Gecko Adventures Marketing Strategy - Essay Example

Individual Report on Digital Marketing Situational Analysis The situational analysis is a collection of methods used by organisations in analysing their micro and macro-environments, with the aim of understanding the business environment, customers, and capabilities (Cohen, 2013: p41). Market Summary The number of trips taken in 2013 by UK residents remained below levels achieved prior to the economic recession, which has resulted from caution among consumers due to declines in disposable income (euromonitor.com, 2014: p1). However, the domestic travel sector was not affected, although outbound travel operators have faced a challenging five years since the recession with increased employment uncertainty and economic pressures. However, the industry has seen a demand upsurge in recent years for outbound holiday travel packages, especially as the pound has strengthened. In spite of the revenue contractions in the industry for the year 2011-2012, the sector is expected to post a 0.6% compound annual growth through 2015-2016. The strongest focus has been on online travel sales, which accounted for over 50% of total travel sales in 2013 (euromonitor.com, 2014: p1). Indeed, customers are increasingly turning to the internet for information on travel destinations in order to make informed decisions. Thus, a digital marketing strategy will be essential for tour and travel operators going forward. SWOT Analysis Strengths The staff and owners of Gecko Adventures have relevant, significant experience in operating tours and travels. Gecko Adventures is a low-cost leader in the travel industry, which will allow them to undercut competitors on price. The organisation has high customer loyalty, especially among repeat clients. Weaknesses While Gecko Adventures has exceptional staff, its personnel will have to deal with longer hours in the UK in the first years of operation. The organisation faces a challenge in finding personnel with the required customer-centric attitude and skills. The organisation may also struggle to continuously offer exciting and new trips while also maintaining quality levels established from repetitive offerings over time. Opportunities The UK adventure travel market is growing with a strengthening pound. There is a growing pool of young professionals as a result of the recent dotcom boom Gecko Adventures also has the opportunity to integrate its activities vertically with other organisations within the Intrepid Travel umbrella. Threats Further deregulation of the airline industry may increase price competition among outbound tour operators in the UK. Slow economic recovery in the UK may result in reduced spending by potential clients. PEST Analysis Political Factors The UK political environment is relatively stable, which has a positive impact on potential clients. Border policy and resultant entry fees is also a factor affecting the UK travel sectors with shorter 3-month group visas at reduced costs being a positive factor for the sector (ibisworld.co.uk, 2015: p1). In addition, the UK government and governments in countries that are favoured by UK travel tourists, such as Australia and South Africa, are implementing environmental policies that may impact on the travel sector. Finally, terrorist threats on UK citizens may also portend a specific risk for the industry. Economic Factors The global financial and economic crises affected countries like the UK significantly, which has resulted in reduced travel by UK consumers due to purchasing power pressures and uncertainty about employment (ibisworld.co.uk, 2015: p1). However, the strengthening pound in relation to other major world currencies has increased the spending power of outbound travel clients from the UK. Declining inflation in the UK and the wider EU region has also meant that costs for travelling in the UK have reduced. Social Factors Increasing concerns about sustainability in the travels and tours industry, especially in relation to carbon emissions, has influenced ‘green consumers’ in their decisions to travel (ibisworld.co.uk, 2015: p1). The spread of diseases like Ebola has also made some destinations less attractive for UK travellers. Insecurity has also influenced the travel industry with most travel consumers preferring to tour safe locations, which has made unsafe locations less attractive. Finally, social events like sports and cultural events have become increasingly attractive for UK outbound travellers. Technological Factors Online booking for tours and travels is increasingly popular in the UK market, especially because it saves money for the consumers and companies. Moreover, enhanced IT capabilities have meant that potential clients in the industry now rely on the internet to make informed decisions on travel destinations (ibisworld.co.uk, 2015: p1). Finally, cheaper air travel as aircrafts and trains become more efficient has enhanced the ability of outbound tourists in the UK to take more tours. Objectives To increase awareness of the Gecko Adventures brand among the youth, backpackers and independent travellers within the 18 – 35 year old market To establish Gecko Adventures’ brand image among young adults and become one of the best travel agencies in the UK. To improve gecko Adventures’ search engine rank in order to increase public awareness about the travel agency. Strategy This project seeks to look into the effectiveness of gecko Adventures’ campaign to promote awareness of their brand in the UK market, specifically with additional emphasis on social media and increasing their presence on social media. As such, this project will use a digital marketing strategy, which will involve the promotion of Gecko Adventures’ brand through several electronic media forms. This strategy differs from the traditional forms of marketing because of its inclusion of methods and channels that enable organisations to analyse marketing campaigns, as well as to evaluate what works and what does not work in real time (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014: p705). Digital marketing enables the organisation to monitor aspects like what potential consumers are viewing, how long and how often they are viewing, the content that works, and sales conversion. Although the internet has been, possibly, the channel most associated with this strategy, other channels like radio channels, digital TV, electronic billboards, podcasts, mobile apps, and wireless text messaging (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014: p705). The specific digital marketing strategy that will be used for this project is search engine optimisation, which has to do with influencing a website’s visibility in the unpaid results of a search engine and is often referred to as organic or natural results. Generally, this strategy involves the increase of visitors an organisation