P A R T ● ● ● ● 3 Part 3 focuses on concepts and strategies for implementing market- ing communications in tourism and hospitality organisations. It does this through an examination of the marketing communications mix. Traditionally, the marketing communications mix has been split into ‘above the line’ (conventional non-personal, intervention-based mass media advertising) and ‘below the line’ (sales promotions, public rela- tions, etc. which do not make an overt play for consumers’ attention through advertising).
This balance is changing in favour of ‘through the line’ communications which employ a range of tools in the mix often including direct marketing methods. Chapter 8 begins with an exami- nation of advertising strategies. It defines advertising and assesses the value of advertising in the current communications environment. This chapter outlines a range of applications of advertising in inform- ing consumers about tourism and hospitality services.
It also discusses how advertising messages should be constructed to appeal to the target audiences. Chapter 9 then looks at the range of alternatives to adver- tising in the communications mix, including personal selling, public relations, direct marketing, events and exhibitions and sponsorship. This chapter also contextualises these discussions within the current communications challenges for tourism and hospitality organisations. Because of the impact of Internet technology and the diffusion of broad- band Internet service provision across the globe, e-communications are discussed separately in Chapter 10.
Here the value of Internet advertis- ing is discussed together with a description and assessment of different forms of media content available through the Internet. The chapter con- cludes with a discussion of user-generated content for tourism and hos- pitality organisations. Peer-to-peer e-communications forms an exciting and challenging medium and is akin to word-of-mouth communica- tions and provides a useful focus for the discussion on future issues in marketing communications which concludes the book in Chapter 11. This page intentionally left blank C H A P T E R ● ● ● ● 8 Advertising Strategies for Tourism and Hospitality Learning Objectives At the end of this chapter, you will be able to ● Understand, define and evaluate the role of advertising in mar- keting tourism and hospitality products and services.
● Evaluate a range of applications of advertising to the provi- sion of information about tourism and hospitality products and service. ● Understand the range, functions and specific features of tour- ism and hospitality advertising. ● Recognise the role of advertising in the communications strat- egy process for tourism and hospitality. Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality Introduction This chapter describes a range of advertising strategies and approaches which are relevant to a cross section of the tourism and hospitality sec- tor.
Other factors determining the nature of the advertising message are also outlined. The chapter begins with a definition of advertising and a discussion on how advertising works as a communication tool. This discussion relates back to the issues outlined in relation to communi- cation theory and consumers’ behaviour in Chapters 2 and 4. Different types of advertising are considered and key trends in the development of advertising platforms are discussed.
Strategic decisions concerning available advertising strategies are described. Particular focus is given to the types of media and relevant strategies. The chapter compares and analyses how advertising messages are constructed for different purposes and audiences. What Is Advertising? The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) defines advertising as ‘The means of providing the most persuasive possible selling mes- sage to the right prospects at the lowest possible cost’.
This represents a highly practical and profit-oriented view of the role of marketing communications through advertising messages. This definition high- lights the crucial role that advertising plays in an organisation’s strat- egy to drive sales growth. However, this book has demonstrated that the role of organisations varies very greatly in tourism and hospitality, particularly when taking into consideration the quasi-political moti- vations of destination marketing organisations (DMOs), whose role is to promote the local region for the benefits of the whole of the society rather than specifically to drive ‘sales’. Similarly, the effect of advertising in relation to direct impact on sales growth is very much contested in the marketing literature gener- ally and in the tourism and hospitality literature in particular (Loda et al.
‘Strong’ and ‘weak’ theories of advertising effects can be applied in different situations in this sector. Thus a broader view of advertising needs to be applied to cover all aspects of the rationale for, and motives of, advertising for organisations in this sector. Advertising is a specific form of marketing communications which is concerned with bringing information about an organisation, its products and services, or any other messages to the attention of the market. Advertising can take a variety of forms and should be targeted directly at desired audiences; it has been selected through the STP process 208 Advertising Strategies for Tourism and Hospitality described in Chapter 6.
Advertising is not synonymous with ‘promo- tion,’ because many messages delivered through advertising are con- cerned either about providing information and creating awareness of the organisation, its channels of access/distribution or about otherwise informing or reminding the markets about the organisation through the provision of appropriate information, as discussed in Chapter 3. The trends towards DIY holidaymaking and the adoption of independ- ent booking via the internet for travel and hotel services especially have also created a shifting focus in terms of the message content of tradi- tional forms of advertising for tourism and hospitality, towards creat- ing awareness of websites, informing markets of the benefits of using Internet sites for booking and comparing prices and products and also for persuading, through promotional strategies, the markets to purchase through the web. Thus the examples and cases used in this book suggest that the direction of advertising messages in the present context has taken a shift in terms of ● greater fragmentation in terms of use of media channels ● growth in pull strategies (to drive consumers towards certain actions) ● greater interactivity in advertising messages ● increase in use of personal endorsement (by celebrities or ‘ordinary’ users) ● more innovative media strategies. Although a few case studies in this book (Case studies 4 and 7 for example) have highlighted how communications strategies have sought to engage consumers on an emotional level as opposed to rational thought processes, it is probably true to say that most tourism and hospitality communications appeal at the emotional level, even those which are driven by a price/value message.
