REPORT PRESENTED BY ANTISH MADOO MARKETING MANAGEMENT (IADB) JUNE 2010 TITLE: THE KEIGHLEY AND WORTH VALLEY

RAILWAY PRESERVATION SOCIETY NCC STUDENT ID NUM: 00095460

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction TASK 1 Definition of marketing plan Marketing mix (4 Ps) Marketing plan 2009-2010 for KWVR using SOSTE model Marketing plan 2009-2010 for KWVR using 4 Ms

4 4 4-6 6-7

TASK 2 Understanding of Brand Awareness Evaluation of KWVR brand Report writing to the Board of management of KWVR 8 8 9-10

TASK 3 Definition of marketing communication SOSTAC model definition Diagram of SOSTAC model SOSTAC model applied to KWVR marketing communication plan 11 11 12 12-15

References Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION

This report has been written in relation to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KWVR) Preservation Society, where I have been appointed as a Marketing consultant to develop and produce a marketing plan for 2009-2010. The reason for this marketing plan is because there has been a decline in the number of visitors for KWVR in the last six months due to the financial recession. A brief definition of Marketing plan has been given and marketing mix model (4 Ps) has been depicted and has been thoroughly used in the marketing plan. SOSTTE (Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Time and Evaluation) and 4 Ms (Men, Machinery, Money and Measurement) models have been used respectively to complete the marketing plan. Searches on KWVR website have been done to have a clear idea what it is about. Moreover, a clear understanding of brand awareness have been mentioned and defined. An evaluation of KWVR brand has been made and questions have been raised. A short report has been made to the Board of Management for KWVR in relation to the increase of brand awareness where I have cited different ways of brand awareness. A brief definition of marketing plan has been mentioned throughout the last task. A marketing communication plan has been produced where the SOSTAC model has been used as recommended.

TASK1

Definition of Marketing Plan A marketing plan is a written document that entails the necessary and relevant actions to set and achieve one or more marketing objectives. A marketing plan can be used for a product, service, a brand or a product line. It normally covers between 1 to 5 years (Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_plan [accessed on 28th April 2010]. A marketing plan includes of the marketing mix i.e. 4 Ps:

Source: NetMBA.com (2007)

SOSTTE (Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Time and Evaluation) is one of the models used in the Marketing plan. Situation According to our scenario, KWVR is a traditional and Heritage company which has had a decline in tourists during the last 6 months due to the recession. However, measures have been taken by the Preservation society to achieve and try to ameliorate the brand awareness by updating the KWVR via the internet, timetables, and information sheets and

by publishing news and events in the local and regional newspapers. Moreover, KWVR has appointed me as a marketing consultant to develop and produce a marketing plan for 20092010. Objectives KWVRs objectives are: Increase the number of tourists in the next 6 months. Increase their profit margin by 50%. Keep the KWVRs line moving, in other words maintain the standards of the train, services, track maintenance or make improvements if needed. Improve the brand awareness (KWVR) locally, nationally and internationally. Meeting the needs of customers/tourists by seeking and acting on their opinions regarding innovations and quality services. Supporting the well-being of the community and the protection of the environment as the valley is one of the main source of KWVR.

STRATEGY

Target students and children in particular as they will be very interested in visiting
these kind of places specially during holidays period.

Build more children activities such as playgrounds, parks and so on as children will
often get bored just sitting in the train and watching the valley and which can cause a disinterest in coming back again.

Promoting offers such as family fares, children or students fares on a cheap rate
basis to encourage these targets to visit KWVR. [By using 4 Ps model as mentioned before]

Also target pensioners at a very cheap rate as they will be very interested in visiting
the old and heritage places. [4 Ps model]

More marketing and advertising in different media locally, nationally and even
internationally.

TACTICS

Mode of communication which will be used to pass the message for KWVR services
and offers.

Best possible media to be used for KWVR awareness.

 Implementing more interesting activities for children and students. Work out the best possible fares for families, pensioners, children and students on a
discounted rate based on the recession. TIME Time to be allocated to improve the brand awareness would be the first three months in order to increase the number of tourists we are looking for. By the next six months, we should be able to accomplish the task and improve the number of tourists and sales for KWVR.

EVALUATION Evaluation is done in a business to find out whether the marketing tactics are working according to plan.

KWVR would be making sure the sales are going up. Ask the customers where they heard about KWVR and find out the insights about the
customers.

KWVR will need to make sure if the advertising or marketing is responding or not
based o the media used.

