A Reader Asks:
What are the disadvantages and advantages of using brochures and publicity as communication tools in the tourism market?
The question many marketers ask is “how do I know which marketing tools to use?” Unfortunately, this is the wrong question to start with. What you should be asking is “who is my target audience?” and “what is my objective?” These questions will help you narrow down which marketing tool will work best.
Who is my target audience?
The first step to choosing which marketing tools to use is to look at who your prospects are and why they might use your service. Will this be a personal or business trip? For examples of personal, maybe you’re looking to attract college kids for spring break, or perhaps thrill seeking people who want to take a challenging adventure trek, or maybe you’re looking to promote fun for the whole family. Some examples of business – is this an offsite leadership development trek designed to be challenging and get everyone working together, or perhaps a networking business conference with a full day of golf, or even an incentive trip to reward top sales people?
Each scenario above would require a different marketing message to appeal to your target audience. For instance, I recently sent away for a “free Disney vacation planning kit.” The process was as follows: I visited Disney’s website and fill out some qualifying questions (so they know when I might be looking to come, if I’ve visited before, and if I’ll have kids under 18 with me). They soon sent me a kit that contained a brochure and a video of all the fun stuff I could do specific to my answers to their questions. If they had sent me a packet about what my kids (which I don’t have) would enjoy most, it wouldn’t be relevant to me, and therefore wouldn’t have the persuasive power that an info kit tailored to “a second time visitor without children” would have.
What is my objective?
Ultimately, every marketing tool you create should fit into how your prospects make the decision to choose you. Planning a vacation can be an overwhelming process, so rarely will one brochure convince someone to drop everything and immediately choose your service.
Deciding which marketing tool you should use will depend on what stage of the buying process your prospect is in. The 5 steps of the buying process and how they might apply to traveling are as follows:
- Awareness of problem – Here, prospects realize they may want to go on vacation. Maybe they see an interesting ad, or talk to friends, friends, or co-workers who just went to this great place, or the kids mention they’d like to go somewhere, or perhaps they just need a break from work.
- Information Search – Here, prospects realize they have a problem (ie they want to take a trip) but don’t know what to do to accomplish this. They might visit a travel site to see what type of good deals are currently available, do a web search for something like “California spa vacation” or “Europe travel” or “beach resort” or even visit their triple AAAs or a travel agency for more information. After all, planning a trip can be a huge task, and they want to make sure they make the most of it. They’ll need to decide how they’ll travel, where they’ll stay, what they might do, what the weather might be like, what this will cost, etc.
- Evaluate – Here, prospects look at everything they’ve collected and start narrowing down their choices. They might check out more information about your services, visit message boards where people discuss their experiences, and narrow down their timeline and budget.
- Purchase – Once they’ve evaluated everything, they’ll purchase what they need upfront to get their vacation off the ground such as airline tickets, a hotel room, an adventure trek, museum or amusement park tickets, etc.
- Post Purchase – With travel, this might be the anxiety that comes when your prospect purchases a “vacation package” only to find the same thing $500 cheaper somewhere else, or perhaps a hurricane just hit and they’re debating whether to still go, or maybe the kids come down with an illness a day before they were planning to leave. After purchasing something, many people feel anxious about whether they made the appropriate choice and will feel better if you offer a guarantee that they can change their plans at the last minute if need be.
Certain marketing tools will work better for each stage of the buying process. PR and advertising can create awareness about how fun/relaxing/adventurous your service is or counter negative perceptions (ie that Florida tourism is still alive despite being hit by four hurricanes last fall – example).
Brochures might be used in response to a website inquiry, or as a direct mail follow up during the evaluation stage (Hey, did we mention you can do this? Or we have this great rate for…) or once they arrive, as rack cards at the local visitor’s center or handouts in the hotel lobby.
The key to successful marketing communications is to always keep in mind who you are targeting, where it will fit into your prospect’s buying cycle, and what you are trying to accomplish. By looking at those key elements, you can then narrow down which tool will work best to accomplish your goal. Often, several tactics might seem appropriate, and the only way to learn what will work best is to try different options and measure your responses.
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