Regional Positioning Analysis
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During the past year, Explore Minnesota Tourism contracted with Strategic Marketing & Research, Inc. for a consumer-based “regional positioning study,” looking at whether Minnesota’s regional configuration, names, etc., work for consumers. An over-reaching question was whether consumers prefer having tourism regions over not having tourism regions.
Minnesota has been divided into the same four tourism regions for more than two decades. Three of the four regions have geographic names - Northeast, Northcentral/West and Southern - with (Twin Cities) Metro region serving as the exception. As in many other states, Minnesota’s regions serve roles in both administering tourism programs and in marketing. Each region also has a corresponding industry association. Within regions, various sub-regional configurations have been used over the years, primarily to help organize information in travel brochures and on Minnesota’s consumer Website, www.exploreminnesota.com.
The study’s conclusions included: having regions is better than not having regions; Minnesota’s current regional boundaries do not adequately portray the diversity of Minnesota’s travel product; meaningful and recognizable thematic names are preferable to geographic names; four regions is too few and 30 sub-regions is too many; when gathering travel information, regions play a different role for familiar versus unfamiliar visitors.
As a follow-up to the study, Explore Minnesota Tourism has formed an industry task force that is charged with recommending changes to Minnesota’s tourism regions, taking into account consumers’ preferences identified in the study. Members of the Explore Minnesota Tourism Council and the regional tourism associations are working on this project. The goal is to gain consensus on new regional breakouts in time to use them in the 2009 statewide travel guide. It is not clear to what extent administrative regions will change to align with new consumer-oriented regions.
Copies of a summary report and a full report from the study are available on the research
(industry.exploreminnesota.com/research.)
Posted: February 15th, 2008
