This chapter discusses marketing issues relevant to the MICE industry in Thailand. It outlines the current competitive environment and examines the key stakeholders in the industry, their customers, and the marketing distribution system. The chapter explores concepts like market segmentation, product positioning, differentiation, and the marketing mix as applied to MICE service providers. It also covers relationship marketing and how technology is impacting the industry.

1. Chapter 5
Managing the Market
for MICE industry
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2. Objectives
1. understand the contemporary Thailand marketing environment in
which MICE industry professionals must operate
2. identify customer needs inherent to both corporate and
association conference organisers in choosing a MICE destination
or venue
3. determine how market segmentation, product positioning and
product differentiation apply to the marketing efforts of various
service providers within the Australian MICE industry
4. understand the overall marketing relationship and orientation of
primary and secondary service providers to identified level I and
level II decision makers
5. appreciate how the issues of business objectives, capacity and
demand, price and marketing mix apply to select primary and
secondary service providers in the Thailand MICE industry
6. evaluate how relationship marketing can be conducted between
select service providers and MICE decision makers
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3. Outlines
1. Marketing the business travel and tourism product
2. The current market environment
3. Characteristic of Marketing
4. Marketing fundamentals; application for MICE industries
5. The stakeholders: a marketing perspective
6. Relationship Marketing as it applies to the MICE
industry
7. Destination marketing
8. The marketing action plan & sales
9.
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4. Introduction
• This chapter discusses contemporary services marketing issues as
they relate to the convention and meetings industry in Thailand. It
assumes that students will have an understanding of marketing
principles as they apply to service industries.
• Factors affecting the current conventions and meetings marketing
environment are outlined. The interface between the major
stakeholders, their potential customers and the marketing
distribution system is examined, including the methods by which the
main providers of the MICE service or product market their
activities to the key convention or meeting decision - makers.
• Finally the chapter explores the concept of relationship marketing
as it relates to the convention and meeting industry organisations.
4

5. What is Marketing?
“ Marketing is that function of event management that
can help keep in touch with the event’s participants
and visitors (consumers), read their needs and
motivations, develop products that meet these needs,
and build a communication program which express
the event’s purpose and objectives
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6. 1. Marketing the business travel
and tourism product
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7. Marketing the business travel and tourism product
• Marketing in business travel and tourism is a
complex matter reflecting the diverse nature of the
industry.
industry.
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8. 2. The current market
environment
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9. The current market environment
• Primary MICE industry service
providers (Stakeholders) in Thailand,
such as five-star hotels, resort, CVBs,
and purpose-built convention and
exhibition centers have faced increase
completion.
• MICE events, large and small, are being
booked in shorter lead times (i.e. within
2 weeks). This may be due somewhat to
technological advances such as greater
use of e-mail and Internet.
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10. The current market environment
• The use of advance technology offers
both benefits and many pitfalls for
marketers. On the one hand, such
accessible technology is facilitating the
dissemination of product information
more effectively and easily.
• Customers are becoming more
conscious of their product and service
options in purchasing a venue and site.
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11. The current market environment
• Talking about these issues influencing the MICE
industries, e.g.
1. “Political policies & commitment made by the
Political”:
Political
government resulting the MICE business strengthening;
other confidential indices e.g. safety, investment, etc.
2.“Economic environment MICE industries generally
Economic environment”:
relate to the levels of industrial development & the well
beings of the people at local, national, regional &
international levels.
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12. The current market environment
3 “Societal issues norms, psychographics or lifestyle-related
Societal issues”:
attributes, environmental awareness and other societal
issues have influenced the ways of MICE industries
operations & marketing
4. “Legal or regulatory issues
Legal issues”:regulatory implications might
include; immigration practices, tax or vat applications, local
legal and other relevant regulatory that MICE operators
are to follow.
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13. 3. Characteristics of
marketing
13

14. Characteristics of marketing
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15. Characteristics of marketing (cont.)
15

16. 4. Marketing fundamentals;
application for MICE industries
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17. Marketing fundamentals; application for MICE industries
1. Market segmentation
2. Product & service positioning
3. Product differentiation
4. Product features & benefits
5. The marketing mix
6. Promotional or communication channels
17

