DEVELOPING A PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY FOR BILTMORE
ESTATE
Travel and tourism is one of the top industries in the United States. Therefore, there are
many jobs available for students who can market service organizations. This case will help you
think through that process: Imaging that you are the marketing manager of a major tourist
attraction, the Biltmore Estate. Part of your job is to manage the overall promotional effort and to
be part of a marketing team that develops advertising, public relations, personal selling, word of
mouth, publicity, and sales promotion.
Here is what you are working with: Biltmore is the largest private home in the United
States. It was built in 1895 in Asheville, North Carolina, for George Vanderbilt. The estate
includes the 250-room Biltmore House, acres of gardens and surrounding grounds, a winery, and
restaurants. The whole estate is open to the public, and nearly a million people visit it each year If
you would like to see picture of many of the estate’s magnificent rooms and gardens, go to its
Web site at www.biltmore.com. The Web site also contains information about the many motels
that advertise their proximity to this great tourist attraction.
One goal of the promotional program at the estate is to increase the number of visitors
who come annually. To do that, the estate maintains an internal database of customer names and
searches external databases for the names of potential visitors. The total visitor market can be
divided into three categories: pass holders (who have one-year admission passes), general visitors
(who come to visit for one day), and prospects (people who have never visited but may be
interested). You are charged with developing separate promotional pieces for each of the market
segments. Part of the overall plan should be to integrate all the promotional efforts to form one
strong positive image about the estate.
(www.biltmore.com) discussion questions
1. What could you do in cooperation with the other businesses in the area (e.g., motels,
restaurants, taxi services) to promote the estate through them? 2. How would you promote to people who have never been to the estate before? How would
that promotional program differ from the one you would develop for pass holders? 3. Think about vacations that you have taken. What led you to do to those spots? How can
you apply that knowledge to this case? 4. How important is Web site development to this promotional effort? List the following
promotional tools by how effective they would be in this case: advertising (what media
would you use?), personal selling, publicity, word of mouth, sales promotion.
