Project Report on To evaluate consumer perceptions towards various promotional offers

IN

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTERS DEGREE IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Under the Guidance of:

Ms.Neha Jindal Manager Insights, Marketing

Submitted By:
Abhishek Saxena MBA 10/25

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES N.C. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ISRANA, PANIPAT SESSION 2010 2012

STUDENT DECLARATION

I, Abhishek Saxena, Roll No 10/25, Class MBA 3rd Semester, N.C. College of Engg., Israna, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra hereby declare that the project entitled To evaluate

consumer perceptions to various promotional offers.is an original work and the same has
been not submitted to any other institute for the award of any other degree.

Signature of the Candidate

PREFACE
Today is the world of competition. In every sphere of life there is severe competition and only those companies are running successfully who are able to overcome their drawbacks as well as their weaknesses and they are having a complete and immense knowledge of what their customers, employees need and want, and how much satisfaction one provides to its customers, employees. Prevention is better than cure is an old time textured saying. Project report is an integral part of the curriculum of Masters of Business Administration. Project report preparation is a valuable experience for management students. This exposes them to functional areas of management and also provides them an opportunity to be a part of the real corporate world. The report covers on To evaluate consumer perceptions to various promotional offers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The big task of undertaking a work is not singly possible indeed the project report could never have been accomplished but for the wholesome, inducement, since of accommodation and purposive guidance and indebtedness to Ms. Neha Jindal (Manager Insights Marketing) of Make My Trip.com. I take this opportunity to express sincere thanks to the management of Make My Trip.com for permitting me to observe the whole setup of the company & do the required Summer Training under her guidance.

A more general debt of gratitude is to for his valuable suggestions and guidance at various stages of the summer training. I also thank to Mr.Vamsi, Mr.Sanjib, Ms.Nidhi, and Mr.Gaurav Gaur (DMHR) for their help.

I would be failing in my duty if I do not thank my respected Head of the Department Mrs. PRERNA DAWAR and revered and learned faculty guide Mr. Rupesh Malik who guided me in this project.

I express my sincere thanks to my Parents, teachers & others for supporting throughout my summer training.

CONTENTS
Declaration Certificate Preface Acknowledgment Chapter 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Chapter 2 Introduction Overview of Industry as a whole Profile of the Organization Problems of the Organization Competition Information S.W.O.T Analysis of the Organization Objective & Methodology 12 35 6 78 9

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Chapter 3

Significance of the study Managerial Usefulness Objectives of the study Scope of the study Methodology Conceptual Discussion

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 22

Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Data Analysis Findings and Recommendations Appendices

23 37 38 40 41 45

Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1. Overview of Industry as a whole

Indias tourism industry is experiencing a strong period of growth, driven by the burgeoning Indian middle class, growth in high spending foreign tourists, and coordinated government campaigns to promote Incredible India. The tourism industry in India is substantial and vibrant, and the country is fast becoming a major global destination. Indias travel and tourism industry is one of them most profitable industries in the country, and also credited with contributing a substantial amount of foreign exchange. This is illustrated by the fact that during 2006, four million tourists visited India and spent US $8.9 billion. Several reasons are cited for the growth and prosperity of Indias travel and tourism industry. Economic growth has added millions annually to the ranks of Indias middle class, a group that is driving domestic tourism growth. Disposable income in India has grown by 10.11% annually from 2001-2006, and much of that is being spent on travel.

Thanks in part to its booming IT and outsourcing industry a growing number of business trips are made by foreigners to India, who will often add a weekend break or longer holiday to their trip. Foreign tourists spend more in India than almost any other country worldwide. Tourist arrivals are projected to increase by over 22% per year through till 2010, with a 33% increase in foreign exchange earnings recorded in 2004.

The Tourism Ministry has also played an important role in the development of the industry, initiating advertising campaigns such as the 'Incredible India' campaign, which promoted Indias culture and tourist attractions in a fresh and memorable way. The campaign helped create a colorful image of India in the minds of consumers all over the world, and has directly led to an increase in the interest among tourists.

The tourism industry has helped growth in other sectors as diverse as horticulture, handicrafts, agriculture, construction and even poultry.

