The Development and Structure of a Marketing Plan: Towards the Development of Marketing Strategies
1. The Situation Analysis
In the planning course of there are steps that should be taken prior to the development of the marketing strategies; the primary one is conducting a situation analysis. A scenario analysis is “the overall means of collecting and interpreting internal, competitive and environmental information.” It presents a summary of these environments and summarizes the company’s current marketing goals and performance in the market. Through the scenario analysis business is supplied with a systematic method of viewing marketing activities by analysing the customer, strengths, weaknesses, alternatives and threats (SWOT) in relation to the competition. The scenario analysis in accordance with Gartrell contains internal, exterior and customer analyses, also known as the product, position, and prospect analyses.
The product analysis includes a review of the current objectives, strategies, and firm performance. Product capabilities are examined as well as the limitations of the vacationer product. The entire destination and its amenities are examined to determine what is there to be offered to the potential traveller. This evaluation eliminates poor efficiency since by way of this the marketing goals and goals are reassessed to be able to determine their effectiveness.
Second is the position analysis, which addresses issues such as how the vacation spot is “perceived” by the market, an evaluation of the strength and weakness and the way these may be compared to the threats and opportunities in the external environment, in addition to the previous success of the destination shown in statistical reports. Also, the place of the vacation spot in relation to the marketplace, the competitors’ products, providers and their position out there are examined. Position is important, since marketing strategies are developed based on the kind of image that the company expects to maintain in the eyes of the customer.
Next is the prospect analysis often known as the buyer analysis, which entails the collection of the best target markets, likely to increase the utilization of the destination’s merchandise and services. In this analysis components like potential demand in certain markets, the criteria for deciding on the competition, emerging markets, and what political, social and economical factor may influence the markets are examined.
It have to be noted that one of the major steps for conducting the situation analysis is the gathering of research. Research is pertinent because it is the tool that allows the organisation to turn into aware of the customer needs, needs and preferences. Marketing analysis “monitors and evaluates advertising and marketing actions and performance, and communicates the findings and implications to management”. Its significance is much more highlighted since it permits for the collection of the mandatory data and data to conduct a radical prospect analysis. In an effort to completely collect accurate and up-to-date data and knowledge from the external environment, an organisation should also have strong marketing intelligence. Marketing intelligence includes “everyday details about developments in the marketing surroundings that helps managers prepare and adjust marketing plans and short-run tactics.”
Besides, the product, place and prospect analyses, Gartrell speaks of a fourth, referred to as the promotional analysis, which examines the image of the destination compared to the competition and the allocation of sources of the 2 destinations. The bureau’s marketing budget, sales material and marketing programs are also in comparison with that of the competition.
On completion of the scenario analysis, this info is fed into the SWOT analysis, which gives a framework for viewing the company’s actual strategic position and developing applicable marketing strategies. When performed correctly, “it can be especially useful in uncovering strategic advantages that can be leveraged within the firm’s marketing strategy”.
2. Program Planning: Development of Marketing Objectives and Strategies
After analysing the information presented within the situation analysis, the following step is to develop efficient marketing methods and in order to do so, advertising objectives have to be developed first. This step is a very vital part of marketing planning because without set objectives the marketer is unable to “measure their success in fulfilling the marketing strategy”.
Marketing objectives in line with Malcolm H.B McDonald are usually concerned with the 4P’s. Therefore, advertising and marketing objectives must be set for each one in all these variables of the 4P’s and then the best strategies or technique of achieving the advertising and marketing objectives needs to be developed for each variable of the marketing mix.
The first variable, “product”, focuses on developing the precise product and satisfying the wants of the target market. A product is “anything that may be offered to a marketplace for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or need. It consists of physical objects, services, places, organisations, and ideas.” In the tourism industry, the product is “intangible, variable, inseparable and perishable”. The product is more of an expertise put together in a package.
The “place” aspect on the other hand, refers to the channel distribution. It is imperative that a product be accessible to the client and in order to do so there have to be a channel of distribution that may bring the client to the product as opposed to taking the product to the customer. This channel usually consists of “travel agents; tour wholesalers; specialists; resort representatives; national, state and native tourist agencies; the worldwide distribution systems; the internet; and concierges”. They have to be very knowledgeable in regards to the destination as a result of they represent the principle source of information for the tourists.
In order for a traveller to know of product choices of a vacation spot and make the choice to journey to that destination, continuous communication with current and potential travellers is necessary. On developing effective communication strategies, the goal audience must be understood and crucial communication channels for this audience have to be known. Secondly, communication objectives should be developed. The response sought from the target market should be identified by objectives.
It is believed that for the reason that tourist product is intangible and cannot be tested beforehand, promotion “acts because the product as far as the potential vacationer or leisure consumer is concerned” since by this, the client receives a psychological image of the destination, as its experiences are promoted. Images are portrayed by means of advertising and promotion as the only means of pushing the potential tourist to make a purchase order decision. Therefore in tourism advertising and marketing heavy interest is positioned on the promotional efforts of the bureau.
Ferrell & Hartline make reference to the basic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model, which sets the premise for the development of the communication or promotional objectives. The mannequin holds that the first goal of the communication marketing campaign is to attract the consideration of the goal audience. Interest within the product should then be built through telling the customer concerning the components of the product. If the product matches the needs of the customer, desire for the product is stimulated, which pushes the client toward actually buying the package.
