Marketing Management Assignment on Cairns Aquarium

Question

Task Description : Assessment 2 requires students to work individually on their selected new product or service (from assessment 1) to create a comprehensive strategic marketing plan. This is an individual assessment with a maximum word limit of 2500. Your assessment should be an application of relevant marketing concepts learnt in the unit. There is no need to go into details about explaining marketing concepts, rather it should be an applied discussion. Please upload the assessment through the appropriate Moodle link by week 10. Each assessment must be uploaded as a .doc or .docx file (word file).

Answer

Executive summary:
Marketing activities of an organisation help the business in promoting their service and attracting potential consumer towards their firm. The Cairns Aquarium makes use a number of advertising channels in order to attract consumer towards their services. The management of the aquarium is dedicating towards increasing the customer satisfaction rate of their organisation. The organisation is targeting millennial consumers for its business and is placing their services at premium pricing. The demographic segmentation helps the firm in targeting consumers with strong economic background and school students that are interested in conducting research for their educational purposes.

Introduction
The major aim of this Marketing management assignment is to develop a successful marketing plan for Cairns Aquarium in order to assist the company in increasing its consumer base and enhancing its consumer satisfaction. This aquarium was designed to serve the visitors with a venue where they are able to see and interact with rare animals, habitats and plants. This aquarium is situated in Australia and receives tourists from Queensland. The assignment will explore about the different factors that are to be considered by the business organisation while developing a marketing plan, the business environment of the company will be evaluated, and details regarding the marketing mix and market segmentation will be highlighted in a detailed manner.

Overview of the product
The aquarium is popular among the citizens and tourists of Australia as it conserves animals and plants that are living in the two most popular World Heritage areas The Barrier Reef and The Wet Tropics (cairnsaquarium.com.au, 2018). These areas are considered as biodiverse regions of the world containing rare species of animals and plants. This aquarium is composed of ten different ecosystems consisting of more than fifteen thousand species of animals. The aquarium organises wedding parties and birthday parties for their consumer to provide them with an enhanced experience.

Situational Analysis
The marketing manager conducts situational analysis in order to gain significant information regarding the business environment of a company and its performance in the market. The situational analysis conducted for Cairns Aquarium reveals that the prices of their show tickets are quite high. The stable political and economic conditions of the country allow them in attracting research institute towards their organisation. Due to increased tourism in Australia, the aquarium is gaining popularity. However, cleaning, feeding and maintenance of the aquarium are difficult and needs to be enhanced. The aquarium is maintained sustainable practices in order not maintain the environmental conditions of the country.

a) Problem statement: From the past few years, the tourism activity of Australia has increased at a significant rate. It was observed that 8.8 million visitors visited the country in the year 2017 (budgetdirect.com.au, 2018). The increased inflow of tourists results in increasing demand for Cairns Aquarium. As it is one of the most popular tourist destinations and is located between two world heritage sites, its demand among the Australian citizen is also increasing for research and educational purpose. It is evident that the increasing popularity of the aquarium puts pressure on the maintenance activity. The management of the aquarium is required to clean and maintain the aquarium for the entertainment purpose of the visitors. It is essential that the administration must incorporate sustainable practices in their functioning, as protecting the environment of the country is an important duty. The organisation is required to enhance the experience of their consumers so that they are able to serve their visitors in a better manner and increase the demand and popularity of the aquarium on a global scale.

b) Potential market segment: Market segmentation is an important procedure that allows the markets to divide or group their consumers in different to segmented that are based on certain characteristics, traits or qualities. Marketers are popularly using three basic segments in order to segment their consumers.

Psychographic segmentation: The consumers divided in these segments are groups as per their values and beliefs. It is observed that the lifestyle and attitude of the consumers play significant role in determining their buying behaviour (Gunter & Furnham, 2014).

Demographic segmentation: There are any demographic factors such as gender, age, religion, race, income, family size and more that are used by the marketers in order to group their consumers based on demographic segmentation.

Geographic segmentation: Consumers grouped under this segment are dividing as per their geographic locations.