Both directly and indirectly, increased tourism in India has created jobs in a variety of related sectors. The numbers tell the story: almost 20 million people are now working in the Indias tourism industry. Indias governmental bodies have also made a significant impact in tourism by requiring that each and every state of India have a corporation to administer support issues related to tourism.

A new growth sector is medical tourism. It is currently growing at around 30% per annum. Medical tourist arrivals are expected to reach one million soon.

Medical tourism in Asia, plastic surgery in particular, has grown rapidly. Medical tourism is approaching fever pitch at the tune of $4 Billion US, fueled largely by the cosmetic surgery market. One of the problems India has, despite having some world-class hospitals, is sanitation.

The tourism industry of India is based on certain core nationalistic ideals and standards which are: Swaagat or welcome, Sahyog or cooperation, Soochanaa or information, Sanrachanaa or infrastructure, Suvidha or facilitation, Safaai or cleanliness and Surakshaa or security.

1.2.

Profile of the Organization

MakeMyTrip.com: Indias leading online travel company Founded in year 2000. Empowering traveller with instant booking and comprehensive services. Started with India with the US-India travel market in focus. Expanded to US markets in 2005. A one-stop-travel-shop that offers the broadest selection of travel products and services in India. Lead by the vision and the spirit of each one of its employees, for whom no idea was too big and no problem too difficult.

Undisputed online leader, with more than 50% share of all online sales of travel market.

A dedicated 24x7 customer support through its offices in 20 cities across India and 2 international offices in New York and San Francisco, in addition to several franchise locations.

MakeMyTrip.com Products: International and Domestic Air Tickets, Holiday Packages and Hotels Domestic Bus and Rail Tickets Private Car and Taxi Rentals MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) B2B and Affiliate Services

MakeMyTrip

Type

Public

Traded as

NASDAQ: MMYT

Industry

Travel & Tourism

Founded

April 1, 2000

Founder(s)

Deep Kalra,Keyur Joshi, Rajesh Magow

Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India

Products

Airline Tickets, Indian Railway Tickets, Bus Tickets, Holidays, Hotels, MICE, Car Rentals

Services

Visa Services, B2B & Affiliate Services

Website

MakeMyTrip

History
Founded in 2000 by Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip.in had its beginnings in a small office in Okhla, New Delhi. Deep Kalra, formerly V.P. Business Development for GE Capital had the mandate to develop and partner new distribution channels for the companys consumer financial products. The internet appeared as an interesting choice with untapped potential and his role at GE Capital provided him the opportunity to be closely involved with the then nascent internet industry in India. Shortly thereafter, Deep began considering his entrepreneurial options, interested in a couple of sectors of the Indian economy, including travel. When he found that the travel industry lent itself seamlessly to the Internet and had tremendous potential as a sector, MakeMyTrip.com was conceptualized. Deciding that the Indian market was not yet ready for an online travel agency, MakeMyTrip.com instead concentrated on the US India travel sector. In a relatively short span, MakeMyTrip.com grew to emerge as a major travel website in the US to India sector, and today has an approximate 4% share of the NRI market, which is pegged at Rs. 4500 crore (USD 1 billion). With the revolution in the Indian travel industry caused by the emergence of the domestic Low Cost Carriers, MakeMyTrip launched its website for the Indian travel market in September 2005. In its first year of operation, it

was Indias largest e-commerce company. According to MakeMyTrips Company Profile, the company is on track to achieve sales of INR 2500 crores (approximately US$ 500 million) in the financial year ending March 2010, making it Indias largest travel company.

Management
A young company that has quickly become the leading travel service provider in India and the most trusted name in the industry, MakeMyTrip's spectacular success is in no small part due to the unblinking vision of its senior management team and the dedication of its employees. MakeMyTrip employs over 700 Trippers from the travel, tourism, hospitality and technology industries. Deep Kalra - Founder & Chief Executive Officer Mohit Gupta - Chief Marketing Officer Rajnish Kapur - Chief Innovation Officer Mohit Kabra - Senior Vice President - Finance Anand Kandadai - Senior Vice President - Outbound Tours Keyur JoshiCo - Founder & Chief Operating Officer Rajesh MagowCo - Founder & Chief Financial Officer Amit Somani - Chief Products Officer Amit Saberwal - Senior Vice President Retail and Business Development Rohit Hasteer - Vice President - Human Resources

1.3 Problems of the Organization

1. Main problem caused is due to its competitors which lessens the companys market share. 2. Regular updates were not been given to the customers. 3. Few customers were there who didnt get any offer.

