Introduction of Hospitality Marketing Essentials Assignment Sample

Introduction of Hospitality Marketing Essentials Assignment

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The phrase "hospitality marketing" refers to any and all marketing actions and initiatives that are undertaken with the goal of raising revenue in the hospitality industry as a whole. The hospitality industry is comprised of a variety of sectors, including hoteling, food and beverage, cruise, amusement, and other businesses. It offers a diverse range of services to customers. To attract clients, businesses operating in a worldwide and intensely competitive market must deal with a variety of stages such as the planning, designing, and management of marketing operations. The hotel business has a pressing need to empower its employees, particularly those in middle management. Given the fact that understanding customer behaviour is at the heart of marketing, practitioners and researchers in the hospitality industry have been working diligently to better understand the complex decision-making techniques used by hospitality consumers, as well as the factors that may influence those procedures. Understanding the breadth and depth of current information is critical for scholars and practitioners in the field of hospitality marketing, especially as the profession evolves and becomes more scientifically sophisticated. This report has been prepared to examine contemporary marketing concepts, themes, and difficulties that affect the hospitality businesses of Hilton when viewed in the lens of a wide range of hospitality industries from a worldwide perspective. Marketing challenges such as hospitality innovation, sustainable development, online networks, peer-to-peer applications, and experience marketing have all been highlighted in this regard. An in-depth look at both theoretical and practical aspects of hospitality marketing has been undertaken in order to fill in the shortcomings currently present in the field's existing marketing literature.

Discussion Role of Marketing and Interrelationship with Functional Units across Hospitality Organizations

Hospitality Services Marketing

Market orientation is critical to the success of any commercial enterprise, which serves its clients while also confronting competition. Firms in the market-oriented sector try to outperform their competitors by focusing on meeting the wants and wishes of their customers (Aladag et al., 2020). There is a demand for better efficiency and effectiveness in the hotel industry because of competition and the slow pace of economic expansion. Consequently, marketing activities have become an essential aspect of corporate operations, since they affect the present and future prosperity of hotels. The goal of marketing is to provide value for the customer and foster unique customer experiences. When it comes to hotel and restaurant marketing, the same holds true.

More than any other corporate activity, marketing is in constant contact with the company's customers. Marketing is based on the belief that customers' needs and desires are of the utmost importance (Ali et al., 2020). Marketing is defined in a variety of ways by various marketing organizations and academics. Three distinct domains must be considered when discussing the hospitality marketing context: social, private, and commercial. Understanding how to act as host and guest in a private setting is an important aspect of developing the private domain. Mutual respect for the cultural and social values of each side is also part of the social domain. Every sort of commercial relationship between a tourist and a host is included in the commercial domain.

Various sub-sectors are involved in tourism, which is a multifaceted phenomenon. To put it another way, tourism is a complete system comprising all the individuals and organizations that work together to offer tourists a wide range of unique experiences. One of the most important aspects of the tourism system is the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry includes both the restaurant management and hotel industries. The primary goal of early Hilton’s hospitality businesses was to cater to the basic needs of travellers, including providing meals as well as a safe place to sleep. However, in today's world, hospitality encompasses much more than just providing food and lodging; it also entails giving guests with memorable experiences and adding value to the bottom line (Dabrowski et al., 2019). A hotel's visitors are its most important asset, and hence, the hotel's brand is its most important marketing tool. Like no other corporate activity, marketing is in constant contact with the company's customers. Marketing is based on the belief that customers' needs and desires are of the utmost importance. Prior to making a purchase, customers must weigh the costs and benefits of many options before making a final decision. When it comes to the perceived financial cost and benefits associated with product or service, creation of customer value is an important consideration.

In this context, it becomes imperative to mention that research in management administration pertaining to Hilton’s business as well as in the field of hospitality industry in general has long recognized the relevance of organizational learning (Hossain et al., 2020). In light of the above-mentioned discussion, it needs to be stressed that in case of Hilton as well as for both management and hospitality industry and tourism studies in general, there is a lack of empirical exploration of the inter-relationship between organizational learning and other levels of competencies. In this regard, both substantive and dynamic capabilities have been emphasized and differentiated from one another in terms of the investigation of the impact of underlying first and zero-level competences on organizational performance. In this light, it has to be mentioned that literature in the field of management has acknowledged the importance of marketing and as vital as substantive competencies are technological capabilities (Jalilvand et al., 2019). On the other hand, dynamic capabilities are defined as a company's ability to understand and meet the needs of its consumers while also assessing the competition. Within the hospitality industry, this encompasses both human and technology resources and skills that are owned by the company itself.

Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing Functions in the context of Hospitality Industry

Businesses in the highly competitive hotel and tourism business must be able to successfully use new marketing methods in order to sustain their growth. Therefore, in the case of Hilton businesses when it comes to recruiting customers and marketing tourism products and services, social media is a low-cost digital channel. Promotion of tourism is a business activity focused on results. Thus, the results of marketing tasks decide whether or not they are a success. A performance-oriented activity is one in which a person or organization works to influence behaviour and resource allocation in order to accomplish a goal and maintain that goal's level of superior performance throughout the course of time and into the future (Koc and Ayyildiz, 2021). New research shows an increasing interest in using social media for management and other commercial purposes, particularly marketing. When it comes to technology-based marketing strategies, whether they are successful or not, it is important to note that companies in the hospitality industry have been known to implement service technology systems, which suggests that whether these systems are a success or a failure is dependent on consumer opinions associated with human-computer interactions.

 In view of the above discussion, it needs to be said that Classical marketing methods involving marketing media are becoming obsolete. It has not only revolutionized the way individuals communicate, but it has also impacted the way businesses attract and maintain their customers (Konovalova et al., 2018). As a source of travel - related information and a means of making purchases, the Internet has evolved into a powerful marketing tool. To promote and distribute tourism services on an international scale and with multimedia capabilities, the Internet is becoming increasingly crucial because of the informative nature of tourism products. The importance of Internet-based marketing communication is rising. Personalization, multimedia integration, as well as in interactions are all proven methods of generating the maximum money from online marketing communications. Since only a thorough assessment can spur businesses to expand their marketing efforts, it is thought that any tool evaluation is beneficial. This, in turn, leverages particular emphasis upon the underlying positive link existing between market orientation and market performance. This, in turn, stresses emphasis upon the following factors namely- customer and competitor orientation as well as cross-functional integration. Therefore, in the case of Hilton Hospitality industry’s financial performance when viewed via the lens of creative marketing programs should involve meaningfulness and novelty. In this field, customers' motivational drivers have also been examined (Krizanova et al., 2019). This has pivotal implications upon the business operations of Hilton. To put it another way, client loyalty is a competitive advantage to the hospitality organizations because of the importance of the customer experience management approach.

The Organizational behavioural theories have also been utilized to examine how organizations use social media platforms to enhance their efficiency. According to a resource-based theory, social media use has a direct impact on hotel profitability, sales volume, and customer retention (Mahafzah et al., 2020). This is the most popular organizational behaviour theory used to study social media in tourist and hospitality organizations. Therefore, in the case of Hilton’s hospitality business this idea stresses the fact that a hotel's market orientation helps generate the market-based assets (such as customer relationships, market knowledge, and marketing intelligence) which are necessary to achieve successful outcomes.

Furthermore, emphasis needs to be laid upon creative marketing programs as important mediators facilitating orientation of marketing performance of hotels consequently leading to excellent performance of hospitality firms. Marketing creativity is hypothesized to mediate the link underlying market orientation and company success. In addition, the hotel business recognizes creativity and innovation as significant drivers of performance. Due to the fact, these demonstrate the organization's ability to adapt in the face of change. The so-called dynamic flexibility of an organization includes both innovation and creativity.

Marketing Influence and Interrelationship inside the Hospitality Industry

The marketing influence and interrelationship within the Hilton’s hotel entails the underlying three associated components of market orientation namely--- cross-functional integration, customer orientation, and competition orientation. The first component is reliant upon coordination and communication with information sharing as well as joint involvement with the clients to foster superior value. The second component is geared towards understanding of target customer market with the corresponding aim of delivering superior value (Lin et al., 2020). The final component leverages importance upon understanding of weaknesses and strengths as well as capabilities of current and potential competitors within the hospitality market. It is the hospitality organization's ability to provide new physical products and services, processes, and unique marketing tactics that demonstrates its innovation capability. In this context, it becomes imperative to mention that for Hilton hospitality business as well as for hotels with a high capacity for innovation in general can launch more imaginative marketing campaigns than their competitors. However, marketing campaigns can only be considered innovative if they are built on original concepts. This means that hotels may provide better service to their customers by making their facilities more useful and by tailoring their marketing strategies to the constantly shifting tastes of their customers.

