Advanced Marketing E-Guide for MSMEs

UNITED NATIONS

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

#FUTURETOURISM

BUSINESS ADAPTATION PROGRAMME

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean

Advanced Marketing

E-Guide for MSMEs

Acknowledgements

This guide will enable you to REFLECT, RESTART

or to REVITALISE your business in relation to

markets, particularly in the digital environment,

and help you to develop a Marketing strategy.

Learning focuses are differentiated between

product and service marketing.

These e-guides have been produced by the

United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean

thanks to the generous contribution from the

Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the

technical support of the Frankfurt School of

Finance & Management which collaborated on

the development of the content and design.

Special acknowledgement goes also to the

University of West Indies Open Campus and

all the facilitators, e-tutors and mentors that

made the Business Adaptation Programme

of the UNDP Future Tourism Project possible.

The Project played a pivotal role in supporting

MSMEs in the Eastern Caribbean through

the difﬁculties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization ﬁghting to end

the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working

with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries,

we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people

and planet.

Learn more at undp.org/barbados or follow at @UNDPBarbadosEC.

CONTENTS

1. Why does Marketing matter for business?

2. Marketing as a strategic tool

3. What is a Marketing Strategy?

4. Building a Marketing Strategy

5. Understanding a Tourism Marketing Strategy

6. Tourism market trends

7. Digital marketing strategy

8. Digital tools helpful in your marketing activities

9. Tools to support a dynamic marketing campaign

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 4

1. Why does Marketing

matter for business?

Many companies can increase their turnover

using marketing measures. In particular, the

marketing mix with the four P’s (Product, Price,

Place, Promotion)

allows businesses to control the

variables of customer motivation and behaviour.

see Fundamental Marketing e-guide for MSMEs for overview of the Four Ps

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 5

2. Marketing as a strategic tool

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

• Properly targeted, it can

bring new and returning

customers, it widens the

market

• Accelerates other activities

• Helps optional utilisation of

resources

• Opinions of current

and former customers

can identify areas for

improvement

• Allows for a more personal

relationship between the

business and the customer

• Facilitates awareness of

goods and services

• Serves as a basis for further

marketing decisions

• Marketing can be expensive

and drain proﬁts, especially

for smaller businesses

• The cost of branded items

used for advertising reduces

proﬁt margins

• The business may require

additional staff to assist with

advertising

• The time required to keep

information updated on

websites and social media

may require additional staff

• Lack of feedback control of

marketing campaign

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

• Access to customers at an

earlier stage

• Access to greater number of

customers

• Being ﬂexible and

convenient

• Regionalising and

globalizing products and

services

• Opportunities for

partnership

• Being accessible 24 hours

and all year, increases

potential customer

interaction and transactions

at any time and any place

• Better communication

• Digital marketing can

be an environmentally

friendly alternative to print

marketing campaign

• Obligation to always keep

the information up to date

• Additional costs in setting

up, maintaining and

updating digital and social

media content

• High competition

• Security, privacy, and

conﬁdentiality

• Fraud

• As easy as it is to get

positive coverage, it’s just as

easy to get tainted by viral

spread or bad news.

The internet and social media channels create

availability and accessibility that changes

options of direct selling. Digital and social media

have changed the way businesses interact and trade.

If you don’t include digital and social media in

your marketing campaign, you are missing out on

a large segment of your audience. However, not

every medium is necessary for every business idea.

In order to withstand

and to compete in such a

disruptive, changing and

growing tourism industry,

you will need to develop

a strategy to gain more

attention and attract more

customers.

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A robust marketing strategy

will reach your target audience

– this includes those who have

never heard of your brand all

the way to repeat customers.

REMEMBER:

3. What is a

Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy refers to a company’s

overarching plan to reach potential customers

and turn them into customers for its products

or services.

A marketing strategy includes the company’s

value proposition, key brand messages, data

on target customer demographics and other

overarching elements.