1.4 Competition Information

OTA (online travel agency)

Funding

Investor Indo US ventures (owned by Vinod Dham) SAIF Capital Partners Reliance Capital, Norwest VC, TV18 Sequoia Capital India (Sequoia Capital and WestBridge Capital Partners) KPCB, Sherpalo Sabeer Bhatiyas factory! Rediff

Extra plugs Domestic + International flight ticketing, bus ticketing, hotel reservations. Domestic flight ticketing, hotel bookings bundled/packaged service. Domestic flight ticketing, hotel bookings bundled/packaged service.

Flight Raja(now called Via)

$5 million

MakeMyTrip

$10 million

Yatra

$5 million

TravelGuru Clear trip

$10 million $3 million

Domestic ticketing, hotels, cruises, holiday packages, corporate travel Domestic booking, hotels, place information Domestic + International flight ticketing, Holiday package, car rentals meta search engine. meta search engine though not too sure why Y! is not promoting this in India. meta search engine. meta search engine (for flight/train and hotel bookings)

Arzoo Rediff Faresearch

Yahoo Farechase Zoomtra Ghumo

Y! * *

iXiGo ezeego1 Travelocity India N/A

self funded Cox & Kings Sabre Holdings

meta search engine, read ourreview here. probably the most relevant meta search engine. Initial focus on hotel bookings. Domestic + International booking, car rentals, hotel bookings, Packaged deals Focuses only on travel related deals Main focus is on travel related deals has a tie-up with TravelGuru for hotel bookings. Travel booking for partner sites

Travel Chacha TripMela Meratrip Airdeccan.net Indiatimes

* * * AirDeccan Indiatimes

* = lack of information on investors (if you have any info, please let me know). Few interesting info (via livemint) Travel portals in India did business of $800 million (of the total $15.5 billion travel market in the country) in 2006. This is expected to increase to $2 billion by 2008. In 2006, India attracted 4.43 million foreign tourists; the same year, around 350-400 million domestic tourists are estimated to have traveled around the country Air passengers in the country increased from 22.788 million in 2005 to 32.172 million in 2006. Flight raja is already profitable and does business of Rs1 crore a day. On an average, commission from air tickets which account for the bulk of the business are the lowest and range from between 2% and 9%. For hotel bookings, the commission is much higher and varies between 8% and 25%

1.5 S.W.O.T Analysis of the Organization

1. STRENGTHS 1. Family support

2. Complimentary skills 3. No financial liability 4. IIT degree insurance 5. Ready capital

2. WEAKNESSES 1. Reluctance from clients

2. Traditional/orthodox approach for gathering information 3. No prior experience 4. No regular updates were given.

3. OPPORTUNITIES 1. Untapped market

2. 4-5000 prospective clients 3. Continuous business opportunities 4. Emergence of young educated politicians

4. THREATS 1. Arrogance of seniority

2. Limited potential Market 3. Completely unknown field 4. Uncertain returns 5. Big competitors like Thomas cook,sotc,dpauls & yatra.

Chapter 2 - Objective & Methodology 2.1. Significance

In Todays world especially in India which is one of the most favoured tourist destinations around the world, Travel sector is booming up on a very large scale. It is very significant for the organization to carry out surveys for its products as its success depends upon the Promotional Offers that it offers. The study is on to evaluate which promotional offers are working & which are not. As in any Travel Sector promotional offers play a very vital & essential role. The significance of this study can be recognized when the result of the related study need suggestions and recommendations to the similar situation.

2.2. Managerial usefulness of the study

India was always one of the favourite Tourist Destinations & is still also the one. So, in todays competing environment every single Online Travel Agency (OTA) is now trying to make its position even stronger in the competing world, especially with the agencies whom are India based. So, this study/survey was very useful on a Managers part especially for a Marketing Manager because he/she is the person who decides upon where when & how to do the publicity of the product. So, by carrying out this survey/study whatever the conclusion or suggestions is there it enables the manager to look more carefully on the sectors which are not performing well.

