Marketing Strategies Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Strategies for Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. Answer: Introduction: The aim of this report is to develop a strategic marketing plan of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. The scope of the report is to develop a strategic plan for this boutique hotel located at Taranaki National Park in New Zealand for the coming 3-5 years. In order to frame the market strategy, it is important to analyse the customer behaviour of the target consumers of the hotel. In order to achieve this objective, the report shall utilize Walshs Research Opportunity spectrum in conjunction with Kozak and Martins (2012). Application of these concepts would help to propound certain approaches that the boutique hotel might undertake to improve their service to the Gold and Platinum rated tourists, visiting their hotel. Following this, a critical review of their present promotional strategies along with the analysis of the website will be done in the report. The last part of the report will discuss a number of recommendations along with justification that would help the hotel to improve their marketing strategies to attract more customers. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge is a boutique hotel that is located amongst the hills and the natural region. The hotel offers a theme based priority service to its customers. It is for the same reason that many people prefers to stay at this Hotel rather than other ordinary hotel that offers better stay and other basic facilities. The Hotel has the accommodation of 10 rooms but the future plan of the hotel is to expand its rooms to 15 at least. However, it is equally important to focus on the business and the marketing strategies of the Hotel to improve its business and make better profits. Strategic marketing plan for the next 3-5 years: Strategic plans are a set of written documents that are considered to be the plans set by an organization to achieve their business strategies. These set of plans depends on the future plans of the particular organization and it might vary from time to time. In this part of the report, a strategic marketing plan of the organization for the coming 3-5 years shall be analyzed. PEST analysis of New Zealand: To frame any a strategic plan, it is important to understand the situation of the country or the industry where the particular organization operates. In order to meet this criteria, understanding the political, economic, socio-cultural and the technological situation of the place is important. A detail analysis shall be made here: Political Political environment of a country can create turmoil in the major industries operating in a particular country. In case of tourism sector, political factor affects largely. Political factors control the incoming of tourists. Major customers of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge include both native people as well as tourists from other places. Recent political approaches by the country show provision towards welcoming more tourists in the country. Economic Economic condition of people of a country is bound to affect the business of the industries. In case of tourism or especially boutique hotels, the customers need to spend a good amount of money for their stay. If domestic condition of the country is considered, average household income of the country is $67,000. Apart from this, the inflation rate of New Zealand is 0.7% that does not affect the tourism industry to certain extent (Gundersen, Tangeland Kaltenborn, 2015). Again, currency exchange of New Zealand dollars is high compared to other countries. These factors automatically attract more tourists. Socio-cultural People of New Zealand are nature loving. They like to spend their time amidst the beauty of nature. There are many boutique hotels in New Zealand and tourists like to spend their vacation in these hotels rather than usual hotels. Keeping the same factor in mind, it can be said that there is a great opportunity of boutique hotels in New Zealand. Technological If technological factors are to be considered, it can be said that people of New Zealand are advanced in technology and use almost all kinds of technological equipment (Berthon, Plangger Shapiro, 2012). Again, people across the World have become familiar with online booking system and gathering information available in the internet. The Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge has their own home website where all kinds of information are available to the customers and there is the provision of hotel booking as well. These technological factors help to improve the business of the hotel. SWOT analysis of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge: It is equally important to analyse the Strengths and weaknesses along with the opportunities and threats that the organization might come across in its business. As pointed by Armstrong, Harker and Brennan, (2012), when these factors become clear for a company, the strategies set by the management of the company become more effective. Strengths It is one of the famous boutique hotels in New Zealand. The main objective of the hotel is to provide quality service to their customers. The Hotel has been successful in meeting the demands of the customers who seek for a stay amidst the nature since the Hotel is located amidst the Taranaki National Park (Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge Caf, 2016,). Weaknesses The Hotel has the accommodation of just 10 rooms that is too less compared to other hotels in New Zealand. The Hotel does not have a proper marketing strategy as well that impacted the business of the Hotel largely. Opportunities Owing to its increasing number of customers, there is an opportunity for the Hotel to expand its accommodation capacity by at least more 10 days. The hotel might provide innovative and different approach towards their servicing. The Hotel might come up with better theme based interior depending upon the choice of the customers. Threats The increasing competition of the boutique hotel in the country has been increasing and this is one of the major threats for the Hotel. As pointed