Marketing Plan

Course: MBA 506 (Marketing Management)

Section: 02 (Autumn 2022)

Submitted to

Dr. Imranul Hoque

Professor
Department of Marketing
School of Business & Entrepreneurship
INDEPENDENT UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH

Submitted by
Md. Shariful Alam
Section 2
ID 2221269

Date of Submission 5th December, 2022

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 Acknowledgement
The most pleasant aspect of this study is to get the chance to complete and learn the information
of Marketing Management. We want to thank everyone who has made a lot of contributions to it.
Unfortunately, the thanksgiving list is always incomplete, no matter how extensive it may be.

My first thanks go to Almighty Allah for giving us the patience and courage to complete this
enormous task in time.

Finally, we sincerely recognize our debt to our honorable Faculty, Dr. Imranul Hoque, for his
precious advice on the project. This would never have been feasible without his encouragement
and help.

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December 5th, 2022

Dr. Imranul Hoque

Professor

Department of Marketing

School of Business and Entrepreneurship

INDEPENDENT UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH

Subject: Report on marketing plan for application-based travel agency

Dear sir,

Here is my report on “TripGuide”. I am submitting this report as the part of fulfilling my MBA506
course of Autumn 2022. While preparing this report, I tried my level best to follow your
instructions and the instructions that have been given to me by my organization supervisor. I have
tried my level best to provide what I have learned throughout our report conducted during last
three months.

Consequently, I am transmitting this report to your very concern. Hopefully, you will discover the
report informative approach as a hallmark of my hard work. I shall be highly encouraged if you
are kind enough to receive this report. In case of any further clarification or elaboration regarding
this report I would welcome the opportunity to consult with you to explore how my findings could
best meet your needs.

Yours Sincerely,

Md. Shariful Alam

ID: 2221269

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Table of Contents
Executive summary:........................................................................................................................ 5
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Goals: .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Mission............................................................................................................................................ 6
Vision .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Marketing Environment: ................................................................................................................. 6
Macro environment ..................................................................................................................... 7
Micro environment: ..................................................................................................................... 9
Market Analysis: ........................................................................................................................... 10
Segmentation and Targeting: .................................................................................................... 10
Positioning statement: ............................................................................................................... 10
Market Size ................................................................................................................................... 11
Market Growth: ............................................................................................................................. 11
Market Trend: ............................................................................................................................... 12
SWOT Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 12
Target Customer Buying Behavior: .............................................................................................. 13
Marketing mix:.............................................................................................................................. 14
Product: ..................................................................................................................................... 14
Placement: ................................................................................................................................. 15
Pricing: ...................................................................................................................................... 15
Promotion: ................................................................................................................................. 16
Revenue: ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 19
Reference: ..................................................................................................................................... 20

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Executive summary:
TripGuide is the online Application which provides the travel solution to the solo travelers and
groups to travel around Bangladesh. Basically, it works from the scratch to end of trip such as
booking transportation, hotels to providing guide on the tour and taking the all responsibilities of
the tour for its clients.

It aims to provide a platform where people can have faith and security along with getting full
service. It also aims to be the number travel service solution provider in Bangladesh and expand
its business internationally with motive to bring smile in every face of its clients. It believes that
they are supporting happiness.

The business directly communicating with their clients through the online app. Customers visits
the app and get all the information what the need to get for availing the service and also get
consultancy for their best suits. If they are interested to avail the service, they have to book the
package through that app and advance money from bkash then the rest is TripGuides responsibility
to take them to places and give them the full experience of the moment. The company also have
physical office at old town to give the best support to its clients.

There are three spots where they take people to. The service now just available for Dhaka people
and there are two different segments one is budget package and another one is midrange package.
The company is now connected with their customer any many stages and doing promotions to grab
more customers.

Introduction
TripGuide is an application-based travel service. Our aim is to support the tourists to have a safe

and happy travel experience. The mobile application will provide all the services (Bus service,

Guide service, Hotel Service etc.), which are needed to go to a tourist place in Bangladesh. We

picked three most popular tourist places that are Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban and Sylhet at the initial

stage. We will provide two packages for travelling. These are categorized based on how different

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people enjoy their tour. These packages are Budget and Mid-Range for solo travelers and group
travelers. Budget is for the people who want to spend the least amount for a whole tour. Mid-Range
is mainly for the people who like to travel with comfort.

Goals:
The goal is to advance and expand our business further. To provide service all over the country

and to make the people know that only we care about their journey and we are here to make it

known as the biggest adventure of their life.

