Marketing Plan for the Sandals

Marketing plan for Sandals Resorts in Jamaica

Prepared by: Karolis Petkus
Lecturer: Robyn Griffith - Jones
Unit: Marketing Strategy and Communications

13 05 2011
Contents
* 1.0 Overall mission...................................................................................................p. 3 * 2.0 Marketing plan for the UK
2.1 Executive summary..............................................................................................p. 3, 4
2.2 Market analysis....................................................................................................p. 4, 5
2.3 Marketing objectives............................................................................................p. 5, 6
2.4 Product/packages.....................................................................................................p. 6
2.5 Price...........................................................................................................................p. 7
2.6 Place...............................................................................................................p. 7, 8
2.7 Promotion...................................................................................................p. 8, 9
2.8 Budget.....................................................................................................................p. 9
2.9 Measurement.................................................................................................p. 9, 10 * 3.0 Appendices
3.1 SWOT analysis...........................................................................................p.11, 12
3.2 PEST analysis...............................................................................................p. 12 * 4.0 References..........................................................................................p. 13

1.0 Overall mission
Sandals ' is committed to the resort 's mission of ".attaching a premium to human resources and being among the most environmentally responsible and community friendly groups in the hospitality industry" (Sandals Resorts, 2007). Sandals resorts continue to penetrate the market with their couples ' only concept, and have expanded this concept with accommodations for families through other beach resorts, branded Beaches. However, with the main objective to increase visitor number from UK company will have to find new ways of approaching people and persuade them spend time with Sandals. This marketing plan will develop tourism product for the Sandals’ resorts in Jamaica.
2.0 Marketing plan for the UK
2.1 Executive summary
Purpose of the report is to create a marketing plan for the Sandals resorts in Jamaica targeted on UK market year 2011 – 2014. UK is one of the main Europe’s countries with outbound vacations. Last year the number of people travelling to Jamaica from UK raised by 11%. It is a destination which is a favourite for UK travellers. It is feasible and easy acceptable, for these reasons Jamaica has a huge potential in UK market to raise number of tourists. To achieve this Sandals resorts has to start a fine marketing plan and to squeeze everything possible out of UK. Sandals Resorts International has played a profound and historic in shaping and contributing to the magnitude of Jamaica’s tourism product, Momsem, J. H. and Pugh, J. (2006)
This plan includes SWOT and PEST analysis, marketing objectives, plans for the product, price, place and promotion. It will be finished with approximant measurements on how the budget on marketing should be separated.
2.2 Market analysis
‘It’s critical, now more than ever, that we invest in promoting the brand. We have to ensure Jamaica is top of mind if we are to weather this economic downturn. Brits will continue to travel but their choices will be more considered and competition will be stiff. Throughout 2009 we will be focusing on promoting Jamaica as a great value destination offering beleaguered Brits a welcome escape from the doom and gloom of the credit crunch.’ Elizabeth Fox, The Jamaica Tourist Board’s Regional Director, 19 February 2009
Jamaica Ministry of tourism is aiming to reach sustainable growth and development in Jamaica through tourism. It will be reached by working with partners in the establishment and implementation of policies, programs and systems. Vision is to make Jamaica a world class destination which can offer a quality life style for the natives and great experience for visitors. Following their vision Jamaica will attract the sophisticated and affluent UK market. Jamaica tourists’ arrival from the United Kingdom average market share 10% and hopefully it will keep rising.
Jamaica has many tour operators and good numbers of visitors which ensure consistency on a wide range across divisions. This provides destination with even more customers with high demand of interests. This adds value not only for Sandals Resorts but for the whole tourism industry. Tourism in countries like Jamaica plays a role in the whole national economy, not only in tourism, as it is the one of the main sources of income. To make it work, marketing plan has to have successful strategies along with great organisation. Travel companies are dependent on its management and it always has to receive sufficient funds in order to work properly.
The travel industry provides well coordinated tourism products as well as controlling strategic aims of stakeholders. There has to be a strong link between each individual service in this industry in order to properly communicate and help for the travel agencies. As a result, it has to be followed by the efforts of company to have an effective marketing plan, which not only thinks about company but about external issues too.
Sandals has to look for its negative sites and they probably know the best what it is. At the start of this century they received huge amount of criticism towards their company. Daye M. Et all claimed that: ‘Sandals was subsequently banned from placing television advertisements in Britain for ‘failing to make clear that its resorts are not open to gay and lesbian couples’ (Reuters 2001, cited in Want 2002:197). Sandals Company should make it clear about their position. Refusing to accept homosexual couples in nowadays world mean disaster to their reputation, but still they have to be clear about it.
2.3 Marketing objectives
First object that Sandals resorts wants to implement is to increase number from 5 to 10% people from UK. There already was an 11% rise in number of British people visiting Jamaica during last year, 2010. In total it brought more than hundred and fifty thousand tourists from UK, according to breakingnews.com. This happened because of various reasons, including the sustained marketing efforts of the Jamaica. Also, an important role was played by agents and tour operators, its attempt to persuade British tourists come to Jamaica. It shows how huge Jamaica’s potential is and that Sandals can make a great profit out of this situation. From these rising numbers it can be told that Sandals and overall Jamaica tourist industry is on a right track. The following suggestions on product, price, place and promotion will hopefully have a large impact on increasing these numbers even more.
Sandals is famous for its innovative marketing concepts. It has much exclusivity other resorts cannot offer for the tourists. By this way they managed to track their audience, which usually are especially wealthy people. These business concepts are working great for them, however in order to attract more people from the UK, and those with lower income Sandals has to create more flexible pricing system. It could start with clearly showing and advertising that Sandals could be cheaper than most people imagine. Resorts could offer shorter and more basic offers to the travellers from the UK. Most of people who dream to have a vacation at Sandals simply cannot afford it. As a result, that could lead to reaching social classes, which are just a little under those wealthy people.

