Integrated Marketing Communication and Volunteer Tourism - Coursework Example

Executive summary Volunteer tourism is a new trend in international tourism that simply travelers a chance to experience local culture in the communities they tour and at the same time offer their labour towards improving the lives of the communities they visit (Benson, 2010). An integrated marketing communication is able to communicate this message effectively for a volunteer tourism company to ensure it attracts as mush tourist as possible to its program. Integrated Marketing Communication has a greater impact than when the message is communicated differently in uncoordinated effort. Table of contents 1.0 introduction…………………………………………………………………….3 1.1 Background information………………………………………………………..3 1.2 Target market……………………………………………………………………5 2.0 Literature review………………………………………………………………5 3.0 Market segmentation…………………………………………………………..8 4.0 Communication objectives……………………………………………………..9 4.1 Developing brand awareness…………………………………………………….9 4.2 Influencing consumer attitude……………………………………………………10 4.3 Promoting trust in the company………………………………………………….10 5.0 Creative strategies………………………………………………………………11 5.1 To raise brand awareness………………………………………………………..11 5.2 Influencing customer attitude……………………………………………………11 5.3 To gain customers trust………………………………………………………….12 6.0 Media plan……………………………………………………………………..12 7.0 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..13 References …………………………………………………………………………14 Volunteer travels 1.0 introduction Volunteer tourism is gaining popularity at faster speed all over the world due to the fact that many tourists especially fro America and Europe want a holiday that is based on the natural and cultural strengths of the destinations they are visiting. A volunteer tourism program is a wonderful opportunity for the tourists to get nature and culture based tourism experience that ends up fulfilling the desire in the tourists to see that they have done something beneficial for the community they visit and that they have also learned a thing or two about the local culture. 1.1 Background information Volunteer travels has been in the business of volunteer tourism for the past twelve years providing opportunities for tourists to visit amazing places around the world and at the same time make a difference in the places they visit by offering their skills and effort towards contributing for a better world for both animals and humans. The company has more than a hundred projects in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Tourists have a chance of improving the lives of local people by offering essential services such as volunteering to teach, maintaining biodiversity and caring for endangered species. Apart from visiting beautiful sceneries in the regions the tourist visit, they also get a chance to participate in a cultural exchange where they get a chance of having a taste of the local cultures and know them in depth, they learn different languages , cuisines and even make friends for life and so does the local people (volunteertravels.com 2013). The volunteer is guaranteed a good care and support during the volunteering. The company offers placements where accommodation, food and meaningful activities are an essential part of the whole process. One is guaranteed of a safe travel, good treatment, and all the necessary information and support before, and during the tour. The company recognizes that the main objective is to ensure the local communities benefits from the arrangement and the volunteer gets a real chance to impact on the communities; they visit. As such the company works with local organizations to ensure quality of the whole process and that the benefits are felt by the host community (volunteertravels.com, 2013). The vision of the company is to ensure that as many as possible volunteers should be allowed to live and work in different cultures for a long time to get new perspectives, experiences and values as they work in local communities to improve their wellbeing. The company’s ambition is then to stay in this endeavor to increase understanding between different cultures and give the travelers an opportunity to contribute to a better world through their volunteer actions (volunteertravels.com, 2013). The company is offering an opportunity for travelers to work with children and youths in less fortunate countries and communities, offering essential expertise in counseling and skill development for this people. Travelers interested in teaching can volunteer to teach under staffed schools in the areas they visit it is also an opportunity to teach a foreign language like English which is very essential for the population in a globalizing world. The company also facilitates an opportunity for travelers to care for endangered animal species by caring for orphaned animals until they are stable. Travelers can also do constructions in community projects like schools and health centers. One an also do some extra curricular social activities with the communities like sports event to give disadvantaged children a reason to smile and feel appreciated by others (volunteertravels.com, 2013). 1.2 Target market With the above offering by the company, the kind of target market that the company should concentrate on include, adult citizens in developed countries who want to spend some time abroad doing something meaningful for the communities they come into contact with, school projects in universities, students and families who want to go for a family vacation and teach their children new values of caring for the world around them. The company is also targeting corporate volunteers whereby employees are given a chance to bond by doing volunteering activities while on a deserved vacation. Team building participants is also another target market who can combine their team building with volunteering activities. Tourists within the countries where the companies operate can also spare some time to check on the volunteering activities being offered by the company. 