Developing An Integrated Marketing Communication Plan For Dream World Gold Coast

Situation analysis

Advertising and communication can be termed or referred as “the helping hands” for a business corporation as they aid the business in making an easier approach towards the targeted consumers. The advertising and communication campaigns are developed and organized with a prime motive of attracting more and more audience and increasing the interest of the existing consumers towards the products and services offered by the business organization. Advertising and communication campaigns are the set of activities that are developed for stimulating the targeted groups of audience so as to motivate them to make purchase of goods and services offered by the business entities (Kotler & Keller, 2005). The advertising and communication campaigns plays a significant role in developing and enhancing the performance and productivity of the organization and thus resulting in an increasing profitability. The below presented analysis is made focused on the advertising and integrated communication plan and campaign for Dream world God Coast which is an amusement park in Australia. The executed report is segmented in various sections that are focused towards attracting the consumers from the selected regions.

Industry analysis 

In Australia, the theme park industry have been there since a very long time, it has been mature enough and contribute extensively to the tourism industry. The industry is sensitive to changes in tourism volumes and spending on domestic entertainment. This industry has been prone to the needs of its audience like for leisure time, domestic tourist trip and discretionary income. There are a plenty of theme parks in Australia. This amusement parks and centers operation industry has faces tremendous losses and has managed to give a poor performance over the course of the recent years. There was an incident at one of the theme parks on the Gold Coast which resulted in death of four people which hampered the industry which    caused visitor numbers to decline due to safety concern. The industry is projected to recover from the incident over the next five years.

Company background 

Dream world, now the most advanced theme park in the world, started its dream with mere 85 hectares of land. Initially, it just had few attractions and was inaugurated in December 1981. Now it has been more than 30 years since this tremendous journey began. Its founder is John Long Hurst. Now it is one of the trusted brands with immense experience through product and costumer initiatives (Dreamworld 2018). It has developed many innovative learning experiences from educational tourism it has also provided options for business and conference delegates. Through its huge popularity it has managed to attract various national and international brands. It has brand associations with big names like; big brother, DreamWorks and wiggles. It has proved to be a responsible member of the community and has managed to implement various kinds of environmental and conservative initiative for the tourism industry. Thus, in the long run, it will help in promoting the culture of the local communities through participation, sponsorship, sourcing suppliers and supporting charitable organisations for animals and people. In 2006, Dream world opened a brand new water ride park (Dreamworld 2018). White Water World is the most advanced water ride park in the world, a $60 million investment.

Industry analysis

Analysis of competition

Dream world, which competes against other Gold Coast theme parks such as Movie World and Sea World. The main competition of Dream World is with the other top theme parks present in gold coast like Ausi. World and Luna Park. These were one of the fiercest competitors. Normally the fiercest of competitors, the gold coast’s top theme parks have joined forces for a $15 million campaign promoting the glitter strip (Dreamworld 2018). Village road show and ardent leisure, in partnership with the Queensland government, will pool their resources for the new campaign, which markets the gold coast as the theme park capital of Australia. China’s richest man is poised to build a major theme park on the Gold Coast expected to rival Dream world and Movie World. For building a multi-billion-dollar attraction for the visitors, Wang Jianlin’s Chinese conglomerate, the Wanda Group, is negotiating with the State Government and is trying to obtain land at Coomera. Theme parks are considered at the prime focus of the company’s global plans and the Gold Coast was the perfect location, this is stated by Wanda Group general manager Xie Hong, speaking exclusively to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Marketing mix analysis 

Marketing mix is the strategy that is adopted by the business entity for analyzing the four most empirical elements of the market which are product, price, place, promotion and same are presented as below:

• Product: The exciting and amusing rides, fun activities and games, the tasty and healthy food and the shopping items are the products and services offered by Dream World Gold Coast. These are the elements that are aiding the business entity in attracting the visitors on large scale (Galician, 2013). Majorly the various exciting, amazing and thrilling rides are the main part of attraction for the visitors and travellers from all over the globe.  
• Price: The business organization is making use of reasonable pricing strategies that has been designed after considering the local crowd and their income level. Moreover, seasonal discounts and various exciting packages on week-ends are offered by the amusement park for attracting the consumers.
• Place: Dream-worldis a theme park and zoo situated on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is Australia’s largest theme park with over 40 rides and attractions, including five roller coasters. The amusement park is located in prime location and is easily accessible and hence more and more crowd reaches the amusement park.
• Promotion: The business entity can make use of various available mediums and channels for making promotion (Thorson & Moore, 2013). Social media is one of the most reliable channel that can be used for promoting the amusement park and Zoo. There are other tools that can be used to such as hoardings and high banners and digital boards in city areas, TV ads and print media can also be used.