Mission
Our mission is to provide friendly and super easy adventure for people who love to travel.

Vision
Our vision is to provide service throughout the whole country. In addition, to reach every one

possible.

Marketing Environment:
A marketing environment is a set of elements closely involved with a business’ activities. These

factors have an internal or external influence over the company’s results, performance and growth.

There are two key elements to the marketing environment which are the micro environment and

therefore, the macro environment.

• Macro environment
• Micro environment

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Macro environment

A macro environment may be a set of external conditions that affect a business’ development

efforts either positively or negatively. These elements are considered uncontrollable and they have

an impact in the company’s overall performance.

Demographic Environment:

This environment is affected to the company because age, gender, occupation this are the main
factors of demographic environment. Mainly 16 to 28 years old people

our main target customer

Political:

1. Trip Guide always follow the Government policy to improve the business.

2. Can be affected by political changes and it can change business policy.

3. Government maintain the road network; Trip Guide always are conscious about tax and

pay the actual amount of tax to government.

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4. Set flexible work hour, salary and incentive system to the employees.

5. Follow the proper procedure to licensing.

Economical:

1. Trip Guide main services are multi premium bus and hotel services, so target customers

are high-, middle- and low-income people.

2. Inflation rate is high because day by day people are traveling more.

3. Economic rate of Bangladesh is increasing, also GDP rate is increasing day by day, it will

effect a positive growth of the business and raise in annual income.

4. In past traveling was a hobby but now a days it is very necessary for people to their daily

work, so automatically the business raises the annual income.

Social:

1. Consider and respect the social values and norms of the people from every background.

2. Provide positive influences services where customers change their behaviors.

3. Creates a very enjoying and memorable experience for our customers.

4. Use enjoyment material.

Technological:

1. It is the application-based services, so people feel easier to get services.

2. Use latest and modern bus and technology that reduce the cost.

3. Use technical networking system to get information easily.

4. Digital platform of communicating with the target customers.

Environmental:

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1. Trip Guide is more concern about environment.

2. Use modern engine bus services that reduce fuel gas and reduce wastage oil.

Micro environment:
Micro environment refers to the environment that is directly in the business organization and can

directly influence the regular business activities. It is connected to a small area in which the firm

works.

Threat of new entry- (Week)-

Here trip guide needs large amount of capital. Also, must follow the high government rules and
regulations to grow the business. In future, due to the more competitors customers switching cost
are high.

Suppliers bargaining power-(strong)-

Here trip guide has few suppliers but so many buyers.

Buyers bargaining power-(Strong)-

Here trip guide has many buyers. Also have alternative car option buyers can easily choose
alternative car. It does not cost much for buyers to switch to another brand of vehicle. Easy
procedure to get services.

Threat of substitutes- (weak) –

Trip Guide depend on the customer’s choice, have different type’s bus and hotel services. Always
provide the different offer to the customers. Low cost and high-cost services and all services are
more environmentally friendly.

Competitive rivalry-(strong)-

Provide competitive advantage services. Customers are loyal to get their services.

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Market Analysis:
Segmentation and Targeting:
The following chart is the proposed segmentation and the blue highlighted bars are the selected
primary target market for TripGuide, they are the individuals whom we will be targeting for our
solo travels:

Positioning statement:
“Traveling with efficient budget”

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We will charge affordable price & give the customers the better service than the market as we will
take all the hustle for them.

For the young people of Dhaka who want a hustle free tour support and total travel plan from the
scratch to the end in one platform, Trip’ Guide is one stop solution for them as it gives them one
platform to get everything needed for the tour in one app and plan all those for them.

Market Size
The domestic tourism market is showing signs of significant rise with around 70 lakh tourists
visiting various destinations in the country every year. The number of domestic tourists has
reached around 65 to 70 lakhs by the end of 2017, Bangladesh tourism statistics for 2020 was
217,899,993.90, a 44.27% decline from 2019. Bangladesh tourism statistics for 2019 was
391,000,000.00, a 9.52% increase from 2018. Bangladesh tourism statistics for 2018 was
357,000,000.00, a 2.59% increase from 2017. Bangladesh tourism statistics for 2017 was
348,000,000.00, a 62.39% increase from 2016. which was around 3 to 5 lakhs in 2000, according
to Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Dhaka. Beaches and hills
remain the two foremost attractions to the local tourists. Cox’s Bazar, the world’s longest sea beach
and a place of unparalleled natural beauty situated in the hilly region of Chittagong, is a favorite
destination of domestic tourists. The market had been growing gradually after 2000. There were
around 3–5 lakh domestic tourists in 2000, which has crossed the half a crore mark at present. The
number of tourists could exceed a crore in future. The market size growing trend positive. The
accommodation service is also reported to be developing around tourism spots, especially in Cox’s
Bazar, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and Sylhet.

