CONTENTS

CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS
2.1 Positioning and Branding
2.2 Strengths of Mount Jerai
2.3 Problem and Challenges
2.3.1 Technology Issues
2.3.2 Poor Marketing Management
2.3.3 Transport and Road
Infrastructure
2.4 Opportunities
2.4.1 Political
3.0 TARGET MARKET
3.1 Objective and Strategy
3.1.1 Communication Objectives
3.1.2 Brand Strapline
3.1.3 Practical Strategy
4.0 TACTICS
4.1 Advertisement
4.1.1 Online Advertisement
4.1.2 Outdoor Billboard
Advertisement
4.1.3 Radio Advertisement
4.2 Sales Promotion
4.3 Personal Selling : MATTA Fair
4.4 Public Relation
4.4.1 Print Campaigns
4.4.2 Online Campaigns
4.5 Direct Marketing
4.5.1 Event Marketing
4.5.2 E-mail
4.5.3 Combining Print media and
Newspaper
5.0 SCHEDULING
6.0 BUDGET
7.0 EVALUATIONS
7.0.1 Market Research & Online
Survey
7.0.2 Recognition Test
8.0 CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES

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APPENDICES
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Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Appendix IV

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

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Figure 1.1
Figure 1.2

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Table 2.0

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This integrated marketing communication (IMC) proposal is prepared for Mount Jerai
Management (MJM) in order to promote Mount Jerai to become more popular in Peninsular
Malaysia. There are two communication objectives been highlighted to have a clearer direction for
MJM to achieve. The main objectives of this IMC plan are to increase level of awareness towards
Mount Jerai and gain higher recognition score among people from Peninsular Malaysia. Five main
tactics of integrated marketing communication will be used in order to achieve the objectives
including advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relation as well as direct marketing.
The time line for this proposal plan is one year period and estimated total cost needed is RM908,
000. Pretesting and Posttesting will be conducted to test out the effectiveness of proposed IMC
tools.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Mount Jerai which is more commonly known as Gunung Jerai is one of the highest point in
northern of peninsula, Malaysia. It takes approximately 50 minutes to travel from the town, Alor
Setar. The mountain is 1,200m above sea level and surrounded by a lot of beautiful unique flora
and numerous bird species. It is a best place for natural lovers to get a clearer look at natural
habitat and adventurous to explore and experience the excitement of jungle trekking (The Star,
2011). Meanwhile, there is a Forestry Museum built on the way to the peak of the mountain
which displays many species of wood from Gunung Jerai Forest. Besides that, there is a hill
resort named Regency Jerai Hill Resort located 986m above the sea level. As their slogan is
Rejuvenate yourself in the beautiful hills of Jerai, the resort is aimed to offer cozy comfort to
visitors who are looking for a place to take a rest (TheRegency, 2013).

2.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS

2.1 Positioning and Branding

Figure 1.1- Perceptual map of Mount Jerai and other competitors.

As illustrated in Figure 1.1, the main competition will come from Penang Hills which
located in Penang Island, Gunung Raya Mountain, Pulau Langkawi, and Gunung Keriang,
Kedah. Although Mount Jerai is not as popular as its competitors, it rather positioned in
providing higher nature experience to the visitors. Besides outdoors activities such as jungle
trekking, there is a Mushroom Farm and Orchid Nursery Centre in Mount Jerai which can
provide added-values experiences toward visitors.

2.2 Strengths of Mount Jerai

Malaysia is rich in term of natural assets which can be utilized to generate income for the
country. There are many beautiful caves, mountains, lakes, islands and wildlife in Malaysia
which are yet to be discovered. And, one of it is Mount Jerai. Although it has been discovered
long time ago but it is still developing. Mount Jerai plays very important part in the history of
Kedah state, thus it has historical sites like Telaga Tok Sheikh and Wan Mat Sama Canal which
allow tourist to pay a visit to learn more about history of the state. Furthermore, for those who
are interested in discovering mystery there is a famous story of Batu Kapal happened at Mount
Jerai which can be found in the middle part of Mount Jerai (Malaysianaturalheritage.com, 2010).
2.3 Problem and Challenges
2.3.1 Technology Issues
There are many issues that are affecting the ecotourism industries in Malaysia especially
place like Mount Jerai.

