ConceptBusiness ModelTarget MarketCompetitive AnalysisBrand PositioningWebsite DesignSearch Marketing PlanPromotional PlanBudgetConclusionReferences

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CONTENTS

In a world that has seemingly become automated, consumers are actively seeking click-and-go type services or one-stop shops that allow them to do everything all in one place and ideally, at the touch of a button. Moreover, while consumers want this process to be completely streamlined and overly accessible, they also value customization and a greater attention to personal detail. There has been a power shift from the marketer to the consumer, as the consumer has realized that his or her needs are always the first priority no matter the context or situation.

Among one of the most popular markets to truly flourish following the digital revolution is the travel market. Sites and services such a Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity have allowed consumers to streamline the travel process by booking flights, cars, and hotels all in one place. These resources have completely revolutionized the way many consumers choose to travel and have seemed to phase out the traditional travel agents that essentially provided the same service. These sites are not only accessible and easy to use, but consumers can now accomplish just as much as they once did by visiting a travel agency without leaving the comfort of their homes.

We have chosen to introduce MyJetsetter.com into the marketplace as the premiere online source for completely customized travel planning for groups, couples, families, or the high profile business executive. MyJetsetter offers each of these demographics a unique way to plan and customize their trip, all without the hassle of handling agencies and airlines. Why not let us do the work for you?

Upon visitation, MyJetsetter will begin with a series of inquiries as to the age range of the party, budget constraints, number of travelers, dates, travel preferences, and even hobbies and interests. From this information, MyJetsetter will formulate five proposed itineraries to choose from. From these options, the user can pick and choose which components he or she would like to swap out with others and which ones they wish to remain. Once the user is completely satisfied with his or her travel itinerary, all that’s left is to submit is the digital form, and MyJetsetter takes care of the rest. We will handle contacting the airlines, checking bags, booking car rentals, theme park passes, dinner reservations, and anything else involved in the travel process.

This company was founded for the sole purpose of taking all of the work and hassle out of traveling and focusing on making it an experience that the traveler can enjoy. Two weeks prior to departure, we will send a digital folder of everything needed to complete the experience, from parking permits to claim checks. All you need to do is pack your bags and go.

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CONCEPT

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We have chosen to adopt two business models to earn revenue and to allow for growth both internally and within the market. Using the brokerage model will allow us to retain a portion of the revenues collected from the consumer upon payment, similar to the way most travel agencies and sites like Orbitz and Expedia operate. We are confident that the volume of consumers that will utilize the site will be sufficient to what is needed to sustain the business.

We have also chosen to structure MyJetsetter by using an advertising model. This model will allow for a business-to-business exchange that will offer tourism companies additional opportunities to market their destinations while allowing our site to generate revenue. A site like MyJetsetter is an ideal place for tourism boards and entertainment venues to reach potential customers by destination. Marketers will be able to specifically target consumers through web banners and other forms of digital advertising.

BUSINESS MODEL

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Because MyJetsetter is so user-friendly, we are able to market the website to a diverse target audience. Within this target audience, we have identified four different segments to further concentrate our marketing efforts. Our main target audience is a married couple with children who could use the website to plan a hassle-free vacation. In addition, we have three secondary target audiences: business professionals, college groups and couples.

TARGET MARKET

Meet the Doughertys. They are the typical middle class family consisting of a mother, Trish, father, John, and four children, Molly, Sean, and twins, Colleen and Kelly. They are from a small town outside of Syracuse, New York and are frequently looking to escape the Central New York weather. With so many busy schedules, it can be hard to plan a family vacation. When every one’s schedules allow them to travel, they are sure to use MyJetsetter to plan their trip. The fact that they are able to book flights, hotels, forms of transportation, restaurants and activities all on one site, while making sure they keep it within their budget, means the Doughertys are able to enjoy each other instead of worrying about the forgotten details.

creativeprofiling

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creativeprofilingMeet Andy, a 38-year-old business executive working in the pharmaceuticals industry. Andy has been happily married for 12 years to his wife, Mona, with whom he has two children, Jeremy and Kayla. Andy works in and around the New York City area, while he resides in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Andy commutes to and from work each day, though he will often stay in the city should business call for that. He is used to jumping from hotel to hotel, but would much rather spend the time with his family as opposed to constantly booking flights and making travel arrangements. Andy travels typically four times a month, sometimes being gone for 2-3 weeks at a time. Work has brought him to locations all across the U.S., including San Francisco, Kentucky, Chicago and Orlando. Outside of his work, a majority of Andy’s time is spent making travel arrangements and planning for his next business trip. Ideally, Andy wants to be able to streamline this process to allow more time for him to spend with his family. By using MyJetsetter, he doesn’t have to worry about using his own credit card while on business trips, as all the hotel, dinner, rental car, and even outings are paid for right up front.

