MKT 574 Week 1 Marketing Strategy and Customer Value Example

More Than a Ticket to See Fish: Marketing Strategy and the Customer Value Proposition of a Riverfront Aquarium in Louisville

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

MKT/574: Marketing: Social, Mobile, and Analytics

Week 1 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Riverfront Aquarium, its attendance and its finances are composites written for a model paper.

Riverfront Aquarium is a composite independent, nonprofit aquarium that opened on the Louisville waterfront in 2004. It houses about 9,000 animals in exhibits on the Ohio River, freshwater systems of the Southeast, coral reefs and the open ocean, and earns about $27 million a year from admissions, memberships, events, food and retail and donations. Attendance peaked at 680,000 visitors four years ago and has fallen to 620,000, even as the adult ticket price rose from $26 to $32. Memberships have held at about 18,000 households, but renewal rates fell from 72 to 64 percent. The board's first instinct is to cut prices. Before doing so, the marketing vice president, Danielle Okafor, asked for an analysis of the aquarium's strategy and the value it offers. This paper examines the market, defines customer value, assesses the current strategy and proposes a value proposition and priorities.

The Market

The aquarium competes for leisure time and money in a metropolitan area of about 1.4 million people, with visitors from a three-hour drive radius that includes Lexington, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Competitors include the Louisville zoo, a science museum, a children's museum, a bourbon-tourism district and, for families, trampoline parks and movie theaters. The aquarium's visitor base has shifted: tourists made up 55 percent of visitors a decade ago and 41 percent now, while local families, school groups and members have grown as a share. Local visitors can come back often, but only if they have reasons to.

Is the Aquarium Market-Driven?

Day (1994) argued that organizations led by their markets stand out in two outward-facing skills: noticing early what customers and rivals are doing, and forming lasting bonds with the customers they serve. He contrasted these outside-in capabilities with inside-out capabilities such as operations and technology. The aquarium is strong inside-out: its animal care and exhibit design are respected nationally. Its market sensing is weak. It runs a visitor survey but rarely acts on it, and exhibits change only every five to seven years, set by curatorial plans rather than visitor needs.

Value Created With Guests

Vargo and Lusch (2004) proposed a service-dominant logic of marketing, in which value is not embedded in a product and handed over but is created with customers through their use and experience. Firms can only offer value propositions; customers determine value in use. For an aquarium, value is created when a child presses her face to the shark tunnel, when a grandfather explains a river fish he once caught or when a teenager posts a jellyfish video. The aquarium's job is to make those moments more likely and more frequent.

The Dimensions of Value

Sweeney and Soutar (2001) developed a scale of consumer perceived value with four dimensions: functional value from quality, emotional value from the feelings a product creates, social value from how it affects one's social self-concept and value for money. Applying these dimensions to 2,400 visitor survey responses and 1,100 online reviews shows a clear pattern. Emotional value is high: reviews mention wonder, calm and children's excitement. Functional value is moderate, with complaints about crowding on weekends and broken interactive displays. Social value is moderate for families but weak for teenagers and young adults. Value for money has fallen, particularly among local families who have visited before and see nothing new for $32 per adult.

The Real Problem

The analysis suggests that price is a symptom. The first visit delivers strong emotional value, but repeat visits deliver less, because little changes. Members renew less often because they have seen everything. The aquarium is priced like a place people visit once and built like one, but its future depends on people who come back.

Current Strategy

The aquarium's current strategy, stated in its marketing plan, is to attract tourists through regional advertising and travel partnerships, with the message world-class aquatic exhibits on the river. That message speaks to first-time visitors and emphasizes the product rather than the visitor's experience. Little marketing targets members or local repeat visitors, and the aquarium's digital channels mainly announce hours and events.

Designing a Value Proposition

Payne et al. (2017) traced how the idea of a value proposition grew from a sales slogan into a central planning device. In their account, the best propositions are worked out with customers, concentrate on the few benefits a chosen segment cares about most and are stated against the alternatives that segment would otherwise pick. They emphasized that strong value propositions are specific, based on customer research and backed by the organization's resources.

Proposed Value Proposition

For Louisville-area families and curious adults who want a place to return to, Riverfront Aquarium offers something new to discover every season, close-up encounters with animals and the people who care for them and a direct way to help protect the rivers and oceans they love, with membership that pays for itself in two visits.

Strategic Priorities

First, design for return visits: rotating seasonal exhibits, behind-the-scenes encounters and evening events for adults, so local visitors have new reasons to come. Second, shift marketing weight toward local families, members and young adults, while keeping tourism partnerships. Third, build the aquarium's brand around discovery and conservation, linking visits to local river projects. Fourth, use digital, social and mobile channels to deepen the experience before, during and after visits, and measure what drives return. Price changes, such as off-peak tickets, should follow these steps rather than lead them.

What Local Visitors Want

Open-ended survey answers from local visitors who had come at least twice in two years point to four wishes. They want something they have not seen before, even a small new exhibit or a new animal. They want to get closer, through feedings, keeper talks or touch pools that are open more often. They want calmer times, since weekends feel crowded. And many, especially parents of school-age children, want to feel the visit does some good, through learning or support for conservation. These wishes match the dimensions of value well: novelty supports emotional value on repeat visits, closeness supports functional and emotional value, calmer times support functional value and conservation supports social value.

Competitive Advantage

The aquarium has resources competitors lack. Its river exhibits are unique in the region, its staff includes biologists who run field projects on local mussels and fish and its location on the waterfront connects it to the river itself. These strengths can support a proposition no zoo, museum or entertainment center can copy easily.

Risks

The strategy carries risks. Rotating exhibits cost money and staff time, and the aquarium may need sponsors to fund them. Focusing on locals could weaken tourism if partnerships are neglected. And conservation messages must be backed by real projects, or they will seem empty.

Conclusion

Riverfront Aquarium's falling attendance reflects a value gap more than a price problem: it creates strong emotional value on a first visit but gives local visitors few reasons to return. Research on market-driven organizations, co-created value, perceived value and value propositions supports a strategy built around discovery, return visits and conservation. The weeks ahead will develop segments, brand, social and mobile marketing and analytics to carry it out.

References

Day, G. S. (1994). The capabilities of market-driven organizations. Journal of Marketing, 58(4), 37-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299405800404

Payne, A., Frow, P., & Eggert, A. (2017). The customer value proposition: Evolution, development, and application in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(4), 467-489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-017-0523-z

Sweeney, J. C., & Soutar, G. N. (2001). Consumer perceived value: The development of a multiple item scale. Journal of Retailing, 77(2), 203-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4359(01)00041-0

Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.68.1.1.24036