Download - Yacht Week_PR Proposal
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Strategic Communications Plan
Yacht Week
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Strategic Communication Plan
Executive Summary
The Yacht Week aims to be a luxurious and exciting vacation for people in the 20 to 30 year
old age range looking for a more affordable option. Groups of friends can rent a yacht for a week that
will take them to majestic locations where every day is spent relaxing at sea and in cities, and every
night is spent enjoying nightlife with friends and other Yacht Week participants. While The Yacht
Week is currently targeted mainly towards wealthy Europeans looking for an adventure, The Yacht
Week is looking to expand its opportunities to America, by catering to American college students.
This new target market is similar enough to the current market to work well, but different enough to
bring in a whole new sect of consumers. The Yacht Week does face competition for this market from
beach resorts and cruise lines, but The Yacht Week is a totally new experience unlike any of the
competition, which is what will set it apart and make it successful. One of the main things The Yacht
Week intends to do in the near future is expand its marketing and public relations reach into America
so as to secure that market. This will be done in a few different ways. The first is to redesign the
company’s website to better draw potential customers in, currently the website is difficult to navigate
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and a redesign is important. The second is to advertise in magazines that the target markets read.
Using full-page color advertisements shows the excitement of Yacht Week, and will help to draw in
new customers. The third is to send teams to major college campuses in America to provide more
specific information and to be available for questions. The last is to advertise on facebook, where most
of the target market is often present. Using these tactics and more The Yacht Week hopes to achieve
its main goal of expanding into the American college students market.
Overview:
Do you want to get away?
Affordable luxury combined with fun people from all over the world & unforgettable events
makes us unique. Every day exceptional. Every night something magical. Cristal clear water, fresh
winds, regattas, yacht parties are all elements of your journey.
Mission Statement:
Yacht Week prides itself on being able to offer an exhilarating voyage to experience: sailing,
regattas, and entertainment at an affordable level to people above 20-years-old.
Yacht Week directly provides an accommodating boating vacation to people above 20 years
of age around the world.
Program Goals:
Yacht Week aims to broaden their new market to a high to middle class demographic of
collegiate students at appropriate times during the year. As well as expand the knowledge of our
program in a more organized manner to highlight the low expensive trip.
Yacht Week, unlike any other company, is here to provide you and all of your best friends
with a nautical journey across Caribbean, Turkish, Croatian, or Greek waters on your very own
chartered yacht. Upon this voyage one will experience a surreal nightlife with docks at some of the
most amazing party cities, anchoring in for a night of fun. This thrilling experience not only provides
sailing but regattas, entertainment, crystal clear water, fresh winds and much more.
Start your Yacht Week journey by simply choose a sailing week and a yacht to accommodate
you and your friends. We welcome sailors of all abilities and can provide you with an option to sail
with a professional skipper. Or one can join the crew and learn how to be a skipper by him or herself.
With this affordable, elegant trip combined with fun people from all over the world &
unforgettable events makes us one of a kind. Every day equipped with life changing elements to instill
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no regrets about your yacht week decision. Starting from only €300/ person you can charter your own
yacht! Minimum age is 20 years old. Check us out on the web or visit our Facebook page. Once
you’ve viewed our pictures and videos, I guarantee you’ll be trying to plan your next spring break
with us.
Industry:
The industry that yacht week is a part of is the Cruise industry. According to Cruise Lines
International Association there was approximately 14.3 million people that took a cruise last year. The
industry has achieved a 2100% growth since 1970 when the industry was still young. The industry is
still growing, with only 20% of adults having ever been on a cruise this leaves much room to expand.
The average consumer for the industry is a wealthy 46 year old, and most cruises are booked through
travel agents. The industry is only expected to grow more due to the fact that the economy is regaining
some stability. The years 2008-2010 were challenging for the industry due to the faltering economy,
but the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association calls for cautious optimism for 2011 after seeing some
signs of an improved sales climate.
Audience Lifestyle Needs Desired Behavior Channel(s)
Wealthy
College
Students
Laid back, fun
seeking, nautical
Luxurious
vacation option,
entertainment
without
supervision
Be able to have an all
in one unforgettable,
destination vacation
with friends
Facebook,
Twitter, online
ads, travel
magazines, word
of mouth
Middle Class
College
Students
Laid back, fun
seeking, realistic,
nautical
Affordable
vacation option,
entertainment
without
supervision
Be able to have the
time of his or her life
on vacation, yet being
able to afford it all.
