Marketing courseowrk task 3 memo

Marketing Coursework Task 3: Memo

From: Gabriel Azevedo, Thorpe Park assistant

To: Mr. Paxman, Very Important Person

RE: Evaluation of Thorpe Park Marketing

I am writing with regards to Thorpe Park Marketing with concerns regarding its methods of Marketing, advertisement and the theme park’s promotional materials and marketing strategies. Nowadays there are many different leisure activities in competition with Thorpe Park such as cinema, pubs, video games and many more, furthermore people choose to spend their leisure time doing what they think is the most interesting and amusing leisure activity for them, therefore marketing and promotional materials are essential to develop the customer’s perception of the theme park and also to enhance their desire of visit therefore more customers would visit Thorpe Park furthermore bringing more disposable income. Thorpe Park needs to create more promotional materials so that the customers can realise that Thorpe Park is the best place to be at and to have fun. With many other advertisements and promotional materials created from other theme parks, video games and other leisure facilities and activities, Thorpe Park needs to make sure that their adverts are outstanding the other leisure companies’ adverts so that customers would prefer to visit Thorpe Park than practice any other leisure activity as they would decide what they would like to do by the advert that is the most convincing out of them all. Therefore Thorpe Park has to focus on their advertising of not only the park but the new rides that have been currently launched so that customers would be notified that there is a new product furthermore customers would visit the park to experience the new ride which therefore with more customers, the profit to the theme park would increase.

Another factor that makes the needs for marketing even more critical would be the change of fashion. This means that as products starts getting older people get bored and uninterested due to the fact that they have already experienced so many times and eventually less people are going to visit the park, therefore Thorpe Park needs to launch new products and promote their new products throughout the internet or posters so that costumers can see that Thorpe Park has obtained new products and therefore this would mean that customers would want to experience the new launched products which would also enhance the popularity of the park. Furthermore people would speak about the theme park to their friends and family and furthermore bringing in more customers to the park which means more money is going to be spent not only with the entrance ticket purchase but the purchase of food, drinks and souveniers as well which would bring more money to the company that owns the park. The advertisement of newly brought products is important due to the fact that costumers need to know that there is a new product so that they could experience the new product therefore Thorpe Park tries to advertise in as many ways as possible the launching product throughout posters, leaflets, magazines and many more advertising methods. For the effectiveness of Thorpe Park’s promotional strategies it is necessary to choose a target market such as teenagers, adults or elderly and furthermore choose the right colour, language and music to attract the customers that are targeted at. An advert with bright colours and with a dance beat for the music would attract teenagers and an advert with colours not so bright and classical music would attract older people to the theme park. This way Thorpe Park can focus on the target market they want to attract to their theme park.

There are many promotional materials and strategies that can be used to persuade customers’ visit to Thorpe Park. The utilization of promotional materials would insure customer’s awareness of the theme park or even about its newly launched products to persuade and uplift the overall customers visit to the park furthermore bringing more money to the company as there are more visitors. The main objectives of the promotional materials that have been utilized are to help introduce new products, increases sales and profit, to target a new group of customers, and to improve the image of the product and business which would furthermore also increase the popularity of the theme park attracting more visitors.

