Marketing Strategy Analysis Of Hotel Sheraton Towers

Situational Analysis

Describe about the Marketing Strategy For Hotel Sheraton Towers.

This report is based on analysis of marketing strategy and evaluation of environmental factors of business organisation. For the purpose of this report Hotel Sheraton Towers, Singapore has been selected. This report includes analysis of internal and external factors that affect business operations of Hotel Sheraton Towers. For this purpose PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis has been conducted respectively. This report contains discussion on competitive analysis of Hotel Sheraton Towers in terms of its unique selling point and that is Terrace room, Pool room and Pool Bar. Current marketing strategy of Hotel Sheraton Towers has been evaluated on the basis of sales revenue and profitability. Then next section of this report contains development of many strategies in which Hotel Sheraton Towers has been lacking, identified from the evaluation process. New and improved segmentation target strategy and positioning strategy has been formulated so as to attract and reach more new customers. Then SMART objectives have been used to recommend new objectives and goals of Hotel Sheraton Towers. Recommendation regarding marketing strategies or marketing mix has been provided to Hotel Sheraton Towers.

Perpetual map of Hotel Sheraton Towers

Perpetual map is used to analyse position of business organisation in the market on the basis of two common characteristic or two common features of organisations. From the above perpetual map of Hotel Sheraton Towers, it can be observed that they are placed at almost middle of the map which denotes better position. Perpetual map is based on two aspects i.e. expensive and services (Friese et al., 2013). Although Hotel Sheraton Towers is bit expensive but their service quality is at higher side.

Analysis of external factors

For this purpose, PESTEL Analysis will be used to make analysis of external environment that impact Hotel Sheraton Towers. Following is the PESTEL Analysis:

 

For the analysis of internal business environment, organisation is required to undergo internal operation audit. There are many techniques that can be used for internal audit but in present case, SWOT analysis will be conducted. SWOT analysis cosmists of four major elements i.e. strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (Agarwal et al., 2012). Following is the SWOT analysis of Hotel Sheraton Towers:

Strength Hotel Sheraton Towers has large pool of assets that has strengthen the position in business operations. Price and service quality of Hotel Sheraton Towers is the reason for its popularity. Hotel Sheraton Towers has strong bargaining power that has made them more effective. Effective capital base of Hotel Sheraton Towers i.e. Hotel Sheraton Towers has back of financial resources therefore they are able to undergo business operations (Oana and Marioara, 2014). Hotel Sheraton Towers covers market share in the total hotel industry.  Hotel Sheraton Towers had undergone many mergers, acquisition and takeovers.

Weakness Hotel Sheraton Towers has been facing the issue of high employee turnover and had lost many talented and skilful employees. More use of debt in the business operations has made them less attractive and puts weakness in their financial statements. Hotel Sheraton Towers has not been able to attract many people i.e. Hotel Sheraton Towers has flaws in its strategies and most importantly in promotion strategy.

Opportunities Recent development in hotel industry has wide opened doors for many companies to expand their business operations.   Decline global inflation rate can be seen as opportunity because now people will be having more money to spend. Innovation and technological development has provided with new and improved techniques that saves cost of operations (Taylor-West et al., 2014). Stability in economic conditions reflects opportunity for business expansion and Hotel Sheraton Towers can achieve same.

Threats Higher government intervention is the biggest threat for the Hotel Sheraton Towers. Competitive advantages and USP of competitors is another threat for Hotel Sheraton Towers. Recent changes in tax rate and taxation rules have became threat for Hotel Sheraton Towers.

(Zhang, 2014)

Competitive advantage can be define as the advantages that business organisation possess over competitors in the market. In case of Hotel Sheraton Towers, there are competitive advantages that are not possessed by any other hotel or organisation. Competitive advantage of Hotel Sheraton Towers is having Terrace room, Pool room and Pool Bar (Elshaer and Augustyn, 2016). These types of rooms are not available with any other competitors or hotels. Another unique selling point of Hotel Sheraton Towers is its cost effectiveness; it can be observed that Hotel Sheraton Towers is able to provide services to its customers at lowest price level as compared to its other competitors. From this unique selling point of Terrace room and Pool room, they are able to attract more customers belongs to particular segment (Aminiroshan et al., 2014). Couples, honeymoon travellers and many other have been attracted with this competitive advantage of Hotel Sheraton Towers. This can be observed from the analysis of annual report of Hotel Sheraton Towers where increase in sales revenue and profitability can be seen. But these competitive advantages can be achieved only in short run as in long run many other hotel companies will adopt same strategy and can achieve more profitability. Unique selling point of Terrace room and Pool room has enabled Hotel Sheraton Towers to charge more prices for their services and is at profit making situation. It can be observed that profitably has been at increasing trend and has shown great results (Bilgihan and Wang, 2016).

