Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 78%, University of Warwick (Warwick Business School), course: Environment of Business, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will analyse the development of the UK package holiday industry between 1974 and 2015. This entails an analysis of the industry structure in both years seen from a Porter’s 5 forces view, a detailed explanation of macro environmental causes of this development as well as an illustration at Thomas Cook. The major changes in the industry structure are significant increases in buyer- and supplier power, in threat from substitutes as well as in rivalry within the industry. This is majorly triggered by changes in the macro and meso environment: (1) The advent of the Internet and digital revolution opened up new distribution and information channels, shifting the power towards buyers and suppliers, as well as new possibilities in sophisticated data collection and analysis. (2) Growing intercultural experience of Britons triggered a shift in preferences towards individualised travelling. (3) A rising awareness of issues concerning society’s wellbeing has started to become a concern in travel and will become more important in the future. (4) A number of deregulations have acted as catalysts for the globalisation of the package holiday industry. (5) Rising macro environmental worries, political unrest and natural catastrophes have led to the recovery of the industry after years of decline due to the blossoming of independently organised holidays. (6) The emergence of budget carriers has enabled customers to organise their own holiday at a lower price. These environmental changes have caused Thomas Cook to change in 4 main areas since 1974: (1) they have become part of the Thomas Cook Group, (2) they pursue a digital innovation leadership and development of multi channel distribution, (3) they differentiate their products by high flexibility and quality guarantee through concept and partner hotels, (4) they offer superior service by being in close dialogue with its customers and staying in touch in the post-holiday period to learn from customers’ critique.
Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: 78%, University of Warwick (Warwick Business School), course: Global Branding, language: English, abstract: This paper provides suggestions on how to become one of the 100 Best Global Brands. The structure of the analysis and argumentation is based on Keller’s Brand Resonance Model and the Brand Value Chain. Notions from Keller’s dimensions of brand knowledge (1993), Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism (2012) and Aaker’s conceptualisation of strong brands (1996) buttress the argumentation. The branding consultancy Interbrand produces a yearly ranking of the 100 Best Global Brands. To be considered, “a brand must be truly global, having successfully transcended geographic and cultural boundaries. It will have expanded across the established economic centers of the world and have entered the major markets of the future.” (Interbrand, 2016). Interbrand’s valuations have three key components: an analysis of the financial performance of the branded products or services (Financial Return), of the role the brand plays in purchase decisions (Role of Brand), and of the brand’s ability to create loyalty and, therefore, sustainable demand and profit (Brand Strength).
Master's Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 74%, University of Warwick, language: English, abstract: International marketers are trying to encourage positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) about their products and services. The question of whether consumers in different cultures respond differently to eWoM is critical if marketers are to leverage the potentially global power of eWoM. The central objective of this study is to critically evaluate whether espoused national cultural values at the individual level influence the effect of eWoM on consumers’ purchase intention. Prior cross-cultural eWoM research mostly studied culture at the country level. This paper draws on perspectives in cultural psychology and cross-cultural research that argue that individuals espouse national cultural values to different degrees. Therefore, predicting the influence of culture on individuals’ behaviour necessitates to assess cultural values by personality tests at the individual level of analysis. Yet, no research can sufficiently answer the question of how individual level culture may influence the effect of eWoM on purchase intention. The present research addresses this gap by measuring espoused national cultural values of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, and masculinity/ femininity at the individual level of analysis and investigating their influence on the effect of eWoM on purchase intention. An experiment, using a repeated measures design, was conducted with 100 subjects from 18 countries. The results reveal that, as expected, consumers’ purchase intentions are significantly higher after reading eWoM than after reading factual information on a company website. Further, the results show that, contrary to expectations, this effect is not significantly influenced by the national cultural values an individual espouses. This implies that traditional market segmentations based on culture are of limited relevance in the online market place. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 78%, University of Warwick (Warwick Business School), course: Environment of Business, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will analyse the development of the UK package holiday industry between 1974 and 2015. This entails an analysis of the industry structure in both years seen from a Porter’s 5 forces view, a detailed explanation of macro environmental causes of this development as well as an illustration at Thomas Cook. The major changes in the industry structure are significant increases in buyer- and supplier power, in threat from substitutes as well as in rivalry within the industry. This is majorly triggered by changes in the macro and meso environment: (1) The advent of the Internet and digital revolution opened up new distribution and information channels, shifting the power towards buyers and suppliers, as well as new possibilities in sophisticated data collection and analysis. (2) Growing intercultural experience of Britons triggered a shift in preferences towards individualised travelling. (3) A rising awareness of issues concerning society’s wellbeing has started to become a concern in travel and will become more important in the future. (4) A number of deregulations have acted as catalysts for the globalisation of the package holiday industry. (5) Rising macro environmental worries, political unrest and natural catastrophes have led to the recovery of the industry after years of decline due to the blossoming of independently organised holidays. (6) The emergence of budget carriers has enabled customers to organise their own holiday at a lower price. These environmental changes have caused Thomas Cook to change in 4 main areas since 1974: (1) they have become part of the Thomas Cook Group, (2) they pursue a digital innovation leadership and development of multi channel distribution, (3) they differentiate their products by high flexibility and quality guarantee through concept and partner hotels, (4) they offer superior service by being in close dialogue with its customers and staying in touch in the post-holiday period to learn from customers’ critique.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.