Integrated Marketing Communication - the Vindolanda Trust - Case Study Example

Integrated Marketing Communication: The Vindolanda Trust Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Executive Summary Situated in Hexam, Northumberland, Vindolanda is a thriving UK-based archaeological site and museum that is run by Vindolanda Trust, which is a charitable trust. The Trust’s funding originates from visitor’s contributions and grants and donations from private entities and charities. To continue operation, the company has to attract more visitors and increase revenues from sale of tickets and financial contributions. Indeed, this forms the basis of this integrated marketing communication plan. The market context shows that Vindolanda site operates in thriving market, which gives it the potential for growth through 2025. It however needs to focus more on international visitors. Although the Trust has the vision of encouraging people of various ages, it will target international visitors aged between 25 and 55 who can provide financial contribution. It will also target international visitors who are well-educated and are from the AB socio-economic group. The proposed Vindolanda integrated marketing communications campaign has three levels of objectives, including communication, marketing and organisational objectives. These three levels outline the core objectives of this marketing campaign. Rather than be promoted as a tourist attraction site, Vindolanda will be promoted as a site where people can enthusiastically take part in historical and archaeological research. The integrated marketing tools to be employed include television, brochures and newsletters, internet ads and organisational website. Since the television is expensive, it will only run for one month with target being featured as a documentary. Care will be taken to make sure any likely TV ad does not exceed the nominal amount of £3,000. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Context 4 Current communications activity: 5 The market: 5 Meaning of the site 6 Campaign Objectives and Target Audience 6 Objectives 6 Target Audience 7 Market segmentation 7 Psychographic: 7 Geographic: 9 Integrated Media and Communication Tools 9 Advertising 9 Television advertisement 9 Email Newsletters 10 Online ads and organisational website 11 Evaluation 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction Situated in Hexam, Northumberland, Vindolanda is a thriving UK-based archaeological site and museum that is run by Vindolanda Trust, which is a charitable trust. The Trust’s funding originates from visitor’s contributions and grants and donations from private entities and charities. To continue operation, the company has to attract more visitors and increase revenues from sale of tickets and financial contributions. Indeed, this forms the basis of this integrated marketing communication plan. This integrated marketing communication plan is targeted at attracting the attention of international visitors, aged between 22 and 55 years. An underlying objective will be achieving long-term engagement with the age group with the hope that the group will become ambassadors for the Trust’s activities and to offer support through financial contribution. The marketing plan is both market-drive and mission-oriented as it consists of a structured tactical approach to use media and marketing in passing unfailing promotional message to the targeted visitor group (Baker 1998). Essentially, this plan aims to make the Trust’s integrated marketing communication unique and oriented towards educating the visitors’ group, in addition to building a wider customer and revenue base. Context Current communications activity: Vindolanda Trust currently uses a range of media for promotional purposes, such as through social marketing by engaging social media platforms, such as a blog on the organisation’s website, (whose content is supplied by the Trust’s archaeologists), Facebook and Twitter. The organisation also uses a brochure and a site guide. These have effectively helped to recruit local UK families, schools and older generation of customers. However, the media have not been optimised fully to realise the objective of increasing the international customers, as they are poorly represented in the visitor profile (Pulendran et al. 2003). The market: Currently, a majority of the Trust’s visitor group is drawn locally in the UK, with a larger proportion being the residents of Hexam. The organisation has also attained its objective of appealing to the national audience. The UK market has significantly contributed to the growth of the tourism industry in the country, and has therefore provided significant revenue base for the industry. In any case, the market experiences stiff competition due to the large number of national museums (Travers 2006). The Trust is yet to attain an international appeal, which however offers a potential for steady financial growth. Indeed, this trend is supported by statistics that indicate that local visitors contribute some £245 million to the UK museums (DCResearch 2010). History museum is among the top five visitor attractions in the UK in 2012, with an estimated 5 million visitors (VisitBritain 2014). The UK tourism sector was estimated at £127 billion in 2013, representing about 9 percent of the country’s GDP. The tourism sector was further forecasted to grow at an annual rate of around 3.8 percent, through to 2024. By 2025, the industry is estimated to be worth £257 billion (Arts Council 2013). At the same time, tourism spending was estimated at £113 billion, with some £24 billion originating from the spending by international visitors and another £89 from the domestic visitors. At the same time, the spending by international visitors is expected to grow by some 6 percent annually compared to 3-percent growth of the domestic visitor spending (VisitBritain 2014). These show that while Vindolanda Trust operates in a thriving market, it needs to focus more on international visitors. In any case, the market context shows that the Trust operates in market that allows it much potential for growth through 2025. Meaning of the site Current statistics show that most international visitors have been drawn to the museums and galleries in the industry. A research by the Office for National Statistics that was published in 2011 shows that a mere 100,000 people in the UK show interest in daily museum output, which has represented a challenge for the Trust’s marketing promotion strategies. Recent studies have showed that the visitors are likely to be interested in heritage attractions, such as the 4th century evidence of civilian houses at Vindolanda site. Campaign Objectives and Target Audience Objectives This integrated marketing communications campaign has