Students help eShores with marketing strategy

Students Hui Zhang and Chaoying Ling recently undertook an eight-week research project at eShores, a Rochdale-based online travel agent which specialises in luxury tailor-made holidays.

The project was to deliver recommendations as to how eShores could expand the business further offline by developing a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Gavin Lapidus, the Managing Director of eShores, said: “As an online business we are fairly confident with our internet marketing and online activities - however we wanted to grow the business offline and wanted to explore our options, as well as the associated costs and risks.”

“We found the project even more useful than we were expecting. The students gave us thorough industry data, as well as providing useful competitor analysis. They came up with various ideas of what we should consider to grow the business and suggested a two-stage plan of what they would recommend in the short term and things they would recommend to assist us in the future.

“We are currently looking into the costs and researching options that they have suggested, and we will definitely be incorporating some of their suggestions into our marketing mix.”

The students are from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS).

Lancaster University Management School and Rochdale Council have worked together for many years to help drive development in the North West. The research project was initiated by the Rochdale Development Agency, which suggested the benefits of collaborative work with students to eShores. The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development at LUMS then liaised with eShores about the research project.