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Contents
Background...........................................................................................................3 About the Company MakeMyTrip:....................................................................3 Development of the flight booking system.........................................................3 The Air Travel Pie...............................................................................................3 Management Decision Problem.............................................................................4 Objective............................................................................................................4 Symptoms..........................................................................................................4 Possible Causes..................................................................................................4 Marketing research problems................................................................................5 Research questions...............................................................................................6 Hypothesis.............................................................................................................7 Type of information required for each hypothesis.................................................8 Source for each information..................................................................................8 Advantages:....................................................................................................9 Disadvantages:................................................................................................9 Plan of analysis......................................................................................................9 Sampling................................................................................................................9 Sampling technique............................................................................................9 Advantages:..................................................................................................10 Disadvantages:..............................................................................................10 Sample size......................................................................................................10 Implications of the Study:....................................................................................10 Questionnaire......................................................................................................11 Consumer Behavior:.........................................................................................11 Research Problem............................................................................................12 Demographics:.................................................................................................14 Computation of the Results:................................................................................14 Computation of the Results:
Background
About the Company MakeMyTrip:
MakeMyTrip.com was founded in the year 2000 by Deep Kalra. Created to empower the travelers with instant booking and comprehensive choices, the company began its journey in the US-India travel market. It aimed to offer a range of best-value products and services along with cutting-edge technology and dedicated round-the-clock customer support. With the foresight to seize the opportunities in the domestic travel market, brought on by a slew of new airlines, MakeMyTrip offered travelers the convenience of online travel bookings at rock-bottom prices. Rapidly, MakeMyTrip became the preferred choice of millions of travelers in the US who were delighted to be empowered by a few mouse clicks. MakeMyTrips rise has been led by the vision and the spirit of each one of its employees, for whom no idea was too big and no problem too difficult. With untiring innovation and determination, MakeMyTrip proactively began to diversify its product offering, adding a variety of online and offline products and services. MakeMyTrip also stayed ahead of the curve by continually evolving its technology to meet the ever changing demands of the rapidly developing global travel market. After consolidating its position in the market as a brand recognized for its reliability and transparency, MakeMyTrip followed its success in the US by launching its India operations in 2005.
1990s, several major CRSs had expanded into global systemsthe Global Distribution Systems (GDS).
Objective
To ease consumers concern towards online travel purchases and, ultimately, to increase MakeMyTrips market share in India through a viable marketing strategy.
Symptoms
The symptoms are lower-than-expected revenue growth and low market share.
Possible Causes
The possible causes, as indicated by previous market research as well as market intelligence and industry reports, include: Low brand awareness of the MakeMyTrip brand. General risk-averseness among India consumers towards online shopping for travel-related products and services. In MakeMyTrips case, this is mainly due to consumers concern about the security and stability of MakeMyTrips website. Better alternativesie, traditional brick-n-mortar travel agentswhich Indian consumers believe, offer better deals than online travel agents and relieve them of the hassle of searching for deals themselves. Familiarity with traditional, brick-n-mortar travel agents, some of which have been established for a few decades. Geographical proximity and efficiency of Indias public transportation system, thus reducing the need to shop online.
AITR Model:
The Awareness-Interest-Trial-Repeat (AITR) model is a paradigm that comprises four key steps that take a potential user or customer from an initial state of
complete unawareness of certain products or services to showing the first interest in them, then to trying them for the first time, and finally to repeat purchase of the products or services.
Awareness
Previous qualitative research has identified low awareness of the MakeMyTrip brand as one of the key factors that explains its low market share and lowerthan-expected revenue growth. The company also intends to test the representativeness of this finding through this marketing research study based on the quantitative approach. In terms of marketing strategies that MakeMyTrip may implement, the company may increase its advertising spend with an aim to increase consumers awareness of the brand. In addition, there also seems to be an ignorance of the security measures that MakeMyTrip is currently taking for their websites. Therefore, this advertising campaign may also need to convey a clear message to consumers that MakeMyTrips website is safe to be used.
Interest
Factors that may arouse consumers interest to use certain products or services include: Product/service attributesfor example, entertainment or food on flights Price Ease of usefor example, whether or not a website is user-friendly Designfor example, design of a website.
