Marketing and Sales for Dreamworld Theme Park - Assignment Example

Marketing Marketing Section Dreamworld is a tourism service provider found on the Gold Coast of Australia. The park has attractionsites like the Tiger Island, Big 9 thrill rides and Wiggles World among others. Several changes have transpired from 1980 when the company was started including the change of ownership that took place in 1999 (Mathur, 2008). Within this timeframe, different parties have committed to accomplished varied sorts of investment, and the company currently boasts of varied ranges of attraction and rides that are more or less similar to the main theme park. Tiger Island forms part of the interactive tiger features that are found. The Australia-based wildlife experience offers guests with an opportunity of cuddling the koalas, feeding kangaroos and drawing near to the crocodiles along with the Tiger Island being home to two cougars, eight Sumatran tigers and Bengal tigers charged with the duty to entertain guests alongside the trainers. Moreover, the company includes entertainment facilities like the Australia Animal Facility which takes place on a day-to-day routine therein (James Cook University of North Queensland & National Centre for Studies in Travel & Tourism, 1990). Furthermore, the company organizes for annual events like New Year’s Eve amp for adults and the ultimate single’s day often scheduled for February 13th every year. For a while, brand has proved to be a crucial tool in Dreamworld. For the past 5-8 years, the company has embraced strategies aimed at associating the company with brands with different appeals and capable of remaining relevant event in middle of varied demographic segments. To this end, the company has remained committed to improving its attractions and growing further whilst keeping up with the state of being a top-edge draws within the big Gold Coast. From 1981, the company has been able to develop individualized customer experiences by integrating products and customer initiatives in order to benefit both local and international guests (Australian Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference& Australia, 1990). Besides, the company offers support to local cultures and communities by sponsoring and taking part in charity organizations. The two cases present opportunities that Dreamworld could use to channel promotional messages to its target clients in order to increase its customer base along with the revenue stream (Parsons, 2002). Also, the Company has more opportunities to improve its target customers. More specifically, the company should diversify its customer base to encompass youths within universities as well as common individuals. Further, over 12 million fellows visit Gold Coast on yearly basis and they could be potential clients to Dreamworld. Thus, renovation of the park could be a move geared towards arousing positive attention from clients. It is noteworthy ought to be undertaken following a focused market research aimed at establishing what the clients expect from the company. Even though the company has numerous opportunities to explore, there are a set of threats that are likely to impair its growth. First of all, in the near future, there is a higher likelihood of Dreamworld facing heightened competition due to the growing number of parks within the city. Second, the increased inflation witnessed in the past decade has brought about significant reductions in recreational activities within the city. In fact, Australian residents are now shifting their preference in favor of spending holidays at their respective residential sites. Finally, the negative reviews about Dreamworld are constantly being posted on varied online channels could damage the company’s reputation and scare away some potential visitors. Section 2 Analysis of the Tiger Island This was my individual visit to Dreamworld and it was indeed an awesome encounter. In fact, someone could wander around and move from one ride to another or attraction to attraction for an entire day. Despite the overall fascinating scene, the highlight of my visit revolves around the Tiger Island. Tiger Island is a Dreamworld-featured wildlife attraction and a home to both Sumatran and Bengal tiger species. Every visitor would find the behavioral shows appealing to look at thus making Tiger Island an idea attraction point for people with a spirit of adventure. Figure 1 Tiger Island My attention was most drawn at the tiger behavioral shows. More specifically, I was marveled at the manner in which these top-edge predators interacted with the involved tiger handlers at the same time engaging in behaviors like feeding, jumping and climbing. The tigers weigh at least 150 kg when they attain full growth thus citing them literally stand on their hind legs whilst finishing up a packet of milk lead me into appreciating the intensified power associated with these animals. What I found to be more striking is the point that Dreamworld offered three alternatives as pertains to my experience with the tigers. The major service offerings were tiger walk, tiger photo and tiger feeding. In the tiger walk offering, I was able to team up with the tiger handlers for at least an hour’s work scheduled for early morning. Further, the handlers assured me that this offering would be available for up to 5 days within a week at a cost that tunes to $650 for four individuals. Though the offering looks somewhat cost prohibitive, prior booking of the ticket for Tiger Walk leaves the option of a 50% discount on the ticket. Another product offering is Tiger Photo. In this offering, park visitors are allowed to pat the tigers therein for up to 15 minutes and pose for photos whilst sharing light moments with the handlers. To enjoy this service, one would need to part with $345 if alone or $395 for two people, entrance fee inclusive. The third product offering was that