4 Ms is another model used for marketing plan. The 4 Ms are: Money Money is one of the key aspects for marketing plan as without any financial resources, it is practically impossible for a company to run. However, in our KWVR scenario, nothing about money has been mentioned. Consequently, I wouldnt conclude anything about the financial resources of KWVR. Men (Human resources) Any company in the world need men (manpower) to work for them. Employees contribute in the companys success. However, some companies need lesser men whereas some other companies need a large amount of companies. In our KWVR case, we will need extra employees for marketing and advertising such as leafleting, surveying, and so on. However, if we decide to go for internet marketing and advertising, we will be needing less people but it could be more costly in terms of advertising costs. Machinery

It is quite obvious that if we will implement all the plans mentioned above in the strategy, we will need more machines and instruments to achieve the goals of KWVR. It could be costly by purchasing some machines to begin the plans but in the long term it could be beneficial by improving the sales and number of tourists with so many developments. Moreover, some innovations which are mentioned above might be needed in order to achieve the targets for KWVR and to do so, new machines are required. Measurement This is the final stage of marketing planning for KWVR and it is used to establish target so that progress can be monitored. It is vital as we can derive how long it is taking to do the quantity of progress in the development. It gives chance for changes in plan to be made if and when necessary. Continuous monitoring of performance will help to determine how much progress has been made in relation to the initial plan of KWVR, how far they have reached and how long they have got to go according to the plan. Based on all these points mentioned above, I can say that KWVR can boost up its sales and get back the number of tourists or even more to get going by using the marketing plan.

TASK 2 Brand awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product or service. Expressed usually as a percentage of target market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of a product's or services introduction (BusinessDictionary.com 2010 [accessed on the 3rd May 2010]). It gives the advertiser the chance to convey a message about the brand. It helps the consumers to identify between one particular brand and others as a brand is unique. As an international student who has been living in London for quite a long time now, I have never heard of KWVR before until I got this assignment to do. This means that the brand is not well spread out everywhere in UK where it could have got more and more customers. On seeing the website, it looks a bit old fashion. It is absolutely fine for old people who is heritage-minded, but imagine the new generation. Questions to be raised in this generation: Are the young people interested with the way KWVR brand has been set up on the website? Are they really aware of a heritage, KWVR, in UK?

REPORT FOR THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT FOR KWVR

This report has been written for the Board of Management for KWVR. It contains some vital points to increase the brand (KWVR) awareness of the railway both locally and nationally. As there has been a decline in the number of visitors for KWVR, I have been asked to raise some points to improve the awareness of KWVR and increase the number of tourists for KWVR for the next three and six months respectively. Here are some important points for the Brand (KWVR) awareness:

In order to attract local visitors or customers, we can advertise in local shops,

pubs, markets or even restaurants where people often go to do their shopping, go for lunch and dinners or pass their time as a mode of relaxation. This is one of the cheapest ways of advertising and brings in the awareness of KWVR for local people.

Web-based advertisement is one of the latest ways of advertising products and

services in our new generation. Internet is being used constantly in todays world by both young and old people. Services such as Facebook, Hi5, and others are very common and we can find lots of advertisement on them in the far right hand side. It could be costly, but it can be beneficial as for example over 350 million Facebook users (Clicky Media Digital Marketing Agency, 2010) uses this site almost everyday and the message could be passed to increase the KWVR awareness locally, nationally and even internationally. Moreover, there are also some cheap ways of web-based advertisement such as sending junk mails which is not really effective for everyone but can atleast attract the eyes of certain people. There are some people who are not interested at all in

junk mails but there are some who really reads them before deleting them. So, for these people, it is worth using the junk mail system as it could bring interest for KWVR awareness.

Leafleting could be another way of improving the brand awareness both locally
and nationally. Sending leaflets to shops or employing people to do leafleting in different areas all across UK can be beneficial for KWVR in improving their brand awareness

Business to business is a very important tool according to me. Famous

companies such as Coca-cola, Pepsi, Kelloggs, and others can help in bringing the awareness of KWVR. For example, KWVR can negotiate with Kelloggs to bring in some offers such as buy 5 Cornflakes and earn 50 points to get a half price ticket in KWVR to visit the valley and other interesting places. Sometimes, they can even advertise it on TV adverts such as in Coca-colas advert. Something like this could be quite interesting based on the propositions and negotiations between KWVR and the other company.

