Aljenadryah Festival Marketing Plan - Case Study Example

Aljenadryah Festival Marketing Plan Institution Name Executive Summary Aljenadryah Festival is in the process of transformation into a multinational cultural event. Indeed, it is within this context that this marketing plan proposes to increase revenue base by attracting tourists and business people aged between 20 and 45 years. The event therefore targets tourists, the business community, and young Saudis. The marketing tools to be employed include newspapers, magazines, press releases, social media, strategic websites, and blogs, as well as mainstream media such as television and radio. The estimated cost of the marketing campaign is $50,050. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Context/Overview 5 Marketing campaign objectives 6 Target market 7 Market segmentation 9 Psychographic profiling 9 Geographic profiling 10 Marketing mix 10 Integrated media and communication tools 13 a) Television and Radio 14 b) Internet 15 c) Print 15 Budget: integrated media and communication tools 16 Implementation 16 Conclusion 17 References 18 Introduction Al-Jenadriyah Festival is an annual cultural event that takes place between February and March. Organised by the National Guard, the two-week event is held each year at the city of Jenadriyah. The National Guard -- a Saudi military unit first held the event in 1985. The hosting of the event is anchored in the national government directive to retain Saudi Arabia’s rich heritage and practices of the past. It was first celebrated under the leadership of the Saudi Arabian Kingdom King Ibn Saud, who had a vision of transforming the country into a major tourist destination. The influence and focus of the Aljenadryah Festival has increased over the last two decades and now views the international audience, rather than strictly the Saudi community. Accordingly, the primary objective of the event mission is to display Saudi Arabian culture to both the country’s young generation and to foreigners. Additionally, the event targets at marketing Saudi Arabia as a tourist destination in the Middle East. With over 1 million visitors each year, the event is a major source of foreign currency earner and is, therefore, expected to compete against top regional tourist destinations such as Dubai in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE). Indeed, this forms the basis of this marketing plan. The objective of the event is to display Saudi cultures to the international audience and the young generation in Saudi Arabia. The purpose for this is to disseminate and preserve Saudi cultures. The event also targets the business community, both locally and internationally. Hence, it presents the business community with a platform to exhibit their products to the larger Saudi community. A series of marketing plan recommendations are suggested to promote the event to the three-targeted groups, through positioning and differentiation. Central to these are promoting the Al-Jenadriyah Festival brand through brand positioning strategies such as an integrated marketing plan, increasing the product mix by incorporating diverse cultures. This report proposes a marketing plan targeted at positioning the Al-Jenadriyah Festival in the global marketplace, appealing to a wider customer base, and increasing the overall revenue base. Context/Overview Pertinent advertising strategies for use in promoting Aljenadryah Festival are suggested. The event is currently promoted using a variety of media such as the social media platforms (including Facebook and Twitter), the festival’s website and blogs. In addition, newsletters and brochure are also in use. Aljenadryah Festival currently appeals substantially to the local Saudi market. A new visitor group is, however, anticipated. For instance, an international appeal is yet to be attained. Essentially, therefore, it aims to portray the Aljenadryah Festival in the eyes of international audience and to make the festival significant contributor to tourism in Saudi Arabia. Currently, the event faces stiff competition at the national level from the body of national museums in the country, with current estimates suggesting that cultural activities such as museums and galleries take lead as the major attractions to the international visitors. This is an indicator that with the right marketing strategy, Aljenadryah Festival can raise its revenue base by attracting a new customer base from abroad and increasing market share radically. This report based these assumptions on findings of an industry report by MLA Council in 2010, which established that with effective marketing strategies and programs in place, festivals could help the tourists sector to realize positive marketing outcomes by attracting tourists. The report suggested that festivals should integrate the marketing elements used by tourist sites and museums, such as increasing diversity of product offering, to realize broader economic benefits and to improve audience participation (DCResearch 2010). Indeed, it is within this context that this marketing plan proposes to increase revenue base by attracting tourists and business people aged between 20 and 45 years, and young Saudis aged 25 years and below. To realize this proposition, the marketing plan suggests integrated marketing and communication tools. Marketing campaign objectives Marketing objectives seek to clarify and identify a set of targets that have to be realized through integrated set of planned actions. Three levels of campaign objectives are suggested for this particular marketing plan: marketing, corporate and communication. (a) Corporate objectives include the wealth maximisation strategies proposed for Aljenadryah Festival. They can be attained through increased sale of tickets by raising the customer base. (b) The marketing objectives include effective and efficient attraction of the targeted customer segment. (c) Marketing communication objectives are on the other hand central to the effectiveness of the corporate and marketing objectives. The Marketing communication objectives will be linked to all the activities of the Aljenadryah Festival. The key focus include: strengthening relationship with the target