Marketing Plan for The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel
Assessment 3
Marketing Plan for The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel
Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to outline a marketing strategy for The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel. Evidence in this report has been sourced through various online websites and telephone interviews with the hotel. The details of the report talk about the 4 Ps of marketing (Price, Product, Promotion, Place), SMART goals and what process will take place to achieve the set SMART goal. This report contains a recommendation on how The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel can set a marketing objective for the month of December.
Table of Contents
TOC o "1-3" h z u Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc88764083 h 2Target Market PAGEREF _Toc88764084 h 3Market Objectives PAGEREF _Toc88764085 h 3Promote Products & Services PAGEREF _Toc88764086 h 3Increase Sales and Revenue PAGEREF _Toc88764087 h 3SMART Objectives PAGEREF _Toc88764088 h 4Proposed Marketing Strategy PAGEREF _Toc88764089 h 4Marketing Budget PAGEREF _Toc88764090 h 5Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc88764091 h 5References PAGEREF _Toc88764092 h 6
Target Market
The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel was built in 1888 and is classified with the National Trust as a landmark historical hotel. They are in the town centre of Yarra Glen in the heart of Yarra Valley who provide great pub food, accommodation, kids playground and live entertainment. The hotel is also active in the community with schools, sports clubs and hospitals through supporting them throughout the year (The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel, 2021).
With this information, The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel have a broad target market that they can focus their marketing plan around. With the hotel being an historical landmark, they can appeal to an audience that have an interest in history which could be history students at Universities. In addition, with the kids playground and pub food, the hotel and market towards families who live or are visiting the Yarra Valley.
Market Objectives
With the Australian government limiting international flights and restricting Australian citizens movements, it has led to the hospitality industry being heavily affected (The Guardian, 2020). The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel will need to focus their marketing to achieve the following objectives:
Promote Products & ServicesThe Yarra Valley Grand Hotel have a great opportunity due to the many offerings they have. They can promote their accommodation and the different rooms they have to offer. Also, the hotel can promote their restaurant including any specials or promotions they are running with dishes starting from $12 (The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel, 2021)
Increase Sales and Revenue
With Melbourne spending over 200 days in lockdown (ABC News, 2021) it has affected all businesses resulting in a loss of sales and revenue for most businesses. The hotel will need to take the opportunity of the country reopening to entice customers to visit The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel.
SMART Objectives
A SMART objective is a tool that can be used to provide a company with a sense of direction and clear focus on what that want to achieve. SMART is an acronym that stands for the following (Corporate Finance Institute, 2021):
Specific Who is involved? What is to be accomplished? Where will the goal be achieved? When does the goal want to be achieved? Why should this goal be achieved?
A specific goal for The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel could be to ensure they have 50 diners a day in their restaurant throughout the month of December to increase sales.
Measurable How will the objective be tracked?
The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel can keep a record on an excel spreadsheet to track how many customers they have served each day.
Achievable Has this objective been achieved before?
During a phone interview with The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel, they confirmed the restaurant can sit up to 80 customers at one time.
Realistic Is the objective realistic and within reach.
The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel is open for lunch and dinner meaning they would need on average 25 customers in each sitting (The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel, 2021)
Timely Does the objective have a deadline?
Yes, The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel is wanting to achieve 50 customers a day / 1,550 customers in the month of December.
Proposed Marketing Strategy
The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel will need to promote their hotel and dining options. They can do this by reaching out to local tourism companies in the Yarra Valley. Yarra Ranges Tourism is a company in the Yarra Valley who promote businesses through different marketing methods such as emails, blogs and public relations outreach (Yarra Ranges Tourism, 2021).
To compliment this approach and use the hotels already established community involvement, they can attend events and issue posters or flyers to potential customers with promotions or discounts. A common approach companies can use is 10% off with this flyer which will give customers 10% discount off their bills if they bring the flyer with them. These flyers can help introduce new customers to the hotel and convince previous customers to come back (Investopedia,2021).
Marketing Budget
To implement the above strategy, The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel will need to implement a Marketing Budget.
The Yarra Ranges Tourism send multiple email to all their subscribers which will give The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel great exposure. This will cost the hotel $800 and will allow them to have a 3 x professional image and 700 word summary including a link to their website (Yarra Ranges Tourism, 2021).
In addition to this, the hotel can reach out to local print shops for someone to design their flyers promoting their 10% discount at the restaurant. Half Price Printing in Melbourne can supply 2,000 promotional A6 flyers for $166 (Half Price Printing, 2021), which will help achieve the target of 1,550 customers in December.
This means The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel will need to have $966 marketing budget to achieve the proposed marketing strategy.
