Birmingham’s economy is solely dependent on sports
Birmingham’s economy is solely dependent on sports, culture and events that attract tourists and thereby generate revenue whenever these tourists spend. Therefore, it is salient that a branding strategy is implemented periodically. As the appointed Visit Birmingham’s Marketing Manager, I would begin by proposing a market segmentation. Segmentation will enable the Destination Marketing Organization to subdivide the diversified market and target only the most profitable ones.
The segmentation bases that will make up the target market for Birmingham are geographic and the demographic. The Geographic market represents the place of origin for the tourists and focusing on this type of market will undoubtedly help the city to generate high returns. The city has recorded tourists from leading international markets, that is, China, Netherlands and India. It is therefore essential that the focus is continuously directed to these critical countries since the tourists from there tend to spend more and consequently increase the city’s profits.
Demographics refer to age, education, income, gender, marital status and employment of a group of people. However, the most significant variable that will make up the target market for Birmingham is education and income. For a city that majorly relies on tourist spending, high-income earners will irrefutably be a prime target. Individuals who have more income will be more inclined to travel to increase their expenses. Additionally, educated people will be more interested and motivated to learn about other cultures and attend events; thus, they will visit different regions, particularly Birmingham.
Common Wealth games have been set to commence on the 27th of July in the city of Birmingham. The sole objective for conducting the games is to promote unity among the fifty-four members that make up the Common Wealth of Nations, as each country is represented in the numerous games. Athletes, spectators and volunteers relate in a friendly manner as the purpose and goal for the games are common to all of them. Moreover, through the games, leadership is strengthened as fairness is upheld, and leisure activities are created out of the regular hustle and bustle that characterizes our day to day activities.
To ensure that the objective will encourage more people to attend the games, the selected theme should be captivating. ‘Delivering a Common Future’, which is the set theme for the games, is indeed appealing and will work as a marketing strategy to prompt people to attend the sports. The city should, in turn, heighten positive attitudes and increase accommodation since the games will run until the 7th of August. The high turn-up that will be observed will see to it that there is a creation of employment for the residents of Birmingham.
The Integrated Marketing communication will be an essential application during the Common Wealth games and any other events that will be held in Birmingham. The IMC will enable the city to coordinate its communication channels so that the marketing messages that are disseminated are consistent. The integrated tools, which include advertising, public relations, direct marketing and social media marketing, will allow the DMO to publicize the events and sports, particularly to the specified target markets.