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Meet Devon and Amber, the two captains of the Boston College women’s lacrosse team. Each year, the team goes down to Florida to participate in lacrosse tournaments in the beautiful city of West Palm Beach, Florida. However, unlike the other major cities of Florida – Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Panama City Beach – West Palm doesn’t offer much to do during their free time. The team has found that once they are down there, it is difficult to find things to do for the whole team, particularly going out for dinner and finding a restaurant that can take 20 lacrosse girls on short notice. They would love to be able to call a travel agent to find out what the “locals” do when they have free time, but they can’t afford such a steep price. MyJetsetter has acted as a “travel agent” that is convenient and cheap to book plane tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, boating excursions, restaurant reservations, and even give suggestions of night life for college students. The fact that the captains can plan the entire trip and work out all the details before they leave allows them to focus on what is important - winning!

creativeprofiling

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creativeprofilingMeet Chloe and Mark. They are a couple of DINKs – dual-income-no-kids, that is-living and working in Boston, MA. Chloe is 25 and works as a nurse, and Mark is 27 and works at an advertising agency. They rarely have time off, so when they do, they want to spend it together. They used MyJetsetter to help them plan the perfect trip to Napa Valley, California, complete with flights, a rental car, hotel and dinner reservations, wine tours, horseback riding through the vineyards and even a few lazy days by the pool. MyJetsetter helped them tie up all the loose ends before they left so they could focus on each other, not the details.

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Online travel sites often use an e-commerce marketing strategy known as the “shopping mall” strategy, which provides consumers with a wide selection of travel services, all in one website. They offer more convenience for customers than searching and shopping at independent online stores, such as specific airline websites. In addition, this option allows consumers to find services from a wide variety of vendors – airline, hotel, and even rental car providers – rather than making several separate purchases. It also enables customers to feel more “safe” with transaction processing, security, online payment, and information storage.

MyJetsetter would be utilizing the same sort of shopping mall strategy that has worked so well for other online travel services. Leading the competition is Expedia.com, followed closely by Travelocity.com, and lastly Orbitz.com. As these travel sites are essentially the same, we will expand the current model to include activity suggestions based on location, audience demographic and psychographic information, budget constraints and more.

Expedia is based in the United States with localized sites for 20 other countries, including Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, and Japan. It books airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, and other vacation packages. As mentioned, it utilizes the “shopping mall” strategy, in which customers can have one-stop shopping on the Expedia website with all available options outlined for them. This strength is essential for Expedia, as consumers want to feel as though they are receiving the best deals, while still having the option to pick which deal they want. However, a major drawback of this plan is that as of late December of 2010, both American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines (a regional affiliate of American Airlines) are not sold on Expedia. The decision to no longer distribute the tickets resulted from a dispute over the degree of access both American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines believed they had to Expedia’s customers. Unfortunately for Expedia, this has resulted in a less-than-complete “shopping mall” for their consumers. Should consumers recognize that American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines are not represented on the Expedia website, they might choose a different travel source for their purchases.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

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Travelocity utilizes the same full-service business model as Expedia and Orbitz. It was initially developed as a subsidiary of American Airlines, which is ironic due to the fact that Expedia no longer has American Airlines sold on its website. Currently, Travelocity is the second-largest online travel agency behind Expedia. They have comparable websites in Canada, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries, Mexico, India, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, in 1997 they started the website AllHotels.com, which has been a major asset to the company, as it complements the Travelocity website. In 2004, Travelocity introduced “The Roaming Gnome”, which has been a staple in Travelocity’s advertising since, boosting sales significantly during the 2004 fiscal year.

Orbitz was developed as the airline industry’s response to online travel services such as Expedia and Travelocity. It was established through a partnership of major airlines, such as Continental, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines. However, this has caused some controversy as this collaboration meant that Orbitz collectively controlled 80% of the air travel market. In addition, Orbitz has faced major accusations as both Expedia and Travelocity have stated that Orbitz fixes their prices, and Southwest Airlines filed a lawsuit against Orbitz for trademark infringement and false advertising. Specifically, Southwest Airlines claimed that Orbitz misrepresented its prices and used the Southwest Airlines trademark without permission. As a result, in July of 2001, Southwest Airlines withdrew its fares from Orbitz. In addition, in December 2010 American Airlines pulled their fares from the website. Finally, Orbitz has been known to slip insurance fees into the very last “final confirmation” page of their website. Consumers who are not paying close attention may not notice the newly added price to their final total. Thus, what began as a great concept for a website has slowly sunk in profits due to these “scandals”.

