Tourism and Hospitality Marketing - Report Example

Heading: Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Introduction In this high competitive corporate world, businesses are devising ways of gaining larger market share than their rivals. In their expansion strategies, firms engage in the production of new products that meet their consumer needs. However, success of these products is determined by kind of marketing strategies used by the firms. This report focuses on the development of a new tourism product and its marketing strategies. It also includes a description of a new experience-based tourism product and its theme. It also addresses decision making process of the new product and its application. Besides, the paper explores the target market (s) of the product, and its positioning strategy with a consideration of competition and pricing. Lastly, the report handles ways in which the new product will be promoted and communicated to the intended market (s). Description of the new experience-based product In this report, the new experience –based product is the Coorong National Park, in South Australia. This is a lagoon and park environment located at about 156 km southeast of Adelaide (Gross 2008, pp.45-50). The name also means ‘sand dune’, which is found between the Southern Ocean and the park. The product comprises of the Younghusband Peninsula and the Coorong itself. This product is a home for a variety of birds’ species, fish and animals. Gross (2008, pp.45-50) notes that it is also attractive to many migratory species. Besides, the product encompasses the coastal vegetation lagoons and sand dunes. The most salient thing about the park is that it has water interaction with sea water, and River Murray’s water meeting ground and rainfall water. In addition, the freshwater is important in supporting the area’s fauna, whereas the sea water is the home of many marine birds (Gross 2008, pp.45-50). The customers are guaranteed a fulfilling scenery of Australian Shelduck, Chestnut Teal, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, banded Stilt, Red-necked Avocet, red-capped Plover, and Pied Oystercatcher. It also has Australian Pelican, swans, ducks, terns, cormorants, grebes, and many migratory birds. Gross (2008, pp.45-50) postulates that this product is a crucial archeological site with a huge cultural importance to the Ngarrindjerri people. There are many old mounds that indicate Aboriginal people’s campsites of many thousand years ago. In addition, Gross (2008, pp.45-50) says that the product allows the clients to enjoy walking trails, four-wheel drive in designated tracks, beach, and paddling in waterways. They are also allowed a thrilling opportunity of birdwatching and photography. Moreover, there are eye-catching sceneries at the either sides of the lagoon. Customers also get an opportunity of enjoying camping in the park. The new product is also attractive as it has a free entrance fee, but affordable camping charges. It is also functional 24 hours throughout the week (Gross 2008, pp.45-50). Additionally, the product has a wide variety of lookouts, picnic areas, walking trails, camping with 11 backgrounds, and toilets. For the customers who are passionate with flora species, they are wide variety of them in the park. The theme of the park is to provide numerous excellent recreational facilities to both local and foreign tourists to its customers. Therefore, the product is aimed at satisfying all the clients’ recreational and leisure needs and have them coming back for more. Description of decision making process of the new experience –based product In the development process of the product, Holmes & Campbell (2004, pp. 16-23) notes that it was imperative to understand the individual client’s needs and identify the attributes of the product that are relevant to their need satisfaction. The uniqueness of the attributes gives the products the much needed competitive advantage over those of the competitors (Holmes & Campbell 2004, pp. 16-23). Therefore, the products development process constitutes the following: To start with, Hsu (2008) says that there was a need to identify the market needs. Here, the management decided to start with identifying their target market needs in order to develop a product that is relevant in the market. In this case, the market comprised of the local people of Australia and those from other countries in the world. Gross (2008, pp.45-50) further says that some of the identified needs include recreational facilities, affordable charges, beautiful coastal sceneries, cultural knowledge of the Aboriginal people in the region, reliable and comfortable transport facilities, high-class accommodation and restaurants (Vaisutis 2009). Secondly, the management filtered and evaluated the already generated ideas. This involved selection, consideration and assessment of the feasibility of the ideas in order to settle on the most appropriate ones (Hsu 2008). In the process of filtering ideas, managers had to identify information that would be applied in the filtering decision, nature of respondents whose views would inform the decision, and suitable methods of eliciting views (Soukhoroukova, Spann & Skiera 2010, p. 2-6). On the other hand, the evaluation process involved rating of ideas by evaluators who use approved criteria, such as, product, competitive advantages, technical feasibility, market attractiveness, strategic importance and fit, risk versus financial reward (Soukhoroukova, Spann & Skiera 2010, p. 2-6). Moreover, the evaluation team applied the scorecards in rating the generated ideas. At some point, the evaluators had to engage in voting in order to determine the ideas that the team would used in the decision making process. After consideration of many