The most significant problem is coming from decline in nature

appreciation due to technology. As people today are living in information age, technology have
taken part almost every things in our daily lives. People rather sit in front of their computers and
listening to radio than doing outdoor activities like hiking. This is not a new phenomenon and it
is supported by looking at the total amount of Facebook active users. A report has stated that
Malaysian spend the most hour on social networking sites like Facebook. And also, a survey
conducted in Malaysia university found out that 81.5% of the respondents refuse to participate in
outdoor activities. Most of them claimed that lack of time to do outdoor activities (Kamal,
Khadir & Yunus, 2010).

2.3.2 Poor Marketing Management

Moreover, Mount Jerai management does not emphasize on its marketing activities. There
are less promotions being introduced or any advertising efforts that can be found in the market.
Mount Jerai is relying strongly on bloggers that are sharing their own past experiences with
others and thus spreading through the word-of-mouth. Depending solely on this method is not
strong enough to allow Mount Jerai to be known throughout Malaysia. In order to increase the
awareness of Mount Jerai, choosing an appropriate media to promote must be taken into
consideration. Otherwise, Mount Jerai will only be able to attract people who are staying in or
nearby the state in the future.
2.3.3 Transport and Road Infrastructure
To promise a safe trip has always been a concern to every tourist and it
is one of the very important criteria for people to decide on a journey.
Unfortunately, the road to reach the top of the Mount Jerai is not well
developed. The roads are relatively steep, narrow and have numerous tight
bends which will be leading tourist into danger.

Yet another factor that

threatens the safety is landslide often caused by downpour. The road will be
temporarily closed and causes more inconveniences to the tourist as they
need to walk through the particular spots to reach the destination
(Baharuddin, 2012).

2.4 Opportunities
2.4.1 Political
Despite all the issues, there are good opportunities for Mount Jerai.
Under Budget 2013, Malaysia government has promised to provide
incentives to tour operator who managed to bring in a minimum of 1,500
local tourists per will be receiving tax exemption for three years. This can be
used as a chance to promote Mount Jerai to whole Malaysia if Gunung Jerai
Permanent Forest Reserve able to work well together with MJM to promote
Mount Jerai (TheChoice, 2012). Besides that, under the ninth and current
Malaysia plan, the government seems to increase its efforts on ecotourism
and sustainable travel somewhat: state tourism councils will be given a
stronger role to monitor and evaluate projects and local authorities will be
encouraged to be more involved in tourism development to ensure that the
environment is not damaged (Bhuiyan et al, 2011).

3.0 TARGET MARKET

Target market for Mount Jerai is primarily consisting of domestic
holidaymakers, adventurous bikers, photographers and nature lovers. Each
target market will have different average length of stay and age range from
12 to55 years old. Most likely, holidaymakers and nature lovers tend to stay
the longest and following by groups of photographers who will be visiting to
capture the nature beauty of Mount Jerai.

For adventurous bikers, they

prefer to experience the excitement of riding uphill than enjoying the

environment. Hence, they will usually organize a one day trip to Mount Jerai
instead.

3.1 Objective and Strategy

3.1.1 Communication Objectives
The Mount Jerai Management (MJM) objective:
1. To create 60 percent of awareness among Peninsular Malaysia in the
year 2014 after implementation of IMC by evaluation test.
2. To create high level of recognition and recall among among Peninsular
Malaysia in the year 2014 after implementation of IMC by evaluation
test.

3.1.2 Brand Strapline

It is very important to have a logo or symbol attach to Mount Jerai as to
identify its attraction and distinguish from others. One of the ideas for the
strapline is Lets Fall in Love with the Nature Again Mount Jerai as shown
in Appendix I.

With this strapline, people can recognize and recall whenever

they see it on media. Furthermore, this strapline can help in emphasizing

the unique selling point of Mount Jerai which is the beautiful natural forest
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landscape filled with rare flora and fauna. The logo will be designed with the
outlook of monkey cup flower and the word Mount Jerai lies within the
shape. This is because monkey cup plants can hardly find in peninsular
Malaysia but Mount Jerai.

