ScotRail Overview

By 2020, The ScotRail franchise has provided more than 2,400 train services each day
and organized over 93 million passenger journeys annually. With investment value at a
whopping £7 billion applying for 10 years’ time is the single biggest contract that the
Scottish government is currently in agreement with (Transport Scotland, 2020). With
the firm being heavily? , apart from effective business practices, ethical factors are
also required to be addressed within the ScotRail’s operation system. According to
Humza Yousaf, Minister for Europe and International Development. “Our railways are a
national asset, they connect communities, enhance our quality of life and spread
prosperity. Rail is well placed to play a pivotal role in the wider strategic context
including the review of the National Transport Strategy, the work on the Strategic
Transport Projects Review, our wider ambitions in the Climate Change Plan and the
promotion of active travel. Investment in our railways remains a priority for this
Government. Since 2007 nearly £8 billion has been spent maintaining, improving and
expanding the rail network” further emphasizing government’s attention on improving
railway performance and emission that will provide considerable support to ScotRail in
its business practices. Meanwhile, Scotland is becoming an emerging tourist destination
globally, three times voted by the Wanderlust travel magazine as the favorite train
journey by subscribers of the magazine. (Transport Scotland, 2019). The growth of the
industry could also be demonstrated through the part of the populations that it directly
supports, as an estimated 167,000 jobs are provided by the Scotland railway sector.
Meanwhile ScotRail alone is responsible for a total of 37,721 jobs that generated £1.22
billion worth of GDP in 2013 (Deloitte/Oxford,2013). Furthermore, its well on its path of
achieving climate efficiency, as data shows that between 2012 and 2018 (UK)
emissions per passenger kilometer fell by 24% for rail compared to 8% for petrol cars,
4% for diesel cars and 10% for buses. Rail continues to improve and performs very well
with average emissions of 36.6 gCO2e per passenger kilometer in 2018-2019
(Transport Scotland, 2020).

Brief Statement
The objective of the campaign is to attract 1500 passengers in Scotland and
successfully promote the concept of combining train and bicycle during leisure,
commuter, business during travel. In order for obtain this objective, firstly, analysis of
influential factors that shape the trading environment on both micro and macro level,
adopting PESTEL analysis to further understand market situation minimizing risks is
required. Followed by customer analysis and segmentation, it is crucial to identify and
divide the market into adequate groups so that strategy and planning could be
developed accordingly. Secondly Porter’s Five Forces will be applied to better
understand internal and external elements. After thorough analyzation and
consideration, in contemplation of the previously establish goal of 1500 passengers
within a two months’ time span by ScotRail, a direct digital marketing campaign will be
provided, using both online and offline distribution/communication strategy in
corporation with KPIs, budgeting and measurement to advance the campaign’s chance
of success. Lastly, creative strategy and creative content as well as recommendations
for ScotRail’s future operation should be considered.

