Patagonia - Destination Marketing Strategy - Essay Example

Destination Marketing Strategy- Patagonia Table of Contents Introduction 3 Strategic Discussion 3 Ansoff Matrix 6 Potential Strategic Issues 7 SMART Objectives 8 Tactical Marketing Campaign 9 Communicational Mix 10 Social media strategy 10 Implementation and Control 11 Conclusion 11 Reference List 13 Bibliography 15 Introduction This assignment is based on two important elements one is destination marketing of Patagonia and the other is the positioning strategy for promoting the place as an attractive destination place for the tourists. There was two potential target market discussed in the first assignment, one is soft adventurers and the other is the hard adventurers. In this paper only one target market will be considered that is the hard adventure market. Although the proportion of the hard adventure market is quite lower than that of the soft adventure market as discussed in the previous assignment, however the hard adventure segment has shown promising growth over the past 5 years in a global perspective (Adventure Travel Trade Association, 2013). This makes Patagonia a lucrative business proposition for tourism companies. The customers who are considered as the hard adventurers are mostly looking for challenging tours in places with hostile environment. Such people will strong appetite for adventures will get strongly attracted to Patagonia, owing to its extremely cold environment (U.S. Commercial Service, 2012). Despite of the strong potential of Patagonia as a destination place, there are significant issues with the location. The TWOS matrix conducted in the assignment presentation clearly indicates towards the issues with the health and safety concerns owing to the poor regulations. Moreover, in Patagonia high quality accommodation cannot be expected and at the same time language problem is always a problem. However, while targeting at the hard adventurers, these issues may not pose as drastic challenges as it might to the soft adventurers. This is mostly because the hard adventurers more attracted towards challenging situations. Thus it can be stated that Patagonia can be a potential tourist destination for hard adventurers. Strategic Discussion This section focuses on the strategies that are appropriate for attracting the target customers. The target customers selected for the Patagonia tourism are the hard adventurers. Before designing any strategies for attracting the target customers, it is imperative to have detailed discussion regarding the behavioural and psychological aspects of the customers (World Tourism Organization, 2007). The global tourism can be divided in to two definite segments, one is for the soft adventurers and the other is for the hard adventurers. The soft adventurers include average tourist who are enthusiastic to see new places and gain new experiences about a particular region and its culture. These individuals usually like to have a safe travel without taking many risks. Their choice of destination mostly includes the places which are easy to travel to and that do not have any hazardous environmental issues. Contrary to this segment the hard adventurers are the ones who like to push the boundaries of travelling and would like to visit places which are quite challenging (Pike, 2012). These individuals include mountaineers, campers, trekkers, etc. Since teh target customers are these individuals so the value proposition for them should be slightly different from that of the soft adventures. Moreover, owing to the uniqueness of their taste of adventure and the relatively low number of hard adventurers they can be considered as the niche customer segment (Pike, 2005). In order to cater to this niche segment of target customers, the destination marketing of Patagonia must highlight the uniqueness of the place and the challenges will be posed to the travellers. Patagonia is characterized by cold environment with wide wild life diversity. It also has wide wild life diversity and it also supports a narrow segment of vegetation. The availability of food is quite low in the uninhabited areas. This as a result makes the Patagonian environment quite challenging to thrive upon. The population is extremely low and is recorded to have 1.9 persons per square kilometre (Adventure Life, 2015). The hard adventurers are always attracted to visit places like these which bears a low habitation. Moreover, Patagonia is also best known for its scenic beauty composing of the Andes range and several waterfalls. This as a result also attracts several adventure and nature photographers. All the characteristics that have been mentioned above will create a strong attraction among the niche adventurers. The marketing strategy will leverage these characteristics of the location and will create a unique value proposition for the travellers which will create a competitive advantage among other tourist places. Apart from the marketing the natural characters of the places, the tourism companies also needs to add several other value addition services. Patagonia can be a good place camping, which is considered as a favourite adventure activity for the hard adventurers (Pearce, 2014). Several key locations will be selected for camping grounds, which will be among the best scenic beauty possible, probably near waterfalls and tall vegetations. The camping grounds will be selected based on proximity to nearest habitat. The further from the habitat and the more hostile the environment becomes, the more adventurous the camping ground will be considered (Theobald, 2004). This strategy can be leveraged in order to target different customers with different risk appetites. Wildlife and nature photography has