Study of consumer behaviour is very

important to understand the consumer

needs and perception about any brand or

product, it plays vital role towards the

success or failure of the brand in every

industry.

Consumer Behavior Study

Ishan Shetty (174) Dinesh Shamnani (172)

Introduction

Makemytrip Inc. is an Indian online travel company, founded by Deep Kalra in 2000. Headquartered

in Gurgaon, Haryana, the company provides online travel services including flight tickets, domestic

and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets. In 2011 and 2012,

MakeMyTrip made strategic acquisitions in pursuit of growth through new channels and markets in

Southeast Asia. Recently, it launched Travel Apps for mobile devices. The company has been

consistently recognised as one of India's best travel portals. In addition to a full-service online portal,

the company also operates through 59 retail stores across 37 cities in India along with international

offices in New York City and Sydney.

Products and services

Flights - MakeMyTrip provides flight tickets for travel in all major domestic, international as

well as low-cost carriers operating in India. It caters to travellers for both domestic and

international travel from India. Apart from this, it caters to inbound travel to India from

countries like US, Canada, Singapore and UAE.

Rail and Bus tickets - MakeMyTrip sells online rail tickets to its customers offering features

like return tickets with single payment option, flexi-search and automatic alerts and updates

on the availability of tickets. It also offers bus tickets across different categories like Volvo,

Air Conditioned, Non Air Conditioned, Deluxe, Semi-Deluxe and Sleeper vehicles.

Cab Service - MakeMyTrip introduced car hire services on its Indian website in May 2010. It

currently provides car hire services in conjunction with holiday package bookings.

Hotels and Packages (Holidays) - The Company offers hotel reservations in India and

international cities alike. There are over 13,000 hotels and guesthouses in India that can be

searched and compared online on the MakeMyTrip website. The hotels range from luxury to

budget accommodations. In November 2012, MakeMyTrip acquired My Guest House

Accommodation to increase the overall inventory for budget rooms and service apartments.

MakeMyTrip also offers a wide selection of hotels outside India. Through the acquisition of

easytobook.com, MakeMyTrip now offers access to more than 184,000 hotels outside India.

MakeMyTrip also offers group and customised holiday packages for popular domestic and

international destinations.

Mobile Solutions - In 2012, MakeMyTrip launched travel mobile applications (Apps) for

iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices. The app offers services like flight and bus bookings,

hotel reservations and holiday packages. It also caters to other post-purchase requirements

like generating e-tickets, making cancellations, tracking status of refunds and other travel

alerts. The travel itineraries available on the Apps can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

MakeMyTrip

Parent Company Makemytrip Limited

Category Website-online travel ticket

Sector IT and Technology

Tagline/ Slogan Memories unlimited

USP Affiliation with large number of tourism entities leading to easier bookings and effective online booking portal

4 P Analysis

PRODUCT

International and Domestic air tickets

Hotel Packages to different destination within India and international

Hotel booking in different destination both within India and International destination

Railway ticket

Private and taxi rentals

MICE (Meetings. Incentives, conferences and Exhibitions)

PRICE

Showing the best price offers the customers can get in different

airlines/railways/buses/cars.

Agents are not allowed to take extra commission.

PLACE

Internet marketing /e-business.

Dedicated 24X7 customer care support and they have offices in 20 cities across India

and 2 international offices in New York and San Francisco.

PROMOTION

Promotion in all social sites like Facebook, Twitter, You tube, Newspapers, Magazine.

Sales promotions:

By giving festival discounts,

Round trip tickets discounts,

Best deal of the month

Special offers to different holiday destination

3 P’s OF SERVICE MARKETING

PEOPLE

No direct relationship between customer and employee, it is mostly a self-service

marketing.

For the customers who don’t know internet handling ,travel agents are available (who

are like distributors/dealers)

24x7 customer care service.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Make my trip is offering best customer care service in support of Booking/cancelling

booking/Printing E-tickets/Checking Refund status/make a payment.

