Game ranch owners are spoilt by the high prices overseas hunters are prepared to pay, and tend to forget that in the long term it is the local market that may ensure the survival of the game industry. More effort should therefore be put into marketing hunting opportunities for the local hunter. This research focused on analysing the typical building blocks of marketing strategy applicable to service organizations. This was done to determine and evaluate the building blocks of marketing strategy applicable to game ranches in the Eastern Cape Province who are targeting local biltong hunters. A literature review was conducted to determine the ideal building blocks of marketing strategy for service organizations such as game ranches. Thereafter, a survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire to determine the ranchers' perceptions of marketing and evaluate their marketing strategies. Most of the respondents: had a fair idea of what marketing entails; were unaware of the thread that links customer expectations, satisfaction and loyalty; realized the importance of relationship marketing with external markets, but not with internal markets; perceived direct competition as their biggest threat, while other travel opportunities were seen as the most important substitute for hunting; mainly positioned themselves based on the features the ranch offered, and believed that the standard of service delivery and physical features of the ranch (the nature of the offering) were their important competitive advantages. The study proposes that the framework of building blocks of marketing strategy, designed by the researcher be used as a tool with which marketing strategies for game ranches in the Eastern Cape Province targeting local biltong hunters could be developed. Additional research on topics such as advertising and the various market opportunity strategies of diversification and product development, could lead to improvement and modification of this framework, making it an even more powerful tool in developing marketing strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10770 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Van Eyk, Marlé |
| Publisher | Port Elizabeth Technikon, Faculty of Commerce and Governmental Studies |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MTech (Marketing) |
| Format | xv, 148 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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