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4. Building a Marketing

Strategy

A Marketing Strategy will align you and your

business team to specific goals, tie all your

work and efforts to your business objective and

respond to external environment factors to

minimize the risk associated with these factors.

Using key theories and concepts can further

enhance your understanding of your marketing

strategy. Below we will look at some of the key

theories, concepts and tools that

can help you build a marketing campaign for

your business.

In an ever-changing business environment,

you may need to use different tools to

identify opportunities where you can gain a

competitive advantage.

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When you think about what makes a business

successful, several factors immediately come to

mind. In a clustered way, the environment can

be internal (micro) i.e. inside of your business or

external (macro) i.e. outside of it.

The Macro Environment (also called the External

Environment) is the condition that exists in the

economy as a whole, rather than in a particular

sector or region.

The Micro Environment (also called the Internal

Environment) refers to the immediate context

of an organisation’s operations over which it can

exert some inﬂuence, including such elements as

suppliers, customers, competitors and well as its

internal environment. (CIM, 2021)

MARKETING ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

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SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats. A SWOT

analysis helps you to build on what you and your

business do well, address what your business is

lacking, seize new opportunities, and minimize

risks and reflect the current situation of your

business.

A SWOT analysis for a marketing plan is distinctly

different to a SWOT analysis for a business plan

in that each element you consider must be

considered from the customer’s point of view.

Applying the SWOT analysis tool will help you to

analyse your business’ current position before

you work on any marketing strategies.

SWOT ANALYSIS

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

• Almost no cost to execute

• Allows you to understand

your business better

• It can address weaknesses &

deter threats

• You may come across

opportunities you can

exploit

• Capitalise on your strengths

• Develop business goals and

strategies to achieve them.

• Does not prioritise problems

• Does not offer solutions or

alternative choices/options

• Can generate too many

ideas but not help you

choose the best one

• Can provide a lot of

information, but not all of it

is useful.

For all the benefits

of a SWOT analysis,

be aware of the

disadvantages too.

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 13

PESTEL analysis is a tool used to identify the external

marketing factors (that affect the organisation). The

acronym stands for Political, Economic,

Social, Technological, Environmental

and Legal.

PESTEL ANALYSIS

The result of a PESTEL analysis identiﬁes certain

threats and vulnerabilities to which a business

may be unknowingly exposed. The tool scans

external environment changes that affect business

operations. By understanding market conditions,

you can build successful marketing campaigns.

The PESTEL Analysis can often be applied as part

of the Marketing Environmental Analysis.

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 14

The Porters five forces tool is used to assess

the level of competitive intensity within your

business industry. Harvard Business School

Professor Michael Porter developed this model

from the perspective that you can determine

the proﬁtability of an industry by knowing the

degree of competition. It’s one of the most

popular and highly regarded strategy tools.

To use the model, start by looking at

each of the ﬁve forces in turn, and

how they apply in your industry.

This tool can be particularly useful when

restarting or revitalising your business or when

starting a new business entering a new industry,

as it highlights how likely you are to succeed.

MICHAEL PORTERS FIVE FORCES

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 15

MICHAEL PORTERS FIVE FORCES

When you understand the forces affecting your

industry, you’ll be able to adjust your strategy,

boost your proﬁtability, and stay ahead of the

competition. For example, if you ﬁnd yourself in

a structurally weak position, the model can help

you to think about what you can do to move

into a stronger one.

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 16

5. Understanding a

Tourism Marketing

Strategy

Tourism marketing is just another marketing

approach. However, there is one thing

that makes it unique. Instead of focusing on

marketing a room, service, hotel, or restaurant,

tourism and destination marketing

are about promoting speciﬁc locations and their

beneﬁts.

Tourism marketing has become an inseparable

part of the modern marketing mix used by

hotels, restaurants, cities among others.

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 17

6. Tourism market trends

Align your business to new tourism

market trends.

• Healthy and organic food & drinks

• Community-based Tourism

• Sustainability

• Personalised service

• Safety & Hygiene Tourism

• Growth of Contactless Payments

• Shift From International to Local travellers

(and both in parallel)

• Solo Travel

• Eco Travel

• Digital nomad lifestyle; Workations

(working on the road while enjoying the

beneﬁts of travel)

Which trend impacts your

business?