group; optimally penetrating the target market, informing the target market of the Aljenadryah Festival products; Educating the target market on the significance of the Aljenadryah Festival; Making sure that the target market is enthusiastic about the Aljenadryah Festival and care, therefore, increasingly willing to spread the word by mouth regarding the positive aspects of the event. Contributing to a higher percentage of tourists Attaining the marketing campaign objective relies chiefly on the success of the marketing efforts. Hence, the marketing campaign has to be an integral part of the event planning. In return, it should give the festival effective exposure to the business community, tourists, and young Saudis. Three objectives are highlighted In organising the event, the government aims at establishing a culture and perception across the society that culture and heritage should be safeguarded against erosion. The festival seeks to expand and bump up Saudi Arabia as a major tourist destination internationally. The event is targeted at the local and international business community. In reference to the marketing objective, the marketing campaign will use a marketing message that speaks delightfully about the event. In order to achieve consistency, clarity of the marketing message and optimal communication should be ensured. This will increase the target’s audience’s chances of understanding the marketing message without causing cognitive dissonance that may arise due to inappropriate mixed messages and graphic elements. The proposed marketing message is “All Sweet People Attend Gulf’s Greatest Gala.” Target market For organizations to increase market access and competitiveness, they have to match their products with the target market and market segments. This theory applies in the case of Al-Jenadriyah Festival. The targeted audience include tourists and business people aged between 20 and 45 years, and young Saudis aged 25 years and below. In regards to the country’s rich religious and cultural orientation, the government aims at establishing a culture and perception across the society that culture and heritage should be safeguarded against erosion. Consequently, the event is focused on educating the young people and the youth on the traditional cultures and practices and the benefits of their retention. Additionally, the event targets the international tourists. For instance, the festival seeks to expand and bump up Saudi Arabia as a major tourist destination internationally. Therefore, the event centres on appealing to tourists through its diversity of entertainment options such as shows and plays, in addition to the performing arts such as folklore and poetry recitations. This particular target audience is viewed as capable of increasing the Kingdom’s foreign exchange income. The bottom-line is that it is viewed as capable of bringing favourable balance of payment for Saudi Arabia, as well as strengthening its currency. Additionally, the event targets the local and international business community. In addition to providing culture a platform, the festival presents the business community with a platform to display and promote their products and service to the larger community of revellers and tourists. This also provides businesses with an opportunity to get direct feedback for their products. Moreover, the platform potentially increases development of consumer relationships, aside from the opportunities to engage in alliances with like-minded businesses. Market segmentation The targeted visitor groups are male or female tourists and business people aged between 18 and 35 years, as well as young Saudis aged 25 years and below. The tourists and business people may be married or not and may have family responsibilities. They should also be an affluent and a knowledgeable group within the society. They should also be within the AB socio-economic bracket. The target audience should also be living in metropolitan areas and may as well be working in a position of responsibility (such as middle- or senior-management position) or holding certain administrative or professional occupations. Hence, the targeted audience should be members of the middle or working class. This implies that they can travel over great distances to attend the event. Psychographic profiling Based on psychographic demographic profiling, three classes of potential visitor group are proposed. These include early adopters, value conscious and culture and nature lovers. (a) Early adopters consist of a group of early adopters who have deep interest in using latest technology. These group are likely to be reached through the latest integrated media forms such as cable television channels such as Discovery Channel and BBC, print media forms with global outlook such as BBC, ABC and The Guardian, as well as internet tools such as internet radio, blogs, festival’s website, social networking sites. (b) Culture and nature lovers consist of a group of visitors who are likely to attend the festival purposely for recreation and learning. This group also tends to appreciate the cultural implications of the festival, and would be willing to take an action by physically attending the event. They are likely to be reached through cultural and nature media, such as BBC 1, magazines, cultural blogs and travel sites. (c) Value conscious consists of a group that is likely to attend the event and to take part in the event’s activities such as camel racing, with the view of adding value to their lives. This group appreciates high quality services. They are likely to be targeted through international television channels such as BBC, Al Jazeera, Discovery Channel, and print media forms such as quality daily newspapers and travel magazines. In all, the three identified groups will be targeted with a similar level of ambience and outdoor advertising. Since it is not practicable to estimate the actual size of each targeted segment from the global audience, a majority of the targeted group is anticipated to be a mix of all the three. Geographic profiling The targeted audience is expected to come from anywhere across the globe including Africa, Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. However, it is