The Top Management of Bedfordshire - Essay Example

? Re-branding and Marketing: Bedfordshire’s Visitor Attraction ID Number & Total Number of Words: 2,001 Table of Contents 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………. 3 2. Literature Review …………………………………………………………………… 3 2.1 Importance of Branding …………………………………………………… 3 2.2 Rebranding and Brand Positioning ………………………………………... 4 2.3 Strategic Ways on How Branding and Rebranding can be Use to Create Competitive Advantage ……………………………………………. 4 3. Research Methodology ……………………………………………………………… 5 3.1 Research Method ………………………………………………………….. 5 3.2 Sampling Method and Research Site ……………………………………… 6 3.3 Research Ethics ……………………………………………………………. 6 4. Research Findings …………………………………………………………………… 6 5. Conclusion and Recommendations ………………………………………………….. 10 References ……………………………………………………………………………….. 11 - 12 Appendix I – Research Survey Questionnaire ......................................................................... 13 Chapter 1 – Introduction Bedfordshire is one of the most famous tourist attraction in UK. To encourage people to visit the site, Bedfordshire does not only sell its hotel and restaurant services to the public but also offer access to ZSL Whipnade Zoo, Woburn Safari Park, and open farms, spa services, and other water and non-water sports activities such as jet ski, wakeboarding, and paint-balling (Bedfordshire, 2013). To promote local and international tourism, Bedfordshire also cater special events such as Bedford River Festival among others (Bedfordshire, 2013). In the product life cycle, it is assumed that each type of business organization is most likely to undergo several stages which include: product development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stage (Robinson, 2009, p. 153). The market demand for a tourism site is expected to continuously change over time. To prevent Bedfordshire from undergoing the process of decline stage, it is essential on the part of its marketing manager to consider the importance of re-branding to ensure that this particular tourist site will maintain an increasing trend in its sales and profitability. Rebranding is all about “revitalising and repositioning a brand through gradual, incremental modification of the brand proposition and marketing aesthetics” (Muzellec & Lambkin, 2006, p. 804). This study assumes that the future success of Bedfordshire is highly dependent on the specific needs and wants of our next generation. Considering the imporance of rebranding in terms of preventing Bedfordshire from reaching the declining stage in product life cycle, this study will purposely conduct a primary research study to identify all factors that could make the students become more attracted in visiting the Bedfordshire. Chapter 2 – Literature Review 2.1 Importance of Branding Branding is considered as an essential marketing strategy that can strengthen the development and long-term value of a brand (Norman, 2004, p. 60). By using effective branding strategy, Bedfordshire will be able to create tangible and intangible benefits which are necessary in increasing the company’s competitive advantage as compared to its close competitors. There are ways in which Bedfordshire will benefit from effective branding. First of all, the company should first identify factors that could attract its target customers to visit the site (Thompson, Rindfleisch and Arsel, 2006; Whan, Jaworski and MacInnis, 1986). By satisfying the specific needs and wants of its target customer, the top management of Bedfordshire can easily attract more people to visit and revisit the site in order to gain access to its services (Kotler et al., 2005, p. 6). To create a strong brand, the top management of Bedfordshire should be able to use integrated marketing communication strategies when trying communicate its brand and customer value (Garfield, 2005; Hoegl and Gemuenden, 2001). Since more people are using the Internet technology, the top management of Bedfordshire should take advantage of social networking sites to easily spread the news about the company’s new services and other promotional activities (Garfield, 2005). By doing so, Bedfordshire can easily maintain a large group of loyal customers at a relatively cheaper cost. 2.2 Rebranding and Brand Positioning Muzellec and Lambkin (2006, p. 804) defined rebranding as the process of “revitalising and repositioning a brand through gradual, incremental modification of the brand proposition and marketing aesthetics”. In relation to the benefits a tourist company can offer its target customers, brand positioning is all about defining how Bedfordshire will be viewed by the people within the tourist market (Vanhove, London, p, 116). There are several ways in which Bedfordshire can reposition its brand in the market. First of all, Bedfordshire has the option to reprosition its brand as either a “low-cost” tourist spot that offer limited tourist attraction and activities or a tourist destination that offers a well differentiated family and sports activities (Best, 2008, p. 45). Through product and service innovation, the top management of Bedfordshire can benefit from the advantage of being able to dictate a premium price for its services (Yeoman et al., 2012, p. 61; Gartner and Lime, 2000, p. 58). 