Brand Strategy – Online Travel Website

My strategy here is based on launching Wish I Was There in INDIA. India is a country in South Asia and is presently the second most populated in the world. We will be functioning from the city of New Delhi which also happens to be the capital city. Our operations will take place in this exotic land where people have a keen palette for cuisines, new travel interests to explore and dream of living the good life. This will help our strategy here reach the audience in a manner that would certainly pique their curiosity whether they are serious about travelling presently or in the future, certainly.

Synthesis

Our online marketing strategy to reach not only the people who want to travel but even those who dream of visiting beautiful places one day, some day. The idea here is simple by captivating them based on what they like and also what they would want to know about. Now whether it is for enquiring or wanting to make a booking, our user has the ability to be wherever they want and still be aware by checking out about – cost of ticket from their respective location, food, cuisine, nightlife, architectural & cultural sightseeing, guided tours or living accommodations, we design to cater to each one of them. My content tone will be friendly while at the same time as that of an expert where I will be using other’s advice and reviews to make the viewer come and find it on our website. We will feature a Login & Sign Up option though that will be optional in the sense that limited searches can be made by a viewer in a day and after that they are required to Sign Up. Signing up advertises what they gain when they become a part of our team and can in fact contribute with their own review and hence gain not just fake trophies like TripAdvisor and others, but in fact gain real credits which can be transferred into discount coupons from us, but over a period of time that confirms them as our serious loyal audience. India is one of the world’s largest developing nation and keeping that in mind I have gone over certain analytics I did with the help of Bitly, Google Analytics and Facebook Insights to find out the younger audience and what appeals to them. As the youth of India, who we are targeting are fairly progressive these days – I will apply the same tactic by having a candid experience with them to connect. Not only will this include sharing with them experiences and advices from experts but also upgrade according to their budget. That in other words means that according to a user’s budget/financial status/interests we offer them suggestions of exotic places they would love to travel. This would certainly add an extra touch of making the client feel safe and with someone they trust understands them.

But nothing grabs the first attention better than visuals which are why utmost attention will be given by me on creatives regarding the hues (colours) used, the presentation & the message conveyed. I want to use as many real pictures of a place in our posts so it gains our viewer’s trust that Wish I Was There only endorses real images, not professional ones designed to look good. In India our Analytics shows that people are wary when it comes to building trust but the travel industry is booming with ambitious youngsters who want to travel more and see more.

Target Market

The demographic of INDIA presently stands at more than 50% of its population above the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. The average income in India is typically 30,000INR (approx. 395$) per month whereas the average age would be 29 years. But in India over 71% of the adult population has not completed upper secondary education which still makes illiteracy a major drawback, especially in rural areas.

The competitive landscape of the digital travel industry in India is feisty but still picking up. The popular websites here are TripAdvisor, MakeMyTrip, LonelyPlanet among the top ones. I found my competitors not just on the basis of those I have heard or read the most but also which come up in the search the most in India. If an investor is in discussion with how beneficial Wish I Was There can become economically, I can guide them to a treasure trove of new opportunities we have. As more and more people travel and wish to travel, the demand for better information and better prices increase. Users are looking for a name they can trust and be constant with when it comes to not just having a travel experience but also to take care of them during unprecedented times. This is where we can step in and help our users with making the connection between them and booking a trip – completely seamless. Using influencers will further assist us get more users and also their faith and I would like a column as “What Excites You” to draw audience there. More traffic means more views and more views eventually mean more sales – all we need is to build a base for Wish I Was There that grows stronger with time. The only concern we may have is to analyze what our ROI (return on investment) will be here and a fully functional team to be able to manage the growing demands of our users.

My audience targeted here is the average age group of India which happens to be 29 years. The audience at this age is young and captivated. They are ambitious and want to grow professionally and travel the world. The segmentation I would further consider is that some users would want to travel immediately and some may want to travel in future. Some users would have a higher income and some lower which also has to be kept in mind. And last but not the least, some users would like a romantic travelling experience such as a couple or newlyweds. Whereas some would like to travel solely because of leisure or a trigger event such as best friend’s bachelor holiday or two brothers wanting to trek and do adventure activities. My personas for my audience segment would be “Role Based Personas” as clearly we will be using their interests, their financial standing and overall evaluation to suggest them places they would travel but didn’t know or trust to visit before.

My site is geared for both armchair and physical travelers. We do not want to leave anyone out and while the physical travelers will be more inclined and regular, we will create a marketing strategy to keep the armchair travelers amused as well. So each time they log in after a hard day’s work or just sitting home bored, they find a place that motivates them to travel and enjoy their interests even better. Wish I Was There is mostly a utilitarian(70%) but we will keep some majority for our inspirational users (30%) as well. We want our site to be useful as well as encouraging for people to dream and realize one day it can be real for sure. Our site’s value proposition would be to make our viewer have faith and actually discover something they found based on their interest and that too at a price which was not a big factor when they can trust our site. This will make our value proposition of making our user get up and want to travel, if not immediately at least in the near future.

Executive Summary

I will be using content from various travelers and influencers shared by us. This will be pictures but mostly videos which I feel bring the most engagement. Also on social media platforms such as Tik-Tok, the videos can bring a lot of users. We can request every user who Signs Up with us to mention their interests so we can offer them a newsletter which is sent to them based on their particular interests. We can also offer exciting quizzes or contest where we offer the winner a paid expense trip or a discount when they make a booking with one of our tie-ups. This can be morally boosting not just for the client but will also help when they share their experience with other users. Though recognition works as a brilliant motivating factor, I will try not to be over-whelming with it.

