Responsibe tourism marketing plan Community challenges_ CharityChallenge 2016

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LONDON, UK

-RT MARKETING PLAN-

Year 2016

Mireia Munoz

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Content

Introduction ................................................................................... 4

Situational Analysis ........................................................................... 4

Swot Analysis ............................................................................ 5

Pest Analysis ............................................................................. 6

Objectives ...................................................................................... 6

Target Market Segments ...................................................................... 7

Competitor Analysis .......................................................................... 10

Marketing Strategy ........................................................................... 12

Marketing Mix ................................................................................. 13

Product .................................................................................. 13

Price ...................................................................................... 15

Communication ......................................................................... 17

Promotion Product ..................................................................... 18

Distribution .............................................................................. 18

Implementation ......................................................................... 19

Conclusion ................................................................................... 20

Appendix ..................................................................................... 21

References ................................................................................... 45

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1. INTRODUCTION

This report wants to assess Charity Challenge’s position within the current market and

the ability of the organisation to meet their objectives together with designing a

marketing strategic plan to promote its position within the market while integrating

responsible community challenges into the company business goals.

2. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

Charity Challenge is a privately owned tour operator based in London, UK. It was

established in 2000, and markets itself as a leading tour operator, running overseas

fundraising challenges for charity. Charity Challenge pride themselves in having helped

tens of thousands of individuals to achieve incredible personal goals, while raising in

excess of £47,000,000 for more than 1,700 worthwhile causes. The company claims to

have a wealth of experience in the charity sector, the adventure travel sector, working

with individuals, groups, corporate organisations, and have established an excellent

reputation for the quality of the tours that they operate.

The company have currently a portfolio of international challenges, in 23 countries

worldwide. Additionally, in 2015 they started operating running challenges in the UK

with 12 short itineraries.

They offer a portfolio of products mainly focused on trekking, cycling or physical activity

tours with an average duration of 8 days per tour. They are re-launching a new product

line titled Community Challenges. Charity Challenge started with this product line in

2006, and by 2008 it was responsible for generating a third of the company revenue

(Simon Albert, Charity Challenge Director). The target market was corporate customers

who were fundraising for a project with the aim of help on poverty alleviation. The

corporate customers were responsible for recruiting the specified amount of

participants needed to fund the project of a local NGO, in partnership with a UK NGO,

and providing the workforce needed for the development of the respective project.

When the economic crisis in 2008 started to impact the UK, funding cuts by the

corporate customers had a large detrimental effect to this product line and Charity

Challenge were forced to focus their effort on a second product line of overseas

trekking challenges. This enabled them to position Charity Challenge as the UK leader

tour operator in the charity challenge market at that point in time.

During the period of time that Charity Challenge was successfully operating the

community challenge product, they were awarded in the category of a Highly

Commended Company by the Queens Award in 2007. This was for sustainable

development and contribution to poverty reduction by their community challenge

product. Community challenges, were also highly commended at the Virgin Holidays

Responsible Tourism Awards in 2007 (Appendix 1).

Charity Challenge have a strong sense of CSR, and try to adopt sustainable business

practises in the destinations where they operate, following the UNEP guidelines of CSR

for tour operators (Xavier Font et la,2005).

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Honesty, Integrity and Respect are three of the main values of Charity Challenge

(Appendix 2), and they promote this within their operations and company internal

policies and communications. The company converses their CSR aims through their

internal Responsible Tourism policy (Appendix 3) provided to the audience that visit

their website and the customers that book with them.

Charity Challenge shows a commitment with the communities they operate and pride

themselves to collaborate with local projects. They do this as an inclusion of their

products and it differentiates them from their direct competitors. Almost all of their

products involve a local project within their itineraries, such as including a meal in a

restaurant run by a local NGO which are training street youths enabling them to be

suitably trained and skilled in the hospitality sector or including visits to existing projects

from local NGO´s working in that area. Although this shows their commitment with their

company values, this could be a valuable selling point if more awareness was drawn to

this through their marketing strategy.

2.1. SWOT ANALYSIS

Community challenge product in general

Source: own creation

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2.2. PEST ANALYSIS

Nepal Community challenge product


3. OBJECTIVES

One of Charity Challenges’ Values is ‘Respect’, and this has been a key driver in the

company success since its foundation.