2.4Product/packages
Develop a UK based contest for five couples to win seven days honeymoon vacation at any of the Sandals resorts by sharing their engagement story. The couples with the most remarkable stories would win. It could be done through viral marketing and should be a real “buzz” amongst the couples if advertised enough. Word of mouth would spread this news all over too. That would be a great chance for couples who never thought about expensive honeymoon at Sandals to become a true. Clearly, that would be expensive and would require an increase in employment. Also, this time could be used elsewhere to target potential buyers.
Sandals could put more attention on sports. They could make agreements with Jamaica’s native stadiums and clubs to use their equipment and pitches. As a result, they could offer deals to UK’s football and other sports clubs to come to Sandals resorts. UK has many rich sport clubs and teams, which every year are looking for a place to do a pre – season camps for their teams. Obviously, if Sandals want attract big clubs they have to meet their high expectations. No doubt, teams would be extremely satisfied with accommodation, but they do expect very good conditions to practise and play too. That means, Sandals have to make more research on what can Jamaica offer for professional and wealthy teams from UK, and find out if conditions would satisfy club managers.
2.5 Price
Sandals can clearly advertise on their website and commercials what times of the year are the cheapest for a couple to vacation. This could be the way to expend company’s profits during the slowest times in the year. That would give a couple more time on saving money and an option of taking a later honeymoon. By this promotion company could improve pre – purchase evaluation of vacation packages. However, this could lead to couples miss substituting lower price for amenities. That could ultimately hurt Sandals profits in the long run as more and more people might choose cheaper holidays.
Sandals could make offers for couples for their long weekend honeymoons. That would be a great opportunity for couples who feel they cannot sacrifice much time from work or home. Reduced prices would allow more couples to go on a honeymoon. In addition, that could cause in having more loyal clients and repurchases. However, couples might not really trust in this offer and overbooked rooms would cause negative feedback and word-of-mouth.
Partnership with airline to offer lower prices to Sandals resorts could be another way of promoting the company. Lower prices would immediately attract more people and that would be really convenient to couples. They would be more inclined to honeymoon at Sandals. On the other hand, that could cause other people who have frequent flyer miles with other airlines in declining of choosing Sandals.
2.6 Place
Jamaica as a destination cannot be sold directly as a product, although it could be available/made available to the tour operators and other leading travel agents to distribute. It can be done in various ways in particular through the internet. This could be closely monitored in various ways to the advantage of how the websites maximise and carries potential customers. As the development of ecommerce is increasing in the UK, Jamaica will be of benefit significantly. In respond to this the distribution of products and services online will be of valuable use to many and its distribution methods.
2.7 Promotion
Sandals could use a few new ways of promotions which would target engaged couples. They should create a new catalogue or pamphlet on Sandals to locations where people who are getting married and marriage planners are frequent. This way of promotion should meet the expectations of Sandals as brides are usually excited and in positive mood; they could play with their emotions. Point of purchase displays could be set in areas like these. However, there is not much ways to persuade other companies to comply with requests like this from Sandals. Also, once people pick up a catalogue they just might forget about it.
Another great way to promote is attending more wedding expositions. It attracts quite a lot people who are looking to get married and get ideas for their life celebration. This way could be effective to reach bride and groom. People would be able to see visually what Sandals has actually to offer. They should also make other couples feedbacks available for people who are looking to spend time with Sandals. However, this promotion has its disadvantages too. First, it can be overlooked because of a high number of people in the expositions. In addition, it is not the cheapest way of promotion.
Thirdly, Sandals can bring a TV programme from UK to shoot an episode or even to make a reality show for the UK people. It should be related with travelling, weddings or family type programmes. This could be an easy way of catching target market. People could actually see what they should expect at these resorts. Its negative side would be that taping an episode could disrupt the experience of people who are on vacation on that time. Obviously, it would be very expensive, but worth it though. Also, the reputation of Sandals could have been hurt as producers always want to shoot something disobedient.
Sandals could establish a new eye – catching advertisement that shows not only the emotional value of honeymooning at Sandals resorts, but also how prices can be cheaper than most of people think. This could add emotional value for the customers. This would be helpful for couples in making their decisions especially if prices are shown. Finally, that could clear existing misconceptions about Sandals. However, advertising low prices can have an impact on perceived status and prestige.
2.8 Budget
Companies usually use 5% of their total profit for their marketing. This marketing plan outlines two main objectives to be reached during next three year period. First one is to increase visitor number from United Kingdom from 5 to 10% and the second one is to create more flexible pricing system, offering people more approachable offers and prices. To reach these objectives 4p’ plans should be followed. Promotion of Sandals should still be considered as a priority, for this reason it should receive at least 40% of marketing budget. With a huge growth of e – commerce in recent years, 30% has to be invested in new ways of improving websites, finding ways to reach more people through it. And the rest of 30% should be equally given for the product and price improvements.
2.9 Measurement
This marketing plan should be an organic document, which may change or grow according to circumstances. It is a good to review this plan along with marketing strategy from time to time. As it has many various options to choose and work on from 4p’ sections and some of them might be touched later, when it has appropriate circumstances to be developed. There always might be changes in business environment or company budget; no one is saved from it that is why always important to look through marketing plan as it has offers which might have appropriate proposals for the current environment.

