Ben Oahu Lodge Market Research

Ben Oahu Lodge is a high end resort in New Zealand offering a secluded oasis for the affluent lifestyles. This designed oasis has targeted individuals who are looking to escape their everyday reality. According to the Wealth Report (Knight Frank, 2012), the affluent take on average of three 6 day vacations a year. This is opposed to the 3.8 days the average US worker takes. This indicates that wealth not only enables people to go on vacation more but indicates it is an important aspect for the affluent to escape reality. Ben Oahu Lodge recognized this facet when it purchased and redeveloped the area for such purpose. They wanted to target the elite of the affluent class. They purposely established an environment that individuals would be able to feel pampered, isolated, relaxed and cherished. Ben Oahu Lodge understood that the filthy rich would appear to be high maintenance but this would allow them to create a high level of service. The majority of the clientele will exist off the shores of New Zealand and there are a few reasons for this. One of the main reasons is there are only approximately 181,000 people in New Zealand that have an annual income over $100,000 (Savage & Singh, 2013). Jennifer Epstein noted that the IRS released numbers indicating there are over 235,000 individuals who earned over a million dollars in 2011 in the US. So in comparison between the United States and New Zealand there are almost 1.5 times as many individuals in the United States who make ten times the amount of their counterparts in New Zealand (Epstein, 2011). These figures don’t even include the rest of the world. As one can see, the sheer numbers indicate the majority of the customers who fit the niche market would come from around the world and not New Zealand. Another reason the target niche would primarily be those outside of New Zealand is indicative of the lifestyle the rich live. For instance, an American actress cannot fly from California to Florida and escape the paparazzi or fans and the attention that garners. In order for them to get away from the attention flying half way around the world is appealing. In line with this concept is the fact that 37 percent of the affluent state that privacy is an important factor when choosing a vacation destination (Flair, 2013). The affluent is accustomed to a lifestyle unparalleled to the average individual. They expect to be catered to with the best of the best. Their expectations of a hotel should be consistent with that of their environment at home. Because of this the hotel resort must have top of the line amenities to capture the attention of the client. The affluent also has the ability to pay for experiences that are one of a kind and any resort which is targeting this niche must get creative in implementing these experiences.
Ben Oahu Lodge has done a good job in all these categories. The privacy of New Zealand coupled with the amount and location of the acreage, provides a solid choice for the filthy rich to take solace there. Another clever attribute of Ben Oahu Lodge is how they saw the need to remove the sheep that were causing some harm to the countryside and replace them with a big game option. This allows Ben Oahu Lodge the ability to offer unique experiences such as controlled big game hunting. This is important because research has shown affluent Americans are willing to pay more for the economically friendly products (Consumer Corp, 2012). This allows Ben Oahu Lodge the ability to market their unique experiences in such a way that fits the ideals of the affluent.
However, Ben Oahu Lodge has done limited marketing research and this could hinder