The Simplicity Challenge: Mallorca's winter marketing

Let me give you a challenge. You are given the task of marketing Mallorca in winter. Forget for one moment lack of flights and hotels and restaurants being closed. Think only of Mallorca. What does it offer? What would you market? The chances are that you will come up with a fairly long list. Do I need to repeat them? Not really, you are familiar enough with them.

Let me now give you a different challenge. You are given the task of marketing Tenerife in winter. Forget for one moment the availability of flights and hotels and restaurants being open. Think only of Tenerife. What does it offer? What would you market? The chances are that you are not familiar with Tenerife, not like you are with Mallorca, but were you to be familiar then you will come up with a similar list to the one you have for Mallorca. Tenerife has mountains (a massive great big one with a lot of snow on it), wildlife, gastronomy, cycling, culture, walking, golf. But if I were to now give you a final challenge, what would be your simple winter marketing message for both Mallorca and Tenerife. For Tenerife, it might be one word. Sun. For Mallorca?

I know what you are going to say. There is sun in Mallorca, too. Tenerife can have its dodgy, rainy and cloudy days. You will probably also say that oh, there is so much more in Mallorca than Tenerife. You might be right, but the chances are you are one of the converted. Preaching to the likeminded gets you only so far, and let's face it, having so much more hasn't got us all very far. But come on, I'm still waiting, what is the simple winter marketing message for Mallorca?

Image matters and image is created through many sources not just those of the marketing people. Image is a legacy of time and though there will be those who will point out that there was once a time of relative plenty in winter, predicated on sun, the dominant image, for Mallorca, is its summer sun, to which can be added unexciting but nevertheless strong attributes, such as reliability, safety and proximity. But legacy of time counts for only so much nowadays, and image has been amended. Winter sun as there once might have been has been airbrushed from the tourism image. It has been planted elsewhere, transported by the destination deciders in their tour operating and airline HQs. It is not a Mallorcan winter marketing message, only an optional extra along with the other elements on your list.

Even for Tenerife, the simple message of sun is not sufficient. It has, to use jargon, a point of parity. In other words, there are plenty of other places with winter sun. It has, therefore, to find further value, but it is the underlying simplicity of its winter message that is its hook and initial attraction. Other messages are loaded on to the foundation of the sun image, but for the tourist and for those who market to the tourist, it is that foundation and simplicity of message which appeals.

I was talking with Jason Moore (the editor of the Majorca Daily Bulletin) yesterday and he mentioned a conversation he had had with an airline marketing manager who, seemingly, had been unaware of what Mallorca has to offer in months like January and February. The marketing manager might have been surprised, but presented with an array of different types of attraction, activity, fiestas and so on, what can be done with the information? Where's the hook, where's the simple message? For a marketing manager, if sun (or snow) is the message, the task is that much more straightforward, and so welcome aboard the winter sunshine airline express.

The tourist is today confronted with overwhelming amounts of information and massive choice. For any destination, there has to be a simplicity of message in order to cut through this overload. Complexity can be added, but initially there has to be something that stands out. For all that Mallorca has its array of winter attractions, reducing them to a sensible and meaningful message is not easy. The marketing manager would be scratching his head and thinking, it's a heck of a lot of easier to flog Tenerife.

The winter message, as a result, attaches itself to comprehensible niches. Cycling in winter is a prime example. Varied landscapes and terrain, good roads, decent enough climate. The message isn't so difficult. But niches amount to only so many tourists. Lacking a core message makes the winter in Mallorca a tough marketing proposition. Packaging various niches might sound like a solution, but only partially. A strong social media presence (of which there isn't one) would help, but one still comes back to that core and simple message. And I wish I knew what it was.