3.1.3 Practical Strategy

With the aim to generate awareness throughout peninsular Malaysia,
there are few integrated marketing tools being used.

Firstly, advertise

through online social media like Facebook and Twitter. And also, organize an
event or competition to attract more tourists to visit.

At the same time,

practice direct marketing to distribute leaflet to housing areas that have

higher population in every state.

4.0 TACTICS

4.1 Advertisement
4.1.1 Online Advertisement
Technology has changed the way people conduct their activities and even communicate.
Today, there are many consumers spend more time on internet than watching television (Truong,
McColl & Kitchen, 2010). Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie (2006) have anticipated that the
consumers will prefer to purchase holiday through the internet by 2015. Consumers today tend
to evaluate alternative tourist attraction by using Internet (Buhalis & OConnor, 2005).
According to a survey conducted by international firm TNS, Malaysian are reported to spend the
most time on social sites like Facebook which is about nine hours weekly (The Star, 2010).
Therefore, MJM will use this method to support their marketing activities for example to inform
target market of special events and latest sales promotions on Facebook. Meanwhile, MJM will
assign an Information Technology team to handle the responses from main web site and social
networking sites. At the same time, this IT team will constantly maintain and update database on
website to keep customers in touch with the latest information.
4.1.1 Outdoor Billboard Advertisement

Besides, MJM will use outdoor billboard advertising to promote their resorts and Mount
Jerai. Billboard advertising in Malaysia is very popular because they are most commonly found
along highways and roads while there are many which are on top of buildings and bus stops as
well (Run, 2007).

In addition, outdoor billboard is relatively cheaper due to massive

competition from a lot of advertising firms in Malaysia for example like, Seni Jaya, Ganad and
Big Tree. Location will be the most important element in outdoor billboard advertising besides
creativity to deliver the message. Therefore, getting a right location must be the first concern to
ensure the effectiveness of billboard advertising. Information such as contact number, name of
the place, website address as well as strapline have to be clear and simple as most people would
not spend long time on billboard.
4.1.2 Radio Advertisement
In Malaysia, radio advertising is still actively employed by many companies as it can reach
market broadly (Sarif, 2011). A recent report conducted by Nielsen company has shown that
Malaysian are among the most avid radio listeners in the Asia-Pacific region with an average of
21 hours and 34 minutes per week. The survey also found out that 90% of Malaysians who aged
10 years old and above listened to the radio (New Straits Time, 2011). Thus, MJM will advertise
on local radio station like Hot FM, My FM and Hitz. FM. Commercial Radio Malaysia (CRM)
outlined that radio is complementing other methods such as social networking sites as it can
reach targeted clients who do not read or watch television (Sarif, 2011).
4.2 Sales Promotion
By collaborating with Mount Jerai Permanent Forest Reserve, MJM will offer sales
promotion plan to attract tourists to visit and stay in the resort for longer period during off-peak
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season. Sales promotions have to be divided to cater different segmentation needs. MJM will
provide free accommodation from January to March and July to September to stimulate number
of bookings. For tourists who plan to escape from hectic life, MJM will provide them service to
design their own vacation package at lower price. This is not only offering these groups of
customers a freedom but also a sense of feelings that they can always make a change. In order to
increase the effectiveness, the sales promotion will be backed up by mass media like local
newspapers, travel magazines and Groupon to distribute the discount vouchers.
4.3 Personal Selling: MATTA Fair
The AIDA concept defined consumer decision making process into four basic stages which
are: (1) attention, (2) interest, (3) desire, and (4) action. By connecting promotional mix to the
AIDA concept, advertising is no doubt an effective tool to create awareness while sale promotion
is effective particularly during consumer purchasing stage. For Personal Selling, it is the most
effective tool in developing consumer interest and desire (Lamb, 2009). MJM will combine the
use personal selling with trade shows during Matta Fair in Malaysia. Matta Fair is organized by
Malaysian Association of Tours and Travel Agencies during March and September every year
(Matta.my, 2013). This method can create opportunities for personal selling to work in one-tomany instead of one-to-one communication. Thus, it leads to lower cost per exposure. By using
personal selling, MJM will receive immediate feedback and it is very persuasive than any other
mass media.
4.4 Public Relation
4.4.1 Print Campaigns