Facebook,
Twitter, online
ads, travel
magazines, word
of mouth
Young (20-25)
wealthy
Europeans
Adventurous, laid
back, nautical
Proximity to
vacation locations,
Luxurious
vacation option
Be able to enjoy an
interactive, fun
vocational journey
Facebook,
Twitter, online
ads, travel
magazines, word
of mouth
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Yacht Week has made a plan to target 20 to 30 year olds as their audience. The subcategory
of this audience base is American college students that are upper middle class and young Europeans;
both seeking to engage in an exotic, nautical adventure. The average person the company is trying to
cater too is: someone that takes interest in exploring nature, enjoys luxurious vacations, sociable,
adventurous, looking to explore foreign cultures, and other interactive adventures. The target audience
can be reached through twitter, blogs, online articles, websites, facebook, lectures and social
networking. A major part of connecting with the target audience is word of mouth as well as
connections.
Product:
Yacht week is an all inclusive yacht rental vacation service that has various destinations for
various prices. According to the companies website, the basics included when you book a trip with the
yacht week are the rental of a yacht, all yacht equipment, all taxes paid, dinghy, outboard engine,
gasoline, GPS, nautical charts, sheets, blankets, towels, stereo and cockpit speakers. Extra fees are
anywhere from $20 to $150 for things such as extra fuel and port fees. Destinations include the British
Virgin Islands, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, and Sicily. Prices for a week on a yacht range from $730 to
$1480. Sailing knowledge is helpful but not necessary because the company can provide a skipper.
Demographics and Psychographics:
The target demographic for the Yacht Week is young people ages 20-25 who are middle class
and above. The service is mainly targeted towards European college students at this point in time.
Yacht week targets outgoing, adventurous people who want to do something different for vacation.
Generally people who would take a vacation with the Yacht Week would be people that like the
outdoors, and new experiences.
Competition:
The Yacht Week’s competition ranges from different vacation options such as affordable
cruise ships. Cruise ships also offer affordable rates like The Yacht Week and also more amenities.
This is an immediate threat to their customer base. The cruise ship industry is one of the biggest
threats to The Yacht Week’s success. Companies such as Carnival, offer an extensive range of
destinations that The Yacht Week does not offer. The price of going on a Carnival cruise in the
Caribbean ranges from $378.00 to $1,158.00 for five days. These ships also have different restaurant
options on the boat, which is extremely convenient for the customers. The legitimacy and credibility
of major cruise ship companies like Carnival give them an edge in terms of customer service over
Yacht Week.
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Environmental: Weather is a leading factor in changes that may affect yacht week as a company.
Their market is based on having good weather for sailing and factoring other weather patterns that
may interrupt this is a leading concern. The company has its clients book the trip more than 3 months
in advance with a direct nonrefundable deposit to assure a spot. The company cannot predict the
weather for the days booked, so they must factor in bad weather. If a storm does happen during the
week of travel the clients will be refunded depending on how many days they participated in during
the week.
Economic: The economy is a high factor of yacht week. Usually when the economy is down clients
that may otherwise be interested in partaking in yacht week may not be in the best financial situation.
Yacht Week is based on clients with money, although Yacht Week does price their rates fair and along
the lines with other competitors, the economy needs to be up. Middle class and above are the targeted
audience for this company.
Technological: Yacht Week is based on social networking and web marketing. With new forms of
technology always being released it serves as a constructive way to market the product. Facebook and
their website are ways for the company to connect and market to their clients. Social networking and
media is how the company reaches its clients. The company recently just set up a blog as well so that
their clients can receive part of the experience of yacht week online through photos, videos, interviews,
personal blurbs, and insight of what the trip includes.