After examining the current online travel market, we have concluded that there is an opportunity for a site like MyJetsetter to fill the void left by sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. We will offer a complete list of airlines, hotels and rental car companies, as well as expand to include other local vendors such as restaurants, theme parks and other activities.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS (con’td)

MyJetsetter will use a combination of product and service differentiation to separate itself from its competitors. Our product offers features that no other online travel service provides. Product differentiation highlights the benefits of these features and why they are superior to those of our competition. MyJetsetter accesses more travel-related vendors than any other travel site in order to make sure they are the top competitor in the online travel market.

Another way MyJetsetter differentiates itself is by the service that is provided. We have real employees reviewing the user’s submitted demographic and psychographic information to determine several potential itineraries. Although the results might not be as “immediate” as other travel service websites, the results are that much more specific to the particular consumer, thus creating a personalized experience. Within 24 hours, the consumer will have five itineraries to choose from, which will be complete with every last expense accounted for. This service is unmatched by any other travel site.

BRAND POSITIONING

differentiation

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In order to further differentiate our product from other trip-planning websites, we will need to have a clear and effective positioning strategy. Our positioning needs to communicate what makes our product unique and why what we have to offer is superior to that offered by our competitors. Our positioning strategy will highlight our company’s strengths of personalized service and our unparalleled access to travel-related vendors. It will be a combination of benefit, integrator and product positioning.

It is vital that we communicate and focus on the benefits of the product in our marketing. Our inquiries as to the demographic information, budget and preferences are features that are unique to our service. We take our customers’ ideas of what they want their vacation to be and make them a reality with just a few clicks. All our users have to do is think of their dream vacation and we deal with the vendors to make the necessary arrangements. The main benefit we offer from the aggregation of travel services is ease and convenience. We have created a one-stop online travel agent that gives travelers the power to view all potential options and then choose the ones that are right for them.

We can also position ourselves as an integrator. We go beyond the simple flight, hotel, rental car combination to give our customers the ability view many potential activities and choose the ones that are right for them. By bringing all of these services together we are able to take the lead in the online travel market. We then handle the planning by scheduling activities, making reservations, scheduling day trips and more.

positioning

Ultimately, we want our website to be a “one stop shop” for travelers and consumers to utilize as the ultimate resource for travel and planning. With the click of a few buttons, we want users to be able to fully plan a vacation to fit any budget or lifestyle. The interface and system is custom made to accommodate groups of any size and vacation packages to any destination. When all is said and done, the package is completely designed by the consumer, leaving MyJetsetter to do all of the dirty work.

WEBSITE DESIGN

strategy plane

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The main landing page for the site will allow users to login directly with their username and password. If you are a first time user, there will be a hyperlink directing you to a page where you can submit your registration information, if one chooses to do so. This will include basic demographic information for our records, as well as past experiences and information regarding travel and vacationing. This is to help us better understand, as an organization, where we are drawing our primary target audience from and where they have been and want to go. In addition, there will also be a place for users to gather more information on the site and what exactly it is we do, prior to registering. During the registration process, users will have the option to register family members or people they will typically be traveling with, so the system knows their preferences and demographic information as well. This way, when the user comes back to start a new itinerary, they will be able to click the names of the people they are travelling with and the system will automatically know their information. Once registered, consumers will opt in or out of receiving newsletters and promotions regarding travel deals and package options directly from the site.

Once you are a registered user on the site, you will be able to log directly on to the homepage, featuring your very own customized user interface. This homepage will highlight travel deals and locations pertaining to the interests that the user outlined in the initial registration process. The navigation will allow the user to go to their own personal planner, where they will be able to view pending requests and itineraries as well as information regarding past vacations and itineraries documented with the site pertaining to your personal account. In addition, the user will be able to view other vacation packages submitted from other users and see how others have taken advantage of the sites features.

By clicking the “BookNow” tab, users will be able to navigate directly to the customer profile, where they will fill out information regarding their desired trip and some basic travel information to help enhance the experience. The first screen will be a series of boxes to be checked off asking destination preference, time frames, travel options, dining preferences, as well as number of travelers and ages. Though most of this information will be registered to the users account, you have the option at this point to add users to your account. Once you go through the entire process, the system will generate a series of five itineraries to choose from. Your entire vacation will be completely mapped out, from dinner reservations to travel options. Users will also have the option to pick and choose certain aspects from each itinerary to compile their own master itinerary and ideal vacation option.

