MARKE7025 | Marketing Communications | The IMC Plan for the Luna Park

Political factors: The Australian government implies certain standards by which the all the amusement parks have to abide by. Therefore, Luna Park as well have to abide by these standards. One of the key standard that the government implies over all such theme parks are to follow a set of safety standards and guidelines that enables safe usage of amusement device and other entertainment devices used in such amusement parks (Salamat Ullah Bhuiyan & Banik, 2013). These safety standards issued by the Australian government are implied upon not just upon the owners of the Luna Park instead on each and every associated members of the theme park. Therefore, any change in these guidelines could affect the functioning of the Luna Park as well.

Economic factors: In past few years the amusement parks have performed poorly and as a result of which the industry revenue have decreased by 6.8% in 2016-2017 (Amusement Parks and Centres Operation – Australia Industry Report | IBISWorld, 2018). This decline in revenue have affected the tourist turnover rate as well the sales of the Luna Park tremendously. However, the situation has been predicted to develop in the coming years by 3.5%.

Social factors: It has been observed that the current society are more enthusiastic towards leading a fun filled lifestyle (Bourdieu, 2013). Therefore, a theme park such as Luna Park that offers its visitors a fun filled adventurous experience surely have an advantage in attracting huge amount of visitors towards it.

Technological factors: Technology has its influence in every field of industry (Jones, Buntting & de Vries, 2013). Hence, theme park such as Luna Park is heavily influenced by the innovation that the advanced technology brings in time to time. Therefore, in order to keep up with the latest technological trends and provide consumers with maximum satisfaction, Luna Park is heavily affected by the technological factors.

Legal factors: Nowadays people all over the world are extremely concerned about the companies following legal the aspects (Cotterrell, 2017). Therefore, in order to maintain the success of the Luna Park, it is strongly influenced by the legal factors of the state.

Environmental factors: It is evident that in recent time the world has been concerned about maintaining a balance between the environment and providing consumer satisfaction (Wu, 2014). Therefore, Luna Park as well is heavily influenced by the environmental factors. Safeguarding the environment and meeting safety guidelines are the key factors that the Luna Park has to abide by.

Porter’s Five Forces

The Porters Five Forces framework is used to analyse the competitive intensity of the Luna Park.

Competitive rivalry (High) – Even though Luna Park is one of the most iconic amusement park and is highly popular tourist spot among visitors, in recent times, the amusement park faces some tough competition. At the moment, the Luna Park holds fifth positon among the top ten theme parks of Australia (Zerlang, 2018). The main competitors of Luna Park are Adventure World, Dream World, Jamberoo Action Park and so on. Therefore the level of intensity from competitive rivalry is significantly high.

Potential of new entrants (Low) – At the current moment, there are no major competition from the new entrants in the theme park industry. Therefore, the intensity level of new entrants is relatively low for Luna Park.

Power of suppliers (Low) – Since Australia is famous for its numerous tourist spots, the number of suppliers providing resources for theme parks are many in number. Therefore, the level of intensity from suppliers is low.

Power of consumers (High) – The level of competition among theme parks is comparatively high in Australia (Birenboim et al., 2013). There are many other theme parks apart from Luna Park that offer similar services hence, the consumers or tourists have plenty of options to choose from and as result of which Luna Park have to persuade the consumers to attract towards itself. Therefore, the level of intensity of consumers is high in this scenario.

Threat from substitute or similar services (High) – Australia have extensive establishment of tourist spots spread across the nation. Apart from theme parks such as Luna Park it even has interesting and adventurous tourist spots where visitors could have similar experience. This increases the level of intensity from substitute services.

SWOT analysis

Now for analysing the internal environment of Luna Park a SWOT analysis is conducted.

Strengths – The location where the Luna Park is situated both in Sydney and Melbourne respectively is a highly favourable location where thousands of tourists visit every day. In addition to this, Luna Park has been in the market over a long period and therefore, have the advantage of building a good reputation with the local communities as well as other sponsors. The architecture and unique entrance serves as an attracting attribute for this theme park. The huge moon shaped entrance attracts thousands of visitors towards the theme park. Additionally, the theme park offers a variety of age appropriate rides that have the capability of attracting a wide range of consumers.

Weaknesses – The price range for unlimited ride is comparatively high in Luna Park and as a result of which only attracts elite consumers. Apart from this, some of the rides present in Sydney Luna Park have high noises and this disrupts the local communities surrounding the park. In addition, the Luna Parks troubled history of shutting down gives a weak reputation for the theme park and arises questions among investors that are willing to do business.

Opportunities – The theme park with its popular reputation have the opportunity to attract more visitors towards the theme park. Additionally, being among the top ten theme park, Luna Park have the opportunity to expand its popularity on a larger scale.

Threats – The recent accident that took place in Dream World, Gold coast have given rise to lot of concerns among tourists about the safety standards of amusement parks. This concern in the minds of consumers poses as a major threat for Luna Park as well.