Conclusion
The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel needs to look forward past COVID-19 and start increasing their Sales & Revenue. Due to the hotels historic stature and community involvement it gives them a broad target market to attract customers. Setting a SMART goal will allow The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel to know what they want to achieve, how they will achieve it and when will they achieve this by. This tool will help management all work towards the common goal which is in this case, to attract 1,550 customers to the restaurant in the month of December. To achieve this goal, the hotel will use a local marketing agency and printing company to attract customers which will cost them roughly $966.
ReferencesABC News 2021, Melbourne 200 days of lockdown, viewed 25th November 2021 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-19/melbourne-200-days-of-covid-lockdowns-victoria/100386078
Corporate Finance Institute 2021, Smart Goal, viewed 24th November 2021, https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/smart-goal/
Half Price Printing 2021, Products A6 Flyers, viewed 25th November 2021, https://halfpriceprinting.com.au/products/a6-flyers?variant=20157924343867
Investopedia 2021, pros cons using coupons, viewed 25th November 2021, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/051815/pros-cons-using-coupons-your-business.asp
The Yarra Valley Grand Hotel 2021, viewed 19th November 2021, https://www.yarravalleygrand.com.au
The Guardian 2020, Coronavirus crisis, viewed on the 24th November 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/07/coronavirus-crisis-has-had-staggering-impact-on-australian-businesses-data-reveals
Yarra Ranges Tourism 2021, viewed on the 25th November 2021, https://yarrarangestourism.com.au/
Information about Assessment 2: Group Written Report Puffin Billy Railway
Written by
Nicholas Bray s4663386
Sandra Elia s4599337
Engkong Sa s4616555
Bushra Islam s4662648
1. Introduction
1.1Purpose of the plan Engkong
1.2Scope. - Engkong
1.3Methodology. - Engkong
2. Situation Analysis
2.1Market Analysis Engkong
2.2Business Analysis -Bushra
2.3Products Analysis - Bushra
2.4Environmental Analysis - Sandra
2.5Customer Analysis - Nick
2.6Competitors Analysis - Nick
2.7SWOT Analysis - Group
Topic: Puffing billy railway
1.Introduction:
Purpose of the plan:
The purpose of the plan is to evaluate the impact of covid-19, known as corona virus on the puffing Billy railway a tourism company in Australian tourism industry. The company is a private retailer that provides travel and tourism related services to the general public. In the backdrop of Covid 19 how its business has affected and its effects in terms of reduction of business and revenue. How to reinstate it in terms of operability with maintain work fore and adjusting with the new normal by adopting the new revised mechanism of doing business as well as demands of the market environment.
Scope:
This report is talking about how the business was going on before the pandemic and then where it stands now in the middle of the pandemic. How much loss it suffered, the way it is growing, maturing, and declining. What are the latest problems and challenges of the market? How the industry in general and business in particular adjusting to the newly emerging technologies and approaches. The company is relying on the latest information of the market. To what extent the company should follow the trends of a bigger industry than to the local realities of business. To check what position the local competitors have taken in the local market in terms of client, product, and the price for products and services.
Methodology:
The sources of information for the report include both primary and secondary means of information. Being on the site of business and witnessing the business and being involved with people. Example, conducting surveys, interviews, experiments. Then relying on existing data generated by large government institutions, as part of organizational record keeping. Then data extracted from more varied data files. Then in some journal literature, data sets could be used as supplementary data in methodology. So, these are all the sources of the information to assess the performance and goals set by the company. Providing information, analyse the results of the data gathering process. Providing sampling using statistics and addressing research limitations.
2. Situation Analysis:
2.1 Market Analysis:
The company provides services to international services and domestic visitors on trips ranging shorter to one year. Visitors included those traveling for work-related purposes, such as conferences, and for leisure and personal reasons, more of visiting friends and relatives. Industry revenue is calculated based on spending within Australia by domestic and international tourists. As a result, the industry is directly linked with airlines, airports, hotels, and accommodation providers, along with firms indirectly involved in tourism, such as cafes, restaurants, retailers, and transport providers Revenue in the Tourism industry is fell significantly over the two years through 2020-2021, due to the Federal Government's inbound travel restrictions. The major domestic airlines cut capacity across their networks and as a result, revenue dropped significantly. As restrictions have eased, these capacity reductions have led to delays in 2021-2022. The industry's average profit margin fell strongly following the COVID-19 outbreak, as tourism activity dropped significantly. The Tourism industry is projected to continue to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and expand over the next five years. Industry performance is likely to be significantly boosted as restrictions on inbound travel and cruise ships entering Australian waters have been lifted, and requirements for travelers entering Australia have been eased. However, several factors are likely to slow the industry's recovery in the short term, including ongoing fears and restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among Chinese tourists. In addition, the global uncertainty around the Russian invasion of Ukraine is likely to reduce the likelihood of overseas travel. Inflationary pressures are also likely to increase the cost of airfares.