Since its foundation, Dream world has been the center of attraction in drawing millions of people to Queensland and Australia via active participation in promoting the Gold Coast as a tourist destination. All this has been the result of the efforts of publicity and promotions team which has given dream world a positive coverage in the domestic and international markets (Ebeid, 2014). The location is accessible to the Broad water, Gold Coast beaches and weather. This location immediately associates Sea World with our marine theme. It provides easy access to all utilities such as transport, power, water and sewerage.

This amusement park is visited by people from all over Australia and across the world. There are many theme parks in that area and dream world has managed to fascinate both national and international visitors (Hallahan, 2014). In Australia only, it attracts visitors from all the states and territories. But the targeted audiences are the families from Queensland, new South Whales and Victoria. These are the ones who contribute to the market constantly. The visitors from outside are dependent on the weather and the tourist season. So, the numbers keeps on fluctuating. This is achieved through self-assessment, good marketing, effective advertising and the creation of an Australian product, recognized worldwide. This is all the fruit of effective marketing strategy of Dream world.

Company background

Current brand strategy

The brand strategy is to build up a theme park which provides all the latest attraction. The main focus of the company is safety, to avoid any incident in future. There has to be focus on the brand equity. Promotion is the prior requirement. It can be done by getting award and reward from media. In current time, promotion can be done over social media handles. Positive market response is also necessary (Katz, 2016). The company is working towards achieving Incomparable entertainment in White Water and Dream world. The company is planning of extending for the sake of senior citizens.

Target audience 

Dream world is one of the finest amusement parks and is world recognized. This park has been absolute favorite of teenagers mainly. The main target is of teenagers who are under 18; this age group is more interested in all these activities. In fact females attend the dream world and white water theme park at a higher rate (Lake 2017). They mainly target the audience through social media as 9 out of 10 among the seventeen years old are on various social media handles. Dream world has released a narrative-driven marketing campaign, ‘Join the Evolution’. Through this campaign we are hoping to directly communicate with a much targeted audience. 

Communication objectives

On the basis of the executed research and given scenario and target market it has been analyzed that Dream World is a well-recognized brand name and enjoys a large market share. But in order to make expansions and development of business advertising campaign is required to be organized. Communication objectives are the guidelines that will aid the business entity in making accomplishment of goals and objectives. Dream World is counted under the list of the most recognized brand among the Australian customers but it has been observed that the market position of the company can be face some issues and hence building brand awareness and thus developing a sustainable position for the brand is one of the biggest communication objective for the firm (Percy & Elliott, 2016). As communication objectives are considered as the helping hands for the advertising and communication campaign and hence are required to be clearly defined and established. Clearly defined and developed objectives will be easily accomplished and thus will be proven advantageous to the campaign and the business organization.

Providing appropriate and relevant information regarding all the aspects, features and services of the amusement park can be considered as the communication objective for Dream World.

Analysis of competition

Simulating demand for the brand will increase the profitability and hence this is also a significant objective for the firm and that should be attained with a greater level of effectiveness and efficiency (Kelley, Sheehan & Jugenheimer, 2015).

Budget allocation

The below presented is the tabular format of all the expenses that will be incurred during the developed advertising campaign (Vakratsas, Demetrios  & Ma, 2005):

Creative strategy

Creative strategy can be referred as an unique strategy through which a message is communicated to the targeted consumers. This message should be purely associated or linked to the services offered by the business organization (Altstiel & Grow, 2017). The main concern behind developing a creative strategy is the accomplishment of the advertising objectives.  Dream world is required to make adoption of a creative strategy as it will aid and support the business growth and success. Creative strategy will provide guidelines to the creative team of Dream world for making accomplishment of the desired goals and objectives. As the main objective of the advertising and integrated communication campaign is to increase the brand awareness and recognition and thus leading towards high peaks of success and growth. This creative strategy (Businesscollective 2017). This strategy is a well-blended combination of various aspects such as market research effective strategic delivery and imaging plan. The below developed is the creative strategy that can be adopted by Dream World Gold Coast for attracting the visitors all over the regions:

Finding new ways to reach customers and visitors : The audience should be traced and tracked by making use of various other means and mediums whether they are contemporary or traditional. The message can also be made associated or linked with some social aspects so as to develop easy connection with the audience such as making use of rain water in water rides can attract more and more consumers (Lake 2017). This can be proven as a beneficial creative strategy for Dream World.

