Marketing Plan for Macedon Ranges - Case Study Example

Marketing Plan for Macedon Ranges Name Unit: Date of submission: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0.Background analysis 5 2.0.Finance 6 3.0.S.W.O.T analysis 6 3.1.Strengths 6 3.2.Weaknesses 7 3.3.Opportunities 7 3.4.Threats 7 4.0.Marketing objectives 8 4.1.Aim 9 5.0.The customer 9 6.0.Marketing Mix 10 6.1.Promotion 11 6.2.Price 12 6.3.Product 12 6.4.Place 13 7.0.Conclusion 13 8.0.References 15 Executive Summary 1.0. Background analysis Macedon Ranges,(2009 p1) tourism is center of economic growth and employment opportunities for many people globally. Macedon Ranges (MR), in Melbourne is a known site for both the national and international tourists. It is well known for a number of special features they include, boutique cellar doors, boutique shops which have windows full of treats, historic stones, a variety of specialist in art galleries, fresh farm produce, gardens which are exquisite and the best cafes and restaurant in the locality. The range is in an environment that has a population of approximately 41000. The region is known as a tourist region since the early 1900s. It receives it funds from tourism victoria and it is a part of Daylesford and Macedon range tourism. It has very many attractions which guarantee it a market share. 2.0. Finance MR allocates $100,000 budget per year. This marketing plan will work within that budget. Therefore, some marketing strategies will be limited in time and media to work within the budget. 3.0. SWOT analysis Strengths MR prides itself from broad range of products and services that make various tourists visit the site. Such include food and wine, cool climate, spa and wellbeing, prime location that easy to access by road, rail and air transport. Weaknesses The range is adjust to Daylesford ranges and visitors competition and has not penetrated the international market sufficiently. Opportunities The demand of the MR services and product has led to building various, hotels and improvement of transport system. Threats The neighboring tourist centers remain a threat to MR growth. Severe cold weather may however, minimize customer visits. 4.0. Customer Macedon ranges marketing plan will focus on whole customer mass, since it is a tourist center with facilities that accommodates various groups of person. This will necessitate growth. 5.0. Marketing mix This involves looking at the 4Ps: Product, price, place and promotion. The interplay of these elements of marketing mix will be geared towards increasing the customer base and market share of the MR. their application will be worked within the allocated funds. Marketing Plan Macedon Ranges 1.0. Background analysis Globally, all regions wish to have tourism as a major contributor to their economic development and growth. Tourism has a lot of benefits both locally and internationally. It impacts on employments, increase in business, culture exchange and technological exchange. Macedon Ranges (2009 p1), Macedon Ranges (MR) is a tourist site with a very wide collection of attraction points. It is well known for a number of special features they include, boutique cellar doors, boutique shops which have windows full of treats, historic stones, a variety of specialist in art galleries, fresh farm produce, gardens which are exquisite and the best cafes and restaurant in the locality. This makes it one of the tourists’ sites which offer a diverse and unique collection of villages and landscapes. Macedon Ranges (2009 p1), the range aims to provide the best services and attract as large number of tourists. As much as it features can be regarded as self-marketing a lot needs to be done to ensure it has a substantial market share. The range is in an environment that has a population of approximately 41,000. The region is known as a tourist region since the early 1900s. It receives it funds from tourism victoria and it is a part of Daylesford and Macedon range tourism. It has very many attractions which guarantee it a market share. Various reasons that could make one visit the range include, social activities, these activities that involve visiting friends and relative. They come together to enjoy and have fun. People come for shopping and dining in the available restaurants within the firm. Then the nature activities and outdoor activities such as visiting mount Macedon and the hanging rocks. These activities provide future collateral if they are improved as people will always want to engage in social activities. 2.0. Finance The plan will use funds received from the victoria tourism council. Fees charged from visitors, and sell of products within the range will form part of finance collection. The marketing plan will work with a budget constraint of $100,000. All the marketing strategies used will not be more than the total revenue of the year. 3.0. S.W.O.T analysis It is also important to analyze the strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threat of the business which in this case is tourism of the Macedon. 