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8. Marketing Plan Channels
Online Marketing: We first consider what types of channels is suitable for our situation. As we review the cost of marketing by different channels, we find that the cost for online marketing is substantially lower than the traditional media. With limited resources, we will start with our marketing effort from the online segment.
Marketing Cost by Media Type of 2014 (USD)
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2015/02/17/search-marketing-vs-newspaper-amp-tv-which-should-you-invest-in.aspx
Focus areas for online marketing: With online marketing in mind, the following analysis shows that the rankings channels by effectiveness for online marketing in B2C area are email, website, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media.
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http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/marketers-continue-to-rate-email-the-most-effective-digital-marketing-tactic-4629 5/
The marketing effort will also be need to promote our platform to our business parents/suppliers, hence, we would also want to consider the following rankings for B2B online marketing effectiveness in the category of “raise brand awareness” and “Develop brand position.” The priority channels for these considerations are: Website development, social media, email marketing, online video, and SEO.
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http://www.smartinsights.com/b2b-digital-marketing/b2b-social-media-marketing/b2bsocialmediamarketing/
Our choice of channel: Email spamming is often negatively related to brand image, and our service will naturally have its own website. Therefore, considering both B2C and B2B, SEO and social media, and online video are the major focus areas for our marketing priority. We will purchase SEO services, and publish introduction and promotion videos on Youtube to showcase our virtual touring service. As for the social media part, location consideration is very important. The following statistics demonstrate the social media environment and our marketing focus in Taiwan.
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According to the survey conducted by Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (資策會) in 2014, Online marketing has been emerging as one of the major means for the consumers to learn business brands. 76% of the consumers follow brand information with social media. The top 3 types of shopping information that has the most consumer’s attentions: 3C products(64.7%), restaurants(57%), and travel(45.9%). It shows that marketing through social media channel will have very high effectiveness. The social media is actual the new form of word of mouth marketing, and both are very effective way to promote brand and product.
Taiwan channel selection: Among the social media channels, the social networking websites, forums, and blogs are the most used way of obtaining shopping information in Taiwan. Social media websites marketing practices would include official Facebook fan page and Youtube demonstration channel. We will also promote our services in the forums like backpackers.com, the leading travel information forum) (背包客棧), mobile01, NTU PTT
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and so on. Top bloggers, i.e. the ranking winners on Pixnet.com(痞客幫), the largest blog site in Taiwan, under travel category, will also be sought after and cooperate with them to produce experience sharing of our services.
http://www.bnext.com.tw/article/view/id/35475
http://2015golddot.events.pixnet.net/#home
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Competitor Sales Analysis and Strategy
In order to set reasonable goal for platform’s initial launch, we first analyze the 2 largest competitors on the market and their market share.
Lion Travel
Year 2014
Product Line Customer Sales Amount Unit Sales Market Share
Long Distance 72,851 4,391,058 60.3 9.7%
N.E Asia 262,882 6,070,982 23.1 7.3%
S.E. Asia 82,005 1,562,568 19.1 5.0%
China,HK,Macau 122,682 2,165,773 17.7 2.1%
Domestic 258,707 760,830 2.9 N/A
合計 799,127 15,238,617 -
Note1. Sales in thousands NTD
Outbound market share: 540,420/11,844,635= 4.5%
Phoenix Travel
Year 2014
Product Line Customer Sales Amount Unit Sales Market Share
Asia 11,845 139,448 11.8 0.3%
America 2,621 150,683 57.5 0.5%
Oceania 2,992 152,253 50.9 2.5%
Europe 12,855 979,266 76.2 9.6%
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Note1. Sales in thousands NTD
Source: Phoenix Travel Inc. 2014 Annual Report Outbound market share: 55,873/ 11,844,635 = 0.47%
By reviewing the two companies’ sales composition, there are two important factors to consider. First, long distance products yield higher sales per person, and are ideal for our pricing strategy. Second, winning market share in one high sale per region with low overall market share is viable to have profitable business.
Market size and Target market
To estimate the market size for our initial service scope, travel destination will be selected based on the competitor’s revenue information. Remote support will save more money comparing to the cost of traditional agencies tour captain and tour guide. On the other hand, it would be costlier to have higher volume of traveler at low unit customer sales. Therefore, our target market would be ideal for low volume of travelers that spend at higher amount of traveling fees.
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individual region could be estimated as the following:2014 Traveler
Note: Unit Sales in thousand NTD
Service Destinations Selection
The key factors for entry consideration:
Global market: Our company goal is to growth internationally, hence we will try to match the Taiwanese market condition with the global view.
Gross total spending: For a tour (distance traveled, information availability to the customer, our ability to provide the location vendor and travel information, the degree of infrastructure for digital tour guiding and integration.
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Destination Pick and Establishments: The local travel information is readily available, and is low on the budget. Therefore, our initial destination selection will be overseas with higher travel budget to maximize the profit potential and the wiliness to purchase our service.
The list of countries are selected based on the following criteria:
1. Annual international visitors for the country and spending
The top touring countries are the following: France, Italy, and United States.
Even though France and Italy are the top 2 globally in the traveler volume. Travelers in the United States spend significantly more money during their stay. Hence, United States will be the best pick for the first destination for our service for the volume and total spending aspect.
European and American Continent Traveler and Spending Chart
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2. English speaking
It is much easier to support and establish our local service agents and local vendor connections with English as the official language.
3. Direct flights available
The travel time is usually a key consideration for tour planning as most of the vacation planning are highly time constrained. For example, for leisure travelers who are on vacation, their time are limited. Customers will want to choose to spend their time at the most efficient way.
4. Developed countries
To ensure that there is developed internet infrastructure to support our virtual touring, and to streamline the booking and e-payment processes to our platform, we would consider destinations that are more developed. Developed countries are also more stable politically, and the traveling safety risk is much lower.
Our top picks would be the west cost of the American continent, and the highly ranked cities include: Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. The destinations listed matches well with our selections in the Taiwan market.