Communication objectives

There are a set of objectives that the Luna Park have to address in order to increase the rate of success. These objectives are as follows –

1. The first and foremost objective of Luna Park would be to create awareness among the consumers about the range of services and fun filled rides that the theme park offers. Therefore repeated campaign must be initiated in order to make the brand aware among the potential consumers that are the senior demographic population (Duffett, 2015). In addition to this, the theme park must highlight the sustainable and safety approach of providing services to its targeted consumers.
2. The second objective of Luna Park would be to disseminate the needful information related to the theme park. Therefore, with the help of online media and other advertising tools the organisation will spread the information regarding Luna Park (Hays, Page & Buhalis, 2013).
3. The third objective would be to project an image or a reputation of Luna Park among the tourists or visitors. Luna Park aims to provide its visitors a fun filled and adventurous experience, therefore, it must project similar image with its consumers as well.
4. The fourth objective would be to create a feeling of desire among the consumers or visitors for the purpose of attracting maximum number of visitors towards the park.

Budget allocation

A wide range of marketing strategies and promotional tools would be adopted in order to fulfil the above mentioned objectives. Therefore an estimated budget of $5000000 would be considered for fulfilling various objectives. The social media marketing campaign would have an estimated budget of $75000. Additionally, other advertisement tools such as online advertisements, hoardings, and newspaper advertisements shall have an estimated amount of $55000. Apart from this, a promotional event will be held that shall have an estimated budget of $150000. The remaining amount will be allocated for PR events and other miscellaneous activities.

Creative strategy

It has been observed that the senior age group are tough consumers to attract as they are concerned about the safety measures of theme parks (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2016). Therefore, in order to attract them and clear their misconception a free visit day will be initiated where a senior citizen along with one grandchildren will be given a free tour of the entire park. The various safety measures that the Luna parks adopt shall also be demonstrated to them by the Park’s trained professionals. This strategy shall help clear the misconception among senior age group visitors and may increase the number of visitors.

Another creative strategy that the theme park shall adopt is combining the power of social media along with promotion. The visitors of Luna Park shall post a selfie with the hashtag “#letthefunbegininlunapark” and post it on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Every week five lucky winners from this hashtag contest would be selected and will be provided with exciting gift vouchers and other prizes. This contest will enable the other potential consumers with the feeling of need to visit the park as the selfies posted by other visitors will reflect a good time that they had visiting the park. This strategy will also be useful to attract consumers towards the theme park and additionally will give out an image that the park intends to imply on the market and on the consumers.

Media strategy and coordination of IMC plan

The social media campaign will be conducted for promoting the central theme of the Luna Park and therefore, the main message of this campaign would be “Let the fun begin”. It is observed that in recent times, the use of social media platforms are in high demand therefore, creating event page in all the major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram will be initiated (Leung, Van Hoof & Buhalis, 2013). In addition to this, the events that will be conducted in the theme park along with the promotional event will be broadcasted live in the official YouTube page of Luna Park along other social media platforms. Additionally, pop up advertisements will be established in all the major searching sites. This will create exposure regarding the brand and will promote the variety of services that Luna Park offers.

Apart from this, since Luna Park’s main target customers are children and young adult, advertisements and promotional events will be held in schools and colleges. The students will be provided with vouchers and other offer tickets so that the park could attract maximum visitors and achieve the key objectives set up by the theme park.

Apart from this, the official pages of Facebook and Twitter will be conducting polls that will ask the consumers to choose the services that they liked the most during their visit to the park. This online poll system will help the park to recognise the popular ride and services of their park and make necessary amendments where they require to improve.

Evaluation of IMC plan

The above mentioned IMC plan will be able to address the key potential consumers that are the senior age group. Apart from it the creative strategy that is intended to focus on the potential consumers is an appropriate fit. Since, in past few years the amusement parks have garnered a bad reputation regarding the safety measures adopted by them. Therefore, the above mentioned creative strategy will help diminish those concerns and shall help open up a new consumer base for the theme park. In addition to this, the media strategy that the Luna Park shall be adopting will focus on all the major social media platforms. Now in contemporary times, social media platforms are a great way with the help of which organisations and companies advertise and promote their services and products. Similarly, Luna Park shall be adopting social media marketing campaign that will enable the organisation to reach out to maximum number of consumers.

Conclusion

From the above discussion it can be concluded that the Luna Park have been one of the most well recognised theme park in Australia. However, in recent times, as a result of the competitive market and certain safety concerns the industry revenue of amusement parks have decreased and thus, affecting the profits of Luna Park Sydney and Melbourne. However, the situational analysis conducted upon the theme park brought put some highlighting outcomes that enabled to structure out an integrated marketing communication plan for this amusement park. The key communication objectives are enumerated and accordingly the various creative, media, marketing strategies are planned out for increasing the sales and building the brand name of the Luna Park. In addition to this, an estimated budget allocation is also planned out for structuring various expenditures that the Luna Park has to initiate for operating the integrated marketing communication plan.

References

Amusement Parks and Centres Operation – Australia Industry Report | IBISWorld. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/arts-recreation-services/amusement-parks-centres-operation.html

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