Marketingstrategy

Marketing Strategy The market for the Calgary Stampede in Australia is fairly undeveloped. Therefore, we have decided to implement a market development strategy. What this basically entails is that we would not be entering the market to compete head-to-head with the competition, because there is not a lot of direct competition that exists. Instead we will focus on increasing the awareness of the Calgary Stampede among our target market and marketing all-inclusive Stampede tour packages. The remainder of this section will describe how we intend to implement this strategy in terms of our use of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Promotion, and Distribution). Product/Price The product that we are marketing to the Australian population will be a 10-day, all-inclusive tour of the Calgary Stampede as well as Banff, Jasper, and Edmonton. The trip-package will include airfare from Sydney Australia to Calgary, tickets to the Stampede Parade and two days at the Calgary Stampede rodeo. From there, the tour will then go to Banff and Jasper for outdoor activities such as hiking and white water rafting. The tour will then go to Edmonton before returning to Calgary for the closing ceremonies of the Stampede. Please see exhibit 1 for the complete trip itinerary. Positioning and Target Market We have essentially decided to position this package as though we are offering two different trips: One for families referred to as the “Family Fun” trip and one for singles referred to as the “Adventure Alberta” trip. The Family Fun trip will be aimed at families, which we defined as parents with at least one child. The target market would be adults aged 30-55 with children aged 3-17. Because of the relatively high cost associated with traveling as a family, we would be targeting families with a household income of at least $80 000 annually. The Adventure Alberta trip will be aimed at younger crowd, namely males and females aged 18-29. This group would comprise mainly of college/university students, as well as young professionals. Since this trip is relatively expensive and younger people tend to have less money, we expect demand for this trip to be less than the Family Fun tour. The places visited will be the same for both groups, as will the majority of the activities the groups under take. The difference will be the group dynamic that each tour takes on. Since people who are on vacation with their families are looking to relax and bond with family members, where as people who are on vacation to party are looking to do exactly that, we feel it is best to keep these two groups separated to ensure that people are comfortable within their tour groups. Ultimately, we feel positioning this tour two separate ways will attract more people and thus increase revenue versus targeting only families or only singles. Price $2,075.00 (CAD) per person plus airfare (cite Calgary stampede website) Promotion Initially, we expect very low awareness of the Calgary Stampede in our target market. The main reason for this is simply because it takes place so far from our target market. Therefore, it is important to promote the Calgary Stampede and our tour packages to our target market in order to increase awareness and thus create demand. This can be done in a variety of ways. Traditional Advertising To increase awareness of the Calgary Stampede among our target market, we will rely on using radio, magazine or billboard ads depending on which of the two trips we are advertising. The following is a breakdown of the specific advertising vehicles we will use for both the Family Fun trip and the Adventure Alberta trip. Please note that this breakdown is only for the advertising vehicles chosen for Sydney Australia. The Family Fun trip will be advertised primarily through print advertisement. The Sydney Morning Herald would be an ideal media vehicle to place advertisements for the Calgary Stampede that target families. The magazine has an average readership of over 480 000 per issue. The audience is comprised primarily of people aged 30-49 with an average income of over $120 000 yearly. We feel that focusing on print advertising, as opposed to radio or billboard ads; will be the most cost effective way to reach our target market (http://www.adcentre.com.au/the(sydney)magazine.aspx). The Adventure Alberta trip, on the other hand, will be advertised on the Sydney station 2-Day radio. This is a logical choice to advertise this trip as it plays “Top 40” music which is popular among our target market. Furthermore, this radio station has a fairly large market share in Sydney with about 9.8% of the market (http://mediaweek.com.au/radio.html). Another effective way to build awareness would be to place billboard advertisements around areas of Sydney (such as Kings Cross) with a prominent nightlife. Both the radio and billboard advertisements would explain what the Calgary Stampede is, emphasize that it is an exciting place to be and direct the audience to our website or to one of our associated travel agencies. Cross Promotion Another effective way of increasing awareness of the Calgary Stampede would be to promote it at Australian country music events. Events such as the Central Coast Country Music Festival or the All Australian Jamboree would be ideal places. Placing an information booth or having representatives hand out pamphlets would help promote the Calgary Stampede and educate people on what and when it is. Since the Calgary Stampede occurs after the Australian rodeo circuit is over, we would not be in direct competition with any of these Australian events. Timing We have decided to start promoting the Calgary Stampede in Australia as of January 1st. There are two reasons behind this choice. Firstly, it will take some time to increase peoples’ awareness of the Stampede and thus generate demand. The sooner we start advertising, the more people we will be able to attract. The second reason is that a trip overseas requires a lot of planning. We want to provide ample time between when people hear about the Stampede and when they are going to depart on the trip. Distribution In order to capitalize on demand that we create for the Stampede, it is important that we have an effective way for people to book their trips. We will facilitate the booking process in two ways: through our website and through affiliated travel agents. Website Our website will be the main way that people will be encouraged to book their trip. Our website will provide complete list of what is included in this trip as well as provide a guide for traveling Alberta. Furthermore, our website will allow people to book their trip and pay online via credit card or online banking. Customer service will be provided in the form of an 800 number people can call for more information. Affiliated Travel Agents Although gearing business through our website will be our main focus, it is important to provide physical locations where people can book their trip. Flight Center is a very prominent travel agency in Australia. By partnering with them, we can ensure that we can facilitate the booking process for those people who prefer to do it in person.