Marketing case study analysis help online: Tourism Destination Malaysia

Abstract

This is a case study that deals with the Branding and Marketing of the tourism destination Malaysia, Truly Asia. The six month initial trial of Tourism Malaysia found it weird, but also worked. The challenges and strategic details behind the success of this promotion are discussed in this case. Malaysia is a truly Asia, but there is yet more to be discovered about Malaysia. It can be said that it is time to re-launch in the market with a better image which helps in taking Malaysia a step further in the case of Tourism.

Introduction

Malaysia has always had a wide range of tourism attractions. The destinations were all diverse from one another. But it was only in the latter part of the last decade that the destination came into notice of the tourists. This change can be accredited to the tourism development in the whole world and to the formation of the brand ‘Malaysia, truly Asia’. This is a case that discusses the process of branding Malaysia and how they made a space for themselves in international tourism as their advent didn’t happen without overcoming the challenges.

A comparison

The six month initial trial of Tourism Malaysia found it weird, but also worked. On the other side there was a high level of competition that was faced from Singapore who could be proud that Singapore Tourism Board account was run in the professional hands. But the comparison also presented that ‘Uniquely Singapore’ was nothing to scream about, where as ‘Malaysia, truly Asia’ has as it helped Malaysia to become the most visited country in South East Asia. Though the process was long, it could be seen that almost 100 agencies had put their names into the hat and has done surprisingly well ever since. The recent economic crisis did let them down. But they are already on their way towards recovery (N.A, 2008).

The Case

There was an increase in Globalisation and it demanded all the countries in the world to make a place for itself on the basis of four dimensions that were exports, tourism, foreign politics and foreign investments (Anholt, 2005). According to Kotler (2011), the impressions that people have on different places are highly influenced with a product that is used by them and how they process and reach a judgement in the basis of the data set that is already available for them.  This made the task of branding Malaysia pivotal to them as there were no alternate choices and it had become a necessity.

The attempt of creating a brand was not for the first time in the case of Malaysia as they had already failed to create a space for themselves in the past and had failed miserable trying to differentiate them self on comparison to the world tourism. The Tourists who had visited Malaysia had compared Malaysia to a gem that was unpolished and had great opportunities of being polished and discovered. The major reason behind was the competitive advantages they had and the nature of the landscape that was naturally attractive for tourism.

It was then that Malaysia decided to invest in the various opportunities they had and it included resorts, beaches, infrastructure, trained personals and their fluency in handling multiple languages. Having a lot of cultures were taken as a flaw initially and the advertisement agency TBWA-ISC decided to convert that as the major strength of Malaysia. The brand was thus created on the Title ‘Malaysia-Truly Asia’ and promising the visitors to be delivered a unique experience as this destination grouped all the elements from Asia as a continent.  The success of branding was rather unexpected in the whole world. But on terms of marketing it can be said that they invested on their perceived weakness to convert the strength by using it as an opportunity.

The major attempt motive that was behind this was to increase the rate of the diverse ethnic and religious composition and also to drive in a foreign visitor to the country of about 22 million. (Embong 2001)

The Weakness they turned into opportunity

There was religious pluralism in Malaysia and it is something that they converted into the strength (Yeoh, 2007). They had their major allocation of people who were Malay and are Muslins of about 51%. There are Chinese population of about 26% and are Buddhists, Taoist, Confucian and Christians. There are also 7% of Indians who are Sikhs, Muslims and Christians.  there are also various number of ethnic groups like indigenous ones, the Eurasians, the migrant workers, Indonesians who make up for about 16% of the population(Peletz 2005)

The brand Strategy

Here are some of the theories of marketing that was applied into the brand making strategies

Malaysia encouraged the formation of a culture that gave a central role to the quality and innovation in the case of public and companies. The image affected them too positively. Creating a strong culture makes the brand last longer as soon as the characteristics of the culture is defined in the minds of the viewers.

The efforts that were undertaken by various states in Malaysia were unified in to one portraying it a single brand. The advantages of the branding was thus available all the members in the brand. In the case of Malaysia it means the smaller states that had done their part in promoting tourism and shouldn’t have been successful on their own.

The efforts of all the people were put together to signify a single brand name. In the case of Malaysia it can be said that the stakeholders included not only the government, but general public, companies and lay men who had opportunities rising from brand creation.