2.3 Strategic Ways on How Branding and Rebranding can be Use to Create Competitive Advantage There are several ways in which Bedfordshire can create competitive advantage our of branding or rebranding. According to Aaker (1996, p. 102), “within a brand’s competitive set, a high relative price signals a higher quality and a low relative price signals a lower quality or value position” [cited in Kozak and Baloglu, 2011, p. 164]. Therefore, as compared to the process of offering “low-cost” tourism, the process of a tourist attraction that provides a well differentiated family and sports activities is better in terms of having a better competitive advantage as compared to other tourist companies (Yeoman et al., 2012, p. 61; Gartner and Lime, 2000, p. 58). In most cases, this can be done by focusing more on improving Bedfordshire’s product and service innovation, strategy and design (Best, 2008, p. 45). Other ways to create competitive advantage out of branding or rebranding is to carefully study and analyze the market situation in Bedfordshire. In the process of conducting a SWOT analysis, the top management of Bedfordshire can easily determine and identify the company’s strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat particularly in comparison with the products and services offered by other nearby tourist attraction company and the ongoing market trend within the tourism industry (Kolb, 2006, p. 102). Based on the SWOT analysis report, the top management of Bedfordshire should develop and plan for a new marketing strategy using the marketing mix (4P’s) (Briggs, 2001, p. 41). After designing and implementing a marketing strategy based on the SWOT analysis report, the top management of Bedfordshire should then focus on measuring and monitoring the actual performance of the company in terms of the number of visitors and its sales and profit on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Chapter 3 – Research Methodology 3.1 Research Method Conducting an in-depth research interview as a research method will increase risk of having a bias research findings (Ely, 1991, p. 62). Aside from getting a bias research findings, the use of deductive research method will not provide the researcher with a more generalized research finding analysis. Since the main purpose of this study aims to gather a more generalized response from each research survey participant, the use of pure quantitative research method is more appropriate for this study (Bryman and Bell, 2007, p. 423). To avoid sampling error, Kline (1998, p. 12) strongly suggest that the use of a bigger sample size is necessary when conducting a quantitative research study. Therefore, to identify all factors that could make the young individuals become more attracted in visiting the Bedfordshire, this study will purposely conduct a quantitative research survey study among a total of 100 students. In analysing the quantitative research data, MS-Excel 2007 was used to compute for the basic frequency and percentage including the graphs that were presented on the next chapter. 3.2 Sampling Method and Research Site Convenience sampling refers to the process of gathering a sample population that is easily accessible to the researcher (McCormack and Hill, 1997, p. 55). Since most of the young individuals can be found in school, the researcher will purposely distribute the questionnaire outside the vicinity of ______ (insert name of school). Using convenience sampling method, the research survey respondents were randomly distributed to the students of ______ (insert name of school) between the 1st of February to 5th of February 2013. 