product ideas, the management decided to settle on the establishment of the Coorong Park as a new experience-based product. This is because it found out that the product had technical feasibility, strategic significance, market attractiveness, competitive and product advantages (Richard & Gerard 2006, pp. 359-370). Even after voting and rating, the management still found the product as the most appropriate because it would satisfy the target market’s needs. According to Richard & Gerard (2006, pp. 359-370), the development and testing of the concept requires that the management engages in the assessment of the idea of the new product. Here, the managers conducted a test that would determine the viability of the product before its development. This stage allowed them to find out whether the product was meeting the needs of the customers as well as focusing on the valued features (Gross 2008). This also involved identification of the concept’s benefits on the consumers, quantification of the valued product features, assessment of the price demand and sensitive, and understanding of the decision makers and purchase process. Besides, in the study of the product’s feasibility, some of the tools used include focus groups, personal interviews, structured surveys, and dealer interviews and conjoint analysis (Fyall & Garrod2005). The next thing that the management did was to carry out a business analysis basing on the new product. Here, Blais (2011, pp.67-71) argues that the management engaged an analyst that would identify business requirements, and determine solutions to some of its problems. It also addresses the business risks and competitive response, and market size. Some of the suggested solutions include process improvement, systems development constituent, policy development, and strategic planning (Blais 2011, pp.67-71). In addition, the decision making process required the development of a product and marketing mix. This involved the consideration of the price, promotion, product and placement. Firstly, it was essential that the management analyzed the product’s feasibility and the appropriate price for it. Here, issues of product differentiation were considered in order to give the business a competitive advantage. Moreover, it discussed the ways of promoting the product so as to gain market share (Pfister & Tierney 2009, pp. 56-60). Some of the proposed ways include public relations and advertising. The issue of placement was discussed in order to decide on the location of offering the product. Pleshko (2006, pp. 10-14) argues that test marketing was also conducted as a way of determining how the product is received in the market. This was done before its full launch, and on a small population of people. Interestingly, the results were amazing as the product gained an instant market share. Consequently, the management went on to develop the product fully and offer to a wide range of customers. Besides, marketing campaigns were done extensively in order to gain a larger market share than its competitors (Pfister & Tierney 2009, pp. 56-60). Lastly, there was a need to monitor and evaluate the performance of the product in the market in order to manage the results effectively. Hence, the management came up with various tools of monitoring and evaluating the products progress in the market (Pleshko 2006, pp. 10-14). Description of target market(s) In the development of the product, the knowledge on the nature of the intended market was quite indispensable. In this case, Minneti (2011, pp. 24-27) maintains that the target market comprises of experience seekers who are not barred by traditional obstacles, time, or cost. These are individuals and groups that are curious, well-informed and interested about tourism destinations. In addition, Yang & Padmanabhan (2005, pp.13-15) argue that it consists of both local and foreign individuals who are seeking pleasure, leisure, recreation, safety, social interactions, personal experiences, understanding of diverse cultural lifestyles and unique places and things. They are also opinion leaders, experienced global travelers, open-minded, and selective in their media usage. The desired positioning strategy for the new product including consideration of pricing and competition According to Sengupta (2005, pp. 35-40), positioning strategy involves the process of determining the product’s place in the clients’ mind in relation to the competitors’ products. This is done on the basis of the particular attributes or other product classes. The management employed the strategy in three ways that include: The identification of the potential competitive advantages on which the business would build a position in the consumers’ mind. Secondly, it is done through the selection of the appropriate competitive advantages, and efficient communication and delivery of the selected position to the target market (Sengupta 2005, pp. 35-40). In order to achieve the competitive advantage, it was essential that the business developed product differentiation. This could be attained through service, personnel, image, location, and physical quality differentiation. Service differentiation entails the offering excellent services that customers would not get in other places. Minneti (2011, pp. 24-27) says that it also has to ensure that the personnel are highly-skilled, motivated, and enthusiastic in order to enhance service delivery. The choice of the location was also significant since it was placed in an area that has a variety of sceneries that attract customers the most. The product’s image needed to be improved in order to appeal to as many customers as possible (Minneti 2011, pp.24-27). Likewise, it was imperative to enhance the product’s physical attribute in order to gain a wide market