3.0 Appendices
3.1 Swot Analysis
Sandals (Beaches) is a Caribbean Based Resort Hotel Chain, that was only recently established, but has proved to be highly successful, based on their innovative marketing concepts. This SWOT analysis is about Sandals. Strengths * Sandals created the idea of a couples only resort, they opened Beaches, a family luxury resort, three exclusive luxury resorts * All Sandals resorts are Green Globe Certified, they monitor and conserve all water use on property, they use times on all electrical equipmentWinner of thousands of awards, including: Six time winner of the Gold Travel Life Award by Virgin Holidays, Nine time winner of the Baxter Travel Media award for Favourite Resort * They offer an innovative concept in their all – inclusive environments, contrived to give worry – free accommodations * They employ guest coordinators, trained to be experts in human relations, to make everything work for guests as it should * In the couples only market they offer three different levels of suites: the basic all- inclusive, the crystal suites and millionaire suites | Weaknesses * They need to advertise the resort’s view on environmental issues. For instance, they received Green Globe Certification, but do not advertise it. In this economic downturn, people want to feel good about spending their money in socially responsible ways * They spent huge amount of capital for resort in Barbados. Its government does not allow their beaches to be blocked off with fences, due to this it struggles to get much visitors * They are dependent on wealthy countries and citizens with high income to spend and vacation regularly. The American trend toward “staycations” will decrease their revenue * They need to better position themselves against competition, other luxury resorts, Breezes All-Inclusive Resorts and other popular destinations for honeymoons and families | Opportunities * Opening new resorts in Belize or Hawaii, and some non beach areas such as Alaska; they could also open international resorts in China, Japan or France * Promote their resorts at all Bridal and Child/Baby Expos in major cities, use interactive sales pitches that will allow to book vacations on the spot, attend the National Wedding Show in London * Create a joint venture with David’s Bridal, present their selves on major wedding planning websites, Parents’ Magazine and on Nickelodeon * They need to play up the “all – inclusive” angle of their resorts: create marketing campaign about money saving aspects and that guests do not need to worry about extra expenses * Protecting Jamaicans culture, way of life and their national identity | Threats * One threat that cannot be controlled is weather. However, they can offer guarantees for their guests which will make them feel more secure * Crime rates typically increase with the growth and urbanization of an area * Tourism can also drive the development of gambling, which may cause negative changes in social behaviour * Other competitors: Clubmed, Kerzner, Walt Disney. Secondary competitors: Raddison Hotels and Resorts, CNL and Host Hotels and Resorts * Increase of political uncertainty |

