Topic: A CEO's Perspective In Marketing For Results
Established in 1975
Today, MTR carries an average of 2.4 million passengers every weekday.
From 1975 to late 1990s
In the first 20 years of history, MTR was an engineering driven company because it was believed that the product was good enough to sell itself.
In the late 1990s
In the late 1990s, MTR found itself facing new challenges in terms of declining number of passengers and revenues. MTR changed itself into a marketing-driven company.
New product design
Improving accessibility to all stations in the form of footbridges, covered walkways and additional entrances.
Disneyland Resort Line
An extensive research on customers' needs, expectations and anticipated behaviour were done and these were reflected in the design of the train and station. Examples included the Mickey grabpole in the trains, the family-style sating arrangement and the Victorian-style station. The train ride had been positioned as the beginning of the Disney experience that shouldn't be missed.
Positioning
¡§More time for life". MTR looked at ways to enable passengers to experience and achieve more during and after MTR journey, and making the journey more enjoyable with good staff services and more in-station value-added facilities:
Passengers could read free lifestyle magazine and fee daily newspaper distributed in the stations.
Stations were revamped to build more shops and create a more user friendly environment.
Introduced art exhibitions, incorporated art into the station architecture, and had live musical or art performances.
Communications and advertising
Thematic advertising
MTR related stories in TV dramas and game shows
Promotion
Fare Saver machines
The natural catchment area was about 500 metres. MTR placed Fare Saver machines in locations which were 500 to 700 meters from our stations as incentive to motivate commuters to walk a further distance to MTR stations.
MTR Club
The establishment of MTR Club, supported by the development of Octopus technology, stimulated measurable increases in passengers¡¦ usage through one-to-one marketing.
Result
The majority of the Disney visitors used the Disneyland Resort Line.
MTR achieved the number-one position in terms of value for money among all transport operators in Hong Kong in the third quarter of 2006.
Fare Saver machines demonstrated that the selective discount method was a good example of customer segmentation which provided tailored incentive to the target group to let them enjoy the additional benefits without sabotaging the profit.
The Octopus Card was a good example of how to harness people's fondness for convenience to increase business opportunities.
In recent years, MTR had begun to market its successful business model to other cities around the world who wanted to build metro networks. In some cases, MTR acted as consultants, in others they invested to build and operate metro networks.
