They also run special promotion especially during the off peak season.
Place
Alton Towers is situated in Staffordshire in 500 acres of land. Drayton Manor is situated in 250 acres of parkland. Alton Towers is twice the size of Drayton Manor and therefore has more space to have more rides and attractions. On the Alton Towers website, they have displayed a table showing the distances from main cities to Alton Towers.
As the above table shows Alton Towers is not very close to any of the main cities, the closest being Birmingham at 46 miles. People may not want to travel this far for a day trip to a theme park. Although Drayton Manor is far from places like Glasgow, London, Portsmouth, it does not expect visitors from these places, as it does not advertise in these areas. Drayton Manor advertises locally, so therefore only expect people who live locally to visit the park. This is good because people in the surrounding areas won’t feel as if they have to travel very far and might be more willingly to go to Drayton Manor rather than Alton Towers because its closer.
Alton Towers is accessible by car, rail and bus.
Alton Towers does a special deal with Virgin trains and Travel West Midlands in which you can save money by buying a ticket for the bus/train and entry to the park and the bus takes you right to the gate. Travel West Midlands also does this with Drayton Manor. Alton Towers is closed to the motorway and a number of junctions. Drayton Manor is also close to the motorways. Therefore, in this aspect, both are easily accessible. Alton Towers targets a wider audience than Drayton Manor, it targets the whole of the UK, whereas Drayton Manor only targets a local audience within a 50 mile radius. So in conclusion, Drayton Manor would be easy to get to just because the target area is smaller and Drayton Manor only expects people to travel a distance of 50 miles, whereas Alton Towers expects people to travel from all of the UK.
When travelling to Alton Towers and Drayton by car, there are car parks in both theme parks. However, Drayton Manor car park is free and Alton Towers car park costs £3 per car, or £6 for a premium parking space. This gives Drayton Manor an advantage because customers make think that it more value for money and that Drayton Manor is providing free services.
Product
Alton Towers has twice the space of Drayton Manor so therefore has more room to put more rides and attractions. Alton Towers splits in rides into categories:
- Thriller seekers
- Family Fun
- Young Children
Drayton Manor is a family theme park and has only a small number of thrill seeker rides. These are;
- Apocalypse
- Maelstrom
- Shockwave
- Sky Flyer
However Alton Towers has a number of thrill seeker rides. These include:
Alton Towers has a variety of target audiences. It was originally known for its big rides, but when it became part of the Tussauds group, a softer, a more Disneyland image was added to appeal to the family market. Alton Towers achieves this in a number of ways. It has a number of rides, which are suitable for both children and adults including Congo River Rapids and Runaway Mine Train. There are also other attractions including The Tweenies Theatre. Alton Tower appears to a wide audience. Overall, Alton Towers offers more and a wider range of products. This is because Alton Towers is in a better financial position than Drayton Manor because it is a PLC and can raise more capital through shares.
Price
Alton Towers Main Prices
Compared to Drayton Manor’s prices, Alton Towers’ prices are quite expensive. I believe that Alton Towers charges more for their tickets because they have higher running cost because they have more rides. Consumers may chose to go Drayton Manor because it is a lot cheaper. Alton Towers uses premium pricing which may lead consumers to believe that Alton Towers has higher quality products and services. This may make more customers want to go to Alton Towers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Alton Towers is more successful in the marketing mix than Drayton Manor. This is because they can raise more capital through shares so it is able to spend more on the products and advertising and Drayton Manor because of their limited finance due to the fact their a private limited company and can only sell shares to family members.