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УДК 338.48-6:502/504
А. ДЖАГАРОВА, Н.Б. КУЩЕВА
АНАЛИЗ СЕГМЕНТОВ РЫНКА ДЛЯ ПРОЕКТИРОВАНИЯ И
ПРОДВИЖЕНИЯ НОВОГО ТУРИСТСКОГО ПРОДУКТА ДЛЯ ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО ТУРИЗМА В ФИНЛЯНДИИ
В статье обсуждаются сегменты потребительского рынка экотуризма в Финляндии. Представленное исследование было проведено для конкретной компании, но результаты исследования могут быть применены к любой компании, которая занимается экологическим туризмом. В качестве теоретической основы использовалась предложенная Филиппом Котлером сегментация потребителей по демографическим, географическим и поведенческим характеристикам. В качестве метода исследования использовался опрос, распространенный через социальные сети Facebook и ВКонтакте. Авторы определили наиболее подходящие группы потребителей для экологического туризма. Были выбраны потребительские сегменты с однородными характеристиками в соответствии с выбранными критериями.
Ключевые слова: экологический туризм, рынок потребителей, сегментация, опрос, Финляндия.
The article is discussing ecotourism consumer market segments in Finland. The research presented was conducted for the particular company but results of the research could be applied to any company which is dealing with ecological tourism. As a theoretical basis, Philipp Kotler's suggestion of analyzing demographic, geographic and behavioral characteristics of consumers was used. As a method of research a survey spread via Facebook and VKontakte was used. The authors have determined the most appropriate consumer groups for ecological tourism product. Consumer segments with homogeneous characteristics according to the chosen criteria were chosen.
Keywords: ecological tourism, consumer market, segmentation, survey, Finland.
Talking about new ecotourism product it is important to define which competitive advantage it has. To succeed in business it is not enough to have a good tourist product and expect that it will be demanded in the market. In order to determine a share of the market and to make sales forecasts it is desirable to reveal what kind of tourism products will be interesting to potential customers and what customers belong to the target group. To solve the problem, we conducted the research on ecotourism market, which is largely based on the idea of market segmentation.
© Джагарова А., Кущева Н.Б., 2017
Market segmentation is one of the most suitable methods to determine the characteristics of the product to conduct a successful competition policy and to understand what marketing tools are best to use in tourism product promotion.
Market segmentation that based on the principles of differentiation and modification was first proposed for marketing analysis by Wendell R. Smith in 1956 (Smith, 1995, 63). The idea of market segmentation quite soon came into widely use in marketing of consumer goods and services and currently it is one of the main tools of modern marketing. Market segmentation is an analytical process in which the main role assigned to the consumer (Chand, 2016).
Fundamental prerequisite for market segmentation is the statement that not all customers have needs for the same product or service. For this reason, it is almost impossible to find such marketing programs that allow attracting all potential customers (Kotler, 2005, 87, 88). Therefore, it is desirable for a company, which would like to succeed in the business, to carry out the marketing research and then focus attention on specific segments of the market where its product will bring the most revenue.
The research was conducted for the particular Finnish tourism company that would like to design new product for ecotourists from abroad or an ecological tour for foreign tourists. We chare the process of analyzing the market segment into two stages: determination of criteria of the segmentation and interpretation of segments.
As criteria for the analysis we took demographic, geographic and behavioral characteristics of market segmentation suggested by Kotler Ph. (Kotler, 2005, 314); the method of the research was the online survey carried out with help of Google Forms.
Compiling a list of survey questions we used the fact, that features of segments are unknown. We assumed the existence of a consumer market, which structure deliberately cannot be determined. Based on the survey responses we divided the survey participants into different segments. We decided that the research method is implemented successfully when collecting about 200 survey responses from which we can take samples for the analysis.
The results of the analysis practically describe the portrait of the consumer and its attitude toward the proposed ecotourism product. So, based on the result of the analysis it is possible to define the target group of consumers or reveal whether assumptions about the target group correspond to the actual picture. Knowledge about the target group will help the company to hold effective advertising campaign or, on the contrary, to disabuse the company's managers of the idea of product exclusivity, if it turns out that consumers are not interested in such product.
The research was conducted for the Finnish tourism company Kakkaramaki Ltd. operating under the brand name Rock and Lake. The company was founded in 2012. Rock and Lake is a network of associated entrepreneurs that provide for tourists different travels and fishing trips in Finland in the region of Mikkeli. The company aims to attract tourists from abroad. Competition in the international market of tourism is very high. In addition Finland is not the only country that offers to tourists fishing and outdoor recreation in the nature of Northern Europe. Tourist flows in such countries like Sweden, Norway and Denmark are significantly higher
than in Finland (Soumen matkailustrategia 2020), although costs of a tourist travel to these countries are not lower than travel to Finland. Due to the fact that Finnish nature provides great opportunities for development of ecotourism, it was decided to develop a new competitive ecotourism product that would attract new tourists to Rock and Lake.