3.2 PEST analysis PoliticalThe development of tourism will breach some of the Jamaica law that will force the locals to be hostile towards the U.K market, which are known for their public stunts.Political aspects like war and terror and how authorities manage to solve these problems have a huge impact on tourismSecurity corners over the travel have had a serious impact over travel and tourism industry leading to businesses failures, demise of certain destinations and loss of expected growth in particular destinations.Political barriers Both countries UK and Jamaica can have different views on security risk. | Economic The local benefiting from tourist expenditure, increase of foreign currency and the effect of the recession has hindered consumers’ confidence in spending on holiday especially the effect the global credit crunch had on consumer spending in the U.K. | Social Loss of national identity, culture and way of life and openness to the world may ruin uniqueness. The U.K especially has an appetite for drinking and partying and a bit of x-rated activities in the public which may be breaching some way of life.With a growing society it is natural that it developed more customer types. More market segmentation.New epidemics have also power to impact number of people travelling to tropic Jamaica. | TechnologicalThere has been a huge growth of technologies, especially in e – commerce and transportation. Faster ways in terms of booking and travelling will definitely have amazing impact for people reaching farthest corners of the world.Also, it is a challenge to secure huge masses of travellers using this enormous industry of plains, rails and hotels and etc.The introduction of world class infrastructure designed in Dubai as raise the expectation for tourist ( Media city, The palm and Dubai land) and the increase in the use of internet has enabled growth of low cost airlines, which has also benefited the region |
4.0 References * Anonymous. (Jul 27, 2009). Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Sandals Resorts to Launch Martha Stewart Weddings Program in the Caribbean; Martha Stewart Weddings at Sandals Resorts Available Beginning January 1, 2010; Martha Stewart Crafts Programs to Launch in 2010. PR Newswire. New York. * Sandals Resorts. 2007. Retrieved on May 05, 2011 * Elizabeth Fox, The Jamaica Tourist Board’s Regional Director, 19 February 2009

4.1 E – Books
Google books * Akrofi, J. 2006, Recreation and Tourism: Impacts of Tourism: Socio cultural aspects: Ethical Issues, retrieved on May 04, 2011 accessed [02/05/2011] * Daye M., et all. 2008, New Perspectives in Carribean Tourism. New York: Routledge. [04/05/2011] * Momsem, J. H. and Pugh, J. 2006, Environmental Planning in the Carribean. England: Ashagate Publishing Limited [05/05/2011]

4.2 Websites * breakingtravelnews.com accessed [05/05/2011] * http://www.marketingteacher.com/swot/sandals-swot.html [04/05/2011] * http://www.slideshare.net/sjohnson09/finalpresentation3 [02/05/2011] * http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g147311-d151485-Reviews-Sandals_Carlyle_Inn-Montego_Bay_Jamaica.html [02/05/2011]

References: * Sandals Resorts. 2007. Retrieved on May 05, 2011 * Elizabeth Fox, The Jamaica Tourist Board’s Regional Director, 19 February 2009 * Akrofi, J. 2006, Recreation and Tourism: Impacts of Tourism: Socio cultural aspects: Ethical Issues, retrieved on May 04, 2011 accessed [02/05/2011] * Daye M., et all * Momsem, J. H. and Pugh, J. 2006, Environmental Planning in the Carribean. England: Ashagate Publishing Limited [05/05/2011] 4.2 Websites