Mount Excursions and Outside Camping - Term Paper Example

Individual Report Introduction New product development has to commence with identification of needs in the existing markets. When the expectations of the customers are not fully met it provides an opportunity for new product development. Tourism and hospitality industry has a lot of versatility that can lead to new product development. This report proposed provision of a variety package-experience for tourists. Travel agencies can provide more than tour guides and travel services. Mountain excursions and outside camping has been suggested as additional experience-based products that can be provided to tourists. Proposed-based product and theme of the experience The product picked for this report is Mount Excursions and outside camping to be offered as an additional package for a travel agency. Most travel agencies only offer transport to tourist destinations and leave other services like accommodation and food to hotels and restaurants. The convenience of having to travel with no worry of mission out on accommodation or food calls for an additional package. Outside camping and mount excursions can offer an extraordinary experience for tourists who are seeking adventure of sightseeing as well as participating in outdoor activities. Tourists can travel to remote places where there is no services being offered by top class hotels. The travel agencies can double up as providers for outside activities like camping and mountain excursions. This means that tourists will not have to travel back to their hotels when they set on a journey for a mountain excursion or outside camping. It is prudent to organize for catering services to be offered by an additional arm of the travelling agency. The theme of the experience is to extraordinary experience at cushioned costs. The guides have to have full knowledge of the places being visited as well the cultures of the communities around (Huang, 2010). New product decision making process and its application The process of new product development comprises of specific steps that have to be accomplished sequentially in order to develop a new product. The first step is the identification of market needs that define the existing shortcomings in the products being offered. Idea generation and evaluation follow identification of needs. The other steps include concept development and testing, business analysis, product and marketing mix development, test marketing, commercialization, monitoring and evaluation respectively. There are many services and experiences that are being provided in the tourism and hospitality industry. Most of these services are provided independently with each of the players having a role to play. Travel agencies provide transport while hotel and restaurants offer food and accommodations. Tour guides are sometimes offered by the travel agencies (Huang, 2010). New product development has to commence with intense market research and identification of needs that are not offered by the current players in the market. The various players charge their independent fees that make tourists experiences to be highly expensive. Through market research and studying the existing services and products that are being offered, it is only the travel agencies that offer transport and also play as guides to tourists. Mount excursions and outside camping are sometimes organized by the tourists themselves. Consequently, there was need to provide a product-based experience that offers more than travel and guide services to tourists. Identification of the existing gap in the market offers a chance to come up with a product that complements what is lacking. Identification of the gaps is the same as the identification of market needs (Kozak, 2003). Analyzing the options available that can translate to new product development is the idea generation and evaluation state in the new product development process. Marketing research is a logical and systematic process of gathering, recording and analysis of data and information in order to offer solutions for problems emanating from a particular marketing circumstance. The process consists of definition of the problem, research objectives identification, research design, data collection and pilot test, data interpretation and analysis as well as presentation of findings respectively. Specific types of researches are used in data gathering and interpretation. Concept development and testing comes in where there are different types of outdoor activities in camping and mountain excursions being tested to pick the most viable. The type of food to be provided and the places to act as venues for the excursions and camping have to be analyzed through real testing. An idea can sound good in theory but cannot work practically. It is appropriate to interview the tourists and inquire what else they think should be added to the current package of experiences. Past travel experience has the ability to impact on the attitude of the tourist both negatively and positively (Huang & Hsu, 2009). Research has indicated that travel experience positively influenced tourists to come back or revisit. Therefore it is important to spice up the current travel experience to include such mount excursions and outside camping that that will increase the fun and thrill of tour travels. The business analysis stage of new product development is very important since it factors in all the costs and resources required to actualize the idea that is being developed. Does the travel agency have the capacity to offer catering services, adequate security apart from the travel experience? These are the fundamental questions which are asked and sufficient