After setting the communication goals, the product have to be shown to the target audience and the ways to take action are as follows:
1) Advertising – This refers to using information to “persuade customers to take a desired motion toward a specific product”. The main goal of the advertising plan is to in the end increase income and sales for the company and also “to provide information that may change consumers’ psychological and behavioral responses in a fashion favored by the advertiser”. When setting promoting objectives, the overall marketing objectives must be used as a base.
2) Public Relations – This refers to “the course of by which we create a positive picture and buyer preference by means of third celebration endorsements.” The major activities of public relations include, press relations, product publicity, corporate communications and counselling.
3) Sales Promotion – This issues “short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sales”
Other communication strategy choices include travel, commerce shows, presentations, non media advertising, familiarisation tours, event hosting, website inspections, cooperative advertising and direct sales. In sum, for each communication medium selected, measurable goals and detailed strategies must be developed.
The closing variable of the marketing mix is price. Price refers to that of the general package that has been put collectively for the market and includes issues like car rentals, resort rates, transportation rates and probably air fare.
3. Implementation
After the marketing strategies have been developed the programmes should be coordinated in an effort to achieve the plan’s goals and meet its objectives. Timing is a crucial factor of consideration through the implementation stage. It “affects the placement of promoting and the diploma of impression the advertising effort could have on the focused market”.
Evaluating Marketing Strategy Effectiveness
4. Evaluation
After cautious planning and implementation of the advertising strategies, they must be evaluated so as to determine how successful they’ve been in attaining the expected or projected. The strategies have to be thoroughly examined in order that appropriate adjustments may be made. Should marketing methods prove to be ineffective, the redevelopment of targets and or new positioning strategies may be necessary.
During the analysis process the firm “tracks results and monitors new developments within the environment”. Constant changes within the environment may additionally force the marketer to regulate the marketing strategies as a way to better entice the traveller.
Gartrell states that in evaluating marketing strategies employed in a advertising plan, first results must be quantifiable. In addition, weekly, quarterly, or month-to-month results should be used as benchmarks for evaluating the plan’s effectiveness. Besides meeting the objectives of the plan, there are a set of measurement criteria that should be used with a purpose to determine the effectiveness of the programs implemented. These include: “total variety of visitors to area, common length of stay, room nights booked / used, total economic impact and the entire room-nights”.
In addition, different measurements referred to as process variables like: “number of trade/travel shows attended, variety of prospects/leads, amount of brochures distributed, consumer reaction to brochures, number of familiarisation tours, number of participants at familiarisation tourism, variety of ads placed, variety of travel agents contacted, total variety of visitor inquiries, number of direct mail programs, distribution of visitor inquiries, number of media kits mailed, variety of editorial inches in publications and total variety of direct mail items distributed.
Undoubtedly, with the intention to make marketing packages a success, large funds must be invested into the communication strategies plan. This is why Gartrell highlights that for bureaus, “return on the investment” is yet one more variable for measuring the success of promoting programs. The best means then to measure effectiveness is to look at the end result of the marketing campaign through the use of indicators of success generated by a plan, like “visitor expenditures, financial impact assessment and tourism employment”.
Simon Kirby and Mark Richardson from the University of Central England mention that measuring effectiveness in marketing, calls for an analysis of the effectiveness “of every element of the advertising and marketing communication mix…”
The communication combine as mentioned, includes communication autos such as advertising, public relations and sales promotion activities. In order to evaluate advertising effectiveness, since Nylen believes that advertising results in sales, vacationer arrivals in this case, then the more advertising carried out the extra “sales” there should be. Therefore, increased tourist arrivals can be utilized as a measurement of promoting effectiveness. Since print or broadcast media can be part of the promoting plan, Nylen adds that although the impression of this sort of advertising might be difficult, it’s still pertinent to set “expected performance levels that can serve as evaluation standards”.
It can be believed that the effectiveness of the promotional tools in the communication mix also varies with the phases of the “Tourism Area Life Cycle” (TALC). In other words, at certain stages of the TALC sure communication methods will naturally be ineffective. With the TALC, it’s believed that the vacationer destination, “moves from evolution by means of involvement, development, consolidation before reaching stagnation”. In different words, during the introduction stage, advertising and gross sales promotion are extremely pertinent in creating a particularly high degree of awareness. In the expansion stage on the other hand, promoting and public relations are to remain considerably high, while barely decreasing personal selling. Next is the mature stage, during which gross sales promotion is once more of nice importance as in contrast with advertising. In the final stage, referred to as the decline stage, gross sales promotions should be kept robust and “advertising is kept at a remind level”. Managers and entrepreneurs must due to this fact be aware of which stage they are at within the tourism product life cycle when developing communication strategies, in order to be more competitive and enhance the sustainability of the industry.
Clearly, companies have management over the event of effective marketing strategies, however as mentioned, in other instances, the external environment literally weakens this control. The exterior environment of promoting consists of the microenvironment and the macro-environment. The microenvironment is that part of the external surroundings which instantly influences the organisation. The macro surroundings on the other hand, “refers to the broad environment outside an organization’s industry and market. It is generally beyond the influence of the person organization” as it accommodates technological, economical, environmental and political influences that “affect the level and patterns of demand” for prodcuts.
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