out by Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, (2012), todays consumers are very demanding and meeting with their demands sometimes become challenging for any industry. In case of tourism industry, consumers usually look for special treatment that depends on their choice. Meeting these factors of the consumers can act as major threats for the Hotel. Identification of potential consumer behaviour trends: In case of a boutique hotel, understanding the demand and behaviour of the target consumers is very important for the management. It is based on the behaviour of these consumers, the management is supposed to frame their market strategies. According to the Recreational Opportunity Spectrum, identifying and determining the diversity of recreational opportunity helps to improve the opportunity of a particular sector to serve the potential consumers. It is on the idea of servicing that an organization might expect to fulfil the needs of the visitors. In comparison to this concept, Ferrell and Hartline, (2012) pointed that not all visitor seek the same experience and the demand might completely vary from person to person. Therefore, it is important to schedule the opportunity well to provide a classifying range of better opportunities to the consumers. It has been widely discussed, that in places like New Zealand, United States and Australia, these places are surrounded by natural area ( Gundersen, Tangeland Kaltenborn, 2015). Therefore, recreational activities automatically increase for such regions. If the ROS is used for considering the consumer behaviour of the people of New Zealand that might affect the business of the Hotel, it holds great importance in determining the customers choice. In New Zealand, ROS is extensively used by the Department of Conservation as one of the important tool to determine the recreational activities that might be undertaken. According to the DOCs Visitor Strategy, it has listed a number of characteristics that sets the accessibility and the nature of consumers and their activities (Hsueh Chang, 2016). Depending on such factors, the provision of services and management zoning can be framed. An application of the ROS is easily reflected in the accommodation facility of the boutique hotels. The targeted consumers can be easily assumed by determining the remoteness, naturalness, size of the area and other environmental factors as well. It has to be mentioned that the Dowson Falls Boutique hotel is located among the natural environment. It is one of the important factors of the Hotel that has helped to attract more customers for them (Jones, Day Quadri-Felitti, 2013). The natural environment on which the Hotel is based is the most attractive point of the organization. This differentiates the Hotel from other types of regular hotels. If the behaviour of the targeted consumers is concerned then it can be said that the major consumers are the ones who look for a customized and a personalized stay at their preferential place. Range of different ROS within Taranaki region If the Taranaki region is considered, it can be said that it is a huge region covered under forest. There is the availability of various fauna and flora. It is a mountain region and is away from the regular urban areas (Jones et al., 2016). A number of benefits including, Health and Social benefits, economic benefits as well as cultural benefits can be easily gained by the boutique hotel. These factors would ultimately help the Hotel to attract more consumers. Some of the other recreational activities that might help more tourists to the Hotel are: Trekking in the mountain Mountain biking Tour around the natural space in the mountain WWE expedition Swimming at coastal regions or water expedition can also be an approach from the The Waverly beach is one of the important spot for diving and surfing. These are very attracting features that can add to the existing thematic approach of the boutique hotel (Kabani, 2013). These Recreational Opportunity situations shall help the hotel to attract more tourists. Understanding the needs of the Gold and the Platinum tourists of the hotel: The customers of the Hotel can be categorized as Gold or Platinum customers. The Gold is the ones who are important to the Hotel but they do not like to spend as high as the other group of people. The Platinum customers are the ones who spend more money on their stay at a particular place. When the consumers spend more money, they remain with the hope that they shall be served differently and with better attention (Kang et al., 2012). It is for the same reason; the needs of the customers have to be kept under consideration by the management of the Hotel. The Hotel is located at the hills therefore; transporting the tourists to the location is one of the responsibilities that the Hotel has to take under consideration. The customers are needed to be transported by the means of any kind of road transportation. It is expected that the customers shall be transported to the Hotel by arranging a car (Khanna Palepu, 2013). It has to be understood that the major targeted consumers are the couples. Therefore, making arrangement to take them to the hotel by the means of road transport is the most effective means. Setting the mission and vision for the lodge: The mission of the boutique hotel is to provide the customers with a soothing and memorable experience of they stay among the beauty of nature in the hills. The aim is to make the visitors comfortable enough that they shall come back to the lodge again. Developing a marketing strategy for the hotel: Marketing strategy has to be planned keeping the environmental factor as well as the strengths and opportunities that a particular organization deals with. In order to frame the marketing strategy of the Boutique Hotel, the 5Ps of marketing can be used: Product Boutique Hotel rooms for the visitors are the product that the particular Hotel sells as the product (Khosravi, Malek Ekiz, 2014). Place The region of operation of the particular hotel is the Taranaki region of New Zealand. People The targeted people are both the domestic people who want to spend some quality time amidst the nature. Other potential customers are the