“RESPECT: We will ensure that all stakeholders are treated with respect. We will

ensure that our challenges are respectful of the local communities, the wildlife and the

environments where we operate. We recognise that everyone is different and has

different motivations for undertaking their challenge. We are considerate of those

around us and are tolerant of their views, opinions and choices” (Charity Challenge

mission and values, Appendix 2)

We must consider the company philosophy as the strongest driver for planning any

strategy or marketing plan. In line with this value, the primary aim of this marketing plan

is to contribute in poverty reduction, increasing social awareness and benefit for the

stakeholders involved in their product. Marketing the product to the desired target

market, creating positive awareness and communicating the progressive features and

impact of the product, in order to benefit the company with increasing the number of

bookings of Community Challenge’s. In addition improving the ability of Charity

Challenge to approach Responsible Tourism certification bodies, which will enable the

company to strengthen the brand reputation, within the market.

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Below is a graphical summary of the aims and goals that will follow in the proposed

marketing strategy section of this report.


4. TARGET MARKET SEGMENTS

Charity Challenge primary market are middle age, working class audience with the

common feature that all passengers travelling with the company have to fundraise for a

charity that they have a connection with, passionate about the work that the charities

does or that they are supporting for personal reasons (graphic 1).

Graphic 1

Source: Charity Challenge internal statistics.

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For their Community Challenge product, it is evident that the current participant

audience is aligned with the rest of their challenges in respect of the age category.

Also, there is a higher level of engagement with the female audience for this product.

The main difference with the charity challenges product is the pricing structure. The

self-funding option decreases significantly in percentage for this product, due to the

target market focused on corporate customers, offering the challenge primarily as an

exclusive product and eliminating the self funder option to ensure that the project will

be receive the required amount of funds together with making it a responsible tourism

product (graphic 2).

Graphic 2

MS: Minimum Sponsorship. Passengers are obligated to fundraise a minimum target for a UK based charity. SF: Passenger self-funds their challenge.

Source: Charity Challenge internal statistics.

Due to the high value of the community challenge product and with taking into

consideration the factors of the average wage in the UK and unemployment rates being

significantly higher in the young population (Berry, Corder, and Duffy 2015), it is

evident that the target market audience will have to possess a certain level of financial

stability. Although the current target market for the community challenge product is the

corporate sector and this audience is providing good results, it will be important to

identify a new audience profile to market to in order expand this product and avoid a

relapse, if the corporate sector suffers another economic crisis. The below diagram

suggests some initial segments for Charity Challenge to take into account with

marketing this product more effectively and assist with identifying an appropriate

audience.

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Market Segment


Volunteerism has different approaches and motivations depending on the cultural

context and age range of the volunteer, Maškarin et la (2014).

Using demographics, personality, personal values as suggested by Wymer (1997,

2003) will enable Charity Challenge to identify homogeneous subgroups for targeted

marketing campaigns (graphic 3).

Graphic 3

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Source: Sara Dolnicar and Melanie Randle. Table 4. Segment profiles- Socio demographic (Dolnicar and Randle, 2007)

From those segments Dolnicar et la (2007), identified that the profile of the

volunteerism market is predominantly female, married with no children, educated to a

secondary school or university level, employed and have a level of financial stability or

savings. This will be the strongest market audience for Charity Challenge to target

directly alongside the corporate sector with the community challenge product.

5. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

The below table is an overview of Charity Challenge within the current market place.

The competitors listed here have been selected based on direct competitors with a

core product as charity challenges, having a similar company size, located in the same

region and as possible competitors in offering community challenges.

Table 1


Table 2


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We can appreciate that Charity Challenge’s direct competitors in the market are

competing closely between themselves in regards of product (table 1), however one of

the main USP’s for Charity Challenge is aligned to their company ethics ‘Honesty’. This

is part of their pricing and external communications. They include all the air tax, meals

and program cost in their pricing structure hence alleviating any hidden costs being

charged later in the customer journey, which is a differentiator from their competitors

(table 2).

None of their direct competitors currently have community challenges with the same

characteristics of Charity Challenge community challenges in their product portfolio

(table 3). This provides Charity Challenge with a great opportunity of highlighting this

differentiation (Titens, 2014), through focused communications to their identified target

audience and should form a vital part of their marketing strategy.

Table 3


Table 4


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6. MARKETING STRATEGY

Based on the goals described in Section 3, we should focus on the creation of a

marketing strategy with a set of more specific goals that will help achieve the overall

company objectives.


