International Advertising

Client and client information

“Malaysia Tourism Board”

The Malaysian Tourism sector has been growing very rapidly. The government has spent 11% of

their total expenditure on promotion and other activities to persuade tourist to come to Malaysia.

The major parts of tourists come from Singapore and China. The Malaysian government has seen

huge growth which is 23% from last year in total numbers of Indian tourists reached in Malaysia

but still there is less tourists’ inflow from India. (Tourism Malaysia, 2009) So the government

has come to us to promote and advertise the Malaysia Tourism in India. We are working as

Advertisement Agency and working in India to promote and advertise the Malaysia Tourism.

They have allocated 10 million USD budget to spend on advertisement.

Project

We are interested to promote Malaysia as a tourism place in India among the high end

customers. Our project is basically concentrating on Malaysia due to the high penetration of

tourism business over there. Instead of Malaysia tourism board, we are going to offer the

different tourism packages in India. In recent past, Malaysia has came as the most prominent

place or most happing place for tourism among the entire Asia region and still enjoying the same

prosperous position in terms of generating country revenue through tourism industry. We are

emphasizing on Malaysia due to the cultural or religion similarity to some extent between the

both country such as Muslim and some other Indian community. In this way, we will able to

reflect the culture similarities between the both countries and the people who are interested to

know that how Indian culture exists in other part of Asia.

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Task Background
Malaysia is one of the beautiful places in south-east Asia region and having the different cultural

dimension or mix. Malaysia is having treasures of natural exquisiteness and the climate

conditions are favorable to travel there in any point of time throughout the year. As a media

agency, we are going to promote Malaysia in India in order to increase the Indian footfalls at the

land of holy Malaysia and the reason behind choosing India because of the hike in disposal

income of individuals. Further our agency has got a proposal to come with an effective

communication and feasible media plan in given budget. We have collected secondary data

through the help of internet and magazines to explore our knowledge about Malaysia. Our

agency is going to promote the most popular tourism location of Malaysia in India and we are

also going to promote Malaysian marriage tradition which is pretty similar to south- Indian

marriages and by this we will reflects that how these two countries are having some similarity in

their cultural , customs and value system. We are going to enhance the culture understanding

between these two countries and one another fact is that 10% of Malaysian population belongs to

Indian community. Malaysia is mix of Chinese, Indian community and the most people over

there are Muslims so we are also plan to reflect the Muslim religious dilemma’s of Malaysia to

Indian Muslims. The reason of promoting Malaysia in India is basically due to the level of

cultural relevance and the similarity of rituals in these two countries. India is having second

position in terms of largest population in world. The population of India is around

1,166,079,217, and the population according to the religions are Hindus 80 crore , Muslims;

population is nearly 13 crore, Christian 2 crore, and Others. [ CITATION CIA10 \l 1033 ] . Moreover

more than 65% of population is young and energetic.

Our preliminary task is to promote Malaysia through medical tourism, marriage tourism, cultural

tourism and sports tourism. In Malaysia, kite flying is a most popular game or sport and by this

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cultural festive and tradition, we are promoting this activity to India and keen to display the

variety of kite flying tradition.

India as a Market

India is a developing countries and the mix of culture dynamics. India is fastest growing

economy among the south-east Asian countries; with the increase in the disposable income of the

Indian consumer the country has seen exponential growth in the tourism expenditure of the

Indian citizens. Over the years the expenditure pattern of the Indian people can be figured out by

the following facts and figures.

Facts to know
I. According to the ministry of Indian tourism, the total outflow or international trips has

been made by Indians were 6.2 million in 2004, which has been increased by 16% as

compare to 2003 statistics. In 2003, the total outflow of tourism was 5.3 million and the

total outflow of Indian tourist was 4.9 million. The total statistics of Indian tourist

outflow reached to 7.2 million in 2005.

II. Ever year around 50,000 Indians issues their visa to travel outside country.

III. Tourists outflow from India to Hong Kong has been growing at a healthy pace despite the

hullabaloo surrounding the SARS outbreak. India recovered to record a positive growth

with the arrivals of 19,667 in September 2003, an 8.1% increase over the same period in

September2002.

IV. Malaysia expects about three lakhs of Indian tourists every year, ahead of Australia,

Taiwan and the U.S. Excited by the increased number of Indian tourist’s arrivals,

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Malaysia has been holding road shows to further beefing up its tourism sector

and over 1 lakh Indians visited Sri Lanka in 2004.

