Silver Lining : A Business Plan

• Main Authors: Day Loretta Yuan Yuan, 戴靖文
• Other Authors: Ed Jen-Huarn Shyurng
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76388373111225406669

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 國際創業與經營管理學程碩士在職專班 === 98 === THE VALUE OF SILVER LINING Silver Lining is a company that is designed for seniors, travel agency which serves seniors who are 55 and above. The company's value lies in its ability to create different scenario for elders to establish their personal networks. The company encourages seniors to look forward to activities and to feel happy and satisfied with their current life and at the same time lose their children’s barriers. On the other hand for the guides we provide job opportunity for students from the tourism department to get let students enrich their life experience and academic wise. For student guides what is important is to carefully pick the right person though interviews we will recruit the perfect person for the company. Opportunity In 1980, the elderly accounted for 2.0% of total population and by 2018 their share will be over 14%. ”There is a high percentage of elders dreaming to travel in their elder years (22.67% ). On the other hand, due to Psychological barriers the seniors find difficulties to realize their travelling dreams. Two manger sources of roadblock are lack of appropriate companion travel and lack of appealing offerings. Silver Lining is the first company that serves the niche market of travel agencies. Nowadays travel agencies focus more on traveling aboard rather than in the domestic. In community centers, there are many activities and people travel in community centers but to in order to lower down the cost they tend to find low quality service. Strategy and Marketing Plans From the field survey we found out that, we can separate seniors into to non-active senior and active senior. For seniors especially entry barriers are high and they tend to have low trust levels. Once we can effect one person feeling and acting and influence their behavior then this will change into a new consumer behavior marketing led to a paradigm shift. Therefore, our goal is to introduce seniors into the company and once an elder take part in Silver Lining, elders are much more likely to develop customer loyalty than other age groups. Non-active seniors tend to stay at home it is not easy for non-family members to contact them. The strategy for Silver Lining to enter non-active seniors market is though their children. The Taiwan government Department of Statistics 2005 report shows that over half (53.37%) of individuals 65 years or older received their support from their children; individuals from 50 to 64 years has a significant income portion (23.19%) already receive financial support from their younger generations. Through government or private whom wants to hold cross generation activity and needs someone to plan for them we will tender the activity and during the activity, we will promote our company to them. At its core, this sign of respect is a demonstration of adult children’s' desire to encourage their parents to live more enjoyable lives. Considering these adult children’s' goals and the financial influence children have on their parents' decisions, Silver Lining will market to this younger generations and have them convince their elder parents to travel. At the same time, we will design customized trip for the younger generation, which are too busy to plan trips for their family. Our growth strategy is to when both elder and younger generations travel together. In order to companion elders on trips younger generations will have to attend the company. For the seniors that are already active, we will approach associations in the community centers and provide a high product to the center leaders. We will offer host weekly events to establish strong relationships with these leader and the more vocal active elders. Instead of focusing on selling the trip, these weekly events will inform the potential clients about the company and explain the health benefits of travel and making new friends. The travel agency industry is a mature and competitive one. Often, price competition is the primary means companies use to distinguish themselves. Field survey insight shows that seniors are very price sensitive Silver Lining is a company that targets parity price to the mass market. Service Our products are specially designed for elders. There are some examples of how the company caters to seniors. We will utilize high-speed railways and travel by bus because elders usually do not drive. Food served on the trips will also be adjusted and consist of lighter fare. Another specialty is that we will design trips for elders to destinations that are appropriate for both grandparents and grandchildren while Silver Line assists with several of the childcare responsibilities. This allows the grandparents and grandchildren to treasure their traveling time without worrying about logistics and details. Before the trip, we will hold pre-council which the student guide will attend. During the trip there will be two guides accompany throughout the trip, and the agenda will be flexible. At the end of the trip, we will provide a survey to learn more about customer needs. After the trip, we will mail pictures to both seniors and their children in order to remind their memorable trip. The main reason that Silver Line focuses on short term domestic trips is to minimize lower risk. The main issue is that when it comes to dealing with elders, we have to be much more considerate and this is why there are no travel agency targeting senior customers. Silver Lining will train its employees to be especially cognizant of seniors' needs and the guides will become more capable and specialized as the company expands.