4.7 Theme 5: Online marketing as an important element of Integrated Marketing Communications with relations to cultural differences

4.7.1 Subtheme 1: The use of online marketing communications within Russia and Ireland

The theoretical background on these subtheme represented the idea that most of Irish tourists are willing to book their holidays online – 74 % and this is the highest score globally, while Russian travellers have got far less result in statistics – 25% only. With relation to cultural research of Hofstede it shows that the Irish has low uncertainty avoidance booking online, while Russians not, therefore online marketing communication messages most likely to have better work within Irish market, while within Russian market it is still developing (TripAdvosor, 2016).

Participants were asked: “How Irish/Russian tourists purchase your tours/rooms – online or through tourist agency?”

Hotel Chain “S”:

“At the moment we don’t have a standard for those countries. For example, I could tell you that German are more likely to book through the traditional travel agency...Most of them book through modern OTAs, but it is true that all our Russian guests have booked through two specific travel agencies: CORAL (from the group Open Travel Services) and Terramar Services.”

“…We haven’t found a specific channel for our Irish guests, in our case, those guests book through online OTAs such as Booking.com’’

The experience gained by Hotel Chain “S” proves that Irish have low uncertainty avoidance and higher tolerance to risk booking online, while Russian not.

As for Travel Agency “I”, nothing specific was mentioned about Russian and Irish. Overall, most of their customers purchase tours online.

“…It is changing now. Some markets still more traditional … German still use tour operators, but most people now purchase on the Internet. They may still buy packages. If you coming from America for the first time you might want get security…I think every destination should have strong web presence…very experiential web,,,very visual and very engaging…”

“In large people use the Internet. There are others which don’t use Internet at all and they go on site...But online tour operators are growing in importance to traditional tour operator and printed material are becoming less relevant in a more dynamic place…”

The marketer from Travel Agency “R” also didn’t noticed anything particularly with regards to Russian and Irish, and approached the question from another side:

“I think it is an age group thing than nationality. People over 45 -50 still use travel agencies, certainly in Ireland...not all people use Internet, they are not interested …I don’t think it is national thing. It is generation thing …”

4.7.2 Subtheme 2: The effectiveness of using social media and word-of-mouth

Nowadays a large attention within online marketing is given to social media and word-of-mouth are newer forms of promotional tools. It was noticed that Russian tourists are on the top of statistics (77%), which demonstrated that they take lots of photos and share them on social pages (TripAdvisor, 2016). That might be useful for marketing implications. Specifically, because of the trend of word-of-mouth, people more likely to follow recommendations of friends/relatives, favorite bloggers and opinion leaders rather than direct company commercials (Wordstream, 2016). Therefore, indirect marketing might have higher effect on Russian market, especially if to link this idea to low tolerance of risk. The more tourists share information with others the more believable it is. As for Irish, most of people use international social platform Facebook, therefore it is a strategic channel for advertising (63%)(Bubbledigital, 2016). Researches stated that Russian people are conservative, value security, stability, structure and risk avoidance, as for Irish it was discovered that they are open to changes and innovation projects, therefore online marketing campaigns have higher success in Ireland (Forbes, 2014).

In order to explore the effectiveness of using social media and word-of-mouth in practice, participants were asked: “Do you use social media and bloggers, opinion leaders for promotions? What effect (result) do they produce for Irish/Russian?”

Hotel Chain “S”:

“We use Facebook, Instagram and review sites as TripAdvisor…our guest experience department explains that Russian pay more attention to all reviews, while the rest of countries usually read two or three. Irish usually like our posts on Facebook related to our location and history.”

“We don’t get our Russian guests to follow us on Facebook, we know of them in the review sites. On the other hand our Irish guests follow us on Social Media.”

This correlates with theory and regarding marketing implications it means that companies should monitor reviews on TripAdvosor as Russian tourists are likely to read most of them. While for Irish tourists companies should actively use Facebook page for marketing promotions.