Objective of ad

Our ad objective is to delivering the information and creating awareness among the Indian
customers about the culture of Malaysia. We are keen to expose the nature, advancement of
economy and culture differences of Malaysia. Our plan is to increase the number of Indian
tourist who will be move to Malaysia and expecting to deliver the message throughout the
metros and one tier cities. Our campaigning would be based on the culture familiarity, sports
activity and medical facilities in order to attract the customers. We are planning to convey the
message to entire mass who are having interest to know about the other countries culture and
they have purchasing capacity. The expected Indian footfalls was around 3 lacks in 2009 but this
time through our promotion penetration, we are expecting 4 lacks Indians to come on the trip of
Malaysia.

Target Market

Our target market is every potential customer who is having the purchasing capacity of our
tourism package. In terms of social group, we are focusing on middle and high end customer
group. We are looking for couple, family corporate people to let them aware about the diversity
of Malay culture. We are also targeting the game lover specially kite flyers who is having great
amount of interest in flying kite in different locations of world in different manners or using
different props of kind of kites. For this we have chosen Gujarat as our primary target because
this is the hub of kite flying place in India and Guajarati people are having greater amount of
interest in this game. Secondly, we are looking for those couple who are interested to get married
in abroad and for this we are targeting south India because the tradition of marriage in Malaysia
is replica of south-Indian marriages. Thirdly we are targeting those people who are spirituality
seeker and other targets are medical treatment seeker of Aurvedya. The disposal income of per
Indian is increased by 3 % in 2009.

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Demographic segmentation:
Age:
We are specifically segmented the market on the basis of age. For our marriage package we are
targeting the age group of 22-35 who are couple and wanted to get mingle or married and others
who are interested in sports and game within the same age group of 15- 45. Further we are
targeting to the age group 40- 60 who are spirituality seeker and wanted to get medical treatment
in Malaysia. The target audience of our advertisements message would be women and children
oriented due to the high involvement in purchasing decision. The segmentation according to age
is classified below:-

Age Group ( 22-35) Marriage package

Age Group ( 15- 45) Sports seeker
Age Group ( 40- 60) Medical tourism

Gender:

We are not bothered about the gender and targeting both male and female and because of the

collectivism one of the culture dimension, we are looking for the family to come and enjoy the

tour.

Income:

The rising economy of India and the regular growth in the disposal income of Indian customers

are well enough to attract our attention to assume them as prospect customers. The per capita

income of India is. The GDP rate is around 7%.[ CITATION CIA10 \l 1033 ] We are targeting to

those people who are enjoying the income more than 50,000 INR per month.

Psychographic segmentation:

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Our advertisements are having the essence of lifestyle pattern through the wide variety of our

offer. Our package offers reflects the lifestyle and a feel of aesthetics sense. We are going to

follow the Maslow’s need theory to segment the market which would be basically depending on

the two needs:-

Esteem needs

Esteem needs reflects the respect kind of need which is required by the people who feel pride to

purchase the high end product and services. These people are desired to look for the self esteem

value and they select the purchasing decisions on the basis of esteem or pride. According to

VALS network, there are achievers who want product and services which avails them an

opportunity to expose their achievements in life. In same way, we are looking the customers who

are having this esteem. The people who are innovators and feel that by doing this they will grab

the sense of pride and we are keen to convey our message to those who are having this kind of

esteem requirement and convince them to try out our packages. Generally, these kinds of people

are luxury seeker and we are providing the world class luxury tour packages.

Safety needs

Safety needs are generally based on the security needs such as medical treatment and body

fitness. As per the health industry news, every year around people walks out for medical

treatment which shows that how Indians are health conscious and they have security needs. In

this way we are targeting those people who are health conscious and wanted to spend on

different medical therapies in order to be healthy and cure.

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Behavioral segmentation:
Occasions:-
We are targeting customers according to occasions and time or seasons. Especially in summers,

we are expecting to attract the customers who are having family and between summers there is

vacation of their children from May to June. At the time of Christmas, we are targeting the

potential customers to attract in that season. We are also targeting the “Ramjan” month which is

most holy time for Muslims and Malaysia is country where majority of population are follower

of Muslim religion. In Hindu tradition, Makar Sankranti is the time when people used to fly kite

and Malaysia is having the tradition of kite flying.

