2. A Premium Price Customers are Happy to Pay

Dear Members,

When it comes to attracting new clients and sending them your itineraries, what is your experience?

At first, it may seem like things aren’t to bad but not perfect, but they will probably work themselves out in the future.

Or maybe there are already a few signs of trouble, like prospects losing interest, not responding to your emails, or dodging your follow-up calls altogether.

But it is possible to avoid this since those issues should not be occurring, and it’s time to review your client attraction strategy.

You might sell what everybody else sells and be annoyed that your clients are just shopping around. You lose clients to fellow tour operators as they can offer it for just a bit less, as from the client’s point of view, if all itineraries are pretty much identical, all they are interested in is finding the lowest offer.

As I wrote in my previous blog, choose your target customers 

When it comes to a customer attraction strategy, you can’t just differentiate a little bit. Remember the cheetah? He can’t just be running a little bit and be successful; he went all out with his slender, light body, his swift moves, his camouflage colours, and his enormous speed to catch his prey or the croc, who is extremely patient, waiting for his prey to come into an environment (water) that suits the croc and where he has a competitive advantage in terms of the shape and colour of his body.

“Although comparing this to marketing does not make complete sense, it is interesting to realise how wild animals are all designed to perfection and all have their own strategy to stay alive.”

When you have chosen your group of passionate fanatics and know where to find and reach them, it is time to create your itinerary (product).

When it comes to creating an itinerary, you need to add value.

What added value? and how much added value?

You need to add so much value to your itineraries that your chosen target customers choose you based on your added value and are willing to pay a premium price for this added value.

“A premium price is a higher than standard price for a good that is perceived to be more valuable than standard and whose perceived value is particularly high for a particular niche market.”.

When choosing your target customer, make sure your target customer can afford to travel to East Africa and is the decision-maker. If your marketing budget is limited, try to choose a safe target customer group. Students, for example, are often not the decision-makers, and you can target students, but they need to first convince their parents, which will reduce your direct control over the sales process.

I’ll show you a sample idea:

Target customers are people from Scandinavia who are 45+ years old, have a relatively good income, and are passionate about their religion. Apart from their devotion, they are also extremely connected to people from Scandinavia who are 45+ years old, have a relatively good income, and are passionate about their religion, and this is a very important factor for your word-of-mouth marketing.

Sample itinerary of six nights and seven days.

Offer a unique opportunity, which will also add to the value.

For example, to create a unique opportunity for Christians in Scandinavian countries (who often donate a small amount of money to the church for charitable reasons), an opportunity to visit charitable projects in Tanzania that are supported by the church.

A unique opportunity to visit and see church-supported charity activities in Tanzania.

And the itinerary is as follows:

Day one and two: visiting the small-scale farmers that the Maua Sisters support and guide while lodging with them in Marangu.

Day three: Visit Tanz Hands, an organisation backed by the church, and spend the night there to find out more about how they assist the skill development of individuals with disabilities.

Day four; Habari Maalum interacts with the locals by attending a religious service. They are given a tour of the radio and gospel production studio the following morning.

Day five: We visit a church-backed project at Monduli Juu that gives Maasai children the opportunity to pursue secondary education.

Day six: A full day Tarangire National Park.

Day seven: A workshop in Karatu at a dispensary for rural communities supported by the church.

End of itinerary

My goal is to give value to this target group by providing something special and jam-packed with activities that are in line with their shared passions. Differentiation is the business model, and by focusing on a specific market, differentiation is the added value for the greater price tag. How can you tell if the added value is sufficient? If the majority of your chosen clients have no trouble paying the premium price you are asking,. How do you know the premium price is set perfectly? You may want to increase your pricing if your initial offer is readily accepted by everyone. Probably the best price is a slight drop-off percentage if it is the highest profit margin that you are after.

You may now be wondering why I created this incomplete itinerary. I will explain… to be continued!

P.S. One more thing: it’s important! THE BIGGEST BONUS of all is the breakthrough technology called Local Booking, which will offer you the opportunity to see room availability across all your favourite accommodations in your region and get market clearing rates directly from accommodation owners for FREE! All YOU need to do is sign up here!

* For everyone who values environmental sustainability.