism , outbound tourism and domestic travel. At the period of its launch, there was very less revenue from Outbound Tourism. The reasons could be

Less disposable incomes Expensive international air travel

The focus was on Domestic Tourism i.e. pilgrimages or visits to friends and relatives.

Indian Operations

The New Segments and Product Offerings

Times have changed drastically ever since India got liberalized and corporatized. This has affected travelling patterns of consumers. Cox and Kings has accordingly introduced following packages.

Group ToursThey operate Group Tours in all divisions i.e. Outbound, Inbound and Domestic. Each tour is different in the number of days and destinations. All the tours are pre-planned i.e. the dates of departures and arrivals are fixed in advance for all the tours.

Outbound Group Tours are offered and sold under the brand name “Duniya Dekho”. Likewise, Domestic Group Tours are sold under our branded product “Bharat Deko”.

Flexible Individual Travellers (“FIT”)Under FITs they provide customized holidays which have flexibility and are designed to suit the customer needs unlike group tours which are standard in nature. Two of the products i.e. “Bharat Dekho” and “FlexiHol” cater to domestic and international FITs respectively with customized plans for holidays.

Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (“MICE”)Leisure travel is increasingly being used as an incentive tool by many organizations to convey appreciation for recognizing achievers. It has dual benefits, one by providing a holiday that enables an executive to unwind and recharge and the other serving as a reward for excellence that inspires the team.

C&K caters to all aspects of conference organizing, business meetings, event management, seminars, exhibitions, product launches and incentives. Every event is designed to meet specific requirements right from the pre-event preparations, during the event itself and through to post-event settlements.

Non-Resident Indians (“NRI”)To cater to up market NRIs , they have specially designed products for them, wherein they provide them with an upgraded service to suit their mindset. They sell both of our travel products ‘Duniya Dekho’ and ‘Bharat Deko’ to NRI clients and the major outbound destinations we offer them include Europe, USA, Australia & New Zealand, Far East, etc. They have setup an office in New York to specially cater to this market segment which is a rapidly growing area of business.

Trade FairsThey also organize group tours for Trade Fairs in countries outside India. Trade Fairs for different industries are organized all round the year at different places and they take participants in such trade fairs with a customised itinerary for their entire schedule. For the Trade Fairs organised by them, they arrange for every need including accommodation, city tours to technical add-ons such as factory visits, buyer-seller meets and an array of value-added services handling the most complex and exacting business trips anywhere in the world.

Corporate / Business TravelThe Corporate or Business Travel has witnessed a change from the traditional travel agency mode to total travel management mode. In this mode the objective is to minimize the total travel budget for the corporate while maintaining the service standards. The need has arisen from the increasing complexities, quality and time effectiveness of business travels of current times.

Their brand recall is very high amongst over 200 corporate clients, including major domestic and multinational companies like DHL Express and DHL Lemuir Logistics, Parker Hannifin, Warner Bros., Lanxess India, Alok Industries, Edwards Lifesciences, Villeroy & Bosch Sales India, Scope International, etc.

One of the world's largest conglomerates in business travel – Radius Inc., the first truly global travel management partnership/consortium with merger of Travel Trust International and Woodside Travel Management Corporation, selected C& K as their Indian partner. They are now shareholder member of Radius Inc – the global travel company which is well-positioned to service multinational corporate clients on a global basis.

Cox & Kings over the years

The brand has grown up by and large over the years, be it the different packages or the targeted customers. The brand personality of Cox & Kings has acquired the following attributes in recent past due to the deals offered to the customers:

Innovative Trust Worthy Premium service Safe to invest Diversified and customized Most Experienced (Oldest in the business)

As compared to others, the deals offered are innovative. For example, the “one stop shop” which offers a single stop for all travel requirements is a service which no one had ever come up with by that point of time. Through its customized and faultless service the brand has developed a trust amongst its targeted set of customers. Also, varied packages have yet not succeeded in diluting the quality of service. As a result of which the brand still has a premium quality service offering, though a inquisitive approach sufficiently before the actual travel might lead the customer to achieve something more than the worth of value. The trust and comfort offered is leveraged by the brand in forming a perception of a service product which is safe to invest into. The value proposition is well segmented with “celebrating 250 years”,

which drives the point of being the most experienced player in the domain of travel and tourism.

A More Subtle Segmentation

Cox and Kings has come to realise that though the mass market consists of mainly the holiday tourists but there are other critical base of customers which needs to be segmented.

In comparison to the earlier times when travel pattern used to be non-frequent, now we can see that pattern changing with the frequent fliers coming into the picture. Also, the pattern for others have also taken a big change and need to be catered to in order to succeed in the domain.

Base of Segmentation

CategoriesHoliday Mass Market,

Popular Market, Individual MarketDemand Primary, Secondary, Opportunity

Geography National, InternationalPsychographics Lifestyle, Personality, Knowledge

Demography Age, Sex, ReligionSocio-Economic Rich-Poor, Urban-

Rural, Literate-Illiterate

Purpose Business, Leisure, Culture tourismAge Teens, Youths, Senior Citizens

Base of 0Segmentation for Cox & Kings

Categories

Non Users Lack willingness and ability (in terms of income and leisure time)

Potential Users Have the willingness but the marketing resources have not been used in an optimum way to influence their impulse

Actual Users Already using the services generated by tourism service providers

Occasional Users Although they do possess the requisite income and leisure, they have not formed a habit of traveling

Habitual Users Frequent travelers

The focus has shifted from acquiring customers to maintaining the customer base with a keen eye on the potential customer base, resulting into the major re-structuring of the whole business structure with respect to the target customer base categorically and also the target market segmentation in India. The following facts have also affected the brand to reflect and scrutinize their strategies in the Indian market:

Indian tourism industry is to generate $ 128 Billion by 2016. In 2006, India had 0.52 % world market share in International tourist arrivals.

