Singapore's Sentosa island: development and tourism

Singapore Sentosa Market Analysis and Recommendations

Increasing attendance at Singapore Sentosa and its related attractions by gaining more visitors from Malaysia and locally within the Philippines is the intent of this analysis. The focus on the seven Ps of marketing is used as the foundation of his report and recommendations, and statistics obtained from the Malaysia Tourism Ministry (Malaysia Tourism Report, 2010) and from studies of Singapore's tourism industry (Toh, Khan, Lim, 2001) provide insights used in the analysis. The marketing mix is defined and analysis of the largest potential demographic markets defined.

A complete and thorough analysis to define the target markets for the Singapore Sentosa indicates that the most potentially profitable has been completed. The most profitable and potentially high growth target market of Malaysian visitors are in the 35- to 44-year-old age group, and then most often stay three days in Singapore when they visit. The second highest potential target market are the 25- to 34-year-olds, a segment dominated by young families. Taken together, both of these segments are 48.5% of all inbound Malaysian visitors to Singapore. The majority of these are male (52.3%) and have incomes in the upper 20% of Malaysians. With regard to the 7ps of marketing, the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are defined.

7 ps of marketing

Strength

Weaknesses

Opportunity

Threat

Product

Exceptional entertainment value across all age groups

Remote and expensive to get to Expand with age-appropriate attractions

Loss of revenue due to epidemics or terrorism, also natural disasters

Place

Beautiful location in Singapore

Difficult from a transportation standpoint

Create charters with schedule flexibility

Weather; cost of capital for expansion

Promotion

Location has a high affinity for leisure travel

Perceived as expensive and costly due to its exclusivity

Re-brand the re-position as an accessible, affordable yet special destination

Competitors that are global in scale can create an entirely new theme park to challenge them

Price

Mid-tier and higher prices have led to greater profitability

Inelastic markets do not generate demand when prices are lowered; they will have to eventually raise the price

Segment and stratify entertainment offerings by price to appeal to a broader group of audience

Pricing becomes too inelastic too quickly and leads to price wars in the entertainment market

People

Excellent staff at the location that have valuable skill sets based on training

Difficult to hold into excellent help as they are often recruited by other entertainment businesses

Creating a training program and the potential for advancement can alleviate turn-over in staff

A major corporation launches a competing entertainment venue in Singapore and recruits the best workers

Process

Customer-facing processes well-defined and created to support customer service

Lack of consistency in customer-facing processes causes confusion and lack of customer satisfaction

Creating a more streamlined and efficient series of processes for working with customers and driving up loyalty

Patience from customers begins to wear thin and they leave the Sentosa for other entertainment venues

Physical evidence

World-class destination for family and couples entertainment; exceptional variety of shipping, sports and entertainment

Extremely expensive to maintain the many facilities and entertainment venues

Potential for changing the financial structure of the business to support more effective long-term pricing and more competitive development timelines for new venues

The growing interest in the region from multinational corporations who are seeking new entertainment sources of revenue

Based on an analysis of the marketing mix, recommendations include:

1. The creation of more attractive package pricing and "experience Sentosa" programs that show the wide variety of entertainment options that fit with each type of lifestyle.

2. Defining one, two and three day passes along with annual passes that offer airfare discounts from major Singapore-based airlines.

3. Initiating a "Create your own Sentosa" program where customers can customize their entire vacations, regardless of the days they are spending there or the range of activities.

1.1

Background

The primary target markets for Singapore Sentosa are young families with a head of household that is 35- to 44-year-old with median to higher income levels and who travels and who stays in the Philippines an average of 3 days per trip (Malaysia Tourism Report, 2010). This primary target market most often sees vacation as a means to engage in shipping as a form of entertainment 75.6% of the time (Toh, Khan, Lim, 2001). Sightseeing (53.3%), dining out (48.8%), visiting heritage and historical sites (35%), and amusement parks (35%) are the top five activities that Malaysians engage in during holidays. These are in fact psychographic groups, or how the Malaysian consumers define and differentiate themselves. An additional factor to keep in mind is that golfing, tennis and popular sports are only engaged in 13.3% of the time. Gambling is at a distant 4.2% of all activities Malaysians engage in (Toh, Khan, Lim, 2001).

1.2

Aims

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the target market for Singapore Sentosa locally in addition to evaluating the marketing mix and making recommendations because of the analysis. The first section of this report will be briefly discuss the background of Singapore Sentosa. The second section will begin by defining the term of 7ps of marketing, then analysis those 7ps for Singapore Sentosa. Final section will have recommendation, which based on 7ps of how to improve upon Singapore Sentosa to domestic tourists.

1.3

Scope

The report uses the 7ps marketing tool from a number of the marketing textbooks and academic journal articles to evaluate Singapore Sentosa, also it will base on 7ps marketing to have recommendation to improve upon for Singapore Sentosa.

1.1 Target Market of Singapore Sentosa

The basis of any effective marketing strategy is to base it on the needs, wants and expectations of a specific market segment (Agarwal, Malhotra, Bolton, 2010). In the case of the Singapore Sentosa, the initial segmentation is demographic. This is useful from the standpoint of defining media, public relations and online marketing programs as the media associated with these channels is segmented demographically. The more critical segmentation criterion however is the psychographically based audience profiles. The study of psychographics defines how customers define their identities as part of larger groups. The groups that emerge from an analysis of the potential Malaysian visitors are the shoppers (by far the majority see this as the primary form of entertainment when traveling) followed by sightseeing (53.3%), dining out (48.8%), visiting heritage and historical sites (35%), and amusement parks (35%).

2.0

The 7P's of Marketing

The 7 Ps form the foundation of the marketing strategy for Singapore Sentosa. Each of the specific functional areas of the 7 Ps are discussed in the context of the marketing strategy blew.

2.1 Product - Definition

The product is by definition the good or service delivered to customers of an establishment. In the case of the Singapore Sentosa it is the many experiences possible from the dozens of entertainment outlets and programs, activities and areas.

2.1 Product - application to tourism operation

From the standpoint of Singapore Sentosa the most important determinant in gaining new customers, both within Singapore and from Malaysia, is the ability to define and deliver exceptional experiences. The focus on experiences as the product instead of just its functional value needs to pervade all strategies if they are to succeed (Kang, Tan, 2004). Studies of customer re-investment analysis indicate that the more memorable and focused the experience the greater the level of return visits and appending (Klebanow, 2009). For Singapore Sentosa the challenge will be to gain greater adoption of its casino operations, as the studies of Malaysian tourists indicate this is the fifth-most interesting activity they participate in when traveling (Toh, Khan, Lim, 2001). What Singapore Sentosa needs to do is to create a strong set of customer experiences that are segmented by the experience the customer wants to have. With so many interested in shopping it seems natural to create a shopping excursion throughout the region, possibly to Hong Kong as well. All of these factors however need to be unified into a single, pervasive marketing plan for the resort and the casino if they are to succeed, which is often the case with the launch of new Las Vegas casinos for example (Klebanow, 2002).

2.2 Place - Definition

The Singapore Sentosa needs to define its own unique branding as well as a destination. This is a critical part of the Pace aspect of the 7 Ps of marketing.

2.2 Place - application to tourism operation