Marketing Influences: Reception of a New Product in the Market - Term Paper Example

Tourism & hospitality marketing- An aquarium lounge Name Institution Executive summary This report shows how the concept of decision making and marketing influences how a new product is received in the market. Various concepts need to be looked at in detail in this particular concept. These include a description of the product, a communication and marketing strategy and an analysis of the competitors. The report will show that the target market is the most important thing in the market analysis. The product in this report is the analysis of the aquarium lounge as a project. It will be found out that this is actually a very viable project since the target market is there and ready and the competition is minimal. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 New experience based product description 5 Explanation of the decision making process 6 Consumer segmentation and Target market 6 Desired positioning strategy 7 Analysis of the competition 8 Communication and promotion strategies 8 Advertising 9 Quality customer service 9 Referrals 10 Pricing and competition 10 Costing 11 Conclusion 11 References 12 Barak, M, 2013, ‘Closing the Gap Between Attitudes and Perceptions About ICT-Enhanced 13 Learning Among Pre-service STEM Teachers’, journal of science education and 13 technology, Vol, 1, No, 1, pp. 2-9. 13 Dalgarno, B, Bennett, S & Kennedy, G, 2013, ‘Australasian journal of educational 13 Technology’, Australasian journal of educational technology, Vol 29, No, 4, pp.1- 13 46. 13 Introduction In a competitive market and industry such as the hotel and tourism industry, it is important for the players in the industry to continuously adopt new modes and methods of ensuring that they stay top of their game (Fulop et al nd,p.12; Vasilescu, 2012, p. 13) Maintaining a competitive advantage is the key in this business. The clients who are present in this industry are rarely loyal to a specific place or hotel. They are always on the lookout for the place that is offering the best in terms of quality and ambience. It’s all about making the client feel special in this kind of place. Most people save a lot of money in their lives and go to spend a fortune in tourism and hotel industry. For this and other reasons, they intend to enjoy value for their money, and how best to do that except from going to the place where they think that they are offered the best in quality and ambience? Many tourist destinations and major hotels strive to bring up new products into the market to ensure that they retain their customers and acquire new ones. In view of this statement, this paper investigates how an organization can apply this concept in marketing its new and unique product and facility. In this paper, the product being investigated is the aquarium lounge. An explanation of the decision making process and how it was applied to create the aquarium lounge, a description of the target market or markets, The desired positioning strategy for the aquarium lounge including consideration of pricing and competition will also be analysed. The way the aquarium lounge will be communicated and promoted to the desired target markets will also be analysed. New experience based product description The aquarium lounge is a concept that will see the creation of a giant lounge or restaurant beneath a huge aquarium. The aquarium lounge will be designed in such a manner that the restaurant will look like a normal restaurant except that the roofing and the walls will be made of glass and inside the glass walls will be aquatic animals and fish. Lighting will also be utilized in such a manner that will give the place a great oceanic and aquatic ambience. Many people wish to go to the ocean and beaches but most times people do not afford the chance and the cost that comes along with the same. This lounge will provide people with a close up and almost similar setting and ambience as the ocean. The food that will be served in this lounge will be sea food. The description of the lounge is simple and basic. The lounge will be made in such a way that will allow people to eat under the dome. Its referred to as the dome because it will be designed in a shape of a dome so that it can accommodate the pressure. All types of ocean life will be in display in this large tank on all sides, and on the roof. People will take their meals under this dome. The form of lighting that will be used in the dome will also be a reflection of the ocean life. The whole concept is designed to ensure that they feeling received is purely that of being at the beach, only that this is more intimate in the sense that people feel as if they are inside the ocean. Explanation of the decision making process To come up with any new product or idea and implement it, the management of the specific organization is mandated with making the decision to adopt this new strategy, implement the decision and come up with a strategy of marketing the new product (Triantaphyllou & Mann, 1995, p. 37). The decision to come up with an aquarium lounge was a decision that was unanimous. The management of the organization were concerned about the declining volumes of sales and as