Marketing Approaches for Canterbury Cathedral - Case Study Example

Marketing approaches for Canterbury Cathedral Introduction Marketing approach refers to a strategy that an organisation utilises in seeking to increase the competitiveness of its business operations within the target market. These strategies are commonly undertaken upon consideration of various goals and objectives developed by the organisation. The adoption of a market strategy involves the development of unique products that are marketed to the target clients using the best approaches available and able to beat the existing competition within the market (Fyall & Leask 2006). The marketing methods adopted are aimed at ensuring that the organisation is capable of competing within the target market by maintaining a competitive advantage. The advantage is mainly gained through the presentation of unique products and services like the case of Canterbury Cathedral. The Canterbury Cathedral has adopted different marketing strategies aimed at ensuring its competitive advantage within the tourism market. The establishment is actively involved in various marketing strategies that have made it unique within the market, therefore creating a marketing point for the establishment. Since there are many cathedrals existing within the region, the marketing approaches adopted have a significant impact upon the product and services provided within the establishment. This report will discuss the various strategies that have been utilised by the cathedral in the marketing and communications, and are aimed at gaining a competitive advantage. The cathedral is one of the designated UNESCO world heritage sites and these are some of the most visited places. The designation of the location as a world heritage site makes it to become relatively popular among the many visitors for the world. As an internationally recognised site, the organisation has to develop a marking strategy aimed at improving the services that are provided within the establishment to the different visitors. The aspect of being a heritage site is based on the historical background of the cathedral and business related aspects are not part of the world heritage site. While marketing for the world heritage sites is normally undertaken, the organisation has adopted its marketing strategy seeking to improve and increase the number of visitors in order to remain competitive with other tourist establishments within the region. Marketing approaches Marketing approaches are normally implemented with the purpose of improving the business opportunities that are available to the cathedral and improve the competitive advantage for the establishment. Marketing for the establishment is one of the key attributes that could be utilised in ensuring that the establishment continues to attract many visitors. Despite the popularity of the Canterbury Cathedral as a world heritage site, marketing efforts have been increasingly intensified in order to ensure the establishment attracts the large numbers of visitors. In seeking to enhance the competitive advantage within the industry, the cathedral has adopted the following marketing approaches. Market dominance The establishment has adopted a dominance approach seeking to enhance the competitive advantage that it holds within the market. As a tourist destination the cathedral faces competition from many other destinations located within the region. The competition of the tourism destinations within the region remains relatively high and the adoption of market dominance approaches becomes inevitable in seeking to ensure the establishment overcomes the existing competition (Kotler & Armstrong 2013). The establishment of a dominance in the market seeks to ensure the organisations are the most popular within the market. Dominance of the cathedral has been established through the development of unique products, which has ensured the establishment developed a different niche for itself within the market. The organisation has adopted a niche approach in the marketing for its products and services. Many of the cathedrals existing within the same market do not have other functions other than being a tourist destination. The establishment has differentiated itself from competitors through the provision of other services. This destination provides catering service as well as accommodations which are complimentary to the fundamental function of being a tourist destination within the country (Middleton & Clarke 2012). This enables the organisations to blend the will of demand to that of supply. This has been achieved through the provision of accommodation services, which are not the main purposes for the existence of the organisation. Within the context of the mass market of tourist destinations, the establishment has created a niche through providing accommodation services. Other destinations within the region do not provide accommodation services and the visitors have to look for accommodation in hotels and other places. The utilisation of the differentiation strategy has enabled the organisation to be able to develop a different target market for the products which it provides to the customers. The preference of many customers who visit the places that have been designated as heritage sites remains proximity to complimentary services like accommodation, especially for the international travellers. This has enabled the establishment to gain a competitive advantage over the other establishments within the region (Hall 2012). The organisation has been able to create a unique product and attract a different kind of client form some competitor organisations within the region. This has effectively reduced the existing competition that the establishment receives from the other organisations. Despite the advantages presented by the differentiation approach adopted by the organisation, there are certain limitations which exist regarding the approach. As a world heritage site, the establishment could easily lose its popularity once the other business elements become more popular than the heritage site itself. This will make the business to focus more on the services provided within the hotel while neglecting the world heritage destination (Zarantonello & Schmitt 2013). The availability of other services within the location could become an element that results in compromise of the heritage site as the focus is increased on business aspects of the destination. The business elements should not be let to overcome the basic aspects which has popularised the destination as a heritage centre. The establishment has a hotel that provides basic services found within any other hotel located within Canterbury. The provision of hotel services has