3.3 Research Ethics When conducting the research survey study, it is but ethical to respect the rights of each research survey participants. In line with this, the principle of informed consent was applied at the time each of the qualified research survey respondents were invited to participate in this study. Basically, the principle of informed consent specify that each of the research survey respondents should be told about the main purpose of this study, the expected procedure, and the time needed to complete the survey study (Jackson, 2012, p. 44). Each of the research survey respondents were also told about their individual right to to withdraw or choose not to participate in this study. Furthermore, it is also ethical to respect the privacy of each research survey respondents by keeping their identity anonymous at all times (Iltis, 2006, p. 139). Chapter 4 – Research Findings Majority with 61 out of 100 research survey respondents are male whereas the rest are female. With regards to the research survey respondents’ age bracket, majority with 38% are between the age of 19 to 21 years old followed by 16 to 18 years old (22%), 22 to 24 years old (14%), 12 to 15 years old (11%), 28 years old and above (8%), and 25 to 27 years old (7%). (See Figure I – Summary of Age Bracket on page 6) Figure I – Summary of Age Bracket When asked whether or not they have visited Bedfordshire, all of the research survey respondents said “yes”. When asked how often do they visit Bedfordshire, majority with 42% said “once a year” followed by “once every three months” (28%), “only when there is a special occasion” (20%), “twice a year” (7%), “once a month” (2%), “twice a month” (1%). (See Figure II – Frequency of Visit below) Figure II – Frequency of Visit Price is one factor that can encourage or discourage the young individuals to visit Bedfordshire on their own free-will. When asked about the Bedfordshire’s pricing, majority with 63% of the research survey respondents revealed that the “price is expensive” followed by “price is very expensive” (21%) and “price is reasonable” (16%). (See Figure III – Responses on Bedfordshire’s Pricing below) Figure III – Responses on Pricing When asked which part of the day do they prefer to visit Bedfordshire, majority with 69% of the research survey respondents said that they “prefer to visit Bedfordshire in the afternoon” whereas others prefer to visit the site in the evening (21%). Only 10% of the research survey respondents said that they can visit Bedfordshire “any time of the day”. (See Figure IV – Visiting Preferences below) Figure IV – Visiting Preferences When asked which among the different types of Bedfordshire’s attraction each of the research survey respondents prefer to visit, majority with 59% of the research survey respondents revealed that they prefer “thrills / adventure” followed by “outdoor attraction” (20%), “indoor attraction” (19%), and “arts” (2%). (See Figure V – Summary of Respondents’ Preferred Activity below) Figure V – Summary of Respondents’ Preferred Activity To learn more about Bedfordshire’s attraction, special promo, pricing, and tourist attraction, majority with 92% of the research survey respondents said that they would update themselves using the company’s official website. Very few research survey respondents would learn more about Bedfordshire’s attraction, special promo, pricing, and tourist attraction using other website (6%) or leaflets (2%). (See Figure VI – Summary of Effective Marketing Communication Tools below) Figure VI – Summary of Effective Marketing Communication Tools When asked whether or not the research survey respondents are satisfied with the layout and information found on Bedfordshire’s official website, all of the research survey respondents said “yes”. When asked whether or not the research survey respondents find Bedfordshire’s official website attractive and convincing, all of them said “yes”. When visiting Bedfordshire’s official website, all of the research survey respondents said that it is most likely for them to visit the “price list”, “gallery”, “special events / promo”, “location”, and “hotel and restaurants”. Only 64% of the research survey respondents said that they would place an “on-line booking” whereas 2% said that they would view “contact us” page. (See Figure VII – Most Visited Site on Webpage below) Figure VII – Most Visited Site on Webpage Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendations The target market for this study are the young individuals who are currently studying. Due to young age and limited sources of income, this particular target market are mostly price conscious. Therefore, majority with 42% of the research survey respondents would visit Bedfordshire only once a year. On Figure III presented on page 7, majority of the research survey respondents (63%) find Bedfordshire’s pricing “expensive” whereas the other 21% said that the price is “very expensive”. To convince more young individuals to visit the Bedfordshire more often, the top management of this company should be able to re-brand Bedfordshire as a tourist place that is affordable to the young individuals without sacrificing its brand equity. References Bedfordshire. (2013). Official Website. [Online] Available at: http://www.experiencebedfordshire.co.uk/ [Accessed 11 February 2013]. Best, P. (2008). Branding and Design Innovation Leadership: What's Next? Design Management Review. 