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The MJM representatives will send out press releases to numerous media outlets on a purpose to
create a brand image among locals and people in Peninsular Malaysia. Since Malaysia is a
multicultural country, MJM will consider promoting on newspapers from three main languages
language, for instance, Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia of Malay language, The Star and New
Straits Times for English educated target market while Guang Ming and China Press will be used
to tackle Chinese in Malaysia. Sales Promotion of early bird offers for first 100 bookings will be
attached to it at the same time by asking consumers to call up and make a booking as soon as
possible.
4.4.2 Online Campaigns

Online public relations campaigns are becoming increasingly popular. MJM will organize
an online logo design competition to create awareness on web site and promote through social
media. Winners will be rewarded a free ticket to visit Mount Jerai. Besides that, MJM will also
practice consumer social responsibility by organizing Go Green program online. It can help in
building the company image as well as educating tourists the importance of keeping environment
the clean.

4.5 Direct Marketing

4.5.1 Event Marketing
Along with the promotion, MJM will collaborate with sports club and photography club in
Malaysia to organize competition in Mount Jerai. Relationship formed with clubs will bring
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MJM a powerful based for financial supports in the future as well. In this case, print media will
be used to support the events. MJM will assign advertising company to distribute leaflet and
brochure to the locals in order to attract more people to participate in the events. Holding such
events not only can help in achieving the objective to raise awareness but also increases the
bookings for hotel in short term.

4.5.2 E-mail
MJM will use this tool to approach the target market. To be more effective, MJM will be
sending regarding the mailing list that obtained from database which contains information of
segmentation based on demographics and lifestyle. Although this medium often experience
lower response rate but it is relatively lower in cost compared to other medium like TV
advertising and personal selling.
4.5.3 Combining Print Media and Newspaper
Last but not least, MJM will employ printing companies to produce leaflets and catalogs to
distribute to the locals. Besides that, MJM will apply for inserting their leaflets into newspapers
in order to guarantee the paper will reach ones hand in order to reduce wastages. This will
complement the advertisement of The Regency Hill Resorts latest promotion by increasing the
exposure to the target market.

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5.0 Scheduling

Figure 1.2 Mount Jerai Promotional Scheduling in the year 2014.

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As mentioned early, MJM will employ outdoor advertising, radio advertising continuously
throughout the year. During off-peak season, MJM strengthens their sale promotion in order to
stimulate the locals to visit to Mount Jerai. Whereas personal selling and public relations are only
used during certain events being held like Matta fair. Direct marketing will be conducting
throughout the year especially during school holidays from April to May and November to
December.

6.0 Budget
Advertising on Social Media (Facebook)
Outdoor Billboard(40x10ft) 10s
Radio ads

Cost (RM)
120,000
180,000
62,000

*Refer to Appendix II
Sales Promotion
Personal Selling In MATTA Fair

80,000
20,000

*Refer to Appendix III

Public Relation
Event Marketing
Print Media

250,000
100,000
50,000

*Refer to Appendix IV
E-Mail
Training
TOTAL COST

36,000
10,000
908,000

Table 2.0 Estimated cost of expenditure on MJMs IMC proposal.

The estimated total cost needed for MJM proposal plan in the year 2014 is RM 908,000.
This total amount is obtained by referring to several resources, for instance, the radio advertising
cost is based on rate card of Hot FM, personal selling in MATTA fair is estimated based on total

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cost of booth rental and employees. Whereas print media cost are based on StarMedia
magazines rate card.

7.0 Evaluation: Pretesting and Posttesting

7.0.1 Market Research & Online Survey
The main reason to carry out evaluation test is to test out whether communications
objectives are achieved and find out how effective each other comparing both traditional and
non-traditional advertising tools (Belch & Belch, 2012). One of the methods is pretesting and
posttesting through market survey which will be conducted before and after IMC proposal
implemented. MJM will select 100 of sample size randomly from locals to measure level of
awareness and knowledge towards the Mount Jerai before and after this IMC proposal
implemented. At the same time, online survey form will also be available on website to allow
people from other parts of Peninsular Malaysia to participate. As to encourage more participants
involved, MJM will offer free accommodation to 10 lucky participants selected randomly to visit
to Mount Jerai.
7.0.2 Recognition Test
MJM will choose a magazine to conduct recognition test after the proposal implemented. As
new strapline and logo designed and placing in all marketing programs, this test is conducted to
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determine the recognition level towards Mount Jerai. Samples include 200 respondents are
asked to go through one of the page in the magazines to choose the right strapline. The other
options will be other competitors strapline and logo. The recognition resulted from the test can
be used to determine the effectiveness of the new strapline, Lets fall in love with the nature
again!