also developed over the years, this as a result will also open new prospect for Patagonia to attract nature photographers. These customer segments are also among the hard adventurers and like to travel uncommon places. The destination marketing strategy will also attract these people by arranging visit to places with highest wild life populations (Middleton and Clarke, 2012). This can be achieved by arranging safari trips for photographers on all terrain vehicles. These safari trips will be different from the normal trips for soft adventurers or average travellers. The photographers usually need more time for their travelling and looking for places to frame their best shot. The safari guide will give them ample amount of time and will take them to the deepest corners of the forest which can be otherwise considered dangerous for average travellers (So, Dioko and Fong, 2012). Hunting is a sport which has been popular for centuries. However, due to wild life conservation efforts it has been banned in several countries, but in Patagonia hunting of certain species is legal. Thus the tourist companies can also attract the niche customers who like hunting but cannot enjoy them due to restrictions in their home country (Tkaczynski, Rundle-Thiele and Beaumont, 2009). The hunting activities can be a potentially unique value proposition for hard adventurers. The hunters will be provided with guns and ammo and they will be accompanied by a safari guide at all time to ensure their safety. The hunting grounds will be separated from camping grounds and other travellers will be warned not to visit those areas. In order to increase the attractiveness of a tourist destination, the authority must assure the travellers of their safety. In order to do so segmenting the area for different adventurous activities can prove to be helpful (Crouch, 2010). Patagonia holds the entire Andes range, thus it also opens a prospective opportunity of the mountaineers and trekkers to have an adventurous trip in Patagonia. These hard adventurers will be allocated to different locations in the mountain range to where they can conduct their climbing and trekking (Enright and Newton, 2004). The mountaineers will also be allocated with different camping spots which will allow them to spend the night amidst nature. The tourist companies will also provide them with several equipments necessary for climbing and trekking. A tour guide can also be provided to look after the safety measures of the traveller wherever required (Godfrey and Clarke, 2000). These strategies will be implemented to increase the attractiveness of Patagonia as an adventurous tourist destination place. They will help to increase the overall number of tourists in Patagonia. The strategies discussed above clearly suggest that the characteristics of the destination have been properly leveraged to create high value addition for hard adventurers. This as a result will increase the overall brand value of the location as an “all-in-one” adventure destination. The “all-in-one image” of Patagonia will be justified by several adventurous activities that the tourists can enjoy. Thus any tourists irrespective of his choice of adventure can visit Patagonia. Ansoff Matrix The Ansoff matrix highlights a company’s strategic decision in the light of its development of new market and developing new products. The matrix bears four quadrants, market development, market penetration, product development and Diversification (Aaker and McLoughlin, 2009). Market development: The market development strategy allows a firm to introduce a new product or service in a new market, where the company did not have any operations before. Through market development strategy the company is able to enter in to new geographic locations to have access to new customer base. Market penetration: The market penetration allows the firm to push the existing product in to the existing market. This is mostly conducted by employing new marketing strategies to improve the attractiveness of the value proposition in the market in which is already operating. Product Development: The product development is creating new value proposition in terms of creating new product or extending the existing product portfolio and introducing them in the existing market. This as a result allows the company to gain customer preference in the exiting market. Diversification: Diversification allows the firms to introduce new products or services to a new market location. From the Ansoff matrix it can be mentioned that the destination marketing of Patagonia is based on Product development. In this proposed strategy, the value proposition for the customers has improved by introducing new adventure services for the customers. This as a result will improve the existing brand image of the location, thereby attracting more customers. Based on the product offering and the target customers, it can be stated that Patagonia tourism and adventure has been marketed as a “nicher”. The service offering is mostly targeted at the hard adventurers who like to take a challenge in adventurous sporting. Unlike the much wider mass market these customer have a unique taste for adventure sporting. Potential Strategic Issues The brand image and positioning strategy is quite important to create preference among the target customers. The brand image of Patagonia will be designed as a hard adventure travel destination for the people who like to experience a challenging experience and the thrill of potentially hostile environment. Patagonia, despite of its potential for being a highly popular adventure destination, still lack significant market awareness among the customers. This as a result leads to poor footfall of traveller