19(3). [Online] Available at: http://www.semanticfoundry.com/docs/Branding_DesignInnovation.pdf [Accessed 11 February 2013]. Briggs, S. (2001). Successful Tourism Marketing. A Practical Handbook. 2nd Edition. London: Kogan Page Limited. Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2007). Business research methods. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ely, M. (1991). Doing Qualitative Research: Circles Within Circles. London: Routledge Falmer. Garfield, B. (2005) The Chaos Scenario. Advertising Age. 1, pp. 57-59. Gartner, W. and Lime, D. (2000). Trends in Outdoor Recreation Leisure & Tourism. Oxon: CABI Publishing. Hoegl, M. and Gemuenden, H.G. (2001) ‘Teamwork Quality and the Success of Innovative Projects: A Theoretical Concept and Empirical Evidence’ Organization Science, 12(4), pp. 435-450. Iltis, A. (2006). Research ethics. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Jackson, S. (2012). Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach. CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Kline, R. (1998). Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modelling. NY: The Guilford Press. Kolb, B. (2006). Tourism Marketing for Cities and Towns. Oxford: Elsevier Inc. Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J. and Armstrong, G. (2005). Principles of Marketing. 4th European Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Kozak, M. and Baloglu, S. (2011). Managing and Marketing Tourist Destinations. Oxon: Routledge. McCormack, B. and Hill, E. (1997). Conducting a Survey: The Spss Workbook. London: International Thomson Publishing. Muzellec, L. and Lambkin, M. (2006). Corporate rebranding: destroying, transferring or creating brand equity? Corporate Rebranding, 40(7/8), pp. 803-824. Norman, D. (2004). Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Cambridge: Basic Books. Robinson, P. (2009). Operations Management in the Travel Industry. Oxfordshire: CABI. Thompson, C., Rindfleisch, A. and Arsel, Z. (2006). Emotional Branding and the Strategic Value of the Doppelganger Brand Image. Journal of Marketing, 70(January 2006), pp. 50-64. Vanhove, N. (2011). The Economics of Tourism Destinations. 2nd Edition. London: Elsevier. Whan, P., Jaworski, B. and MacInnis, D. (1986). Strategic Brand Concept–Image Management. Journal of Marketing, 50(October 1986), 135-145. Yeoman, I., Tan, L., Mars, M. and Wouters, M. (2012). 2050 - Tomorrow's Tourism. Bristol: Channel View Publications. Appendix I – Research Survey Questionnaire Part A 1. What is your gender? ___ Male ___ Female 2. How old are you? ___ 12 – 15 ___ 16 – 18 ___ 19 – 21 ___ 22 – 24 ___ 25 – 27 ___ 28 and above Part B 3. Have you ever visited Bedfordshire? ___ yes ___ no 4. How often do you visit Bedfordshire? ___ once a week ___ three times a month ___ once a year ___ once a month ___ once every three months ___ twice a year ___ twice a month ___ only when there is a special occasion 5. How do you find Bedfordshire’s pricing? ___ price is reasonable ___ price is expensive ___ price is very expensive 6. Which part of the day do you prefer to visit Bedfordshire? ___ I prefer to visit Bedfordshire in the afternoon. ___ I prefer to visit Bedfordshire in the evening. ___ I prefer to visit Bedfordshire any time of the day. 7. Which among the following types of attraction do you prefer? ___ indoor attraction ___ outdoor attraction ___ arts ___ thrills / adventure ___ history & heritage ___ special events ___ chills ___ family fun activities 8. How do you upgrade your knowledge with regards to Bedfordshire’s attraction, special promo, pricing, tourist attraction, etc.? ___ official website ___ leaflets ___ newspaper ___ other website ___ magazine 9. Are you satisfied with the layout and information found on Bedfordshire’s official website? ___ yes ___ no 10. When you visit Bedfordshire’s official website, which part of the website do you often view? (Please tick all applicable choices) ___ price list ___ gallery ___ on-line booking ___ special events / promo ___ location ___ hotel/restaurants ___ contact us ___ FAQs ___ gift vouchers 11. Does the photo and other website content found on Bedfordshire’s official website attractive and convincing? ___ yes ___ no Read More