2.0 Literature review It is a changing trend as the gap between developed nations and developing nations becomes more pronounced and evident as globalization and international journalism highlight global issues. Travelers are looking for more meaning and purpose in their holiday than they did two decades ago. Young travelers aged between 18 to 29 years make up the biggest portion of volunteer tourist. This group is made up of unskilled but educated young people from developed nation willing to spend an average of $3000 per trip. Things are changing though with adult highly skilled travelers getting into more volunteer tourism activities. The adult group is highly skilled and engages in volunteer activities in health and education sectors. Some also participate in conservation activities to help local communities they visit. Another emerging group is the corporate volunteers which is basically an idea of companies sponsoring their employees to participate in volunteer tourism as part of their corporate social responsibility and team building opportunity. This group comprises of people with different skills and most likely participates in group activities such as construction and conservation activities. Families are also finding volunteer tourism attractive due to the nature of activities to participate in. they inculcate values and experiences that families use for bonding and also learn new cultures (Benson, 2010, Wearing, 2010). Volunteer tourism as can be seen from the motives of the four groups above is all about the community benefiting from the tourist extending their holiday by engaging directly with the community in the areas they visit. It is not about personal gain and perhaps this should advice brand enhancement to reflect this. Tourist from America and Europe usually want to alleviate the guilt of embarking on long vacation by ‘giving back to the less fortunate’ (Smith & Holmes, 2012). But there is more to what motivates the travelers than this alone such as: An opportunity to offer skill and knowledge Having fun and memorable experiences Experiencing new cultures Contributing to worthwhile projects in local communities Europe and North America provide the biggest market for volunteer tourists due to the high standards of living in these places. European travelers are more concerned about real tangible results from whatever they are engaging in. there must be recognizable short term and long term benefits especially to the environment. European tourists are more attracted to programs that engage locals and travelers intensely to enable them learn about the local culture and the environment. The purpose should be a real commitment to improve the environment and not merely an opportunity to increase visitor numbers this should be reflect in the brand promotion efforts. American volunteers most likely would want to participate in programs where they have an opportunity to interact with the locals and learn about the local environment from the locals. Theirs is more about self-development and not the greater good concern even though their labour might benefit the local community (Smith & Holmes, 2012). The young travelers of age 18-29 are more likely to participate in activities such as assisting a school or a childcare centre ocean and marine wildlife research wildlife monitoring and research Travelers above the age of 30 years are most likely to prefer activities such as community construction projects working in local hospitals land and environmental conservation efforts protection of local cultures and sacred sites Travelers aged above 30 years are more willing to pay more to participate in volunteer tourism activities that travelers younger than that. Perhaps this can be attributed to the amount of disposable income with these two different groups. While the younger generation has less disposable income since they have not invested much or are still receiving average pay, the group above 30 years has good income stream and thereby a higher amount of disposable income. It also varies depending on the economic conditions of the countries where the tourists come from. Getting volunteers from the euro zone is currently a big problem due to the harsh economic time in the region. The locals’ economies are not performing so well and it may seem to be unrealistic to further the cause of improving other countries when the local population is experiencing widespread unemployment and austerity problems (Smith & Holmes, 2012). Currently a majority of volunteer activities are directed to Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. This strongly underlines the link between underdevelopment and volunteering. It is the need to improve these regions that drives the volunteer tourism activities. Most flow of volunteer tourism is between rich and developed nations with high standards of living to poor regions with low standards of living. However travelers need more satisfying projects to help the locals sustain themselves in the future and not just an opportunity for locals to pass off their responsibilities to the tourists. Perhaps this should inform product development. Product development should also not ignore the fact that travelers need to visit attractive sites too and thus incorporate it in the volunteer tourism package (Wearing, 2010). 3.0 Market segmentation The target market for this program is in three segments: Adults aged above 30 years Young adults aged between 18 and 29 years Corporate volunteers These are the three market segment that the advertising campaign will try to reach and attract into buying the brand the company is offering. The three different market segments can be reached using a mixture of advertising channels all intended to have a greater impact on the target audience depending on how best to reach each target market. 4.0 Communication objectives 4.1 Developing brand awareness This is the first communication objective that the IMC will seek to achieve. Volunteer tourism is not very well understood by many travelers some don’t even know where to start about it in the first place. There are also so many issues of concern to travelers that remain unanswered like how does this kind of tourism ensure that the impact made by the tourist is felt long after the volunteer is gone (Smith & Holmes, 2012). These are some of the things the campaign will seek to answer as part of the communication objective. We understand that there are different market segments all having different expectations of what the brand should offer. The young adults expect an adventurous experience where they will also impact on the lives of the communities they meet as well as do something for Mother Nature. As such the brand awareness campaign should partially target this market segment by depicting the adventurous nature of the volunteer tourism experience. Adults aged above thirty are highly skilled and want to get into a program where their skills will be utilized to improve lives and make impact in the communities where they visit. The brand awareness should therefore reiterate the fact that skills are a consideration whenever a placement is being made and there are great and rewarding opportunities for the adults to offer their skills and knowledge. Theirs is not usually an adrenaline charged experience but more about making lasting impact in the communities where they tour. The corporate volunteers want a program that is worth their corporate social responsibility image. The brand should take care of that and show the managers in these companies that it is actually a chance for the company to give back to the society and also offer a bonding opportunity for their employees where team building and team spirit can be enhanced. Once the brand awareness has been achieved then it will be easy for Volunteer Travels to achieve another objective of influencing consumer attitude 4.2 Influencing consumer attitude Consumers may have a biased perception of the volunteer tourism being about to benefit the tourism company but not the communities that they claim to help (Benson, 2010). Once brand awareness has been achieved then it will be easier to convince the volunteers that it is actually about helping the communities and having a fruitful culture exchange between the travelers and the local community. This objective will be connected to the intention of the company to influence the potential travelers to make purchase of the product by requesting for placement in some exiting regions of the world where they can get excellent accommodation and interaction with local environment ad people. 