Marketing strategies being implemented by Contiki Australia - Case Study Example

? Case Study Question The case study discussed about the marketing strategies that have been implemented by Contiki Australia in order to offer superior value to the target customers. This answer will determine the images that are portrayed by Contiki to the target audiences. Introduction Contiki Australia is a coach tour organization established in the year 1962. Major aim of the organization is to provide organised fun and adventurous tours targeted for the youth aged between 18 and 35. This part of the essay will determine the image of Contiki. Discussion The organization provides their target customers the value of an adventurous and organized trip enriched with tours, activities and flexible optional excursions. The image the organization portrays to its group of target customers is of an organization that provides young and energetic individual hassle free tours full of adventures and fun. The organization provides diversified services to its customers. Travel is known as high involvement activity. The company website of Contiki provides key information on its travel tips, tours, videos, FAQs, virtual community, newsletters and competitions. The organization reviewed several aspects in order to motivate and attract young travellers. Generation Y is considered as internet generation. Youth members of generation Y have a powerful sense of autonomy and independence. Therefore, the organization effectively implemented online marketing strategy in late 1970s to attract the young individuals. The company website is very popular with its specific niche market as they provide key information about several tour packages and services. The organization is popular among its target audiences. According to the young target audiences, the organization provides unforgettable travel experience. Contiki promises that the organization will help the customers to discover different cultures and meet with new individuals from all over the world. Effective value creation and lead management strategy helped the organization to fulfil the demand of target audiences. According to a survey, the travellers are motivated to experience different things from their home environment. The organization has successfully developed superior value for its target customers. Rigorous understanding of motivation and needs helped the organization to attract young travellers in the highly competitive global marketplace. Major objective of the brand manager of Contiki is to build meaningful and strong bonds between the organizations and its target customers. The executives of the organization used to share several travel stories to captivate and inspire the target customers. These stories avail several common themes, such as fun, adventure and feel good factor. These stories are arbitrated from several travel videos that feature on several social networking sites and company website of Contiki. The organization incites their users to share the gravel experiences. According to the travellers, the organization provides customer oriented products and services to grab significant market share in this competitive global market place. Conclusion Contiki is one of the leading Australia based travel and tour organizations. The organization provides coach tour facilities to the young customers. The organization is very much popular due to several differentiated products and services. Contiki is a significant example of an organization that has developed superior value to the target customers. Question 2 Contiki tour is an Australia based organization that offers holiday and travel packages to several domestic and international customers. Introduction The organization effectively tried to create value for customers through several key marketing strategies and activities. It is true that the organizations need to develop unique strategies in order to sustain in the competitive global market place. This part of the essay will discuss about the marketing activities that have been practiced by Contiki to create value for the target customers. Discussion Travel is referred as the high-involvement activity. It is important for these kinds of organization to provide effective differentiated and customer oriented services to make their trip memorable and eternal. Travel and tourism is considered as service providing industry. Therefore, it is highly important for the organization to meet market demand and satisfaction level of the target customers to achieve potential competitive advantages. Contiki provides key opportunities to the target customers to make friends. Moreover, the organization provides huge flexibility to the target customers to choose optional excursion and activities. The organization successfully covered the untapped market. According to Hoffman and Bateson (2001), effective niche marketing strategy helped the organization to become one of the leading service providers in Australia (Hoffman & Bateson, 2001). They targeted young customers as their potential clients. Members of generation Y have brawny strength of autonomy and independence. Therefore, flexible and customer oriented services motivated the youth to become potential target customers. On the other hand, significance and acceptance of internet was increasing slowly and gradually among the people of young generation. Internet offers the individuals effective social connectedness on global scale. The company website of Contiki is very popular with its niche market. Effective social media activities, networking and viral marketing strategy helped the organization to create huge brand awareness among the young travellers. The website provides wide range of information about several services and travel related activities. The organization promotes interaction between the tourists by enabling those individuals to connect pre and post activities. The organization also provides services like welcoming event before the departure. Effective service mix justified the organization’s mission, value and commitment. Effective experiential marketing activity is another growth driver of the organization. Significant online promotional activities helped them to develop potential client base within a quick period of time. The organization implemented niche marketing strategy during the initial growth stage. Adopting online activities helped the organization to differentiate themselves from other market competitors. The organization introduced “Be a Travel Reporter” campaign to attract young target customers. Implementation of Focus group research and awareness campaign about several differentiated services motivates the young generation to become a part of travel group. The organization undertook several marketing communication activities, such as targeted email to societies and clubs, promoting through student diaries, PR campaign to press and students, and distribution of A2 posters with detailed information helped the organization to utilize competitive advantages. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion; Contiki practices several potential marketing activities to gain competitive advantages. The organization always tries to provide, differentiated and customer oriented services and packages to the customer. In addition, implementation of online marketing strategy helped the organization to increase its core competency. Question 3 `This question will provide some advices to the marketing executives in order to enable the organization to survive in an economic downturn. Introduction Recent financial crisis and economic downturn affected the global business environment. Limited purchasing power and low disposable income of people are major consequences of economic slowdown. This economic slowdown is affecting the sales growth rate of various organizations. Following recommendation plans will help to sustain the organization. Discussion It is true that people of Australia love to visit several attractive and popular tourist spots around the globe. Contiki effective understood the market demand and customers need. The organization provides extensive range of travel packages and services. The organization only targets people of young generation. However, it is important for the organization to provide effective customer services. The marketing executives need to prefer the suggestions of clients regarding several services. This effective relationship will help the organization to retain potential client base. They need to expand the relationship with all the existing clients. The executives should motivate the clients to sign more long term deals. The management of the organization needs to support their executives. The organization should try to reduce operating time and cost. This strategy will help the executives to deal with the clients effectively. Reduction of package price will motivate the clients to buy the packages. In addition, reduction of time will enhance customer satisfaction as it will increase the efficiency of turn-around time strategy. Diversification of customer base is another key option that can help the organization to survive during the economic downturn. The executives should sell the packages to a restricted subgroup within a community. In addition, the executives can extend the appeal of the services and several tour packages to an extended group of customers. It is important for the organizations to capitalize on new business opportunities. They need to generate business diversification plan during this situation to overcome the challenges. According to Hill and Jones (2012), during economic downturn or economic slowdown, business diversification will help the organization to stabilize their business performance (Hill & Jones, 2012). There are several benefits of business diversification. A particular product can be compensated by another diversified product. In this case the organization should try to introduce low cost complementary services. It will attract the customers effectively towards the brand. On the other hand, this strategy can increase the reputation of the organization within the competitive market place. Economic downturn is very much challenging and scary for the employees. The marketing executives should involve the employees in cost cutting activities. Termination is not the solution. It can affect the image of the organization. The executives should propose low cost and attractive travel options to the customers in order to stabilize their business performance during the economic downturn. Last but not the least; the executives should try to acquire potential business clients to maintain their sales growth rate. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion that the marketing executives of Contiki should try to maintain effective relationship with existing customers. On the other hand, they need to provide cost effective customer services and travel packages to the young target customers in order to reduce the effect of economic slowdown. References Hill, C., & Jones, G. (2012). Strategic Management Theory. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Hoffman, D., & Bateson, J. (2001). Essentials of Service Marketing. New York: South-Western. Read More