a result of this, they have decided to adopt a bold new strategy to boost their sales through a new product. They have noticed that being in a town setting they need to develop something different from other hotels. Being unique is the trick to acquiring new customers. The people in this town wish they could be near the beach and eat sea food but that is not possible. Having recognized a niche in this, the management of this hotel has decided to bring the beach closer and boost their volumes of sales. To do this, they have come up with a target market as the following paragraph details. Consumer segmentation and Target market To be able to push a particular product into the market, an organization needs to identify a target market (Wang & Ruhe, 2007, p.2). The management of this organization has come up with a target market so that they can be able to push their new product, the aquarium lounge. The target market for this aquarium lounge has been identified among the suburban middle and average income earners who wish to have a nice cuisine but cannot afford to go to the beach. Most people in the town are working class who do not have the time off their work schedules to travel to the beach but they wish they could go there and eat the sea food in a setting that brings the ocean closer. Desired positioning strategy Positioning in the hotel industry is a concept that is widely applied. Though this is a general concept applicable in many industries when it comes to advertising, the hotel industry applies this more because of the competitiveness in the industry. The aquarium lounge is one of its kind. For this reason, it needs to be positioned in such a manner that will attract customers and make them feel unique when they come to the lounge. Apart from advertisements, the positioning of the lounge is the single most important form of bringing the customer closer (Schoenfeld, 2011, p. 12; Conteh & Forgionne, 2003, p.3). Positioning is a major marketing strategy and if implemented correctly, it could be one of the greatest marketing strategy (Conteh, nd, p.12). For a product like this that has not tested before, what matters whether the clients will come to the lounge will be the positioning that will be associated with this particular product. For instance, the essence of the feeling of being at the beach, eating sea food and cuisines and the whole ambience where people get to eat while at the same time watching fish swimming all over them. People feel as if they are in the ocean when they eat inside this lounge. This ambience in itself will make the clients come to the restaurant repeatedly. Analysis of the competition The concept of pricing and competition is also taken into consideration. The price should be moderate and designed to fit into the pockets of the clients. It should be noted that the target market are the working class and middle income people who do not get the time to go to the beach. The Aquarium lounge is designed in such a manner that will bring the ocean closer to these people. However, the concept of pricing should be applied in this model because pricing it highly could push the customers away and putting a very low price could make the lounge looking cheap and fail to attract the kind of target market it was designed to attract. Competition should also be looked at. In this case, the competition could not be that much because not many hotels have been able to build Aqua lounges. However, there are hotels which sell sea food and this form the competition to the aquarium lounge concept. To be able to have a product succeed in a particular market, it is important to ensure that the rivals do not come up with a better concept than theirs as this will result into loss of business for the hotel. Communication and promotion strategies A new product needs to be exposed to the target market (Nutt, 2008, p.427) . People will need to know about the existence of the product and this can only be achieved through an application of marketing strategy (Wang & Rube, 2007, p.74). Once the target market has been attained, the next step was to come up with a marketing strategy to market this new product. Marketing a product like this requires a distinct strategy and it’s the responsibility of the management of this facility to engage in the same. There are several ways through which this can be achieved as the following sentences highlight. Advertising Advertising tops this list. Advertising serves to bring the focus of the target market to the product (Simon, 2009, p.12). For a product as unique as this, the advertisement must also be unique. The target market must be pulled into the game and their curiosity aroused. They must be made to feel appreciated and they should feel that they are getting value for their money. Quality is also another marketing strategy. The quality of food that will be offered under this aquarium lounge should be of excellent quality to ensure that people feel they get more value for their money. Advertising could be conducted in a number of forums. The most basic forums of advertisement are radio. The radio could be utilized to create awareness of the new product. The next mode of advertisement would be the television. The TV is the perfect