Abel Tasman National Park Marketing Mix

1. When ATE began to diversify its business, discuss what considerations relating to the marketing mix would it have investigated or thought about in the initial stages of their planning activities.

First of all, when we are discussing the marketing mix of ATE, we have to consider that ATE does not sell a product. ATE provides services and services are an intangible good which is quite harder to campaign for.

When they started to diversify their business 1982 and the year after that, John Wilson was trying to create a product that is styled like a package for his customers. First they started with just a water taxi, then when they began to diversify they added guided bushwalks, sea-kayaking and a night accommodation lodge.

At the beginning ATE had to find the price for their product which, I consider, was quite hard because of only very few experience in this kind of business and not that much comparable companies. Since this time the prices were rising until today, where they are a "high end" tour operator.

To position ATE captures during the early years was clearly defined as the only provider of a water taxi after the cyclone and later on as a growing tourism service company who was perceived by the customers as one of the famous tour provider in New Zealand because of the national campaign to attract tourists.

First ATE starts with personnel selling, then they started to advertise and were also part of a national marketing campaign to attract people to come and visit new Zealand. In 1994 ATE was one of the first who had their own website.

The process is an element of service that sees the customer as experiencing a company´s offering. It's best viewed as something that your customer participates in at different points in time. ATE offers their customer services like taking them around while their luggage is already brought to another point or lunch is prepared there when they arrive.

People are the most important element of any service or experience. Services tend to be produced and consumed at the same moment, and aspects of the customer experience are altered to meet the 'individual needs' of the person consuming it. ATE started at the beginning to look after well skilled, well trained and customer service orientated people.

Physical Evidence is about the material part of a service like voucher for a booked tour with a logo of ATE on it.