expected that a majority of the visitors will come from the Gulf region, European countries such as Turkey and the UK, Australia as well as the United States. Marketing mix Traditionally, Aljenadryah Festival’s marketing campaigns have been based on the marketing mix model that underscores the need to analyse the four “P’s” of marketing: place, promotion, product, and price. To this end, the marketing strategies have been largely product-centric rather than customer-centric. This plan recommends a change in the strategies to focus more on customers. In particular, since the intention is to reach multinational audience (business community, the young Saudis, and tourists) as far as North America and South Africa, attracting and retaining a loyal customer base or event ambassadors is essential. To this end, the element of “people” needs to be integrated to the four “P’s” to make the marketing campaign more customer-centric. This is since, although the four P’s of the mix are vital components of traditional marketing, contemporary marketing in a globalised world requires customer-care. Hence, Lauterborn’s four “C’s” are integrated in Aljenadryah Festival’s marketing campaign. The four C’s are communication, customer value, customer costs and communication. The underlying principle for this change is that, though the four P’s are centred on representing the minds of the sellers, the proposed four C’s tend to shift more to representing the customer’s mind. This means that Aljenadryah Festival’s should instigate its marketing campaigns based on what the targeted audience wants as well as attending to their needs. Product: Critically, Aljenadryah Festival’s music and other cultural events appeals to audience that mainly comprises highly educated upper class and middle-class audience. The product mix tends to attract a non-discriminating crowd who are around 55% well-educated female. Still, the festival needs to appeal to what the broader target audience would want (Park 2010). The Al-Jenadriyah Festival has a reputation for displaying a wide variety of the Saudi cultural artefacts and practices. A common offering at the event is camel racing, which has traditionally defined the event. While it has recently evolved to integrate a range of activities, the camel-racing gala remains a crucial component of the festival. It particularly serves as the event’s opening activities. An additional offering should be performing art, such as Saudi folklore and poetry. The festival should also feature a variety of poets and folklore dancers to display the Saudi cultures and traditions and the unique Saudi talents. Other options that can appeal to the target audience include book fair, popular traditional games, marketplace, traditional costumes, and art galleries. Additionally, the event displays traditional handicrafts such as pottery and weaving. The purpose for this is to display the Saudi traditions from all the provinces in the country. People: Aljenadryah Festival is in the process of transforming itself into a multinational event. The targeted audiences will therefore have to remain loyal to the festival. Drawing on this, the marketing campaign will focus on building long-lasting relationship with the targeted groups, as well as the stakeholders, organizers, volunteers and suppliers. A broad festival should therefore be organised that can appeal to a larger crowd because the larger age group or visitors, the greater the possibility of having more attendees to the event. Additionally, while the younger audience will serve to broaden the sphere of the market, it is also necessary that mature adults make up a greater bulk of the audience. Hence, the marketing campaign should strike a balance between focusing on mature adults (since longevity continually increases) and the younger adults (Leenders et al. 2007). Therefore, it is proposed that Aljenadryah Festival’s should include music with variable themes that can appeal to worldly hip, which can attract sophisticated gathering. Additional genre of music and activities should also be added to appeal to those aged between 20 and 45 years in order to achieve greater attendance and sale of tickets. Place: Given the unique nature and the spectacular topography that favours camel racing, the event is likely to attract a large base of participants locally and internationally. However, since differentiation is critical, the event should integrate additional products to appeal to a wider audience base. Additionally, the host city is itself an additional product of the festival as the imposing buildings represent the cultures and traditions of the nation’s provinces. Price: the fee for the event is expected to pose as a decisive factor for determining the success of the event. Since the principal purpose of the event (based on the 7Ps) is to satisfy the customer’s needs rather than achieving profit, the event will charge an entry fee of $5. The tourists and the business community will be charged higher ($15). Promotion: Focus should therefore be on differentiation by publicizing the exclusive aspects of the festival with the intention of making it seem exceptional in the eyes of the business community, tourists, and young Saudis. The advertising will seek to strengthen the Aljenadryah Festival and local festival brand equity. Similarly, the forms of direct marketing will focus on building relationships, dialogue, and increasing the number of audience who physically attend the festival. The general advertising and sales promotion should provide the right incentives to the target customers, which would lure them into attending the festival. Public relations should, on the other hand, offer third party endorsements and brace the paid advertising messages. Integrated media and communication tools While several communication media exists, the selected integrated media are based on three factors: Service type (higher involvement service), relevance, and cost. The proposed marketing message to be passed by the selected tools includes “All Sweet People Attend Gulf’s Greatest Gala.” Based on the results of the market segmentation and marketing mix, four critical campaign strategies suggested include sales promotion, public relations, and