4.3 Promoting trust in the company There are many volunteer tourism companies promising just the best experiences if you order placement with them but many companies don’t actually deliver what they promised. Travelers are left furious of wasted money and lack of satisfaction. The advertising campaign will seek to promote the identity of the company as an experienced player in the industry. The campaign should position the company as the premier volunteer tourism company for the unique opportunities and value for money it offers. It should also communicate the commitment by the company to ensure all travelers get just what they want and also they should know the progress of what they participated in. 5.0 Creative strategies To achieve the outlined communication objectives of the company creative strategies will have to be used in order to reach the target consumers of the product being offered by the company. The strategies will be advised by the needs, preferences and the buying habits of the company’s target market. The strategies will then determine which media can be used. 5.1 To raise brand awareness To implement this strategy the company will have to create customer goodwill by focusing on creating special features that bring out the concept of volunteer tourism. According to Baggozzi (2002) the features should be focused on the benefits the customers stand to gain by purchasing or product. After this the company should then introduce its brand and connect it with the idealistic benefits of volunteer tourism. This way the consumers will have first understood why they need the product and then connect the product to the brand being offered by the company making the two inseparable in the mind of the customer. 5.2 Influencing customer attitude To influence the customer attitude the company will have to utilize customer testimonials to win over the customers hearts concerning the benefits accrued by engaging in volunteer tourism. By doing so the customer will have the mentality that you are indeed letting the customers who have bought the brand to rate your product instead of you trying to something that is not really what you say it is. Erasmus (2002) contends that the strongest advertisement is word of mouth and you will simply be facilitating this advertisement for people who are not near each other. 5.3 To gain customers trust To implement this strategy, the founders will have to position the company in an attractive position by inspiring customer trust through personal stories that led to the creation of the business. The customers believe in founders of companies and actually take their word as a guarantee for quality in what the company is selling (Ferell and Hartline, 2010). The company can also illustrate why its product is superior in the market as compared to other brands through customer testimonials and product definition. 6.0 Media plan To raise brand awareness newspaper advertisements and television advertisements will be largely utilized as they cut across all the market segments and in a faster and more effective way. The television and newspaper adverts can provide adequate information concerning the brand which is much needed for this strategy to work. Social media marketing is also a good media since it has the capacity of reaching a good percentage of a target market comprising of young people (Diamond, 2012). These channels are capable of first communicating the benefits and then introducing the product in a much more effective manner than any other media such as the company’s website. To influence customer attitude, the company will have to rely on magazine advertising and the company’s website. By featuring articles in travels magazines about the product and the brand, the company will be able to influence customer’s perception towards volunteer tourism to dispel any wrong notions the customers may have. Ferell and Hartline (2010) argue that magazine communication is highly informative and detailed and will be best passed through such channels as it is cost saving and effective. Customer testimonials can be included by having contacts to some customers on the company’s website and magazine features about volunteer tourism being offered by the company. To gain customers trust, the company is going to advertise extensively in the mainstream media to assert its credibility and genuineness of the business they engage in. This will confirm to the customers across the three market segments that the company can be trusted to deliver just what they promise in their communication. The founders may also share the story behind the founding of the company through forums such as TV programs and on the companies website to gain the trust of the customer on their commitment top delivering value to the customers. 7.0 Conclusion Integrated marketing communication for volunteer travel as a company will enable the company reach its three target markets effectively and efficiently. Volunteer tourism as a concept is least understood by many since it’s a new phenomenon. As such the company should seek to ensure the customers have trust in the company and also understand the benefits of the program as outlined in this paper. The communication objectives should be geared towards ensuring the target market get the right message the company had intended and that they also react to the message by ordering for placement with the tours company. This is the main objective of this IMC; to boost sales for Volunteer Travels. *Ferell.O., Hartline.D., 2010, Marketing Strategy, Cengage Learning. *Peter ,P., (2008). Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy, McGraw Hill *Erasmus, A.C., (2002). Consumer decision-making models within discipline of consumer science: a critical approach, journal of family ecology and consumer sciences, vol 29, pg 82-90 *Baggozzi, R., (2002). The social psychology of consumer behavior, Buckingham: Open University press *Diamond.S. (2012). Social Media Marketing For Dummies, John Wiley and Sons Tourism NT ( *Benson, A. (2010) Volunteer tourism: Theoretical Frameworks and practical applications, Taylor and Francis *Smith, K., & Holmes, K. (2012) Managing volunteers in tourism, Routledge Volunteer travels official website http://www.volunteertravels.com [Accessed on 29/ April/ 2013] Wearing, S. (2010) Volunteer Tourism: Integrating Travelers and communities, Cengage learning Read More