Marketing the Brand

Conducting Consumer Research

The importance of research in the marketing of our parks need not be
overemphasized. The research will help the organization reduce the risks associated with
opening new parks and reopening existing ones (Perner, n.d.). However, for our research to
be useful, considerable attention must be paid to the methods to be used to obtain information
from consumers. There are two broad research methods: primary and secondary. Secondary
research involves sourcing, analyzing, synthesizing, and using information that others have
already gathered. On the other hand, primary research is information you gather yourself by
designing and conducting studies. As much of the available information may not meet our
specific marketing needs, primary research is proposed to supplement existing knowledge.
While there are several methods of conducting primary research, the two most
appropriate methods are proposed here: personal interviews with consumers (that is, park
users) and observation of park users. Personal interviews will involve the in-depth
questioning of current park users with the view of better understanding their interest in and
experiences with parks in general and our parks in particular (Perner, n.d.). The interviewees
will be recruited from among the visitors to and users of various parks of interest. This
criterion of recruiting interviewees will be important considering the relatively high costs
associated with this method. Besides interviewing select park users, consumer information
will be collected by observing park users’ behaviors while in the park. Things to be observed
will include, among others, the specific activities park users engage in while in the park.

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Using Traditional Marketing Methods to Acquire and Retain Customers
Three traditional marketing methods are proposed to acquire new customers and
retain the existing ones: billboards, direct mail, and flyers and posters. These methods have
been proposed because of their localized and personalized natures as opposed to traditional
mainstream media like radio and television (Belch & Belch, 2011). All these methods will
help in the acquisition of new customers by introducing our parks to them. They will also
help in the retention of existing customers by constantly reminding them of our parks. These
reminders will be especially important for the occasional park users who visit a park once or
twice a year.
A major advantage of billboards is their ability to turn city residents, especially
motorists and other road users, into captive audiences that have little choice but to consume
or see the information displayed on the billboards (Belch & Belch, 2011). Their main
disadvantage is the enormous costs involved in acquiring billboard sites and designing,
constructing, transporting, installing, and lighting up the billboards.
Periodic direct mail campaigns will entail sending printed promotional materials,
through postal services, to families living within a defined radius of a given park. It will be
important to identify and target families with children as these are the most frequent park
users (Costal, 2001). A major advantage of direct mail is that, compared to digital marketing
messages, direct mail pieces are more likely to be received, opened, read, and acted on. This
is because, in this digital era, when consumers are overwhelmed with digital information, a
good old-fashioned direct mail piece provides a refreshing break (Belch & Belch, 2011). Its
main disadvantage is the high costs of producing and distributing high-quality, full color
printed marketing collateral.

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Flyers and brochures educating consumers about and promoting our parks will be
periodically distributed to motorists in traffic and shoppers at shopping malls. These
marketing collateral share the same advantages and disadvantages as direct mail.
Using Digital Marketing Methods to Acquire and Retain Customers
Meanwhile, these three digital marketing methods are proposed: search advertising,
social media advertising, and video adverting. These are among the most successful digital
marketing methods in terms of conversion rates (Fourberg, De Streel, & Hill, 2021). Search
advertising will involve the organization paying search engine operators like Google to link
its website to users’ organic search results, thereby increasing the likelihood of users’ visiting
the organization’s website. A major advantage of search advertising is its relatively high
conversion rates: 4.4% on average compared to 0.57% for advertisements displayed on social
media and YouTube. This is so because consumers come across search advertising while they
are actively considering a purchase. The main disadvantage of search advertising is the steep
learning curve needed to master it.
Both social media and video advertising are forms of display advertising where
advertisements are displayed, in various forms, on websites or in applications such that
consumers come across them in the course of browsing or using those websites or
applications. Within social media advertising, it is suggested that the organization focuses on
Facebook. Facebook’s main advantage is that it is the largest segment of social media
advertising, commanding a market share of 75-80% in the United States (Fourberg et al.,
2021). However, like search advertising, its main disadvantage is the steep learning curve
needed to master it.