of Tiger Feeding. I would confidently say that this is the best offering in a cost perspective. At an initial stage, only $55 is charged per head, allowing up to 6 people for every session, with all sessions running up to 1430 hours. Indeed, engaging in this activity offers a person an opportunity to feed a tiger at the same time chat with the tiger handlers. Figure 2 tiger feeding offering In any of the offerings featured therein, staff members proved to be fun being with as they genuinely care for every visitor who appears within the premises of the park. In many cases, the handlers would be more than happy responding to questions posed by visitors and offer detailed information regarding the behaviors, diets and the personality of the tigers. Additionally, professional photographers will often be set take pictures of the scenes in 6 by 8 inch photos that are included in the overall prices. During the tour I was able to notice that each participant would have a good opportunity of posing for photos plus multiple tiger feeds. Safety is guaranteed during the encounter considering that the facility allows tigers to be on one side and visitors on the other. Through the use of tongs, one can be assured of keeping accidents (typically tiger bites or scratches) at bay so long as the body is not allowed to touch the fence. With regards to the above described offerings, the encounter at Tiger Island proves relevant for people who have often yearned for opportunities to view then interact with tigers at relatively affordable rates. Despite this assurance about the high-level of safety, I got curious to know whether there has ever been an instance of a tiger mauling someone. To my surprise, I discovered that an ill-intended tiger bit a handler in 2011. The 9 year old male Bengal tiger (Kato) is reported to have attacked the handler inside the Tiger Island attraction causing a cut inside his calf. The handler had to be rushed to Pindara Private Hospital for scrubbing using general anesthetic aimed at reducing his susceptibility to infection. In May the same year, another handler rushed to the hospital after he got numerous puncture wounds from Kato. One challenging aspect of the scene was that the park looked weary so the overall encounter could not be very appealing, more so in the eyes of clients who have passion for trendy things. If left unattended to, this state could lead to reduced number over clients in the long-run and interfere with the company’s source of revenue. Recommendations for Improvement The 2011 incidences of Kato biting the two handlers risks damaging Dreamworld’s reputation. In essence, the two scenes just depict a diminished level of safety. Both prospective and existing customers are likely to question the worst that the ill-tempered can do to ordinary visitors if they cannot spare the handlers that they see on daily basis. This state calls on commands Dreamworld to embrace security measures which acknowledge the point that spoilt security reputation has far-reaching consequences as far as market penetration is concerned. At present, the Tiger Island only features the three tiger breeds-Bengal, Sumatran and cougar. This state arguably poses danger to the competitiveness Dreamworld’s competitive ability in relation to companies like Sky Point Observation deck. Thus, attaining a competitive position in the long-term requires that Dreamworld adds more species of Tiger in the Tiger Island in order remain appealing to its clients. Finally, the park seems to have grown weary over time. This is undoubtedly dangerous considering that the weary state touches on the personal preferences of the visitors to this attraction site. The management at Dreamworld should therefore make arrangements to bring the pack back to life using a lick of paint at the most basic level. Section 3 Target Market In the light of the target market, Tiger Island is designed to have something for everybody. It is noteworthy that children allowed to participate in this activity have to be at least 13 years and those whose ages range between 13 and 15 years have to be in the company of paying adults. This state undoubtedly suits the contemporary blended family units. As a consequence, the Tiger Island constantly appeals both to the family market and the teen market (Veverka, 2002). One of the trends that affects Tiger Island’s target group is the growing use of technology. Children and their parents are increasingly shifting their preference in favor of the mobile devices. Smart phones and iPhones form part of the computational facilities that are becoming common place. This sends the meaning that Dreamworld needs to invest in web utilities and applications that cater for the growing number of mobile users (Tsiotsou & Goldsmith, 2012; Gascó & Torres-Coronas, 2009). Another trend affecting Dreamworld’s Tiger Island is the idea of children wishing to spend more time with peers rather than parents. The implication of this is that parents will be left with the option of attending the theme park attraction site alone or to totally give up on going to Tiger Island. Worse still, youngster peers are less likely to choose on theme parks as the place to visit. In either case, Dreamword will experience diminished revenue. Finally, the youngsters tend to spend a significant deal of time in social media platforms. So, they believe that any serious message that is intended to draw their attention should be channeled via the social media utilities. Promotional Tactic Advertising Campaign Considering that the target market constitutes of a mix of adults and youngsters, successful advertising campaign will need to be accomplished through desperate channels like electronic and print media. In particular, promotional messages will be channeled via the company’s official website, newspapers, televisions and social media utilities (Page & Connell, 2012). The company’s