Developing a Promotional Strategy for Biltmore Estate

Travel and tourism is one of the top industries in the United States. Therefore, there are many jobs available for students who can market service organizations. This case will help you think through that process: Imagine that you are the marketing manager of a major tourist attraction, the Biltmore Estate. Part of your job is to manage the overall promotional effort and to be part of a marketing team that develops advertising, public relations, personal selling, word of mouth, publicity, and sales promotion.

Here is what you are working with: Biltmore is the largest private home in the United States. It was built in 1895 in Asheville, North Carolina, for George Vanderbilt. The estate includes the 250-room Biltmore House, acres of gardens and surrounding grounds, a winery, and restaurants. The whole estate is open to the public, and nearly a million people visit it each year. If you would like to see pictures of many of the estate's magnificent rooms and gardens, go to its website at www.biltmore.com.The website also contains information about the many motels that advertise their proximity to this great tourist attraction.

One goal of the promotional program at the estate is to increase the number of annual visitors. To do that, the estate maintains an internal database of customer names and searches external databases for the names of potential visitors. The total visitor market can be divided into three categories: passholders (who have one-year admission passes), general visitors (who come to visit for one day), and prospects (people who have never visited but may be interested). You are charged with developing separate promotional pieces for each of the market segments. Part of the overall plan should be to integrate all the promotional efforts to form one strong positive image about the estate.

1			What could you do in cooperation with the other businesses in the area (e.g., motels, restaurants, taxi services) to promote the estate through them?
2			How would you promote to people who have never been to the estate before? How would that promotional program differ from the one you would develop for passholders?
3			Think about vacations that you have taken. What led you to go to those spots? How can you apply that knowledge to this case?
4			How important is website development to this promotional effort? List the following promotional tools by how effective they would be in this case: advertising (what media would you use?), personal selling, publicity, word of mouth, sales promotion.