Download File - MELANGE 2012

8dependent on the prices offered. 85% of Mercury Travel’s target customer has been the“Cash-rich-time poor segment” – the premium high end segment.CompetitionThe major competitors of Mercury Travels are Kuoni, Thomas Cook and Cox and Kingswhich offer related services. But MT with its interest to move into the online domesticbooking segment also wants to consider the online strategies and marketing methods adoptedby Makemytrip.com, Yatra.com, Travelchacha.com, Cleartrip.com, Travelguru.com andClubnet.com.Moving OnWith the advent of the internet dominated travel business, the company is looking out forideas with which they can tap the potential market in the domestic areas by improving theironline strategy. With the growing penetration of mobiles the company is also planning to getinto mobile commerce to reach out to more number of prospective clients and thus improvethe services offered. The challenge is to integrate the travel services in such a way that thecustomer sees value add in the products used by Mercury Travels. So for example, if MercuryTravels comes up with a travel application to be used on a Smartphone by its potentialcustomers, then what are the unique features in the app that will pursue the customer todownload ONLY your app.Mr Kakkar also ponders of possible ways through which the travel insurance business can beaugmented apart from the basic travel insurance services already provided by the company.With new companies and online portals coming up, what are the major challenges forMercury Travels? Could MT succeed against all odds and ride out the challenges smoothlysailing on the basis of their current business structure? What are the steps and strategies itrequires to act and react in the rapidly changing environment? What is the next obvious step?In addition to the above questions, the following 4 questions have to be answeredspecifically:-1) How can Mercury Travels develop its online strategy to appeal to an increasinglyinternet savvy target audience?2) How can it use its website and other marketing media to appeal to its alreadyexisting HNI customers?