tourists of New Zealand. Promotion The Hotel mainly uses the Social Networking Sites for their promotion. However, it can use the other means of promotion as well such as using promotional event, using viral marketing to attract more visitors (Kleinrichert et al., 2012). Price The cost of the rooms depends on the type of customers. The rate varies for Gold or Platinum customers. At an average it is $100 for one day stay of the visitors availing a single room. 5 key points to Entice the Gold and Platinum tourists and its Associated cost along with justification: It is very important to undertake certain approaches that shall help to keep the customers intact to improve the business condition of the Hotel. Some of the approaches that the Hotel might undertake to serve the visitors are: Complimentary breakfast Complementary pick and drop facility Availability of wireless internet connectivity Herbal spa or salon Other important approaches that the Hotel might undertake are: Some kind of packages available to the Gold and Platinum customers that might include upgraded lounge or presence of better quality of service to the guests (Kwong, Thompson Cheung, 2012). The customers that are loyal to the Hotel and they keep on coming to use the service of the Hotel, they can be treated well and provided with better packages Customers might also be offered for certain tourism facilities or other recreational activities that might add more fun and excitement to their visit. In case if the customers make booking before a certain period of time, then the customers shall be given better discount or attention (Lee Kim, 2013) In case of newly married couple, there shall be provision of certain special things for them. For instance, they might be given a special suit that shall be decorated with a particular theme as per their liking. In case of marketing, the hotel shall come up with different approaches like event shows or promotional activities that aim at attracting the targeted consumers (Line Runyan, 2012). All the above mentioned approaches made here shall help to attract more consumers because if it is considered about the liking of consumers, it can be said that consumers are more inclined towards innovative things rather than regular services available at major hotels and other resorts (Lipman Ashlock, 2015). Communication is also an important factor for the Hotel to maintain. For a tourism industry, keeping a good communication with the different stakeholders of the company is very important. It has to be understood that the management of the Hotel shall undertake the importance of communication in its approach towards the development of the business. The stakeholders of the Hotel include the employees who are working in the Hotel, that include the staff, the cooks and others (Lusch Vargo, 2014). Another important factor that should be mentioned here is that the Hotel is operated by two managers and there are no such other important stakeholders in the business. Therefore, keeping a communication with these limited groups of people is easy. Therefore, any kind of approach made by the management can be easily disseminated among the people and there is a greater chance of gaining better results in the business activities. Critical analysis of the promotional strategies of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge As Trusov et al. (2012) stated that, small independent hotels like Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge do not have the adequate corporate guidance and resources like big hotel chains. Hence, the resort has developed its own marketing strategy depending on the style and quality of hotel and the target customers. The Dawson Falls Lodge has been using its social networking sites effectively and has been trying to attract customers largely. However, there are certain factors that can be considered as the once that are creating hindrance in their marketing activities. This part of the report claims at conducting a critical analysis of the use of the website can be done here. Using mass-market promotion Primarily, it can be said that the Hotel did not focus on targeting a particular group of people but the marketing strategies are done keeping all the consumers available at the website. It has been found that most of the tourists in New Zealand who come to visit Mt. Taranaki are familiar with Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge (Lwin Phau, 2013). The resort has developed a website to support the marketing campaign in the global market. It has developed contract with both individuals and large business chains to rent their hotel rooms on discount. Huge amount of popularity, unique facilities and attractive packages have make it the first choice of tourists who come to visit Mt. Taranaki. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge uses specialized agencies as selling tools The resort uses different travel agencies as a new trend of selling tools. These selling agencies help the resort to find out new and effective methods to compete with popular resorts in New Zealand. Presently the resort has started to focus on niche marketing (Lwin et al., 2014). For instance, some of these agencies help the resort to develop special packages and discounts for customers. Some agencies often help the resort to develop unique marketing message for tourists, in a way that mass market sellers will not be able to do. Provide discounts to special customers As Sigala et al. (2012) mentioned that, irrespective of the nature of the business, discounts have the same effectiveness. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge has promised all the potential customers (gold level and platinum level) to provide 10% of for all the luxuries in comparison with new customers. Extra 5% discount is provided by the resort for frequent visiting. In the point of view of Mullins (2012), providing discounts for frequent visit can increase customer loyalty for an organization. In addition, to this discount program, Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge works with New Zealand Government to register its name in the local tourist guide map of Mt. Tranaki. The resort provides 5% discount in the pricing to those customers who book their room using the contact number provided in the local tourist map. Development of partnership activities Mohammed and Rashid (2012) mentioned that, It has been found that promotional strategies that incorporate the needs of more than one business are often cheaper to put together than solo marketing efforts, and appeal to a broader audience. Your hotel brand should collaborate with other businesses and participate in cross-promotional campaigns, including collaborating with rental car agencies, local restaurants, airlines, and credit card providers. This helps build a professional reputation with customers and drives familiarity, trust, and likeability. In addition, get permission from your corporate clients to use their logo on your marketing materials to help validate your property in the eyes of new prospective corporate accounts.The resort can develop partnership working with local skiing companies. All the tourists who come to visit the Mt. Taranaki can enjoy skiing form that local agency. Okazaki and Taylor (2013) mentioned that, partnership working could cut down the promotional cost for both the companies without hampering the effectiveness of the promotional strategy. Effective development of value added promotions Rohrs (2013) stated that, both clients and sellers appreciate value added promotions given by an organization. This promotional strategy is also applied by the resort. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge offers various rewards and facilities to the tourists on the basis of number of rooms and nights they book to stay at the resort. They are such as reward points on arrival, gift shop discounts, complimentary breakfast, room upgrade, free local phone. For Gold level and Platinum level customers, there are various other facilities and offers are provided by the resort. They are such as Platinum arrival gift, free car parking, complimentary breakfast and dinner, champagne for special for special occasions and herbal spa treatment. These approaches made by different companies have been successful and this can be equally fruitful for this company as well. Implementation of effective social media marketing It has been found that social media marketing has become an important part of marketing in hospital industry (Wang et al., 2012). It has been found that customers do ample research work on a hotel before booking a room form a resort (Manyika et al., 2013). Hence, Dawson Falls Mountain Lodgehas developed appropriate social media marketing strategy in order to attract the targeted segment of customers. All the social media marketing approaches taken by the resort are mentioned below in the table. Development of YouTube video The marketing team has developed videos that describe the scenic beauty of Mt. Taranaki. They also help the customers to understand all the facilities available in the resort along with delicious foods that are offered by it. Facebook campaign According to Line and Runyan (2012), Facebook is a place for people to share with their connections all about their vacation pre and post-trip. For this reason Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge has developed its own face book account. Here, all the customers can share their thoughts and memories related with the resort. They also can provide their suggestions so that Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge can improve its business performance. Attractive stats and offers provided by the resort are updated time to time in the Facebook page. They have selected a unique cover photo in in order to describe the scenic beauty of the place. Marketing on Instagram As Kwong et al. (2012) stated that, hash tags are the essential constituents of Instagram marketing. It can send a message effectively by only using one word and picture. As the resort is developed beside the Mt. Taranaki, it implements niche hash tags to grab attention of a particular set of customers. A photo contest has been arranged as a part of their marketing activities. Here, the tourists have to share their photos to indicate how much they enjoyed their days at the Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. Promotional activities on twitter As Khanna and Palepu (2013) stated that. In Twitter marketing, a company has to send a message across in 140 words or less. The manager of the Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge motioned about twitter marketing that, Twitter makes it easy for guests to share their experiences with friends to generate referrals. It also provides a gateway to expose guests to what your hotel or resort has to offer. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge provides different types of offers and packages in Twitter page to attract guests. For example, We are having a Mid-Summer Sale: Buy 3 nights get the 4th free and All guests who stay now through July 30 get 3 for 2 passes to the Mt. Taranaki. Sending SMS to potential customers The management of the resort sends short message service (SMS) text to all the potential customers. It helps them to stay updated about the latest offers and packages given by the resort. Sending SMSs help to directly reach the targeted group of people and the marketing approach can be better than other means of marketing. Conclusion: After analyzing the different situation of the boutique hotel, it can be said that the Hotel is a successful one and has been providing service to their customer. The Hotel located at the Hills of the New Zealand is a very attractive spot for the visitors. The surrounding is peaceful. It is for the sole reason of its location and its approach to attract tourists, that the hotel has been a prosperous one. A detailed analysis of the various factors that affect the marketing and the business of the Hotel has been taken into consideration and this has helped to reach a particular conclusion about the marketing strategies that the Hotel has undertaken. It is based on these understanding that certain recommendations can be claimed. The Hotel has focused largely on social media advertising rather than other forms of advertisements. It can be said that that there is an increasing impact of social media because