Marketing Strategies For Overcoming Brand Image Issues In Liverpool

The Negative Brand Image of Liverpool

Discuss about the Challenges and Opportunities in Luxury Branding.

The major problem that is faced by Liverpool is the brand image rather than issue related to infrastructure. This is due to the reason that recent negative reporting by media caused dent in the brand image of Liverpool. It was propagated that Liverpool is the place of lazy and employed peoples. This led to the concern among the tourists about their safety as they assumed that they may get robbed off by visiting Liverpool. However, there are no other issues being faced by Liverpool, which can prevent the inflow of tourist. Moreover, origination of the negative brand image also caused overlapping the positive aspects of Liverpool. Thus, the overall scenario of Liverpool becomes negative among the tourists and it is also much difficult to overcome the issue of negative image. This is due to the reason that there are no physical and short term solutions to overcome the image issues.

Good and effective marketing strategies will be the only solutions to overcome the above mentioned issues. This is due to the reason initiation of different marketing strategies will ensure that customers will be able to have the knowledge about the recent change in Liverpool along with the competitive advantages of the place over others. In addition, effective marketing can also help in communicating the initiatives taken by the government for the tourists in Liverpool. In order to change the negative image, it is important to make the tourists aware about the positive factors of Liverpool. Marketing strategies are the only solution that can help in communicating with the customers regarding the positive factors in Liverpool (Hudson and Thal 2013).

Initiation of the effective and good marketing strategies will also help in determining the feedback and opinion of the potential tourists in regards to visiting Liverpool. Thus, this will help in analyzing the issues with the tourists and initiate activities in accordance to that. Strategies and activities that will be initiated will be in accordance to the identified feedback from the tourists. This will ensure that the issues with the tourists will get resolved (Dolnicar and Ring 2014).

Liverpool is one of the major cities in Britain with having a huge cultural and musical heritage. It was rewarded as capital of culture of Britain. Thus, tourists with having deep interest can relive in the rich cultural and musical history of the city. However, it should also be noted that Liverpool is not only for people with cultural interests but also for the tourists who are interested in history and scenic beauty. It is recommended for the tourists that they should visit once “The Beatles Story Experience” in order to relive the rich heritage of popular and cult band Beatles. It will surely be a once in lifetime experience for the tourists (Brocken 2016).

Marketing Strategies for Overcoming Brand Image Issues

Then there are famous iconic waterfront along with the “Three Graces” buildings. Ferries cruise in the waterfront will be an experience like no other for the tourists. This experience will just perfect for the people who are seeking adventures. Moreover, there are various other activities available for the adventure seeking tourists in Liverpool. This includes water sports, cycle tours and wall climbing. For the tourists seeking historical heritage can have the experience of Liverpool cathedral, Royal Liver building and the International slavery museum.

Relationship marketing will be one of the most effective and efficient strategies for the Liverpool city to attract tourists. This is due to the reason that in the current time, the personal bonding and relationship matters most in marketing sector (Cohen 2014). Creation of the personal bonding with the tourists will ensure that tourists will be loyal to the particular brand or in this case, Liverpool city. Thus, in this case, initiation of the relationship marketing will ensure that level of loyalty will get enhanced with the existing tourists and a sense of interest will get emerge with the new ones (Samaha, Beck and Palmatier 2014). This is also to be noted that initiation of the relationship marketing will also help enhancing the brand image of Liverpool city.

Enhancing the loyalty level of the tourists will also help in creating positive word of mouth in the market. It is to be noted that positive word of mouth is the most effective earned media and it will help in multiplying the number of tourists in the city (Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan 2015). In the current time, tourists seek more experiences in their tour programs and with the help of the relationship marketing; they can be provided with experience more than just touring experiences.

One of the major elements of brand identity for Apple products is their logo. The half eaten apple logo featured in the back on the Apple products are the major contributor in the revenue for them (Phillips, McQuarrie and Griffin 2014). The logo of Apple created a distinctive identify of its own. People are more interested in having the access to the Apple logo rather than knowing about the features being offered with the products. Currently, the Apple logo became a style as well as status symbol. Another element of the Apple’s brand identity is the simple yet elegant design of their products. Iphones, Macbooks and Ipod are having their own simplistic and great aesthetic value, which are quite different and radical compared to the rival products in the market. This is also enhancing the brand identity of Apple. Another element of brand identity for Apple is the interface of the products of Apple. They are having different display interface compared to their rival products. This is also creating unique and distinctive brand identity among the customers.

