The Marketing Strategy :
From the marketing research point of view, Priceline targets customers who need air transportation, accommodation, car rentals and holiday trip makers. The majority of Priceline’s customers consist of businessmen and tourists.
Priceline has a concrete strategic marketing blueprint. The company extends their range of product to most parts of the world. In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service.
In addition to getting all the best published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using Priceline’s TripFilter(TM) advanced search technology, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of Priceline’s famous Name-Your-Own-Price(R) service, which can deliver the lowest prices available. Priceline Europe operates one of Europe's fastest growing hotel reservation services through its Booking.com network of hotel reservation services, Activehotels.com and priceline.co.uk. Priceline Europe operates in 40 countries in 12 languages and offers its customers in Europe and the U.S. access to approximately 25,000 participating European hotels.
Design and Layout :
For online retailers, the home page corresponds to the sidewalk "window display" of a brick-and-mortar store. The use of colors, display of information, and ease of use are some of the main factor that needs to be taken into consideration in the creation of a website. In our research, the Priceline website spots a blue background which symbolizes trustworthiness, stability and loyalty. Clarity of text scores full marks as the white text used is a good contrast to the blue background. Hence, no problem arising from difficulty of reading.
Priceline also segmented its homepage layout into a few columns to minimize the need to scroll down. In other words, all the links and advertising are neatly fitted into the page without the need of scrolling around. This is an important aspect as customers will not be turned off by the confusing website layout.
The moment we opened Priceline website, we are able to search for flights, hotels, cars, vacation, or cruises. This is another strong characteristic of the website as it conveniently allows customers to buy their tickets or make bookings in just a few clicks. Furthermore, everything is straightforward, meaning customers do not have to surf around the links to find the appropriate booking section. Priceline also publish a handful of top picks discounted air fares and hotels with quoted price. Customers are able to select the discounted promotions if it suites their preference. The random promotions further reduce the search time for some customers.
The important building block of an ecommerce website is providing information. Priceline achieve this not only by providing booking service, but also provides information to customers regarding the different destination. These include the location of the hotels, tourist hotspots, guide around the city, Practically speaking, customers can plan their own holidays from this website as a lot of information are being provided. For example, if one would like to visit France, he can buy the air ticket, travel insurance, book an accommodation, rent a car to get around the city, and get information on places of interest as well as restaurants.
The combination of strong marketing plans and substantial information provided on the website, Priceline has been one of the leaders in providing discounted booking services. Along in this industry, Priceline consistently faces competition from other websites such as www.travelocity.com, www.cheapfares.com and www.hotwire.com.