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Video advertising will entail displaying the organization’s advertisements in video
players like YouTube. The main advantage of video advertising is its increasing importance
on account of the widespread availability of fast Internet protocols like 4G and 5G (Fourberg
et al., 2021). Its main disadvantage is heavy data usage which may discourage the use of
video players among people with unreliable and expensive Internet connectivity.
Traditional and Digital Marketing: Better Together

Both digital and traditional marketing methods can work together to support the
brand and growth of the business. In fact, a combination of most of the six methods discussed
above will help the business, and the brand grow. Specifically, combinations of billboards
and direct mail on the one hand and search and Facebook advertising on the other will be the
most impactful in addressing the organization’s target audiences and the most effective in
branding. In the following paragraphs, I expound on why and how these combinations will
work together to optimize the brand.
To begin with, customers exist everywhere, and so should our brand. While it is true
that consumers are spending an increasingly great deal of their wakeful hours on their digital
devices consuming a lot of digital content (Fourberg et al., 2021), that is not the only place
they are spending their time. They are spending significant time on city streets commuting to
work and back home. They are also spending time shopping in shopping malls. Thus, savvy
marketers’ strategy is to ensure that their customers and potential customers are exposed to
their brands wherever they (customers) are at any given time.
Besides ensuring our brand exposure wherever the customer is, we will be able to
emphasize our brand message and make it stick in customers’ minds by combining digital and
traditional marketing methods. There is something powerful about a consumer being exposed

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to a consistent brand message time and time again, especially if the message is targeted such
that it speaks to the consumer’s need (Belch & Belch, 2011).
Crisis Management Strategies

Even as the organization focuses on marketing its parks, sight must not be lost of the
possibility of crises that could jeopardize the marketing plans. In this day and age, crises have
become an investable reality of today’s organization lives, and theme parks are not immune to
such crises. Typical crises that befall theme parks include accidents, some of which can be
fatal, acts of terrorism, and incidents of mass shootings (Siebeneicher, 2004). For example,
between 1987 and 2003, in the United States alone, forty-two deaths were reported following
accidents involving fixed-site amusement rides, averaging 2.4 deaths a year (Siebeneicher,
2004). Meanwhile, the events of September 11, 2001, affected all tourism providers,
including parks, by significantly reducing visitor numbers.
Under these circumstances, the organization should put in place crisis management
strategies well in advance of any crisis actually occurring. These strategies should support the
emotional and other needs of affected employees, meet customer expectations, and minimize
damage to the brand. Two strategies are recommended: anticipating crises and having a crisis
management team with a designated spokesperson. Because available evidence shows that
internal or external crises are fairly common (Siebeneicher, 2004), the organization should
anticipate them and implement crisis mitigation and management plans. Part of such a plan
should be setting up a crisis management team with a designated spokesperson. Having a
designated crisis spokesperson will help prevent the all too common problem of organizations
sending out inconsistent and contradictory information during a crisis because of a lack of
coordination and clarity on who is authorized to speak.
Legal and Ethical Issues

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Closely related to the topic of crises in amusement parks are the legal and ethical
issues such crises, especially accidents, are likely to raise and their negative implications for
an organization’s image. One legal issue that stands out is that of lawsuits arising from
accidents. Meanwhile, a pertinent ethical issue is whether managers of amusement parks put
visitor numbers and profits ahead of visitor safety. Six Flags, one of America’s oldest and
largest amusement park corporations, provides a case in point as these two issues are
concerned. On May 11, 1984, eight teenagers died in a fire accident at one of Six Flags’
attractions in Jackson, New Jersey (Costal, 2001). In the lawsuit that ensued, the
aforementioned ethical issue emerged; it was revealed that the company’s managers were
obsessed with visitor numbers, the weather, and profits, at the expense of visitor safety. This
factor, it was believed, contributed to the accident.
To prevent these issues, the following steps should be taken. First, as suggested in the
preceding section, the organization should put in place a crisis management plan whose
cornerstone should be preventing crises, especially accidents, from occurring in the first
instance. While the organization can do little to stop customers from bringing lawsuits against
it following an accident, it can certainly do much to stop accidents from happening in the first
place. One way of doing that is by having a stringent facilities management policy. Secondly,
to prioritize visitor safety, the organization could consider establishing a visitor safety
committee comprising managers from across the organization.

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References

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2011). dvertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing
Communications Perspective (9 th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Costal, J. (2001). Amusement park crisis management. Glassboro: Rowan University.
Fourberg, N., De Streel, A., & Hill, J. (2021). Online advertising: The impact of targeted
advertising on advertisers, market access and consumer choice. Luxembourg:
European Union.
Perner, L. (n.d.). Consumer Research Methods. Retrieved from Consumer Psychologist:
https://www.consumerpsychologist.com/cb_Research_Methods.html
Siebeneicher, K. B. (2004). Amusement park crisis management and its effect on the crisis
news lifecycle. Glassboro: Rowan University.