Discuss about the Global Vs Local Brand Positioning Strategies.
Depending on the customer preferences and the variables those shape their purchasing decisions, the modern day companies need to design their marketing strategies. In the travel industry customer segmentation can be done with various factors. The Roy Morgan value segments provide an innovative market segmentation pattern.
In this report, the author has chosen the P&O Cruises to identify two suitable customer segments mentioned in the Roy Morgan value segments system. He has divided the report in three parts. In the beginning, the theory of the Roy Morgan value segments has been discussed. Next, the suitable positioning and marketing strategy have been mentioned for selected two market segments. Then, the author has concluded the report with a summary of the discussion.
The P&O Cruises is the oldest cruise line having its operation in 19th century as the first commercial passenger ship. It is a subsidiary of the Carnival Corporation & plc. Having headquarter in the UK, the company operates eight ships with the passenger capacity of 14, 970 (Cruises & Cruise Holidays 2017 & 2018 – P&O Cruises, 2017). The company owns 5% market share of all cruise lines worldwide. Operating since 1837, the company is experiencing success till today. The latest vassal named “MV Britannia” joined the company in 2015 (Cruises & Cruise Holidays 2017 & 2018 – P&O Cruises, 2017).
As mentioned by Lees, Winchester and De Silva (2016), the market research done of Roy Morgan, provides a segmentation of the patterns of thinking and choices that drive people to make any purchasing decision in favour of a certain brand. The Roy Morgan lifestyle segmentation divides the potential customers into ten different lifestyle segments. These can be discussed as followed:
Basic needs: This particular segment is associated to the communities and loves to be surrounded with their families and community people. This pattern of thinking is associated top the customers who are retired, pensioners and the receivers of the social security payments.
A fairer deal: the Roy Morgan lifestyle segmentation has found that the segment of people who are unskilled, come from the spectre of unemployment, family pressure and life struggle. They are mostly cynical and posses a low level of satisfaction from life (Roy Morgan.com, 2017).
Traditional family life: This pattern of thinking can be found in the middle aged customer base, which possesses a stable family life and housing facilities. This particular segment seeks the meaning of life in spirituality and being well respected in the society (Roy Morgan.com, 2017).
Conventional family life: As mentioned by Lees, Winchester and De Silva (2016), this particular segment lives mainly in the suburban localities. This particular thinking pattern is closely associated to the lifestyle where they put all their concentration over the betterment of the lives of their children and family.
Look at me: This particular segment is associated to a lifestyle where people spend money is unnecessary consumptions. This group is mostly self-cantered and peer driven. They spend hours in watching commercial TV and indulging in unproductive hobbies (Roy Morgan.com, 2017).
Something better: this lifestyle can associate itself with the behaviour of competitiveness. This segment doesn’t like spending on luxuries and generally has debts (Roy Morgan.com, 2017).
Real conservatism: the mature and mid-career people are associated with this particular lifestyle segmentation. As mentioned by Lees, Winchester and De Silva (2016), this segment live their lives by following conservative idea and seeks security and control over their lives.
Young optimism: the young professional, technocrats or students with a focus on achieving good career, overseas travel, a sense of outgoing lives can be associated with this lifestyle segmentation (Roy Morgan.com, 2017).
Visible achievement: this segment treats life as a journey and focuses climbing the social ladder. They opt for job satisfaction, high income, travel experience etc. (Roy Morgan.com, 2017).
Socially aware: The highest socio-economic group is associated with this particular lifestyle. They love to spend on the luxuries of life. This mind set can be found among the public servants, pressure groups, politicians, business analysts etc. as mentioned by Lees, Winchester and De Silva (2016), the people associated to this particular lifestyle is not afraid of trying new things in life and tries to pursue others to accept their lifestyles.
As discussed by Koh and Brunner (2015), identification of the lifestyle pattern of the target customers makes the marketers know more about the customer’s expectation and their sense of utility about the product. A product or service needs to address the requirements of the customers which are largely dependent on the value base, likeability of spending, perception about the satisfaction of life and many other psycho social behavioural patterns.