As part of the customer profile, a social media aspect will allow users to interact and share travel secrets and tips with each other. This interaction will will allow the site to be much more interactive and allow real users to share real stories about their experiences both with the site and on their vacations.

scope plane

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structure planeSplash Page

Enter Here

Landing Page

Login Learn More Create Account

RegistrationHomepage

ContactUsTopPicksMyPlannerBookNow

MyProfile

Itineraries Destinations Contacts

Families Couples Groups

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website mock-up

splash page landing page homepage

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We will use several optimization strategies to drive traffic to our website organically. We will use descriptive URLs, title tags, meta tags and headlines containing key words most often used by individuals planning their vacation online. The main phrases we will use will be:● “Vacation Package”● “Trip Planner”● “Cheap Vacations”● “Plan a Vacation”● “Travel Websites,” as these are the most common phrases searched for pertaining to our business.

Organic Search Strategy● Business Name: MyJetsetter● Domain name: MyJetsetter.com● Focus: Online vacation-planning tool that allows users to input personal information and create custom vacations

We will use words that are common for people searching for inexpensive flights and hotels. Because there has never really been a site like ours, people may not know that there is a site that can aggregate as many vendors as we do, so we need to get the attention of people searching for sites like Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline.

SEARCH MARKETING PLAN

Splash Page:Headline: MyJetsetter-Click to EnterTitle Tag: My Jetsetter- Plan the perfect vacation on a budget. Meta Tags: My Jetsetter is your one-stop, all-in-one vacation planner that uses information about you to create your perfect vacation, no matter what your budget.

Landing Page:Headline: MyJetsetter: The First Step to Your Perfect Vacation PackageTitle Tag: MyJetsetter Information - Bringing You Flights, Hotels and So Much MoreMeta Tag: Learn how My Jetsetter can plan every detail of your perfect vacation, start to finish.

Home Page:Headline: Welcome to MyJetsetter!Title Tag: Your Online Trip PlannerMeta Tag: Create your custom vacation package all on one website!“I know where I want to go”/Help! Where should I go?”

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● Utilize search engines, sponsored links, and contextual advertising to promote the website● Market nationally through key words primarily● Use Google AdWords Tool to research the effectiveness of chosen key words● Employ a broad match type, meaning it contains all keywords and variants● Develop sidebar advertisements:

o Online Trip Planner Taking the dirty work out of trip planning MyJetsetter.com

Keywords Global Monthly Searches Local Monthly Searches

Trip Planner 823,000 550,000

Travel Planner 135,000 18,100

Travel Bargains 9,900 8,100

Travel Websites 60,500 33,100

Discount Travel Sites 6,600 5,400

Vacation Package 1,220,000 1,000,000

Best Travel Deals 18,100 9,900

Discount Travel 135,000 60,500

Cheap Vacations 246,000 165,000

Affordable Vacations 12,100 9,900

Projected CPC● Purpose: to assess the effectiveness of Internet marketing● Formula:

o Cost per Click = Advertising Cost Number of Clicks

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Keywords Advertising Cost Number of Clicks Total Cost Per Click

Trip Planner $1.25 63 $0.02

Travel Planner $2.09 7 $0.30

Travel Bargains $1.25 3 $0.42

Travel Websites $1.25 22 $0.06

Discount Travel Sites $1.32 2 $0.65

Vacation Package $1.50 282 $0.01

Best Travel Deals $1.25 2 $0.63

Discount Travel $1.25 149 $0.01

Cheap Vacations $1.26 100 $0.01

Affordable Vacations $1.27 11 $0.12

Keywords Clickthroughs Pageviews Clickthrough Rate

Trip Planner 117 550,000 0.022%

Travel Planner 5 18,100 0.028%

Travel Bargains 13 8,100 0.161%

Travel Websites 161 33,100 0.486%

Discount Travel Sites 21 5,400 0.389%

Vacation Package 361 1,000,000 0.036%

Best Travel Deals 15 9,900 0.015%

Discount Travel 518 60,500 0.856%

Cheap Vacations 2,238 165,000 1.356%

Affordable Vacations 2 9,900 0.020%

Projected CTR● Purpose: to measure the effectiveness of online advertising● Formula:

o Clickthrough Rate % = Clickthroughs Pageviews (with ad link)

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Initially, before we have created our own email listserve, we will borrow email lists from the various airline companies we have partnerships, offering these po-tential customers with large discounts if they sign up with MyJetSetter within the next couple weeks. We hope this will encourage customers to not only sign up to receive our monthly emails, but additionally actually use our website for their next travel transaction. We will also offer these customers the option of “opting out” of future email promotions from MyJetSetter should they not wish to continue.