In MakeMyTrip, the convenience offered by online shopping for travel-related products and services is not sufficient to arouse Indian consumers interest, which is partly due to their concern about the security of the internet. Therefore, MakeMyTripmay need to ease consumers concern by advertising and educating them about the security measures that the company is taking for its websites. With regards to overcoming consumers strongly held perceptions about traditional, brick-n-mortar travel agents offering better deals, MakeMyTrip may also consider offering exclusive online deals and, most importantly, conveying the message, through advertising and other communications campaign, that its deals beat traditional travel agents, with the added convenience stemming from an ability of shopping anywhere, anytime.
Trial
Trial refers to any form of test purchase or usage of a product or service that follows up on an interest in the product or service. For MakeMyTrip, it is crucial to first increase consumers awareness of its brand, to convince them that its website is safe to use and that it can offer deals that beat traditional travel agents. Once consumers interest in MakeMyTrip and its products and services is aroused and once they become convinced that they may gain more from purchasing from the company than from other travel agents, they may try MakeMyTrip.
Repeat
Repeat refers to repeat purchases of a product or service due to satisfactory previous trial/usage experience of the product or service and after-sales service. In case of MakeMyTrip, once consumers have test-surfed its website and made their first purchases, it is important to ensure that the products and services continue to fulfil customers needs. However, this will need to be assessed later in another research study and is not covered by the present research.
Research questions
Following are the questions that need to be addressed in the research: 1. Do the majority of the air ticket booking people is aware of the MakeMyTrip? 2. Are the consumers aware of the measures taken by the MakeMyTrip to improve the security? 3. Is human expertise an important convenience factor for the consumers? 4. Do consumers view social interaction with a travel agent as a necessity? 5. Do consumers feel that loyalty is rewarded and appreciated only via the travel agents? 6. Do consumers perceive that the detailed information about a trip is available only through travel agents? 7. Are the consumers satisfied with the existing package deals? 8. Is security a major concern for the consumers while booking the tickets online?
Hypothesis
The major hypothesis that should be tested is as given below: H0: THE
MAJORITY OF PEOPLE PREFER BOOKING THEIR AIR TICKETS FROM A TRAVEL AGENT.
A substantial amount of air tickets are getting booked everyday in India. There is a strong belief that majority of the tickets are getting booked through the Travel agent. It needs to be verified. H1: HUMAN
EXPERTISE IS AN IMPORTANT CONVENIENCE FACTOR THAT IS MISSING IN ONLINE BOOKING.
People have a belief that the travel agents know dates when flights are cheaper and may give a good advice on visa, insurance, dangers, etc. So there is no need to spend time on searching the web. Travel agent will do everything for the client. H2: SOCIAL
INTERACTION WITH A TRAVEL AGENT IS THE KEY TO A GOOD CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
People think that they just need face-to-face communication to understand all the details and it is easier for them to understand each other via face-to-face communication. It is just like there is clear evidence that distant students perform worse than those who attend the classes. H3: TRAVEL
AGENTS SATISFY IMPULSIVE BUYERS BETTER.
Decision making during planning and purchasing a travel arrangement is not always rational. Sometimes people just dont know where they want to go. They may go to a travel agent and say that they have INR 20000 and want to go to a warm place where they can swim in the ocean and enjoy palm trees on the beach. it will take ages if they go searching the web with such requirements. H4: SECURITY
AND TRUST TOWARDS HUMANS IS HIGHER.
People feel more secure interacting with people and have higher trust to them than to web sites, interfaced with forms. H5: LOYALTY
IS REWARDED AND APPRECIATED.
Customers believe that for their loyalty they will be rewarded with personal care and member discounts. They usually go to the same travel agent every time because they feel that their loyalty will be rewarded. Because, the travel agents will know all their preferences and know that they are an old customer. In turn, they will get a discount at least a better service. H6: DETAILED
INFORMATION ABOUT A TRIP IS IMPORTANT.
Travelers use as many sources to gather the information about the travel destination as possible: internet, opinions of other travelers and travel agents etc.
WAY PACKAGE DEALS ARE COMPOSED NOW IS NOT SATISFACTORY AND CAN BE DONEBETTER ON THE
Customer or travel agent enters the requirements of the trip and flight companies, hotels etc. make their offers literally bidding for a customer. They take those cheap packages that they advertise. But their requirements rarely match the offers. H8: LOW TICKETS.
