A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR WREST PARK - Essay Example

? A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR WREST PARK The Communication Strategy for Wrest Park – Part I Outline: Strategy – purposeTo bring in more supporters and loyal paying customers Target Audience This is a mass market communication for many audiences although there will be targeted send-outs to specific groups as well, those who are based as landscapers and designers, those interested in history and art, and those who just like to be in the outdoors. Message – Content, Structure, Format The format is a general letter (text provided in report) which also contains photographs in strategically-placed parts of the page. The text is the central part of the page. The Communication Message The communication message will promote the beauty of the place as well as noting several recently completed revitalization projects which have completed and would be worthwhile to experience. It will also point out other attractions which people would be interested in. How to Deliver the Message The message will be delivered by website on the Internet, Facebook, Twitter and other social media components, and through new media, such as emails and text messages with links, to registered customers through smart phones. Groupon can also be utilized as part of the coupon process for receiving the discount. Deciding Who the Messenger is The messenger is the Chief Executive of the English Heritage Organization who is an integral part of the operations for Wrest Park and would be the most likely person to act as the messenger. Analysing the Strategy Success The returns can be analysed through how many people sign up for memberships at the reduced rate and who purchase the Groupon coupon. Social media sites can provide returns on pay-per-click through ads and banner ads, as well as QR codes scanned, which lead to the website. The Report – Part II Introduction Wrest Park is located ? miles east of Silsoe which is halfway between Luton and Bedfordshire on A6. Wrest Park is considered to be the birth place of the traditional English garden and currently is a beautiful showcase developed over three centuries, consisting of French, Dutch, Italian and English garden landscapes, added on over the years. It is an inspirational journey through art in landscaping. There is plenty to see and do here at the park, including shopping, visiting the cafe for lunch, checking in at the visitor’s centre for all the places to visit on the grounds, including travel cart rental sign-up. Visitors can visit the Wrest Park mansion to see the home where the de Grey family has lived for over 600 years and also visit the formal gardens just behind the mansion (Wrest Park Online 2012). Building the Communication Strategy The goal of any communication strategy is to inform the target market about the product or the service, and in this case, it is the Wrest Park as a historically artistic landscape. The goal is to provide a communication which brings in more customers who will pay fees to enter and walk or ride through the park, shop and eat lunch at the grounds cafe. The money brought in will help sustain the operations in maintaining the park to its fullest grandeur as a historical archive in landscape art. The more people who know about the park and visit it, the more they will share their experiences with others who will, in turn, come to visit too. The park has many benefits and features for visitors and it is important to emphasize those (Boone 1999). The communication strategy is developed first with determining the target audience through research, which also includes members on the database, then deciding on the objectives of the communication message. The next part is designing the message through content, structure and format. Following that process comes the important part of deciding how to send out the message to the right target audience to maximize the return on investment (ROI). The last part is deciding where the message comes from. The communication must be accurate, timely and relevant (Jain 1997: Zikmund 2000, 2006). The Target Audience The target market for this communication would be those with interests in art, outdoor landscaping, a combination of art in landscaping, those who appreciate the historical value of seeing history in a living form, and finally, those customers who may just enjoy getting out of town to a place that is beautiful and relaxing, as well as entertaining. The target audience is the general national population (those who can actually drive or ride to Wrest Park) as a mass marketing prospect. However, the marketing can also be targeted to specific distribution venues whose customers may have specific interests related to Wrest Park, such as landscape designers, horticulture specialists, those who love gardening in general, and those who are members of historical societies (Ferrell et al 1999). As an entity that is always looking for funding, the customer base should comprise of those who were previous registered visitors, on-going supporters such as public and private donors as individuals and organizations, social media followers and those signed up for RSS feeds regarding the latest events. Local businesses, willing to display an ad inside stores and offices, will also benefit from added customers who come to the area and see those ads. Publicity notices in newspapers and appropriately targeted magazines, such as landscaping, horticultural and historical organizations, will also target the right audiences (Shimp 1997). Designing the Message through Content, Structure and Format The proposed method of designing the communication is to create a document page containing the message itself surrounded by high-quality photographs of the sculpture galleries, the newly refurbished Rose Garden, the Countess’s Sitting Room in the mansion, and the artistic landscape design covering 90 square miles. The purpose is to entice customers to come visit a place that is beautiful and relaxing (Churchill et al 2002; Little & King 2011). The message can be based on the upcoming Fall Season and the current status of the Renovation Project which includes the recent Rose Garden Renovation, completed in late spring of 2012. As an added incentive for coming out to visit the Wrest Park within the next 30 days, those who bring a coupon with them will receive a third off the regular price of ?8.50 for adults, ?5.10 for children between 5 and 15 years old, and the family price of ?22.10. There are also annual membership pricings for students, adults, seniors, adult and senior, couple and senior couple. Life membership options are Individual Life Membership, Individual Senior Life Membership, Joint Life Membership and Joint Senior Life Membership which can also be discounted if purchased within 90 days after presenting a coupon or a renewal code. Above all, the message should be friendly and informal, with a sense that Wrest Park welcomes everyone who loves gardens and beautiful landscaping. The Communication Message “From Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of the English Heritage Organization: A special occasion to thank our supporters and those interested in knowing more! Greetings to all our wonderful supporters over these last few decades! We want to let you know about the wonderful new renovations that have taken place since we first started our Revitalisation Project in 2010. One of our proudest accomplishments is the Rose Garden which has been recently restored to its former glory. You will love walking through this gorgeous garden to view all the different and beautiful rose varieties while experiencing the wonderful aromas of all the roses that have been carefully tended by our expert rose specialists. The restored French Parterre garden should be next on your list where you can see how it looked in the early 1900s, with intricately designed box-edged lawns, manicured to perfection, gravel pathways, and garden beds filled with flowers in many different shades of colours. The garden design was reproduced from photographs taken in the early 1900s and now it looks exactly the same again. Down the walk, you can pause and look all the way down the Long Water to Thomas Archer’s beautiful 18th century Baroque Pavilion and take a breather as you soak in the peaceful surroundings. If you want to experience the lush natural habitats that make up the 90 square miles of landscaping at Wrest Park, then we have guided tours for a nominal fee that will show you the grounds. Or, walk on your own on any of the many pathways that thread throughout the park. To celebrate these latest renovations, we are using this coming month to provide a 20% discount on all tickets and annual memberships as a show of our appreciation to loyal supporters. We invite new supporters to see the magic of Wrest Park and experience history spanning over 600 centuries, carefully preserved for all to experience. For those who have already purchased Lifetime Memberships, we will provide free lunches and drinks for two from our quaint cafe for two visits in the same month. We look forward to meeting you and showing you one of the most beautiful parks in the U.K. It is an experience you will never forget!” How to Get the Message Out – The Delivery System With the advent of the Internet, social media and new media, such as iPhones, iPads, and other interactive technology, marketing and communicating has many new venues for getting the message out easily, efficiently and at less cost. On Wrest Park’s website, extensive information is already provided about the park itself. A special page with the message, accessed by a link on every one of its other website pages, could show a QR code which, when scanned into an iPhone, provides the 20% discount when shown at the ticket office. These QR codes, along with banner ads, can also be placed on other websites such as gardening and landscaping organizations, historical societies, Wrest Park’s Facebook account, and through the Twitter account tweet –which proves a bitly link to the code and message on the website. For those who are part of the Wrest Park customer relationship management (CRM) system, emails, RSS feeds and phone texts can be sent out as well as the regular letter announcement by postage (Marketing Best Practices 2000). While the message itself concerns a physical location that many people in the U.K. can easily visit, the message is also viewed by an international market of consumers who have found the website directly when searching for places to visit, or by links from other places. Those who are planning a trip to the U.K. within the discount time period can also take advantage of it in order to see the park (Czinkota et al 1995). Deciding Who the Messenger Is The messenger, in this case, is Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage Organization. He was chosen because he has an important knowledgeable position in overseeing the daily functions at the park, yet can be considered less stuffy than choosing someone from the English Heritage Commission. The idea is to keep the message and messenger informal and friendly. Analysing the Success of the Strategy A goal of a certain amount of new customers can be set and this is one way to analyse the success of the strategy and campaign. Information gathered at various venues such as social media, Facebook, Twitter, and Groupon, can also be analysed against those who actually purchase memberships or purchase the discounted coupon. Those coupons sent by postage can be coded to the database and its current line-up of customers by a unique ID code. Another way to find out how the delivery of the message impacted the potential customer is to provide a small survey link on the message page, which will be part of the sign-up process and indicates where the customer received the link in the first place. Coupons from Groupon and from the ID-generated database, sent by regular postage, will be easy enough to tag for returns. 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