PROCESS

They follow easy process/simple process of booking tickets like filling up customer

name, phone number, address etc

Mode of payment is possible by any bank cards bank debit/credit cards.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Yatra.com is an Indian online travel agency and a travel search engine based in Gurgaon, Haryana,

founded by Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra in August 2006.

In April 2012, it was the second largest online travel website in India, with 30 per cent share of the

₹370 billion (US$5.6 billion) market for all online travel-related transactions., it also launched a

"holiday-cum-shopping card" with State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest bank.

Acquisition

Yatra.com has made three acquisitions till now—ticket consolidator Travel Services International

(TSI) in October 2010, global distribution system (GDS) provider MagicRooms.in, and Indian events

and entertainment portal BuzzInTown.com—all for undisclosed amounts. July 2012, Yatra.com

Acquires 100% Stake in Travelguru.com.

Brand Ambassador

In March 2012, Yatra.com announced Bollywood actor Salman Khan not just as the brand

ambassador for the travel website but also as a shareholder.

Earlier, Bollywood actor Boman Irani has also been the brand ambassador for Yatra.com online flight

booking services. In April 2014, Yatra.com announced to be the Official Travel Partner of IPL Team

Rajasthan Royals.

Goibibo is a B2C online travel aggregator, headquartered at Gurgaon, India. Goibibo is a part of ibibo

group travel organisation that was founded by Ashish Kashyap in 2007.

Goibibo.com was organically developed and launched by ibiboGroup in 2010. The platform enables

travellers to search, compare and buy from across categories and width of travel suppliers

comprising: air tickets, hotels & bus tickets. Goibibo can be accessed via mobile app and available on

iOS, Android and Windows.

Products and services

Flights - Goibibo enable consumers to search across major international and domestic routes.

Consumers can search, compare and easily book from hundreds of airlines. Goibibo has real time

integrations with all domestic airlines and international airlines.

Hotels - The travel portal offers hotel bookings under different categories comprising budget as well

as luxury. Customers can benefit from real time booking services,[24] instant refunds, cancellation

and rescheduling among many other simplified booking options.

Bus Booking - Goibibo also provides bus ticketing services to its consumers. They can book, cancel

and check refund status directly from the website or mobile app. The bus booking is powered by

redBus.in

Mobile App - One of the top ranked app [25] on iOS, Android and Windows Consumers can download

the apps for free and book flights, hotels and buses on the go.

SERVICE COMPARISON

OF

ONLINE TRAVEL PORTALS

SWOT ANALYSIS

OF

STRENGTHS

MakeMyTrip is one of the earliest market entrants.

Presence in international business scenario.

Secured and trusted channel for facilitating payments.

Attractive brand name and convenient website navigation.

It offers services like International and Domestic Air Tickets, Holiday Packages and

Hotels, Domestic Bus and Rail Tickets, Private Car and Taxi Rentals, B2B and Affiliate

Services

Loyalty programs with several leading banks and debit/credit card companies.

High marketing ability (viral campaigns)

Size and choices in each segment.

WEAKNESSES

General reluctance in customers to use internet for financial transactions like

booking tickets online.

Absence of offline centres for point of sales.

Initiatives are imitable by other portals.

Inability to convert the volume of search into sales.

Unable to bridge air and non-air travellers for customized solutions.

OPPORTUNITIES

Customers currently using traditional methods of bookings.

Offer better travel packages in line with customer expectation.

Untapped sections of international tourism market.

More margins in non-air travels.

Leverage on market leader position to capture increasing trends of online bookings.

Consumer is ready to transact more if trust is built and assurance is given by peer

consumers.

Social networking and mobile internet are increasing trends that can be tapped.

THREATS

Possible lack of co-ordination with tourism entities.

Present competitors having substantial market share.

Newly emerging online booking portals with better offerings.