The research was realized by the method of the online survey carried out among the ecotourists from different parts of the world that are members of ecotourism and sustainable tourism communities on social sites Facebook and VKontakte.
The first part of the survey includes standard questions that reflect social, demographic and geographic characteristics of a target group: gender, age, social status (occupation) and country of residence. We did not include in the list question about the income, because the participants of the survey are ecotourists from different countries with different economies and currencies. In this way it is difficult to raise the question that would give data suitable for further analysis.
The second part of the survey consists of questions aimed at identifying the behavioral trait: an interest or lack of interest in the proposed ecotourism products. The choice of the behavioral trait for the survey was made on the base of literature and different Internet resources, worked over for the purpose of the research.
The fact that not so many people know Finland as a tourist country, was confirmed during the collection of the responses to the survey. With help of questions aimed at the behavioral trait we collected data about the attitude of ecotourists toward specific list of ecotourism activities that are popular in other more known in term of ecotourism countries (Canada, German, Africa, Russia, Norway and Sweden).
Criteria that we took into account when compiling questions for the questionnaire were the possibility to adapt the activities to the conditions of ecotourism in Finland as well as technical and financial possibilities of Rock and Lake.
The online survey was conducted in order to obtain a numerical index of the attractiveness of a particular activity to a potential customer. The most frequently selected activities are regarded as promising for inclusion in the ecological tour program. Similarly we assessed demographic characteristics of respondents. The group of respondents with the highest numerical index has been selected as a target group.
The next step of the analysis was the conducting of the online survey that we carried out at ecotourism and sustainable tourism communities on social sites Facebook and VKontakte. We have sent approximately 5000 requests to participate in the survey for the period of five month and we have got 214 completed questionnaires. This number of survey participants we regarded as suitable statistical population. The sample size taken for the analysis is 195 surveyed participants that are 91% of the given statistical population. The results of the research can be regarded as credible when the sample size is about 80 - 50% of the statistical population consisting of 101 - 500 objects (Keto, 2014).
The online survey was conducted for the purpose to describe each of the potential consumers to the particular group. As a basis for the group division we took
the theory of William Strauss and Neil Howe about generations X, Y, Z and Baby boomers, where "Baby Boomers" are people older than 55 years old, "Gen X" is 36 -55 years old, "Gen Y" is 19 - 35 years old and "Gen Z" has come since 2000 (Dergunov, 2014). We have compiled nine questions for the survey. The results of the survey are presented and discussed below.
According to popular belief ecotourists are people older than 35 years old, with good welfare and education. However, according to the results of our research (Table 1), the most active group of ecotourists interested in Finland are younger people of 19 - 35 years old. This group includes 141 of all ecotourists, participating in the survey. The next group that is in three times smaller consists of ecotourists of 36 - 55 years old. This group included 54 respondents. At the same time, the results of the survey reveal that the most active ecotourists are women. This fact should be taken into account when doing an advertising of a new tourism product.
The results of the research about the social status (the occupation) reveals that the greatest interest in ecological tours to Finland is observed among students of 19 - 35 years old, they constitute a group of 72 respondents of the total number involved in the survey. Group of students is followed by young workers and entrepreneurs of the same generation (19 - 35 years old), their total number is 69. The third group of ecotourists is mainly the older generation of workers and some number of entrepreneurs of 36 - 55 years old. They are 54 (25.3%) respondents of all ecotourists. Groups of ecotourists under 18 years old and older than 55 years old we do not take into account for the future analysis in connection with their minor number (Table 1).
Table 1
Age, gender and occupation of ecotourists
Age range Male ecotourists Female ecotourists All
ecotourists
0 - 18 y.o. 1 Q „ r, 4 5 s 4 S'J 8
19 - 35 y.o. 36 - 55 y.o. 58 23 83 31 f. 141 54 11
56 - 100 y.o. 5 6 Overall 11 214
Age Schoolchild Student Worker Businessman Pensioner All ecotourists
0-18 7 1 Q 'J 5 1 i n 8
36-55 72 59 45 10 9 141 54
56—100 2 2 7 11
Overall 7 73 106 21 7 214
According to the Table 2, the largest group of ecotourists interested in tourism to Finland lives in Europe. They make up 104 ecotourists from the age group 19 - 35 years old and 36 ecotourists from the age group 36 - 55 years old of the total number of respondents. The biggest part of ecotourists from Europe is accounted for Eastern Europe (mainly for Russia).
