The Young Persons Rail Card Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

The Young Persons Rail Card - Essay Example To increase the interactivity on the site, the bloggers will need to prove themselves as the site will be open to popularity voting and other YPRC holders can also blog on the site and topple the current rank holders. Bloggers, who in a given calendar quarter, reach the top of their geographic unit are eligible for a cash prize of 250 along with travel passes for another 250. While viewing blogs will be free, commenting on posted blogs will require site registration and voting or creating own blogs will require that they should be YPRC holders. Another change that is required from current practices is that purchase of YPRC should be available online. This would have a two fold benefit: firstly, it will trap the 'procrastinator' demographic of 14% who have already made up their mind up to purchase but have been 'waylaid' by circumstances into putting off making the purchase till another time; and secondly, the ease of applying online will enable us to reach a wider audience, especially for those who may find it inconvenient or time consuming to visit their local station ticketing offices. While initial information and product education will be disseminated through strategically located posters on school, college and university campuses, Internet advertising will primarily drive acquisition. It is estimated that at 12 million page views will be displayed to our target audience resulting in 120,000 new YPRC holders at a conservative conversion rate of 1%. This will result in a direct revenue increase of 2.4 million. After accounting for campaign costs the net contribution of this campaign would be approximately 450,000. Marketing Plan Objectives Primary Objective: To recruit 96,000 to 100,000 new YPRC holders translating into direct revenue increase of 1.92 to 2.0 million (12%-12.5%) Secondary Objective: Increase average number of journeys by YPRC holders. Situation Analysis (Summary) 16-25 year olds are a 7.9 million strong market. 83% of this demographic are students. Nearly half of these (47%) are living away from home and have a fair degree of financial independence. The drawback with the current 'distribution' system for YPRC is that it is pull based. 97% of YPRC purchases are from station ticketing offices. Buyers are 'pulled' into the 'store' through advertising and other marketing mechanics. This effectively limits the scope of reaching a sizeable segment of 'procrastinators' (14%) who have 'not got round to it yet' The primary competition rail travel faces is from cars. However, there is a marked decline in the perceived convenience of cars, which is a fact that can be leveraged in the campaign. Customers can be broadly categorized as: 16-18 year old Sixth Formers: 17% 1.3 million 19-25 year old Independent & At Home Students: 66% 3.7 million 19-25 yea