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Strengths
• Age range 20-30
• Wide range of destinations
• Different price packaging
• Paid transportation from the airport
• Caters towards college spring, winter, and
summer breaks
• Social Media
Weakness
• Directed towards Europeans and British
• Not marketed in the US
• Flights not included
• Only sails in the Mediterranean and
Caribbean
• Young company, young employees
• Not enough media exposure
• Competing with established vacation spots
Opportunity
• College discount
• Price packages
• Expansion to more countries
• Cross promotions with bars/restaurants
• Obtain more yachts as business grows
• Expand into a market that doesn’t really
exist (affordable yacht renting)
• Promoting on College campuses
• Expand press, marketing to more countries
Threats
• Cruise lines
• Economyà Less likely to rent a yacht
• Not enough boats to accommodate
• Weather, natural disasters
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Yacht Week was created five years ago in 2006. The company is relatively new to the
business world and is just getting on its feet. Their company targets young adults in there twenties
who are looking to immerse themselves in a breath-taking trip. With over five amazing locations
Yacht Week holds many opportunities. The different strengths of the company is based on the fact that
this company is not like any other travel experience. The price is targeted to middle class and higher,
however compared with other travel packages and experiences it is priced affordably. The yachts can
include up to 15 people: co-ed, all girls, or all boys. The price of the yacht depends on how big the
yacht is and the location. The company provides their clients with the option of working on the boat as
well if one cannot afford the whole trip. The clients can choose to have their own skipper or have the
company supply one.
Yacht Weeks’ greater strengths focus on how there is no other organization or company that
targets specifically towards 20-30 year olds and presents them with the ability to sail in an exotic
country for a full week while experiencing: the countries culture, atmosphere, how to sail, opportunity
to interact with people from different countries, night clubs, water activities and so much more. Yacht
week provides professional photographers and videographers to capture every moment of the amazing
experience. The album and video are given to the customers at the end of their trip, as well as all of
the playlists that are created on aboard. For $25 extra the clients have access to nightclubs and bars
where the yachts dock for the night. In addition, the final payment includes: rental of yacht, yacht
equipment, all taxes, end cleaning, dinghy, outboard engine and gasoline, GPs and nautical charts,
sheets, blankets, towels, stereo, and cockpit speakers.
The leading weakness of the company is that the audience is mostly focused on Europeans. If
the company planned a campaign in the states around college campuses, their client base could
potentially double in size. In addition, the company’s only form of advertisement is from social
networking (twitter, facebook and website); they could produce ads in travel magazines and create
brochures for travel agencies.
Core Problem:
The main kink in this new company is that it does not have an advertising campaign. The
company has targeted Europeans and Brits and has left out U.S. college students (who could
potentially be a big target market). If Yacht Week would put in the time to start a nationwide
campaign in the states they could potentially bring in a lot of income and clients. In addition, the
website could be reconstructed so that it would be easier for potential clients to navigate. The section
with the pricing needs an update so it customizes to the clients and is user friendly.
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Tactics:
The Yacht Week’s main weakness is their inefficiency to reach the public. There are
countless ways the company can reach its target audience. By exposing themselves to College
campuses, continuing to progress with social media exposure, advertising in magazines that pertain to
College students, and offering various promotions, The Yacht Week’s business will improve
drastically directly from exposure.
By visiting college campuses, The Yacht Week will be able expose themselves to their main
target audience in person. This will ensure that their key demographic will gain information about the
company by the teams sent to College campus. By continuing to keep up with the company’s social
media outlets, the company will be able to reach their target audience in an efficient way. The last key
tactic that Yacht Week needs to utilize is advertising through magazines that their target audience read.
By executing these tactics, The Yacht Week will legitimize themselves by having an adequate amount
of advertising that informs the public about the company.
Goals:
Our goal as a company is to expand in the United States and create promotions nationwide.
Through campaigns and advertisements we are in hope to expand our company and client base. Our
plan is to target college campuses and promote promotions to college students. A few plans that we
would like to use in our plan are: if a school has 5 sororities and fraternities sign up each yacht
receives a 25% discount off of their whole trip. In addition have college representatives playing music
and promoting Yacht Week at booths during school fairs. Brochures in travel agencies may need to be
created and distributed. Posters may be placed around college campuses promoting to join and sign up
for Yacht Week. There should be representatives for each geographic area that certain colleges reside
in; they should be equipped with business cards and personal contact information.
We would like to stay in our budget and timeline as close as possible giving a little breathing
room in case of unpredictable problems.
