Volunteer Tourism Communication - Global Vision International - Assignment Example

? REPORT: VOLUNTEER TOURISM COMMUNICATION PLAN TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary....................................................................................2 2. Introduction................................................................................................3 3. Background Information and target audience.............................................4 4. Literature Review.......................................................................................4 5. IMC Plan.....................................................................................................4 5.1 Communication Objectives...................................................................5 5.2 Creative Strategies................................................................................6 5.3 Media Plan...........................................................................................6 6. Conclusion...................................................................................................7 7. References...................................................................................................9 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Global Vision International (GVI) is a volunteer tourism organization based in the UK, which mainly provides individuals with opportunities to volunteer abroad. With GVI, individuals can be able to get opportunities to work with different communities all around the world. In addition, individuals can be able to volunteer in different areas such as construction projects, teaching projects and even wildlife and terrestrial conservation. Therefore, the organization gives the volunteers the opportunity to work in areas of their interest (GVI, 2012). Although the volunteer opportunities seem very attractive, most individuals are normally discouraged by the costs of volunteering that are normally charged when applying for the programs. Thus, the company seeks ways in which it can attract more volunteers despite the high costs included. Therefore, the report aims at examining and giving the key strategies that can be used to communicate to the public about the volunteer programs offered by the organization. The organization can increase the awareness of its services by using the right communication strategies to deliver information about its programs (Alder, 2001, 12). For instance, the report gives strategies such as use of social media sites, television advertisements, and billboards. All of these are methods that deliver a wide range of information within a short period and to a large number of people at the same time. The report has also segmented its markets in a way that each person of the targeted population will be well covered. The market was mainly segmented in terms of age due to the fact that; the organization accepts volunteers from a wide range of age. INTRODUCTION The world faces a number of crises today due to economic, social and political problems. These problems are mainly experienced in the less developed countries where there are limited resources to solve different problems facing the country. Due such problems, organizations have started volunteer projects where individuals volunteer abroad while also touring different countries. Therefore, the organizations have to organize different volunteers and post them to different countries depending on their countries of choice. Therefore, organizations have come up with ways of attracting individuals to volunteer with their organization. Organizations make a certain profit for organizing these volunteer projects since; individuals have to pay a certain fee before they can be accepted to volunteer with the organizations. In addition, there are many organizations, that an individual can volunteer with and thus, the marketing management of an organization has to market its offers well in order to attract many volunteers. GVI is an example of an organization that is seeking to increase the number of volunteers that it sponsors to travel abroad while volunteering in different fields. Therefore, the organization seeks to develop the way in which it communicates its information to the public. Different strategies can be applied to attract volunteers into the organization but the method that an organization uses depends on its financial capability. BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND TARGET AUDIENCE GVI organization aims at increasing the number of volunteers that travel abroad through its programs. It has managed to use a number of strategies to make itself more marketable and well known in the society (GVI, 2012, 1). In the past, GVI organization mainly focused on attracting the individuals who were free and not studying or having something to hold them. Therefore, the organization mainly focused on methods that would be attractive to young people only. Using advertisement methods that were only appealing to young people reduced the number of people attracted to the organization. This is because; the organization did not succeed to attract aged volunteers who were mature and of old age. Thus, the number of people who volunteered in the organization was very low for a number of years since its start in the year 1997. It is for this reason that; GVI decided to invite all individuals to apply for the volunteering projects, ranging from 18 to 80years. Therefore, the key audience that is targeted by GVI Company today includes all persons that are within the gap of the given age. In this communication plan, the company will mainly target persons who will be sacrificing their time for a period of 10 days to two years. The company also focuses on individuals that are on holidays and would like to spend their time in a constructive way. This is because; such people will have plenty of time to volunteer in different fields without interference of the volunteer services. The organization is also targeting young people who love travelling to different areas around the world. This is because; such people will be able to volunteer in different countries that are in far