How Advertising Works Similar to the theories of buyer behaviour outlined in Chapter 4 (Figure 2.8 in particular) and also the ‘buyer readiness states’ con- cept outlined in Chapter 2, it is clear that advertising seeks to connect with consumers’ needs at a specific time, to provide consumers with appropriate cues for behaviour which anticipate their needs for serv- ices through the provision of stimuli or communications messages. However, the ‘hierarchy of effects’ model can be applied to show how advertising must move people through a series of steps or states, in order to ensure the appropriate behaviour or action is achieved. 209 Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality Morgan and Pritchard (2001) argue that successful advertising must take consumers through a six-stage process which draw on the hierar- chy of effects model and usefully relates to the types of strategic orien- tation to the organisation’s message. Stage 1 Awareness – particularly in the case of new products or serv- ices or a recent rebranding exercise.
Stage 2 Comprehension – once aware of the product or brand, custom- ers need to be familiarised with the benefits of purchase or product attributes. Stage 3 Acceptance – potential customers need to be sure that the prod- uct or experience will serve their requirements and needs. Stage 4 Preference – potential customers must feel sufficiently sympa- thetic towards the product or service and place it towards the top of their ‘consideration set’ of alternative products, serv- ices or experiences. Stage 5 Purchase – the customer buys the product.
Stage 6 Reinforcement – the customer feels reassured that their deci- sion was correct and that the effects will be or were positive. The time issue is important since the advertising might con- tinue on after the purchase of the product but prior to the actual consumption phase. The focus of advertising should, then, be directed towards elicita- tion of particular types of response including ● the sales response (whereby price is the key message to stimulate action) ● the persuasion response (whereby the advertisement message is pow- erful enough to change attitudes towards a product or brand) ● involvement response (whereby customers empathize with the product or brand) ● the saliency group (like persuasion, but where advertising attempts to relate the product or brand to consumers identity or social, cultural and socio-economic characteristics, so that they identify with the values of the brand/product). (Morgan and Pritchard, 2001: pp.
This last aspect of advertising is particularly relevant in relation to current marketing theory about the nature and power of brands (see Chapter 7). The primary purpose of advertising in current markets (for established brands) is not exclusively to increase sales, but to improve consumers’ attitudes towards brands over the long term. Many 210 Advertising Strategies for Tourism and Hospitality marketing theorists argue about whether advertising is ‘strong’ enough on its own to impact on sales immediately. Partially this is because advertising is an impersonal type of communication.
But also it is because advertising has a variety of different possible functions. ‘Weak’ theories of advertising are based on ● awareness ● trial ● reinforcement. Consumers are made aware of products and services through adver- tising, which can be useful in order to prompt a trial or to provide some reinforcement after an initial purchase. The main purpose of advertis- ing in this approach is to increase awareness of, and defend, brands.
Advertising also works to position the brand to the relevant target audi- ence. In Chapter 6 segment profiling was demonstrated as one way in which organisations can create an idea of the target consumers through narrative and images, feeding directly into the advertising brief. It is important to note, however, that ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ theories may apply in different tourism and hospitality services. The hierar- chy of effects model often assumes a rationalised decision-making process/framework for consumers, whereas as we have noted, tour- ism and hospitality decisions are dominated by emotional decisions.
Tourism decisions comprise a complex set of different service provid- ers, and as more people book their travel and accommodation inde- pendently (as opposed to a package booked through a tour operator) different conditions and states might apply to distinct sub-decisions in the process. And whilst some commentators argue that these models only work with ‘high-involvement purchases’ (Hackley, 2005) – and tourism in particular has conventionally been categorised as a ‘shop- ping’ or high-involvement purchase – this is rapidly changing as more and more experienced consumers with access to credit cards and the Internet make more spontaneous travel purchase decisions. Fill (2005) argues against this type of essentialising processes either in terms of the ways in which advertising hopes to effect changes in the minds of the consumers or in relation to the promotional strategies of organisations. He argues that there are three main streams of objec- tives for promotional goal setting: ● marketing goals (achievement of sales of the product to consumers) ● corporate goals (issues relating to market share or volumes of sales, profitability and revenue) ● communication goals (relating to the image, reputation and atti- tudes of stakeholders towards the organisation) (Fill, 2005: p.
211 Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality He argues that all these issues are identified (derived) from the analysis of the current situation and should be directly traceable back to the marketing plan. For various reasons, many organisations fail to reconcile the synergies or differences between promotional goal setting with wider communications strategy or even fail to set promotional objectives at all.