3.1. Strengths Winchester and Winchester, (2014 p2) the range has shown strengths in the following sectors. Food and wine; this is one of the major reasons as to why people visit the ranges. This is because of its well know culture of foods and wines. The village that surrounds it is well known for its fineness when it comes to the dining experiences. The village is known as kyneton and it was named as the hottest foodie in victoria’s town. The region has four best restaurants in the region and has over 30 wineries producing very fine wine during the cool climate. They have a wine festival each year on Novembers which is known as Budburst. The other strength is in spa and wellbeing, the ranges is a home of all the best and largest collection of water springs in Australia. These springs are divided between the Daylesford and the Macedon range but still the range has a reasonable number. There has been a growing spa services in the range. The other strength is on outdoor activities and the natural attractions, the ranges have two large forests, the Macedon regional park and the wombat state forest, they are spread in a small range mountain. This forests host walking trails of long kilometers and trails for horse riding as well as trails for mountain biking. Hanging rock which is referred to as the major tourist attraction of the region attracts over 60,000 tourists per year. It offers a very nice view of the region from the top. This place acts as picnic grounds and a visitor’s center. 3.2. Weaknesses The major weakness that the place faces is the location of another range there, sharing the visitors. It has few international visitors of 1% of the total visitors in the area. This makes it penetration to the international market difficult (Winchester and Winchester, 2014p3).. 3.3. Opportunities There has been a thought of creating new attraction a hotel at the top of the hanging rock which would attract more people, but the people around opposed the move as they referred the rock to be iconic and special that should not be interfered with. The expansion of the ranges forms another opportunity facilities, more hotels are being built around and the strategies that have been created before help to improve the ranger from all sectors. The number of workers is increasing by day; this has helped reduce the level of unemployment in the region and improving the people’s living standard. It has also helped improve the economic position of the locality by promoting their businesses. It has led to improvement of the transport sector of the region since the roads have to be perfect for the people visiting the area to ensure smooth movements. 3.4. Threats The threat the industry may face is competition from other tourism sites in the region. The Daylesford site that is next to it and it possess a great threat despite the fact that they are all under the same management. It can be affected with the changing climate conditions too. If it gets so rainy less people will visit the place. And if it gets too hot people will prefer to go to the beaches. 4.0. Marketing objectives Every organization or business has an objective or a goal it wants to achieve. Like everything else, marketing has objectives. And in our case here of the ranges, their some objectives that we want to achieve. The objectives are aligned to the general range objectives but we will concentrate on the objectives of marketing. Marketing is the act of popularizing something and advertising it so as to make it know to the people who are the consumers. Every business usually has a target market and so is the ranger too has a targeted market. It aims to target not only the local tourists but the international tourists too this helps us have a large market share and have the range fitted in the leading tourism attractions sites. Marketing objectives are the targets set by the business when it is promoting its services and to the consumers and are set to be actualized within a certain set of time. All objectives should follow the SMART criteria; specific to what it is addressing, it should be measurable in that one is able to determine the progress being made, should be achievable in that the objectives are not too high not to be attained. The objectives should be specific and finally the objective should be time bound. Marketing objectives for the MR include: i. Increasing the market awareness of the products and services offered in the ranges. The objective targets the consumers of the products and services. It helps the consumers to know about the products and by that the ranges increases the number of customers. ii. To provide information about a certain product that is offered, explaining it features and characteristics. This helps the consumer to be able to quite well know which time of service and product they want to consume as per the features it has. iii. To reduce the level of consumer’s resistance that brings down their frequency visit to the ranges. 