Which trend creates new

opportunities for you?

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 18

7. Digital marketing strategy

Adapting your business to the digital age is now a

pre-requisite for any business all over the world,

ranging from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

to Multi-National Corporations.

The aim of digital transformation is to improve

digital maturity across your business, while, at the

same time, integrating ‘always-on’ digital marketing

activities with brand and product marketing within

the business. Digital marketing must support your

marketing and business goals and strategy.

You need to have a clear understanding of your

business, product, and demographics before

choosing a digital marketing strategy that will be

effective for your business needs.

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 19

It can be overwhelming when you are deciding

the right digital marketing strategy.

The most

prosperous digital marketing strategies use a multi-

channel approach.

The most effective strategy to start with is often

social media marketing, followed by content

marketing. Email and video are effective ways to

market almost any product through any sector in

the tourism industry. Use content marketing to

entertain, inspire, educate and convince potential

customers during their customer lifecycle.

The stages of strategic digital marketing planning

include plan, reach, act, convert and engage.

Overall, it is very important that your plan is aligned

with your brand and your message. To ﬁnd your

successful marketing strategy, you may continually

monitor and adjust. If you are working alone or in

a very small team, it is better to reduce your digital

marketing strategies to a very few so as to not

overburden your team.

What matters is who you target your

marketing at and why!

REMEMBER:

see Advanced Digital Technology e-guide for MSMEs for SEO

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 20

Regardless of your goals, digital

marketing tools can help you win

over leads, manage customer

relationships, or uncover new

marketing opportunities.

Below is a list that can serve as

a foundation set of tools (also

known as Marketing TechStack) to

prepare, organise or control your

marketing success.

8. Digital tools helpful in

your marketing activities

• Augmented Reality

• 360º Tours

• App Development

• Digital Cultural Heritage – Culture is one of the

pillars of tourism marketing strategies

• Use of QR Codes

• Service Design – service design tools such as

shadowing, mapping, interviews, user journals,

or observation techniques

• Tourism Behaviour – considers plans and

behaviours for tourist spending, length of stay,

attractions, destinations, accommodation and

activities.

• Radio Frequency Identiﬁcation (RFID) – a

wireless system comprised of two components:

tags and readers.

Future-Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean | 21

ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD: On a

subscription model, Adobe Systems

offers a set of applications and services

that gives access to a collection of

software for graphic design, video

editing, and web development

applications.

REMIXLIVE: This new music creation

tool features a professional drum pad,

looper, sequencer & song mode perfect

for both live performance and musical

composition.

AUXY: Auxy’s mission is to put a studio

in everyone’s pocket and push music

forward as an artform.

MOBILE MUSIC TOOLS

ART DESIGN TOOLS

Here are some additional tools you can

use to make your marketing strategy

and campaign more dynamic!

9. Tools to support a

dynamic marketing

campaign

LIGHTROOM: This offers a rich

set of tools for organizing your

photos. Collections, keywords, face

recognition, ﬂags, stars, colour labels,

and a variety of useful search ﬁlters

give you multiple ways to keep track of

all the photos on your local drives.

SNAPSEED: Snapseed is a complete

and professional photo editor

developed by Google.

LENS DISTORTIONS: Harness the

power of beautiful light, natural

elements, and elegant overlays to

create truly cinematic images. Enjoy

a selection of free photo effects from

each category in the app or join LD

Unlimited to unlock all photo effects.

PHOTOLEAP: This a photo editing app

made for aspiring artists who want to

transform their photos into art! Create

iPhone art and spread the word!

MOBILE ART DESIGN TOOLS

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAMME BARBADOS AND

EASTERN CARIBBEAN

TELEPHONE:

Tel: +1(246) 467 6000

EMAILS:

registry.bb@undp.org

[email protected]

WEBSITE:

undp.org/barbados