Here, in the context of identifying the travelling behaviour and the preference of spending, the expectations will be diversified among ten different segments. As the basic needs segment is largely dependent on the social security assistance, belongs to the group of the senior citizens and likes to spend time with the family and friends, they shows a low incidence of holiday travel (Roy Morgan.com, 2017). On the other hand, the segment that has the lifestyle of “young optimism” differs fro this group in their travel behaviour. The customer segment of young optimism loves to enjoy the outgoing life. They are not afraid of trying new things and having excitement. Hence, as discussed by Lees, Winchester and De Silva (2016), this segment travels frequently and spends on adventure travels. In such a context, the companies related to this industry needs to share their services according to the different needs of this two different customer segment. Thus, the lifestyle segmentation helps correctly identifying the requirements of the customers.
Being a cruise ship company, the P&O Cruises serves a premium travel experience. Hence, the company can select these two different customer groups:
The people with this lifestyle belong to the highest income group. Concerning to their travel behaviour, among all the other value segments, the social aware has the highest frequency of travelling and they are like to spend big on the holidays (Roy Morgan.com, 2017). They enjoy travelling overseas destinations, spend on the luxurious accommodation and travel by high end air buses and cruise ships. Hence, being a premium travel service provider, P&O Cruises can select this particular lifestyle segment.
Like the socially aware segment of customers the young optimism group travels frequently. Being the individuals who love adventure and seeks satisfaction in gathering new knowledge and experience, this lifestyle segment is likely to travel overseas by using the commercial transport such as cruise ships, airlines, buses and trains. However, they differ from the previously selected segment as they travel with friend or in groups and like to obtain budget accommodation (Roy Morgan.com, 2017). Now, depending on these two different segmentations, the company needs to make suitable changes in its marketing strategy.
As discussed by Koh and Brunner (2015), depending on the selected customer segmentation, the companies need to make differentiated marketing strategy. In this selected context, the two different customer segment lives two different lifestyles; hence, their preferences change accordingly. Here, the P&O Cruises needs to make two different marketing strategies for each of them.
As mentioned by Gammoh, Koh, Okoroafo (2015), the companies can choose from various options like attribute positioning, benefit positioning, application positioning, user positioning, competitor positioning and value positioning. As discussed by Koh and Brunner (2015), depending on the point of differentiation from the competitors the organizations create its position in the psyche of the customers.
Here the company needs to opt for the attribute positioning by making aware of the contribution of the brand in the industry and highlighting its journey since 1837. This brand image will create a point of differentiation to the customers.
Here, the company needs to opt for the value positioning strategy by promoting the services as the best quality in the low or reasonable pricing. The added facilities and the offerings of high quality service in low pricing will be the point of differentiation.
As discussed by Huang and Sarigöllü (2014), depending on the preferences, sense of utility, requirements and spending pattern of the customers the marketers need to concentrate on creating a pragmatic marketing mix. As discussed by Koh and Brunner (2015), the theory or model of marketing mix talks about the identification of the product or service features, pricing decisions, distribution channels and the promotional strategies to address the highest number of segmented customer group.
Since 1837 P&O Cruises is serving “fun” cruise ship experience to the customers. It is the subsidiary of the largest and most popular cruise line in the world, i.e. Carnival Corporation & plc. P&O Cruises is the oldest cruise line in the world. It provides fleet service in the countries like Bermuda, Australia (Cruises & Cruise Holidays 2017 & 2018 – P&O Cruises, 2017). The ships of the P&O Cruises provides accommodation, all main meals, entertainment, library, facilities like swimming pool, gym, sauna, steam rooms etc. Moreover, this cruise line maintains the strategy of being a destination rather than some particular port of call.