Summary:
Yacht week experiences an advantage in the business because there are no other companies
renting yachts to take groups across the ocean. They have the upper hand since they dock at certain
party cities to let customers reach the dry land and explore the culture. Yacht week would flourish if
they directed most of their business to American college students who thrive off of winter and spring
break. If promotions were related to certain types of people they would gain a great wealth of business.
The opportunities that arise if Yacht Week were to change would be an expanding market and
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competition with relating businesses. There are many opportunities that could become if Yacht Week
were to advertise to the correct audiences. Although there are few threats, Yacht Week can never
predict weather related issue or the seasickness of their customers. With a shift in direction this
company could make an enormous growth.
Budget
Strategy Detail Cost Total
Projected
Tactic Redesign
Website to
optimize
usefulness
Website is
currently not
very effective
or
informative,
redesign to
fix that.
$10,000 to
hire website
designer
$10,000
Tactic Advertise in
teen
magazines
Advertise in
popular
magazines to
increase
awareness of
service
$250,000
for full page
ad, $5,000
for ad
designer
$255,000
Tactic Speak at
major
college
campuses
Have media
teams speak
at colleges to
increase
awareness
$10,000 for
travel costs
$10,000
Tactic Flyers Distribute
and hang
flyers on
college
campuses to
explain
$50,000 for
production
of all flyers,
$1,000 for
flyer design
$51,000
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service. 4
color flyers
with basic
title, picture,
and brief
explanation
Tactic Facebook
sidebar ad
Advertise on
because
target market
is active there
Totals: $326,000 $326,000
Calendar
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Key Public Prospective
customers
Website
Redesign
Hire
designer and
have them
work on
website
X X
Review
design with
designer
X
Publish final
website
X
Key Public College age
girls
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Magazine
Advertisement
Hire ad
designer and
have them
work on ad
X X X
Review ad
design
X
Submit ad to
magazine
X
Run ad X
Key Public College
Students
College Visits
Pick
campuses to
visit
X
Put together
teams and
pitches
X
Deploy
teams to
campuses
X X
Key Public College
students
Flyers
Hire
designer for
flyer
X
Approve
flyer design
X
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Print flyers X
Distribute
flyers
X X
Key Public Facebook
Users
Facebook Ad
Hire ad
designer
X
Work on and
edit ad
X
Approve
Final Ad
X
Run ad on
X X X
Evaluation:
There are a few ways that we as a company will evaluate if the marketing tactics that we will
institute are working efficiently or not. Increased facebook and twitter likes and followers will be one
factor in telling that our social media proficiency and institution of advertising are working. The
increase of customers that are U.S. college students will allow us to identify if the advertising and
promotion teams that will be promoting The Yacht Week at college campuses are benefiting the
company as well. If we see that our customer base is still predominantly from European countries,
this will tell us that there needs to be increased budgeting in the advertising side of the business in
order to appeal to the large amount of college students in the United States.
Conclusion:
With this new strategic plan in action for the company, we hope to see many new positive
changes. Our main goals for this plan were as followed: target, promote and cater to a new audience
(United States college students). Our tactics include: initiating college ambassadors, guest speakers at
universities, cross promotions with fraternities and sororities, competitions between schools, free
merchandise, brochures and ads in magazines. These are only a few concepts that we talked about in
the overall plan. With these tactics, as well as others, we conclude that our company will grow and
expand to new areas of the world after we conquer the U.S. By starting this campaign in the United
States it will bring in a bigger customer base, income, and publicity to our company. Our budget
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targets and focuses on paying for different advertisement and marketing campaigns, our main
budgeting expense is social media advertising. We have concluded that social media is the most
proficient way of targeting our new audience. Our budget is manageable and efficient, and will
ultimately lead to the expansion to new markets, which will allow The Yacht Week to grow and
flourish as a company.
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Work Cited
1. “Carnival Cruise Lines.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct 2011. <http://www.carnival.com/>.
2. "Cruise Industry Overview: 2011." Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association. Web. <http://www.f-
cca.com/downloads/2011-overview-
book_Cruise%20Industry%20Overview%20and%20Statistics.pdf>.
3. "Profile of the U.S. Cruise Industry." Cruise Lines International Association.
Web. <http://www.cruising.org/pressroom-research/cruise-industry-source- book/profile-us-
cruise-industry>.
4. The Yacht Week. Web. <http://www.theyachtweek.com/>.