Project description
Report 3,000 words
You are required to act in a marketing consultancy role to a Destination Management Organisation
(DMO) to advise them on a new approach to Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) and
branding and digital and directing marketing to raise their profile and gain a competitive advantage.
You must present your recommendations in an individual report. This report is a critical evaluation not a descriptive one. You need to critical evaluate the position of a destination and put forward appropriate operational and strategic management and marketing solutions to add value to gain a superior position.

Guidelines:
– The DMO is The South West of England
– Your report must be professionally presented and include a title page, table of contents,
numbered pages and sections, executive summary, bibliography and appendices, if
appropriate. You must use 11 or 12 point font and a minimum of 1.5 spacing.
– You must support your recommendations by referring back to the literature.
– Below are some guidelines as to what should be in each section of your report.

Report Structure
1.Executive summary:
– Maximum of 300 words.
– It is not an introduction. It should include all of the key points – the DMO and destination it
is promoting, your advice as to where they can gain competitive advantage and the most
important points you recommend for STP, branding and digital and direct marketing
– Treat it as a separate document and write it LAST when you have finished the main report
and have these key points.

2.Table of contents:
– This goes after the executive summary
– Remember to number the sections in the report and put in page numbers. Do not use too
many sub-headings as you lose the flow of the report.

3.Brief introduction: This should provide a brief overview of your destination and analyse it – where is it, what type of destination is it, who are the key stakeholders? Identification of the macro/micro forces impacting on it, key stakeholders & major challenges Use the theory to help you in this
part and include all of the information which contextualises the rest of the assignment but
you must write succinctly – if you spend too long on this section you will not have enough
words left for the rest. For example you could use the 6 A’s framework of the destination as a figure

– Identify the major challenges they have. Understanding and application of STP theory to a destination

4.Recommendations (This is the main body of the report) about 2000-2500 words on this part
• The introduction was to introduce the destination and identify the issues and main
stakeholders.
• You need to make recommendations in this section on the strategy the DMO should use for
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP), branding and digital and directing marketing
to raise their profile and gain a competitive advantage. You have to find the issues about them and recommend what they have to do. You allow to use graphs, figures, and pictures to support your recommendations.
• Make sure you use appropriate terminology and demonstrate you understand the theory
behind STP. You can also mention other destinations that have used similar strategies to
illustrate your understanding of STP in a wider context.
• Make your recommendations realistic – they must be appropriate for the type of destination
and their likely budget.
• Prioritise the recommendations, what is essential and what would you recommend for the
medium and long term?
-You can use your knowledge from books, articles and other publications to give you ideas or
to show good practice – remember to reference them to demonstrate your reading.

-You also need to highlight any implications of your solutions – here you need to step back
and ask yourself ‘what (if any) would happen if someone were to implement the solutions I
am proposing here?’ Critical and reflective thinking will be very useful in this sense. If you
want a separate section for this part, it is absolutely fine.

Conclusion
-The conclusion must not contain any new information.
-Remember to re-state what you were trying to do at the beginning of the project, then
briefly explain what you did and the key conclusions you have drawn.

Bibliography
-Remember to include all the sources you used for the report.
-List them in alphabetical order (by author)
-Make sure they are presented according to the Harvard system.

Appendices
-You can include appendices if you want to. Do not put in information that you have not
referred to in the main text – we only look at appendices when you tell us to in the main
body of the report.
Your word count does not include your bibliography, references or table of contents.
………………
Overview of destination including identification of the macro/micro forces impacting on it, key stakeholders & major challenges 20 marks
Understanding and application of STP theory to a destination 30 marks
Understanding of branding and application of digital and direct marketing solutions to a destination demonstrating a breadth and depth of knowledge of theory and practice 40 marks
Professional report – overall presentation, quality of executive summary, referencing skills 10 marks