4.1. Aim The marketing plan understands that financial constraints that affects marketing in various enterprises. The plan therefore, will limit its objective within the available funds, to bring out positive impact. To achieve this, the marketing plan will use diversified forms of media to communicate the product to the consumer looking in to time in a day when many people can be reached, through TV shows, radios, and within the ranges’ locality. With advancement in technology, social media platforms will be used as well to ensure more people get the information. The plan will ensure no deficit funding at the end. 5.0. The customer The customer is the consumer of the products and services that a business offers. In this case the business is the ranges and the customer is the tourist. Fleckney and Ruzzene (2011 p10), this plan will focus on the whole market mass in reference to age, gender, socioeconomic and nationality. This is because a tourism attraction site has various services and products that welcome different personalities. According to visiting tourists Winchester and Winchester, (2014 p3), it is evident that domestic tourists form the majority group, followed by the inter-state and international tourist. The marketing plan will focus to reach them all. Freelander (2009 p7), The parents are likely to bring their children to the site this will act as a recreational activity. School visit are likely to bring children to the site as it acts act as an educational ground. Young children and teenagers can all visit the MR.Teenagers can visit the MR to learn and have fun. The ranger has activities like mountain bike riding which attracts the teenagers more. There are activities for the adults, this include, horse riding and spa facilities. The different foods and wines offered in this region will attract people from all walks of the world and families can come to enjoy the foods and bound with the families. People of other cultures are fascinated and attracted by the variety of foods and drinks available. Therefore, the MR has a wide market for its products and services. Daylesford and Macedon Ranges Tourism (2015 p1), different marketing strategies will be used for different group levels. Targeting the mass market will help increase and maximize the level of growth of the MR, and subsequently, improve the living standards of the locals and the Australian residence as a whole. The MR targets day and night visitors. Hence, it has to l work 24/7. The community of Kyneton and Australia will offer the local market and the other countries will offer the international market. The market is seen to be quite large allowing the plan to achieve its set marketing objectives fairly as opposed to concentrating on a particular segment 6.0. Marketing Mix BTEC Travel and Tourism (2005 p7) marketing mix (MM) is the means and choices that an enterprises ensures its services and product reach the market. There are primary four MMs; the promotion, price, place and product or service (4Ps). The various MM will touch on all products and services offered within the MR. The overall strategy will be to try reach out to as many people as possible and entice people into coming to the MR. 6.1. Promotion Australian Good food & Travel Guide (2015 p1) this is a strategy that aims at saying what MR is, where it is and its significance. Print media, media release, social media and online advertisement will be relied on for promotion purposes. Print media will be used to show more pictures of the services offered. It will be used for the first six months then there shall be a break. With technology advancement, online advertisement, website development and social media will be highly used. It will cover a very large number, as many people nowadays are always online. It is also easier to access and it can operate throughout the days and cuts across the global market. It will help explain and reveal more features of the products. This is targeted to run for the whole duration of the marketing time. It will be used throughout with visitors. This will include asking questions which will be answered immediately and getting more information about the MR. Yannopoulos, (2011 p3) social media platform will be highly relied upon. It will include blogs, twitter, Facebook, Instagram and linkedin. This will help target the young and adults who use social media. Social media is the largest communication and socializing platform in the world currently. So its use would be perfect. It will help counter competition and share even pictures of the MR. The activities offered can be well describes there and pictures of the place shared. Social media gives other people who have used the products to give their comments and affirm to what the MR says about their product. In addition Freelander (2009 p3), all visitors will have their details entered in the systems of the MR. Their visit will always be appreciated vial e-mails and they will be notified of any activities taking place and the offers that will be available for them. Fliers will be offered to anyone who visit the place always, the fliers will have details of all the features further procedures they could have followed and contacts they can use to contact the MR. This is fundamental as it will ensure the visitors know what the ranges offer and what they need is available. There will people of IT that will be in charge of ensuring that the social networks of the MR are well managed and maintained. Only the internal staff will be involved; no external staffs will be contracted. This will help reduce the cost that will be used in advertising. 