answers provided so that there are no challenges in future that will lead to the withdrawal of the product from the market. The overall satisfaction of an individual of a destination can be related to the equivalent to a subjective evaluation of all past experiences in that destination. Market evaluation carried out in market research intends to point out where the expectations of the tourists are not being met in the tourism and hospitality industry (Gilmore & Pine, 2002). A product that will lead to the full satisfaction of the consumers’ needs will definitely reap high profit margins for the company. Product and marketing mix development involves the packaging and promotion of the product. How will it be presented to the target market? This also involves the import element of product positioning that will be discussed later. Test marketing will entail rolling out some of the activities involved in the excursion and selling them out to clients and them monitoring the end results. Test marketing will determine how a particular product will be received in the market. If the mountain excursions and outside camping is positively received by the tourists as a wholesome package, there is no need of delaying its commercialization and launch. After a successful market testing the product is officially launched and commercialized to reap benefits to the company. The travel agency will have to wait for sometime before the business breakeven to return the resources that have been spent in its development. After the launch the product then begins to go through the full life cycle. Description of target market The target market of this product is for young and energetic people who are eager to engage in outdoor activities like camping on mountains or camping in the plains. Elderly people will be disadvantaged can easily develop cold or cramped muscles due to some strenuous activities involved in mountain extrusions or outdoor games. The product also target young couples or newlyweds who want to go for adventure during their honeymoon. This is an expedition that target charismatic people that want to take an active role in marry making. The target market is for fun loving people who desire adventure (Poon, 2001). There are many tourists who will want to take part in such events but because they are not being offered they resolve to tour animal parks and orphanages and return back to their hotels. The product will offer an outdoor experience that entails travel, mountain excursions and outside camping. Where outside camping has been opted for then mountain excursions will be ventured into next time. It is not possible to engage in all the activities at the same time. The target market will be couples of single individuals. It is not appropriate for families particularly where small children are involved. Having a product-experience package that involves several activities will attract people who do not want to go through many passages to get the same experiences. This is a form of cruise but will involve outdoor activities and camping as a form of accommodation. The individuals are leisure seekers who want to have nothing but fun. Positioning strategy for the new product (Pricing and competition) A strategy is long-term course of action that has an aim of achieving a particular objective. Positioning is the place that the product occupies in the mind of the consumer. The position of the product is the manner in which the product is defined by consumers using essential attributes. It is the place that the product occupies in the minds of consumers as compared to other competing products. A product can be positioned using particular attributes or just against another product class (Gilmore & Pine, 2002). The competitive advantage of the product has to be identified. The right competitive advantages have to be selected and effectively communicated in order to achieve the desired position to the target market that has been selected. This product will be positioned as providing a variety of experiences in one package and for affordable prices. A person will not have to have a tour guide, a restaurant for accommodation and security team serving independently. It is important for the services to be provided by one center with the collaboration of the others. Pulling of services together will not only lower costs but also lead to an easy time for the tourists in terms of booking and actual preparation. The uniqueness of the product experience is that it provides several services that were being offered by different agencies previously. It will aim at cutting down the costs as well as to streamline the access of tourists to some activities like camping and mountain excursions. Communication and promotion The product promotion will be the important part of new product development that has to communicate a clear message to the target market. Product promotion entails the things that will be done to make sure that the target consumers are aware of the product. Event marketing can be used to market this kind of experience-based products. This is the interactive communication of brand values through staging of marketing events whereby consumers are actively engaged in a behavioral level and would occasion emotional attachment to the brand (Mamalis, Ness & Bourlakis, 2005 The travel agency can use marketing events to make the tourists feel the kind of experience that will be provided in such excursions on mountains and outdoor activities. The target is to positively influence image, familiarity, attitude and emotional attachment of the customers to the brand through staging of self-initiated marketing events. This is an experiential marketing communication