A key component for Charity Challenge to focus on is how they are different from the

rest of the volunteerism tour operators in the market and effectively using a sustainable

communication piece to their audience. In return this will make the customer aware of

the benefits of the product to them whilst addressing economic, social and

environmental issues (Belz and Peattie 2012). Elliot (2005) suggests that the customer

need to believe that the basic aspiration of a product corresponds with their own

values, needs evidence and lead by example. Charity Challenge should take all this

into consideration and ensure they clearly communicate their sustainable actions

together with providing evidence and leading by example at all stages of

communication. The recommended strategy is:

- Review the current RT policy available to their audience. Charity Challenge

should focus on the company RT actions that can be demonstrated, and where

they can provide examples for each of their actions. It´s important that the

company clearly communicates their leading RT actions and educates their

audience as an example opposed of giving customers a list of instructions while

they are on a challenge event.

Evidencing RT features from each challenge

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Charity Challenge not viewed as giving participants a list of instructions to

abide by while in country, but softly educating them on how they can make a

difference with being a responsible traveller in that specific destination

Removing any possible “greenwashing” message identified in the RT policy

(appendix 4).

7. MARKETING MIX

7.1 Product

Community Challenges product was created with the personal desire by Simon Albert

(Charity Challenge founder) of making a positive contribution to communities in

desperate need and contribute towards the first MDG’s and poverty reduction

(UNDP,2015). Instead of providing contributions through donations which would be a

short term commitment, Charity Challenge aspired to have a long term commitment

with the communities they support.

A diagram for the Community Challenge product.


The community challenge product’s aim is putting the local community development at

the forefront for each project, alongside with providing inspiring and life-changing

opportunities for the participants that help develop and motivate individuals and teams.

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Although the profit generation is not the top goal for the company with this product, the

promotion of community challenges will generate an increase in revenue for Charity

Challenge reflecting that “tourism is business not charity” (Krippendorf, 1987, p.

20).The strategy recommended is the company increment bookings using their current

target market from their community challenges in the corporate sector, and to use

concentrated marketing and market segments, for a possible expansion to the open

market.

Due to the limitation of Charity Challenge’s marketing budget and the marketing

strategy for the product being undifferentiated to the rest of their product portfolio at

present, the lifecycle of the community challenge product needs rejuvenating and RT

features need to be used at this stage (Font, 2013/14).

Due to the nature of the community challenges, where the community concerned is at

the forefront of this product and leaving the rest of stakeholders at a secondary level,

this is adversely different to the rest of Charity Challenge’s products. Using Charity

Challenge USP’s with this new product in the market, this plan recommends:

The community challenges product should be completely differentiated to

the rest of products the company have, and communicated in a completely

different manner of their company products (Image 1)

Image 1

Source: Charity challenge website

Adding a specific tab and icon on the product main page to enhance

exposure of the challenge and enrich the user experience on the website

with clear navigation channels (image 2). Provide the target market with an

outline of the benefits to them such as the sustainability experience which

will help strengthen the brand and differentiate Charity Challenge from direct

competitors. Additional benefits such as the positive impact for the

community, the environment, and the long term benefits should also be

emphasised on the website and included in the company’s policies together

with measuring the long term benefits, achievement and impact of the

projects (“Voluntourism Guidelines | The International Ecotourism Society”

2016). Charity Challenge must ensure that clear communications are

consistently maintained to their audience throughout their customer journey

and include the long term goals of the project and sustainability measures,

for instance, once the school has been built, who will maintain it?

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Image 2


We also recommend creating an additional tab on the current website as to

the reasons of why to take part plus the inclusion of extra areas which

benefit the respective projects and communities (i.e. extensions, extra

activities...). This will add value to the product, revenue and will contribute to

balance the environmental impact made for the carbon emissions generated

with short itineraries to a long haul destination.

7.2. Price

As mentioned earlier in this report, Charity Challenge offers different payment options

for their products. Due of the nature of this product and aligning it with their corporate

value of honesty and respect, the below strategy is proposed:

The communication of the breakdown for the cost of this product should be

made very clear to the consumer. That way the customer will know how

much of their fundraising target will go towards the cost of their challenge,

and how much will go directly to the project in destination (table 5, image 3).

This will also assist with Charity Challenge meeting their value of being

‘Honest’ with being financially transparent towards the projects they support.