The advantages that came out of this strategy cannot be underestimated and involved increasing the awareness of the public and visibility rate of Malaysia, and differentiating itself by making a unique image for itself. The brand Malaysia when formed also made it the most preferred destination in the region. There was a diversification in the case of the tourism markets and used this to stimulate large amount of tourism

The Major Tools Used

some of the major tools that were used were Mass-media including TV and cinema, print Media, outdoor advertising, direct marketing, posters, promotional merchandise and BTL events. A combination of all these factors together helped the marketing plan to be successful. One of the major tools that were used was also their website were all the relevant details were available at an arms distance (Irina & Andrei, 2011)

Challenges Faced in Marketing

The initial tourism flow in Malaysia was about 6.21 million and and there was a reduction in the number of tourists when it came to 1998 reduced farther to 5.55 million and this was not a healthy and predictable change. Challenges were faced by Malaysia as a country and the tourists as well. There was a huge rise in the unemployment rate of the employees. A number of tour operators had suffered from bankruptcy. The promotional budget was also reduced and the reflections ended worse on the tourism destination Malaysia.

the reason for this is that the image that is depicted by the country will highly influence the nature of attitude people have on the country on making decisions in relation to travelling, buying, changing residence and even investing. In short it can be said that the brand image of Malaysia will shape the economic, political and cultural destiny of the brand. Building an image of security and attracting people to Malaysia was the most difficult task of all (Vicente, 2004).

One of the major challenges that had to be overcome was while branding Malaysia was that there was no unique image in the mind of the tourists. Malaysia also failed to set itself aside from other countries because its races were hugely diverse in nature.

On comparison to countries like India, Singapore, Japan and China, there were no significant arguments that would attract Malaysia as a tourist destination (Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, 2007).

Malaysia as a country was known abroad as a country that had a lot of political battles and corruption and the existed images and the preconceived notion for safety and security of the tourists in Malaysia did not help them in building a brand (Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, 2007).

There were a large number of criticisms that were to be faced when they decided to settle for the brand name ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’.  Some of the reasons given were that the name Asia would project misery, poverty and cheap labour in the minds of the clients and they would be reluctant to come to Malaysia because of the unjustifiable association that is made.

The occurrence of 9/11 had taken the trust out of Malaysia nod it was very difficult for them to build on the brand again. People will not always think and consider the connection between the both incidents. As it is seen majority of the population in Malaysia are Muslims and there was a terrorism manifestation in the place and it was also said that the planners 9/11 who are also terrorists met in Kuala Lampur for discussing and deciding the details of the event. Another threat also happened as Malaysia and Indonesia were becoming a part of the case studies were different scholars were considered. There was conflation of Islam, democracy and multi religious harmony at the same time and this made it very difficult to brand Malaysia (Yeoh, 2007).

There was also a certain level of troubled relationship between Muslims and tourism in Malaysia. One of the central natures of the Malaysian Society is that religion is allied to race here. This made it difficult to improve tourisms and policy making was difficult. It can be seen that the Malaysia is a very unique place in a particular context. But it should also be understood that marketing and branding the country had to face all the issues that were to be faced when a Muslim country was trying to emerge as a tourist friendly destination (Henderson, 2004).

There were also a lot of criticisms on the allowed styles of tourism in Malaysia. Marketing Strategies also had to convince the tourists the importance of certain cultures that were adopted as a requirement. Some of the banned actions were public displays of affection, drinking, gambling, and prostitution and there issues were all unfavourable initially as the reaction of the visitors was not at all friendly. The standards of living were very different from the residents and tourists and so were the outlook towards issues (Horn, 2000)

Recommendations for promoting tourism in Malaysia

It can be seen that the brand Malaysia, Truly Asia has come up as one of the most preferred tourist’s destinations. It can also be seen that the economic crisis have hit them hard and so have the stock market crisis. Malaysia truly Asia still have the opportunity to attract more tourists by renovating the idea of tourism. Cheaper tourism programs should be provided to make the economy active again. A push or another importance promotional activity along with the various promotional packages will increase the flow of tourists in the country and thereby improving the economical actions.

The concept of tourism should fill the tourists with importance of culture. Malaysia needs more promotions for cleaner Malaysia and promotion of eco tourism centres in the place. Cleaning the garbage is one thing that is extremely required for Malaysia as it will uplift the image of Malaysia in the eyes of the tourists. There should be better animal control in the country. One of the reason behind it is that stay animal gives a very negative image about Malaysia to the tourists.

Malaysia Truly Asia is overall a good branding strategy and has positioned and differentiated Malaysia in the eyes of the customers. One of the criticisms about Malaysia now is that it is not as good an experience as it is conveyed in the advertisements. So Malaysia Tourism Development should consider increasing the Value that the customers have on terms of their expenditure and the time they take in coming and visiting the place

Conclusion

Malaysia is a truly Asia, but there is yet more to be discovered about Malaysia. It can be said that it is time to re-launch in the market with a better image which helps in taking Malaysia a step further in the case of Tourism. It is very important to revive the tactics and strategies used to have customer loyalty and customer returns in the case of tourist destinations. Malaysia still has more potential to be covered.

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