By this study the Manager comes out with which promotional offers are working & which are not.

2.3. Objectives

Research Objectives To evaluate consumer perceptions to various promotional offers.

To segregate types of promotions that work/do not work.

To evaluate perceived impact of the customer on the brand image.

2.4. Scope of the study

Its scope is for worldwide because whatever Promotions Make My Trip.com runs on its website is for most part around the Globe. This study conducted a survey which enables the company to improve its position even stronger in the todays competing world in respect of its Promotional offers.

2.5. Methodology

RESEARCH DESIGN A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the researcher purpose with economy in procedure. More explicitly, the design decisions happen to be in respect of: What is the study about? Why is the study being made? Where will the study be carried out? What type of data is required? Where can the data are found? What periods of time will the study include? What will be the sample design? How will the data be analyzed? In what style will the report be prepared? What techniques of data collection will be used?

TYPES OF DATA COLLECTED Primary Data: - This data was collected by making a questionnaire which was further done by to-one interviews. Statements based questions were there in the questionnaire. Secondary Data : - Some data regarding the company information was acquired from the companys website & Google. one-

SAMPLING PLAN A sampling plan is a definite design for obtaining a sample from the sampling frame. Convenient Sampling technique was adopted. In this method the researcher select those units of the population in the sample, which appear convenient to him or the management of the organization where he is conducting research. In this study convenient & selective sampling is done by the data collector.

Sample Size & Methodology Sample: 7 Region: Delhi/Gurgaon One-on-one interviews

Offers evaluated Holidays 2+1 Companion Offer 2 Night Stay Free Offer Fly Free Offer Free Stay Offer

Scratch Card Offer 1 Child Free Get Domestic Offer Flight Buy 1 Get 1 Offer (Only DOM) Cash Back Offer Reward Points Offer Discount Offer By Specific Airlines

Chapter 3 Conceptual Discussion (Theoretical Backdrop & Literature Review)

Promotional offers are a very much important part for any online travel agency, as most of the customers get attracted by some kind of promotional offers because it can be said that Offers are considered as backbone of the Online Travel Agencies. This Promotional offer not only sells its products but also motivates new customers to come again & again due to their previous experience. Nowadays, about each & every OTA is running its agencies through these Promotional Offers or we can say that Promotional Offers are playing the role of a backbone for the companies. So, its now day-by-day getting very tough for the companies to maintain its level upto the evergrowing needs of the people as their needs are not going to end , so , companies are nowadays trying to make its Promotional offers better day-by-day & also innovating new ideas to bring out new Offers to encourage the people to buy more & come again.

Some of the terms which are frequently used in the travel sector are as follows:-

1. OTA Online Travel Agency. 2. LOB Line of Business. 3. DOM Travel area within the country or Domestic Tours. 4. OBT Travel area covered outside the country or Outbound Tours. 5. FPH Bookings done for both Flights Plus Hotels. 6. FD Fixed departures.

Some of the related case studies done previously:1. MakeMyTrip Improves Its Conversion Rate with F5 Application Delivery

Controllers
Founded in 2000, MakeMyTrip is Indias leading online travel portal. Created to empower the traveller with instant booking services and comprehensive options, the company began its journey with the United States-India travel market. MakeMyTrip offers a range of best value products and services, cutting edge technology, and round-the-clock customer support. MakeMyTrip followed its success in the United States by launching its India operations in 2005. Having an agile IT infrastructure was vital for the company to meet its business objectives and gain an edge in a highly competitive market. With the F5 BIG-IP devices in place, MakeMyTrip decreased its system load by up to 30 per cent and reduced its drop-off rate by 4 to 5 per cent.

