CHAPTER III. MARKETING STRATEGY

Promotion indicates an act of providing target markets with appropriate information to help them decide whether to visit your park. That is, it communicates the benefits of your park to persuade targeted individuals to visit your park.

The information provided should be accurate, important and practical to existing or potential visitors.  Misrepresentation of your park may hinder the credibility of your information and result in poor recommendations in the future.

1)     Identify the target markets

It is the characteristics of your target audience that will affect your decisions on what will be said, how it will be said,

when it will be said, where it will be said, and who will say it.

2) Determine promotion objectives

You should have a clear idea of what you are trying to accomplish via the promotion activities before you set out specific promotion programs.

3)     Design a message

Once you have identified your marketing objectives, the next step is to develop an effective message to achieve the objectives. 

In developing your message, you should decide what to say (message content) and how to say it (message structure).

In terms of message content, there are several desirable qualities of a good message.  Effective messages should a) get Attention, b) hold Interest, c) arouse Desire, and d) obtain Action. 

Based on these essential qualities (AIDA), you should also design an appeal or theme that will produce the desired response.  Typical appeals can be categorized into three areas: rational appeal (e.g., if it is going to induce desired benefits), emotional appeal (e.g., fear, guilt, and shame), and moral appeal (e.g., what is right or proper?). 

You should decide what type of appeals you believe will generate the most desirable results from your target markets.

4)     Choosing media

Next, you should select channels of communication for the created message.  There are two broad types of communication: personal and non-personal.

Personal communication channels involve face-to-face contact, the telephone, mail, or even the Internet.  Personal communication channels are usually considered to be more effective than non-personal communication channels because they allow for personal contact and feedback.  Among other personal communication channels, word-of-mouth influence may be the most powerful one.  However, you often have little control over how the message is created and communicated through this communication channel.  Park managers can take advantage of several public gathering opportunities (e.g., professional conferences, local festivals, and so on) as an avenue for personal communication.

Non-personal communication channels include print media (newspapers, magazines, direct mail), broadcast media (radio,

television), display media (billboards, kiosks, signs, posters), and Internet media (Web-site, internet banner ads, pop-up windows, newsgroups, and Web communities).  You should assess the benefits and costs of each communication channel for your park.  You should also consider your target markets in terms of what channels are most receptive to each segment before you select the appropriate methods to disseminate the promotional message.

5)     After sending the message, you should research its effect on your target markets.  You may want to ask the targeted individuals whether they remember the message, how many times they saw it, how they felt about the message, and their past and present attitudes toward your park.

Previous page

Table of contents

Home

References

Next page