Marketing Strategies For London Eye - Essay Example

Marketing of London Eye Introduction Every type of business is a constant process of decision-making, which starts with a first idea to become an entrepreneur and includes stepwise plan elaboration of the future performance. Setting up own company requires considerations about numerous of queries that are able to influence on possibility of success drastically. Businessmen must have distinct comprehension about the main need, which is supposed to be satisfied with produced goods and services, target audience, quantity of required resources, demand level, presence of competitors, existing pricing policy, advertising campaigns and others. All these questions can be answered with a help of marketing research that is irreplaceable in business strategy. If we try to look at the modern economic sector more attentively, we can state that indeed marketing is everywhere. It is rather hard to imagine a firm that proposes new product to the market without using any marketing principles and after all successfully operates in the conditions of free competition. Today wide range of goods and services compel to care about advertising elements more meticulously, making any attempt to attract consumers’ attention and persuade them to purchase a product of your brand. Only detailed analysis of the market situation is able to lead entrepreneur to the right direction. In this respect, it is vital to use marketing strategies that contain several interconnected elements and elaborate clear step-by-step scheme concerning each of them. Historically marketing appeared long time ago. In 1960 American professor and marketer, McCarthy, has formulated the concept of Marketing Mix, which consists of four elements called simply Four Ps. It is fair to admit that each factor of the mentioned concept is vital for the life circle of the product, because consequences of one element are able to influence on the work of others, which in own turn affect financial results of the company’s performance. Therefore nowadays small and large enterprises assign a big role to the marketing department, which conducts marketing surveys, researches, analysis and creates stimulus for the work of other departments. For further and deeper understanding of the Marketing Mix principles, the London Eye has been chosen as an example of favorable marketing performance. With a help of information about observation wheel’s performance it is easy to see the Four Ps on stream and draw up recommendations concerning a future development of the company. The Marketing Mix As it has been already mentioned before, all elements of the Four Ps concept are interrelated with each other and the results of one component depend on the consequences of the rest. Goi stated that the Marketing Mix of specific company is able to “vary according to its resources, market conditions and changing needs of clients” (4). Its first element is a product that is produced to gratify customer’s needs. In choosing potential goods and services for own business, it is weighty to take into account quality characteristics, inner features, design, brand name, and package of the product. Sometimes unsuccessfully represented one of these factors is able to bring the whole idea to a failure. For instance, in the twentieth century there was rather famous American brand of dietary candies called Ayds. But as soon as medicine had got acquainted with diagnosis of AIDS, which was very similar in pronunciation with the name of candy brand, since that time the sales of Ayds had shown such dramatic fall, that gradually the product was forced to withdraw from the market. Taking into account this example, it is fair to admit that such key element as customer research should always exist for providing effective marketing mix. The second component of the concept is pricing that, according to Ehmke, Fulton, and Lusk, “should neither be greedy nor timid” (2). It is very important to evaluate own goods and services correctly due to the product’s type. For example, if we sell products of luxury, we should not set a low price in a hope for attracting customers, otherwise, rich people will not purchase marked-down goods, which do not match with a status of this category of consumers. Frequently many customers falsely believe that bargain products indicate of low quality. Thereupon, demand level drops because of the wrong and inefficacious pricing policy. The next marketing element is place, which as well as price requires marketer to take into account product type before making decision concerning the choice of this component. Hence, the store with goods of luxury should not be located in the poor regions. The last marketing element proposed by McCarthy is promotion that includes advertising campaign. With its help potential consumers find out about offered products. Taking into account the information above, it is possible to make analysis of each mentioned component relative to the British Airways London Eye, which is considered to be the largest observation wheel in the world. Today the London Eye is a symbolic landmark, which is visited by millions of tourists annually. The product of the company is rather unique and does not have any substitutes. The company has provided new design of ordinary observation wheels, ensuring the London Eye with convenient capsules that can hold up to twenty five people. In addition, the company offers private capsules for romantic flight or children’s parties, for example. The service is produced to satisfy customers’ needs in entertainment. It is relevant to assert that mentioned observation wheel has rather appropriate name, which contains the gist of the service’s functions. Hence, hearing the name “The London Eye”, it is possible to presume what kind of product is offered. Moreover, a properly chosen name allows potential consumers to define a place, where they can find this service, with absolute confidence. This fact is urgent for global marketing. The London Eye proposes flexible pricing policy. The company sets different prices for various categories of people, such as adults, children, seniors, and family of four people. For children under four years the admission fee is totally free of charge. Also the company provides online service for booking tickets, which spare customers standing in queues. The London Eye is situated on the river Thames. It is a proper location, because it allows visitors to contemplate