Marketing Mix Of Tripadvisor and 7Ps (Updated 2024)

The Marketing mix of Tripadvisor analyses the 7Ps of Tripadvisor, which includes the Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence, and Process of Tripadvisor. Tripadvisor is a public website that severs a worldwide market. With its headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts, the website, or rather a company, was founded in 2000 by Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, and Saman Mortazavi.

The website’s primary objective was and still is to make it easier for those planning trips, tours, marketing activities, and travels to get relevant information that will make their entire trip smooth and more accessible to plan. Today, the Tripadvisor website is owned by Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings.

On the site are travel-related reviews and travel reviews such as interactive travel forums. It employs more than 3,000 people and boasts 4.5 million monthly visitors.

About: Tripadvisor

• Type: Publicly traded company
• Industry: Travel guidance and media
• Founded: 2000
• Founders: Stephen Kaufer and Langley Steinert
• Headquarters: Needham, Massachusetts, United States
• Area served: 43 markets and 22 languages
• Current CEO: Matt Goldberg, effective July 1, 2022
• Number of employees: Over 85,000 people
• Major Products: Travel guidance platform, portfolio of travel media brands and businesses, including Bokun, Cruise Critic, and FlipKey

Tripadvisor Product Strategy

The website TripAdvisor focuses on travel-related products with worldwide coverage and worldwide access. Its main products include vacation rentals, hotel & flight bookings, Tours & Travel guides, and Restaurant findings. Suppose you visit Bali, Istanbul, or even the rich game in Kenya and Uganda. Yet, you are an American who has never been to Africa, Turkey, or Indonesia. In that case, Tripadvisor is one website that suggests places you should visit.

The site is rich in content and reviews of many businesses and tourist attractions that will help you make an informed decision. The website’s products ideally enable a potential tourist to get the best possible travel services.

The new Product Mix of Tripadvisor in 2024 is as follows (Source).

1. Travel Information and Reviews: Offers extensive details about tourist places, hotels, and travel.
2. Booking Services: Includes booking options for hotels, flights, and vacation rentals.
3. Restaurant Guides: Provides comprehensive guides and reviews for dining options.
4. Travel Advice: Offers tips and suggestions for travelers, including what to do and where to eat.
5. User-Generated Content: Rich in reviews, pictures, videos, and blogs contributed by users.
6. Complimentary Access: The platform is free for users, generating revenue mainly through advertising.
7. Global Reach: Available in many countries and accessible on various operating systems.
8. Small Workforce: Maintains a relatively small team of about 3,000 employees worldwide.

Tripadvisor Pricing Strategy

The company’s free service is accessible to its users, with its primary revenue source being advertisements. Users will, therefore, provide most of the content. Travel content is a vibrant attraction to most people, especially those in the middle- and high-income earning categories. In turn, companies with products that target such clientele category rent advertisement space from Tripadvisor, and this is where they make their money. Its revenue in 2015 was $1.492 billion.

Here’s a summary of TripAdvisor’s pricing and marketing strategy:

1. Free User Access: The platform offers free access to travel information and booking services, attracting a broad user base.
2. Advertisement Revenue: Primary revenue comes from selling advertisement space to businesses targeting TripAdvisor’s audience.
3. Dual Ad Revenue Streams: Includes income from ad screen time and click-throughs to advertisers’ websites.
4. Target Audience: Advertisers mainly focus on mid- to high-income families, a significant segment of TripAdvisor’s users.
5. User Convenience: Free access to users underpins a strategy that balances user convenience with effective revenue generation.

Tripadvisor Place Strategy

The company’s target client market is all travel industry enthusiasts who use any operating system device to seek online assistance and help regarding travel services. They have, therefore, developed application systems that are compatible with all the major operating systems, namely Windows computers, windows phones, android OS, watchOS, and iOS. The company operates websites internationally in China, Canada, Thailand, Turkey, Russia, Singapore, Portugal, Serbia, Mexico, Spain, Poland, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Japan, Greece, Ireland, the USA, and the UK.

Here’s a summarized overview of TripAdvisor’s place strategy:

1. Global Accessibility: TripAdvisor is accessible in various countries and across different operating systems, ensuring a broad and diverse user base.
2. Online Platform: The core of TripAdvisor’s distribution is its user-friendly website, optimized for easy access and navigation.
3. Localized Content: Availability in local and regional languages enhances user engagement and widens its market reach.
4. Integration with Partners: Collaborates with hotels, airlines, and local agents, integrating their services with TripAdvisor’s platform for a seamless user experience.
5. Focus on User Experience: Continuous improvement in service delivery and information access, maintaining TripAdvisor’s position as a leading travel website.