receives from users of search engines by ensuring the site appears more frequently and earlier on the list of search results (Bharadwaj et al, 2013: p475). Search engine optimisation may target various search forms, including local search, image search, video search, and sector-specific vertical search engines. Conducting a digital strategy involves the identification of challenges and opportunities in a business that can be enhanced by online assets, as well as identifying the external stakeholders’ unmet goals and needs that align most closely with the organisation’s key business challenges and opportunities (Bharadwaj et al, 2013: p475). Moreover, the organisation develops a vision on online assets that will fulfil the goals, needs, and opportunities of the external stakeholders and business. Different analyses, tactics, and techniques can be applied to each of these stages. Tactics One of the tactics used in this digital marketing strategy is the use of Instragram, whereby people using Gecko Adventures’ Facebook group will be asked to join an Instragram competition event. In this case, one of the most widely used search engine optimisation techniques is the use of back-links, which increases the importance of a webpage (Straker et al, 2015: p48). Indeed, every back-link can be considered a vote and depending on the linking site’s reputation, the back-link may have less or more weight. Use of Instragram will also help in creating an online presence, especially with its over 100 million active users monthly, while over 40 million photos are uploaded a day, receiving 1000 comments and 8500 likes every second (Straker et al, 2015: p48). Photo sharing will be the most important part of the Instragram tactic, in which the consumer will be asked to take photos as they travel and to post it on Instagram using the tag #geckosroadtowin. The pictures promoted with hashtags will also be coupled with specified business hashtags that will help increase the number of followers to Gecko’s website. Another tactic that will be used as part of the digital strategy to increase search engine optimisation is the use of an innovative app. Organisations today are seeking to increase the popularity of their apps through enhancement of organic searches (Khan & Siddiqui, 2013: p224). Using the app will help Gecko Adventures to build relationships with and loyalty among its clients, reinforce their brand, and increase their visibility. Moreover, it will also increase their accessibility to its clients, while also increasing their exposure across mobile devices and connecting more effectively with travelling consumers. These aspects will help Gecko to move towards their objective of improving their rank in search engines, as well as their brand awareness. As such, the brand name will be featured prominently in the app name, which doubles as the anchor link text using the brand name as the link and getting the sites to link to the app profile page (Khan & Siddiqui, 2013: p224). Finally, Gecko will cross-promote their app to searchers, mobile users, and bots. Success of the campaign The tourism and travel industry has undergone a major transformation in terms of digital media, especially since the traditional ways that consumers purchased, planned, and experienced a dream travel vacation has changed radically (Taken-Smith, 2012: p88). Rather than relying on brochures, guide books, and travel agents for information, today’s traveller has embraced the use of digital media because it is cheap and accessible. More importantly, the target market for Gecko Adventures, which is the young traveller, backpackers, and travellers in the 18-35 years age-range, are more adept at using these digital platforms. This traveller is always connected and this provides travel brands with an opportunity to monetise a loyal, trustworthy, and unique consumer as the content marketer (Taken-Smith, 2012: p88). Through the launch of hash-tag contents and competitions on Instagram, brands encourage audiences to generate social content, which they can then use together with organically collected and owned content. Pwc.co.uk (2014: p1) reports that this young market, which is Gecko Adventures’ main target market, are leading the charge in creation and sharing of experiences on Instagram and other social media platforms, showing that 44% of them are more likely to seek information on travels from these platforms. Moreover, virtually all travellers in this target group post and share their experiences during their travels on social media platforms like Instagram, while almost 75% of this target group post their photos on Instagram and other social media platforms at least once every day as they travel. As such, it is evident that targeting this group through the use of Instagram competitions will be successful because it is so popular among travellers. Most importantly, digital content is significantly powerful in influencing and inspiring other travellers. Indeed, 92% of travel industry consumers in the identified target group trust word-of-mouth information than all other forms of promotion, while a further 70% contend that consumer reviews and experiences are their second most trusted promotional form (pwc.co.uk, 2014: p1). References Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O. A., Pavlou, P. A., & Venkatraman, N. (2013). Digital business strategy: toward a next generation of insights. MIS Quarterly, 37(2), 471-482 Cohen, W. A. (2013). The marketing plan. New York: John Wiley and Sons euromonitor.com. (2014, August). Travel and Tourism in the United Kingdom. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from EuroMonitor International: http://www.euromonitor.com/travel-and-tourism-in-the-united-kingdom/report ibisworld.co.uk. (2015). Tour Operators in the UK: Market Research Report. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from IBISWORLD: http://www.ibisworld.co.uk/market-research/tour-operators.html Khan, F., & Siddiqui, K. (2013). The Importance of Digital Marketing. An Exploratory Study to Find the Perception and Effectiveness of Digital Marketing amongst Marketing Professionals. Journal of Information Systems & Operations Management, 7(2), 221-228 pwc.co.uk. (2014). Travel and tourism. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from PWC UK: http://www.pwc.co.uk/hospitality-leisure/issues/travel-and-tourism.jhtml Straker, K., Wrigley, C., & Rosemann, M. (2015). Typologies and touch-points: designing multi-channel digital strategies. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 9(2), 45-59 Taken-Smith, K. (2012). Longitudinal study of digital marketing strategies targeting Millennials. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(2), 86-92 Tiago, M., & Veríssimo, J. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother? Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708 Read More