in Patagonia. In order to improve the overall awareness of Patagonia, its brand image and positioning needs to be improved. Based on the TWOS matrix discussed in the assignment presentation it can be stated that there are certain issues with Patagonia in terms of communication, weather and food availability. This as a result repels certain travellers who are concerned to have a safe travel. The food and communication scarcity also makes the hard adventurers concerned for their safety. These aspects need to improve on an urgent basis in order to make Patagonia an attractive destination for the travellers with varies taste for adventures. Apart from improving the characteristics of the location as a whole, the marketing activities also need to reposition the brand image of Patagonia. This can be achieved by highlighting the value addition for all types of tourists irrespective of their personal tastes. The destination marketing organization (DMO) is the Patagonia tourism board which oversees the tourism sector of Patagonia by taking care of the brand image, the tourism and adventure service offering and the economy of the region. It ensures that the maximum number of tourists come to visit the place. Currently the DMO is facing the challenge of low foot fall, and it needs to be urgently improved. This will be achieved by the proposed strategy to add more value to the customers and to improve the infrastructural condition to support higher foot fall, such as communication, availability of food, ensuring safety for the travellers, etc. Currently the brand equity of Patagonia is slightly underrated and is considered to be unsafe for travellers owing to the poor communicational infrastructure and lack for sufficient food supply. This poor brand image of the place often repels the travellers from Patagonia, thereby reducing the footfall of travellers. In the near future the brand image of Patagonia will bear a higher level of attractiveness among the travellers of both hard and soft adventure categories. This as a result will drastically improve the footfall of the location, thereby resulting in improved economy. Patagonia will be communicated as an “all-in-one” adventure destination which will offer the travellers to enjoy a wide range of adventurous activities, starting from wildlife and nature photography to challenging trekking and mountain climbing activities to hunting. This as a result will develop Patagonia’s brand image as a holistic adventure destination. In order to improve the brand image of Patagonia to the above mentioned state, the destination marketing needs to be conducted as proposed in the “strategic discussion” section. The brand image will be improved by developing the characteristics of the location and by developing several adventurous activities in the location to increase the overall perceived value of Patagonia among the travellers. Creating a brand image of a location can only be achieved by creating a strong communication with the customers (Kotler et al, 2006). The product development strategy can be divided in to tactical and strategic decisions. The tactical decisions will encompass the short term strategies regarding the product and brand development. This will include the marketing communicational activities to create strong awareness among the customers regarding the different adventurous activities that the travellers can enjoy in Patagonia. The strategic planning for destination marketing of Patagonia will include improving the management of the tourism sector. This can be achieved by developing the communication between the adventure sites and the habitat and also by improving the supply of foods for the traveller. With the increase of foot fall of the travellers, the tourism companies need to ensure that there are sufficient resources for the sustenance of the travellers. SMART Objectives The SMART objectives for development of the brand image and positioning of Patagonia are discussed below: To develop new adventure sport activities like camping, trekking, mountain climbing, and hunting. To improve the marketing communication among the public, so that the consumer awareness of the Patagonia increases. To improve the brand image and positioning of Patagonia to attract new customers. To improve the communicational infrastructure of Patagonia so that the travellers find it easy to travel around. To improve the supply of sufficient food to sustain the increasing number of travellers. Tactical Marketing Campaign In order to create a strong brand image among the customers it is important that they bear the right perception about the travel destination and its high perceived quality. This can only be achieved by employing the right marketing campaign strategies. The marketing communication mix discussed by Morgan, Pritchard and Piggott (2003) clearly starts that there are several communication methods that can be used to grab the attention of the customers. The communication mix mostly consists of Advertising, Personal selling, Public relations, Direct Marketing and Sales promotion. These communicational medium will be utilized to conduct the campaigning for the Patagonia adventure tourism. The campaign will be focused on a particular theme that will help to attract the customers to visit Patagonia. Moreover, it will also allow the customers to bear a particular image regarding Patagonia. The marketing campaign will focus on theme of hard adventurous activities targeted at the niche customers, which will particularly focus on the theme of hunting and mountain climbing. Both of these adventurous activities are for hard core adventure lovers who are mostly characterized among the niche customers. In order to further increase the foot