Season Pass

Recently I saw an advert for Thorpe Park and a season ticket offering of £48... that was unlimited entry to the park for an entire year! It really got me thinking as although I've never been to Thorpe Park, I have been to the sister theme park Alton Towers and I remember how pricey it can be for a day out there.

A day ticket also costs £48 although you can save by booking online before you arrive. Many people would question why a day ticket is the same price as an annual pass- it seems ludicrous right?

But when you think about it from a different perspective, it's actually an extremely clever marketing tactic that is used in lots of different places where one might not recognise the marketing tactic is in place.

Once a consumer has entered the park once, and paid the £48 fee- the park covers the overheads such as electricity and staffing, and the initial costs of the ride building/ design etc. and any residual value of such assets. The initial costs of that person entering the park are covered. Great- but do these overheads increase as more people enter the park? No.... the staffing/ electricity/ insurance etc. costs are going to be exactly the same whether there are 100 or 6000 people in the park, therefore Thorpe Park's main objective is getting as many people through their gates as possible!

Thorpe Park make such a huge mark-up on added extras such as the car park, food & drinks, games and merchandise that the price of entrance probably doesn't have a huge profit margin. Once customers are through the gates, they are more likely to spend money inside the park ESPECIALLY if they have paid for an annual pass and therefore have the feeling as though their initial cost of the day out was "free"- they may be inclined to spend more on additional add-ons!

Pricing is a marketing tool which is often overlooked, even by myself and although it depends on mark-ups and margins and overheads etc. it can also create a perception of a product and sometimes even a cheap price can detract from a product or service.

So- where else is this tactic used? Night clubs offer free entry or guest list entry before a certain time in the hope that customers will enter and purchase drinks all throughout the night, another example is captive pricing- where a company offers a product for a low price, but then once they are hooked, they rake up the prices of captive products.

I think it is a very wise move from Thorpe Park and one which should see their entries sore and their additional spending therefore increase!

Stephanie

Inside Rolls-Royce

I've been watching the 'Inside...' series on 4OD, a must-watch if you are interested in the luxury goods market!
I especially loved the Rolls-Royce episode which gave an insight into the companies head office and the sales tactics used with high profile customers. Rolls-Royce were creating the Celestial Phantom- their most expensive model ever, containing hundreds of diamonds and documentary shows the rigorous process which is undertaken at the factory and during the design process. Clearly for such a prestigious brand, their cars sell themselves due to the status and authority that comes from owning one of the cars.

However, I was interested to see the types of marketing strategies that Rolls-Royce use in order to target such a highly regarded audience. The typical Rolls-Royce customer may be spending well over £50,000 and almost as much on optional extras to add to the car, therefore the customer service they recieve is fundamental to their loyalty to the brand.

The documentary displayed that most Rolls-Royce customers own 4 or 5 vehicles and therefore retaining such customers is a key priority in their marketing strategy. The salesmen in the car showrooms are highly trained, just as with any car show room, however it is their personal connection with the Rolls-Royce brand that means their passion is revealed and hopefully passed on the customer.

One of the key PR strategies used by the company, is the opportunity for key members of the press, celebrities and other senior influencers to test out the vehicles on a race track, in the hopes that they may write a review/speak about the experience and even that they may be potential buyers... this is classic 'try before you buy' but also an example of getting opinion leaders to form their own recommendations of products. They are also attracting a new selection of young, cool, hip customers which is important to help the brand progress in the future.

The fact that Rolls-Royce are perfectionists when it comes to product design and quality means that they are renowned for providing a consistently impeccable product- there are no reports of one-off disaster products or bad customer experiences as the product checking and factory processes are so strict that it simply doesn't happen at Rolls-Royce! This in itself is a fantastic example of PR!!

 It would be an absolute dream to work in the marketing department at Rolls-Royce, the staff seem to have an extreme passion and love for the brand and their marketing strategy is unique, admirable and seems to work to target customers who enjoy the extremely finer things in life!!

You can watch the show on 4OD- let me know your thoughts!

Steph

Sentimental KFC Advert

I wouldn't say KFC are my favourite brand in the world..... in fact I would say they are one of my least favourites from an animal cruelty/ healthy eating/ quality point of view. However their marketing campaigns and specifically their TV advertising does interest me....

