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What Do You Think?

Our clients often come to us with assumptions about the result of their project. However… the results are often surprising! See if you can guess the results below.

Can You Brand a Vacation?

A tourism destination was developing a new marketing campaign, and hired Ethridge & Associates, L.L.C. to conduct Strategic Brand Positioning Research to determine what the Brand Positioning Promise (Message) should be.

Before the Brand Positioning Research was conducted, the client’s ad agency had developed a preliminary Brand Positioning Message with the goal of positioning the destination as “the premier destination” of its type in its region where you could “have fun” and “be a kid again.”

What Do You Think?

Considering what you know about what motivates people to choose one vacation destination over another, which one do you think would be the best, most motivating Brand Positioning Message? Would you tend to position a vacation destination as:

  • A) The Premier destination of its type in the region
  • B) A “fun” place where you can “be a kid again”
  • C) Some other message not being considered by the ad agency
  • D) Don’t know/I have no idea/it depends on a lot of variables

Yes! The Right Answer Is... C

The right answer is C, some other message not being considered by the ad agency, as described below.

  1. Ethridge's Brand Positioning Research found that the destination was already perceived by the market to be the “premier destination of its type in the region”; thus, it would have been a mistake to make it sound like the campaign was trying to position the brand as the premier destination as if for the first time. Instead, the campaign needed to assume that premier position, reinforce that position, and leverage (flow from) that position in all messages.
  2. Our research also found that the idea of being a “fun” place where you can “be a kid again” did not resonate with many people.  In fact, it actually alienated many of the destination’s target market.  To this audience, a destination that was positioned primarily as “fun” place was perceived to be “too tiring” (“I’d have to take a vacation from my vacation”).  People wanted to visit a place with both fun activities and opportunities to do nothing but relax.
  3. Most importantly, our research found that this particular destination was unique because tourists perceived to offer “the best of both worlds” - the right mix of fun and relaxing activities.  They also perceived it to be the best overall place to visit to make lasting memories with the family and friends that that they cared about most.

Wrapup

Instead of weakening the brand’s position by sounding like it was not yet the premier destination it already was, and running off potential visitors by communicating something that would have been too stressful (a “fun place” where you can “be a kid again,” meant a “tiring place,” where I would “not get a chance to relax”), a new campaign was developed that activated what really motivated people to visit this particular destination: Because it is a place where you can do as much or as little as you want — the best of both worlds — it is the best place to make lasting memories with family and friends that you care about most.

All Questions