Table 5


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Image 3


The price should reflect the value for money of the services the customer

will be receive for booking with Charity Challenge throughout the whole

customer journey ie, before they go, during their challenge and on their

return. Adding value to the product through the specific inclusions and not a

generic ones (image 4).

Image 4


Offering promotional discounts for Community Challenges is not

recommended as a marketing strategy, since the main aim of this product is

to achieve a set amount of funds for a community project which is the

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primary goal of this challenge. If Charity Challenge wish to promote the

product to reach target numbers, they should clearly outline to the consumer

that the cost of the promotion is being paid by Charity Challenge and it will

not impact in monies for the respective project. This way the company will

avoid putting their reputation in risk of not being aligned with the product

goals.

7.3 Communication

Once the clear message of the project and it’s respective RT features has been

communicated during all the stages of the booking process, the company have the

material to promote their product with online and off-line platforms, as well as using

interactive tools to engage the customers in promoting the product, through their own

experience on the projects they are supporting. The marketing communication should:

Use messages that clearly communicate what the participant can expect to

gain with regards to the experience and perspective alongside the impact of

the volunteerism project.

Avoid all forms of poverty marketing either visual through videos, pictures or

in writing.

Below are some recommendations to enhance the communication process which will

assist with Charity Challenge achieving their objectives.

The creation of a # tag in the community section of the website which will be

used throughout all social media platforms to build momentum & trends,

campaign awareness and create the feeling of empowering people to be

part of an ethical movement #communitychallengewarriors (image 5):

The voice of past community challenges including images and direct quotes

from these people to make it more personal and authentic

Videos section (with visual material of the activities during the volunteering

experience)

Stories from the field (local staff updates, local community stories...)

Blog post link section

Image 5


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7.4 Promotion

Using the company social media channels to expand the community

challenge products knowledge and experiences to a wider target market

(image 6).

Creative ideas of promoting early bookings without using discounts. As an

example: “Book your challenge before the 20th April and receive a

handmade leather bracelet made by the association (x) from the community

you will be supporting in Zambia”

Image 6

Source: Charity challenge facebook page and website

Manage and create the full life-cycle of smart, compelling, targeted

customer journeys related to marketing automation for both B2B and

B2C campaigns.

7.5 Distribution

For the distribution of the community challenge products, the company is currently

executing direct marketing campaigns for B2B recruitment in the corporate sector

though they are undertaking some indirect campaigns for B2C marketing. The B2B

distribution channel is providing positive results for the product, therefore a continuity of

growing this database of corporate accounts is highly recommended. In addition we

recommend to increase the B2C marketing distribution channel to build the database

and subsequent growth of this product.

Distribution channels

Direct Customer (B&C) Brochure Website Social media (facebook, twitter, linkdin, instagram,Youtube, blog) E-newsletter

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Indirect customer (B&B)

Public Relations companies Partner charities HR companies Corporate partners Learning and development companies Referrals

7.5 Implementation

Time frame Action Resources Budget

1 month Identification of communication issues (Website, customer facing documents, social media channels

1. All members of staff log into the RT spreadsheet any issues they might see. 2. RT manager to review RT policy

£0

3 months Re-write RT policy and remove all the communication issues found

1. RT manager £150

6 months Creation of communication material for Community challenges

1. RT manager 2. Marketing 3. Sales

£200

6 months Analyzed possible IT website development

1. Marketing

6 months Created the "community warriors" community at the main media channels

1. Marketing and RT manager

£500

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12 months IT website development to add the extra tab for "why to take part"

1. IT 2. Finances

£1500

12 months Recruiting a marketing assistant to help review the content for social media and produce brochures

1. HR 2. Marketing

£1.000

8. CONCLUSION

Charity Challenge presents a big opportunity of achieving the company goals through

their product community challenges without an ambitious or expensive marketing plan,

but based on a realistic and correct usage of their available tools and resources.

This report has presented a marketing plan prepared with a dosage of realism,

structure and converting the weakness the actual product has into a positive guidance.

By following this plan Charity Challenge will be in a position of being consolidated in

the market with an strong and exclusive product line in their market, the continuity of

building up loyal customers and staff, the opportunity of expanding the business to a

wider audience through an improved service, and the reduction of the company legal

liability (graphic 4).

Graphic 4

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Responsibe tourism marketing plan Community challenges_ CharityChallenge 2016

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