Now, depending on the preferences of the “Young optimism” group, the cruise line needs to make some changes in its service offerings. Here, the company can opt for a providing the service of stopping by selected ports for supporting the preferences of this particular customer group of spending the vacation in cities where they can go for shopping, dine at restaurants, go to musical concerts and cinemas and take part in adventurous activities. The cruise line can also provide such facilities of adventure in their cruises such as scuba diving. Moreover, to accommodate this group, the company introduce multi bed rooms.
On the other hand, for the “the socially aware” group, the company can opt for integrating services like spa, high end musical or theatrical performances, exotic dining service and many more. For addressing this particular segment, the company needs to focus on high quality around the clock service and luxurious accommodations. Moreover, they can also opt for serving customised services to this group in reference to foods or facilities.
As mentioned by Koh and Brunner (2015), depending on the service offerings and the customers’ willingness to pay for this service, the companies need to settle down for its pricing strategies.
The socially aware group of customers belong to the highest income level. For addressing the preferences of this group, the company is going implement high end and customised services. Hence, it is important for the company to opt for a premium pricing policy.
On the other hand, the young optimism group does not need customised or high end services. They want quality accommodation in reasonable budget. For the added facilities the company can charge extra to the borders but it needs to be attainable by the middle income group. Hence, for addressing the young optimism group, the company can opt for “competitive pricing” strategy. As the company is providing extra facilities in lower price it will attract this customer base more proactively.
As mentioned by Koh and Brunner (2015), selection of the appropriate place or the distribution channel is a prerequisite for the marketing mix model. Here, in the case of P&O Cruises, the company needs to opt for the travel agents as the distribution channel for addressing the socially aware segment. Being the high end customer they tend to assign the travel arrangement responsibilities to such agents. Hence, approaching the travel agents will be the placing strategy.
On the other hand, the young optimism group is more likely to search online. Hence, the company website and partnership with other travel agency websites for obtaining tickets will the most pragmatic distribution channel for P&O Cruises.
For the socially aware segment: Here, the company can opt for the strategies like print advertisements in the business or high end travel magazines. Arranging PR events like marathon or social causes and inviting such people can also be an effective promotional strategy (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). Moreover, providing discounts to the travel agents will be a successful promotional strategy to collect this customer group.
Young optimism group: On the other hand, for addressing this particular group, the company can opt for content advertisements in travel blogs, social media platforms etc. on the other hand; the option of loyalty card or seasonal discounts can also be some effective promotional strategies for addressing this customer group (Roy Morgan.com, 2017).
Conclusion:
In conclusion it can be said that the traditional market segmentation pattern, the demographic status of the potential customers is being evaluated, in reference to the gender, age group, level of education and many more. The Roy Morgan value segmentation identified another dimension- depth of understanding- that essentially helps in identifying the motivations and reasons that encourages the buying decision of the customer in favour of a particular brand. For best selection of the customer group for P&O Cruises, this theory can be essentially helpful. However, for addressing each of the segments, the company needs to follow different marketing strategies so that it can become the most relevant to the lifestyles of the customers.
References:
Cruises & Cruise Holidays 2017 & 2018 – P&O Cruises. (2017). Pocruises.com. Retrieved 17 January 2017, from https://www.pocruises.com/
Gammoh, B. S., Koh, A. C., & Okoroafo, S. C. (2015). Global Vs. Local Brand Positioning Strategies: the Moderating Effect Of Belief in Global Citizenship. In Proceedings of the 2010 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 314-314). Springer International Publishing.
Huang, R., & Sarigöllü, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132). Springer Naew York.
Koh, A. C., & Brunner, J. A. (2015). Consumer Perceptions Towards Products Made in the People’s Republic of China: Implications for Marketing Strategy. In Proceedings of the 1988 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 122-126). Springer International Publishing.
Lees, G., Winchester, M., & De Silva, S. (2016). Demographic product segmentation in financial services products in Australia and New Zealand. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 21(3), 240-250.
Roy Morgan.com (2017). Roy Morgan. Retrieved 17 January 2017, from https://www.roymorgan.com/
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