Competitors are increasing focus on non-air travels.

Airlines getting together to form independent sites

Service charges causing consumers to use MakeMyTrip only for best deals.

Competitors are setting up more offline centres.

Bad PR can defame brand value

Tour operators going online.

STP ANALYSIS

SEGMENTATION

TARGET MARKET

Males living in metros

Age group – 24 to 44 yrs

Married

A monthly household income of over Rs 30,000

Families which are internet savvy i.e. who use internet beyond email, transacted on

the internet before.

Deal Hunters, Early Adopters.

POSITIONING

MMT positions as a single portal for all travel and accommodation needs. Its appeal

is reliable travel booking with Excellency.

MMT aims to position itself as total solution provider with convenience as key drive.

Learnings

This study has helped us to understand the consumer behaviour towards the online

travel booking portals.

It helped us to get awareness about consumer perceptions & experiences towards

the online travel booking portals.

How the perception and knowledge influences to the customer while it comes to the

planning for any travel trip for family or business purpose.

MakeMyTrip has very good image in the industry of travel booking online portals.

We found that people are more inclined towards MakeMyTrip than others travel

portals.

Customers use online travel portals mostly for family tour plan, railway ticket and air

ticket bookings.

Respondents find online travel booking as the most convenient method.

Customers hold a good image of MakeMyTrip in their minds.

It possesses the largest market share amongst online travel portals.

Results and Findings

Q1) Have you ever used any online travel booking portal?

As per the above graphical representation sample size for survey was 57 people and among them

75.4% respondents were using any online travel booking portal for planning family or business tour

by their own efforts.

It shows in this digital era in major cities more than 70% people are using online travel booking

portals so they can make their plans and tours flexibly and efficiently.

43

14

Number of Responses

YES (75.4%)

NO (24.6%)

Q2) If Yes, which of the following online booking portal do you use?

As per above bar chart we can see 43 respondents those who are users of online travel booking

portals are using multiple online travel booking portals and majority of people are using

MakeMyTrip as their 1st preference and very few respondents prefer yatra, cleartip and goibibo to

use for their travel booking plans.

Q3) I would like to know from the following for what purpose do you use

online travel booking portals?

As per above chart we can see most of the online booking portal users uses portals for Air ticket

booking, family tour plan and railway ticket booking. Some respondent uses online booking portals

for hotel reservation as well.

1

9

8

8

38

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Travelguru

Goibibo

Cleartrip

Yatra

MakeMyTrip

NUMBER OF RESPONSES

ON

LIN

E B

OO

KIN

G P

OR

TALS

Multiple responses

8

15

26

24

7

24

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Car rental

Hotel reservation

Air ticket booking

Railway ticket booking

Business travel plan

Family tour plan

Number of responses

Pu

rpo

ses

of

trav

el b

oo

kin

g

Q4) If No, which mode do you use for booking travel plan?

Followings are the few responses received from non-users of online travel booking portals

1. Visiting to Travel Agents

2. Offline procedure

3. Make a travel plan on my own and assemble it

4. IRCTC website

Q5) How frequently you make travel plans?

As per the above chart we can see majority of respondents which is 40.4% makes travel plans half-

yearly, whereas around 30% respondents plans their tour quarterly as well as once in a year.

16

23

17

1

Number of Responses

Yearly (28.1%)

Half-yearly (40.4%)

Quaterly (29.8%)

Monthly (1.8%)

Weekly (0%)

Q6) According to you what is the convenient method of booking of travel

plan?

As we can see in above chart majority of respondents prefer travel plan to be booked from websites

directly instead of involving third person.

Q7) Kindly assign ranks to all the benefits mentioned in terms of MakeMyTrip

portal (Rank1 being most important)?