Market Growth:
Tourism has been advanced dramatically in the world whereas we lag behind. The geographical
position, natural beauties, biodiversity, history, culture and traditions, climate, hospitable people
are the basic foundation of tourism development in Bangladesh which are in advantageous position
for us.

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Bangladesh Visitor Arrivals dropped 71.6 % in Dec 2020, compared with an increase of 121.0 %
in the previous year. The tourism industry accounts for 4.4% of the country’s GDP and is showing
a noticeable amount of growth every year. Bangladesh's Visitor Arrivals Growth rate data is
updated yearly, available from Dec 1982 to Dec 2017. The data reached an all-time high of 439.7
% in Dec 2015 and a record low of -25.6 % in Dec 2008. CEIC calculates annual Tourist Arrivals
Growth from annual Tourist Arrivals.

Market Trend:
The market trend has been changed from the past decade, as more and more people are having
sizeable disposable income. Before 2011 people only used to visit few places in Bangladesh like
cox’s bazar, Rangamati, Saint Martin, Sylhet etc. But after 2013 the trend has been changed people
are now vesting many new places. They are finding out many new places to visit on that area.
specially the youth and the students are now very much interested in solo trips and budget friendly
trips. Though Bangladesh does not get a big number of foreign tourists, it has millions of domestic
tourists who go for vacations often. According to different tour operators, the number of domestic
tourists rose to 70 lakhs in 2017 from 60 lakh a year earlier.
People are now focusing on hassle free trips and secured trips because they don’t want to waste all
of their times in all travelling procedure hotel booking etc., they want to explore the nature and try
to enjoy the tour as much as they can.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• User friendly interface

• Uniqueness.
• No similar app has been invented so far in Bangladesh so it will be very competitive in the
market.

Weakness

• Support during the starting period of the app.

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 • Using just with internet connection.
• Reaching only the audience who are using mobile devices (Limitation of target group)

Opportunities

• It is a one app solution.

• It provides the facilities like booking hotels, better security, good transportation.
• Only app which provides tour guides.
• Budget friendly packages for target groups.

Threats

• Internet problem
• Environmental problem.
• Political Issues
• Trust Issues
• Market Competitors.

Target Customer Buying Behavior:

Travelling is now become a trend for the youth. Youth want to explore all the beauty of the nature.
But people now a days always prefer to a hassle-free service. We are providing opportunities for
solo travelers and also groups an App based service and give better service in affordable cost which
make up unique. We are providing different packages to our target consumer at a low-cost price.
We are also providing tour guides to the travelers and all these things our consumer is greeting in
one app in their smartphone. Consumer just have to select his choices and rest of the things will
be done by us. So, we believe such facilities will make consumer interested on our app.

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Marketing mix:
Product:
Our product is the travel service for people mainly focusing on solo travel but secondary target
will be groups as well. The travel support will be provided through an online application and there
will be description and details of every tour package including budget and everything from scratch
to tour ends. There is two type of service package in every area one is budget and another is mid-
range.

Core benefit: Customers will be getting support for their tour what they need.

Actual product: An online application to give total support of travel including their security and
all.

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Placement:
Our physical office is situated in Old Town. Initially we will only focus on travelers residing in
Dhaka, later we start to extend the company we will include other cities as well but now we will
just serve to people who will be travelling from Dhaka to Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet and Bandarban. We
will also include other places in our business in near future but we will just focus on this as our
business is new and due to investment.

Pricing:
As we will be offering the customers the package for the travel from transportation to other plans
so we will give them a bundle package pricing. The total cost of the package will be here.
Following is the package for per person travel to different places from Dhaka:

For Solo Travel: (one day one night package) If they want to stay more days Hotel rent will be
added.

For Group Travel: For 4 persons (one day one night package) If they want to stay more days
Hotel rent will be added.

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Promotion:
Massage Strategy:

We will use tagline of “supporting happiness”

Promotional Vehicles:

Direct marketing: We will collect data of our target market and we will mail them the package
including the link of some videos on YouTube by our company which will be the best for them to
attract.

Digital media marketing: As startup company it’s really important to do cost efficient marketing
and digital media is the best platform for that. So, we will make the best use of it.

