D2 Suggest other relevant promotional techniques and materials both organisations could use to promote themselves and ther products and services

You need to suggest other promotional techniques and materials both organisations could use.

Where a promotional method is not used you could suggest that method and describe how each organisation could use them. E.g. Disney send out videos to its target market - does Alton Towers? Could this be an effective promotional technique?

What about Organisation 2?

videos
text alerts
2 for 1 customer deals

D1 comment briefly on the promotional materials / marketing mix of both organisations

Notice here that you are required to look at two leisure and tourism organisations. If you only consider 1 organisation you will only get 2 marks for the whole of section D

you could consider Drayton Manor or Cadbury World, or you could research another organisation of your choice.

The key command words are comment briefly

For each organisation in turn briefly describe how good they are at the following:

Promotional Techniques:
Advertising
direct marketing
public relations
personal selling
displays
sponsorship
demonstrations


Promotional materials:
Advertisements
Brochures and leaflets
marchandising material
videos
press releases
internet sites

You then need to do the same for Organisation 2

You could give each organisation a score /10 and then justify your score

Look at the AIDA evaluation - this is an effective way of commenting on promotional materials

A = Attention Does the promotion grab your attention - if so, why? if not, why not?
I = Interest How does it interest you?
D = Desire Does the promotional material make you want to use the products and services?
A = Action Does this promotional material enable you tyo take action? If so, how?
Telephone number, website, directions, opening times etc

Find examples of Alton Towers promotional products and annotate how they meet the AIDA criteria

C3 Evaluate the market research activities undertaken by the organisation in terms of cost effectiveness

Evaluate
'to judge or assess the worth of'

Market research methods:
primary research - information collected by interviewing peopole either face to face or on the phone
secondary research/ desk research making use of inforamtion which may have been published for example reports, statistics, financial records


Look at the customer survey - 'Your opinion Counts'

why ask for the following details:
date of visit
Personal details
Overall Views
What is the benefit of getting information from customers this way. Are the surveys more or less effective than the individual researchers around the park gaining feedback by use of PDAs

Why are evaluation sheets handed out at the end of education talks? What is the benefit to Alton Towers of giving education talks and then getting feedback from them?

Are people likely to repsond to telephone surveys, surveys put under windscreen wipers, postal surveys?

How cost effective is this type of market research activity?

C2

To achieve the full 5 marks your work must be detailed and show a good understanding of market segments and target marketing

Provide a detailed desription of the market research activities undertaken by the organisation to identify market segments



This requires an in-depth description of products showing their target markets

What are the demographics of visitors to Alton Towers?
AB 29%
C1 27%
C2 23%
DE 21%

Female visitors account for 59% of total visitors
Male visitors account for 41%

Ages of visitors to Alton Towers can be broken down into the following age bands:

<10 13.4
11-14 13.7
15 - 17 11.9
18-19 7.3
20 - 24 12.8
25 - 29 7.3
30 - 34 8.0
35 - 39 6.7
40 -44 8.7
45-49 3.9
50 - 54 1.7
55 - 59 1.2
60 - 64 1.0
65+ 2.4



individuals
coach groups
companies
school parties
group organisers

C1

Describe the market research activities carried out by Alton Towers.
questionnaires on cars
focus groups receive questionnaire - white knuckle rides, younger customers - smaller rides
PDA researchers around the park asking people to rate rides, rate advertising perhaps giving a score out of 10
they have their own marketing team

People can also register their details by phone or on line which is collated in a mailing list and provides information for Alton Towers

Types of market reserach activities:
postal surveys
telephone questionaires
personal surveys
observation
internet

How does Alton Towers use these marketing activities?
How does it help them to meet their customers needs?

C Marketing

What is market research?
Is a tool that helps organisations to find out their customer needs.
It gathers together the likes and dislikes of customers so that the organisation can act on the information and improve its products and services.
It provides up to date information for the organisation.

Why is market research important to the organisation
It enables the organisation to find out the following information:
Who are the typical customers
what products and services do customers require
Why they will visit one organisation over their competitors
How can products and services be improved.
How can sales / visitor numbers be improved for the organisation as a result of suggestions made during market research.
How much customers are prepared to pay
How often are customers prepared to buy / visit
What sort of image will promote the products and services
What new products and services should be developed.

Market research involves forecasting the type of products and services that people require.
Market research helps with product developing.
Market research takes the guess work out of decision making

What are the different types of market research?
Primary Research = field research
Involves collecting and analysing information at first hand using face to face interviews and surveys.
Data is original and up to date
can be expensive to conduct
takes time to collect


Secondary research
Involves using material that has already been published such as newspaper articles, published company accounts, financial records.

There is a wide range of data available
Data is free
Soon becomes out of date
May not be relevant to research

How Does Alton Towers Know What Guests Want From Their Day Out?

Alton Towers conducts extensive research to ensure guests experience a magical day out. Questionnaires are left on car windscreens and in bedrooms at the Alton Towers hotels. The results are collated and fed back on a monthly basis. This is Customer Satisfaction Research, More specific questionnaires are also produced for special events to get instant feedback, this is known as Real Time Research.

What does Alton Towers do with this information?

Once results have been collected and processed they are distributed to appropriate departments who look at ways in which all aspects of Alton Towers can be improved.

What improvements have come out of customer research?

A good example is the introduction of branded food partners McDonalds, KFC and PizzaHut that came about as a direct result of the research in 1997

Why does Alton Towers hold special events?

Througout the season, Alton Towers holds a number of special events aimed at increasing the dwell time and therefore spend of guests. Previous special events have included summer entertainment, Halloween Spooktaculars and the UK's largest firework and laser spectacular. Alton Towers has also played host to a number of pop concerts including Tina Turner, Wet Wet Wet, M People and Bryan Adams.

Who organises the special events?

Alton Towers has its own Special Events departments. Their role involves all aspects of event management from publicising the events to the day to day running of the event itself. They are also responsible for organising company fun days, corporate hospitality, residential conferences and product launches.

suggestions for B3

Alana - using billboards or advertising trailers
Having posters on the sides of buses that advertise Alton Towers or special events
Billboards at railway stations advertising special events

Jack - as customers leave the park they could complete a form with email address. Alton Towers could then form a massive data base and target market segments with special offers.
This would enable families to know about weekend breaks at Alton Towers Resort and Splash landing
Business Customers could get special deals if conferences were held during the low season or quiet periods
Teenagers could be encouraged to attend Halloween Events
Families with young children could be encouraged to attend at quiet periods

This could also be tied in with some sort of loyalty scheme.

Alicia suggests:
Having jingles or advertisements on radio stations such as BRMB. Widening the current circulation or sphere of influence of Alton Towers.
Recommend radio stations - use the internet.