Festivals and Events

Introduction

The objective of this field trip report is to evaluate the event marketing mix Mega Carnival has adopted and how they have impacted the event’s success.

Personal observation, taking of pictures and interaction with the people was done during the trip down to Mega Carnival to collate information. In addition, an online research was further done.

Background

Mega Carnival is an Indonesia Mega trade fair held at Hall 6 of Singapore Expo. It is opened from 10am to 10pm daily, from 20^th to 23^rd of November. The Indonesia Mega carnival is actually an annual festival that has been ging on for a few years. The main organizer of the festival is MegaXpress Communication Pte Ltd. It mainly organizes consumer shows of the Muslim community in Singapore. This festival targets mainly the Muslims families. It also targets tourists interested in the Indonesia and Muslim culture.

Evaluation of the Effective Use of Marketing Mix

Place

The Mega Carnival is located at the Singapore Expo. It is a good choice of location as Singapore Expo is a world-class venue for exhibitions and the vast space the halls provide for events. In addition, it is accessible to the public with the bus the services it offers and the closely located train station.

The layout and settings of the booths can be improved for a better experience of the customers. For example, at the entrance of the booths, there are many clothing, ornaments and furniture booths. All these booths made the exhibition looks cluttered, especially booths of large furniture and ornaments. Customers may feel tired and tedious just by looking at the exhibition from the entrance and may not want to step in. Furthermore, it blocks the ongoing exciting activities inside the exhibition. Apart from the entrance view of cluttered booths, the layout and setting of the rest of the exhibitions are rather well planned. On the left of the exhibition holds the food booth and in the middle, there are tables and chairs which are closely located for customers to eat their food. The performance stage is well placed in a way that not only the chairs provided for the audience are able too see, the customers at the food area are able to watch the performance while they enjoy their food. Located at the extreme right is the play area for children where there are huge air-filled castles for children to play in while their parents watch the performance and do their shopping.

With the performance going on and the play area for children, it fills the atmosphere with zest and great energy.

Product

The core product of the festival would be the rich Indonesia culture it offers. The experience of the Indonesia culture would be from the Indonesian delicacies, performance, Indonesian handicrafts and the Indonesia cultural music that constantly plays throughout.

The tangible part of the product would be the wide array of Indonesian ornaments, furniture, handicrafts and performance. I feel that the tangible part of the product could be improved furthermore if the booths are themed and decorated to the Indonesian style, rather than the normal white tents and exhibitors’ booths.

All in all, I feel that the organizers do not suffer much of a ‘product orientation’ as the product concept and target markets are quite focused.

Price

Admission to the festival is free of charge and is open to public. This encourages the public to indulge in the Indonesian culture and enjoy it. The merchandises sold such as the souvenirs, clothes and lifestyle products are at a fairly cheap price. However, for the furniture and large ornaments, there are priced at a steeper price. As for the food, prices are middle-ranged and some are higher than normal market price.

However, the price difference is not that large to affect business. This is shown in the bustling of crowd and the visible queues at the food booths.

People

The people at the festival are an essential contribution to the whole event. As for Mega Carnival, most of the vendors at booths are Indonesian and Muslim. It is good in a way that it further enhances the whole atmosphere and thee would be better knowledge of the products.

However, when it comes to interviewing the store holders, some of them do not speak English. This shows a language barrier, which limits customer’s service. However, it should not be much of a huge problem as through observations, most of the visitors are Muslims and only minorities are of other race. A few groups of tourists Caucasians are spotted as well.

Most of the vendors are enthusiastic when we interviewed some of them which shows really good customer service and attitude. The performers also take pride and performed brilliantly.

Promotion

Through an interview, I found out the event is promoted through not only websites from Singapore Expo list of events, it is also promote through a Malay radio station 94.2 FM and a Malay magazine, ‘Halal’.

From the way the event is promoted, it is targeting Indonesians and the Muslims. It is a success as from observations; most of the visitors are Malays. I feel that promotions done could have been done better as the crowds are not fairly large and more promotions could have been done to attract tourist to learn and indulge in the Indonesian culture. This also attracts a wider market, which would increase profits as well.

Partnership

Partnership is important, as a single company is unable to achieve its marketing goals by itself. Therefore, it is important for the formation of organization to bring about successful marketing and events management.

For Mega Carnival, it has managed to get a number of sponsors such as Donut Empire, King’s ice cream, CNI, kaki kaki. In addition, the ‘Halal’ Food and Beverage magazine, and Wedding and Lifestyle has also helped the event by publicizing.

In turn, the sponsors get better priced and booth locations where human traffic is the highest.

Programming

There were many performances of Indonesian Cultural dance, singing, and traditional Indonesian instruments. I generally feel that it is a good way to not only entertain visitors and enrich them the Indonesian culture, it also showcase the different talent of people.

Besides the performance, there are many programs that interacts with the guests as well. For example, lucky draws with prizes like carpets and Indonesian ornaments. Also there was an auction going on. It is an excellent idea to engage visitors and promote items that are hard to sell.

The programs planned are related closely to the target market. However, the sound system could be improved for the benefit of visitors as the sound system was rather muffled and ard to hear at times. The programs were interesting but there were some parts I could not understand due to the Indonesian language spoken.

Packaging

There is not much attractive packaging done for the Mega Carnival except for the lucky draw, which allows visitors to win prizes. However, this may be due to the free admission and low cost budget the event has. The festival could be made more attractive by issuing vouchers and coupons for discounts. The setting up of a few carnival games booth would not only liven up the atmosphere, the prizes won could be vouchers and coupons. This would make it more attractive to visitors.

Conclusion

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience at the Mega Carnival as it is something meaning and cultural. I have learnt many new things about the Indonesian culture, like the traditional food and their dances. Generally, I feel that their marketing was a success in attracting their desired target markets and they were rather focused as well. However, I feel that such events should be promoted better with the marketing mix to attract a wider market, which would increase profit and foreign exchange as well.

Pictures Taken!