countries of the world. In addition, individuals that love in different parts of the world will be capable of enduring the challenges that they might face while on their volunteer mission. GVI organization also targets organizations that can be able to sponsor individuals that are willing to volunteer but are not financially stable. This is because; when GVI organization creates a good rapport with such companies, the companies will be willing to support its operations by sponsoring many volunteers. This way, GVI will have increased the number of its volunteers. Such companies support the projects of the company by providing financial services such as provision of travelling funds and donations. This way, the profitability of the company will increase and it will succeed in its operations. LITERATURE REVIEW Different scholars have undertaken different kinds of research concerning the methods of communication that can be used to advertise the services provided by a volunteer company. Scholars also try to find the best methods that can attract a large number of individuals into the volunteer programs. In his research, Potter states that a volunteering organization should promote its services by increasing the variety of services that it offers. The writer states that when the organization has increased the number of services that it offers, more people will be attracted to participate in the volunteer programs (Potter, 2001, 13). In addition, he also states that diversification of services is very essential to the communication plan of the organization because; it will help the organization to be more competitive in the market. The organization will be able to attract more people as compared to its competitors who do not offer some services. Although this literature might be applicable to some organizations, it may not be very helpful to organizations that deal with volunteer services. This is because; organizations dealing with volunteer services mostly have similar services to offer. In addition, it may also be very costly to diversify operations in some organizations due to the few benefits derived from the diversification. Therefore, organizations will prefer to remain with their services other than to diversify them and incur extra costs (Tre?guer, 2002, 21). McLeish states that when the volunteering organization is a non-profit organization, it will first have to consider the needs of the target market before, marketing its services (McLeish, 2011, 14). For instance, an organization will have to consider the key things that will satisfy the needs of the volunteers. In addition, the organization will also have to consider the major services that will satisfy the needs of the society in which the individuals will be posted. This is because; the key objective of the organization is to satisfy the needs of the community and not to make profits. In addition, when the organization identifies the needs of the society it will be able to obtain the right volunteers to satisfy such wants. Therefore, McLeish asserts that any king of communication strategy can be applied, as long as it reaches a large number of individuals in the society. However, in my opinion, not all methods of communication can be used on the society. Some advertising methods may not even have effect on the target market. This is because; a volunteer organization cannot embrace communication methods that are similar to those of a normal sales business (McLeish, 2011, 31). Other communication strategies that have been suggested by different scholars include use of promotions and fliers. Others also suggest issuing of brochures to individuals in the targeted market (Potter, 2001, 12). This way, individuals will be acquitted with details of the organizations. However, some of the methods such as sales promotions will not be applicable because; the services of a volunteer organization are not appealing to all people in the society. Volunteer opportunities may also be expensive and thus; some promotional methods will put off potential volunteers from applying for the programs (Parente, 2006, 30). IMC PLAN GVI Company can segment its market in different ways in order to be able to cover all the targeted areas perfectly. For instance, the market can be segmented depending on the age. Since the organization mainly offers opportunities for individuals between ages 18 to 80, it can choose to divide the market according to age. This way, the segmentation will be made up one group of individuals below forty years of age and another group of individuals who are above forty years of age. Thus, individuals above the age of forty years will be approached in a different manner as compared to individuals under the age of forty years. On the other hand, the organization can also segment its market according to the ability to pay. Thereby, different advertising methods can be used for the different individuals in the market. COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES GIV Company can conduct a communication campaign with different objectives depending on the size of the targeted market and the situation of the market. For instance; if it has no volunteers completely, the key objective of the communication plan will be to attract volunteers to the organization. However, since in this case the organization is already established, its key objective will be to increase the number of volunteers that register in its programs. Another communication objective in this case will be to increase the brand awareness of the company’s services (Ferguson, 1999, 10). This is because; most individuals are not aware of the services that the organization offers. In addition, individuals that know tend to think that the organization only offers volunteer opportunities with no other benefits. Therefore, the campaign will mainly focus on educating individuals on other benefits that come with volunteering such as tourism to different parts of the world and interaction with different cultures. The organization will also focus on changing consumers’ attitude towards volunteering. This is because; most consumers have a negative attitude concerning volunteering. Most