three levels of objectives, including communication, marketing and organisational objectives. These three levels outline the core objectives of this marketing campaign (Kotler 2003). Organisational objectives comprise revenue maximisation objectives. These include the objective of the campaign to increase in donations, contribution from visitors and sale of tickets from the international visitors (Pulendran et al. 2003). The marketing objectives include the goal of successfully attracting the targeted visitor group to the Trust, based on promoting the Trust’s image and value to them. The communications objectives on the other hand are a major component of corporate and marketing objectives that will have to be integrated with the activities at trust, such as fortifying relationship with the targeted visitor group, making the targeted visitor group to be more aware of the Trust’s activities, penetrating the target market, enabling them to learn the importance of the Trust, educating the target group and triggering commitment and loyalty of the target group to the site (Kotler 2003). Target Audience The targeted visitor group should either be male or females aged between 22 and 55 years. They should be married as well as have some level of responsibilities at the household or workplace. At the workplace, they should be students, holding administrative, management or just professional positions, to be able to support Vindolonda Trust financially. This is since although the Trust has the vision of encouraging people of various ages, it will target those who can provide financial contribution. The targeted audience should as well be a well-informed group and in the middle- or upper-income economic group. The target group should also be living in metropolitan areas across the globe, love nature, holidaying, travelling, in addition to other outdoor activities, such as exploration. Market segmentation Psychographic: Basing on this demographic profile, three likely visitor groups are anticipated. These include culture and nature lovers, early adopters and value conscious. The value conscious group is likely to only engage in activities that add value to their values. While they may not be willing to spend on poor quality services, they are ready to spend heavily on premium high quality services. They are also likely to participate in the Trust’s activities, if it gives them some form of status symbol. They are likely to read travel magazine, daily newspapers, use the internet occasionally and depend on word of mouth advertisement (Dolnicar 2008). Lovers of culture and nature are another psychographic group. These individuals are likely to visit archaeological sites, museums and galleries with the goal or deriving some leisure or recreation, as well as exploring some aspect of nature that is intriguing. In addition to having an interest in exploring unique cultural aspects, they are ready to participate in museum activities but only if it causes them minimal level of inconvenience. This category is likely to read nature and travel magazines, watch documentaries on cable TV, surf the internet and use in-car radio (Kotler 2003). The early adopters consist of those who are likely to show interests in adopting latest innovation and technology. This implies that they are likely to use the internet to surf, read billboards, own mobile devices, such as smartphones and computer tablets, as well as watch internet and cable TV, listen to internet and in-car radio. From the above analysis, the three psychographic groups can be targeted using some similar media, such as the internet, television and a mix of outdoor advertising. Given the extensive and complex size of the international audience, it is not possible to estimate the size of each psychographic group. It is expected that the size of each group will be relatively large. Geographic: The targeted visitor group is from much of European countries, such as Italy and France, due to the geographic proximity. Other targeted countries include the United States, China and Japan Integrated Media and Communication Tools The propose name of the campaign is “Keep Vindolanda Digging.” In selecting the right communication mix for the campaign, three critical factors are put into perspective. These include the relevance to the audience, the cost and the type of media. Rather than be promoted as a tourist attraction site, it will be promoted as a site where people can enthusiastically take part in historical and archaeological research. Advertising Advertising will be important in the marketing communication strategy given its capacity to reach out to a large audience, through simple yet consistent messages that the target audience can understand Vindolonda Trust’s activities and how it meets their preferences (Kotler 2003). In this respect, advertising would create awareness of the Trust to the global audience, its location, activities and unique features that make it a must visit site in UK. This strategy is based on the idea that rather than just reaching the larger targeted visitor group, it would create awareness of the Trust, its values and activities. Television advertisement Television advertising can reach a larger audience as well as ensure that the campaign message reaches out. It can also trigger interest for the Trust, as well as create loyalty from the targeted audience. Using cable television, the targeted visitor group will be persuaded to visit and support Vindolonda Trust. In order to ensure this, the target audience will be persuaded to choose the site over other tourist sites in the UK. The medium can reach a global audience, making it appropriate. Among the TV channels targeted are charitable channels known to create documentaries, since they can reach a global audience cost-effectively, such as BBC, FOX, Discovery and History Channel. They can also be paid for short inexpensive slots. The medium has an element of regularity, which means it can convey a sequence of messages that may be turned into dialogue with the target audience. Television also offers a precise way of targeting the target customers. Based on its element of regularity, the Trust will benefit in a range of ways. First, television will promote messages in the evening regularly, when the target audience tend to watch television. Next, television makes it easy to target the targeted visitor group with the sites and scenes of the site that may appeal to their interests (Kotler 2003). Through considerable coverage from television, it is hoped that a significant number of targeted visitor group will receive the message simultaneously. Since the television is expensive, it will only run for one month. Care will be taken to make sure that short TV slots do not exceed the nominal amount of £3,000. Email Newsletters