Introducing the Director of Tourism and the Montserrat brand strategy
The Tourism Division of the Montserrat Development Corporation (MDC) is moving onwards as it reviews and waits for approval of its new branding of Montserrat tourism. The brand new catch phrase will be “Off the Grid” or “Green and Gritty”.
Miss Anita Nightingale, has never been formally introduced to Montserrat, but has been on the job as the Director of Tourism since June 23, 2014. She has a long CV which she chooses to date only back to 2003, coming to Montserrat with over 15 years of experience in marketing strategy. She says about herself. “…I develop marketing strategies and programs that build brand equity, drive traffic and grow loyalty for a business. My specialty, whether it be in retail or more recently tourism, is to look at untapped customer segments – segments that offer promise for business growth or that have been neglected by competitors.”
She hails from Barbados and informs: “one of the first things I did (upon arrival in Montserrat) was I made it my point to meet service providers in the industry.”
Green and gritty map
“These,” she said, “I’m here to serve these people as well, so they are my secondary clients …after all I’m here not just to get visitors on the island.”
She did this during her meeting with the service providers, which she said was with the assistance of Misses Rosetta West and Cassandra Weekes, all within her first three weeks.
She has since focused on the ‘new brand strategy.’ “My plan had always been to do a brand strategy from the time I was interviewed I had been asked what would be the key things and the most important thing to me was the brand strategy,” she informed.
The second most important thing was to get some research done, research that would of course inform the brand strategy. With it came “a marketing plan.” She noted, “these were the key points, adding that “a big deal was trying to figure out where our profitability lies for the island in terms of tourism.”
All of that informs the brand strategy, she said. “… allot of data as well…I’m very big into data, I’m very big into statistics because that to me is how I am guided into a marketing program, I can’t do anything without data, statistics is very important to me as well.”
An escape
In presenting the Montserrat tourism brand, Miss Nightingale, responded to the question “Why does Montserrat need branding?”
She records, “I have listened intently to the many calls for improved access, and agree that it is essential, but that is certainly not the reason why our tourism has remained stagnant.”
She explains with some examples of other though smaller islands. “Union Island in the Grenadines, for example, is serviced by two ferries and one airline and receives around 26,000 arrivals a year. Indeed, most of the Grenadine islands can only be accessed by yacht, and arrivals for all are over 20,000. It is just the right number, without being over-run. Union Island is smaller than us in terms of island size and population. St Eustatius even smaller, a mere 8 square miles, receives 20,000 arrivals with one airline.”
“The problem is much simpler,” she points out. “Very few people know us – rather too few. We are not a mass market destination but even the niches who complement us as a destination do not know us.”
The tagline has already been tested primarily in the USA, with UK advising tht the result from the US was representative of what it might be in the UK.
Of all the people who were interviewed in the US, “none of them had heard of us,” adding that while, “the US is not only our closest source market, they already make up half of the arrivals to the Caribbean.”
Anita, has much more to say in support of her branding strategy which has already been presented to the MDC board and a tourism task force. She explains in part: “So rather than marketing to our family and friends, we need to widen that circle and with brand positioning that goes beyond a description. One that tells of the unique experience we can offer. “Emerald Isle” can remain our beloved pet name – every island has one,” she notes, “but ours is borrowed from another country and weʼre not quite that anymore…”
All that comes with a new web site which she says will be rolled out shortly. Visitors to the Visit Montserrat site will note it doesn’t function, while being directed to the Facebook page instead.