been fundamental in attracting a large number of tourists to the destination because the individuals can find accommodation services once they visit the cathedral. Other than the visitors to the cathedral, the hotel is also open to visitors seeking to just enjoy hotel facilities and it has been able to open up the target market for the different clients of the organisation (Sharp & Dawes 2001). Canterbury city receives numerous numbers of visitors annually for different purposes. Since there is a market for tourists coming to the city for other reasons, the presence of a hotel has increased the number of visitors which the establishment receives. This has also widened the target market for the organisation through providing a wide range of products and services, targeting different individuals. The visitors who come to the city can be able to seek accommodation services at the hotel which is owned by the cathedral as the hotel remains open to all people. This has ensured that even the visitors who come to other heritage sites within the city could also visit the cathedral in search of hotel services. The location of the cathedral hotel remains perfect as it is a walking distance to many of the tourist destinations within the city. The ease of access to other sites make the cathedral a perfect location where people can seek accommodation. The organisation can now be able to undertake marketing on different platforms as it could be able to attract different types of visitors (Preston 2012). This form of marketing will be able to attract the different individuals who visit Canterbury for different purposes. The facility also has other services like conference facilities which can be utilised for hosting private events like graduation parties. These functions are held at the multi-purpose meeting and conference venue locate within the cathedral. People can be able to organise their own private events within the city of Canterbury and hold them in the cathedral’s conference hall. This makes the cathedral to receive many visitors since such visitors might fell attracted to the cathedral itself and visit the cathedral, while they continue with other functions which might have brought them to the city of Canterbury. Making these facilities accessible to the general population has increased the popularity of the destination as a heritage site and also a location for conferences and accommodation services. The inclusion of a wide range of facilities into a single destination has been fundamental in enhancing the market coverage for the establishment. The establishment is now capable of attracting cultural visitors and even people seeking accommodation services. Since it is an already established tourist destination, the provision of other tourist services within the same location improves the appeal of customers to the destination since they can be able to find many services within a single location. This can be unidentified as a market penetration strategy, where the organisations has utilised the already available market of visitors to sell other services. This approach becomes critical in increasing and ensuring the new business components within the establishment have customers to purchase the services and products offered. The marketing efforts for the establishment must be intensified in order to ensure that the target market is reached. The provision of many services and products increases the market coverage for the establishment and marketing must be expanded in seeking to ensure efficacy of these services (Rogers 2011). While provision of services within a single location enhances the experience of the visitors, the organisation will be faced by a challenge of reaching all the necessary clients to provide a sufficient market for the conference and hotel services. Despite being complimentary services, increased popularity of the hotel and conference services could adversely affect the previously provided services of the heritage centre. The establishment provides complimentary services that the visitors might require and this creates an element of ease in the access of these complimentary services. This element of diversification serves to satisfy the market demand for hotel services and well as the tourist services. The services provided by the cathedral normally supplement the other basic services as they are also required by the visitors. With a myriad of services, which the establishment offers, it is relatively easy to attract a wide range of visitors because of the services and products that they can get (Constantinides 2006). Despite the destination being a world heritage site, it has adopted a rigorous marketing approach that has ensured the organisation is capable of raising income to sustain other operations being undertaken by the organisation. Diversification of the services provided within the destinations remains a critical marketing approach which has been fundamental in increasing the number of visitors coming to the destination. This segmentation strategy has been effectively utilised to ensure the cathedral has a different target market form other similar establishments in Canterbury (Morritt & Weinstein 2012). It remains the only cathedral which has a hotel and offers a wide array of services to the visitors. The visitors who come to this destination are able to enjoy different services within a single location and this is one of the main reason for increased number of visitors to the cathedral this market positioning strategy has been effective in attracting large numbers of visitors to the cathedral. Different marketing methods have been utilised in seeking to attract and reach different markets and target clients as identified by the organisation. The establishment has effectively utilised the designation of a world heritage to its advantage through offering different services aimed at satisfying the needs of different customers visiting the organisation. The target client for the hotel are the same visitors visiting the cathedral as a heritage destination (McCabe 2009). This has ensures the establishment has clients for the hotel rooms since visitors require accommodation services. The establishment has been able to maximise the opportunity which has arisen as a result of Canterbury Cathedral being a designated UNESCO world heritage site. Marketing communication techniques The marketing efforts for the organisation have been fundamental in enhancing the operations undertaken by the organisation. In reaching the target market the organisation has adopted various methods which it uses in reaching the target market. This is reached through communicating the essential information with the various target markets in order to ensure the