18. 1. Market segmentation
• Market segmentation involves grouping
potential customers within a market in such a
way that their response to the service
provider's marketing efforts will be about the
same.
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19. 1. Market segmentation
• The MICE industry is segmented in to
1. Meetings (Small and Large)
2. Incentive Groups
3. Convention Groups
4. Product Lunches (Exhibitions)
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20. 1. Market segmentation
• This has been evident in the marketing collateral material
produced, with one piece of conference information, or
one F&B price lists, provided for all SEGMENT.
• For example,
– Incentive customers are being “REWARDED for their
REWARDED”
REWARDED
productivity within their organization. And they generally
purchase up-market or five-star products.
up- five-
– Convention are a different market segment and have different
need. They have more need of large and small meeting spaces,
hold exhibitions and trade displays and undertake fewer social
activities.
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21. 2. Product & service positioning
• Product positioning involves the
development of an appropriate
marketing orientation, or service
and marketing mix, to occupy a
specific place in the mind of
customers within the market
segments targeted.
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22. 3. Product differentiation
• Product positioning is tired
closely with product
differentiation. Service providers
to the MICE industry strive not
only to meet the needs of select
target market segments, but also
to appear “DIFFERENT from
DIFFERENT”
DIFFERENT
their competitors in positioning
strategies.
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23. 4. Product features & benefits
• Is knowing its product or service, knowing it well
and approaching it from the correct perspective. A
correct perspective involves a clear understanding
of the product or service features and the resulting
customers benefits.
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24. Example of Product features &
benefits
PRODUCT FEATURE CUSTOMER BENEFIT
Fast, quality and
Four separate kitchens consistent service for
large group
Affordable accommodation
Located next to TWO hotels with convenient access for
convention delegates
Located on scenic waterway Memorable and relaxing
social activities
Professional and experienced No hassles with clients
staff coordination 24 hrs a day
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25. 5. The marketing mix and business tourism
• The marketing mix consists of those variables which
are controllable or heavily influenced by an
organization. They are divided into the 4 Ps,
1. product,
2. price,
3. place and
4. promotion
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26. The marketing mix (4Ps)
PRODUCT PRICE
Event venue Cost of ticket
Quality of food Cost of travel
Quality of entertainment Time taken to travel
Cleanliness of venue Other inconvenience
MARKETING MIX
PROMOTION PLACE
Adverting Ticket sellers
Public relation Tour wholesalers
Sales promotion Tourist information center
venue
26

27. 1 - Product
• The diversity of business travel and tourism makes it
difficult to generalize about the nature of the
product.
• The business tourism product does, however share
certain characteristics with the leisure tourism
product. These are illustrated in Figure
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28. 28

29. 29

30. 1 - Product
• Like leisure tourism it could also be argued that
business travel and tourism is not a
• product, but rather an experience. The nature of
this experience will reflect, for example:
1. the elements of the product
2. the ambience of the destination and the venue
3. the personality and experience of the business
traveller.
30

31. 2 - Price
• The value consumers place on the event experience
and are prepared to pay.
• This value determined by the strength of the need
the leisure experience satisfies and alternative
leisure experience offered by other events and other
leisure service providers.
31

32. 3 - Place
• Place or distribution is concerned with how business
travellers or tourists actually purchase the products
they need. There are several dimensions to this:
1. Customers can buy whole packages such as an
incentive travel package or individual elements such
as air tickets, venues and accommodation.
2. Customers can purchase products directly or make
use of the services of specialist intermediaries
32

33. 4 - Promotion
• To many people, promotion is synonymous with
marketing; it is the visual face of marketing.
However, promotion is simply one element of the
marketing mix, fulfilling the function of making
potential customers want to purchase a particular
product. Figure shows the different methods of
promotion.
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34. 34

35. How the Marketing mix fits in context of event organization
The Event Customer
The Marketing Mix
(Product, Price, Place, Promotion)
Organization’
Event Organization’s resources The Event Environment
1. Venue 1. Demographic
2. Plant and Equipment 2. Competitive
3. Staff 3. Political
4. Image and 4. Economic
5. Reputation of Event 5. Physical
6. Financial resources 6. Technological
7. Creative talent 7. Social/culture
35

36. 6. Promotional or communication
channels
• Now all that is necessary is to communicate those
benefits successfully to the target customers or
decision makers
– Professional marketer can communicate benefits through
a range of communication channels:
1. Collateral material 2. Advertising
3. Publicity and Public relations 4. Direct marketing
5. Direct Sales 6. Sales Promotion
36

37. 5. The stakeholders:
a marketing perspective
37

38. The stakeholders: a marketing perspective
1. Overview of the distribution
system
2. Level one: decision makers
3. Level two: decision makers
4. Primary service providers
5. Secondary service providers
38