Tripadvisor Promotion Strategy

TripAdvisor is inarguably the largest travel site in the world as it has more than 465 million reviews of travel destinations and restaurant, hotel, and tourist attraction options in other countries.

One of Tripadvisor’s best marketing and business strategies is to make critical aspects of the site accessible for users to access and upload data that the company holds dear. This has led many travel-related companies to yearn to post their content on the site. As a result, many companies that need to advertise something online have found Tripadvisor to have a soft landing as it already has a large clientele base such companies are targeting.

Secondly, the company employs quality assurance measures to try and ensure that only authentic data and reviews from other businesses are posted on its site. The company doesn’t allow for automatic review posting but instead takes the reviews through a series of authentication processes that include confirmation of IP addresses and email addresses. Visitors are thus more confident using the site than most other travel sites.

The site constantly upgrades to make it at par with any advanced technological standards. This has made it easy for marketers to integrate their brand and other marketing strategies and tools as users also easily access the adverts, precisely what an advertisement company needs to generate evenue. Availing Tripadvisor reviews in twenty different languages is also a marketing strategy that has worked.

Some Recent Video ads and Print ads for Tripadvisor are:

Tripadvisor People Strategy

When discussing the “People” aspect of the service marketing mix for TripAdvisor, we’re focusing on the individuals directly involved more customers in the service delivery and those who influence customer perceptions and experiences. Here are several vital points to consider:

1. Customer Service Team: TripAdvisor’s representatives are crucial in handling inquiries, complaints, and feedback. Their efficiency, friendliness, and problem-solving skills significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.
2. Content Moderators and Review Validators: Given TripAdvisor’s reliance on user-generated content, the team responsible for moderating reviews and ensuring their authenticity is vital. They help maintain the platform’s credibility by filtering out fake reviews and inappropriate content.
3. Community Managers: These individuals engage with the TripAdvisor community, encouraging active user participation and interaction. They may organize events, respond to forum posts, and ensure the community is vibrant and engaged.
4. Product and User Experience Teams: While not directly interacting with customers, their work significantly influences customer perceptions. By designing an intuitive and user-friendly interface, they ensure that customers can easily navigate the site, find information, and leave reviews.
5. Management and Leadership: The strategic decisions made by TripAdvisor’s leadership, including their approach to customer service, community engagement, and platform development, set the tone for the company culture and operational priorities.
6. Partnership and Sales Teams: These teams work with hotels, restaurants, and attractions to list their services on TripAdvisor, negotiate advertising deals, and manage relationships. Their ability to offer valuable packages and promotions can enhance the user experience.
7. User Community: While not employees, the vast community of users who write reviews, answer questions, and participate in forums are crucial to TripAdvisor’s service delivery. They provide the content that drives the platform, helping other travelers make informed decisions.
8. Training and Development: TripAdvisor’s investment in training and developing its people ensures high-quality service delivery. This includes customer service training and ethical guidelines on handling reviews and personal data.
9. Cultural Diversity: Given TripAdvisor’s global reach, its workforce and management practices likely reflect diverse cultures and languages. This diversity can enhance the company’s ability to cater to a worldwide audience, understanding and meeting the needs of travelers from various backgrounds.
10. Employee Satisfaction and Retention: The level of employee satisfaction can impact the quality of service delivery. TripAdvisor’s efforts to create a positive work environment, provide career growth opportunities, and maintain high levels of employee engagement are essential for sustained service excellence.

Tripadvisor Process Strategy

The “Process” element of the service marketing mix for TripAdvisor focuses on the methods and flow of activities through digital channels by which services are delivered to customers. It encompasses the customer journey from discovering TripAdvisor to using its services and post-service engagement. Here’s a detailed look at the critical processes involved in TripAdvisor’s service delivery:

1. Search and Discovery: Users begin their journey on TripAdvisor by searching for information on destinations, hotels, restaurants, and attractions. The platform’s search functionality, including filters and sorting options, is crucial in helping users find relevant and valuable information.
2. Review System: A core process of TripAdvisor’s service is collecting, moderating, and displaying user-generated reviews. This includes mechanisms for submitting reviews, guidelines for content, and algorithms for detecting fraudulent reviews to ensure the credibility and usefulness of the information provided.
3. Booking and Reservation Tools: TripAdvisor offers direct booking capabilities or links to partner sites where reservations can be made for many listings. This process involves seamless integration with third-party service providers and clear communication of booking terms, conditions, and cancellation policies.
4. User Account Management: Users can create personal accounts to manage their preferences, save favorite spots, and access personalized recommendations. The account management process includes registration, login, profile customization, and privacy settings.
5. Content Personalization and Recommendations: TripAdvisor uses algorithms to personalize content and recommend destinations, accommodations, and activities based on user’s search history, preferences, and behavior on the site. This process enhances user experience by making finding relevant information and suggestions easier.
6. Customer Service and Support: TripAdvisor’s process for handling customer inquiries, complaints, and feedback through various channels (e.g., email, forums, social media) is crucial for maintaining user satisfaction and trust. This includes providing timely responses, resolving issues, and offering assistance throughout the customer journey.
7. Community Engagement: The platform encourages user interaction through forums, Q&A sections, and social sharing features. Modifying and facilitating these community interactions is key to maintaining a vibrant and supportive user community.
8. Feedback Loop for Continuous Improvement: TripAdvisor collects user feedback about their experiences with the platform and services listed. This feedback loop is integral to continuous improvement, allowing TripAdvisor to refine its processes, update its algorithms, and enhance overall service quality.
9. Partnership Management: Managing relationships with hotels, restaurants, attractions, and other service providers is crucial. This includes onboarding new partners, maintaining listings, updating information, and managing promotional content.
10. Compliance and Security: Ensuring compliance with legal regulations and security protocols to protect user data and privacy is a continuous process. This includes adherence to data protection laws, secure payment processes, and measures to prevent fraud and abuse.

Tripadvisor Physical Evidence Strategy

The “Physical Evidence” component of the service marketing mix for TripAdvisor refers to the tangible and intangible elements that customers use to evaluate the service. Since TripAdvisor operates primarily as an online platform, its physical evidence in email and marketing mix also encompasses the digital environment and other elements contributing to the user’s perception and experience of the service. Here are key points to consider:

1. Website and Mobile App Design: TripAdvisor’s website and mobile app’s layout, design, and usability serve as critical physical evidence. A user-friendly interface, attractive visuals, and ease of navigation enhance the customer experience and reflect the quality of TripAdvisor’s service.
2. Brand Logo and Identity: TripAdvisor’s logo, featuring an owl, and its green and white color scheme are instantly recognizable elements of its brand identity. These visual components help to build trust and brand recall among users.
3. User-Generated Content: Photos, reviews, and ratings posted by users serve as physical evidence of other travelers’ experiences and satisfaction levels. This content is crucial for new users evaluating whether to trust TripAdvisor’s recommendations.
4. Booking Confirmations and Itineraries: Email confirmations, electronic tickets, and detailed itineraries provided to users who book through TripAdvisor are tangible proof of the service transaction. They reassure customers about their bookings and the reliability of TripAdvisor’s service.
5. Customer Service Correspondence: Communication from TripAdvisor’s customer service, including emails, chat transcripts, and forum responses, also acts as physical evidence. The quality and tone of these interactions reflect the company’s commitment to customer satisfaction.
6. Social Media Presence: TripAdvisor’s activity on social media platforms, including posts, user interactions, and shared content, contributes to its physical evidence. This presence helps to humanize the brand and provides an additional channel for customer engagement.
7. Marketing Materials: Promotional emails, advertisements, and branded merchandise (if any) that carry TripAdvisor’s branding and messages contribute to the overall perception of the brand and its services.
8. Awards and Recognitions: Certificates, badges, and awards received by TripAdvisor or displayed by businesses listed on the platform (e.g., “Certificate of Excellence”) serve as endorsements of quality and trustworthiness.
9. Safety and Security Features: Indicators of secure transactions (such as SSL certificates) and privacy seals on the TripAdvisor website provide tangible evidence of the platform’s commitment to user safety and data protection.
10. User Testimonials and Case Studies: Published stories, user testimonials, or highlighted travel experiences demonstrating the platform’s impact can be robust physical evidence of the value TripAdvisor delivers to its users.
11. Partnership and Affiliate Logos: Displaying logos of partner airlines, hotels, and travel services on the TripAdvisor site can enhance credibility and reassure users of the breadth and quality of its offerings.

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