As per the analysis conducted regarding the Cairns Aquarium it can be stated that the marketers of the organization should make use of demographic segmentation as it will allow them to segment their consumers from upper economic background and students from educational institutes that are interested in research work. They will also be able to focus more on the millennial generation and the tourists that are visiting Australia. As per this segmentation style the organization will be able to target families with children that are interested in educating their child with the help of fun activities and enhance a good family time.

c) Discussion of target market and positioning
Positioning: Position mapping is an important aspect that allows the business firm to analyse the position of their products in the market. The business firm can change the position of their products to the most beneficial position. This map allows the management of companies in understanding the perception of the consumers towards their products and services (Sarfraz & Stiefelhagen, 2015). The opinions of the consumers are necessary for the development and growth of the business organisation. It is observed that most of the products are placed in the market so that they are able to fill a certain market gap and increase the sale of the company or are assisting the business organisation in enhancing the present market competition.

Figure 1: Perceptual map
(Source: Moon & Kamakura, 2017)

The perceptual map of Cairns Aquarium helps in understanding that the services of the aquarium has a high price as the management of the organization ensure to serve their consumer with high quality services. Due to high price, the target audience of the company is significantly reduced. The consumers belonging to upper economy will be interested in the services and different institutes will be interested for research purpose. As the organization provides high priced services it is important that they ensure complete consumer satisfaction.

Target market: The target market is important as it allows the management to focus their services towards a particular set of audience that will be interested in purchasing the products and services. As per the mentioned market segmentation, it is analysed the management of aquarium is presently targeting the educational institutes (McAlexander, Koenig & DuFault, 2017). Educational institutes visit the aquarium in order to educate their students regarding the rare and exotic species. They often visit the aquarium for research purposes and enhance the sale of the aquarium. The management is also targeting the millennial generation that is always looking for adventures and learning about new things. It can be a great opportunity for the millennial generation to explore the unique species of plants and animals that are found in Australia. The families with children are also an important target for the aquarium, as they like to explore the aquarium and have a pleasant time with their families. Therefore, they can help in increasing the sale of the company, and the company needs to increase its consumer satisfaction level.

Marketing and financial objectives
a) Marketing objectives and goals: The objectives of marketing plan of the aquarium are:

• To create awareness regarding the Aquarium
• To increase the consumer base of the organization
• To enhance sustainable practices and increase the revenue generation of the company
• To improve the brand image and market share of the aquarium

The marketing goal is to increase the popularity of the aquarium among its target consumers so that the organization is able to increase its consumer base. Increased consumer base can help in providing the firm with competitive edges and assist in improving the brand share of the company.

b) Financial objectives and goals: The primary financial objective of the company is:

• Enhance the sale volume of the company in order to earn enhanced revenue
• Make use of premium pricing in order to earn more profit
• Earn more revenue than the invented capital

The financial goal of the company is quite clear the, management of the aquarium are dedicated towards earning increased revenue on their initial investments and are focused on providing their consumers with high quality services. The organization is following premium-pricing strategy in order to increase its profit share.

Marketing mix strategy
a) Marketing mix:A number of leading organisations uses marketing mix in order to gain proper understanding regarding the factors that can help them in creating awareness regarding their services and brand image in the functional market. The basic elements of the marketing mix include the Price, Product, Promotion and Place. Marketers use the element of the promotional tool in order to illustrate the different market scenario in which the business is operating (Pavlou & Stewart, 2015). This tool evaluates the requirements and needs of the consumers, and the markets can use the promotional tool to gain brief knowledge as per eh consumer demands based on the performance and quality of the services.

b) Marketing strategy proposed implementation: Marketing strategy is an important tool that helps the Cairns Aquarium in creating awareness regarding the products and services of the firm in order to increase its consumer base. The marketing strategy used by the organization in order to increase its sales volume and achieve its marketing objectives has been mentioned below:

Product: The Aquarium is popular for its endemic and rare species of animals and plants. It is o observed that the management of the aquarium organizes a number of talk show and fun events in order to enhance the experience of their consumers (Hanssens et al., 2014). These shows provide the consumers with an opportunity to interact and communicate with the animals of the aquarium. The aquarium also organizes birthday parties and marriage events for their consumers. People can enjoy their event in beautiful ambience of aquarium.