Facebook: We will use our Facebook page to be connected with our target customers and there
we will offer them and show them the best offer for them. We will do paid promotion on Facebook
to reach our customers. There we will make segments for different group of people and show them
different offers and videos related to their likings. Such as we will show the thrill lover the photos
of Bandarban and the tracking videos where people are making fun of the moment to them. We
will also to trend marketing to create buzz as people are more interested to engage with the trend.
So, we will give trendy post but relating with our actual service. We will also create a Facebook
group for people and add them where we will post blogs and vlogs by the regular travelers and our
tours to make them trust us. In every post we will give link of our App.

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Messenger: People nowadays are more engaged in messenger to chat with their friends so we will
boost our ads on messenger to keep them updated and connected with us.

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YouTube: This is the place where people come to see the vlogs and videos so we will have our
YouTube page to show the beauty of nature and the videos we made for online AVs also the travel
vlogs to attract them and make them avail our service.

Sales promotion: We will do sales promotion to attract the customers. We will give off season
discount to our customers. There will be percentage of discount but it will be decided based on
deal with our partners during off seasonal time.

PR & activation: this is the best way to communicate with customers. We will set up activation
booth in three different university campuses as they are our target groups. We will set booth on
NSU, IUB, EWU. JU, JNU, DU, AIUB & BRAC. In every campus there will be and activation
booth for three days where we will ask students to install our app get a screenshot and post it on
Facebook and tag 3 more friend and ask them to do so in the caption. At end day we will announce
a lucky winner by lottery system from the people who have participated in our campaign and the
winner will get a free tour from our company with those three friends whom he/she tagged. We
will be doing same thing the mentioned three universities for better engagement with our target
customer and also to reach them.

Revenue:
COX’S BAZAR

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Budget Package (4 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 13,500tk and Revenue 15,000tk.

Budget Package (1 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 3,375tk and Revenue 3,750tk

Mid-Range Package (4 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 27,100tk and Revenue 29,500tk

Mid-Range Package (1 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 6,775tk and Revenue 7,375tk

SYLHET

Budget Package (4 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 14,800tk and Revenue 16800tk.

Budget Package (1 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 3,700tk and Revenue 4,200tk

Mid-Range Package (4 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 28,700tk and Revenue 32,300tk

Mid-Range Package (1 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 7,175tk and Revenue 8,075tk

BANDARBAN

Budget Package (4 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 18,500tk and Revenue 20,500tk

Budget Package (1 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 4,625tk and Revenue 5,125tk

Mid-Range Package (4 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 35,800tk and Revenue 39,500tk

Mid-Range Package (1 PEOPLE) – Total Cost 8,950tk and Revenue 9,875tk

Conclusion
TripGuide is the online Application which provides the travel solution to the solo travelers and
groups to travel around Bangladesh. It also aims to be the number travel service solution provider
in some most attracted travel places of Bangladesh with motive to bring smile in every face of its
clients. Customers visits the app and get all the information what the need to get for availing the
service and also get consultancy for their best suits with total online based solution for them. It
will have its promotion to grab customers and eventually will expand first it will cover the total
Bangladesh market hen will try to go global.

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Reference:
Bangladesh Visitor Arrivals Growth [1982 - 2019] [Data & Charts]. (1970, January 1). Retrieved

from https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/bangladesh/visitor-arrivals-growth.

Bangladesh Tourism Statistics 2002-2022. (n.d.). MacroTrends.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/BGD/bangladesh/tourism-statistics
Enlivening the Tourism Industry in Bangladesh. (2016, August 4). Retrieved from

https://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/enlivening-the-tourism-industry-bangladesh-1264555.

Market Segmentation for Travel and Tourism. (2018, September 14). Retrieved from

https://www.gravitatedesign.com/blog/tourism-market-segmentation-101/.

Rahman, S. (2021, April 26). Tourism Industry in Bangladesh: A Possible New Contributor to
Bangladesh Economy. Business Inspection BD. https://businessinspection.com.bd/tourism-
industry-in-bangladesh/

Software, P. A. (n.d.). Travel Tour Agency Business Plan. Retrieved from

https://www.bplans.com/travel_tour_agency_business_plan/market_analysis_summary_fc.php.

The Financial Express. (n.d.). Bangladesh travel and tourism industry: An underpenetrated

sector. Retrieved from https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/bangladesh-travel-and-tourism-

industry-an-underpenetrated-sector-1509805469

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