advertising. These should be implemented based on the principle that the advertising message will not be passed unilaterally. Rather, it will be passed and feedback obtained at the same time in some way. With this in mind, the marketing tools to be employed include newspapers, magazines, press releases, social media, strategic websites, and blogs. Still, television and radio will be used due to their potential to reach the tourists and business community fast. a) Television and Radio The two critical forms of advertising will be television and radio (either online or offline) since it is expected that a high percentage of the target audience use either radio or television, or both. The two mainstream media will be used to publicise the event. To ensure high attendance to the event, the two media forms will be used to raise the event’s profile by stating the positive benefits of the previous events and what visitors should expect in the forthcoming event. Since the message is targeted at both the local and international visitors, radio and televisions should be used to reach out to the local visitors. The tourists should be targeted using international TV stations or internet TV. The rationale for selecting radio and TV is since they both have the capacity to send out the message to a large number of people at the same time. Additionally, the media campaign is expected to run for a short duration, the radio and TV format provide effective means of reaching the target audience fast. At the most, the television and radio ads should both run for 45 seconds. The approximated cost for TV is $21000 while for radio is $5650. b) Internet Online ads will also be used to advertise the event to the local and international audience. Due to the ubiquitous nature of the internet, the online ads provide a unique way of reaching the target audience regardless of their location. The event organizers should create the event’s website. The website content should highlight the unique aspects of the event. Search Engine Optimisers (SEO) can then be integrated in the website content to promote their ranking in Google search results. The strategy can increase the visibility of the website in Saudi Arabia and internationally. Additionally, it can increase the chances of reaching out to a large mass of the targeted audience. Alternatively, strategic cultural websites (such as Tripadvisor.com) with a large international audience should be targeted for paid ads. Later, banners should be created to be displayed on these sites at a fee. The social media will also be used to reach out to a large number of the targeted audience. Examples of viable platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Instgram. Online ads are estimated to cost $4,600. c) Print The print options include the newspapers, magazines, and t-shirts. Leading newspapers and travel magazines could also be targeted to promote the festival. The event organizers should also work on press releases to be distributed to the newspaper publishers across Saudi Arabia. The press releases should contain the marketing message in addition to the history of the event and recent developments to make it more attractive to a large audience. The press releases could also be sent out to travel blogs who could consider publishing the releases. Poster and postcards outlining the date and venue of the event should also be created. The print option is estimated to cost $18,800 (see table 1). Budget: integrated media and communication tools The estimated cost of Integrated Media and Communication Tools is illustrated below. Table 1: Budget for Aljenadryah Festival’s marketing campaign Implementation As a tradition, since the event happens between February and March each year, the media campaigns will be run within the next 5 months to allow for sufficient time for the event to be publicized. The radio and television ad will also be created 3 months ahead of the event. They would afterwards be run throughout the remaining period. The content for the magazines and newspapers will be developed and run within two months ahead of the event. Social media platforms such as Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook should be activated and managed 5 months towards the event. The website banners should begin (immediately) 5 months before the event. Conclusion Aljenadryah Festival is in the process of transformation into a multinational cultural event. Indeed, it is within this context that this marketing plan proposes to increase revenue base by attracting tourists and business people aged between 20 and 45 years. The event therefore targets tourists, the business community, both locally and internationally. The young Saudis are also targeted in consistency with the goals of the event, which is to display Saudi cultures to the international audience and the young generation in Saudi Arabia. The purpose for this is to disseminate and preserve Saudi cultures. The marketing plan focuses on building long-lasting relationship with the target audience. To realize this proposition, festival requires an integrated advertising campaign made up of public relations, general advertising, and sales promotion. With this in mind, the marketing tools to be employed include newspapers, magazines, press releases, social media, strategic websites, and blogs. Still, television and radio will also be used due to their potential to reach the tourists and business community fast. The estimated cost of the marketing campaign is $50,050. References Arts Council. (2013). The contribution of the arts and culture to the national economy, London: Centre for Economics and Business Research Assael, H. & Marvin, R. (1976). Approaches to Market Segmentation Analysis. Journal of Marketing Vol. 40 No. 4, pp 67-76 Baker, M. (1998). Marketing: Managerial Foundations. New York: Macmillan Education AU Civic Technologies. (2009). Using Market Segmentation for Better Customer Service and More Effective Strategic Planning, A White Paper for Public and Academic Libraries. Retrieved: DCResearch. (2010). The Economic Value of the Independent Museum Sector Association of Independent Museums: Final Report June 2010. 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