people tend to think that volunteering wastes a lot of time since it has no pay. Thus, the communication will focus on helping such individuals to see the other side of volunteering (Potter, 2001, 12). CREATIVE STRATEGIES In this communication plan, the organization will use different strategies in order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives. For instance, the organization can employ personal promotion staff to visit the target market and speak to the people in person. This will be a very effective strategy to attract new volunteers because; they will be given the full information concerning the volunteer programs (DiSanza & Legge, 2005, 32). Personal communication with the people will also be very beneficial since; it will help them to ask all their questions and obtain immediate answers from the promoting personnel. Low cost operation is also a strategy that can be applied by the organization to ensure that it achieves its objectives. The organization should ensure that the benefits derived from the promotion are more than the costs used for the communication plan. Involvement is also another strategy that will be very crucial in ensuring that many individuals are attracted to the volunteer opportunities. The organization should ensure that it involves the public fully in its communication plan (Ferguson, 1999, 16). Thus, when the public is involved in the organization’s activities, it will also be involved in the volunteer programs. In addition, involving the public will also help in achieving the objective of increasing brand awareness. MEDIA PLAN The communication plan for GVI organization will use a number of media resources to achieve the set objectives. For instance, the organization can use television advertisements (Alder, 2001, 11). This will be a program that will support the creative strategies because; it will reach a large number of individuals in the targeted market. In addition, use of television advertisements also raises the curiosity of the public because the advertisement will make use of images and photos. Thus; with these images, customers will be easily convinced to apply for the volunteer programs. The communication plan can also embrace use of social media networks as a media vehicle to support the creative strategies described. Social media sites such as the facebook are very effective and efficient in increasing awareness about different issues and attracting individuals form the targeted population (Hackley, 2005, 20). For instance, the organization could open a facebook page where it can invite different individuals to join the page. This way all the people who join the page will get information about the volunteer programs offered by the organization. Use of social media sites is also very effective in attracting young people to apply for the volunteering programs. This is because; young people mostly use social media sites. The organization can also use websites and blogs to attract the other generation of individuals that does not use facebook or twitter. This way, old people will also be attracted to apply for the volunteer programs. Social media sites are very beneficial and advantageous because; they reach a large number of individuals, even those who are located at far places from the organization’s location (Parente, 2006, 23). Other types of media that the organization can use to attract individuals to its volunteer programs include billboards, print media and radios. GVI Company can come with very beautiful pictures which it can place on billboards or produce on fliers using the print media. On the other hand, radios can also be used to convey information to individuals who do not own televisions. Thus this way, the organization will be able to reach each person in its target population (Austin & Pinkleton, 2000, 43). CONCLUSION In conclusion, it is clear that as a volunteer tourism organization, GVI will be able to attract more volunteers in its different fields. The company will also increase the quality of its volunteer services if it uses the right communication strategies. As a volunteer organization, it will need to embrace methods that are very convincing in order to attract individuals. The organization also needs to make it known to the volunteers that the programs do not only involve volunteering, but they also include tourism through different parts of the world. In addition, GVI Company will also need to integrate different promotion methods in order to reach people that are located in different parts of the world. The communication plan also needs to be economical in order for the organization to meet its goals effectively. This is because; when the costs incurred are more than the benefits, then the communication plan is rendered ineffective. References Alder, H. (2001). Mind to mind marketing: Communicating with 21st-century customers. London: Kogan Page. Austin, E. W., & Pinkleton, B. E. (2000). Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication programs. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Communication Plan 1997-98. (1998). Canberra, A.C.T.: The Dept. DiSanza, J. R., & Legge, N. J. (2005). Business and professional communication: Plans, processes, and performance. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Ferguson, S. D. (1999). Communication planning: An integrated approach. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Hackley, C. E. (2005). Advertising and promotion: Communicating brands. London: SAGE Publications. McLeish, B. (2011). Successful marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations: Winning in the age of the elusive donor. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Parente, D. (2006). Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to marketing communication plans. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western. Potter, L. (2001). The Communication Plan: The Heart of Strategic Communication. San Francisco, CA: International Association of Business Communicators. Tre?guer, J. -P. (2002). 50+ marketing: Marketing, communicating, and selling to the over 50s generations. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Read More