Business Challenges As the first and only comprehensive online travel site with real-time booking for flights, hotels, cars, and holiday packages, MakeMyTrip heralded a significant change in the way consumers purchased travel services in India. After its successful launch, the company has led the market with innovative products and services, consolidating its position in the market as a brand recognized for its reliability and transparency. The portal sells more than 12,000 flight tickets, 1,000 hotel room nights, and 100 holiday packages every day. MakeMyTrip attracts more than 3.5 million unique visitors every month. In financial year 2010, the company achieved approximate sales of Rs 22,000 crore (approximately U.S. $478 million), reinforcing its position as the market leader with 48 per cent market share. As business grew, so did the challenge of keeping the portal accessible to ensure a positive user experience. The legacy infrastructure that MakeMyTrip had in place struggled to cope with the added traffic. It was unable to manage the traffic efficiently, and it was passing a lot of the load, such as session and connection management, back to the server, resulting in high drop-off rates, says Sanjay Kharb, Assistant Vice President Technical Operations, MakeMyTrip (India) Pvt Ltd. We were also seeing heavy loads on the SSL server.

Having an agile IT infrastructure is vital for the company to meet its business objectives and gain an edge in a highly competitive market. To increase sales and revenue, it needed to increase user conversion rates. MakeMyTrip did so by delivering relevant content to its visitors, based on their profiles, preferences, and locations. Because the portal gets incentives from airlines based on the number of hits with bookings, MakeMyTrip was looking for a way to reduce the number of users who use the portal only to perform searches, which results in no revenue. Some users visit the site in the morning and come back again in the afternoon to search for deals. In order to convert these visits to transactions, we needed to track these cookies and users to determine if we should offer better deals or give them something on their return visits, says Kharb.

The overall purpose of tracking users is to generate more business. Just a 1.5 to 2 percent increase in conversion rate (number of transactions vs. number of sessions) can amount to a great deal of additional revenue. MakeMyTrips aim was to use technology to achieve the highest amount of revenue with the lowest amount of resources. Being a technology savvy and forward-looking company, MakeMyTrip wanted to optimize its resources and achieve higher return on investment on its IT outlay. To achieve these, it needed a single solution that effectively served multiple purposes, such as load balancing, SSL VPN, and caching. Solution Having benefited from using F5 solutions previously in his career, Kharb decided to consider F5 and a couple of other vendors to deliver the new solution. Each of the three shortlisted vendors provided a proof-of-concept based on MakeMyTrips criteria of solving the traffic bottleneck problem, viability, and meeting the portals long-term vision. We also wanted a solution that could give us technological enhancements such as web security and customizability, said Kharb. Following the proof-of-concept, F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) was chosen for its performance, versatility, and flexibility. The F5 BIG-IP platform is a cost-effective, intelligent Application Delivery Controller (ADC) that lets customers add on-demand capacity and processing needs as required by their users, applications, infrastructures, and businesses. F5 ADCs are also modular, allowing customers to add new functionalityeverything from web security to topologybased load balancing enabling faster response to changing business challenges.

Four of these Application Delivery Controllers were deployed at the portals two data centersone operational and the other as backupat the end of 2008. The new devices deliver the inventory application, which was developed in-house based on Open Systems.

Benefits The F5 solution has enabled MakeMyTrip to handle its increased traffic, provide a better user experience while increasing revenue, and be poised to use additional F5 technology for future initiatives. No more load balancing issue

According to Kharb, the companys web traffic problems were solved following the switch to F5. We no longer have load balancing or SSL server overload issues. The F5 appliances have a capacity of 20,000 transactions per second on SSL, which is enough for us, says Kharb. With the F5 BIG-IP LTM devices in place, our system load has decreased by up to 30 percent and there are no more failures at the back end. Drop-off rate went down by four to five percent. Higher conversion rate MakeMyTrip has also been able to track users and their search patterns using the F5 easy-to-learn scripting language, iRules, to customize how the BIG-IP devices intercept, inspect, transform, and direct inbound or outbound application traffic. This move has resulted in a higher conversion rate. Going forward As part of its plans to enhance its services, MakeMyTrip is looking to upgrade its existing F5 ADCs to advanced F5 ADCs. These come with quad-core processors that enable support for multiple BIG-IP modules, such as BIG-IP Application Security Manager and BIG-IP Web Accelerator, within a single unified device. We are also experimenting with F5 geolocation functionality, which uses the location database to map IP addresses to geographical locations. That way, we can identify IP addresses and intelligently deliver customized content based on where the user is located, said Kharb. F5 is not just a technology; its a cost-effective, unified solution. * Based on gross bookings for 2009, according to PhocusWright.