I. Campaign Plan
II. Marketplace Analysis
Under the supervision of Abellio Group, ScotRail nowadays operates 95% of passenger
rail services in Scotland, with more than 2,000 services being provided a day. The
railway company also operatse almost all of more than 359 stations in Scotland,
including regular service in 340 passenger facilities, of which 142 are staffed with
ScotRail’s personnel. (ScotRail, 2028). Already being the regional dominator, the new
ScotRail franchise targets at more sophisticated goals and greater objectives. ScotRail
is “aiming to become a representative landmark, not just for the railway and its
passengers, but for Scotland as a whole. ScotRail will become a national asset which
the country can be proud of, for its part in helping to build prosperity, better quality of life
and a fairer society throughout Scotland.” (ScotRail, 2020). The Scottish government
also provides aid and support to this initiative, that during the 2015-2016 period ScotRail
l is one of the most highly subsidized franchises in the UK, which saw Abellio ScotRail
receiving £293 million in direct government funding, accounting for nearly 45.6% of its
total income (TSSA, 2016). However, other external influencing factors might prove to
be not as beneficial for the conduct of the railway system and also ScotRail. Covid-19
has led to a trend of switching from public to private use vehicles for travel, inducing
obstacles even for the biggest in the sector like ScotRail to create a significant digital
marketing operation in order to attract new customers leads, customers and to keep
existing customers coming back because of the disease outbreak. Challenges await
ScotRail to implement pro-cycling digital campaign using both online and traditional
channels.
Regarding ScotRail’s customers analysis, according to a survey report by the National
Rail Passenger Survey (2019) on customers' satisfaction towards the services provide
by the brand from September to November 2018, there was an overall satisfaction rate
of 79% during Autumn 2018. Then it saw an increase of 6% by Spring 2019 illustrating
an increase in efficiency throughout the customer journey. A major contributing factor to
this rise is the punctuality/reliability of the railway company which also saw a slight
boost of 4% reaching 76% during the same period. A more recent report was by Office
of Rail and Road (2020) recorded a remarkable satisfaction rate towards the
helpfulness and attitude of the staff who assisted alongside with 89% satisfaction rate of
services received at stations. Meanwhile overall satisfaction with the whole process
settled at just over 86% with survey results collected indicating positive ratios and
percentages, specifically the services that customers receive by ScotRail support
department with presence in both online and offline channels. Despite positive surveys
outcomes, challenges are still ahead for ScotRail to achieve the set goal as even
though punctuality saw rises, but satisfaction rates towards the demeanor in which
delays/cancellation do occur are at a warning low of 39% with little sign of increase from
the duration of 2018-2019 (NRPS, 2019). In order the to reach the primary aim,
customer relations is obligated to be revamp and for the firm to re-furbish the brand
image in the eyes of customers, especially the population that received inadequate
experience while travelling with ScotRail. In order to make existing customer the primary
target of the campaign, it is crucial to have customers with negative experiences interact
the most with the initiative on improved service quality.
II. Digital Marketing Strategy/Campaign

2.1 Creative Strategy

The main objective of the campaign is to gain participation from 1500 passengers in
Scotland to utilize bicycle and train for their purpose of travel. This could be achieved by
targeting acquired customers, who demand better punctuality of for passenger trains,
more information/notification about probable delays and a better overall experience on
board. With the purpose of meeting the urgent appeal from existing customers, in
corporation with (SCCAS) ScotRail Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (Appendix 1),
(EEP) Environment and Energy Policy (Appendix 2) and (PAR) Performance and
reliability Policy (Appendix 3) in order to utilize to the available resources from ScotRail.
Using SCCAS, in collaboration with Network Rail ‘s Weather Resilience and Climate
Change Adaptation (WRCCA) Plan for Scotland Route and Extreme Weather Action
Team (EWAT) to forecast and collect information about abrupt weather conditions that
might cause delays or cancellations of railway conduct. A digital marketing initiative
following the strategic movement will be implemented, promoting information credibility
and reliability in railway services. EEP and PAR will also be employed, of which the
objective will be promoting efficiency, performance, punctuality and also environmental-
friendliness. As the campaign objective and also EEP advocate cycling, a transportation
method that compared to popularized means of transport is significantly more
sustainable, active and environmentally-friendly.

2.2 Digital and Direct Strategy and Tactics.

2.2.1 E-mail marketing
A report from rail technology company Silverrail collected information about the ratio of
online ticket purchases between Europe countries. In France and Spain, as high as 40
% of rail ticket purchases were made online and in Sweden it’s as high as 90% (Irina
Danila, 2016). During which customers have the option to whether accept receiving
news on the trip or consent of agreement for newsletters. A suitable environment for e-
mail marketing due to the number of existing touchpoints made available through the
practice of ticket distributing. And with the assistive data from SCCAS, ScotRail can
provide receivers with informative contents, like weather forecast, earlier and more
concise support and notification regarding train schedule, cancellations and delays,
content that might be important to a person who travels, which will build awareness of
the brand’s resilience and preparation to handle obstruction during travel, increase
confidence of customers when travelling with ScotRail and encourage existing travelers
of the brand to make repeated purchases by an increase of value provided. And with
the mobile app, new notification functions should be introduced, informing more useful
contents such as delays, travel time and daily weather forecast to enhance user’s
communication.
2.2.2 Mobile-App Marketing and SEO
Railway platform tickets could be bought online through various channels or website.
Statistic from a transportation report by Y. Guan et a (2020) indicates that during the
Spring of 2017 the keyword ‘‘tickets” was searched 14,410,480 times and it was the top
searched word online. SEO and Mobile App are the landing channels that every lead
should be directed to the ScotRail app and official websites as these channels have
higher chances to create lifetime value, more effectively deliver information to visitors.
Also increasing website traffic is significantly beneficial for the SEO as website’s
popularity will establish ScotRail main channels higher on the search engine ranking.
The effectiveness of keywords such as Scotland train/rail, reliable rail, punctual train,
environmental railroad…. should constantly be under supervision throughout the
campaign to ensure efficiency.
2.2.3 Offline Direct Marketing
As indicated from the The UK Rail Market Insights Report, the UK is significantly behind
other European countries in online travel ticket sales at approximately at only 20
percent compared to ticket office sales as of 2015. This shows that traditional, offline
marketing operations are still required. The selected method will be banners and
posters located in trains stations and transportation facilities to maximize interactions
with potential customers. These ads will be run for the first month of the campaign in
order to increase awareness. Besides, contents includes imagery with minimal
typography to promote punctuality, reliability and other campaign values. Directive
information towards main selling channels such as website and mobile app will be
incorporated into ads like links or QR codes to maximize ROI ratio of the operation.

