Introduction
Acadia Park Equipment Co. is an outdoor company that offers low-priced and affordable services to the public so that they can manage to have fun without fear or cost implications. Currently, the major clientele of Acadia is all audience aged 18 to 40. However, Acadia seeks to expand its customer base and attract adults above 40 years.
Stakeholders Analysis
The internal and external stakeholders at Acadia (the employees, investors, and owners and the customer’s suppliers and the community respectively) have shown a great interest in receiving information about the activities of the company. In consideration of the communication needs, Acadia should formulate a strategy that works best for the company’s goals in expanding its outreach (Galloway, 2017). In the formation of communication paths for the stakeholders, Acadia should focus on building trust and understanding and make these stakeholders part of the company. Acadia should realize that communicating with this group with the same degree is not possible, but prioritizing a particular group is possible and then narrowing down to the next using the means and channels that serve them best. For instance, communication with the investors and owners can be done well through internal memos, giving frequent feedback and presentations during meetings. However, communicating with the customers and the community can only work best by utilizing communication strategies with a wider outreach. This may include an advertisement, publications, social media, and mass education.
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Target Audience Analysis
The target audience for Acadia Park Equipment is the people aged above 40 years. These groups fall within the external stakeholders (customers) and therefore, the means and channels of communication that best addresses this demography is a channel with a wider outreach. In formulating a communication strategy that fits this situation, Acadia must consider the marketing points that may best convince people above 40 years that hiking is important and not to a youth-only sport (Vernuccio, 2014). In this consideration, the best strategy is outlining the health and social benefits of hiking, the minimal expenses that hiking at Acadia Park Equipment has, also, other perks that Acadia may offer.
Messaging
Marketing to the above audience demands that the message must be clear, communicated in a familiar language, and tap on the desires of the demography. Furthermore, the elderly people need assurance of safety and value for their money and are more concerned about the health and social benefits that come out of outdoor activities, than they are about prestige. Secondly, the channel for messaging must be a channel that they can mostly access. The best media platform, in this case, would be a combination of online marketing using social media platforms and traditional television methods (Mantonakis, n.d.). Facebook is a popular marketing platform, and many adults above 40 (though less than teens) use it. However, television marketing is still effective, and TV has a wider outreach to this audience than social media. TV is also relatively trustworthy and, thus, will convince them through providing assurance (Anisimova, 2014). Other traditional media like newspaper ads and radio segments are also a valid choice, but the most effective is the television and social media, in particular, Facebook.
Message Type
A sample advertisement may include details such as Outdoor activities that are important for the elderly. As a rigorous activity, it improves cardiovascular health and strengthens muscles. Acadia Park Equipment offers an affordable outdoor experience specifically designed for the lovely elderly generation with special care to those above 65 years. The team-building activity is good for the family due to the presence of highly trained experts that provide hiking services to both youth and adults. Acadia Park has a great community of trainers that will guide the elderly in pathfinding as well as enhance team-building amongst themselves and their peers. The hiking gear is also safe and is fitted with the help of professionals. Welcome to Acadia Park Equipment, where value is more important than the cost.
A method of measuring the Success of the message
The success of this message will be measured using different metrics. The first, metric will be ‘tracking the volume’ of respondents that will respond in every platform. Tracking the volume is fairly simple in Facebook than on TV. Facebook has specific features that can be used to measure this reach by tracking the extent of the how ‘viral’ a message has gone and checking the custom target audience have accessed the message as desired. The engagement metric will also be used to track if the message has been shared on various platforms apart from Facebook (Vallaster, Fisher, Vallaster, Lastfisher, Lastvallaster, Fisher, & Vallaster, 2010). This means that ‘likes,’ ‘mentions,’ and ‘shares’ have to be tracked to understand if there is an audience growth in the message. Ultimately, the turn-up at enrollment will be the ultimate evidence of the effectiveness of the messaging.
Rationale
The rationale for picking this message type is that the elderly people (as external stakeholders) are relatively reserved and love to pick value while considering the cost. For this reason, after picking the messaging channel, the message type must be personalized and specific details that appeal to the interests of this demography. For example, when casting for the TV adverts, it would be unwise to choose a young celebrity as an endorser, but it would be impactful to have an elder fellow to appeal to the elderly (Choi and Lewis, 2016). The advertisement should also specify the simplicity of the operations like acquiring tickets for the park as well as how to hire or purchase Acadia Park equipment. The older generation does not like complications and frustrations. For example, in dealing with customer care or in providing feedback, it would be better to use phone calls with real people, instead of automated mail responses or using robot messages to answer their questions. The more personal they feel engaged with the business, the trustier they get with the business, and this is what Acadia desires.
References
Anisimova, T. (2014). Benchmarking desired corporate brand image in relation to stakeholders: A managerial perspective. Qualitative Market Research, 17 (4), 441-463. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1108/QMR-06-2012-0034
Choi, J.-A., & Lewis, R. (2017). Culture and the Star-Power Strategy: Comparing American and Korean Response to Celebrity-Endorsed Advertising. Journal of Global Marketing , 30 (1), 3–11. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1080/08911762.2016.1242681
Galloway, S. (2017). How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google manipulate our emotions. Retrieved 4 August 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/scott_galloway_how_amazon_apple_facebook_and_google_manipulate_our_emotions?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Mantonakis, A. (n.d.). A Brief Pause between a Tagline and Brand Increases Brand Name Recognition and Preference. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(1), 61–69. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1002/acp.1797
Vallaster, C., Fisher, C., Vallaster, Lastfisher, Lastvallaster, Fisher, C., & Vallaster, C. (2010). Connective branding: Building brand equity in a demanding world . ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu
Vernuccio, M. (2014). Communicating Corporate Brands Through Social Media: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Business Communication , 51 (3), 211–233. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1177/2329488414525400
