Essay
Obviously, the tourism industry plays an important role in the world, no matter environmentally or on the economy. It is believed that the tourism planning within the industry is extremely significant. In Hong Kong, tourism has been a very important aspect in their economy. For this paper, one of Hong Kong’s main tourist attractions, the Ocean Park will be examined with regards to its core competencies and competitive advantage.
Since its opening in January 1977 as a non-profit organization, the home-grown Ocean Park has developed itself into an attraction connecting people with the nature by attracting more than 76 million tourists by the end of last year. Ocean Park has also been named one of the “10 Most Popular Amusement Parks in the World” by Forbes.com (, 2006). The company sees this recognition as a source of pride for their staff and the people of Hong Kong. The park will continue to offer new and exciting attractions as well as events and programs to bring people closer to nature. It was also chosen by Hong Kong citizens as the most favorite scenic spot in Hong Kong last year.
Resource Audit
Owned by a nonprofit organization, Ocean Park hasn’t always been so popular. Just before 2000 it was an aging, poorly maintained attraction, and business was so poor that it was on the verge of being closed down. A facelift complete with new management and upgraded food outlets injected new life into the park a few years ago. Ocean Park now has a new jellyfish house and five annual events – including a Halloween bash that proved a huge success – on top of its popular pandas, giant aquarium, and cable car ride (, 2006). Additionally, Ocean Park has the ability to finance its chosen strategy which requires the park a significant investment in new attractions, services, and products; distribution channels; production capacity; and working capital.
In terms of physical resources, design of space is another keep up the good work attribute. Given that the location of the park, the layout of rides, activities and other facilities is a challenging task. Apparently the visitors here are satisfied with the current arrangement. Because space design is an important factor in the creation of image, further improvements in layout (especially when adding other activities and rides) must be designed with two objectives in mind. One is the maximization of organizational effectiveness and efficiency in serving the needs of the visitors. And the other is making sure that the changes further strengthen the ocean theme and ambiance of the park.
It is important to remember that, in service environments, the ambient cues interact with the social cues to influence consumers’ level of pleasure and arousal (, , 2006). In their interactions with the park, the sense of human touch to the visitors is conveyed by the personnel who are the predominant actors. In the eyes of the visitors, the contact personnel are an important dimension of a service organization’s image as they are the first points of contact in the service encounter. Since first impressions are lasting impressions, the contact personnel, who are part of the total servicescape, have a key role in the formation and management of an image. The contact personnel maintain this major role until the completion of the service delivery process (i.e. by the time the visitors leave the park). Fortunately, for Ocean Park, their human resource is competent enough to handle the visitors. Employee courtesy, helpfulness, understandability, language skills and appearance are some characteristics of the human resource staff of Ocean Park.
Disney land, being its biggest competition, it cannot be helped to compare the two theme parks. As the aura in Disney is laced with magic, the ambience in Ocean Park is quite different. Reputed to be eight times bigger than Disneyland, the layout of the park is airier, which provides guests with more room to explore. The park is divided into the lowlands and the headlands. The Lowlands is the tamer part of the park as it houses viewing features such as the Goldfish Pagoda, the Amazing Birds Theater Show, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Panda Habitat, Dinosaurs Now and Then, and the Dolphin University, where dolphins are trained to perform (, 2006).
Intangible resources of Ocean Park includes goodwill or what customers are prepared to pay to the park, reputation – Ocean Park having a track record pulling in more than 4.03 million visitors so far for the year 2006. That’s the best visitor count the park has seen since opening in 1977, and Forbes magazine recently named the park one of the world’s 10 most popular amusement parks.
Core Competencies
Core competencies of Ocean Park include the following:
- Strategic location. Tourists from the rest of the world visit Hong Kong, being one of the top ten destinations in Asia with more than 11 million visitors per year.
- Strategic marketing positioning. It has been in existence for more than 20 years and many tourists and locals are familiar with the entertainment that the park offers. Additionally, the park offers attractions that are appealing to different ages.
Strategic Competitiveness
In the last 5 years, many parks failed particularly due to bureaucracy issues, location in rural areas, and lack of a developed middle-class in the vicinity of the park. Disney Park being its main competitor differentiates itself by focusing on fairy tales and magic. However, both can complement each other in drawing tourists to Hong Kong.