III. KPIs and Budgeting

3.1. External factors
The success rate of the operation is highly dependable on ScotRail’s ability to fulfill the
benefits and improvements advertised in which the High-Level Output Specification
(HLOS), paragraph 1D (1) of Schedule 4A to the Railways Act 1993, amended by the
Railways Act 2005 implemented by the Scottish government aimed at reducing travel
times and connections, minimizing emissions, improving quality of journey, lastly
making railway travel accessible and affordable (Transport Scotland, 2017). This
requires providing supports towards ScotRail’s promise of punctuation and
performance, and enhancing the success rate of the operation through additional
acquired positive word-of-mouth promotion from an increase in service quality. Another
external factor to consider that might heavily affect business KPIs especially in offline
operations is the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic within the UK regions and
territory. According to the Scottish Government (2020) the UK announced that it will
designate over £8.2 billion of additional funding to the Scottish Government regarding
the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, of which £580 million will be granted to support
transport measures. This aims to boost safety on train journeys and also to encourage
travel from declining customer base. Furthermore, with the with the Scottish government
providing over £100 million in subsidy towards the lifeline Emergency Measures
Agreement (EMA), it’s advisable to provide assistance to railway workforce, as since
then ScotRail has not placed a single member of its 5,200 staff out of work or cut any
permanent roles with the pandemic, allowing the optimization of offline initiatives
through unreduced and affected staffing and assuring a higher chance of success for
physical touchpoints. Lastly with a consumer market that is aware that transport is a
climate change and pollution, Scotland’s railway is a success story, “with around 76% of
passenger and 45% of freight journeys already on electric traction”. (Michael Matheson
MSP,2020), which strengthens the chance of persuading environmental-conscious
passengers through ScotRail’s digital adversting operation.

3.2 KPIs

.
Campaign Measurement KPIS
Offline Direct - Leads to main channels - The rate of attention
Marketing create - Ads interaction rate and engagement
awareness - Secure 90000
Leads to main
channels
Mobile-App Marketing - Keyword Ranking - Websites search
and SEO - Leads/Conversion rate engine ranking on
- Bounce Rate Google, Bing.etc
- Cost per click - Obtain 1,6% lead to
sales conversion
rate of 1500
customers.
- How fast the user
leaves the page
without any actions
- The cost of digital
advertisement for
one weblink/URL
click
E-mail open rate and - Customer satisfaction - Feedback, reviews,
building lifetime value - Email clicks through customer enquiries
- Enhance user’s
communication by
providing quality
content aim for
higher-than-average
open rate at 30%
(Appendix 4)

3.3 Budget

Channels November 2020 December 2020 Total

Offline Direct £ 25000 £0 £ 25000
Marketing

Mobile-App £ 9000 £ 0900 £ 18000

Marketing and SEO

SEO supervision £ 1500 £ 1500 £ 3000

Content Creation £ 1000 £ 1000 £ 2000
E-mail marketing £ 3500 £ 3500 £ 7000

The budget comes to a total of £ 55000, the remaining £ 5000 would be utilize under
emergency situation or unplanned spending, to maintain certain campaigns after the
operation has finished in December 2020 or to be further utilized with the purpose of
supporting the conversion process of the plan till February 15, 2020.