Both these facts indicate the tender age of the Indian tourism industry and a symptom of a promising growth in its revenue generation capacity. This has affected the strategies of the Cox & Kings in India as a travel operator which is evident in the segmentation of the market on the basis of various touring habits.

In comparison to the initial phase when there were hardly two to three brands in competition, there has been a mushroom growth in the domain. Initially, SOTC and Thomas cook were the major competitors but this span of time has seen a mushroom growth in the area with more players like makemytrip, Yatra and other local travel organizers have come into the picture. Also, over time the customer has become aware and the advent of internet has made the domain further more competitive.

After the liberalisation, the tourism industry is on a boom. Even in the recession hit last two years, the tourism industry was able to make profit although it witnessed a comparative decrease in profits. The disturbing economic waves hit the tourism industry quite badly as the money spending capacity of a person decreases. The lower industry profit in turn affect the company’s bottom line.

Critical evaluation

Positioning the offerings in the three categories i.e. Inbound, Outbound and domestic travel in the country was one of the moves which initially did not work out but this product centric diversification is surely evident of a thoughtful planning and strategic move which worked later on for the service provider. Also, it was something where others followed suit soon after cox & Kings installed it. Also, the brand has maintained and leveraged its brand equity over a period of time. Positioning and segmentation of the product have been excellent.

The service provider has done everything right except the sketching of suitable marketing strategies as well as using the technological advancement to its advantage. Today when service providers innovate and get into the visibility zone of the targeted customer, Cox & Kings failed to do so. They could have easily responded early and would have been benefitted as they had the safety cushion of their glorious background and even stronger brand equity.

Leveraging Brand Equity

The IPO Usually, an organization leverages on its brand equity through introduction of a new product/service. However, raising money through equity issue also falls in the purview of leveraging brand equity. Cox and Kings Ltd., on the 18th November, 2009 with a public issue of 184,96,640 equity shares of Rs. 10 each, in the price band of Rs. 316 to Rs. 330 per share.

CSR

C&K assists Make-A-Wish Foundation (MAWF) of India in granting wishes of children with life threatening diseases.

A total of 42 employees participated in a Magic Bus Orientation Day Programme in Karjat.

C&K employees have also run in marathons for Make-a-Wish foundation , Ummeed Child development and Oxfam India

Such initiatives maintain the hunky-dory image of Cox and Kings as well as proliferate its ubiquity.

If we managed Brand Cox and Kings

Since our group needs to call the shots for branding Cox and Kings, we need to analyse C&K on the basis of its brand vision, brand strategies and the tourism industry and trends.

Brand Strategy for C&K

To achieve a well defined and unique brand personality through selection of correct positioning strategies and consistent and appropriate brand promotion

To acquire about 17% market share in the tourism service providers sector Careful brand guardianship

Brand Vision for C&K

Branding Strategy

Keeping in mind the brand vision of Cox and Kings, we recommend following branding strategy

Promote destination and segment based campaigns by writing articles in tourism magazines, journals and newspapers like Go World, NatGeo Traveller, etc.

Publish advertisements in various tourism and photography magazines (Travel and Living, Asian Photography, etc.)

Publish testimonials of happy customers on Cox & Kings website Upload medical, adventure tourism and eco-tourism related videos on YouTube and

other video sharing websites Use Flickr and other photo sharing websites to showcase various destinations and

testimonials from clients Online magazines like TravelTorch.com, Outlooktraveller.com, etc. Form various tourism related communities on social networking sites promoting

various tourism destinations Come up with various value added packages and allied services for customers. Promotion of Cox & Kings on websites of various airlines, hotels, transport services

providers by buying banner space on the websites of these allied service providers

Buzz marketing through celebrity tie-ups. Celebrities will be offered luxury travel packages and encouraged to promote the services of Cox&Kings on their blogs

Make the website more user friendly by providing information about related destinations and related service providers to the customers.

Design and promote packages for non-users by providing them facilities of easy finance.

Design packages with more user friendly services in order to convert occasional and actual travelers into frequent travelers

Design special aspiration boosting packages for the habitual travelers.

The Tier II cities

The brand strategy can’t be formulated by ignoring the tier II cities. We had a telephonic conversation with Mr. Aniket Sonagh , Branch Manager , Cox and Kings Nagpur. He spoke of people in the Vidarbha region with high purchasing power thereby leaving an exploitable market. Thus, C&K must keep focus on such cities and continue to build its presence in the nation.

Offbeat Destinations

C&K can offer cost-effective packaged tours to offbeat destinations such as Amazon Forest, Guatemala, the Great Smoky Mountains, Coron Bay, Puerto Morelos. The focus on such packages should be the ‘Back to Nature’ theme. Target audiences for such services include:

Adventurous individuals People with a rebellious bent of mind People who want to impress their peers by showing off their penchant for exotic and

unconventional destinations Passion Groups such as

o Photographer’s clubs

o Biker’s clubs

o Nature buffs

o Backpackers Social Media

Customer interaction must be induced in order to generate preference for the brand and social media is an apt tool for the same. Contests can be held in various social networking sites. The objective is not only to reward winners but make C&K ubiquitous in real world and cyberspace as well. Moreover, tie-ups with luggage companies and camera manufacturing companies also entail attractive discounts and increased retention of the collaborating companies as well.

References

Cox and Kings website

Strategic Brand Management- Kevin Lane Keller Indian Tourism Ministry website

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Annexure

Annexure I

Service Portfolio

Annexure II

Indian Operations

Annexure III

Product offerings under the respective segments