Ocean Park also is in partnership with the Hong Kong local government. This guarantees uninterrupted financial and governmental support to the construction of various projects and the park’s initial years of operation. This also assures that government will help fend off community criticism on Ocean Park and its projects.
Brand is a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer, more specifically; it refers to the concrete symbols such as name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes and symbols which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas and personality (, 2001).
According to (1998), the reputation for quality, style and reliability are judged to be superior by consumers. A strong brand allows its owner to expend market share, command higher prices and generate stronger financial results than competitors.
According to , people are readily cynicism (1997). Many countries today are being used as promotional objects for a certain company’s gain. Accordingly, (1989) define brand as a symbol, design, or mark that enhances the value of a product beyond its functional purpose. Brand names play a critical role in the marketplace competition because brand names enhance the value of products and are difficult to copy. “For many businesses the brand name and what it represents is its most important asset which is the basis of competitive advantage and of future earnings streams. Yet, the brand name is seldom managed in a coordinated, coherent manner with a view that it must be maintained and strengthened” (, 1991).
Branding is comprised of two elements–external and internal to the customer (, 2006). Internal brand elements include the following:
· Personality, which relates to customers’ description of the brand;
· Culture, or the social context within which a brand is perceived, as in the case of Mercedes’ “engineering excellence”; and,
· Self-Image, which encompasses what we feel the brand says about us
External elements include the following:
· Physique, or the physical characteristics of the brand that makes us want to know what it does;
· Reflection, which relates to the target user or customer being nurtured; and,
· Relationship, that is, customers should have identifying relationship with the brand itself.
The function and art of branding is a major contributor to the success of a product or service sold by the company that markets it. In this paper, the researcher attempt to use an integrated marketing communication to bring up the reputation of a Japanese cosmetic brand, SKII, in its current crisis in China.
Integrated Marketing Communication
. (2001) suggested that modern marketing calls for more than just developing a good product, pricing it attractively, and making it available to target customers. Companies must also communicate with current and prospective customers, and what they communicate should not be left to chance.
A basic IMC principle is that communication is the foundation of all human relationships (, 2002). Communication is concerned with the exchange of information, ideas, or feelings and the successful development of a communications strategy requires extensive learning and coordination throughout the communications network. Marketing communication is the collective term for all the communication functions used in marketing a product, and the purpose of marketing communications is to add persuasive value to a product for both customers and the company.
(1989) has pointed out that the brand name also adds value for the manufacturer and for the retailer. But the ability of a brand name to add value for the consumer is, of course, logically prior. A brand name adds value for the manufacturer and the retailer only because it adds value for the consumer.
According to , a brand is defined as “a means of identification,” or “an arbitrarily adopted name that is given by a manufacturer or merchant to an article or service to distinguish it as produced or sold by that manufacturer or merchant that may be used and protected as a trademark.”
Sales promotion has grown substantially in recent years. There are several reasons for this dramatic growth in sales promotion. First, consumers have accepted sales promotion as part of their buying decision criteria. It provides reluctant decision makers with an incentive to make choices by increasing the value offered by a particular brand. Second, the increasing tendency of businesses to focus on short-term results has helped spur growth in sales promotion, which can provide an immediate boost in sales. Product managers also tend to view sales promotion as a way to differentiate their brand from that of competitors in the short term. Third, the emergence of computer technology has enabled manufacturers to get rapid feedback on the results of promotions. Redemption rates for coupons or figures on sales volume can be obtained within days. Finally, an increase in the size and power of retailers has also boosted the use of sales promotion.
In short, the growth of sales promotion is due to its demand for accountability, short-term orientation, consumer response to promotions, proliferation of brands, increased power of retailers and media clutter (, n.d).
However, according to , one of the most hotly debated topics today is whether women, or men for that matter are represented realistically (1998). Oftentimes, in advertisements and branding, people and places are often showed as other people want them to be seen. This is to boost the probability of many people coming in. But also, due to this, issues in the country are often, not included in these advertisements.
References
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