2.2 & 2.3 Business/Product Analysis
Brief description and background:
Puffing Billy is one of the favourite steam trains in Australia, located in the Ranges of Dandenong in Melbourne. Regardless of the cultural experiences, nostalgia touch, or energetic adventure perspectives, everyone has something at Puffing Billy Railway (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022). It was built in 1990 to serve the neighboring communities living in the hills. The train carried any form of the item, for example, timber, passengers, potatoes, plants, and livestock. Currently, it is among the primary attraction of tourists inviting different visitors to visit Melbourne and experience a traditional century-year-old (Dobson and Hooper, 2015). Apart from Christmas day, all other days are extremely busy with tourists with the help of over 300 volunteers.
Vision:
To ensure that Puffing Billy Railway excels in the heritage rail-experience presentation that captures both the rich history and natural beauty of the Dandong Ranges of Victoria (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022).
Mission:
To ensure that Puffing Billy Railway restores and operates the first-class heritage steam railway in Australia in an efficient ad safe, and financially sustainable way for the current education programs, satisfaction and benefit of the community, railway stakeholders, and customers, not forgetting the volunteers and staff (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022).
Product Attributes:
The company offers an unforgettable train experience of the Dandong Ranges to tourists. Users enjoy a wide variety of dining and shopping options in Belgrave Township, walkable from the station. While at the station, it is very easy to identify the staff and volunteers as they are all branded in smart company uniforms. Besides, at the administration block, all company sections and departments are well labeled for easy identification and navigation by first-time users (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022).
Pricing:
The pricing at Puffing Billy Railway is value-based (Michaelsen et al., 2022). Users services are priced according to the user's experience while using the services (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022). There are prices for general admission train, carriage hire, train journey and picnic packs, steam and cuisine luncheon, among other experiences. Moreover, there are discounts for large bookings like schools, companies, large organizations, and government executives (Abdi and Aulakh 2018).
Distribution:
There is no physical distribution at Puffing Billy Railway as the services are on-site (Michaelsen et al., 2022). However, there are numerous booking centers across Australia and global web-based networks. For instance, if a user is from Africa and prefers to book railway services before traveling to Melbourne, one can utilize the online booking platforms, and reservations will be made accordingly.
Promotion:
Puffing Billy Railway utilizes social media, direct mail, mobile, and printing advertising (Michaelsen et al., 2022). With social media, the company uses Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. These social sites are good since they allow the company to remain in the face of their customers through subscriptions and followings. With direct mailing, the company has a newsletter program. Once a user visits the company website or accesses any company web page electronically, newsletter signup requests are provided. Upon subscription, the company-customer distance is shortened (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022). Printing adverts at Puffing Billy Railway are brochures and branding of all customer documents and receipts (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022). The company also has open contact lines to ensure that all public relations concerns are resolved without the involvement of third parties.
Services Offered:
The services offered include Excursion train, train journey, picnic packs, carriage hire, cuisine and steam luncheon, and Puffing Billy dog express. These services are directly offered by Puffing Billy Railway. There are also partner services that can be obtained using the company staff and volunteers. These include hotel bookings, flight bookings, hotel services, and van services (Puffing Billy Railway, 2022). All these services can be booked before traveling or moving to Puffing Billy Railway for the train experience.
2.4 Environmental Analysis- Micro and Macro- Environments
The population base of Puffing Billy Railway is 108,707
220,706 visitors per annum support the service that is provided, the market size of Puffing Billy Railway is 150,000 the consumer group are loyal customers and local customers. The Puffing Billy is designed to serve local communities although it also attracts tourists, it is classified as relaxing while the train makes its way through the temperate rainforest and the tickets for the train are at a reasonable price.
The Products that are purchased while on Puffing Billy Railway would be tickets and snacks. Each year customers spend $250 a week on experience and entertainment.
Puffing Billy Railway tickets need to be purchased online before arrival, The Puffing Billy Railway aims at all age group to attend it continues to support an aging demographic and a range of entry level Female participation has increased by 2% currently males are 51% and females are 49%
The direct purchases of puffing billy would be tickets, train journey, picnic pack, carriage hire, the puffing billy dog experience, gifts, explore and create, steam and cuisine luncheon. The total liability of 2021 of puffing billy was $7,797,901although puffing billy assets was $111,415,888, The amount that the business require on property, plant and equipment is $77,089,732
The consumer group of Puffing Billy is loyal customers and local customers are influenced by the locals supporting the business in the long run. The regulation over the past 2 years
of Puffing billy railway has lifted the ban on passengers dangling their legs out of carriages, Some delays occurred during structural maintenance and the construction of new building in puffing billy lakeside visitor center. Authority was delayed due to permit approvals. Income, expenses, and assets are recognised net of the amount associated with Gst this has impacted due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and the bushfires. The financial year of puffing billy railway was on track to meet all operational and strategic requirements in accordance with proposed timeframes the economy dropped due to internationals not permitted to enter Australia and the customers had a travel limit. The interest rate raised due to inadequate visits, The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created unprecedented economic certainty.