The use of advertising is very critical if there is a need to promote a company. There can be various ways of advertisement such as through TV adverts which can be very effective to persuade the customers’ desire of visiting Thorpe Park. TV adverts could be considerably categorised as one of the most effective promotional methods for the reason that it displays various amounts of imagery of the theme park which makes it very reliable and convincing. TV adverts are usually very effective for the fact that nearly everyone in the country has access to a TV and therefore they would be able to watch the commercial in their houses and they will not have to leave their homes to find out about Thorpe Park and the TV adverts works as if it was a demonstration of the theme park working as a ‘pester power’ which would stimulates the customers’ desire of visitation. Another positive point about TV adverts is the fact that it is based on imagery so even people who are unable to hear or speak the language could see what the theme park is like and therefore they would be able to know what its like and furthermore visit Thorpe Park. For the fact that it is based on imagery, children who are too young to be able to read could see the commercial on the television and therefore they are able to ask their parents which furthermore would introduce other visitors to the theme park. For the circumstance that the advert is produced as a video, it allows the commercial to have music, colours and moving motions which means that video editors are able to add songs, colours and movement to make the video persuasive and outstandingly attractive which would furthermore mean that people would feel impressed about the park and they would be persuaded into visiting Thorpe Park. However, negative points could be argued against effectiveness of television advertisements due to the fact that some people choose not to watch TV at all so therefore it means that they would not be informed about the park as they would not be watching television. Another factor to de argued against TV advert’s effectiveness would be the fact that the adverts are placed on commercial breaks and many people choose to go to the toilet or get up for any purpose on the commercial breaks and therefore they would end up missing the advert and furthermore they would end up not being notified about the theme park’s new launching products. Another circumstance to take in consideration would be the fact that a few people would not be watching the TV advert because they might have went out, they are at work or school or even because they are just not watching TV. This means that people would be unable to see that Thorpe Park wants to notify costumers about their new promotions and therefore this decreases the customer volume in Thorpe Park. A way to reverse this negative factor would be by placing TV adverts at different times of the day and very often on a week therefore this means that if someone has missed the advert they would be able to watch it again at another time or even at another day. Another negative aspect is that the TV advert may be targeted to a younger audience so therefore the older population would not be interested a commercial that targets their audience to an audience that you do not fit into. A way to solve this negative aspect would be creating an advert that may try to target all the audiences or to create various adverts targeting different audiences. Another factor to be considered as a negative aspect would be the fact that people have their personal taste therefore they might end up not liking the commercial or not feel persuaded about it and refuse to visit Thorpe Park. A way to reverse this negative factor is to create different adverts in different styles so that the customer would like at least one of them.

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Another promotional material that has been very utilized recently is the use of cinema adverts. Cinema adverts are very similar to TV adverts but it may have a fewer negative and positive aspects to it. Cinema adverts utilize sound, motion and imagery effects so people that cannot read or they are death would be able to visualise the experiences of the theme park and feel persuaded due to the fact that they have noticed what it feels like to be in Thorpe Park. Having the adverts on the cinema means that some people will have to see the advert as they come in early into the screen and they will end up seeing the advert on screen which means that some cinema customers would end up feeling persuaded by Thorpe Park’s advertisement s and would end up visiting the theme park bringing more disposable income to the company. The main negative aspects of cinema advertisement might be that it costs too much to place an advert on a screen, people take the commercial brakes to buy some popcorn, go to the toilet and go outside for some fresh air, people might end up sleeping and missing the commercial, people may choose to arrive late at the cinemas as they believe the commercial breaks takes too long and the film usually starts ten minutes after what it is suppose to start therefore customers believe that if they end up coming a bit late they would not risk to miss the movie as the commercial breaks are still up on the screen and furthermore end up coming late into the cinema and missing Thorpe Park’s promotional cinema advertisement therefore people would not know that there is either something new on the park or there is a new promotion.

Magazines, poster and papers usually tend to work in the same way so therefore they would have similar evaluation of effectiveness of persuasion. Magazines posters and paper are usually very cheap to produce and therefore there are more of them spread around. This would mean that it will be more likely for people too see the posters, magazines and the paper therefore it would be easier to notify costumers about Thorpe Park’s new promotions. This would mean that it would increase the customer volume of the park and therefore it would bring more money to be spent on the theme park. Magazines and posters are something that people tend to buy on their daily bases therefore they may end up buying the paper or magazines on purpose of reading an article, the news or even gossip and the advert of the theme park will be located inside the magazine and the paper between the articles therefore it forces people to read and therefore they would see what the theme park is like and develop an interest on visiting Thorpe Park. Magazines, papers and posters usually have added to them a few pictures of the theme park therefore people who can’t read English or who can’t even read at all would be able to see what the park is like. Another thing that makes magazines and paper adverts effective is the fact that they contain pictures so it is easier to visualize as they are eye catching and most of the people who read a magazine or the paper usually pages them and when they find an interesting picture they stop and choose to read about the article. On the other hand, there are some aspects which can be considerably negative concerning newspaper, magazines and poster advertising such as the fact that if people don’t think the picture of the article is not interesting enough they would just page through and skip the article therefore they will not know if there has been new promotions in Thorpe Park, A way to reverse this circumstance is to create picture in the article and make them eye catching so that the reader does not skip the article. Another negative factor is that there are many newspapers or magazines so people may end up buying a different magazine or newspaper that does not include Thorpe Park’s advert on it so people will not be able too see that there is something new in the park. Another circumstance that can be considered negative is that some people do not read newspaper or magazines therefore they will not be notified about Thorpe Park’s advert and also that there are may poster around the city therefore people might be interested on other posters instead of Thorpe Park’s posters. A way to reverse this situation is to create a poster that will outstand other posters so that people feel persuaded by Thorpe Park’s posters. For the fact that there are no sound effects or movement effects people think that reading articles is boring therefore they would choose not to read Thorpe Park’s article at all.

