Delivering brand equity and consumer oriented insights through marketing communication elements in the tourism sector

Abstract

Over the years, the move to integrated marketing communication (IMC) have gained popularity and increased sales for organisational marketers and brand champions. This is because in order for any business to succeed it must consider communicating with its customers or marketplace. Failure to communicate, or communicating inaccurately may result in customers or market not being aware of the products and services offered by the company. As a consequence, it becomes imperative for customers to understand the communication point of view of the company - this process of communicating with the market, customers and consumers is known as marketing communication. This article examines how the tourism sector in the North West Province in South Africa can deliver brand equity through consumer-orientated insights. In doing so, the article evaluates three marketing communication elements, namely, advertising, direct response marketing, and public relations and the word-of-mouth. The North West Province tourism sector is one the provincial economic hubs that contributes significantly to the provincial GDP and as well as at the national level. Therefore, is important to understand how various marketing communication activities and tactics can be adopted to reposition the Bokone Bophirima brand as a destination of choice.