Chessington History Essay

Chessington menagerie was opened in July 1931 as a private venture by Reginald Goddard who invited the public to view his private animal collection. After the struggle Chessington soon became kn give birth for the different types of entertainment it could offer- a circus, a funfair and a dinky railway as well as the zoo. Despite this in the early 1970s the attendance figures of everywhere 800,000 began to decline. The Zoo was in need of further investment. In 1978 the Pearson Group bought Chessington and when they afterwards bought Madame Tussauds, they put entirely their untenanted interests together to form the Tussauds Group.1981 saw the beginning of the planning for the transformation of Chessington. Six years and i 12m later the Park was ready. It was opened in July 1987 by H. R. H. Prince Edward. The opening coincided with the opening of the M25 which gives easy access to the Park from variant parts of the country. Approximately 18m people live within a 2 hour drive of the Park. On 19th October 1998 it was announced that Pearson had sold the Tussauds Group to Charterho custom Development Capital for i 352m. The Tussauds Group plenty and MissionVision Entertaining People. Mission To deliver real growth in kale to take Europes leading entertainment world-wide. The Marketing Department atomic number 18 a sm each(prenominal) team who work across both Chessington World of Adventures and Thorpe Park. It is the overall responsibility of the Marketing department to ascertain that the brand identities of the two Parks ar maintained in all communication both on and off the Parks. They do this through first identifying the brand identity, target market place, and visual representation of the brand, i. e. the logo.For Chessington the target market is families with children under 12. Each year the merchandise department lead put together a marketing plan that covers the following areas Product. Although almost without exception a new draw is put ined each year, and the main launch communication will focus on that, general communication nearly the rest of the Park is required. bag Parks provide a whole day out for the family and its not just about the rides. The other attractions, places to eat, games, photography, the atmosphere, all play an important part in delivering a great day out.Pricing. at that place is a complex pricing structure for the Park which looks to maximise the revenue the Park can fulfill with its targeted number of higgleors. Marketing will review the pricing each year and along with the finance department look at how the budgeted targets can be achieved through the pricing matrix. modernistic sales are important to the business and for this reason tickets booked in advance are discounted, also those booked via the lucre are further discounted as this is a more efficient way for us to produce the tickets.Advanced tickets reduce the queues at admissions as visitors already have their tickets and can go straight in to the Park. advancement. Promotion of the Park happens via a number of different communication channels. Advertising. This is generally broken down into two areas, the productive production of the advert and then the choice of where to place that advert, TV, Radio, advertise etc. For the year 2002 communication for Chessington will focus on the new attraction, Hocus Pocus Hall. The main creative idea is all based around The brand-new Adventure Starts Here.This new creative idea will be adapted for use on TV, Radio, Press and in Childrens comics, ie The Beano. Promotions. Promotions are very import in incentivising visitors to come to the Park. The incentive is generally either a Buy One get One Free mechanic or a discount off the full adult or child legal injury. Chessington ran promotions on its own or in conjunction with the Tussauds Group, ie Tesco. Promotions can be run with a wide figure of partners, Esso, News of the World, KP Skips or solus via a direct m ail campaign to surrounding homes. Public Relations.This area is all about getting positive exposure in the media, TV, Radio and Press. This is generally achieved through issuing Press Releases and conducting interviews with journalists. Measuring the Success. Throughout the year, how the Park is doing against its financial targets is constantly reviewed, but in addition Marketing conducts current research into how the Park is performing on a daily basis. Questionnaires are handed out to visitors as they leave asking them to rank the rides experiences, eating places, how friendly and helpful the staff were, etc.This provides information on where things may be going wrong and how to put them right. New Media is a crucial area for link now and in the future. In addition to maintaining its own site www. chessington. com, the Marketing department looks to turn other opportunities for advertising, promotions and PR on other sites. Use of agencies. Chessington uses a wide variety of ag encies as they read different areas of expertise and experiences to the department. We use an advertising agency to create the TV, Radio adverts etc. and also for all the design work for the Gate Map.The space for the TV, Radio slots etcis purchased by a Media Buying agency. We also use a Sales Promotion agency, PR agency and Internet design agencies. Corporate Hospitality makes it manageable for businesses to entertain their guests at Chessington World of Adventures. Up to 3 000 corporate guests can be catered for at some(prenominal) one time. Education. An establishment like Chessington World of Adventures offers the opportunity for students studying the leisure industry, business or animals to visit the Park and find out more about their subject. For this reason, it is possible for groups to incorporate an educational talk into their visit.The Zoo enables guests to learn about the wildlife at Chessington World of Adventures. The Marketing Department ensure that the signage for the animals and around the Park are of a high quality and accessible by all the guests. Most often asked marketing questions Q Is the price of a new attraction affected by the viability of the ride? A Careful research is undertaken sooner a new attraction is bought. The attraction may be put in place to solicit a gap in guest numbers for a particular age range. The new attraction will encourage that element to visit the Park and therefore increase guest satisfaction.