7Ps OF MARKETING &

SWOT ANALYSIS OF
IRCTC

Akhilesh Singh Rawat

Harish Kumar
Navendra Singh
Prakash Nevatia

INTRODUCTION..

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) is a Public Sector
Enterprise under Ministry of Railways & incorporated as a company in1999

Purpose of creation is to professionalize and manage the catering and hospitality services
at stations, on trains and other locations and to promote tourism through development of
budget tour packages, information & commercial publicity and global reservation systems

Company has launched passenger-services oriented business lines like setting up of Food
Plazas on Railway premises, Railneer', Rail Tour Packages and Internet Ticketing'
bringing great deal of professionalism into the operations

On Board Catering Services in Rajdhani / Shatabdi / Duronto and Mail / Express Trains
and Static Catering Units such as Refreshment Rooms, Book Stalls, Milk Stalls, Ice Cream
Stalls, etc. across the Indian Railway Network

What are 7 Ps in Marketing Mix

7 Ps OF SERVICE MARKETING

7 PS
PEOPLE

At present IRCTC have around 4500 employees. The

employees comprise of IRCTC Direct Employees, Deemed
Deputation absorbers, Deemed Deputations, deputations and
fixed term employees.
Agent Network across India

PLACE

Five Zonal Offices are working at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai,

Chennai and Secunderabad.

PRICE

Low cost as per Government in case of railway and others are

cheaper than compared to the other competitors.

7 Ps OF SERVICE MARKETING CONTD..

7 PS
PROMOTION

Advertisement, Subh Yatra Card, SBI Railway Card ,

promotional offers through debit card/credit card

PROCESS

Online processing, counter , Home Delivery facility available,

e-ticketing, SMS based ticketing , Android / Window based
Mobile platform ticketing ,

PRODUCT

Tour packages, Flight, Hotels, Tourist Train, Cab and Loyalty

Program , Railneer Drinking Water , Train food,
Non core product : Online shopping through IRCTC website

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Well developed web site with whole lots of information,

Counters and 139 customer enquiry service , round the
clock ticketing service , food Plaza and restaurants ,

IRCTCS RANGE OF PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Luxury Tourist Trains

Exclusive Charters
Tour Packages
Bharat Darshan Special tourist trains for the budget travel segment
Budget Hotels near important railway stations all over India
Cab rentals
Call Centers for rail & tourism related information
On-board catering on trains all over the IR network

Competition

Competition is from both private and public sector organizations

Other State Road Transport Corporations
Private Tours & Travelers like Cox & King, Make mytrip etc
Airlines (offering packages at reasonable lower costs)

SERVICES OFFERED

IRCTC provides secure, safe travel at affordable price

Bundle of Benefits are :
Confirmed reservation in train
Hotel accommodation
Free site seeing / experienced tourist guides
Cab facilities
Insurance policies (Travel)

IRCTC -TOURISM

TANGIBLE FACTORS OF IRCTC -TOURISM

Ambience: Infrastructure of bus, seating type (sleeper or semi sleeper),
DVD facility, AC, Bed sheets, Water bottles, warmers, and curtains.
TOURIST GUIDE: Uniform, Qualification, social skills
Search and experience qualities: Distribution of brochures,
Digital Marketing improves quality.
Physical Representations: logos, colors enhances
visual representation
Documentation: Displaying Quality assurance
certificates by service providers

SWOT ANALYSIS OF IRCTC

STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

Subsidiary of Ministry of Railways.

Government supported
Excellent Faith & Goodwill
Largest e-commerce website
Monopoly in Rail tour packages &
Rail Ticketing
Concession on booking of charters
Citizen centric services

Bureaucratic decision
making process
Poor Promotional activities
& public relation
Non existence of full fledge
Marketing team.
Attitude problem of employees
Lack of motivation in employees

SWOT ANALYSIS OF IRCTC

OPPURTUNITY

High potential in Tourism Sector

Increase in Individual disposable
income
Air Packages & Road Transport
Packages.
Booming Hotels &Resorts
Industry
Bids for Contract
Strategic Tie-ups for better &
improved performance.

THREATS

Leading web portals like Make

My Trip, Cox & Kings, Clear trip,
Thomas cook, Yatra etc.
Cyber Attacks like DoS
Withdrawal of government
support
Low fare Airlines
Private Small Tour operators
Increasing Inflation rate

Strategies adopted by IRCTC

Marginal cost pricing strategies are adopted to provide low cost services to
the customers in public interest.
Awareness has been created about a product or a service offered to a
customer through advertisements and their strategic placement
Making a good public relation with customer by Maintaining a service brand
with the public and thus generating repeat buyers etc.
Transaction costs are being minimized for benefit of the people. For ex.
Paperless ticket, SMS based ticketing etc.

Strategies adopted by IRCTC Contd..

Mobile platform is being used innovatively in service delivery

mechanism. Like android based app.
Attracted lots of channel partners for delivering the various services .
Technological up-gradation of the online ticketing is being done
regularly to meet customers expectations. For ex. During tatkal the
webportal is light.
Jago Yatri Jago Campaign drive to curb overcharging by service staff
- Toll Free No. 1800-111-139 & SMS on 9971111139
Contract of various Government Departmental canteens

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

ICWAI National Award of Excellence in Cost Management-2009in the

Public Service Sector - Medium category.
QCI- D. L. Shah National Awardon Economics of Quality on 19 th Feb, 2010.
"National Tourism Award of Excellence" by Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of
India.
National Award for E-Governance, 2007-08 jointly by Department of IT,
Govt. of India and Govt. of Haryana.
Best e-Governed Project G2C - Urban & Rural by Computer Society of India
in November, 2007.
Genius of the Web Award 2007 for Best E-Gov PSU Site by CNBC.
IRCTC Tourism Unit of West Zone bagged Best Value Leisure Product in the
leading Travel and Tourism Fair of India i.e. the TTF )TM 2008.
Indian Restaurant Awards 2014.