As our business grows, and more and more users sign up on MyJetSetter.com, we wish to send out monthly promotional emails to our users, offering special deals if they use the promo code sent in the email. These deals may inspire our users to travel, even if they had not initially considered the idea. With the ris-ing prices of fuel, two current trends have begun to occur: 1) People have stopped taking unnecessary road trips. 2) People have tried to find other ways to travel without using their personal cars.

Although we cannot pretend that the travel industry has not fallen slightly in the past decade, we do know that if we give special offers for our customers, they will continue to use our website and travel if they feel they are getting a “deal”.

In addition, during particular holidays or seasons in which travel is common - i.e. Christmas vacation, spring break, Thanksgiving - we will be increasing the frequency of our emails to our customers. These promotions will be specific for each user, based upon their past trips and who they commonly travel with (ex: family discount).

We also wish to implement a mobile app that will allow our customers to easily access their travel plans, change their travel itinerary, and even access a packing list that MyJetSetter will create for that specific customer, based upon where they are going and who they are traveling with.

This app will even send out reminders days before to print out plane tickets and confirmation emails, and should there be a travel delay or an issue with a par-ticular reservation, alerts will be sent directly to the customer’s phone.

PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN

email campaign

mobile application

Additionally, we wish to create a contest in which customers who use MyJetSetter to plan their vacation are automatically entered into the competition. Custom-ers are challenged to create a “MyJetSetter” commercial while they are on their vacation, and upload their videos to the MyJetSetter channel on YouTube. This contest will last for six months, giving customers quite a bit of time to go on their trips, film the commercial, and upload to the web.

Other MyJetSetter users can then go online to the channel and “like” the commercial in which they feel best represents the many features and benefits of MyJetSetter, as well as incorporates the fun and enthusiastic attitude associated with MyJetSetter. The top three commercials with the most “likes” will then be judged by the marketing department at MyJetSetter. The winner of the competition will be given one all-inclusive vacation for him and three other friends/family. We truly believe this competition will encourage a “buzz” about MyJetSetter, and through the involvement of our customers, drive many more customers to our website.

We will also be using our Facebook and Twitter sites to update our followers on the status of the competition and encourage more members to submit their commercials.

vacation competition

guerillaLastly, we wish to promote our company in the nontraditional sense - through guerilla marketing. Some of our ideas include:• advertisements placed in taxi cabs or limos that bring people

from hotels to airports

• advertisements on the bottom of security bins

• luggage tags with the MyJetSetter logo given out once people pass through security

• brightly-colored footprints on the floor of major airports that if followed, lead to a booth set up about MyJetSetter, complete with a friendly MyJetSetter employee who can offer more information about the company and give promotional deals to anyone who signs up for MyJetSetter on the spot

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BUDGETGuerilla Marketing- $5,000Google AdWords- $1,000Keywords- $18,250Vacation Competition- $5,000Miscellaneous- $5,000Mobile Apps- $9,000

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BUDGET

CONCLUSIONMyJetsetter compiles the widest array of airlines, rental car services, hotels, restaurants, theme parks, and other local activities of any online travel site. Users make their choices and we take care of all the planning and details. It is completely customizable to the user’s needs, whether they be honeymooners, families, large groups, business travelers or simply couples or individuals just trying to get away. We will communicate this by clearly identifying our product features and benefits in our marketing. Consumers have likely never seen a product as comprehensive as ours, so we will need to be explicit in our communications. All the user has to do is pack their bags and get on the plane. We truly are a one-stop vacation-planning tool.

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Expedia, Inc. Retrieved March 31, 2011, from http://www.expediainc.com/index.cfm

Orbitz Complaints - Orbitz access America insurance scam [Blog]. (2008). Retrieved March 31, 2011, from Complaints Board website: http://complaints-board.com/complaints/orbitz-c94598.html

Orbitz Worldwide. (2010). Retrieved March 30, 2011, from Orbitz.com website: http://corporbitz.com/

Travelocity Business. (2010). Retrieved March 31, 2011, from Travelocity website: http://travelocitybusiness.com

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REFERENCES