2. Case Study: Amar Prem MakeMyTrip Synopsis

Responsible Traveler is an initiative by Make My Trip, urging people to be more responsible when they go on a vacation. The initiative includes creating awareness about going green while on a vacation, prevent littering, guide to environment friendly destinations and hotels etc. In this latest campaign, we create awareness about the value of historical monuments and urge people to stop desecrating such places. When people are in love, especially the younger generation, they want to engrave their undying love for each other at a historical monument because of the places significance. At Amar Prem, people can select three historical monuments when they come to the site Taj Mahal, Humayuns Tomb and Charminar. After that, an exact replica of the monument appears on the website and couples can sketch on the image about how much they love each other. The underlying message of the campaign was to tell people to be more responsible when they visit historical monuments and that they could instead sketch their message on the virtual version rather than desecrating the actual monument. In just a few days, the site had over 1000 new scribbles every week, successfully delivering the message about vandalizing monuments in a fun and engaging way. Objective Encourage people to stop scribbling & defacing Indian monuments & heritage and travel responsibly. Strategy When Indian honeymooners go traveling & sightseeing, they often feel the need to immortalize their love on the walls of Indias historic-heritage monuments. Now in order to stop them it was clear that conventional communication techniques such as guilt trips or fear hadnt worked. So we gave them something we were sure they would love a workaround. A way to proclaim their love without harming Indias heritage.

Creative Idea Amar Prem was born from this insight. On the website, people could doodle on virtual monuments so that the real ones could be spared. People could select three historical monuments when they come to the site Taj Mahal, Humayuns Tomb and Charminar. After that, an exact replica of the monument appears on the website and couples can sketch on the image & leave love messages for each other.

Result and Recognition

Half a million clicks later, it was clear that people loved the idea. Thousands of doodles covered up the virtual monuments and the buzz from the activity got the attention of mainstream media with features appearing in Hindustan Times, Afaqs and more. The campaign was reciognized widely through the following awards won: Won a Gold at the Olive Crown Awards 2011 in the Digital Category Won a Gold in the Digital Media Campaign of the Year category at WAT Awards 2011 Won a Silver in the Best Integrated Online Campaign at BBC Campaign India Digital Media Awards 2011 Won a Bronze ABBY at Goafest 2011 in the Website (services) category Won a Bronze ABBY at Goafest 2011 in the Integrated Online Campaign category.

Chapter 4 Data Analysis

Q1.How was the experience?
Very Poor 0 Poor 0 Neutral 14.28571 Good 57.14286 Very Good 28.57143

Interpretation:- Most People have said that their last experience was Good but not Lavish.

Q2. How did you do your bookings? Offline Online

Interpretation:- Most People have done their bookings Online because they prefer to do their bookings via online as they consider it more convineint & time saving.

Q3.Did you contact the Travel Agency for anything?

Holiday Packages

Hotels

Flights

All

FPH

Hotels & Holidays

14.28571

14.28571

28.57143

28.57143

14.28571

Interpretation:- Mostly people have contacted the agencies for overall packages as they think contacting for overall packages rather then contacting for individuals is more cost saving.

Q4.At the time of booking did you get any offer?

Something Different

Tactics of Raising Business

Customers are influenced

Good on Co's Behalf

14.2857143

14.28571

28.57142857

42.85714

Interpretation: - Mostly people have said that offers are good on companys behalf because they think company offers these promotional offers just as they want to attract more & more customers which will ultimately help in raising the companys business.

Q6. What kind of offers do you like?

Spouse's Half Price

1 Night free

Guided Tours

Disc. On Meals

Disc. On Hotels

14.2857

42.8571

14.2857

14.2857

14.2857

Interpretation:- Mostly People like 1 Night free offer because they think it gives an extra night free of cost.

Q7. What kind of offers you find compelling? Free Night Stay Hotel Up gradation Free Stay Depends on Trips

28.57143

14.285714

28.5714

28.5714

Interpretation: - There are mixed responses about which offers People like because there are people from different aspects who want different things or we can say benefits from their respective purchases.