Newsletters will also be sent in form of direct emails to pass the campaign message of “Keep Vindolonda Digging” to create awareness of the site and its activities. The current database of visitors will be used to identify past international visitors, who would later be engaged directly by sending them newsletters. At this juncture, the organisation’s website will prove valuable. In particular, visitors to the site will be asked to register for newsletters. This will also allow the organisation to build brand loyalty, as well as engage directly with the targeted visitor group. Two strategies will be employed in the use of email newsletters. This will include asking the visitors to register on the organisation’s website by providing their email addresses, country of origin, interest and date of birth. The newsletter targeted with this strategy will be set after each two weeks and will contain information of the current events, photographs and activities at the site (Islam & Alom 2012). The second newsletter is intended for the target audience with special events, such as birthdays or wedding anniversaries, and will offer information on the discounts to these groups for their next entry. This will promote loyalty in addition to building long-term relationship with them. A key benefit is its cost-effectiveness, capacity to reach a large audience at a time, as well as the ability to calculate them based on the number of visitors who have registered for them. Online ads and organisational website On the website, a microsite with content, specifically targeted at the targeted visitors, will be developed. It will offer e-brochures that are downloadable, and which inform the audience on the activities of the site. Further, it will invite the audience to register for newsletters. The internet will mostly be used to reach the target audience, given the ubiquitous nature of this media. This is since international visitors are targeted. This means that content will be developed for the organisation’s website that promote Trust as a unique archeologocal site and museum. This will also require use of search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies to increase the visibility of the organisation’s website globally. At the same time, specific strategic websites that the target audience frequents, such as travel website, cultural sites, educational sites and holiday sites, by paying for ad banners that link back to the organisation’s website. Evaluation Several methods are proposed to be used to determine whether the marketing tactics employed are working. This will include website review, return on investment, sales revenue, sales conversation rate and direct responses. Website review: the microsite reserved for the international visitors on the organisation’s website will be allocated a review section, where reviews will be monitored to find out any rise in the number of reviews. The international visitors will be encouraged to write reviews of their experiences. Higher and more engaged reviews will show that the marketing tactics are working. Sales revenue: To determine whether the marketing tactics are really working, the revenues will be monitored to watch any increase, relative to the tickets for the foreign visitors. However, since museums tend to have longer sales cycles, it is proposed that evaluation based on sales revenue will be undertaken quarterly. Rise in sales revenue will show that the marketing tactics are working. In terms of return on investment (ROI), the revenue generated will be constantly scrutinized to determine whether the types of integrated communication tools used justify their costs. Direct visitor response: It is proposed that international visitors will be approached directly at the site and asked how they learnt about the site. Additionally, a survey shall be carried out on social media platforms such as Facebook. For instance, the comments will be examined to determine how they respond to the integrated media tools. The incoming inquiries will also be monitored to determine what forms of integrated media can reach them effectively. The comments on the review section of the organisation’s website and social media will be reviewed to determine what other people say about the Trust. Conclusion The market context shows that Vindolanda site operates in thriving market, which gives it the potential for growth through 2025. It however needs to focus more on international visitors. Although the Trust has the vision of encouraging people of various ages, it will target international visitors aged between 25 and 55 who can provide financial contribution. It will also target international visitors who are well-educated and are from the AB socio-economic group. The proposed Vindolanda integrated marketing communications campaign has three levels of objectives, including communication, marketing and organisational objectives. These three levels outline the core objectives of this marketing campaign. Rather than be promoted as a tourist attraction site, Vindolanda will be promoted as a site where people can enthusiastically take part in historical and archaeological research. The integrated marketing tools to be employed include television, brochures and newsletters, internet ads and organisational website. Since the television is expensive, it will only run for one month with target being featured as a documentary. Care will be taken to make sure any likely TV ad does not exceed the nominal amount of £3,000. References Arts Council 2013, The contribution of the arts and culture to the national economy, Centre for Economics and Business Research, London Baker, M 1998, Marketing: Managerial Foundations, Macmillan Education AU, New York. DCResearch 2010, The Economic Value of the Independent Museum Sector Association of Independent Museums: Final Report June 2010, viewed 25 Feb 2014, http://www.aim-museums.co.uk/downloads/2cef984a-dd70-11e1-bdfc-001999b209eb.pdf Dolnicar, S 2008, Market Segmentation in Tourism, in: Woodside, A & Martin, D (eds.), Tourism Management, Analysis, Behaviour and Strategy, CABI, Cambridge Islam, A & Alom, M 2012, “Impact of Public Relations and Advertising on Marketing Promotion Activities: A Comparative Analysis," Thoughts on Economics Vol. 19 No. 3, p.45-59 Kotler, P 2003, Marketing Management, 11th ed, Prentice Hall, New Jersey Pulendran, S, Speed, R & Widing R 2003, ‘Marketing planning, market orientation and business performance,’ European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 3/4, pp.476-497 Travers, T 2006, Museums and Galleries in Britain, London School of Economics, London VisitBritain 2014, Visitor Economy Facts - Updated May 2014, viewed 3o July 2014, http://www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics/visitoreconomyfacts/ Read More