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December 2006 - Strategy Magazine
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Courting a new customer
What do you do when a crucial target market has turned off your brand?

by Lisa D'Innocenzo
page 23

It's like a marriage gone sour. Americans used to drive over the border in droves, lured by a high exchange rate and a welcoming border setup. But just like most Hollywood relationships, an infatuation that was once hot and heavy has gone downhill rather quickly.

First there's that pesky, lofty loonie, hovering in the 90-cent range, which has turned Americans off travel to Canada. Then there's the U.S. government's decision to require anyone crossing the border to carry a passport - akin to asking for a prenup - which comes into effect for air travel in January. While passports are not necessary for auto travel until 2009, and there's talk of an alternative means of identification, consumers are confused - and that confusion has certainly helped fuel a decline in U.S. border crossings.

These two factors, plus a sluggish U.S. economy, have left most tourism marketers in Canada facing a quandary: What do you do when a crucial target market is no longer interested in your product? The answer, as many players are starting to demonstrate, is simple: You move on and court somebody new.

That's certainly the approach of Vancouver-based Intrawest. Says Erik Austin, VP marketing for the company: "If one market is down, you need to be looking at development of other markets. One market that was not susceptible to the exchange rate and travel restrictions was the Canadian market, where people were [already] aware of what Intrawest was."

As a result, Intrawest, which operates mountain resorts at Whistler-Blackcomb, Tremblant, Blue Mountain (Collingwood) and Panorama (near Invermere on the Lake, B.C.), decided that rather than go out and look for new customers in the U.S., it made sense to focus on existing customers in its own backyard and attempt to "migrate" them through the network. After studying its database, Intrawest decided southern Ontario consumers had the most potential of visiting the various locations.

Thus, the birth of the "Destination Next" campaign, a multi-tiered marketing initiative geared at boosting resort visits by Ontarians. "The destination strategy is to take an element that would link all four 'mountain villages' together," says Austin, adding that it's the first time Intrawest has invested in a "collective" campaign that advertised all of its Canadian destinations at once.

The advertising message revolved around value, and consumers were told that if they booked by Nov. 15, they could save up to 45%. They were also baited with a $500 Destination Next Savings card, redeemable at participating merchants and vendors throughout each mountain village.

"Our competition is not necessarily the other little ski area in Ontario - we are looking at Florida, the Caribbean, Disney, the cruise market and anywhere people spend their leisure dollars," explains Austin. "We don't want people to wait until the last minute. We want people who book in advance, who take the time to plan and lock in their vacation, to have the best value possible." This counters most value tourism strategies, he points out, which tend to focus on last-minute deals.

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