I am certainly not positioning myself as an expert but an INFLUENCER. The consumer trends I am considering here are “Sustainable Travel” as well as “Safety In Check” in accordance with present.

I will be also be utilizing aggregation as well as visual content as a major part of my content strategy to drive audience.

Videos – Both informative & fun which is clearly the highest engagement factor nowadays. I would also encourage travel influencers to collaborate with them on our page.
Blogs – Interesting facts about visiting a place, do’s and don’ts, what do the experts say etc. are some of the rich ideas I have to not just stick to Blogs but other readable assets as well.
Motivational – Out posts will be driven and not just those who want to travel but also to encourage those who had never found a reason to before finding WishIWasThere.in
Mutual Interests – Based on our viewer’s likes and dislikes we will be showcasing them places which we feel according to their occupation, age and interests they would like to visit.
Gamification – This will be in the form of quizzes and contests for sure to excite the users with something interesting to win. But I will also be sharing new ways for user’s to share their thoughts and previews so interaction grows.
Trigger Ready – For all the events that happen around the World unannounced, we will feature a protocol such as “Safety First” which keep our user’s safety and best interest in mind. This in the long run will undeniably grow our brand faith in users.

I will use Instagram, our Customer Care Team, Twitter, Facebook and other pages to communicate on a daily basis until a team is constructed to manage. I also plan to collect user data through analysis of user signups, profile visits, repeated user visits, community strength, newsletter signups as well as social media analytics.

Situation Analysis

I will be measuring my success daily through various Analytical platforms as well as user engagement to not leave any stone unturned. This will include analysing profile visits, repeated user visits, response to post at a certain time, response to a post with a certain message. Along with this I will also be keeping a check on how many people sign up with us or are discussing us whether it is community forums or elsewhere.

The metrics that I will rely the most on are Bitly links, Instagram Insights, Facebook and Google Analytics. I will be tracking it periodically as well as through Customer Interaction and measuring the growth of our users and response to social media campaigns.My key performance indicators would be growth of our user number. Our community and our viewers are who we will be targeting while at the same time our communications are trying to achieve a relaxed, carefree tone that offers our user an enticing offer to check out something new on our site.

Promotion Strategy

My Social Media Strategy will be driven around the new campaign #GoLocal where I will offer our viewer’s a new look of India with places most Indians don’t know about. There are many such places Indians themselves don’t travel or have heard of and I will use this time to highlight them. Engagement will be focused on with Videos, Gamification, regular Picture posts as well as focus on showing our Indian audience a positive approach. We will be showing them how travelling is going to take forever to get back to normal if you want to travel abroad after COVID-19, but travelling in India itself is easier, much more economical and the same as abroad. Here I will also post images to showcase how instead of going to Switzerland for eg. Visiting Kashmir which is also called “Switzerland of India” is more economical and equally pretty. The same way another example can be how people love to travel abroad forget how Kerala in South India is also called “God’s Own Country” for a very true reason. I will be underlining this across various platforms with social media posts, probably about 3 posts daily and Video campaigns as well as user content data. Further on there will be newsletters if our user want to sign up with as well as a discussion forum where we have to keep the buzz going. This strategy for social media will help us keep our viewers even during these uncertain times when the travel industry has taken a hard hit perhaps but we can motivate our viewer’s with hope and a good vibe. The viewer can check out exciting new videos as well as noted from Experts and also on-going discussions and be a part of it.

I plan to use Videos in such a manner daily or every week highlighting us and sharing it on Social Media with a link to take the viewer to our website and check us out. At the same time I will also be using photos and GIF creations keeping in mind the current situation and location since every viewer comes from a different life zone. I will be keeping discussions and forums with new trending topics to discuss each day. Also I am certainly going to be using Gamification methods with my content. Though the engagement can be limited on it, having a quiz or a contest where the winner wins an award or at least is motivated to try is promotion for us still. Even if the viewer gets bored, it will give them something to think about when they check out where or who that quizzes is being held by or what they will win from Wish I Was There.

Budgeting

My estimated budget for the first year of operation will be 15,00,000 INR. This is mainly because of the 5 team members we will have on a monthly salary basis and any outsourcing we do as required. I have also calculated on the basis of monthly income and advertisements and boosting that we will be doing in the first year to attract viewers. There will be also a specific budget kept aside for promoting or boosting our posts online but that will be out of this total itself. The budget can be made considerably lower considering the team strength and how fast we want to develop operations or witness traffic growth.

I will be looking forward for this support to execute my plan from the owners of the site or investors available.

Marketing Objectives

My objectives are my organisation’s audience growth but also increasing our ROI and attracting more new users to experience why they would love visiting Wish I Was There even if they can not immediately afford to travel. We should grow as a Community and be able to create some “noise” on social media. I will be measuring these through daily analysis of our posts, profile visitors as well as repeat visitors. Bitly, Facebook Analysis, Instagram Insights and Google Analytics certainly I plan to use. The platform my audience is most likely to prefer will be – INSTAGRAM and TIK TOK. I will be focusing my audience building on Instagram, Tik-Tok, Facebook, Twitter and then YouTube in this very order since I know how engaging these apps can be if used wisely.

Estimated Growth

I plan to grow my audience to atleast 2x the traffic since its inception within the first 6 months. That means by the first 6 months I intend the traffic will be slow but by first 1 year we would manage 1,00,000 subscribers.