share. Sengupta (2005, pp. 35-40) states that pricing is another fundamental issue that determines the product’s performance in the market. Yang & Padmanabhan (2005, pp.13-15) maintain that effective price setting was attained by the application of various considerations and approaches that include competitive, cost-based, demand-oriented, discount, psychological, and socially responsible pricing. In addition, Sengupta (2005, pp. 35-40) says that pricing of the product was done in accordance with the nature of demand in the market. Besides, pricing of the product plays an important role in the promotion of the product in the market. Therefore, the decision making team had to consider the impact of pricing on the target market; whether it would discourage or bring in many customers to the product (Meybodi 2003). How the new product will be communicated and promoted to the desired target markets In order to for the product to successfully penetrate the market, it was necessary that the management devised ways of informing the public about its existence, and why it should be preferred to other products in the market. Wenderoth (2009, pp. 7-15) argues that this exchange of information is vital in enabling clients and employees achieve optimum results. Therefore, the product was communicated both internally and externally in order to attract many customers. Most important, communication of the product was aimed at achieving affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses from the target markets. The information was also designed basing on attention, interest, desire, action (AIDA) model (Minneti 2011, pp.24-27). In the promotion of the product, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations are applicable (Workman & Freeburg 2008, pp. 23-25). In advertising, broadcast and print media ought to be employed in order to foster desire, attract attention, inspire action and create interest among the customers. Furthermore, Workman & Freeburg (2008, pp. 23-25) state that advertising agencies should also be involved in order to enhance media expertise, production skills and creativity. In order to gain short-term rise in demand, sales promotion is the most appropriate tool to use. Consumers should also be offered incentives like price reductions, while the staff should be given bonuses or pay increments (Workman & Freeburg 2008, pp. 23-25). Merchandising, use of brochures and exhibitions are also influential in marketing the product. Additionally, personal selling is also crucial in the promotion of the product. Workman & Freeburg (2008, pp. 23-25) says that this entails the person-to-person promotion whereby a salesperson communicates with the potential client. In the process, the salesperson can offer the customer something that corresponds with the client’s needs. In addition, Minneti (2011, pp.24-27 notes that the business ought to appoint the sales management whose responsibility involves organization, planning, controlling, and evaluation of the promotional campaigns. The teams should be organized on the basis of the markets, products, and geographical boundaries. Conclusion The new proposed product is package of the Coorong Park in South Australia. The package comprises of many attractive sceneries, walking trails, sand dunes, captivating rides in the designated tracks, beaches, and camping. It is also a home for a wide variety of birds and flora species. The development process of the product included identification of the market needs, filtering and assessment of ideas, development and testing of concept, business analysis, product and marketing mix, marketing test, commercialization, and monitoring and assessment. It also involved the description of the intended markets, and the product’s positioning strategy. Lastly, consideration of ways of promotion and communication is instrumental in order to capture a large market share than its competitors. References Blais, S 2011, Business analysis: best practices for success, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J. pp. 67-71. Fyall, A & Garrod, B 2005, Tourism Marketing: A Collaborative Approach, Channel View Publications, Buffalo. Pp. 34-45. Gross, MJ 2008, Solutions Manual to accompany Tourism Marketing, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Boston, AU. Holmes, MF & Campbell, RB 2004, ‘Product Development Processes: Thre Vectors of Improvement, Research Technology Management,’ vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 16-23. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5037186669 Hsu, C 2008, Solutions Manual to accompany Tourism Marketing, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Sydney. 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Sengupta, S 2005, Brand Positioning: Strategies for Competitive Advantage, McGraw-Hill. New Delhi. Pp. 35-40. Soukhoroukova, A, Spann, M & Skiera, B 2010, ‘Sourcing, Filtering, and Evaluating New Product Ideas: An Empirical Exploration of the Performance of Idea,’ Journal of Product Innovation Management, vol.5, no. 2, pp. 2-6. Vaisutis, J 2009, Australia, Lonely Planet, Footscray, Vic. Pp.45-50. Wenderoth, M 2009, Particularities in the Marketing Mix for Service Operations, GRIN Verlag GmbH, München. Pp. 7-15. Workman, JE & Freeburg, BW 2008, ‘Promotional Product Marketing, College Students, and Social Identity,’ Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, vol. 100, no. 5, pp. 23-25. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5035309920 Yang, Y & Padmanabhan, B 2005, ‘Evaluation of Online Personalization Systems: a Survey of Evaluation Schemes and a Knowledge-based Approach’, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, vol. 6, no.4, pp. 13-15. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5044888488 Read More