there are a number of platforms that are helping in the process of marketing. Usin g the media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other, reaching the targeted consumers has become an important part of the business. It has been found that the political and the environmental situation where the hotel is located are favorable for tourists attraction. It has to be understood that there are lot of recreational opportunities for the Hotel to undertake. These activities include expedition around the regions. The social media marketing that the Hotel does is mainly to target the consumers who are between the ages of 20 and 45 years or above. It has been found that the main targeted consumers are the ones in this age group only. However, it can be said that the approach of their target is very limited and that needs to be expanded. In order to make their marketing a greater one, certain approaches has to be undertaken by the Hotel. For this purpose, certain recommendations can be made easily. Recommendations There is no such provision that the marketing of a particular company or organization has to be limited to certain channel of communication, but it is expected that a company shall undertake such approaches that might target the specific group of people and the marketing becomes successful for the Company. In case of this particular boutique hotel, it has to be understood that there are huge scope for the Hotel to carry on their marketing strategy. Depending on the above analysis, some creative recommendations are provided to the Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge, so that they can improve their business performance. They are described below: Development of unconventional pricing It has been found that in any business doing things in unconventional way can create buzz. It also helps to create new customers for an organization. For this reason, the lodge needs to develop unconventional pricing structure to develop renewed interest about the resort in the mind of tourists. The management of the resort has to cut down the price of the rooms in order to attract middle income level customers. In addition, the management has to change the food menu frequently so that customers get surprises. Reimbursement This idea is coming from Loews Hotels. The resort can offer reimbursement for the fees that the tourists pay airlines to check their bags. However, Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge does not need to offer this service to all types of customers, for all luggages or even all year through. The resort can set a limit on the number of bags and the timing of the offer. The resort can use this strategy to attract customers during off season. Sending SMS messages to customers A personal approach from the side of the Hotel or an organization is important because it creates a direct impact among the receiver of the messaged. Therefore, if the message is send to them directly, it has to create direct impact on the customer. It has been found that implementation of social media marketing to attract customers has become a recent trend of hospitality industry. It has been analyzed that location-based marketing is one of the most recent strategies that a resort can use to connect with the customers. The resort can use short message service (SMS) to develop positive relationship with the visitors. The resort will only send text to potential customers (Gold level and platinum level) in order to update them about the new services and offers for hotel rooms. . Use Blogging As Kang et al. (2012) stated that, consumers shop much differently than they did in the past, gathering information from the Internet before ever making a purchase. The same applies to hotel stays. By starting a hospitality or travel blog, you increase the quality content on your website, which drives your online presence and improves your search rank. If your hotel ends up on the first page of search results, people are more apt to make a reservation. But stick with articles that are informative, as opposed to promotional. Provide better opportunity to the important customers From various statistical analyses it has been fund that 20% of the visitors of a hotel are account for 80% of their revenues (Kabani, 2013). As the resort has many large corporate customers, the management of the resort needs to focus on providing direct attention in the marketing campaign for important customers. The importance of the Gold and the Platinum customers shall never be forgotten because it is with the help of this group of people that the Hotel makes greater profit in its business. Therefore, it is quite obvious that these people should be taken care of and better marketing has to be done for this group of people. End note: By the end of the report it can be said that a detail analysis has been carried out that has narrated the recent position of the hotel in respect to its marketing strategies. It has to be understood that marketing and promotion creates great impact in the business. In fact, it is only by the means of proper marketing, a company can attract the right customers and the business of the Hotel actually prospers. It has to be understood that using the social media as the sole tool of marketing cannot be the correct option for any organization. Direct approach and other types of marketing like road show or event can help to attract customers as well. However, in case of a boutique hotel another important factor is the importance of the quality of service that the hotel provides to its customers. The Dawson Falls Boutique hotel never compromise on their service and qualities and always try to fulfill the requirement of the clients. This is one of the reasons that the Hotel has been successfu l in its business. However, they should never lag behind regarding their marketing activities that shall bring greater prosperity to the Hotel. The above discussed issues can be easily resolved if better approaches are taken to overcome the situations that the Hotel is currently facing. Reference list: Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., Brennan, R. (2012).Marketing: an introduction. 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