39. Overview of the distribution system
Secondary Cooperative Primary
- airlines - CVBs
- tourist bureaus - purpose-built convention
activities
- wholesaler travel & exhibition centers
companies - hotels
- ancillary service - resorts
providers
Service Providers
Venue/destination decision maker
Marketing
Marketing PCOs
Level II - retail travel companies
Level II
orientation - incentive houses orientation
Marketing Consumers/end users Marketing
Level I - companies Level I
orientation - associations
orientation
- individuals & groups
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40. Level one: Decision makers
• Level one decision makers are an end user of
MICE products and services; they generally are
divided into:
1. “Associations”; may be small and local; national and
Associations”
international
2. “Companies”; profit-oriented organizations who might
Companies”
prefer to organizer either internal, external or
in/external activities
3. “Individuals & groups”; e.g. wedding, group parties,
groups”
etc.
40

41. Level two: Decision makers
• Those who have been authorized or contacted by
the level one decision makers in arranging &
managing MICE events, there are:
1. Professional Conference or Congress Organizers or
PCOs
2. Retail travel operations
3. Incentive houses; are companies whose business
objectives is to increase productivity from their client’s
employees through a variety of motivational and other
reward measures
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42. Primary service providers
• Hotels & resorts offering MICE facilities & services
• Convention & visitors bureaus; trying to provide
“one-stop-service” including:
– The price & availability of venues
– The arrangement of site inspection
– The preparation of bid documentation
– Special events & theme ideas
– Pre- and post-event tour options
• Purpose-built convention & exhibition centers
42

43. Secondary service providers
• Airlines, e.g. the campaign of Star Alliance’ s MICE
Promotions
• Tourist bureaus, e.g. TAT
• Wholesale travel operations
• Ancillary service providers; they provide tours and
transportation, tour escorts and guides, sporting
activities, theme parties, flowers, speakers,
entertainments, AV equipment and all parts of that go
together to make up the whole event
43

44. 6. Relationship marketing &
applications in MICE industries
44

45. Relationship marketing & applications in MICE industries
• It is an important for primary service providers to
target their marketing efforts effectively toward
those decision makers deemed to return the highest
benefits.
• Therefore, the focus is on building good
relationships, which will in turn generate profitable
transactions.
45

46. Relationship marketing & applications in MICE
industries
• Five different levels of marketing relationships that
can be applied to the MICE industries (Kotler, 1996)
1. “Basic”; the service provider sells the service & product
Basic”
but does not conduct any post-sales follow-up with the
customer
2. “Reactive”; the service provider provides products &
Reactive”
services and encourages the customer to call if they
have any questions
3. “Accountable”; the service provider follows up after the
Accountable”
sale to solicit service delivery and product quality
feedback
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47. Relationship marketing & applications in MICE
industries
4. “Pro-active”; the service provider follows up with
Pro-active”
the customer on a regular basis to obtain consistent
product or service feedback
5. “Partnership”; the service provider works
Partnership”
continuously with the customer and with other
customers to discover ways to deliver better value
47

48. 7. Destination marketing
48

49. Destination marketing
• Is a strategy that is particularly utilized by service
providers in the MICE industry
• Destination can be defined as places with some form of
actual or perceived boundaries, physical, political or
market-created; e.g. entire country, region, province,
island, etc.
• To create customer or decision maker’s mind a single
image or brand awareness of destination
• Figure out competitive advantages; e.g. natural resources,
industry professional, capital & infrastructure, etc.
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50. 8. The marketing action plan
50

51. The marketing action plan
Steps in developing the marketing action plan include:
1. Conduct situation or SWOT analysis
2. Product destination factor endowment profile/feature
and benefit analysis
3. Select target & segment (level I & II decision makers)
4. Conduct market research
5. Produce positioning and marketing mix strategies
6. Design market & sales action plan
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52. 9.
52

53. Meetings & Incentives
1.
2.
–
–
3.
•
•
•
53

54. Conventions
1.
2.
3.
4. PCO
54

55. Exhibitions
1.
2.
3.
4.
55

56. Summary
• Marketing in the MICE industry has increased in
importance over the last two decades as the industry has
developed. MICE service providers face increased
competition at a time when customer expectations and
product knowledge are increasing.
• All MICE customers are not alike, and to market
effectively, service providers need to aware of the
distinct differences that exist between the market
segments and to understand the specific needs of each of
these market segments.
56

57. Summary
• Once MICE service providers have chosen which market
segments they wish to target, they must position their
product accordingly. To be successful, they also need to
differentiate their product from the competition.
• The stakeholders in the MICE industry are many and
varied, so marketing efforts need to be highly focused
and directed. Two levels of decision makers can be
identified, to whom primary and secondary service
providers directs their marketing efforts.
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