Dissertation Proposal

Title: The Desired Destination - Influential Ways of Destination Marketing

Question: Are methods of influence more effective than "positioning" in destination marketing?

Objectives:
1. To identify which different instruments of influence are effective for destination marketing;
2. To compare the level of effectiveness of different methods of destination marketing;
3. To measure if individuals from this age of information, technology and communication can still be persuaded or influenced through advertising, in a tourism context;
4. To test the participants' level of interest on a specific destination before and after being subject to the methods of influence, assessing their effectiveness;
5. To determine if the use of methods of influence in tourism marketing can give competitive advantage to a destination.

Area of Study
I will be comparing two different methods that can be used in advertisement and promotion. The first one is "Positioning", a well-known concept in tourism marketing, which can be defined as the process of "reinforcing a distinctive place for a destination in the minds of potential visitors within target markets" (Botha, 1999:342). In this concept, a destination should be marketed based on the ideal image that people already carry in their minds, rather than try to create a new destination image for prospective visitors.

The effectiveness of this method will be compared against Cialdini's (2009) instruments of influence, which is a concept that has not yet been tested in a tourism context. According to him people can be influeced by six different principles: reciprocication, commitment, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. I intend to create an online promotional page for the city of Rio de Janeiro including all such principles to test their effectiveness.

Method
I will use quantitative research, trying to obtain a response from 50 participants. They will first be asked randomly in the streets of London to take part in the experiment. If they agree, they will receive a card with a website address written on it. The website will be constructed especifically for thsi research and will test their level of interest in the city of Rio de Janeiro before and after being exposed to the promotional materials.

The data will be collected through the SurveyMonkey instrument and later be analysed using the SPSS program, for a graphic visualisation of the results.

If the outcome of the research proves that influence instruments are effective for destination marketing, then cities can obtain competitive advantage by trying to change people's minds in a more persuasive manner rather than shape their products and services to better fit what's on their minds.


Botha, C. (1999) ' Developing a Revised Competitive Position for Sun/Lost City, South Africa', Journal of Travel Research, 37, pp.341-352.

Cialdini, R. B. (2009) Influence: Science and Practice. Fifth Edition. Boston, Pearson Education.

Some Helpful Links

Hello everyone.

The research proposal is without a doubt the most difficult piece of assignment that we've had to do so far... and I believe I was not the only one who only started doing it in the last moment. So, just in case this topic is being read by a student in the 2011 course, hear this advice. START AS EARLY AS YOU CAN! Even if just one paragraph a day!

I've been lost under a pile of books about consumer behaviour, destination marketing, the science of influence, and journals related to my topic. All in order to write the Literature Review. This is of extreme importance because we have to have enough knowledge about what has already been written in order to explain why our research is important, identifying a gap in what is already available.

In terms of the Research Approach and Methods the book which I found to be the most useful was Research Methods for Business Students (Saunders et al 2007). I bought Research Design, by Creswell. It gives a good cover of Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods, but I didn't find all the answers that I needed in it. I also borrowed Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism, by Veal.

In case you have no access to these books, you can find limited versions of them on Google Books. But don't rely on it, as you won't find entire sections for what you need. Just click on the title to be redirected:


Research Methods for Business Students
Research Design
Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism

I also found a little help on YouTube. Click to watch the videos:

Quantitative or Qualitative?
The Ethics of Social Research
Preparing a Research Proposal

Needless to say that no video should substitute books, but they offer a better visualization to understand the methods.