Analyzing ecotourists of Eastern Europe we also marked out groups with quantitative features similar to those that we have in Table 1 when analyzing occupations. Thus, the largest group of ecotourists from Eastern Europe consists of 43 students from all responded students (72 people). The second large group is the young generation of workers and entrepreneurs of 19 - 35 years old. This is the group of 39 ecotourists that is little bit smaller than the group of students. The third group consists of workers and entrepreneurs of 36 - 55 years old. The total number of people in the group is 25 ecotourists.
Table 2
Place of residence of participated in the survey ecotourists
Stude Worker Busines Worker Busines
nt 19-35 sman 36-55 sman
19-35 19-35 36-55
Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine) 43 34 5 23 2
Northern Europe (Finland, Estonia, 3 8 2 6 2
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden)
Southern Europe (Italy, Greece) 0 0 1 0 1
Western Europe (France, German) 4 4 0 1 1
Total 50 46 8 30 6
Eastern Asia (S. Korea, Japan, 6 1 0 1
Mongolia)
Southern Asia (India) 0 0 1
South-Eastern Asia (Indonesia, 0 1 0 5 0
Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines)
Western Asia (Georgia, Turkey) 0 3 0 1 1
Central Asia (Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, 9 2 0 0 0
Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan )
Total 15 7 0 7 2
Northern Africa (Algeria, Tunisia) 2 1 1 1 0
Total 2 1 1 1 0
Northern America (USA, Canada) 2 1 1 0
Southern America (Colombia, 3 3 1 3 1
Argentina, Chili, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador,
Venezuela)
Central America (Mexico, Costa Rica) 0 1 0 3 0
Total 5 5 1 7 1
Overall 72 59 10 45 9
The generation of 19 - 35 years old from Asia is presented in the survey by 22 ecotourists. There are 15 students and 7 young workers in the group. The group of the generation of 36 - 55 years old is small, they are only 9 ecotourists.
We do not comment other groups of ecotourists presented in the Table 2 in this article because of their very small size and insignificance for further analysis. The research about the place of residence of ecotourists shows that the most interested in ecotourism in Finland are ecotourists from Russia and partly from Asia.
From the data discussed above we have found an interrelation between such characteristics as the age, the occupation and the country of residence of ecotourists. As the result of the analysis, we have formed three target groups:
1. Ecotourists Students 19 - 35 years old. This is the most active and largest group interested in ecotourism in Finland. The country of residence of the group is Europe, mainly it is Russia. We have also added students from Asia in the group, since 15 participants are approximately 1/5 of the total number of surveyed students. As a whole, ecotourists students constitute the group of 65 participants that is approximately 90% of all surveyed students.
2. Ecotourists Workers 19 - 35 years old are the second largest group of ecotourists, consisting of employees and entrepreneurs that live in Europe, mainly in Russia. It consists of 54 people which are about 78 % of all surveyed workers and businessmen of this age.
3. Ecotourists Workers 36 - 55 years old is active and the third largest group of ecotourists, consisting of workers and entrepreneurs living in Europe, mainly in Russia. This group includes 36 respondents that is accounting for approximately 66% of all workers and businessmen of 36 - 55 years old.
As a result, we have got three types of consumer (ecotourists) clusters that have been identified depending on the geographic and demographic characteristics. Next, we describe the behavioral characteristics: the attitude ("likes") of the target groups toward the proposed ecotourism activities in Finland. For this purpose we have included in the survey the close-ended question with a list of options of different ecotourism activities. The survey participants were asked to choose activities from the list that are the most interesting to them. The results of the survey about the behavioral characteristics are presented in the Figure 1. The number of "likes" of the survey is indicated in the Figure 1 on the vertical line, whereas different ecotourism activities are presented across the horizontal line.
According to the research, ecotourists Students 19 - 35 years old are most interested in overland trips, active walking on the nature and cognitive excursions about culture and traditional way of life in Finland. Traditional Finnish cottage type of holiday is not for them.
Thus, in the first place for this group are outdoor activities: visiting unique natural places and objects (63 out of 65 respondents), walking along the natural/ecological paths (62 out of 65 respondents) and watching wild birds and animals in natural habitat (60 out of 65 respondents). It is also noteworthy that the water excursions are not as popular among these ecotourists like walking. Only 34 out of 65 respondents chose canoeing and boating.
An interest to culture and traditional way of life in Finland is in the second place: Students choose such activities like meeting with village craftsmen at work (56 out of 65 respondents), meeting with local folk groups (55 out of 65 respondents) and meeting with old-timers and ethnographers and distinctive people (54 out of 65 respondents). Trips to museums (41 out of 65 respondents) are less interesting to these ecotourists. Rest in Finnish sauna (28 out of 65 respondents), fishing (25 respondents) and picking wild berries and mushrooms (15 respondents) are of the smallest interest to students.
This group of ecotourists is much less demanding for comfort. Thus, 38 out of 65 respondents chose holidays in a cottage in the traditional rural way of life versus 27 respondents willing to be accommodated in a house with all facilities.