Q8. Can you tell me some offers or promotions in the travel category which you thought were totally useless? Child Free offer Can't Say None

14.28571

28.571429

57.1429

Interpretation:- Mostly People have said that according to them No offer is useless until & unless it is not worth , because people think that everyone gets some or the other benefit from some offer.

Q9. Promotional offers should be continued or not?

Yes

No

100

Interpretaion:- Everyone thinks that offers should be continued as it is good on companys behalf as well as for the customers because through offers they get something free.

Q10. What part of travel is more appropriate for offers?

Holidays & Hotels

Flights

Holidays & Flights

Flights & Hotels

57.14286

14.28571

14.28571

14.28571

Interpretation:- Mostly people have said that Holidays & Hotels should be more focused upon because whereas Flights are concerned they are now cheaply available whatever the destination is, so, OTAs should focus more upon Holiday & Hotel Packages.

Q11. Suppose there are 2 companies ABC & XYZ , ABC is offering many offers & XYZ is not offering any kind of promotional offers on its portal, so what do you think that both of these companies will be? Image Perception?

1 is new & 1 is branded

1 is well recognised & 1 is not much

Both are well established

57.14286

14.28571

28.5714286

Interpretation:- Mostly people think that 1 might be a new one & 1 might be a Branded because the company which is offerring much offers is new & is trying to make its stronger in the market as its a new one & will take some time to make itself competitive with other big players.

Q19. IF you had to pick top 3 promotional offers that you think are more relevant and attractive to you... what would you pick?

Fly free, 2+1, 2night free

Free stay, Fly free, 2+1

2+1, Fly free

2+1,fly free,free stay,buy1get1

Buy1get1, Disc. Offers

Buy1get1

14.28571429

28.571429

14.28571429

14.28571

14.28571

14.28571

Interpretation:- Majority says that Free Stay , Fly free & 2+1 companion offer should be top 3.

Q20. What are the brands that offer lot of promotions?

Flight shop, Clear trip, Yatra

Yatra, Clear trip

Clear trip, MMYT, Yatra

IBIBO, Yatra, MMYT

Yatra, MMYT

Yatra, Thomas cook

Yatra, D'Pauls

14.285714

14.28571

14.28571

14.28571

14.28571

14.28571

14.28571

Interpretation:- There is a tie between many brands because still there are much people who are not aware about all of the offers of a particular company.

Q21. Are you aware of the current Promotional plans that are there in MakeMyTrip.com?

Yes

No

100

Interpretation:- No one is aware about the current promotional plans because the main problem which the customers have faced with is that they were not been provided with any updates whether through Email or SMS , so, that they might have have purchased a new product after getting informed through updates.

Q22. (a) Are you also aware of any other promotional plans offered by other Travel Agencies?

Yes

No

28.571429

71.42857

Interpretation: - Only a few People are aware of the current promotional offers which are there in other Online Travel Agencies portal & here is also the same reason of no regular updates & there is also an another reason that people are not always interested in knowing the latest developments in the Promotional Offers Category.

Q22. (b) Which specific feature you liked the most offered to you by other Travel Agency?

Q23. Is there any suggestions that you consider that should have been in our promotional plans & in which plan, Please specify?

Chapter 5 Findings & Recommendations 5.1 FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

1. Through this study I came to know what real position does Make My trip holds in the market. 2. I came to know what people have to say about the company after taking services; we can say something like feedback. 3. I came know what offers really work & what does not work at all. 4. What worth does which offer holds in the customers mind? 5. What type of new offers should be introduced? 6. Which offers should be discarded from the company? 7. What kind of other features should be included in the travel portal of the company? 8. Which sectors are there which are still less reached or sectors with incomplete knowledge.

5.2 SUGGESTION AND RECOMMENDATION

1. Make My Trip should continue giving some of these offers like 2+1 companion offer , 2 nights free stay offer. 2. 3. 4. Offers are a very important part for Travel based company. People are motivated by many of these offers . Make my trip is reaching people at a very large scale, but still it have to maintain its loyal customers by giving them proper knowledge timely. 5. 6. Offers also raises companys business. Makemytrip should give regular updates to its customers via email or sms or any other way possible. 7. 8. Makemytrip should contact more to its previous customers for building a strong relationship. Company should think on the suggestions suggested by the customers because customers are the end users of the services.