Another way of advertising the promotional material of Thorpe Park is through the internet. Many people have access to internet nowadays which makes it a positive aspect as people would be able to access the website and have a look through the promotions. The Thorpe Park website contains a search engine which means it is easier to search for what you want in the website so the customer will not be there for a long time looking for what he wants and it also means that by having a website you can put all the information necessary on it so people will think that it is a professional website and would want to visit the theme park as well as they assume Thorpe Park would be professional as well. The website has pictures as well as information so people will think it is interesting and they would be able to know more about the park as well. As it is a website it means that they do not have to print anything out therefore they would not waste any money on printing. Thorpe Park’s website is always been changed and maintained which means that people are able to be in touch of the website and they would also be able to know what is new in the theme park and also what is coming soon to the park. Thorpe Park also has their adverts and information on Youtube and it means that people from all over the world would be able to see what Thorpe Park is like as Youtube is a world widely known website. However, the website has its negative points such as the fact that it has to be maintained all the time which means that it would cost more money which will come out of Thorpe Park. Another negative aspect is the fact that people may be unaware about the website therefore they will not know that they have a website and they would not be able to check for prices or information. A way to prevent that from happening is to put on leaflets, adverts and newspapers the address of the website so that more people would know and be able to visit the website to check out the news and information. Another negative aspect would be that people do not have access to a computer or they just don’t have an internet therefore they would not be able to visit the website to check out the information. A way to reverse this circumstance is to have information printed out on the other ways of advertisement.

Another way to advertise Thorpe Park’s promotions is through the radio. Many people listen to the radio which means that the method of advertising is very effective as people would hear what Thorpe Park is like and all the good comments about it which would also tease them to visit the theme park. Radio can be considerably an ineffective method of advertisement as people who don’t know how to speak English are not able to understand what they are saying and therefore they will have no interest on what the radio presenters are saying. Another bad factor would be the fact that you can’t see through a radio so therefore many people would think that the radio is unreliable as they can not see the experiences of Thorpe Park. The fact that there are many other radio stations means that people could be on a different radio station or not have the radio turned on at the moment of the advert and they would end up missing the advert and what Thorpe Park is promoting. A way to reverse this factor would be by having many adverts at different times and on different stations to make sure that people will end up listening to the promotions Thorpe Park has to offer. Another negative point would be the fact that people don’t listen to the radio at all so they will end up missing the advertisement.

Word of mouth is also a promotional method where people will tell their friends and families what they think of the park. It has two sides to it, if they like the park they will persuade people to go to Thorpe Park and if they don’t like it they will try to get people against Thorpe Park so it has to be based upon his opinion. A way to make people influence other people to visit Thorpe Park is to make sure that they have a good perception of Thorpe Park so they could tell their friends and family how good the theme park was and also creating a public relation where you promote a positive image between the company and the public by giving money to charities therefore people will think your park is charitable furthermore people will think you are kind to others and would want to go to Thorpe Park.

Thorpe Park can also sponsor a company or even a football team. That way, Thorpe Park’s name would be on the team’s shirt and all their fans would want to visit Thorpe Park. On the other hand, if the team has a rival, that rival team’s fans will refuse to visit Thorpe Park as they sponsor a rival team therefore Thorpe Park has to sponsor one of the big teams so that more people would go to the park.

Thorpe Park could also do a sales promotion as they are on the summer they raise the prices so people have to pay more to visit the theme park and on the winter they decrease the prices so that more people could come to the park and in that way they can sustain the profit for the whole year around

Thorpe Park also introduced discounts and loyalty schemes as you get £5 off the next visit once you have already been to Thorpe Park and you also get discounts on the website to encourage early booking and sometimes discounts of buy one get one free so that the two people that go can spend more money inside.

Thorpe Park utilizes something which many call it ‘The Marketing Mix’. The Marketing Mix is a tool utilized by many organisations to meet costumer’s needs and wants which consist of four parts including the product, place, price and promotion. To achieve the marketing mix, it is necessary that companies question their customers to find out what would they like to see in Thorpe Park or what would they like improved. To find out customers’ needs and wants, companies uses various methods to gather market research and furthermore with the customers’ requests achieved means that there would be an increase on costumer volume and the theme park would earn more disposable income. Thorpe Park also aims to produce market research so they could know why would customers not visit the theme park again so they could reverse this concept and make changes to make sure customers would like to visit Thorpe Park again because in that way it means that people would visit Thorpe Park, spend money and later they would be able to visit Thorpe Park again more ofter and bring more profit to the company. It is also important to take in consideration what the customers request so that it will encourage other customers to visit Thorpe Park and also encourage early bookings and it makes sure that Thorpe Park is selling the right product so they don’t waste money producing something that customers will not want therefore it would not be easily sold.