form of advertisement for this product. Though a little bit expensive, it could be used to show in full clarity of the comfort that is brought forth by this lounge. The other form of advertisement that could be used for this case would be the use of print media. Print media involves the use of newspapers and magazines that show in color the product being offered. Even though a TV advert brings the ambience out more than the print media could, newspapers could have a wider coverage. Quality customer service Another very important marketing strategy is offering excellent customer service (Georg, 2002, p.11; Harry, 2002, p.7). In the hotel business, quality customer service is a guaranteed way in which these hotels will get their target market. In the aquarium lounge, the concept of customer service is an excellent manner in which the hotel will adopt to ensure that their customers are satisfied with the kind of food and services offered here. Excellent customer service makes the clients want to come back for more every time. Referrals Referrals and word of mouth advertisements could also be as effective as the other forms of advertisement (Barak, 2013, p. 3). People will talk about the lounge to their friends and the customer base increases geometrically. The trick is offering quality services and products that will make these people have something to think about and make them come back to buy more and more of the same. In this case, people will come to the hotel to enjoy the recreation of the ocean life and food right in their city suburbs. Pricing and competition Pricing also promotes advertisement (Dalgarno, Bennett & Kennedy, 2013,p. 14). As highlighted in the positioning above, pricing plays a very big role in the marketing concept. In this case, the target market is the middle class working people who rarely afford the time to go to the beach but can be able to pay a little extra for the same kind of feeling. Bringing the aquarium lounge closer to these people fulfills part of this need. However, pricing of the same should be checked to ensure that it does not spill over to overcharge these clients and not too low to attract the wrong kind of clientele. Rival companies and facilities in this town provide seafood but none provide it in the same facility and ambience as the aquarium lounge will provide. This makes the product become unique and makes the facility have a competitive edge over their clients. Costing Before any strategy could be implemented, there is a serious consideration that should be taken to ensure that the concept of pricing has been taken care of (Lunenburg, 2010, p.12). The aquarium project is a major project and as such, the management of this facility should consider the cost of the project. Cost involves the creation of the whole project from nothing, the cost of the materials, designers, builders of the tank and the cost of the animals who will reside in this tank. The cost factor is normally a very important factor as it shows the revenue that is expected versus the cost of building up the project. If the cost cannot be rationalized over the revenues expected over a period of time, then the project should not be carried out. If the revenues figure are justified over a period of time, then the facility should go ahead and implement the project. Conclusion The above discussion has looked into a number of levels and activities that organizations should utilize in the bid of introducing a new product into the market. There are four facets that have been discussed in this paper. These are an explanation of the decision making process and how it was applied to create the aquarium lounge. The management of the facility have shown how the product will be designed and how it will look like after all has been created. The paper has also offered a description of the target market or markets. In this case, the target market are the middle class people and the middle level income earners who can afford to the food but can’t get the time to go to the beach. The desired positioning strategy for the aquarium lounge including consideration of pricing and competition has also been analysed. The marketing strategy has been shown to have various segments including advertisements through print media as well as TV and radio. Quality customer service has also been discussed as one of the marketing strategies. Other strategies include pricing and competition and referrals. References Barak, M, 2013, ‘Closing the Gap Between Attitudes and Perceptions About ICT-Enhanced Learning Among Pre-service STEM Teachers’, journal of science education and technology, Vol, 1, No, 1, pp. 2-9. Conteh, N, nd, ‘The Hypothesis Testing of Decision Making Styles in the Decision Making Process’, Journal of Technology Research, Vol, 1,pp. 1-17 Conteh, N,Y & Forgionne, G, 2003, “Delivering Enhanced Decision Making Support through Intelligent Just-In-Time Decision Support Systems” Proceeding of the 34th annual conference of the Decision Sciences Institute, pp. 1 – 6. Dalgarno, B, Bennett, S & Kennedy, G, 2013, ‘Australasian journal of educational Technology’, Australasian journal of educational technology, Vol 29, No, 4, pp.1- 46. 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