Tourism Industry in Malaysia:

Malaysia is one of the most popular and attractive tourist destinations of the Asia- Pacific region.
Tourism industry in Malaysia is growing year by year; even in the recession period Malaysian
tourism has performed very well. Despite of worst economic crisis of the world Malaysian
tourism has performed quite well. According to the statics of Malaysian government number of
international tourist arrival in the year 2008 stood at 22 million, which is nearly 2 million more
than the previous year. [ CITATION Tou10 \l 1033 ]

In percentage terms it is increased by 5% over the previous year. According to a marketing

research firm for the period of 2009-2012 international tourist arrival in Malaysia will grow at a
CAGR of 9%. [ CITATION Mal09 \l 1033 ] With India is becoming an economic superpower,
disposable income of Indian people is also increasing therefore tourist arrival from India to
Malaysia is also increasing. Out of 22 million international tourist who visited Malaysia in the
year of 2008 nearly 5, 00,000 were from India. [ CITATION Mal091 \l 1033 ]

In August 2009 Malaysian tourism minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen has visited India to strengthen
cultural tie between India and Malaysia, and also to promote Malaysia as a tourist destination in
India. [ CITATION Mal091 \l 1033 ] [ CITATION CIA10 \l 1033 ]

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Positioning
Positioning strategy

Brand personality:
The brand personality of Malaysia will be portrayed as the exciting one which will include the
communication of daring and spirited that is concentrated towards the sport enthusiast, the
imaginative aspect of this brand is targeting the sophisticated audience that we are targeting. To
attract more international tourist from all across the world, Malaysia has positioned himself
differently from its neighbor country. As an attractive tourist destination personality of Malaysia
will be base on its Natural beauty, and modernization.

Tone of voice:
Our advertisements tone would be soft and romantic but the visuals would be excited and

creative.

Special requirements:

We are going to use Malaysia tourism board logo and website addresses while promoting the

campaign of Malaysia.

Message strategy:
Verbal element:
The verbal use will be more as compare to written form because Indians are more comfortable

with verbal communication

Non verbal element:

We will use tourists and medical spots as graphics for all of our ads that signify beauty of nature

in them.

Primary message:
Shop, eat and celebrate would be our primary and sustainable message but in different season we

will use alternate messages such as for promoting sports the message would be “Sports centre of

Asia is Malaysia”

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Copy strategy:

We will follow an emotional approach for our ads as they are related to nature and heath. The

product will categorize as High Involvement product with special care which will be taken to

convey the message to the potential audience. Ads will be represents the bond of togetherness

with nature of beauty. Our ads will be based on the culture, spices, beauty, grandeur and

Ayurveda. We will also focus on leisure activities which are vital reason of the trip and this will

be promoted by showing various destination spot and their facilities in the term of beauty of

nature, Ayurveda and both. .

Frame work of message strategy:

As we have already mentioned that English is the main language used for commercial purpose in

India. It is widely used for business, political and social purpose. Before designing a message for

Indian people I would like to talk about Hofstede dimensions of culture. We cannot design a

message without understanding the cultural dimension of the country.

Communication strategy:
In India numbers of language are spoken by people. According to the CIA world factbook more

than 15 languages are spoken in India. Approximately 41% population speaks Hindi and Hindi is

their primary language. [ CITATION CIA10 \l 1033 ] . But there are 14 other language are also spoken

by Indian people. English is most important language in India as far as our target market is

concerned. We will release our ads in English. We are promoting Malaysia as a tourist

destination to those people who belong from a high income group, and these high income group

people preder to watch and read English Channel, newspaper and English magazine so keeping

in mind our target group suitable media will be selected. Our advertisement will appear on

internet, in business magazine and other suitable medium.

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The country brand Hexagon

Brand hexagon is something which helps us to make a clear picture of overall dynamic of a

particular place. The factors which make the hexagon appropriate to study are tourism, people,

governance, exports, immigration and culture & heritage.

Brand hexagon is a term which is used in understanding of overall dynamics of a particular

place. As the meaning of term hexagon itself indicate that it is comprises of six factor, these six
factor which make a country hexagon suitable and attractive are people, Culture & heritage,
imports, governance, immigration and tourism.

