Communicating with and Influencing Consumers

(created July 2015)

Unit topics

• Marketing Communications

• The growth and role of information and communications technology

• The communication process

• Promotional and communication mix

• Brochures, print, and other non-electronic information

Marketing communications is essentially a part of the marketing mix. The marketing mix defines the 4Ps of marketing and Promotion is what marketing communications is all about. It is the message your organization is going to convey to your market. You need to be very particular about different messages you are going to convey through different mediums.

Marketing Communications defined

Image Source: http://tra360.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/NewSlide-MarketingCommunications.jpg

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ICT defined• ICT is a deliberately broad term to encompass

any technology that helps to gather, store, analyze, communicate and disseminate information.

• ICT was the first used to speed up the processing and communication of information within companies, then between the company and its trade partners, and more recently between the company and its end-user customers

Uses of ICT✓ B2B (business to business)

✓ B2C (business to consumer)

✓ C2B (consumer to business)

✓ C2C (consumer to consumer)

The evolution of ICT

• How it used to be before ICT

• Data processing

• Management information

• Internal networks

• Call centers

The evolution of ICT

• External networks

• The World Wide Web

• E-business

• User-generated content

How ICT is influencing tourism marketing• The dominant consumer

- ICT increases the power of the consumer.

- Consumer becoming the dominant partner in the marketing exchange and companies have to tailor their products, prices and communication to meet individual needs

- Freedom of choice

- Tourism statistics show a faster growth of independently crafted holiday compared with package holidays

The impact of ICT on the marketing mix

• Product

- ‘Virtual experiential marketing’

• Pricing: Prices become more transparent.

• Place or distribution: speeding up the process by eliminating the need to send documents by posts

• Promotion: Online promotion has the advantages of being instantaneous, interactive and permission-based.

The impact of ICT on the marketing mixDigital Marketing

Product Digital Customize Individual

Price Dynamic Transparent Flexible

Permission-based Interactive Instantaneous Promotion

New-channels Global Virtual

Place

Figure 5.1 The impact of ICT on the marketing mix Source: Middleton, V.T.C., Fyall, A., Morgan, M. & Ranchhod, A. (2009). Marketing in Travel and Tourism (4th ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.

The website as the center of the marketing communication mix

• Virtual Information Space

• Virtual Communication Space

• Virtual Distribution

Space

• Virtual Transaction Space

The Uses of Website for Marketing

✓ The basic use of a website is as a source of information, a kind of online advertisement or brochure.

✓Making a transaction; placing an order and making payment

✓Music or video files

✓ Provide downloadable confirmations, tickets or vouchers

The Uses of website for Marketing• Attracting people to the website - Pull - Investing in TV and press advertising - Display advertising on other websites: banners or pop-ups - ’Affiliate marketing’ • Search engine marketing - Develop links from relevant sites in order to improve the page ranking - Pay the search engine company - Have an easily remembered website address

What make an effective website ?

• Does it have the content that our customers are looking for ? Is the information relevant and up to date ?

• Can users navigate around the site easily to reach what they need ? A guideline often used is that it should never take more than three clicks from the homepage to reach the relevant information ?

• Is the page designated to make information and links easy to understand ? Or do design features and animations distract from the content ?

What make an effective website ?

• Will visitors enjoy the site and want to return ?

Does it ‘speak the same language’ as the users and share their sense of humor ?

Does it need to entertain and inform them ?

• What level of interaction is needed ?

Should visitors be able to e-mail questions, place orders or make comments on a message board ?

Barriers to the growth of e-tourism

A number of factors still inhibit the adoption of the internet as the main channel for tourism marketing and sales.

• Security of transactions

• How far consumers will trust a company they know only from its website?

• Too much choice can be bewildering and stressful, internet search may result in ‘information overload’

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Communication Process

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/communicationconcepts-101013210554-phpapp01/95/communication-concepts-4-728.jpg?cb=1287003992

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Promotional & Communication Mix

http://images.flatworldknowledge.com/cadden/cadden-fig07_008.jpg

To read the definition of each item please proceed to: http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/2861?e=cadden_1.0-ch07_s08 or this site http://www.themarketingguywhodrivessales.com/crashcourse/promix.htm

22http://agp-inc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/integrated.jpg

Communications work best when they work together.