target market has an understanding of the services which are provided within the site. Communication of marketing information is a critical element in ensuring the target client is aware of the presence of activities available within a specified destination (McDonnell & Moir 2014). Different marketing communication techniques have been adopted by Canterbury cathedral in ensuring the target market has information regarding the other services available within the destination. Advertisement The establishment has extensively conducted advertisements through different channels seeking to communicate critical marketing information to the target market. Different advertisement methods have been utilised in communicating marketing information to the target audience. Web advertisements have been the most popular communication technique that the establishment has adopted. Many individuals around the globe currently utilise the web when searching for holiday destinations and advertising within the online platform enable the establishment to reach a wide market (Clow & Baack 2007). Advertisements are normally undertaken with the aim of communicating the critical information to a target audience. These advertisements have been a significant part of the marketing efforts which the organisation has made in popularising the other services. Advertisements which are establishment focus on the new products which have been developed by the establishment as they must be communicated to the clients. The increased focus on the different products could result in a change of general public perception about the heritage. The heritage centre could be overcome by the availability other products within the location. Increased advertisement of the other products enhances the popularity of the destination while changing the focus of the marketing efforts on the business aspects of the organisation other than being a cultural and heritage centre. Website The establishment has a website upon which people can visit and be able to find information regarding the destination. The information is kept updated as the organisation seeks to ensure that the existing clients can be able to know about the extra services provided by the cathedral. Since the organisation has been popularised through being a world heritage site, the company website normally receives a number of visitors because of this factor (Dowling et al. 2000). The company website also advertises and provide information about the extra services which are provided. Within the establishment, the integration of all the services into a single website has been critical in attracting the tourists since the products are different although complimentary to each other. The establishment has been expanded through the inclusion of other services and these are also communicated within the company website. Visitors seeking to gain information pertaining the heritage site might find the website unattractive and lacking the information they require. Presence of information about the hotel and conference facilities remains inevitable within the company website. This might cause confusion among the clients seeking information on the website pertaining to the heritage site. Internet marketing The marketing efforts for the organisation have been increasingly focused on the internet since the usage of internet continues to increase. Online marketing adopted by the establishment has enabled the organisation to reach the desired target market. Increased utilisation of the internet by many visitors has necessitated the organisation to avail information on the internet to ensure there if effective communication between the establishment and the target customers (Shimp 2008). As opposed to direct marketing which focus of particular individuals, internet marketing focuses on the general public as it seeks to capture the interest of any interested individuals. The fundamental purpose for internet marketing remains communicating critical information to the possible clients without a specific focus. Other organisations There are various tourist organisations involved in the dissemination of information regarding certain products whose information might not be readily available. These include online websites like trip advisor, where visitors can make their comments regarding the establishment. The establishment seeks to satisfy the visitors in order to ensure that they make positive comments on such online sources of information (Fill & Hughes 2008). These websites are heavily depended upon by the various visitors seeking to establish a tourist destination. These organisation provide third party information and the accuracy of this information just be assured by the owner of the information. Since the organisation can utilise other organisations like hotels to market itself as heritage site, the expansion and provision of catering services make the cathedral to become a competitor to the hotels. As a competitor these websites of the hotel cannot be able to market the organisations or provide their guests with information about the centre. This makes the marketing for the destination to become difficult and the organisation must undertake personalised marketing (Skinner & Rukavina 2002). This form of marketing might become a limiting factor to the number of clients that the establishment can reach with the current strategies. The organisation will be limited to the number of other organisations that can be utilised in marketing the new products, which have been developed. Conclusion The Canterbury Cathedral is a world heritage centre because of the authentic elements which the establishment has maintained since the construction of the cathedral. Through the various available services within the cathedral, it presents a perfect location for historical and cultural experience among visitors (Jackson 2013). While there are many other cathedrals within the vicinity, the Canterbury cathedral stands out because of the presence of other services like conference and hotel within the same location. This makes the location stand out from the rest making it more popular. Despite the presence of other services, the marketing efforts of the establishment have been faced with a fundamental challenge emanating from the expansion form the heritage and cultural services, to providing hotel and conference facilities. The presence of these facilities has complicated the marketing channels which the establishment utilises, necessitating the application of different marketing approaches. The target market for the establishment has widened creating a challenge in reaching the wide market and target audience for the organisation. 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