The population growth rate is predicted to be 650,000 visitors per annum by 2023 accelerating the transformation from a growth model to a total visitor experience model the age diversity is older adults are more participating in this activity whereas females participation is increasing, The impact of the bushfires and coronavirus resulted in hiring less seasonal workers were required for positions.
Puffing Billy continues to protect the safety of the public, its volunteers and staff as well as further progress on the improvements to its structure. The research and development activities of puffing billy railway are pre-excursion activities such as gravity gurus, tools in technology and mobile magic also Pose excursion activities are ideas and innovation, conservation in action and whos in charge.
Puffing Billy Railway has embraced change and innovation brought about by the numerous State Government imposed restrictions across the state, current barriers are to disclosure of non-binary gender identities.
2.5 Customer analysis
Puffin billys existing customers like to visit all throughout the year. The weekends are peak times for most customers to visit the train and during the middle of the day is the busiest. Customers normally start at Belgrave station. Then take a steam train ride that goes through the Dandenong rangers and explores rural Australia. They do this to explore the outback of Australia and visit the forest from an easily accessible place. The average adult customer spends is roughly about 60$ per trip. The customers are predominantly tourist and families. Customers vary from international tourist they may only come once a year/life to regular locals that come once a month.
Puffin Billy's target market is people that like train rides and would like to explore the outback of Australia without having to go on a bush walk. Their fares start at 31$ and go up to 153$. By having a low price to enter everyone can come on the journey. After the pandemic puffin billy decided to focus on their local pass which gives discounts to locals that bring friends and family
occurs.
Due to puffin billy being the biggest and most iconic steam train in Australia. They can sell the history of the train line as being the best railway for the longest time, as Mercadices sell their cars with a prestigious factor as they made the first car. I predict that by tapping into their core local customer base by giving locals and regulars discounts. The consumer will advertise the ride for puffin billy. It shall encourage returning customers to come back. This is exactly what puffin billy needs as international tourism is still low due to covid pandemic.
2.6 Competitor analysis
The Q train is our direct competition. Its operation is a steam train that goes along the Bellarine peninsula. From the Railway between Drysdale and Queenscliff. The Q train main selling point is that the train is a restaurant train that showcases their local food, wine, beer and cider. The food is sourced from local producers which allows the business to showcase the region. The customer bases the business applies to is older and richer people that have money and time to go out fine dining. This is shown in the pricing for the train ride which starts at 129$. The Q train runs promotions and deals with ferry companies from docklands and Sorrento to make it easier to get to the location. I believe the key weakness for the Q train is that it is advertised for the niche market of wealthier and older people. Whereas puffing billy is for all types of people.
2.7 SWOT:
Strengths:
1.The biggest commercial train ride, large market share marketing mix. Premium customer service.
2.Puffing Billy has 10million dollars as asset, they are open 7 days a week, puffing billy is very flexible and follows a schedule. The business stability was shown in the business throughout the years of the covid pandemic as they showed that they were able to still make a profit.
3.Booming the domestic tourism within the destinations: most of the marketing programs cater to domestic travels.
4.the exclusive location Dandenong Ranges
5.More responsible tourist behaviour: specially maintaining the social distance rules, health precautions, and self- sanitation.
Weaknesses:
1.They can only run a certain amount of trains a day making their profit have a limit cap
2.Puffin billy is does not do fine dining
3.Tourist perception towards the traveling: perceive as a high risk during Pandemic
4.Demand for the sector reduced due to social distancing rules imposed, unsafety during
travel, and regional factors, so it will loss of employment and income
Opportunities
1.Advertisement
2.Add more carriages
3.Providing comfortable seats
Threats:
1.Lower disposable income of the people: diminishing the travel intention2.Negative perception: due to less-prediction of the virus spreading, high contagious virus
3.Another pandemic
4.No donations for the business
5.Loss of volunteers
6.Q train gets more traction and steals the customers financial issues such as bankruptcies
References
Abdi, M. and Aulakh PS. (2018). Internationalization and performance: Degree, duration, and scale of operations. Journal of International Business Studies, 49 (7) pp. 832-857
Dobson, C. and Hooper, K. (2015). Insights from the Australian Tourism Industry, Economic Analysis Department. BULLETIN.
Michaelsen, F., Collini, L. et al., (2022). The impact of influencers on advertising and consumer protection in the Single Market. Policy Department for Economic, Scientific, and Quality of Life Policies Directorate-General for Internal Policies at the European Parliament.
Puffing Billy Railway. (2022). BELGRAVE TO LAKESIDE RETURN.
