New Zealand Tourism - Target Market Segments - Essay Example

? New Zealand Tourism Table of Contents Summary 3 Target market segments and stakeholders 3 Role played by social marketing elements 6 Recommendations- Strategic Marketing 7 Impact of the strategies 8 Reference 9 Summary The project seeks to present the concepts of social marketing which can be used by the tourism authorities in New Zealand for improving tourism sector of the region. The aim is to attain a two way communication process between the general public and the authorities. For this purpose the project makes an analysis of the stakeholders and the market segments in the region. It is identified that some of the economically advanced nations of the world could be targeted, like China and New Zealand and out of these populations the people aged between 25 and 60 years could be chosen. This is because people falling in the above age limit are known to make frequent visit to places and destinations. Some of the social marketing elements which could be sued for the purpose are promotional campaigns like public announcements, billboards, media events and community outreaches. The importance of video marketing and blog marketing and social networking sites could also be used for the purpose. This would allow a two way communication process between the authorities and the general public. The advantage of social marketing is that the viewers would be able to provide their views and suggestions regarding their needs and requirements based on which the authorities would be able to provide the facilities. Target market segments and stakeholders Natural disaster has great impact on the tourism and also on the economic condition of the country. Thus effective marketing strategy is very essential to communicate with people over the globe that the country is ready for business. For successfully implementing the strategies proper evaluation of the target market and the stakeholders analysis is very important for NZ Tourism. The target market for the tourism at the initial stage should be identified by the economic condition and size of the source country. Countries with high income like Australia, Singapore, UK and Hong Kong are much matured market for the tourism industry as the target market. Newly industrialized countries like Korea, Malaysia also provides possible target market for NZ Tourism. Figure 1: Visitor arrival trend rise with income (Source: Local Government New Zealand, 2011, p. 9) The top two markets which has great trend of tourism attraction for New Zealand are China and Australia which are needed to be focused for marketing of the Tourism activity. Figure 2: China and Australia are the Key market (Source: Local Government New Zealand, 2011, p. 10) The interactive segments who are involved in the process of engagement and interaction with respect towards the social, cultural, environmental of these potential markets are the main target segment for the tourism industry. The primary stakeholders for the tourism of New Zealand may be divided into three major categories- 1. Industry groups like Hotel Council of the country, TIANZ and Inbound Tour Operators Council of the country. 2. Tourism businesses like Air New Zealand and Tourism Holdings Limited and 3. Public organizations like Department of Conservation and Tourism Research Councils. International stakeholders of the country include industries like hotel, transport and travel companies who are supplying tourists for New Zealand (Inter brand, 2005, p. 57-58). With time better relationship of the country with the global market and effective communication system will increase the number of stakeholders if the marketing communication strategy can be effectively developed and marketed. Role played by social marketing elements The field of tourism has been changing rapidly over the years. This holds true for the country of New Zealand which has been struck by natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides etc. On account of the above aspects the tourism sector of the nation has suffered a setback and has been demonstrating diminishing numbers of visitors and tourists in the region. Thus the need for developing a brand marketing strategy has been felt by the Tourism Authority to enhance tourism in the region. Being the marketing manager in the tourism authority of the region, the marketing strategy seeks to employ social marketing strategies for reaching out to general public of the region and the world. The strategy of social marketing would include listening to the desires and needs of the target audience and developing the program based on their feedback. The strategy would include complete focus on the consumers through intensive research and repeated evaluation of the different aspects and progress of the program. Both the research and the evaluation would form the basis of the process of social marketing strategy undertaken by the authorities. The key role that would be played by social marketing would be to promote and share information related to tourism in New Zealand. The crucial aspect of this plan is that it would be a two way process in which the views and suggestions of the common man would be taken and applied to promote tourism in the region (Winett, 1986, p.89). Recommendations- Strategic Marketing One of the key marketing strategies would be to undertake promotional campaigns. This would be in the form of public service announcements, mass mailings, billboards, holding media events and lastly community outreach. Under this strategy, the public that would be targeted would be within the age group of 20 years and 60 years. However, the major emphasis would be on people aged between 25 and 35 years of age and who are more prone to visiting places and adventures in nature. People in the middle income groups would be targeted. The advantage of community reach and holding media events is that the general public would have the opportunity to put forth their expectations from the tourism industry. Moreover, the authorities would also be made aware of their needs and requirements from the same and hence would be in a better position of design strategies for the long term. Community outreach has the additional advantage of coming in direct contact with the public and sharing views with them too. Media events would provide the advantage of attaining attention of the public and spreading general awareness about the issue (Weinreich, 1999, p.178). The second marketing strategy would be to use the internet for Blog Marketing and Video Marketing. Developing videos on the popular destinations and places and uploading them on the web portals to provide consumers with the complete idea and information about the place would be one aspect of the strategy. This would be complimented with the collection of a feedback from them as well. Viewers would have the feel and experience of the places and would also have the opportunity to provide suggestions for improvements. Blog marketing could help to promote destinations and tourism businesses considerably. Posting of different articles on the website would act as an effective marketing tool in the form of increasing target traffic to the site as well as increasing search engine rakings for the site. This strategy is specially aimed towards the improvement of travel businesses (Taylor & Riklan, 2011, p.253). The third strategy would be to employ the social media networks for marketing about the hospitality and tourism sector in New Zealand. The social networks such as Face book, Twitter and YouTube could be used for sharing information on the sector and attaining viewers’ feedback on the same as well. Since these networks are being increasingly used by the youth, they would account for an efficient platform for sharing information and awareness (McDonald & Wilson, 2011, p.282). Impact of the strategies The above strategies would have a considerable impact on the public. Firstly they would be informed about the present conditions of the destinations. Since the region has been increasingly struck by natural disasters, tourists are apprehensive about the security about the places. The marketing strategies would provide them with the information about the safety of the places and would generally cater towards improving brand image of the place as a tourist destination. Using social marketing would be effective in spreading awareness about New Zealand as a tourist destination among the young generation most easily. This is because, they are considered to be the most frequent users of the media and social networking sites in the internet. The Internet is also considered as the most accessible and easy-to-reach strategies that can be availed of as a strategy. Most importantly, the idea of developing popularity of the sector would be dependent on the feedback of users. Thus the authorities would be likely to apply their suggestions for improving the conditions of the destinations and providing consumers with such facilities that they need. Reference Interbrand. (2005). Baseline Review of Tourism New Zealand. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.tourism.govt.nz/Documents/Policy%20Website/Documents/TNZ%20Baseline%20Review/BaselineReviewFocusObjectivesReport.pdf. [Accessed on: August 30th 2011]. Local Government New Zealand. (2011). Tourism Symposium:The earthquake and beyond. [Online]. Available at: http://www.lgnz.co.nz/projects/EconomicandRegionalDevelopment/TourismSymposiumNZIERreport17June2011.pdf. [Accessed on: August 30th 2011]. McDonald, M. & Wilson, H. (2011). Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them. John Wiley and Sons. Taylor, E. & Riklan, D. (2011). Mastering the World of Marketing: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Marketing. John Wiley and Sons. Weinreich, N. K. (1999). Hands-on social marketing: a step-by-step guide. SAGE. Winett, R. A. (1986). Information and behavior: systems of influence. Routledge. Read More