People:
The People of Malaysia is very friendly and polite in nature. Approximately 64% of the
Malaysian population fall in the age group of 15-64 years, only 5% of the population is above 65
years. So we can say that Malaysia is a young country. [ CITATION CIA10 \l 1033 ]. Although
Malaysia is a Muslim dominated country with 60% Muslim population but it is not an extreme
country like Middle East nation. Most of the population of Malaysia is Literate; according to
CIA world fact book literacy rate in Malaysia is 88%. [ CITATION CIA10 \l 1033 ]

Culture and Heritage:

Malaysia is a cultural rich country. Malaysian culture is blend of all the major Asian races. It is
comprises of Indian, Chinese, Malay plus so many other ethnic group. Because of mixing of
different ethnic group Malaysia reflect a colorful heritage and amalgamated culture. Since
centuries different ethnic group have lived together in Malaysia. So they have influenced each
other in great way and created a new Malaysian culture. In Malaysia there are three large ethnic
group Chinese, Malay, Indian. [ CITATION Tou10 \l 1033 ]

Government:
Government of Malaysia is heavily promoting tourism in Malaysia. Government of Malaysia is
continuously trying to develop tourism sector as an alternative source of foreign exchange.
Government is high priority to develop basic infrastructure for tourism. [ CITATION Tou10 \l 1033 ]

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Tourist destinations in Malaysia:

There are numerous places in Malaysia to attract the people; substantial growth in tourism

industry is considered to be the crucial factor for expansion of tourist people in Malaysia. There

are various places which belong to above tourist places cluster i.e. tropical island of Langkawi,

National Parks, colonial hill stations of Gentling and Cameron Highlands, high-tech city of

Kuala Lumpur, numerous pristine beaches, world's oldest tropical rainforests and so on.

Malaysia has the prospects of catering to tourist of every variant, and it truly lives up to its tag

line of Malaysia Truly Asia.

Kuala Lumpur

Capital of Kuala Lumpur; this is the only global city in Malaysia which consist several colors of

life with modernization, and various rich heritages. Kuala Lumpur is situated at the convergence

of Sungai Gombak and Sungai Kelang, which is how it has got its name, which really means

'muddy confluence' in Malay language.  

Kelantan

Kelantan exactly dictates as the "Land of Lightning" which contains lush paddy fields,

casuarinas-lined beaches and rustic fishing villages. This place is situated in the northeast corner

of the peninsula, major factors behind the attractiveness of Kelantan were found in the strength

of its culture and it’s remote. Kelantan provides lots of opportunities for tourists such as, river

rafting, jungle trekking, bird watching, and river cruises etc. 

Malacca

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The city which is as seaside; attraction for huge range of tourists, located on the West Coast of

Peninsular Malaysia in front of the Straits of Malacca, it is around 147 km far from Kuala

Lumpur. Malacca is a magnificent repository of its cultural heritage. Its royally past is evident in

its Portuguese architecture, whereas on the streets, Chinese influence is most visible. Most of the

businessmen here are Chinese. Over the centuries, the Chinese and local Malay cultures in

Malacca intertwined, eventually producing a completely unique society-a mosaic of different

cultures.

Sabah

Sabah is a tropical paradise situated at the north-east area of Borneo. In earliest times it was

called as the "Land below the Wind" because it belongs to below the typhoon belt. Sabah attracts

tourists with its charming beauty, cultural diversity and rugged landscape.

Sarawak

This is the largest state of Malaysia which is known as the “land of fabled”. It is situated on the

north-western seashore of the island of Borneo; Sarawak is comparatively preferred tourist place

for those who are seeking for culture, nature and adventure tourism.

Terengganu

This place is one of the three east-coast states on Peninsular Malaysia. Terengganu is the hub or

storage area of cultural heritage of Malaysia and is home to the lilting Gamelan and the

compelling "Ulek Mayang" dances. It is univalent and peaceful state, with several small villages,

secluded islands, quiet roads and beaches.

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Negeri Sembilian

Negeri Sembilian is usually called as "Nine States". It is called as like this because it comprises

an alliance of nine states, it is situated on the south-west area of Peninsular Malaysia, and Negeri

Sembilan encompasses an area of 6,645 sq km and a 48 km long coastline.

Penang

Penang stands for the Island of Betel Nut; it is famous for its natural scenic magnificence. It is

also known as the 'Pearl of Orient', Penang entices tourists with its temperate seas, lush greenery,

golden beaches, and delicious cuisine.

Perlis

Perlis is one of the smallest states in Malaysia; this state is well-known for its peaceful and

unspoilt beauty, verdant paddy fields, and rustic rural scenes. The expanse of verdant paddy

fields makes the landscape appear like a huge canvas of brilliant green or gold, depending on the

season.