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Image Source: http://research-methodology.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Integrated-Marketing-Communications.jpg

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Brochures, Prints & other Non-electronic

Forms

Information materials are part of marketing communications. They may be defined as comprising any form of printed or electronic information materials, paid for out of marketing budgets and designed to create awareness among existing and prospective customers, stimulate interest in and demand for specified products, and/or facilitate their purchase, use and enjoyment.

Defining Information Materials

Types of printed material used in marketing travel and tourism

➢ Promotional print ● Tour operator’s brochures

● Hotel, holiday center, caravan park, campsite, and other accommodation brochures

● Conference center brochures

● Specific product brochures

● Attraction leaflets

● Car-rental brochures

● Sales promotion leaflets

● Posters/show cards for window and other displays in distribution networks

● Tourist office brochures

● Printed letters/inserts for direct mail

➢ Facilitation and information print ● Orientation leaflets/guides (attractions)

● Maps

● ‘In-house’ guides and magazines

● Menus/tent cards/show cards/folders, used

‘in-house’

● Hotel group (and equivalent) directories

● ‘What’s on’ leaflets

● Timetables produced by transport operators

The marketing role of information materials

● Information materials are used as product substitutes.

● Information materials may be used to respond to enquiries generated by advertising campaigns or to trigger recall of advertising messages at the point of sale.

● Information materials provide reassurance and a tangible focus for expectations.

● There is a powerful incentive to distribute information materials that reduce customer contact time.

● Information materials serve both facilitation and sales promotion and merchandising roles.

The multiple purposes of information materials

● Creating awareness

● Promotional – message/symbols/branding and positioning

● Promotional – display/merchandising

● Promotional – incentives/special offers

● Product substitute role

● Access/purchasing mechanism

● ‘Proof’ of purchase/reassurance

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The multiple purposes of information materials

• Facilitation of product use and information

• To promote awareness and use of ancillary services/products

• To assist customers to get the most value out of their purchase and enhance satisfaction

• To feature special offers (sales promotion) • To provide basic information which may be useful • To influence customer behavior and encourage them

to spend • Providing education: making people more aware of

the products they use and the places they visit

Stages in producing effective information material1. Determining the size, profile and needs of the

target audience

2. Marketing strategy, branding and positioning

3. Paper quality, choice of colors, density of copy, graphics and the style and density of photographs

4. Specifying brochure/website objectives

5. Deciding the method of distribution

6. Creative execution

7. Timing

Distributing information to target audiences• In practice, the most important design consideration

for any information is how it will reach its intended target audience.

• For distribution away from owned premises, there are several options for getting print into the hands of prospective buyers.

>> Advertisements carrying coupons to be completed by those requiring information

>> Cards or other inserts into press and magazine media, which are an alternative form of media space

>> Direct mail to loyalty club members and other previous c u s t o m e r s , u s i n g o w n databases and names and address bought for the purpose from a list broker

>> Direct distribution on a door-to-door basis in targeted residential areas>> Distribution via retail travel agencies>> Distribution via tourist information centers and public libraries>> Distribution via relevant third parties >> Collaborative distribution via marketing consortia and trade associations >> Distribution via websites that offer e-mail addresses or call center numbers as the means to access printed materials or provide pages that can be downloaded at home

Distributing information to target audiencesExhibition

• Exhibitions play an important part in tourism marketing, and are a major outlet for brochures and leaflets

• The unique advantage of an exhibition as a promotional medium is that it has a self-selecting audience

• An organization should examine the costs, the coverage obtained and the context in which their stand will be seen

• The results of attending the exhibition should be carefully monitored both in terms of the initial contacts made and the business that resulted

Evaluating the results of information distribution• To choose between the customer appeal of alternative

cover designs and content.

• To measure the results of ‘split-runs’, in which two different brochure formats are distributed to matched samples of target recipients, and the volume of booking compared

• To measure customers recall, use and evaluation of brochures through ad hoc telephone or postal surveys of brochure recipients identified, for example, from completed coupons included in advertisements

• To measure customer recall, use and evaluation of brochure in brief surveys conducted, for example, at reception desks when customers arrive on a producer’s premises or site

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Referenceshttp://www.managementstudyguide.com/marketing-communications.htm