Media strategy

The below presented are the three media strategies that can be adopted by Dream World Gold Coast for attracting crowd all over the globe:

Go social: Online platforms are the best mediums that will provide a diverse range of channels for making reach till the consumers or to attract them easily (Lake 2016). Making use of more and more social media channels for advertising and publicizing the services or the activities that are offered by Dream World, for instance, Ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. are some of the examples through which the entity can make easy reach till the consumers.

Marketing mix analysis

Think local: Amusement park and theme is all about geography There are various tools and mediums, such as local and nearby hotels, social media, neighboring attractions that can be harnessed for marketing the attraction. Partnerships with local hotels, and collecting customers and visitors data from where they are coming can also be some points that will aid Dream world.

Tempting the tourists: Developing various exciting and tempting schemes and packages for attracting the consumers will be a great media strategy for the organization and same can be adopted by the business organization.

Evaluation of IMC plan

Evaluating the IMC plan is a significant approach as it will aid in the process of implementation of IMC plan effectively. By evaluating the various aspects of IMC and communication campaign Dream-world will be able to attain and obtain more attention of customer (Kerr & Patti, 2002)). The business organization can make use of three types of available tools and mechanisms for evaluating and appraising IMC plan process, which includes respondent behavior evaluations, online evaluation and message evaluation.

Dream world Gold Coast can make use of respondent behavior evaluations, online evaluation and message evaluation in order to appraise the IMC campaign (support.indiegogo 2017). Moreover, the business entity is also trying to make more investments for executing the customer’s surveys as well as how effective is the advertising of Dream world operates on its consumers.

Conclusion

In the limelight of the above executed analysis it has been inferred that the above presented advertising and integrated communication campaign is proven advantageous for Dream world Gold Coast. There are various segments of the campaign that has been developed for attracting the targeted audience and thus benefiting the business firm

References

Altstiel, T. & Grow, J. (2017) Advertising Creative: Strategy, Copy, Design. Sage.

Businesscollective, (2017) 4 creative strategies for offline advertising, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://businesscollective.com/4-creative-strategies-for-offline-advertising/.

Dreamworld, (2018) Lets your imagination play, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.dreamworld.com.au/.

Ebeid, A.Y. (2014) Distribution intensity, advertising, monetary promotion, & customer-based br& equity: An applied study in Egypt. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 6(4), p.113.

Galician, M.L. (2013) H&book of product placement in the mass media: New strategies in marketing theory, practice, trends, & ethics. New York: Routledge.

Hallahan, K. (2014) March. Publicity Under Siege: A Critique of Content Marketing, Br& Journalism, Native Advertising & Promoted User Endorsements As Challenges to Professional Practice & Transparency. In Public relations in a more transparent age 17th international public relations research conference (pp. 391-437).

Katz, H. (2016) The media h&book: A complete guide to advertising media selection, planning, research, & buying. Taylor & Francis.

Kelley, L., Sheehan, K. & Jugenheimer, D.W. (2015) Advertising media planning: a br& management approach. New York: Routledge.

Kerr & Patti, (2002) Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Where to from here, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.anzmac.org/conference_archive/2002/papers/pdfs/p296_kerr.pdf

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2005) Marketing Management  (12^th), New York: Prentice Hall

Lake, (2016) What Is a Media Strategy & How Do You Create One, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-a-media-strategy-&-how-do-you-create-your-own-2295517

Lake, L (2017) What is a creative strategy & why is it important to your marketing strategy, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-creative-strategy-4007702.

Lake, L (2017) what is a target audience, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-a-target-audience-2295567.

Percy, L. & Elliott, R.H. (2016) Strategic advertising management. Oxford University Press.

support.indiegogo, (2017) How to evaluate a campaign, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/526816-How-to-Evaluate-a-Campaign.

Thorson, E. & Moore, J. eds. (2013) Integrated communication: Synergy of persuasive voices. Psychology Press.

Vakratsas, Demetrios  & Ma, Z. (2005) “A Look at the Long-run Effectiveness of Multimedia Advertising & Its Implications for Budget Allocation Decisions”: Journal of Advertising Research, 45 (2), pp. 241–54.

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