In light of the foregoing discussion, it has to be mentioned that inside the management literature dynamic capabilities associated with hospitality organization is substantially different than that of substantive capabilities (Majid et al., 2019). A company's dynamic capabilities include its capacity to understand and meet the requirements of its customers and competitors, while marketing and technology capabilities have long been acknowledged as essential substantive capabilities in management literature. In this regard, it has to be mentioned that efforts have been made on the part of the researchers to align dynamic capabilities with the development of substantive capabilities. As an example, he viewed substantive capabilities to be the basic functional tasks like marketing, assembly, and distribution whereas dynamic capabilities have been classified as the ability of organizations to cope with the dynamic enhancement of these substantive capabilities. In the context of Hilton’s hospitality businesses and hospitality industry in general, researchers have discovered that dynamic capabilities bear no significant effect upon a company's productivity in the sense that they are linked to both substantive as well as dynamic capabilities (Soltani et al., 2018). Instead, they focus on improving the fundamental competencies, which leads to both a longer-term competitive advantage and improved results.

The schematic diagram outlining the mediating role of substantive capabilities in dynamic capabilities with regards to hospitality organization is described as given below

Nonfinancial and financial approaches to a hotel's productivity are two different ways of looking at creativity and innovation. Market or client performance is the starting point for the first strategy, while the financial performance of the hotel is taken into account for the second. Creativity and innovation are closely linked in this scenario, particularly in the context of marketing program’s ability to be significant. In addition to the great quality of the offer, a marketing program that caters to specific visitor needs through innovative solutions can create significant value by making appropriate actions easier to carry out.

Essence and Value of Marketing in the context of Hospitality Industry

In the hotel industry, there is a wide range of products, services, and experiences that must be marketed. Hospitality marketing relies heavily on intangibility. Therefore, in the case of Hilton’s hospitality businesses customers and employers are inseparable in the performance of the service. Additionally, one of the most critical aspects of hospitality marketing is pricing. Countries around the world alike rely on the hospitality industry for economic success. There are more hurdles in this market due of the ever-increasing competition. Customers' increasing expectations for high-quality service, as well as the increasingly low prices at which services are offered, are posing new problems. All businesses benefit from marketing effectiveness since it assumes long-term profitability and customer happiness as well as a competitive edge and long-term business sustainability (Martín-Rios, and Ciobanu, 2019). Therefore, for Hilton’s hospitality businesses in order for marketing to be effective, it must be integrated into the company's overall operations rather than serving as a stand-alone function. A mutually supporting relationship between the goals of measuring marketing success and company objectives, notably in the areas of addressing customer demands, motivating and developing sales, and reviewing the impact on overall business effectiveness, is required here. The ability to continuously acquire knowledge and transform ideas demonstrates an organization's innovation capability (Majid et al., 2020). So, hotels with strong innovative capacity can launch more innovative marketing campaigns than competitors. In this regard, it has to be mentioned for Hilton’s hospitality businesses the novelty of creative marketing ideas attracts customer attention towards the industry, while it is the usefulness of the marketing strategy employed that ensures customer retention.

Strategies deployed by across Hospitality Organizations to utilize Marketing Mix (7Ps) for achieving Business Objectives

Marketing Mix and 7Ps

In order to meet their consumers' expectations, service providers employ a variety of marketing strategies. "Marketing mix" represents the combination of relevant techniques that are used to satisfy clients' needs in marketing campaigns (Raja, 2020). In the marketing setting, marketing strategy entails the “set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that firms intend to produce the response it wants in the target market”. In total, these instruments can be broken down into seven categories for the Hilton’s Hotel—products, price, location, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence.

The instrument of Product stress on maintaining high quality of products, pricing stresses on competitive pricing of related product items and goods, the technique of promotion stresses on the importance of creating novel outlet design to attract customers, process stresses on the need of convenient payment options for customers. Managers decide where clients should be served, which may include electronic/physical distribution methods. Benefits from purchasing services are the value and importance of promotion for service organizations. Procedure management assures service performance and accessibility. The schematic diagram representing the 7Ps of marketing mix is described as follows

Different Tactics employed by Hospitality Organizations to implement 7Ps

Aside from tangible goods and service marketing activities, hospitality businesses primarily produce services, as mentioned above. Marketing mix in the hospitality industry has been broadened from the traditional 4Ps to 7Ps and even 8Ps depending on the unique characteristics of the industry, which include: product, price, location, promotion, people, packaging, programming, and partnerships. These elements have been briefly described as follows by considering two separate hospitality organizations---- (Hilton Hospitality businesses with others).

Products- It refers to elements that are offered to customers including intangible services as well as physical goods. In this regard, in the case of Hilton green products which includes taking into account environmentally friendly products that facilitates minimum fuel and energy consumption, recycling and abated accumulation of hazardous waste products.

Price- This tool is use for establishing the terms of voluntary trade between buyers and sellers of services. Additionally, green pricing strategies incorporated by hospitality organizations include measures geared towards supplanting environmental sustainability within tourist destinations in the form of repayment for conservation and restoration activities.