The results on Workers 19 - 35 years old reveal that this group of ecotourists prefers multi-purpose ecotourism vacations, because the interest in different types of activities is dispersed on the whole almost equally. Nevertheless, it is possible to conclude that in the main the ecotourists would like to visit unique natural places and objects (35 out of 54 respondents) and to do canoeing and boarding (34 out of 54 respondents).
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Fig. The result of the research on the attitude of the target groups to different ecotourism activities
In the second place they give almost the same preference to overland trips: walking along the natural/ecological paths (26 out of 54 respondents), and sightseeing (21 out of 54 respondents). Watching wild birds and animals in natural habitat is less interesting to them than walking (17 out of 54 respondents). Rest in Finnish sauna is not essential part of travel for this group of tourists. Only 20 out of 54 respondents would like to have it in the program.
Excursions with cultural components, aimed at acquaintance with the traditional way of life and way of life of local people are of the least interest to them in comparison with outdoor recreation. Thus, Master-classes for fishing and Finnish cuisine (13 out of 54 respondents), meeting with old-timers... (14 out of 54 respondents) meeting with local folk group (13 out of respondents), tours to museums (13 out of 54 respondents) and meeting with craftsmen at work (10 out of 54 respondents).
Such activities like fishing (10 out of 54 respondents) and picking wild berries and mushrooms (14 out of 54 respondents) also are not very interesting to the group.
Talking about accommodation, only half part of the group indicates their preferences for specific living conditions. Thus, 18 out of 54 respondents prefer accommodation in a house with all facilities, whereas 14 out of 54 respondents chose a cottage in the traditional rural way of life. Other 22 respondents do not give any comments on this point. So, it can be concluded that these ecotourists are undemanding, because the living conditions are not paramount factor almost for every second member of this group when choosing an ecological tour.
The results of the survey on the older generation of Workers 36 - 55 years old display that this group of ecotourist prefer most of all overland and foot trips to nature: Visiting unique natural places and objects (28 out of 36 respondents), Walking along the natural/ecological paths (28 out of 36 respondents) and Sightseeing (25 out of 36 respondents).
On the second place are such activities like Watching wild birds and animals in natural habitat (19 out of 36 respondents) Meeting with old-timers, ethnographers and distinctive people (19 out of 36 respondents).
All other proposed in the survey activities almost evenly divide the third place: Rest in Finnish sauna (15 out of 36 respondents), Fishing (15 respondents), Canoeing and boating (13 respondents), Meeting with village craftsmen at work (14 respondents), Food and fishing master-classes (14 respondents), tours to museums (12 respondents), meeting with local folk groups (12 respondents), Picking wild berries and mushrooms (11 respondents).
The most preferable for this group of ecotourists is accommodation in a house with all facilities (22 out of 36 respondents) versus accommodation in a cottage in the traditional rural way of life (14 respondents).
Summarizing the results of the analysis on preferences of ecotourists towards ecotourism activities in Finland, we can mention the following facts:
• Interests of ecotourists Students 19 - 35 years old and Workers 36 - 55 years old in outdoor recreation are somewhat similar. So for the both groups of ecotourists the most interesting are overland excursions and foot walks on the nature. Whereas for Workers of 19 - 35 years old trips to unique natural places, canoeing and boating are more interesting than overland programs;
• Ecotourism programs with cultural components aimed at acquaintance with the traditional way of life in Finland are mostly interesting to Students. More over such kind of programs are more interesting to Students than visiting museums. In our opinion this result indicates the fact, that opportunity to touch lively traditions, to communicate with vivid people and to get new experience is more important for young people than to see museum exhibits, information about which is possible to find on the Internet.
• For workers of generations of 19 - 35 years old and 36 - 55 years old activities with cultural component are in the third place. This circumstance may be due to the fact that both generations of Workers have less free time than Students and for this reason they longer appreciate calm rest and contact with nature as an opportunity to stay some time out of daily routine than Students.
Such ecotourism activities like picking wild berries and mushroom, as well as fishing are on the third place in all groups of ecotourists. Perhaps, lack of interest of
these activities is connected with the absence of a cognitive component about natural sights of Finland.
We have conducted the analysis of the international ecotourism market in order to identify segments of consumers (ecotourists) for a new ecological tour in Finland, and determine the most appropriate consumer qualities of this tourism product. We have got three consumer groups that are homogeneous according to the chosen criteria for the analysis, but actual difference between all the groups is considerable. So, we can conclude that segments of the market are defined.
The results of the analysis would help Rock and Lake to design a demanded ecological tour for ecotourists from Eastern Europe and Asia, to define positioning strategy of the tour in the market and to do effective advertising campaign.
The results of this analysis can be used as a basis for the development of marketing programs that would improve the competitiveness of Rock and Lake in the tourist market of Finland.
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