fall of Patagonia, the DMO needs to create a coordinated marketing activity with other destination marketers in the South American region. Most of the third party tourism companies offer package deals where the travellers are taken to several destinations. The coordinated activity will involve a business deals with other locations so that Patagonia can also be included in their package deals. There are several neighbouring tourist place in South America, such as Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, etc. The DMO of Patagonia can siphon tourists from these locations by conducting a coordinated marketing activity with these locations. Communicational Mix The communicational mix employed for the destination marketing of Patagonia is as follows: Advertising: The advertisements will be launched as both television commercial and in print media. The televisions commercial will play a vital role as it is still considered as one of the most effective method of marketing communication to reach a wide customer base (Theobald, 2004). The television commercial will be designed in such a way so that it can be aired in multiple countries at once in different native languages. The commercial will rely on the visual appeal of the natural beauty of Patagonia and on the way the travellers are enjoying their adventurous trip. The commercial will also highlight the hunting and mountain climbing activities conducted in Patagonia along with the availability of good communication and ample hotel rooms. The print advertisement will be published in several travel magazines and newspapers. Personal Selling: The personal selling will involve making face to face business deals with third party tourism companies all across the world. The third party companies will bring new customers to Patagonia in return of an agreed upon commission. This business deal will be mutually beneficial in nature for both Patagonia tourism and other tourism companies. Sales Promotion: The brand rejuvenation Patagonia tourism and adventure industry will be further strengthened by offer package deals and discounted hotel price. Discounts will also be provided on bulk purchase of hotel rooms and adventure packages, such as hunting, photography, trekking, etc. Social media strategy The advent of social media has become an effective tool for promotional activities for firms, thereby allowing them to reach out to billions of viewers much less cost than traditional communicational activities (Chaffey, Smith, and Smith, 2012). The marketing campaign of Patagonia will utilize social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. These social media services will be utilized to ensure a seamless communication with the potential customers. These services will not only act as a platform for advertisement but also it will be utilized as a customer relationship management tool. The queries and issues of the customers will be addressed through the social media services. Since, the customers are mostly attracted towards a place by its visual description so regular updates of photographs and posts will help increasing customer interest and preference. This as a result will provide the customers with ample amount of information to make their purchase decision. The marketing communication of Patagonia adventure and tourism industry will also include the pricing strategy. Proper pricing is quite important to ensure that the customers are attracted to the value proposition. Since, price is a determinant factor of value proposition so it needs to be perfectly fitted in the marketing strategy of Patagonia. The pricing strategy will be competitive in nature so that the customers will get attracted to USP. The prices of the travel packages will be slightly lower those other adventurous locations. This as a result will help Patagonia to attract new customers and will also result in spreading of positive word of mouth. Implementation and Control In order to ensure that the Patagonia tourism sector is progressing towards its growth, applying the implementation and control strategies are vital. This will help to ensure that the progress is in the right direction and that the allocated resources are being wasted (Chen and Phou, 2013). In order o achieve that an effective performance monitoring and strategic management tool needs to be used. In this case the balanced score card will be utilized. The balanced score card not only acts as a monitoring mechanism but it will also act as a management tool. It will help to break down larger tasks and allocate the pieces in to several employees. The Patagonia tourism board will divide different tasks such as branding, marketing, product development, etc to different individuals based on their skill sets. Proper work allocation will increase the likelihood of the success of the SMART objectives. The control mechanism of the operation will incorporate a monitoring a feedback mechanism. This will allow the higher authority to quickly isolate any imminent issues and make necessary changes to deal with it. Conclusion Patagonia can prove to be a prospective and one of the most popular adventure destinations in the near future. In order to ensure its popularity the destination marketing strategies need to be properly implemented. This will be conducted by developing the location characteristics of Patagonia and turning them in to adventure sports for hard adventurers. The hard adventurers are easily attracted to challenging environments and thrilling sports such as trekking, mountain climbing and hunting. The wide range of adventurous activities will attract a lot of new traveller with a variety appetite for adventurous trips. 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