Resort - Greenmount Beach Resort
John injected some of his “Wow Factor”      
into marketing the Greenmount property!                

OVERVIEW

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Full page press advertisement
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Whilst Greenmount Beach Resort is an “icon” in the field of Gold Coast holiday resorts, it is now more than 30 years old and has scores of new 4- and 5-star resorts to contend with. The Singaporean-based owners of the resort contacted John and requested his expertise in rejuvenating the resort’s marketing literature and communications.

The resort was still an attractive holiday option for people visiting the Gold Coast and fell into the “affordable 3.5-star category” in terms of facilities.

Regardless of its age, the resort boasted “location, location, location!” Nestled on the Coolangatta Headland overlooking Greenmount Beach, the resort offered guests an opportunity to simply take a short stroll to one of the country’s most beautiful beaches.

In short, the Singaporean owners knew that despite the resort’s age, it still had a lot going for it – and therefore wanted John to inject some of his “wow factor” into marketing the property!

EXECUTION

As he does with all clients, John’s first action was to investigate:

a) The geodemographic profile of guests of recent years. (In order to determine any “trends” that would help for future marketing efforts.

b) Review all past marketing efforts and track any relevant results.

c) Prepare a S.W.A.T. analysis

d) Look for any “wow factors” or unique selling points of the resort.

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When analysing previous guests, John noted that the majority of visitors came from 5 or 6 specific areas along the East Coast of Australia. (Melbourne, Sydney, Central Coast of NSW, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Sunshine Coast, Qld.)

Whilst obviously many guests came from overseas and all sorts of other places, these six locations kept appearing in the guest list, indicating there was a huge untapped potential in targeting these specific locations. However, when John drilled even further into the guest list of recent years, it could be seen that the majority of people from these areas were from “working class/family orientated suburbs”.

It appeared that Greenmount Beach Resort was drawing custom from both young families and young couples in their 20’s and early 30’s. In discussing this with Resort Management, the future target audience was even further fine-tuned to specific age groups which represented the largest “yield” for the resort.

John then went about refurbishing the resort’s brochures and general communications, together with planning Direct Marketing campaigns (letterbox brochures) designed to attract the two target audiences of:

a) People 25-45 years with young children.

b) People 20-35 without children.

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John redesigned the resort's Restaurant Menus to reflect a more contempory feel.
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Given that the “trend analysis” had shown that these demographics were “value conscious”, John produced the first of numerous DL-sized brochures, highlighting a $49 per person per night rate. This offer came together with a free buffet breakfast, additional “wow” to the existing “$49 wow factor”.

Using Mosaic Geodemographic Profiling, John was able to pinpoint the relevant target groups in each of the six major geographic locations, therefore ensuring that Direct Mail brochures were being letterboxed to the right people. (ie: Southern and Western suburbs of Sydney.)

Furthermore, John created tabloid newspaper advertisements with similar “price conscious” offers, again targeting both groups.

Historically, the resort had previously invested in “generic marketing advertisements’ without a “call to action”, therefore never being able to really measure the results from such campaigns. Conversely, in the campaigns which John initiated, the response could be acutely measured very quickly.

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John redesigned the resort's Restaurant Menus to reflect a more contempory feel.
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Because the resort had a Restaurant which was open 7 days, the owners also asked John to stimulate trade for it. He did this via Direct Mailing brochures to the 20,000 homes surrounding the resort, promoting both lunch and dinner “at 20% discount if you were seated by a certain time.” The restaurant was also marketed “in-house” via brochures to guests.

John recommended that the resort refrain from mass media advertising such as radio, television and mass circulation newspapers, as he had demonstrated to the resort owners that a specific “audience” was attracted to the resort. (To advertise in mass media, would be “spraying bullets” unnecessarily.)

John’s tabloid full-page advertisements were only designed to take advantage of special “distressed space” offers which came about from time to time from some newspapers.

RESULT

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The result of the campaign remains confidential with the resort owners, but it can be said that the occupancy rate of the resort increased dramatically as a result of John’s marketing initiatives.

Additionally, the resort Restaurant enjoyed a significant lift in lunch & dinner trade, as a result of the targeted brochure campaign to locals.

John quotes, “This is a classic example of a client who previously had “sprayed marketing bullets” in terms of promoting the premises in just about everything that moved. When in fact, the resort only appealed primarily to a couple of audience segments who could be defined quite easily, from analysing past guest lists.

By focussing our efforts on Direct Marketing to areas which represented a large portion of past guests, we were easily able to fill resort rooms in a cost-effective manner. After all, it’s all about cost per acquisition, not just selling rooms at any cost.”

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