Top ten destinations in Malaysia:-

 Petronas Twin Tower in Kuala Lumpur

 Bako National Park

 Sultan Abdul Saman Building

 Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

 Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary

 Heeren Street & Jonker Street, Malacca

 Tengku Tengah Zaharah Mosque, Teluk Ibai, Terengganu

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 Batu Caves, Selangor

 Gunung Mulu National Park, Miri, Sarawak

 Beaches of Langkawi

Creative execution:
Media selection rational

The positioning with which we are targeting the Indian market for Malaysia is “Home away from home”,

since 10% of the Malaysian population is of Indians which includes both the Hindu and Muslim

community so in order to create the interest towards the Malaysian destinations we will emphasis on the

various cultural aspects that are similar in both the countries, this similarity includes the marriage rituals,

various kite competitions and the temples which will be in contrast with the Indian traditions and rituals.

The advertisement campaign is targeted towards the upper middle class, sports enthusiasts and old people,

so the overall concentration of the advertisement campaign will concentrate towards these segments and

the allocation of the media timings and budget will depends on the various cultural events and sporting

events that took place on different timings of the year. The various media that we are considering for the

promotional campaign are

Television
The television density in India is around 41% and the penetration of the pay TV is soared to 80% and is

expected to grow around 95% by the year 2013[ CITATION scr09 \l 1033 ] and the majority of the

television advertisements are being broadcasted on the pay television, since we are targeting the upper

middle class and sports enthusiasts so the television channels that we are concentrating are the sports,

movies and lifestyle channels. The advertisement will carried on the sports channel like ESPN, Star

Sports, Star Cricket, the lifestyle channels and movie channels like Star Movies, HBO and NDTV life

style, the alternative television channels that we are considering the English news channels like Times

Now, NDTV 24x7 and other business channels. The concentration of the advertisement campaign will be

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concentrated near the sports event like Malaysian Grand Prix, Azalan Shah Hockey tournament and other

major sporting events.

Print media
The promotion of Malaysia tourism is through the business and lifestyle magazines like Business world,

Business Today, Outlook Traveler, India Today, Outlook, Travel and Leisure etc. The other medium that

we have considered are through the News papers like Hindustan Times, Times of India, and The Asian

Age etc. This media will again concentrate towards the target segments.

Brochures:

Travel brochures have detailed information about the product or destination. These will be

colored brochures which will enclose various packages offered by our client and details of

pricing and timing. The cover page will have a collarge of Malaysia‟s tourist‟s destination and

our captions. All the other pages in the broacher will contain the places and a description of the

moods.

Direct Mails
The direct mails will be sent to the various corporate entities and the sports enthusiasts and according to

the target segment we will personalize the massages that are being sent to the different prospects.

Time rational:-

Television:

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As we mentioned above, we will go for 45 seconds ads which we will telecast two times every
day for 90 days in a year. We will advertise only in peak times which are between evening 7 pm
to 10 pm to reach maximum number of people, even though it costs more.

Internet:

We will give small hyperlinks advertisements, in social networking sites and newspaper websites
in video mode which would be about 3 minutes.

Newspapers:

We will give full page colorful ads in leading newspapers, especially in weekends. The days
would be chosen as alternatively.

Magazines:

We will give ads in center page in local magazines which would cost less, and one page ads in
leading top magazines.

Budget allocation

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MEDIA No.of times in No.of month Total No.of Ad Rate Total

a month times in 3 INR INR
months
TV: ( 45 sec) 60 3 180
Discovery 30,000-30 Sec.
Star movies 27,000- 30 sec. 2,23,00000 /45
HBO 32,000- 30 sec. sec.
NDTV Life Style 22,000- 30 sec.
60 3 180
Magazine: 2 6 12
India today 565,000
Business world 295,000 1,18,80000
Travel & 124,000
Leisure

Newspaper: 15 3 45
Times of India 2,82900
Hindustan 1,21,000 1,815,500
Times

Internet 14 4 56 10,000/Month 40,000

Total 3,60,35500
Our agengy got 5 crore rupees from the clients to make an effective advertisement. We have
allocated budjet to our media. Our total expense for media is around 3, 60,35500. Agency has
taken 10% commission. Budjet which we have allocated for different media are mentioned above
in a table.

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Bibliography:

CIA Worldfactbook. (n.d.). Retrieved Feburary 5, 2010, from

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html

Malaysia, India to explore avenues for promoting tourism industry. (2009, August 20). Retrieved
Feburary 3, 2010, from Thailand News: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/malaysia-
india-to-explore-avenues-for-promoting-tourism-industry_100235372.html

Malaysian Tourism Industry Forecast to 2012. (2009, July 1). Retrieved Feburary 4, 2010, from
http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=2382937

screendigest.com. (2009). Indian Pay TV platforms look for investors as downturn eases. London: Screen
digest.

Tourism Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved Feburary 4, 2010, from

http://www.tourism.gov.my/corporate/research.asp

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