Place- When it comes to hospitality marketing, the term "place" can be used to refer to anything that is done to help customers get to the service location. Green place policies adopted by Hilton hospitality organizations include measures that emphasize environmentally friendly atmosphere by incorporating the use of products designed to curtail negative environmental impacts.

Promotion- It entails the mixture of tools that facilitate communication with target audience and entails measures such as advertising, merchandising and sales promotion. Green promotion policies adopted by certain hospitality organizations include measures supporting the use of environmentally friendly products, willingness on the part of organizations for promoting environmentally friendly goods and services as well as green marketing messages by hospitality organizations.

People- Interactions between people that occur during the delivery of a service across various hospitality organizations. In case of Hilton hospitality organizations green people, often known as "green consumers," are concerned with the preservation of the environment.

Process- It typically implies the service delivery processes by various hospitality organizations. Also, in Hilton hospitality organizations the company's financial performance can be improved by implementing green practices. This also involves the use of green technology innovation with the aim of empowering financial performance of hotels thereby keeping alignment with Sustainable manufacturing processes.

Physical evidence- This entails designed to have an impact on the senses of the people who use them. In some hospitality organizations, green physical evidence in the form of presence of green buildings, which incorporate environmental variables such as the surrounding atmosphere and service point signage, needs to be considered.

Strategic Marketing Plan to meet Marketing Objectives for Hospitality Organizations

Strategic Marketing Plan of a Hospitality Organization

A marketing plan is a document that outlines a company's goals and the strategies it will use to accomplish them. The ensuing section has been prepared to highlight the Strategic Marketing Plan of Hilton’s hospitality businesses. The principal components associated with the marketing plan for the hospitality organization includes the content given as follows--- Situational Analysis, Issue/Opportunity Analysis, marketing objectives, marketing strategy, marketing action program and monitoring.

Situational Analysis

The first step in marketing strategy is to gather reliable data on the company's current market position. The majority of situational evaluations can be broken down into two distinct categories: external and internal. The external study typically contains information regarding the company's business environment, like the competition (Tajeddini et al., 2020). Situational study of the company's products and distribution normally includes data on these aspects. Several years of sales, pricing, and net profits of the products can be used to analyse the current state of the market.

Issue/Opportunity Analysis

Both the internal and external aspects that are examined in the situation analyses combine to form the SWOT analysis. Internal variables, such as the company's resources and capabilities, are sometimes referred to as strengths and can be exploited to gain a competitive edge. Customers' high reputations and easy access to distribution networks are two examples of this. Weaknesses are internal qualities that can be seen as a lack of certain abilities. From a high-cost structure to a lacklustre customer service team, weaknesses might be anywhere. Researching the company's external environment is often used to account for opportunities. Adaptation to changes in the company's external environment can potentially be a threat.

Marketing Objectives

Specific, quantifiable, attainable, reasonable and time-bound goals should be set. They can be long-term strategic goals or short-term goals that are still part of the company's long-term aims and strategy. Both should be considered. This is in line with established objectives that translate the company's mission into easily understood statements about the markets, goods, sales, occupancy and marketing mix. This is in line with the mission. When determining a company's marketing goals, the marketing mix is a key component.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing plans are completed when the goals have been established. An organization's aims and capabilities are linked to its evolving marketing opportunities through strategic planning. There are a number of factors that go into creating a marketing strategy, including the company's overarching aims and objectives.

Marketing Action Program

The next step is to develop a strategy and then a plan of action. They go into further depth on the marketing tactics and provide more specific answers as to what will be done, when, who will do it, and how much it will cost. Marketing campaigns are a good analogy for action plans. Products, price and promotion, as well as communication and distribution are all covered by these programs.

Monitoring

Monitors keep tabs on the progress of a project to see if it is on track to meet its goals. It is the final part of a marketing strategy. To discover, correct, and prevent unacceptable deviations from the marketing plan's goals and expenditures, monitoring is essential.

Conclusion

To conclude, it has to be mentioned that the proposed report has been prepared to outline the marketing aspects associated with the hospitality organization. In this context, the role of marketing and its corresponding interrelationship with other functional units within the hospitality organization has been emphasized. Additionally, the strategies that are adopted by hospitality organizations with emphasis upon utilizing the 7Ps elements of marketing mix have been identified wherein emphasis has been laid on accomplishing the overall business objectives in the case of hospitality organizations. Furthermore, a marketing plan has been developed with the overarching aim of meeting the objectives set by the hospitality organizations.

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