i. Abstract
Within the everyday lives of many families, leading a healthy lifestyle has become an important issue. Families are focusing on healthy diets and fun and active activities that engage the whole family. This element of being active has also gained importance when going on holiday, meaning that many families wish and seek to maintain their everyday lifestyle while going on holiday and this trend has also been embraced by the tourism industry. Within this frame, this thesis considers the concept concept “Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus” (SSS) developed by Midtjysk Turisme, Holstebro Municipality and Feriehusudlejning I/S. ‘Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus’ is a holiday house concept that focuses on providing a healthy and active holiday for families. ‘Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus’ is a relatively unknown concept and the extent of promotion of the concept has been limited due to financial issues. Within this frame of context, this thesis focuses on creating a low-cost communications strategy that can increase awareness of ‘Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus’. In relation to creating a low-cost strategy, facebook has been chosen as the preferred medium of communication as it provides the opportunity of carrying out the strategy at a low cost. Moreover, facebook is chosen as the preferred medium in relation to creating awareness of ‘Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus’ as the social networking possibilities that facebook reflects, i.e. online word-of-mouth.
The empirical data represents 10 interviews in total; eight interviews with Danish children’s families (the target group) and two interviews with respectively Midtjysk Turisme and Feriehusudlejning I/S. The target group was interviewed with respect to how they search for information, their use of social media and preferences in relation going on holiday. Midtjysk Turisme and Feriehusudlejning I/S were interviewed with respect to obtaining information about the concept ‘Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus’, i.e. general information concerning the concept, how marketing had been performed, Midtjysk Turisme’s organisation etc. These empirical data are put into the context of theories such as relationship communication, decision-making process, the 7 Cs framework, engaging consumers etc.
The analysis is based on a communications strategy model that involved six subjects, i.e. the overall marketing strategy, SSS’s positioning statement, characteristics of the target group, communication objectivities, choice of medium and communication between the target group and the concept. The characteristics of the target group reflected a focus on activities e.g. expectations in relation to the availability of activities for some or all family members and all age groups to engage in. Moreover, the target group reflected certain needs as for instance the need to get away from everyday life and the attitude in relation to this was that when on holiday the family is in focus. Finally, characteristics of the target group revealed that target group uses both personal experiences and WOM when searching for a holiday. In relation to choice of medium, the applicability of facebook is further underlined as it is emphasised that facebook allows for the target group to communicate with each other in different ways and allows for the concept and the target group to communicate with each other, which is an important factor in an online environment. In relation to the communication between the target group and the concept, it is emphasised that facebook holds many ways of engaging the target group and ‘Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus’ can thus attempt to engage their target group through blogs, polls and status updates, power stories and by providing exclusivity. Moreover, it underlines that it is important to provide the target group with information in terms of consumer review and seller-created product information.
The thesis concludes that as the concept ‘Sjovt, Sundt Sommerhus’ functions within the frame of being active and healthy when on holiday, the concept should positions itself with respect to offering a holiday where the target group can be together and moreover as a holiday that makes it easy for the target group to be active and healthy on holiday. Moreover, it concludes that it is important to take the characteristics of the target group into consideration in order to make the concept appealing in relation to the target group’s preferences. Lastly, it is concluded that the target groups from starting point may reflect a vague level of engagement and thus it is necessary to continuously ensure engaging content via facebook engagement techniques.