8.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, relying solely on one tool is not enough to achieve communication objectives
but all tools must be combined together to support and back up each and others. As one popular
quote said, Getting the Right people on the bus, MJM must carefully plans on having right
people to handle the correct tactics at the right time. In order to achieve synergy effects of chosen
media types, MJM must take every factor into consideration no matter it is internal or external.

Word Count: 2741 words

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Baharuddin, N. A. (2012). A Difficult Trip Up Gunung Jerai. Safety Issue: Road Closed after
landslide. New Straits Times. 7th June.
Belch, G. E & Belch, M. A. (2012). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing
Communications Perspective. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Irwin
Bhuiyan, M. A. H. et al. (2011). The Role of Government for Ecotourism Development:
Focusing on East Coast Economic Region. Journal of Social Sciences. 7 (4). pp.557-564.
Buhalis, D. & OConnor, P. (2005). Information communication technology evolutionizing
Tourism. Tourism Recreation Research. 30(3). pp. 7-16.
Kamal, A. A., Khadir, M. S. & Yunus, F. W. (2010). The perception and constraints towards
recreational activity among female students. International Journal of Sport Management,
Recreation & Tourism. 6. pp. 62-75.
Lamb, C. W. (2009). MKTG. Canada: Cengage Learning.
Malaysianaturalheritage.com. (2010). Gunung Jerai. [Online]. Available from:
http://northern.malaysianaturalheritage.com/?p=293. [Accessed: 30th may 2013]
Matta.my. (2013). About MATTA. [Online]. Available from: http://www.matta.org.my/.
[Accessed: 5th June 2013]
New Straits Times. (2011) Survey: Malaysians are avid radio listeners. [Online]. 15th November.
Available from: http://www.nst.com.my/latest/survey-malaysians-are-avid-radio-listeners1.6332. [Accessed: 1st June 2013]
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Run, E. C. (2007). Ethnically targeted advertising: views of those not targeted. Asia Pacific
Journal of Marketing and Logistics. 19(3). pp.265-285.
Sarif, E. (2011). Radio advertising reaches out to select listeners. TheStar. [Online]. 24th
December. Available from: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?
file=/2011/12/24/business/10105344&sec=business. [Accessed: 3rd June 2013]
The Star. (2010) Survey: Malaysians have most Facebook friends. [Online]. 13th October.
Avaible from: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?
file=/2010/10/13/nation/7212273&sec=nation. [Accessed: 20th May 2013].
The Star. (2011). Gunung Jerai to get botanical garden. [Online]. 29th January. Available from:
hestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2011/1/29/nation/7896598. [Accessed: 1st June
2013]
TheChoice. (2012). Malaysias Tourism Industry to Soar Higher under Budget 2013. [Online].
30th September. Available from: http://www.thechoice.my/. [Accessed: 2nd June 2013]
TheRegency (2013). The Regency Jerai Hill Resort: About Us. [Online]. Available from:
http://jeraihill.theregency.com.my/AboutusPage.aspx.[Accessed: 1st June 2013]
Truong, Y., McColl, R. & Kitchen, P. (2010). Practitioners perceptions of advertising strategies
for digital media. International Journal of Advertising. 29 (5). pp. 709-725.
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Journal of Vacation Marketing. 12(3). pp. 269-291.

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Appendix II
Mount Jerai logo with new strapline, Lets Fall in Love with the nature again!

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Appendix II
Rate card of Hot FM in the year 2013

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Appendix III
MATTA Fairs price charges of booth space in the year 2013.
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Appendix IV
Magazine charges rate of StarMedia.

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