Global Sports Tours

Commentary

 

 

This commentary critically analyses the production of the Global Sports Tours website, outlining how certain aspects of the website demonstrate key elements of the Marketing Mix. The commentary considers the 7C Principles of Website Design framework, throughout evaluating the effectiveness of the website.

 

 

Context

 

The layout and visual design of a website can help to form a customer perception of a product or service (Potts, 2007). The research investigates how an organisation must tailor a website that enables consumers to clearly interpret the information conveyed to them by the organisation, whilst representing quality and forming an excellent product reputation. The Global Sports Tours website appears easy to navigate, with an uncluttered layout making it simple for consumers to understand. A green sporting field background is consistently utilised, offering a degree of standardisation, whilst resembling the sporting theme across the website. The Global Sports Tours website maintains a certain colour theme, using black backgrounds amongst white text and red buttons, making the information easily readable, whilst maintaining a professional format. The Global Sports Tours title appears bold at the summit of each page, standing out to the individual. The website uses a drop down menu, enabling visitors to conveniently seek the collection of sporting events offered by the organisation. The company logo appears professional throughout the website, with a globe utilised to represent the worldwide location of Global Sports Tours. Kotler & Keller (2012) identify how a successful logo can create confidence in an organisation, whilst forming brand recognition amongst consumers, which may encourage them to make a booking.

 

 

Customisation

 

Global Sports Tours does not offer any ability for users to customise the website, although implementing language translation settings would enable the organisation to appeal to multi-lingual markets (Potts, 2007). This concept has been overlooked due to the fact that Global Sports Tours only markets itself towards the UK market. If in the future the organisation looked to expand overseas, it would be an advantage to include language translation settings on the website.

 

 

Commerce

 

The Global Sports Tours website utilises an online booking enquiry form, created on JotForm.Com, as opposed to an online booking system. McDonald (2008) identifies how an organisation must consider essentially how they will reach the consumer with its product. It could be argued that an online booking system would be more convenient for the customers, albeit for timing restraints in the development of the website. The alternative booking enquiry form allows the customer to select the sporting activity they desire, in addition to stating booking information for use when following up the enquiry. The form highlights certain fields that must be fulfilled, ensuring that the necessary information is received once an enquiry has been placed. The booking form states that the enquiry will be followed up within 24 hours, which by giving a response time creates consumer confidence in the organisation. The website utilises booking terms and conditions, in addition to displaying ABTA and ATOL logos at the bottom of each page, effectively giving the consumer booking security and confidence in the organisation.

 

 

Connection

 

The Global Sports Tours website utilises web-link connections directly to dedicated pages on social media sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The website includes the iconic logos of the three organisations, in addition to utilising the respective ‘Like’, ‘Follows Us’ and ‘Subscribe’ catchphrases of the organisations, creating security and degree of familiarity to the web-link. Agresta, Bough & Miletsky (2010) outline how the activities of an organisation on social media can generate publicity, generating awareness in a particular product or brand. The study identifies how social media in marketing can be used as a promotional tool, with an organisation able to communicate information of products and services to a wide target market. The external Global Sports Tours pages detail the logo of the organisation, in addition to providing organisational information and contact details. This creates that degree of familiarity and standardisation to the Global Sports Tours brand, also forming a professional image of the organisation.

 

 

Communication

 

The ability of an organisation to effectively communicate with its target market is a key element of marketing management (Baker, 2007). The research identifies how an organisation can use communication effectively to communicate information, special offers and promote the product to the individual. The Global Sports Tours website effectively communicates product information on sporting event pages, in addition to communicating special offers to the website visitor, using clear red text to stand out, therefore engaging the individual. The website enhances communication links by utilising a booking enquiry form and a contact form, with both pages allowing the individual to enquire about products offered by the organisation. The ‘Contact Us’ page displays a formal banner, whilst displaying contact information, which highlights a professional image to the individual. Global Sports Tours manages the booking enquiry form well, communicating a message once the form has been completed, thanking the customer for their enquiry and stating a time period for the organisation to reply.

 

 

Content

 

The Global Sports Tours website presents a combination of text and images throughout, in addition to utilising a promotional video. The website homepage utilises a sparse amount of text, hereby diverting the attention of the consumer to a collection of sporting pictures, which enables the individual to find their desired sport by selecting an image. Bateson & Hoffman (2008) outline how the use of imagery is vital in services marketing, due to the inability to tangibly review a product. The utilisation of imagery catches the imagination of the consumer, whilst already getting them thinking about purchasing an upcoming sporting event (Potts, 2007). In context, the image of the Brazilian footballer Neymar is likely to get consumers thinking about the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Global Sports Tours uses images on its sporting pages, with an event page offering an imagery explanation of the package offered by the organisation. For example, the Golf homepage includes the familiar logos of Gleneagles and the US Masters, with the event pages displaying package information in imagery form. The Global Sports Tours homepage displays a video clip previewing the Super Bowl, enhancing the user experience through visual media, whilst promoting the event and encouraging bookings (Potts, 2007). The website utilises text on web-pages, effectively communicating vital product information to the individual. The text is kept short in order to maintain consumer interest, in addition to the same font and size used on each page, creating a degree of standardisation across the website.

 

 

Community

 

The Global Sports Tours website has included a dedicated ‘Fans Corner’ page to generate interaction between its customers. The page allows customers to relive Global Sports Tours experiences, offering a prize incentive for a winning entry, with the viewpoint to establishing positive feedback to encourage purchases from the target market. Once feedback has been given, the website will highlight reviews, enabling interaction between consumers. The ability to form a community feel to Global Sports Tours may distinguish the product, creating a competitive advantage for the organisation (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

 

 

Summary

 

This commentary has critically analysed and evaluated the success of the Global Sports Tours website, in relation to the 7C Principles of Website Design and the Marketing Mix. The website has carefully anticipated the need to implement both practices in the creation and development of the website. The Global Sports Tours website has successfully combined the 7C Principles of Website Design and factors of the Marketing Mix to form a website that meets the need of both the organisation and its consumers.