Marketing Giant of the Desert

Palm Springs is a city in California mostly known for its great attractions and countless fun exciting things to do. In a way it's more of a Vacation Resort than anything else. Palm Springs strives off tourism, it is the most important income in the whole city after sales taxes and property taxes. Tourists visit Palm Springs mostly in the winter when everything is open to the public. During the winter is when most events in Palm Springs occur aswell. It is a city of numerous festivals, conventions, and international events. Here is a revenue list of 2009-2010 for Palm Springs.As seen taxes is one of the highest revenues. The city markets to many major segments mostly all of them have to do with tourism. They focus a lot on marketing hotels, stores for shopping, and attractions and events. Smaller segments involve marketing dining/nightlife, and accommodations. These audiences are reached through a variety of ways. It can be the internet, television, or simply word of mouth. They try very hard to make sure there offers are well known and properly displayed to the public simply because tourism is one of the major factors of the city.Some external factors the city cannot control are issues like a down economy. During a recession people worry about saving and investing money not touring. Everyone's budget is tight and during times like these Palm Springs is very much like a business, not making the sales it once was and lowering prices in order to make sure some sort of revenue keeps coming in. The city's promotional marketing is definitely seasonal, the heaviest months are during the winter when it is nice and cool. During this period all shops and attractions are open. The price is also very high during winter for anything.The lightest months are during the summer. This is due to because Palm Springs is a desert area and during summer it can reach up to 120 degrees. The city lowers prices on everything like golf, hotels, clubs, and offers all sorts of other summe r discounts. You can stay at an expensive resort for a fraction of the price it costs during winter. Here is an more accurate estimate of the weather in Palm Springs. Many years ago the city ran into a problem though, which cost them big-time in the long run. The mayor of Palm Springs stopped what was a major event in the city during Spring break.College students who usually went during Spring break stopped coming and eventually it stopped altogether. The city realized how big a mistake this was due to all the money being lost that was generated during this time span of when college students would go to Palm Springs to have a good time. They tried marketing to young adults aged 18-27 years old but it was already too late. This was probably one of the biggest mistakes the mayor made by losing a lot of revenue for the city. Palm Springs has marketed towards gay/lesbian groups more than any other group.There really was no touring place that openly invited gay people in directly and Pal m Springs recognized that. It is now one of America's top destinations for gay and lesbian travelers. There are more than two dozen hotels marketed just for gay and lesbian couples. Gays and Lesbians aren't afraid to spend money. And when they do spend money they don't just spend a little. That is one of the major reasons Palm Springs markets so many things to them. Gay people feel comfortable here especially since Palm Springs has elected its first openly gay Mayor who stood up to the former Mayor for criticizing gay events.Gay people have become the new target market for Palm Springs. They are used in advertisements to make gay people feel welcomed and appreciated. The internet plays a key role in marketing to this specific group. Most of the information we receive everyday is now given through the Internet, When someone Gay or Lesbian see's all these amazing sites and locations designated just for them they automatically have the tendency to want to go there instead of somewhere else where there afraid they might be judged.This marketing approach has also generated some problems for the city aswell. Many straight people might feel the need not to go there if they object against gay or lesbian couples. Overall the community is affected the most. Many gay and lesbian couples have moved into Palm Springs which can affect some of the older residents who have been there their whole lives and don't appreciate this change. But overall no huge problems have occurred from this marketing approach.Palm Springs wants to make sure its visitors are pleased with their stays. They conduct surveys which ask if they were happy and if not what were some common problems they were not pleased with. Through these surveys they also get to know there visitors more, those who visit Palm Springs once generally come back at least 3 times in the next 5 years. Gay visitors come back 4 times in a span of 5 years. These surveys show that gay people are overall more interested in Palm Spr ings than others.A median of spending for a person visiting Palm Springs is $900. These numbers are mostly during a high economy though when people are willing to spend. In conclusion Palm Springs works as a business, they have marketing programs which target specific groups and they operate as any other business would. Most people believe it to be just desert, filled with old people, extremely hot, and just a dead city. However Palm Springs is much more than that once you have actually went and seen it for yourself.