5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. Many people were there who were not even ready to give the feedback through mails. 2. Many were there who were not even ready to listen about what kind of feedback they have to give. 3. Many were there who was not ready to meet face-to-face as it was the main part of my survey.

4. Some other work was also assigned to me earlier.

APPENDICES ANNEXURE-1

QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME: -

__________________________________

GENDER: -

MALE

FEMALE

ADDRESS: -

CONTACT NO.:- ___________________________________ AGE: ___________

Q1. Tell me about your last vacation, where you went... How was the experience?

Q2. From where have you purchased your last vacation package? How did you do your bookings?

Q3.Did you contact the Travel Agency for anything? Yes/No, If Yes then which? Only Holiday packages. Only Train bookings. Only Flights. Only Car rentals. Only Hotels

Q4.At the time of booking did you get any offer? Did it have any impact on your purchase?

Promotional offers in the Travel Category

Q5. When you think of promotional offers in the travel category, what all comes to your mind? What else? Moods, feelings Kind of offers tell me all kinds offers you are aware of? What else? Brands/companies offering the same Benefits Anything else?

Q6. What kind of offers do you like?

Q7. What kind of offers you find compelling or impacts your decision to purchase the product? Do you remember any offer like that? What else?

Q8. Can you tell me some offers or promotions in the travel category which you thought were totally useless?

Q9. (a) Overall, do you think the companies should continue giving these promotional offers/schemes or stop it? Why/why not?

(b) Suppose, a company stops giving these offers, so what will be the impact?

Q10. What part of travel (flights/hotel/holiday/bus/train/cab hire) is more appropriate for offers?

FOR EACH ELEMENT ASK: what kind offer do you think will be best for this?

Q11. Image Perceptions: There are 2 companies one that gives out lot of promotions & offers on their products like flights, hotels, holidays; there is another company that doesnt believe in offers and promotions at all what is the difference between the two? What kind of companies are these? Kind of people who would buy from each of these companies Which one would you prefer to buy from and why? Which company will offer better services Which company will sell more services Which company will people like you trust more

o o o o o o -

Details on Specific Promotional Offer

I have a list of promotional offer.. I will show them to you one by one... let me know what you think about them. READ OUT THE OFFERS IN THE LIST ONE BY ONE, FOR EACH ASK: Q12. What do you think about this promotional offer?

Q13. Do you like it? Do you think its a good offer? Why/why not?

Q14. What is the benefit it will offer you?

Q15.Does it motivates you to buy the product? To what extent? On a scale of 1-7, where 7 means, it completely convinces me to but the product and 1 means not all... how much marks will you give it? Why?

Q16. What kind of doubts. Apprehension people can have with this offer?

Q17. What kind of people would it appeal to/not appeal to?

Q18. If there is a company that is giving this offer, what does it say about the kind of company? A person say, Ram who has come from abroad hasnt heard of the company but hears about this offer, what impression will this offer create on Ram about the company? Ram kya sochega ki yeh company kaisi hogi?

REPEAT THE ABOVE SET OF QUESTION FOR ALL KINDS OF PROMOTIONS Q19. IF you had to pick top 3 promotional offers that you think are more relevant and attractive to you... what would you pick? For flights Hotel bookings Holiday bookings

Brands offering promotional offers

Q20. What are the brands that offer lot of promotions? Any company that you think doesnt offer much? Any company that you think gives out optimum offers not too much nor too less.

Q21. Are you aware of the current Promotional plans that are there in MakeMyTrip.com? If yes, than which promotional plan are you aware of & to what extent?

Q22. (a) Are you also aware of any other promotional plans offered by other Travel Agencies? If yes, then which are you aware of & of which travel agency?

(b) Which specific feature you liked the most offered to you by other Travel Agency?

Q23. Is there any suggestions that you consider that should have been in our promotional plans & in which plan, Please specify?

ANNEXURE-2 BIBILIOGRAPHY
WEBSITES & URLS:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. www.google.com www.makemytrip.com http://www.f5.com/pdf/case-studies/make-my-trip-cs.pdf http://www.webchutney.org/work/case-study-amar-prem-makemytrip/