Cultural Heritage as a Positive Aspect of Liverpool

The launch of Iphone is an example of brand extension due to the reason that the Apple brand is used in introducing new line of products and thus the exposure of the brand got increased. This also caused Apple to cater to different and more customer segments and increase their sales volume and market share. One of the major advantages of brand extension is enhancing the exposure of the brand in the market. In the case of Apple, they were limited among the music lovers and high end gadget lovers who used Macbooks. However, with the help of the brand extension, they had introduced new products of mobile devices under their brand and enhanced their brand identify to larger customer segments.

Another advantage of brand extension is enhancement of the brand value. This is due to the reason that initiation of the brand extension helped Apple in targeting more diverse customers and increasing the market reach (Albrecht et al. 2013). Thus, the more will be the market reach, the more will be the brand value in the market. Apple has got this positive and extensive brand value due to their popularity of Iphones in the global market. Iphones helped them to be a global brand rather than being a niche brand operating in smaller market area.

Apple as a brand relates with status, fashion, class and exclusiveness. These are the meanings, which are also helping them to generate more revenues from the market. However, there are various strategies being promoted by Apple in creating these connections. One of these strategies is premium pricing. It helped Apple to create a niche in the market and generate exclusivity. Initiation of the premium pricing caused limitation in the target market and this in turn helped in creating exclusivity for Apple. Initiation of the premium pricing also helped in making their products as a status symbol among the customers (Keller 2017). Apple make their customers perceive that having their products will help in enhancing the social class.

Another strategy that is promoted by them is concentrating more on the aesthetic aspect of their products. Finer details are given more concentration. In addition, the promotions are also being done concentrating more on the aesthetic value of the products. This caused in creating an impression that Apple products are superior over others in terms of design and looks.

This is true that electronics manufacturers should take the responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products. This is due to the reason that they are directly polluting the environment and they are source of generating the waste in nature. It is suggested that electronics manufacturers should have policy for recycling their old products (Sthiannopkao and Wong 2013). They should promote some activities where customers will be motivated to exchange their old electronic products for the new ones. It will have some sort of discounts for them. Later, electronics manufacturers can recycle the old devices and extract the metals and other materials that can be used in the new devices.

Another activity that electronics manufacturers can promote in becoming more environmental friendly is reducing the use of harmful and hazardous materials in their devices. There are various harmful chemicals and other materials remain in the electronic devices that caused negative impact on the environment upon disposal. Thus, it should be considered by the electronics manufacturers about using more reusable materials in their products, which can used again in further time. This will reduce the environmental impact of them.

Reference

Albrecht, C.M., Backhaus, C., Gurzki, H. and Woisetschläger, D.M., 2013. Drivers of brand extension success: What really matters for luxury brands. Psychology & marketing, 30(8), pp.647-659.

Brocken, M., 2016. The Twenty-first-century Legacy of the Beatles: Liverpool and Popular Music Heritage Tourism. Routledge.

Cohen, T., 2014. Relationship Marketing. Touro Accounting & Business Journal, 26.

Dolnicar, S. and Ring, A., 2014. Tourism marketing research: Past, present and future. Annals of Tourism Research, 47, pp.31-47.

Hudson, S. and Thal, K., 2013. The impact of social media on the consumer decision process: Implications for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), pp.156-160.

Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. and Bilgihan, A., 2015. Customer loyalty: a review and future directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), pp.379-414.

Keller, K.L., 2017. Managing the growth tradeoff: Challenges and opportunities in luxury branding. In Advances in Luxury Brand Management (pp. 179-198). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Phillips, B.J., McQuarrie, E.F. and Griffin, W.G., 2014. How visual brand identity shapes consumer response. Psychology & Marketing, 31(3), pp.225-236.

Samaha, S.A., Beck, J.T. and Palmatier, R.W., 2014. The role of culture in international relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing, 78(5), pp.78-98.

Sthiannopkao, S. and Wong, M.H., 2013. Handling e-waste in developed and developing countries: Initiatives, practices, and consequences. Science of the Total Environment, 463, pp.1147-1153.