Marketing Mix of Shiverpool:-
As a small firm, Shiverpool should be very clear about the services it offers because services offered are the heart of the marketing mix. Shiverpool should be very clear about the core benefits of their services. The core benefit which Shiverpool has is the rich history and culture of the Liverpool which Shiverpool is using quite well in designing the scripts for its ghost tours. From the other P’s of marketing, placement is of immense importance because if the placement of services is correct then it can save a lot off advertising money for the small firm which can be used somewhere else. So for Shiverpool it is very important that it carefully select its locations and stories during the ghost tours to capture a favorable place in the mind of the customers which will ultimately create a positive word of mouth and will create a customer relationship and can also save advertising money. Price is the third P of Marketing and if the business has taken all the other steps right but still the business can be a failure if the products/services are priced incorrectly. Price depends on various factors such as competition, costs and demand so businesses should be very careful in setting the prices as all the other P’s of marketing which include product, place and promotion add value to the customers and costs the business and price is the thing through which business can recover its costs and make profits. Shiverpool has no direct competition in Liverpool but as a tourist place and former capital of culture it has indirect competition from other tourist attractions in the city so it has to be very careful in setting the prices for its ghost tours and Shiverpool mostly does market penetration pricing in which they charge very low prices then expected from the customers in order to gain more market share in highly competitive market. The 4th P of marketing is promotion and the objective of any promotional campaign is to communicate and deliver the message to the target market. Any firm has to choose from the four major promotional tools (Advertising, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling and Public Relations) that how much weight they are going to place in each of the tool depending on the nature of the business.
As a small firm Shiverpool has to select its marketing tools carefully and should think first of saving marketing money by using the most appropriate and most efficient way of marketing. Shiverpool uses various marketing techniques effectively to create the awareness about the brand ‘Shiverpool’.
Shiverpool pays more attention towards advertising as through advertising they can persuade and inform the tourists and can also remind people about Shiverpool - The Ghost Tours as a brand. Shiverpool does viral marketing. Kotler defines viral marketing as “The use of pre existing social networks to market the brands”. Shiverpool has its page on social networking website Facebook where the visitors can join and get the alerts and news about the Shiverpool and its tours. There is also a photo section from which the photos of different ghost tours organized by Shiverpool can be downloaded. Shiverpool also use print media to promote itself. Shiverpool distribute broachers and flyers in the hotels of Liverpool to make the visitors aware about Shiverpool and its ghost tours. Internet marketing is the marketing medium of the dreams of small businesses and that is a medium which small firms can use to interact with their target audiences more effectively. The website of Shiverpool is developed by Glow New Media, a Liverpool based award winning web design and digital marketing agency. Shiverpool has very interactive website which offers videos and picture gallery. And within 14 weeks of launching the new website it achieved complete return on investment via online bookings. Visitors can also get all the recent offers and can book their tours through the website. Shiverpool also has mini site on visitliverpool.com and albertdock.com which also provides the information about the Shiverpool and its ghost tours. Shiverpool is also collaborating with the universities in Liverpool to know the number of international students and their nationalities so that they can drive better strategies to target those students and can drive ways of attracting their nation. Shiverpool also do the out of home advertising in which they place their advertising boards on different streets of Liverpool so that the tourists who do not know about it can come to know about the Shiverpool and its ghost tours. Finally Shiverpool is also doing undercover marketing. Undercover Marketing is a marketing concept in which the consumers are not aware that they are being marketed. As the ghost tours of Shiverpool go through the different streets of Liverpool so the people passing by the roads become aware about the Shiverpool and its services. Shiverpool also do shock advertising occasionally in which they adopt different techniques to create the awareness about the Shiverpool and its ghost tours. For example on one Halloween night, john stone the owner of Shiverpool put a black casket on which scary stories about the Halloween night were written on a car and drove through the roads of Liverpool or once an actor of Shiverpool stood in a shopping mall mysteriously wearing a makeup and complete black dress. So by these ways the passerby’s become curious about strange thing happening around them and when they come to know that it is from Shiverpool - The Ghost Tours then it creates the suspense among the viewers to know that what is Shiverpool and what are the ghost tours so they come to the ghost tours organized by Shiverpool to know more about the characters, stories and the history of Liverpool.
