The Drag Queen Theory of Tourism Marketing
Posted by Steve Wright at 4/2/2007 11:13 PM and is filed under Tourism Marketing,rants,Destination Marketing,hospitality marketing,tourism campaign,travel marketing 
Up-selling is one of the keys to increasing revenues in tourism marketing, but what do you do when your base product is already meeting the needs of consumers?
One of my clients was facing exactly this problem -- they had created three tiers to their product offering but 85% of their sales were coming from the lower-margin base product. Despite their best efforts, adding additional features and benefits to the upper two tiers had done little to shift consumers to their higher-margin offerings.
The client was looking for ways to improve perceptions of the higher tiers and drive revenues. We didn't give them an answer to that question, but we solved their problem... and the answer was found in a rather unusual place.
After grappling with the challenge for a few days, a group of us headed off to El Convente in Toronto to blow off some steam. El Convente is a latin dance club with one very distinguishing feature: on Fridays and Saturdays at midnight, everyone in the club forms a large circle and takes a seat on the floor. It's time for the Drag Show.
I'd never seen a drag show, and the first dancer was absolutely phenomenal. Lip-syncing to Aretha Franklin, he/she was like something out of a movie and my initial discomfort turned to fascination as the dancer played up to the crowd, who roared their appreciation. I was sold. For a night's unusual entertainment, this first dancer had sold me on the idea that a Drag Show was pretty cool.
But then the second dancer came out. And let's just say the second act put the first act to shame. By the time the final dancer appeared, I had decided that the first dancer was a rank amateur. Not because the first dancer was necessarily bad, but because the dancers that followed made the first one pale in comparison.
And that's when we hit on the answer to our client's problem. Our client had been spending all their time and energy on trying to make the second and third tier of their product look good. But the answer to their problem was to think in unconventional terms: instead of making the upper tiers look good, focus on making the lower tier look bad.
The marketing materials they had been using to describe their basic product positioned it as just that: everything you needed to enjoy the fundamentals of the tourism experience. We re-configured their product tiers to position the mid-level product as the "basic" tier and positioned the lowest tier as a clearly inferior product, lacking some of the most engaging aspects of the experience.
Within a few weeks, the new program was generating increased revenues. All without investing in any new programs or offering any new features. It was all accomplished by simply better managing consumer perceptions. It takes guts to degrade the quality of your base product, but the revenue gains can be substantial. Best of all, consumers came away feeling that they had treated themselves to something "a little bit special" by opting for an upgrade over the basic package.
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One of my clients was facing exactly this problem -- they had created three tiers to their product offering but 85% of their sales were coming from the lower-margin base product. Despite their best efforts, adding additional features and benefits to the upper two tiers had done little to shift consumers to their higher-margin offerings.
The client was looking for ways to improve perceptions of the higher tiers and drive revenues. We didn't give them an answer to that question, but we solved their problem... and the answer was found in a rather unusual place.
After grappling with the challenge for a few days, a group of us headed off to El Convente in Toronto to blow off some steam. El Convente is a latin dance club with one very distinguishing feature: on Fridays and Saturdays at midnight, everyone in the club forms a large circle and takes a seat on the floor. It's time for the Drag Show.
I'd never seen a drag show, and the first dancer was absolutely phenomenal. Lip-syncing to Aretha Franklin, he/she was like something out of a movie and my initial discomfort turned to fascination as the dancer played up to the crowd, who roared their appreciation. I was sold. For a night's unusual entertainment, this first dancer had sold me on the idea that a Drag Show was pretty cool.
But then the second dancer came out. And let's just say the second act put the first act to shame. By the time the final dancer appeared, I had decided that the first dancer was a rank amateur. Not because the first dancer was necessarily bad, but because the dancers that followed made the first one pale in comparison.
And that's when we hit on the answer to our client's problem. Our client had been spending all their time and energy on trying to make the second and third tier of their product look good. But the answer to their problem was to think in unconventional terms: instead of making the upper tiers look good, focus on making the lower tier look bad.
The marketing materials they had been using to describe their basic product positioned it as just that: everything you needed to enjoy the fundamentals of the tourism experience. We re-configured their product tiers to position the mid-level product as the "basic" tier and positioned the lowest tier as a clearly inferior product, lacking some of the most engaging aspects of the experience.
Within a few weeks, the new program was generating increased revenues. All without investing in any new programs or offering any new features. It was all accomplished by simply better managing consumer perceptions. It takes guts to degrade the quality of your base product, but the revenue gains can be substantial. Best of all, consumers came away feeling that they had treated themselves to something "a little bit special" by opting for an upgrade over the basic package.
Save This Page
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