Travel Agency “I”:

“Yes, very much so. People want pick correct location, people want authentic recommendations, people want trust … Bloggers and Vloggers now are very important. And we bring a lot of Media in to Ireland every year, thousand media including a combination of traditional media… And we are doing a lot of work with TV companies we work with HBO because Game of Thrones is made in Ireland…and Star Wars is shot on the West Coast of...We have to use all those means of getting to audience and…. you have to use them all”

However, it wasn’t noticed what effect it produced for Irish and Russian.

Travel Agency “R” doesn’t use social media and opinion leaders, but shared opinion about it:

“… it is about age and reputation…I think that people in Russia would be more active in researching, studying, looking for staff...before buying anything …I think it could be more skepticism about bloggers (Russia)”

“Russian are suspicious, because it is money issue …so much fake …now “

For visualization all findings are presented in summarizing table.

Theme 1: Cross-cultural marketing and its role in marketing communication context Subtheme 1: The reflection of national features in promotion content
Hotel Chain “S”		Russian tourists prefer seeing luxury and SPA; the Irish prefer location.
Travel Agency “I”		Nothing particularly noticed; The content destination characteristics.
Travel Agency “R”		Russians prefer history, tradition; Irish tourists value humour, nostalgic, family-oriented summary images.
Subtheme 2: Cultural awareness about differences and similarities in marketing
Hotel Chain “S”	Communications are standardized due to the limited budget (but translated for Russian audience).
Travel Agency “I”	Content is the same for Irish and Russian tourists, but vary all over the world.
Travel Agency “R”	Content should be sophisticated, associated with segment group. But images of family, love, success and status are common for both countries.
Theme 2 :The impact of culture on marketing communications Subtheme 1: The influence and effectiveness of marketing promotional message on culturally different customers
Hotel Chain “S”	Russian tourists are not very open to conversation; Irish are open and talkative.
Travel Agency “I”	Standardized message for both countries.
Travel Agency “R”	Political and other (sexism, chauvinism, racism) sensitivities should be avoided in Russia, in Ireland they should be treated with respect.
Theme 3: Culture and cultural dimensions of Hofstede in marketing communications Subtheme : Hofstede’s dimensions and their application to marketing communications
Hotel Chain “S”	Russians want to see all information – high uncertainty avoidance. Irish are of low uncertainty avoidance. Other features associated with left dimensions aren’t noticed.
Travel Agency “I”	Nothing noticed regarding dimensions.
Travel Agency “R”	Russians avoid uncertainty, need more reassurance. The Irish not too much. Regarding masculinity/ femininity – the Irish need more practical information, Russians prefer associative.
Theme 4: Worldwide practices in addressing cross – cultural differences in marketing communications; Subtheme 1: “From smallest to largest” and “from largest to smallest” approaches
Hotel Chain “S”	Limited budget, but otherwise they would adapt communications.
Travel Agency “I”	Standardized for both countries
Travel Agency “R”	Localization is essential.
Subtheme 2: Emotional appeals
Hotel Chain “S”	Russian prefer luxury, Spa. Irish value location.
Travel Agency “I”	Both like locations. For Russian visa challenges are addressed.
Travel Agency “R”	Russian tourists prefer history and tradition; Irish tourists value humour, nostalgic, family-oriented summary images.
Theme 5: Online marketing Subtheme 1: The use of online marketing communications within Russia and Ireland
Hotel Chain “S”	Russians book using agencies; Irish book online.
Travel Agency “I”	All mostly book online.
Travel Agency “R”	It depends on age.
Subtheme 2: The effectiveness of using social media and word-of-mouth
Hotel Chain “S”	Facebook is influential for the Irish, TripAdvisor is influential for Russians.
Travel Agency “I”	Use, but nothing noticed regarding the Irish and Russians.
Travel Agency “R”	Don’t use social media and word-of-mouth.