Offers and promotions is often used to increase the brand awareness in todays
world. Alton towers, for example, are doing up to 55% off on hotels if we book tickets online on certain hotels (Last Minute Network Limited). This kind of offers helps in bringing the interests of people to go and spend their day out to Alton towers and these messages are passed from one people to the another, leading to a large number of peoples awareness.

Third-parties such as agents can get involved to the success in increase of

KWVRs awareness. KWVR can get into negotiation with travel agencies or holidays agencies to promote the sales and brand awareness of KWVR.

According to our KWVR case, it is mentioned that they are publicising in local and
regional press. What about publicising all over UK newspapers such as the Metro, Evening standards, The Sun, The Guardian or even World Daily to increase the brand awareness of KWVR?

To conclude with, we can see that there are lots of possibilities to increase the brand awareness such as advertisements, leafleting, Business-to-business, agencies, and webbased system. I think the press system, advertising in local and regional shops, web-based and promotions will be very efficient for KWVR to improve and increase its brand awareness both locally, nationally as well as internationally.

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TASK 3

Definition of marketing communication: Marketing communication can be defined as the coordinated promotional messages delivered through one or more channels such as print (leafleting and printed adverts), radio, television, direct mail (as mentioned in the report) and personal selling such as business-tobusiness or agency system. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketingcommunications.html, [accessed on the 4th May 2010] ). American Association of Advertising Agencies suggest that Integrated Marketing communication recognises the value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion and combines them to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact (BusinessDictionary.com). In short words the main aim of marketing communication is to build awareness of a business (KWVR in our scenario), its product and services and its position through customer facing materials such as brochures, press releases, web sites and others. SOSTAC model is one of the most frequent model or tool used for marketing communication. It has been found that SOSTAC model, by PR Smith, is difficult to beat over many years (Source; BSA MARKETING). It is a model that goes through different steps in order to build a marketing plan. It also covers various factors without any excessive and expensive details. Based on our KWVR scenario, SOSTAC model can be effectively used for our marketing plan. SOSTAC stands for: S-Situation (where is the current situation of KWVR or where does KWVR stands) O-Objectives (what is the target of KWVR or where does KWVR want to go)

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S-Strategy (How is KWVR going to get there) T-Tactics (How are we going to get there -same as strategy but in details)) A-Actions (Who is KWVR appointing to do it, what is to be done and when is it going to be done) C-Control (How will KWVR control, measure and develop the process)

Below is an interesting diagram showing clearly different factors to be considered in the different steps of SOSTAC.

Source: Dave Chaffey, 2010 (http://www.davechaffey.com/images/Internet-marketingstrategy.png [accessed on the 4th May 2010])

SITUATION ANALYSIS KWVR is in a phase where there has been a declined in the numbers of visitors due to the financial recession during the last six months. Consequently, we need to consider some factors to increase and improve the sales and number of tourists for KWVR. For example, we need to find out what our distinctive competitive advantages are for KWVR. We should also be considering whether the marketing mix used is effective or not. Questions regarding the current price for tickets, 12

current promotions, the place or even is the current service good enough to attract customers. All these need to be taken into firm consideration as these can be affecting the sales and volume of tourists for KWVR. Another point is the brand. On looking on the KWVR website (http://www.kwvr.co.uk/), it seems to be a bit old fashioned. It is quite interesting in the sense that KWVR is a heritage and most of the old people will like it as it is. On the contrary, as a young person, I wouldnt be much interested about the way it is advertised on the web-site. Moreover, currently, it has not really been publicised everywhere. As a Londoner, I was not personally aware of KWVR until recently, thanks to the assignment. Similarly, there are lots of people around here who is not aware of KWVR which could have been successful provided it was published everywhere. SET OBJECTIVES In the objectives in task 1 for marketing plan, we are looking to increase the number of visitors considerably in the next six months and increase the profit margin by 50 %. In order to do that KWVR needs to improve the brand awareness in the next 3 months by creating adverts and publicise in different areas not only in local and regional. Moreover, the need for KWVR to promote this is to preserve the beauty of the heritage that is the train, to give people chance to discover and enjoy the old mills, industries and the valley. To achieve all that, KWVR will have to attract people towards its service by encouraging them, doing offers and promotions, thus moving people to actions and get them to change their attitudes towards KWVR.