6.2. Price BTEC Travel and Tourism (2005 p9), the sale strategies that will be used will help increase directly the number of people who visits the ranges. This will include; offers for a discount for people who come in numbers of more than three, this will encourage visitors to come in large numbers so as to save on cost. There will be a package for teenagers which will be offered to those who visit during the weekdays. During the weekdays students with their student’s identification cards will be allowed to pay half price. This will enable the students to use their free evening time to visit the rangers and they will visit in large numbers. This will be beneficial to the ranger and it will increase the money earned. 6.3. Product Macedon Ranges is the center of interest for every visitor in Australia and internationally. Product will involve analyzing how the ranges is organized and services it offers. MR prides itself from art and culture, festival and events, outdoor, Spa, food and wine and other natural sites of attractions. The marketing will first focus on the strength of the ranges to build trust of the people. This will cut cost of upgrading weaker sites, and improve on them as the income grows. In addition, this will aid in ensuring what is promoted is in accordance with reality. 6.4. Place Daylesford and Macedon Ranges Tourism (2015 p1), located, near the Melbourne city in Australia, MCR is a fascinating site for tourist globally. Its accessibility, by road and rail is significance to attract more number of visitors. It takes less than 30 minutes to drive from Melbourne to the site when driving along Calder freeway. The Ranges offer essential accommodation services for those planning to spend days and nights. Hence, air transport is feasible with many international and national air strips available in the city. MCR is therefore accessible to everyone either visiting or passing by the city. In addition, the fact that it neighbors Victoria is a gesture of more, local, inter-state visitor’s and foreign catchment technique. Freelander (2009 p19), the interplay of the above marketing mix will help confront the challenges and problems that face the marketer, the product, service and product cost and location. These challenges include, driving traffic and generating and creating awareness. This is a major challenge as well as a major objective of the marketer. This problem will be solved by the above strategies. The other challenge is targeting effectively, the strategies targets specific groups. The other challenge is revenue generation and customer base, keeping up with changing market trends which change constantly. This will be counteracted through communication channels that will be employed. 7.0. Conclusion The Macedon Ranges has a wide variety of services and products that it offers. Its main objective is to increase the number of visitation all year round and increasingly expand the products that it offers so as to offer a variety choice to the consumers. The goal is to ensure the region is the best in tourism industry. This will improve the economic development of the region and improve the level of employment. The market faces a challenge always and the market should be well analyzed to ensure continuous update. The market is the key factor to any business success and so all the challenges should be handled and strategies to improve the marketing of the company should be strengthened. Any activity is constrained by the finances of a business and so every marketing activity should be economical. The marketing strategies aim at making people be aware and be able to enjoy the fantastic and classic experience in the Macedon ranges. Every strategy solves a particular market problem and helps improve the business activities. 8.0. References Australin Good Food & Travel Guide 2015. Macedon Ranges & SPA Country travel Guide. Accessed 5/12/2015 from, http://www.agfg.com.au/guide/vic/macedon-ranges-spa-country/listings/. BTEC Travel and Tourism 2005. Marketing In the Travel and Tourism Industry; accessed 5/12/2015 from http://www.bized.ac.uk, pp1-13. Daylesford and Macedon Ranges Tourism 2015. Daylesford and Macedon Ranges Regional Tourism Board. Leading the Growth And Development Of Tourism Across The Greater Region. Accessed 5/12/2015 http://dmrtourism.com.au/, p1. Fleckney P and Ruzzene M. 2011. Macedon Ranges Tourism Industry Strategic Plan June 2011-2016: Macedon Ranges Shire; Urban Enterprise Pty Ltd, pp1-39. Freelander J. 2009. International marketing strategies: Home furnishing industry.USA; DAI, pp3-20. Macedon Ranges, 2009. Accessed 5/12/2015 from, http://www.visitmacedonranges.com/ p1. Tourism Victoria 2012. Daylesford and the Macedon Ranges Market Profile Ending December 2011. Toursism Victoria Research Unit: Victoria, pp1-5. Winchester M. and Winchester T. 2014. Marketing Plan for Tourism Macedon Ranges. Melbourne; Australia pp1-4. Yannopoulos P. 2011. Impact of the internet on marketing strategy formulation. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(18):1-7. Read More