Thorpe Park utilizes many ways of gathering market research from their customers. One example would bee the production of exit questionnaires so that they can give out to the customers who are leaving the park. This means that customers would have the memories of what they liked and disliked about the park fresh in their heads therefore they would be able to write down all the things they liked and disliked about the park, all the things that can be changed or improved and why would the or would the not return to the park. Exit questionnaires are known to be very effective as after a day in the theme park customers know what they want as they have just exited the park therefore they would write anything that they feel should be improved and Thorpe Park will take the reasonable requests in consideration. Exit questionnaires has positive aspects as people would have remembered most of the things they want improved on the park as they have just been to the park so their memory is still fresh which means that the customers still remember what happened. Another good point on exit questionnaires is that they are handed out by another person so when customers have someone telling them to do the questionnaire it is harder to ignore the person so therefore they would do the questionnaire. Another good aspect about exit questionnaires is the fact that random people are asked what they think of the park so therefore people will have different opinions. It can be taken in consideration that there are negative points about exit questionnaires as you may end up asking the same person twice therefore the questionnaires is are going to be the same and unreliable, people who have just came out of a tiring day just want to get home as soon as possible so when doing the questionnaire they are going to end up writing anything down and do not really mean what they are saying just because the are on a rush and want to get rid of it as soon as they can, as the people who are handing out the questionnaires have a lot of customers to hand out the questionnaires to it is easy to ignore the questionnaire by not doing the questions, walking away and just throwing the questionnaire in the bin, some people are tourists and cannot speak English therefore they will not know how or what to write and they would just end up ticking any of the boxes available in the questionnaire furthermore making it an unreliable data for the theme park to take in consideration.

Another method that has been utilized for generations to gather market research is interviews. Interviews is the method most commonly used for the fact that you are talking directly to a person therefore it is harder to ignore the person as you are facing them and you can’t just turn your back on them or you will be considered to be rude. Another positive point is that most personal surveys takes place in popular places such as outside shops because it is a place where many people go so therefore you can ask more people and furthermore you will have different answers so you will have more points to take in consideration and more ways in which you can improve Thorpe Park. Another fact that can be considered a positive aspect is the fact that some questionnaires are done on the queues to a ride so therefore the customer has nowhere to run from the person asking the questions. Another good perspective is that you are able to ask people that have not been in Thorpe Park so you will be able to ask them why they have not been in Thorpe Park and what do they have to do to make the people being surveyed visit Thorpe Park. You are also able to ask the people that have already been to Thorpe Park and ask them what could be improved in Thorpe Park to make sure people visit the theme park more often. However there are some negative aspects to be considered such as when people are shopping they are usually on a rush and as the questionnaires are made on a popular place it means that there are going to be people going around shopping and therefore the people who are in a rush would end up answering the questions without meaning what they say just to get rid of the person who is asking the personal survey. Another negative aspect would be the fact that there could be some people who will just ignore the person doing the personal survey and also the fact that you may ask the same person the same questions twice therefore you will have the same answers and it will not be a reliable data.

Another way to do a market research is to have focus groups to talk about Thorpe Park. This would mean that you can take people from different areas and different age groups and ask them what they think about Thorpe Park and in change, Thorpe Park will give them money to express their ideas. The positive aspects of this market research is that people from different age groups can express their ideas into making Thorpe Park a better and more attractive theme park. Another positive aspect would be the fact that there are people from different age groups so Thorpe Park could take in consideration how could they cater for many age groups. The negative aspects of this market research would be the fact that people are just on the focus group for the money and they would try to rush it so that it finishes quicker while they don’t really mean what they say, people may not attend to the event as they could have other arrangements or they just can’t be bothered to go. This factor can be reversed by asking the people if they are really going to come and ask them questions instead of just expect them to say how Thorpe Park should be improve. You also don’t know if the people have already been to Thorpe Park as they could say they’ve already been just to get the money therefore you will be getting unreliable data. Another negative factor is that Thorpe Park will be wasting money on people who are attending the focus groups when sometimes they do not say anything special that would have any significance to Thorpe Park.