STRATEGY Raising awareness of a product/service in a target market is where the sales begin. Thus, this is where the marketing communications activities begin the selling process. There are many communication tools in the marketing communication function. There are some companies who rely on advertising in print and online media whereas others might rely on a very different media mix, examples public relations and events. Marketing communication strategy comprises of different factors such as messaging, public relations, advertising, E-mails, Website, Seminars, Direct marketing, Event sponsorship and Merchandising promotions. To start with, KWVR needs to begin with creating a messaging strategy, determining the consistent theme or essential and effective selling message that will be used in all marketing materials. Creating the positioning statement is a very important factor for messaging process that is it tells you what KWVR are selling, to whom KWVR is selling and also why customers should buy the service of KWVR. KWVR should give importance to the content of the message. All these should take up to 2 weeks. Target market for KWVR will be students, retired people, children and families. It also comprises of customers who values the service provided and the quality of the communication by KWVR. The target market for KWVR will also emphasise upon the efficiency and performance of its service with affordable price.

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KWVR should make sure that the message communicated should be able to convey the objectives effectively to customers. They should also make sure that the mode of communication and the communication strategy should avoid any redundancy in information being conveyed rather than just provide quality information. KWVRs marketing communication strategy should also emphasize on the quality and value added services to the customers in the target market.

Recommendations

Establish a marketing committee within KWVR to ensure coordination of marketing

efforts.

Launch an online interactive podcast interpretation program for the region to enhance
the visitors experience.

Develop a virtual media on websites or at the site itself to provide a set of useful
information.

Organise a familiarisation trip for journalists and writers to enhance local, national
and global awareness on KWVR.

TACTICS KWVR should create initial awareness among the customers in the target market. It can be done by placing advertisements in newspapers. Consequently, it will attract the attention of regular newspapers readers who would be interested and appreciated by the quality information being communicated by the advert. KWVR can increase awareness by doing leafleting in the local neighbourhood and nationally. It is an approach used not only to increase the awareness but will help KWVR to communicate effectively to the target market also. Events such as night clubs, fancy fairs, horse racing meetings and others where possible target market are expected to gather can be very beneficial for KWVR to increase its awareness. Promotion and special offers to existing customers can help in increasing the sales and the number of visitors for KWVR. That is, by doing that, they can bring more new customers along with them, resulting in boost in number of visitors and sales at the same time. Providing educational seminars and incentive programs are tactics that can be used within personal selling for KWVR.

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Mentioning children the innovative children activities in the adverts, leaflets may prove to be a positive point to increase the sales as expected. Moreover, there are few things which KWVR need to consider:

The quality of information the better professional methods of advertisement KWVR

will use, the more effective KWVRs awareness will be.

Consistency of information it can be demonstrated through the effective

presentation of the leaflets.

Effective communication this one is mainly the communication skills involved with
the cross selling on the day of the event being organised.

ACTION The main interest of KWVR is to spread the market both locally and nationally and increase the revenue as well as the number of visitors. KWVR can do that by:

Attracting the interest of the customers and promote desires. Convince the customers that KWVR is providing the right service wanted. Motivate the customers with the service to act now. To do that, KWVR must provide a
sense of urgency. Example: ticket free for first 100 customers or in the brochures KWVR can mention offer ends on the 31st December 2010. Something like that will encourage and motivate the customers in coming towards KWVR.

Introduce as much as promotions and offer possible for the first 2 to 3 months in
order to attract the interest of potential new customers.

Build the children park or activities before the school holiday that is in the next 2
months.

Employ people if necessary for leaflets distribution or personal selling as soon as

possible.

Get to meet different businesses if KWVR wants to go ahead with business- to

business marketing.

KWVR need to be able to have more stronger relationship with more press.

CONTROL Control is the last process of SOSTAC model. It can be used by the operational managers of kWVR to monitor the progress of the plan. KWVR will normally use this to asses the effectiveness of the strategy formulated and the tactics deployed. KWVR will also use control to see if any changes need to be made or not based on the effectiveness of the plan.

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REFERENCES
BusinessDictionary.com 2010 [accessed on the 3 rd May 2010]

BusinessDictionary.com 2010 (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/integrated-marketingcommunications-IMC.html [accessed on the 4th may 2010]) Clicky Media Digital Marketing Agency, 2010 http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/ http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&source=hp&q=alton+towers+hotel&meta=&a q=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=Alton+towers&gs_rfai=&fp=945658b72e22a0e6 http://www.universitydissertations.com/Marketing/-marketing-communication.php http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLACREGTOPSUSTOU/Resources/AtitlanPres entation.pdf Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Kotler, Mairead Brady, Malcolm Goodman, Torben Hansen, 2009, Marketing Management

BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www.kwvr.co.uk/ Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Kotler, Mairead Brady, Malcolm Goodman, Torben Hansen, 2009, Marketing Management

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