strategy in response to significant changes in the consumer behavior and marketing environment. Marketing events are designed to communicate specific messages to target audiences. Getting the consumer involved in the marketing has a greater impact on their attitude towards the experience. Brochures are commonly used in the tourism industry since they are effective. Brochures play an essential role at every stage of the tourism process. Communication on the new product that has been developed can be effectively done through brochures where current tourists are supplied with information regarding the new product. Brochures provide tangible evidence of the experience before the service or product is purchased. Brochures come in handy during the consumption phase since they provide reference information. Besides, the brochures serve as a tangible reminder of the tourism experience (Arturo & Agueda, 2005). It is important to product brochures detailing the package that is being provided. The activities to be engaged in will be explicitly explained in the brochures. Brochures have an advantage since they can be carried around by a customers and this will provide an opportunity of him explaining to another person what the product-experience was all about and if it is worth exploring. Buying decisions are influenced from testimonies of friends or relatives. Sales promotion is also important. Sales promotion is applied in the generation of short-term increases in demand. When the new product has established itself and penetrated successfully in the market, sales promotion will be used to realize increases in demand. Price reductions are used as incentives for consumers while bonuses are used as incentives for sales team (Law, Law & Wai, 2001). It is will be important to provide offers so as to attract more people to try out the new product-experience. Sales promotion targets to increase sales and it are normally a short term strategy that is implemented occasionally. The forecast target profits have to be achieved and this can only be done when more people are consuming the product. Product offers through price reductions will attract more people to try out these excursions and outdoor camping. The more people get the experience the more the increase in the customer base. It is will be essential to roll out a royalty program for customers to come a repeat experience. This will attract people to come for repeat experiences which are the same as repeat purchases in the selling of goods. The tour guides can double up as sales people who sell the new product to the customers. Personal selling provides an opportunity to the sales person to convince the potential customer to buy goods or services that are being offered. It comprises of person-to-person communication between the prospective customer and the sales person. The sales person has the opportunity to make an offer that responds to the needs that came up in the course of the conversation. The brochures can be circulated by a sales person who begins by explaining the supposed product-experience to a potential customer. Product promotion will create awareness of the product in the market. The target is to influence the tourism consumer behavior with the aim of influencing the purchase behavior. There are many factors which influence tourism consumer behavior and these consist of social factors and individual factors. Social factors comprise of role and family influence, social class, reference groups and influentials, and culture and subculture impact. Individual factors comprise of perception and cognition, personality and self concept, motivation, attitude and intention (Law, Law & Wai, 2001). Product promotion targets these factors. Advertising will be done through the website of the company agency as well as audiovisual media like television ads. Special newsletters also can be designed to explain the development and market of the new product. Conclusion The process of new product development is complex and meticulous. It requires analysis in the existing needs of the consumer and the need of new product development. This report has discussed the development of wholesome package that will provide tourist with a variety of activities from one play in the market. The target is to come up with a rare product-experience that services the existing gap in the market. Travel agencies providing more than travel and tours are an appropriate opportunity to create a new product with a variety package. References Huang, S., & Hsu, C.H.C., 2009, Effects of travel motion, past experience, perceive constraint and attitude on revisit intention, Journal of Travel Research 48 (1): 29-44. Huang, S., 2010, A revised importance-performance analysis of tour guide performance in China, Tourism Analysis 15: 227-241. Gilmore, J.H. & Pine II J., 2002, Differentiating hospitality operations via experiences: Why selling services is not enough, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 43: 87-96. Kozak, M., 2003, Measuring tourist satisfaction with multiple destination attributes, Tourism Analysis 7: 229-40. Mamalis, S., Ness, M., & Bourlakis, M., 2005, Tangible and intangible store image attributes in consumer decision making: The case of fast food restaurants, WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications 2: 1705-14. Arturo, M. & Agueda, E., 2005, Tourism brochures: Usefulness and Image, Annals of Tourism Research 33 (4): 1036-1056. Poon, A., 2001, The future of travel agents, Travel & Tourism Analyst 3: 57-80. Law, R, Law, A., & Wai, E., 2001, The Impact of the Internet on travel agencies in Hong Kong, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing 11 (2/3): 105-26. Read More