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How do you engage a target audience delineated by an age group, but which will reject marketing which defines them on the basis of their age? How do you offer a travel one-stop-shop to an audience gripped by independent travel?
Brief
In November 2009, Celia Pronto, Marketing Director of STA Travel, approached Albion with a brief to develop a brand strategy, branding system and website for an at-that-point unnamed travel brand targeting over 50s travellers.
From a business strategy perspective, there were two key drivers:
1. STA Travel, while very successful at serving the youth travel market, is popularly seen as a lifestage brand. Though smart marketing , STA is able to position itself as a brand for young people, rather than just students. But there are natural limits to how far the brand can flex.
People above a certain age, certainly once they have children, just don’t think that the brand can serve their needs, no matter how much they like travel.
This fact leaves a considerable business infrastructure under-utilised: STA have a network of contacts among airlines, accommodation providers and tour and event providers; additionally they have a team of travel experts available over the phone; and additionally they have a web capability supporting both research and ecommerce. This infrastructure could be repurposed at a marginal cost way below the cost of setting it up in the first place, if there was an audience it could be repurposed for.
2. The emergence of a new generation of over 50s travellers was the second key driver. Desk research made clear that over 50s were travelling to a wider range of places and were doing so more independently than earlier generations of people this age.
The two key drivers were complementary, and it was this which gave the initiative its momentum.
At the briefing Albion were provided with three-year business targets.
The business would initially focus on the UK market, with potential to be rolled out in further markets once momentum was established in the UK.
As with STA, from a product point of view the focus would be on long haul, especially Australasia and Asia.
Strategy
The first decision we made was to commission a research project, with the aim of answering the following questions:
- What is the role (or roles) of travel in the lives of UK over 50s?
- How have the target audience’s travel needs changed in the last few years?
- How does the target audience plan and book travel, and what is the role of the internet within this?
- How do travel needs and wants change depending on whether the target audience does or doesn’t have children living at home? And depending on whether the target audience are still working full time, working part time, or retired?
- What are their expectations from a travel brand?
- How can a travel brand add value to the researching, planning, booking experience? And what about once the trip is underway? What, if anything is the role of the brand then?
While defining the audience for the research, we made a key strategic decision to focus our research on co-habiting couples. We knew that divorce was continuing to rise among UK over 50s and that therefore single over 50s were a growing audience. However, from desk research we knew that single over 50s often look for different things from travel versus what couples look for. We also knew that there was a well-established ecosystem of providers for the over 50s singles audience. We therefore made the decision to focus on building our understanding of what over 50s couples want from travel.
The research was carried out through focus groups in three locations in the UK, giving us a range of points of view from the north and south, and metropolitan as well as more rural areas. In each location we ran two groups.
The first half of the research focused more on understanding the role of travel in the lives of the target audience. The second half of the research tested the target audience’s response to five propositions. Each proposition was built around a different insight about the target audience, gained from desk research. The five propositions were as follows:
1. (Re)-find yourself
This positioning was based on the hypothesis that the target audience see this period of life as being one where they have the time and scope to pursue new interests and re-discover old ones, and that travel is a key part of this.
2. Travel with zesticity
Leading a healthy lifestyle is a priority for more and more people, and we knew from desk research that this was especially the case for over 50s. The rationale for this positioning was to test whether health and well-being were a viable basis for a travel brand for this audience.
3. Always wanted to...
Anecdotal research told us that this period of life was one where people had an increased sense of being able to do things which they had long wanted to do, but not had the time, means or independence to do so.
4. Grown-up travel
It was clear from desk research that the target were being more adventurous than ever in their choice of destinations. However we felt it unlikely that they were taking these trips and “slumming it”. The idea with this positioning was to test the viability of combining adventurousness with reassurance about quality and standards.
5. The Travel Community
We knew that the target audience were avid users of peer review travel sites. We wanted to test their response to creating an online travel community with peer reviews, but with the ability to research, plan and book trips from the same website.
The research process taught us a great deal and has been the basis for our strategy.
Across all the groups there was unanimity that the internet has fundamentally changed how they approach the process of researching, planning and booking travel. The internet has not only broadened the target audience’s travel ambitions. It has also changed the research and planning process into an enjoyable part of the whole experience, not simply a prerequisite to going.
The target audience make a clear distinction between trips which are about escape and those which are about experiences. Experiences were now seen as more important than escape. For many of the participants with children the reverse had been true when the children were younger. For retired and part retired participants, experiences were even more important than escape.
The research showed that DIY researching, planning and booking was the norm, and that there was little if any brand loyalty.
Response to the positioning was consistent across the three locations. The idea of “Always wanted to...” struck a chord with the target audience, whether they were retired or still working. Indeed in many of the groups, the participants used the phrase “wishlist”, a shorthand we used in our description of the positioning, before we had even used the phrase ourselves.
The notion of “Grown up travel” was seen as a reassuring support for the brand, but not in itself as motivating as the “Always wanted to...” positioning.
These insights were our compass points as we went into execution stage.
Execution
With our understanding of the target audience and positioning clearer, our clients asked us to produce three sets of assets:
1. Documentation summarising the brand strategy and positioning:
- To explain to external stakeholder such as journalists and the trade the thinking behind the brand.
- For internal training and recruitment.
2. Visual brand identity system, including front end designs for the website.
3. A name and logo for the brand.
For reasons of client confidentiality we are unable to share the full brand model. However the information above gives a strong sense of the brand’s building blocks. The brand helps people to get from an “always wanted to” travel wishlist to the trip itself. Along the way the brand delivers the level of service and expertise which the target audience expect.
The visual language we developed for the brand started with the audience’s enthusiasm for research and information, and dislike of anything they considered marketing fluff. Our designers saw an interesting parallel between this attitude and the visual language of maps. Maps inherently come with the promise of possibility, but they are also utilitarian and factual. We thought this combination would appeal to the target audience. On the one hand their excitement about the opportunities of travel is genuine. On the other hand, they don’t just want a brand to play this excitement back to them. They would prefer a travel brand to be useful by providing them with information. On this basis we created a visual identity inspired by the visual language of maps and mapping. The visual identity is reflected in the website, and all of the marketing and internal materials which the brand produces.
Our third key deliverable was a name and logo lock-up. When thinking about names we took inspiration from all the adventurous travellers we met as part of the research process. They have a real sense that there’s nowhere they can’t go if it’s somewhere they’ve always wanted to go. This attitude is opening up the whole world to them - almost as if this adventurous spirit is creating a bridge to the world. That’s why when we hit on the name “Bridge the World” all stakeholders were confident that we had got the right name.
Once we had hit on the name, getting to the logo was a logical process of visually reflecting the idea which the name summarises.
Results
Because of the need for confidentiality we are unable to share results from the first six weeks that Bridge the World has been trading. However brand searches, website visits, and press coverage have all exceeded targets.
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