the most beautiful views of the city. A specific scale of the tourist attraction serves as advertising for the company, because it is easily can be noticed from different places of London. In addition to advertising activities, company launches seasonal campaigns that are supposed to attract new visitors during the period of various holidays, such as Halloween or Christmas. Also the marketers of the company use local media and all free London papers for placing ads about the attraction and possible events. Furthermore, the company distributes brochures with advertising and e-mails with the most need information. Consequently, we can see that the London Eye has a strong and effective marketing mix. All elements of the concept in connection with each other provide successful and profitable performance of the company that aims at the local population along with visitors to London. PR and advertising campaign Public Relations serve to influence on people’s awareness about offered products. The London Eye’s management used PR for raising pre-opening interest and eliminating rejection of the potential consumers for the new tourist attraction. Before opening day the company had a close connection with mass media, which allowed audience to find out about the new observation wheel even before it had started working. In order to keep potential consumers in constant awareness about own services the London Eye provided the media with access to the construction. This ensured wide advertising and managed to diminish skeptical attitude to the thrill rides. In addition, PR campaign was able to turn the London Eye from the mere entertainment attraction to a real landmark, which caused a sense of pride in local population. Dealing with mass media during a construction process was a powerful instrument of attracting people’s attention, because on the day of grand opening a numerous number of tickets had been already pre-booked by customers. So such strategy is considered to be very effective and efficacious. As an advertising method the London Eye used local media for placing ads, focusing mostly on free newspapers. Frequently free papers do not have much influence on target audience, because they are usually thrown away without reading. Paid papers are way much more effective, because people are ready to spend their money for information, so any way such media will be read by its consumers due to the fact that not many people buy anything that they do not use later. That is why sometimes it is better to invest money in advertising methods, which are able to give bigger return than free advertising instruments. Furthermore, the London Eye dispersed brochures on the streets and sent marketing emails. Such advertising methods require low budget and can be used as additional advertising instrument. However, e-mails may bring not great results, due to negative attitude of most of computer users to internet advertising. Many people turn off the service of spam-letters in a work of own electronic mail box, desiring to spare themselves unimportant letters. Therefore, regrettably, such informational messages can be left unread very often. However, distribution of brochures and leaflets can be rather effective, if they are dispersed in public places and spots of mass gatherings. For example, it can be universities that often accept international students or museums, which are visited mostly by tourists. Also it can be useful to represent some information right in the airports. There some leaflets can be distributed or posters can be hung for raising tourist’s awareness about main places of interests in London. Choosing a particular media for advertising it is very important to take into consideration several factors. The most important of them are the price and a number of people that can be reached with any of possible advertising methods. Every company is eager to choose such media, which is able to cover as bigger part of population as possible and it is desirable to spend for this as less many as it is feasible. Also it is essential to select a type of advertising that matches with your product. For example, it is not sensible to place an ad about tourist attraction in some kind of medical journal that is read by serious professors and doctors, who buy this product of media because of the interest for medicine but not for entertainment events. Only careful consideration about mentioned factors is able to give effective return. Global marketing Frequently a company that is able to operate on national market successfully faces the idea of global marketing, which requires carefully planned advertising methods. For attracting visitors from other countries the London Eye deals with tourist bureaus, distributing brochures and even meeting with travel agents for further cooperation. Global marketing requires considering several factors. The most important of them are demographic situation, such as population size; economic development that includes level of income for being sure that chosen prices for services are affordable by foreign visitors; cultural environment. Also it is important to find out whether foreign market has already similar type of services or it will be totally new trend for potential customers. In addition, the company should get information about a kind of relationships between England and another state and all the details of traveling policy, including existence of special permits and visas. Because if, for instance, the London Eye is advertised in a country with rigid bureaucracy, where people are not able to leave country easily, then potential consumers’ awareness will seldom turn into real actions. Conclusions Taking into account marketing analysis of the London Eye, it is fair to say that observation wheel has managed to build effective marketing strategy. With its help the company successfully operates, attracting more and more new consumers from each parts of the world. For the further development and promotion it is recommended to expand advertising campaign and research foreign countries before launching global strategy of marketing. Works Cited Ehmke, Cole, Joan Fulton, and Jayson Lusk. “Marketing’s Four P’s: First Steps for New Entrepreneurs.” Purdue Extension n.d.: 1-12. Web. 8 Sep. 2011. Goi, Chai. “A Review of Marketing Mix: 4Ps or More?” International Journal of Marketing Studies May 2009: 2-15. Print. Marks Barfield Architects. London Eye. EDF Energy. Web. 8 Sep. 2011. Read More