When you think of the brand 'KFC' what springs to mind? For me it is the 'bargain bucket' adverts, the family sat around a table on a Friday evening munching on a chicken's leg, a huge bottle of Coca-cola and a pot of baked beans. The mother with a huge grin on her face stood in the background after picking up the entire family's dinner for "ONLY £9.99". Correct?

This has been KFC's advertising of choice for many years and one which targets families on a low budget who like a treat meal. I think that most people can immediately identify a KFC advert based on these characteristics.

Therefore I was shocked to see this new KFC advert by Bartle Bogle Hegarty at Blink Media Production:

Which you can watch here

The advert is sentimental, very creative and serious- not usually KFC's style at all....

It's based on a love story and is 20th-century USA themed- based on KFC's early heritage. I love the story-telling behind the advert, it's pleasant to watch and I love the spin at the end! I would expect this advert to be advertising something more premium- it makes you think and the fact they are launching "slow pulled chicken" through this campaign fits in with the little story of the man pursuing a female he has been admiring.

To understand how the story relates to the product, you have to almost think over the story over and over again in your head which I think is extremely clever as it makes the advert stick in your mind which is of course every marketer's intention when trying to build a memorable, thought-provoking advert.

However, I am interested to see how this advert is received- KFC's target audience are used to very simple, light-hearted advertising and I feel as though KFC have taken a risk in trying this new type of marketing! Let's hope they understand the message the brand is trying to ommit!

I love interesting and thought provoking marketing!!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Stephanie

Cancer Research: No make up selfies are genius for non-profit marketing!

How could I, as a marketing blogger, not mention the massive trend this week- No make-up selfies to raise awareness for breast cancer!?!

As I am sure you are all aware- through facebook and twitter, EVERYONE seems to be taking make-up free photos of themselves and uploading them. Cancer Research have suggested that since the trend started they have received a huge increase in the levels of donations to the charity that they have been receiving, enough to even crash their donation systems!

However, CRUK have also said that they have no idea where the idea came from yet clearly they support it!

I know on my Facebook there was a lot of controversy, especially from those saying it is a pointless trend, that taking photos of your face make-up free isn't going to cure cancer and other like-minded comments. These negative comments and retaliations from those arguing the other side of the case have actually given the cause an even stronger presence online!

This is just another fantastic example of how social-media can be used to drive awareness and in the non-profit marketing world, donations...

However, the thing that is unique about this example of social media marketing is that it wasn't driven by the brand it was driven by the consumer! I feel as though a marketing trend could be emerging which brands need to think very carefully about how then can use to the best of their ability!

Cancer Research were very lucky to be at the center of this- lets hope we see more consumer-driven marketing examples in the future!

Steph 

Watch this....

 So much sense in this video on social media and the problem with Facebook.

Watch it here

An interesting experiment

I attended an event on Saturday where an interesting experiment was done...

The speaker asked the audience to raise their hand if they have a Samsung Galaxy Phone, to which a small proportion of the audience raised their hand. He then asked who owned a BlackBerry, again only a few hands were raised. Finally, he asked the audience to raise their hands if they own an iPhone- and not surprisingly, around 85% of the audience did....

He then asked us to consider why so many people owned iPhones, is it because iPhones are better? is it that they perform better or have functions that other phones do not?

He then asked of the audience that owned Samsungs or BlackBerrys, which of those liked owning that phone, to which they all said yes....

Therefore the argument that iPhones are 'better' than any other phone cannot stand, as some prefer using other phones.

So why do Apple dominate the phone market??

They have been able to create a perception of being the best phone on the market. Their outstanding branding, product awareness, public relations and customer service are what I believe had lead Apple to such high success.

If you're friends are buying, chances are you will too....

And it's happened before! In the 80's everyone had a walkman, if you had just a normal cassette player it wasn't a walkman so it wasn't considered popular - it still played cassettes (and some personal cassette players were far superior to walkmans with extra features), but walkman was THE name.

The iPhone is the same, you pay to "fit in", suprising how much people will spend to adhere to their peers isn't it!? As for everyone having an iPhone that isn't exactly true, that is just the image that Apple try to project towards people to make them believe.

How cool is this marketing campaign!!?

 Just thought I'd share it with ya!

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/get-involved/our-campaigns/national-campaigns/pickpocketing/