PRICE AND PACKAGE DEALS ARE IMPORTANT FACTORS FOR THE CONSUMERS WHILE BOOKING THE
Majority of the consumers are sensitive to the low cost and good package deals. H9: SECURITY
IS A MAJOR CONCERN WHILE BOOKING THE TICKETS THROUGH ONLINE.
The people have the impression that the credit card transaction while booking the ticket is not safe and they also do have the doubt that the transaction might fail without their knowledge and might screw up their vacation / business travel big time. H10: HIGH SECURITY
MEASURES TAKEN BY
MAKEMYTRIP
The people are not aware of the fact that there are various security measures taken by the MakeMyTrip. H11: MAJORITY
OF THE CONSUMERS ARE NOT AWARE OF
MAKEMYTRIP.
H3 to H6
H7,H8
H9 to H11
Plan of analysis
Hypothesis H0 to H8: As of now, the proportion of people supporting this hypothesis is 75%. So with the sample size of 365, ideally 274 people should support this statement. But, with 95 % probability we shall conclude that this hypothesis is not true when only 260 or less people agree to this statement. In other case, we can conclude that this hypothesis holds good. We came to this number using the following formula:
Where,
p = sample proportion
Pi = Population proportion (.75) n = Sample size Hypothesis H9 to H11: As of now, the proportion of people supporting this hypothesis is 90%. So with the sample size of 365, ideally 329 people should support this statement. But, with 95 % probability we shall conclude that this hypothesis is not true when only 317 or less people agree to this statement. In other case, we can conclude that this hypothesis holds good. We came to this number using the same formula.
Sampling
Sampling technique
Simple Random sampling could be used. We shall collect the mail ids of the internet users and can program the computer to randomly select the mail ids and then send the survey to them. Advantages: It is also considered as a fair way of selecting a sample from a given population since every member is given equal opportunities of being selected. Another key feature of simple random sampling is its representativeness of the population. Theoretically, the only thing that can compromise its representativeness is luck. If the sample is not representative of the population, there will be sampling error. An unbiased random selection and a representative sample is important in drawing conclusions from the results of a study. The goal of research is to be able to make conclusions pertaining to the population from the results obtained from a sample. Due to the representativeness of a sample obtained by simple
random sampling, it is reasonable to make generalizations from the results of the sample back to the population. Disadvantages: One of the most obvious limitations of this simple random sampling method is its need of a complete list of all the members of the population. The list of the population must be complete and up-to-date. Getting this list is pretty difficult, but possible.
Sample size
The sample is needed to have 95% confidence of estimating the population proportion of customers within 0.05 range. So, the sample size should be 365. This is derived from the following basic formula. (Note: To be conservative, the population proportion is taken as 0.5)
Questionnaire
Consumer Behavior:
1. Who in your house hold does the most of the traveling to outside cities?
Myself Parents Sibling Spouse 2. For what purpose do you travel more often?
Business Vacation Personal No specific choice 3. How do you reserve air tickets?
Online Travel Agency Travel Agents Respective Airline Offices Other modes
4. Can you find all the relevant information on the Online Travel agency website needed for travel for any destination?
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
5. Given the best services equivalent to social interaction from online travel agency, which service would you prefer?
Travel Agent
6. Do you really think that face to face interaction is a necessity for air tickets reservation in ensuring reliability?
Yes
No
7. According to you which of the following is/are seriously lacking in Online Travel Agency? Please select any number of options.
Face to face interaction Security of the Online Transaction Not a user friendly website Trust of the Online Travel Agency
8. Before deciding a travel destination, what are the sources you actually refer for the information?
Research Problem
9. Do Online Travel Agencies provide enough information for an impulsive decision maker on travelling?
Yes
No
10. Are you satisfied with the various products/services offered by various Online Travel Agencies?
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
11. Are you aware of the special deals offered by Online Travel Agencies for its regular customers?
Yes
No
12. Do you think that the cost of the tickets reservation via online is costlier than the tickets reservation via Travel Agents?
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
13. Are you aware of the Online Travel Agency MakeMyTrips offerings? Yes No
Yes
No
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
17. Online Ticket Booking is more secure and transactions are confirmed in the first attempt?
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
18. Are you aware of the security measures employed by MakeMyTrip to ensure secure online transactions?
Yes
No
19. What are the other Online Travel Agencies you are aware of?
Demographics:
20. What is your age?