Sending out questionnaires is also creating a market research as you will be either, posting, emailing, calling or observing someone to find out what they think of Thorpe Park. Posting someone is often found to be of low response because customers can’t be bothered to fill the questionnaire or to post it back even though it doesn’t cost any money to send it back. Postal surveys are very easy to ignore as if the person doesn’t want to reply there will be no one asking them to send back so they just can’t be bothered to send it back or the person finds it a waste of time so they just fill in any answer just to get rid of it which would make the research unreliable. I the person answering the questionnaire has any questions or misunderstands anything they will not have any way to ask what it means therefore they just find it easier to send it blank, write anything random on it or just don’t send it at all. A piece of paper is very easy to lose so very often people just throw it in the bin with more pieces of paper they don’t need. However, often when people send it back it means that they took their time trying to answer the questions which means it can be a reliable source of information.

There is also the utilization of telephone surveys where people hired by Thorpe Park will phone you to ask you what you think about Thorpe Park. The positive aspects of it is that it is very hard to ignore the person once you have already answered the phone therefore people would end up having to answer the questions truthfully. Another good aspect is that if there is an questions to ask you will be able to ask the person who is on the phone to you therefore there will be no misunderstanding. However this method is very ineffective because the company will en up wasting too much money on telephone bills and they would have to keep phoning people several times or later if no one picks up. Another bad factor about it is that Thorpe Park may phone people on a busy time so they would just give any answers to get rid of the person of the phone which would make the research unreliable.

An observation research is where Thorpe Park observes how a customer feels about the theme park so that they would improve any area so therefore people would prefer Thorpe Park than any other theme park. The good aspect of this method is that you can see by the client’s facial expression how he feels about the rides, the food or just the park in general. The bad aspect of this method would be the fact that the person observation could have a wrong perception of how the costumer feels and also that the person observating can’t read the person’s mind.

The most rapidly growing method of research is the internet survey because it is quick as once you have sent the email it instantly comes up to the person’s email box, it is easy to use as you can use it just as a normal letter but instead it is virtual, it is cheap as you do not have to pay for the postage and you do not have to print anything out, the person who has received the email can answer and send it back whenever they want, it is not ease to ignore as unless you have deleted the email it will always stay on your inbox or already answered it, people can answer it on their spare time as you can send it back anytime. On the other hand, some people do not use their email very often so you do not get as many replies, some people just reply with random answers just to get rid of the company, the person can just and it is gone on the same instant or the person might not use that email anymore which means that unless you send to another email it is never going to be replied.

Another way of using market research is by having staff reviews. As the staff are the people who know the most about the theme park means that they would see the flaws of the park better and be able to report it before a customer does furthermore a customer reporting a defect may lead to decrease in customer volume. The bad aspect about this method is that the staff member may be afraid to lose their job so therefore it means that he is not going to report anything to the theme park.

Reviews on internet can be very useful as people can comment on the review page whenever they want at their spare time without having to leave their house. They also do not cost any money as you do not have to print out anything and anyone who has access to internet can leave a comment. The bad aspect of this method is that there can be a opposing park who competes with Thorpe Park who has left a comment demoralising Thorpe Park therefore the other people who read it will think that Thorpe Park is not a good place to go and therefore they will not visit the theme park and go to another theme park instead. It is very easy to ignore as you only leave a comment if you want to and people who do not have access to internet cannot leave a comment.

Having both of the promotion and the market research linked together helps Thorpe Park increase customer volume to make sure they increase the profit. This means that after researching what the customer requests, Thorpe Park took the customers’ wants and needs and made it into promotions to meet the objectives of the leisure industry in marketing to encourage early bookings so that Thorpe Park would know the amount of food they would need to cater for everyone and the amount of money they are going to get in that day, to improve the image of the theme park to make sure people are going to come back and spend more money, to beat the competition by identifying customers’ needs so that they would increase their sales, to target a new group of customers so that Thorpe Park would be able to gain profit form different types of age groups and to maintain a good image of the theme park and it’s products so that it would encourage more people to visit Thorpe Park and create a good perception to their costumers so they would influence their friends and families to spend more money on the theme park bringing in more disposable income to the company. By target marketing an audience, Thorpe Park was able to research what

that audience liked and what experiences would they like to have in that way they were able to create promotional materials to advertise and persuade the costumers to come and visit the park to spend more money.