Ranks

Benefits

Rank 1 (most important)

Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5 (least important)

Discounted fares 17 21 8 7 4

Good service 8 28 10 8 3

Customer care 8 21 23 1 4

Cancellation Policy 10 19 17 6 5

Booking overall process

8 26 11 9 3

As we can see in above table there are certain benefits derived from MakeMyTrip travel booking

portal, the responses about these benefits are quite satisfactory in consumers or respondents, most

of the respondents have given 2nd Rank, so it shows the satisfaction level of respondents towards

the certain benefits like discounted fares, good service, cancellation policy and booking overall

process.

2

6

38

21

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Others

From counter staff

From websites

From travel agents

Number of responses

Me

tho

ds

of

bo

oki

ng

Q8) Kindly rate MakeMyTrip on the basis of following key factors in

comparison with other travel plan booking portals? (1(low) to 5(high)?

Ratings

Key factors

1 (low)

2 3 4 5 (high)

The information on website is simple and clear

2 5 15 17 11

Lots of information can be searched

2 11 18 14 6

It is easy to use 2 4 18 15 12

Payment mode is easy and safe

3 4 13 18 12

Hassle free booking 1 11 16 16 7

Convenient than other methods

2 7 18 15 9

As we can see in the Table most preferable Ratings given by the respondents of MakeMyTrip online

booking portal users.

Respondents are very satisfied in terms of information available on MakeMyTrip website, easily

searchable information, user-friendly website, safe and secure payment mode available on website,

hassle free booking procedure and very convenient portal than other methods of travel plan

booking.

Q9) How likely would you recommend MakeMyTrip?

As you can see in the above bar chart responses are very average for recommendation of

MakeMyTrip website to other contacts.

Age?

1

8

10

12

43

8

65

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

(Never)0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Mostlikely)

Nu

mb

er o

f re

spo

nse

s

Ratings

42

14

1

Below 25

25-34

35-44

45-54

Above 55

Number of responses

Gender?

Above chart shows gender percentages of respondents in this survey.

Annual household income?

Above chart shows household annual income range of respondents of this survey.

40

17Male (70.2%)

Female (29.8%)

Number of responses

Below 3 lacs19%

3 - 5 lacs32%5 - 7 lacs

19%

7 - 10 lacs14%

Above 10 lacs16%

Questionnaire

Q1) Have you ever used any online travel booking portal?

o Yes

o No

Q2) If yes, which of the following online booking portal do you use?

o MakeMyTrip

o Yatra

o Cleartrip

o Goibibo

o Travelguru

Q3) I would like to know from the following for what purpose do you use online travel

booking portal?

o Family tour plan

o Business tour plan

o Railway tour plan

o Airline ticket booking

o Hotel reservation

o Car rental

o Other____________

Q4) If no, which mode do you use for booking travel plan?

Q5) How frequently you make travel plans?

o Weekly

o Monthly

o Quarterly

o Half-yearly

o Yearly

Q6) Kindly assign ranks to all the benefits mentioned in terms of MakeMyTrip portal (Rank 1

being most important)

Ranks

Benefits

Rank 1 (most important)

Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5 (least important)

Discounted fares

Good service

Customer care

Cancellation Policy

Booking overall process

Q7) According to you what is convenient method of booking travel plan?

o From travel agents

o From websites

o From counter staff

o Others_________

Q8) Kindly rate MakeMyTrip on the basis of following key factors in comparison with other

travel plan booking portals? [1(low) to 5 (high)]

Ratings

Key factors

1 (low)

2 3 4 5 (high)

The information on website is simple and clear

Lots of information can be searched

It is easy to use

Payment mode is easy and safe

Hassle free booking

Convenient than other methods

Q9) How likely would you recommend MakeMyTrip?

Never 0 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Most Likely

Q10) Age?

o Below 25

o 25 – 34

o 35 – 44

o 45 – 54

o Above 55

Q11) Gender?

o Male

o Female

Q12) What is your annual household income?

o Below 3 lacs

o 3 – 5 lacs

o 5 – 7 lacs

o Above 7 lacs