TOURISM & TRANSPORT
Few industries have experienced such massive changes in recent years as tourism and mobility service providers such as airlines. Online travel agents, virtual tour operators, successful low cost carriers, and so-called X products produced online – all of these have been a part of the market reality for some time now. Brand new players have entered the arena. Traveltainment, AIDU, HRS, and HolidayCheck: these are the names of some of the sleek operators – the booking platforms, modern consolidators, and service providers – that are now challenging industry giants like TUI and Thomas Cook for their market share.
The digital revolution is a key driver of this transformation, combined with the emergence of new business models and the formation of a number of previously non-existent markets, such as the low cost flight segment. Without the Internet and without novel types of booking, price comparison, and recommendation technology this would have been completely inconceivable.
IT has therefore long been a crucial success factor in the industry, but IT alone does not differentiate a company in the eyes of the customer. With tourism offerings being constantly available and combinable in any constellation, products and brands are becoming increasingly interchangeable. Poor profitability is now a fundamental problem for the old business models, and also for some of the new ones.
KEYLENS has been supporting companies in the tourism and transport-related industries for many years as they endeavor to create greater brand and product differentiation. The goal is to achieve superior customer focus and to consequently improve margins and earnings. Our client list includes major tourism groups, medium-sized tour operators, and airlines alike.
Some of the aspects our consultancy focuses on:
- Growth strategies, new customer acquisition, and existing customer activation
- Brand architectures and positioning concepts
- Sales strategies
- CRM, loyalty concepts, customer management
- Customer segmentation
- Developing new tourism products
- Communication strategies and concepts all the way through agency selection and pitch support
- Efficiency improvement programs in marketing and sales
SELECTED KEYLENS PROJECT EXAMPLES
Tourism group I
TOURISM GROUP I
Issue:
Marketing budgeting
Objective:
Improving the allocation of the marketing budget and establishing a formalized budgeting process to reduce conflicts between the functions involved
Results:
- We developed a new budget structure, focused on brands and differentiated by corporate and brand budget, inter- and intra-brand allocation
- Introduced the central planning logic based on (market share) protection budgets and growth budgets
- Completely redefined the effective marketing budget and embedded it down to the cost center level
- Developed an Excel-based budget tool and a new budgeting process authorized by top management
KEYLENS success levers:
Development of a new type of budgeting model specially tailored to the client based on the core logic of growth vs. protection budgets; establishment of a group of "change drivers" (willing to challenge established norms) from among middle management
Tourism group II
TOURISM GROUP II
Issue:
Brand strategy and development of new, high-margin products
Objective:
Creating new tourism products with high gross profits, with which to secure future profitable growth in the tour operator business
Results:
- We developed a novel form of customer segmentation, unique in a European context, that links lifestyle data, travel needs, and specific travel behavior
- Identified high-revenue and high-profitability customer segments
- Developed various showcase tourism products for these segments (brand/service proposition, product concept, price point positioning, marketing concept)
- Developed a range of tools to present the results at the travel agency level (consultations) and the hotel level
KEYLENS success levers:
Substantial methodological expertise in segmenting and modeling, combined with brand and positioning expertise in new product development
Last-minute tour operator
LAST-MINUTE TOUR OPERATOR
Issue:
Growth strategy
Objective:
Identifying and evaluating relevant ways of achieving a specific sales threshold; deciding which growth strategy to implement
Results:
- We came up with three different growth strategies, each involving different price point positioning and a discrete mix of offerings
- Ensured a sound foundation of quality for the three strategies based on key market trends
- Evaluated the options in qualitative and quantitative terms (incl. three-year result simulation down to the gross profit and EBITA level)
- Derived the specific implications for implementation in product, marketing, etc.
KEYLENS success levers:
Development of a market model that can be expressed in data form for mapping and simulating different growth levers; pragmatic evaluation and decision in a CEO workshop setting