Price: The marketing manager of Cairns Aquarium conducted an external environmental analysis in order to gain detailed information regarding the economic and political development of Australia. The economy of the country is growing strong, and this reveals that the citizens of Australia have monetary powers to purchase the services of the Aquarium. It is noted that the aquarium offers their consumers with discounts during seasonal offers and the educational institutes have an opportunity to negotiate to price in order to increase the knowledge of their students.

Place: The demands of a specific products or service helps in deciding the place of the services in the current market. In this scenario the visitors or the consumers will have to visit Cairns Aquarium at 5 Florence St Cairns, Queensland, 4870 Australia (cairnsaquarium.com.au, 2018, A). The consumers have the option of organize their tour and booking their tickets with the help of online medium.

Promotion: The aquarium promotes their new services and offers by posting the details on their official website. The visitors will have the option of visiting the website and understand the services and the offers of the company. It is observed that they also try to attract consumers with the help of popular social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter and more (Stead & Hastings, 2018).

Budget allocation for promotion mix
Budgeting is one of the most important aspects of business organization that ensures the firm on earning increased profit. Cairns Aquarium is required to budget their activities so that they are not burdened with additional expenditure. The most popular advertisement channels that are used by the marketing manager of the aquarium are mentioned below:

Tour operators: It is observed that the organization has partnership with a number of leading tour operators. They include the trip to the aquarium in their tour packages that helps in indirect promotion of the company. It is evident that the tourism inflow of the country is increasing therefore; the aquarium has a bright opportunity of attracting increased tourists for their business.

Display advertisements: The management of the firm uses Display advertisements in order to grab the attention of potential millennial consumers. It is evident that most of the consumers use social media platforms and other search engines on order to explore the internet. The display advertisement is attractive banners that appear at the side of social media pages or website imparting important information regarding the service of a company.

Social media: The marketing managers of the company posts creative posts and pictures of the animals and plants on social media. This helps the organization in gaining attention of their potential clients. Social media messages are shared at a rapid rate that is beneficial for the business.

Budget for the promotional mix strategy:

Conclusion
This assignment provides important information regarding the different aspects of marketing. It is important for business firms to create awareness regarding their services so that they are able to attract potential clients towards their organisation and increase their sale volume. The case study of Cairns Aquarium has been discussed in this Marketing Management Assignment. The organisation is developing a marketing plan in order to improve their consumer satisfaction rate of their firm. They are presently targeting millennial generation and educational institutes for their business. The significant of grouping consumers in different market segments have been stated in this Marketing Management Assignment. A budget has been formulated in order to manage the promotional activity of the firm. Budgeting will help the company in achieving their financial objectives and earn increased profit revenue. Marketing management assignments are being prepared by our management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help online service.

Reference List
Gunter, B., & Furnham, A. (2014). Consumer Profiles (RLE Consumer Behaviour): An Introduction to Psychographics. Routledge.

Sarfraz, M. S., & Stiefelhagen, R. (2015). Deep perceptual mapping for thermal to visible face recognition. arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.02879.

Moon, S., & Kamakura, W. A. (2017). A picture is worth a thousand words: Translating product reviews into a product positioning map. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 265-285.

McAlexander, J. H., Koenig, H. F., & DuFault, B. (2016). Millennials and boomers: Increasing alumni affinity and intent to give by target market segmentation. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 21(2), 82-95.

Pavlou, P. A., & Stewart, D. W. (2015). Interactive advertising: A new conceptual framework towards integrating elements of the marketing mix. In New Meanings for Marketing in a New Millennium (pp. 218-222). Springer, Cham.

Pavlou, P. A., & Stewart, D. W. (2015). Interactive advertising: A new conceptual framework towards integrating elements of the marketing mix. In New Meanings for Marketing in a New Millennium (pp. 218-222). Springer, Cham.

Pavlou, P. A., & Stewart, D. W. (2015). Interactive advertising: A new conceptual framework towards integrating elements of the marketing mix. In New Meanings for Marketing in a New Millennium (pp. 218-222). Springer, Cham.

Animal Education Cairns. (2018, B). Cairnsaquarium.com.au. Retrieved 17 September 2018, from http://www.cairnsaquarium.com.au/cairns-animal-education

Budgetdirect.com.au. (2018). Australian Tourism Statistics 2018 | Travel Research & Statistics — Budget Direct™. Retrieved from https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/travel-insurance/research/tourism-statistics.html