official website will constitute up to date pictures and video clips of new species of Tiger or recent occurrences likely to raise curiosity among the target clients. Newspapers and televisions will contain more or less similar messages as the website except that they will mainly be targeting clients who might have difficulty accessing internet utilities. Finally, the social media platforms will mainly be targeting the youngsters given that they spend a considerable amount of time on the social media platforms. Sales Promotion In this approach, the company could be timing customers who visit Tiger Island then offer discounts on entrance or tour charges (Briggs, 2002). One benefit of this method is the possibility of luring customers into booking more tickets and paying for more sessions of the tiger product offering. In either case, the company is likely to witness an increased revenue stream. One shortcoming of this method is that it is pegged on the number of customers who physically visit Tiger Island. Public Relations In this method, Dreamworld will resort to sponsoring or funding community-based and social activities like sports and construction of dams as a way to increase its customer base. One benefit of this method is that it helps in building trust between the company and its target clients thus aiding success in the marketing campaign. One pitfall associated with this method is that the activities to be undertaken could be seasonal thus compromising on the timeliness of the marketing campaigns. Personal Selling In this approach, the company will need to use sales agents to reach out to both existing and prospective clients whilst informing them (clients) of the recent trends with the Tiger Island. For the new clients, an agent would to pass messages aimed at promoting the Tiger brand offerings within the Tiger Island. For existing clients, the agents would need to pass messages about issues like the advent of a new tiger breed or a recent decision by the management to reduce prices. One benefit of this method is that it provides an avenue for a personal appeal thus the company will be better positioned in terms of retaining the existing clients and winning more clients to its range of customers. One drawback of this method is that it introduces cost overheads considering that the agents have to be paid well in order to successfully deliver messages. Overall View Of the promotional tools discussed in this section, advertising is the way to go considering that it is cost-effective, timely and accommodative of Tiger Island’s customer population. Section 4 Dreamword features a number of fascinating attraction sites like Tiger Islands which is known for featuring tigers. For quite some time, the company has devoted a significant amount of efforts towards finding a standard brand position that cab cut across a desperate consumer population. To this far, partial efforts have already been devoted towards this goal as evidenced in the company’s move to integrate client and product initiatives with the aim of benefit both local and international guests. In addition, the company has also ventured into social activities. One group that the company could focus on as far as the promotional endeavor is concerned is the youths within learning institutions. However, these growth opportunities are befallen by challenges such as the growing competition from other theme parks and the tough economic times compelling the target clients to deem visits to parks as luxurious. It is for this reason that this paper has endeavored to carry out a situation analysis of Dreamworld’s Tiger Island in order to establish the best marketing approach that will allow the company to attain a top-edge competitive position. Choice of the appropriate marketing approach is pegged on the target consumer population, which has been established to be families. The possible marketing approaches are advertising, personal selling, public relations and sales promotion followed by a recommendation of the best promotional tool in the light of the company’s target customer population. Of the promotional alternatives, advertising stands out to be the best option because it is cost-effective, timely and accommodative of Tiger Island’s customer population. To conclude, Dreamworld needs to take its present weaknesses into account then define advertising strategies that are in line with the organizational goals to win more consumers into its clients’ base. References Australian Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference.,& Australia. (1900). Proceedings from the Australian Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference. Canberra: Bureau of Tourism Research. Briggs, S. (2000). Successful tourism marketing. London: Kogan Page. Gascó, H. M., & Torres-Coronas, T. (2009). Information communication technologies and city marketing: Digital opportunities for cities around the world. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Hosts and guests revisited: Tourism issues in the 21st century. (1999). United States: COGNIZANT COMMUNICATION CORP (NY. James Cook University of North Queensland.,& National Centre for Studies in Travel & Tourism (Australia). (1990). The journal of tourism studies. Townsville, Qld., Australia: National Centre for Studies in Travel & Tourism, James Cook University of North Queensland. Mathur, U. C. (2008).International marketing management: Text and cases. New Delhi, IN: Sage. Page, S., & Connell, J. (2007). Tourism: A modern synthesis. London [u.a.: Thomson. Parsons, S. (2002). Teachers guide. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Tsiotsou, R. H., & Goldsmith, R. E. (2012).Strategic marketing in tourism services. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Pub. Ltd. Veverka, J. A. (2002). Marketing Basics for Interpretive & Heritage Sites and Attractions–It’s all about the visitors. Read More