Perpetual map of Hotel Sheraton Towers

Marketing plan is developed at the starting of the year and implemented throughout the year. Under marketing plan what course of action will be undertaken so as to achieve desired outcome. Marketing plan includes strategies related to product promotion, market development, product development, sales promotion and many other activities. Objective of market plan is to achieve higher sales revenue, higher selling units, increase profitability, achieve customers loyalty, etc. It is very important for management to analyse marketing plan so that they are able to analyse short comings of the same. Cost-benefit analysis impact on long term, comparison with competitors, evaluation of positioning strategy and many others. In case of Hotel Sheraton Towers, their marketing strategy suggests that there is lack of budget for promotional activities or for promotion of its products and services. It can be evaluated that although profitability of Hotel Sheraton Towers has been increased but they are not able to attract new and more customers. Marketing plan of Hotel Sheraton Towers suggests that pricing strategy needs to be reviewed and certain changes shall be made in term of pricing of their services (Mayaka and  Prasad, 2012).

Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP)

Current marketing strategies of Hotel Sheraton Towers do not show effectives in terms of attracting more customers. Therefore new strategy in term of segmentation, targeting & positioning has to be redesign so as to get their market share back. Following are new strategies of Hotel Sheraton Towers:

Segmentation- There are different types of segments on which total population is divided. For the purpose of new marketing strategy, marketing manager of Hotel Sheraton Towers will target two particular section of population (Carter and Chitturi, 2008). Targeted segments for this new marketing is population looking for luxury facilities and international level services or class. These are two major segments that new marketing plan will target on (Carter and Chitturi, 2009).

Targeting- Under this strategy, once particular segment of is decided then from total segment market, targeted population will be identified. Following are base of targeting strategy of Hotel Sheraton Towers:

Demographic: Social status of targeted population will be business people, professionals and high class tourists. Age can be varied from 20 years to 40 years. Population of higher income level will be targeted so that can afford services of Hotel Sheraton Towers. Youth and business class will be prime targets of Hotel Sheraton Tower’s new marketing strategy (Sánchez-Hernández et al., 2013).

Analysis of external factors

Geographic location- On the basis of geographic location, any individual who can afford services of Hotel Sheraton Towers will be targeted. Domestic population or people coming from outside countries will be targeted. Urban population will be targeted as compared to rural population.

Positioning- Positioning Strategy plays vital role in marketing plan i.e. in order to attract more new customers. Positioning strategy defined different attribute that business organisation has as compared to other firms or organisation (Garipagaoglu and Ozden, 2015). It means standing out of crowed.  Hotel Sheraton Towers has planned to different in terms of their unique features of room services i.e. customers can use tree house for accommodation, tarries rooms with swinging pool integrated in room, pool bar is another positioning strategy of Hotel Sheraton Towers (Song et al., 2014). 

Objectives and goals of new marketing plan shall be established so that these are clear to each and every human resources of the business organisation. In case of Hotel Sheraton Towers, SMART technique is used to establish objectives of new marketing strategy.  Following are objectives of Hotel Sheraton Tower’s marketing objective:

Specific- This aspect defines that there shall be specific objectives or objectives of marketing plan shall be clearly identified. New marketing plan has clear objective of increasing market share among other competitors. Other objectives are to increase profitability, increase customer turnover rate and increase sales revenue (Azadi and Rahimzadeh, 2012).

Measurable- Another aspect of marketing plan shall to measure achievement of objectives or how it will be analysed that specific objective is achieved or not. In present case of Hotel Sheraton Tower, when customer turnover rate is increased from last year’s customer turnover rate, as compared to last year’s profit, 15 % to 20 % sales revenues and 10 % - 15 % net profits shall be increased. If these points are achieved then objectives of new marketing plan is tends to be achieved. (Jung,  2007)

Attainable- Goals or objectives set shall be attainable that means three shall be no vague objectives that cannot be achieved should be specified. In case of new marketing strategy of Hotel Sheraton Tower, objective is to increase market share from 23 % to 30 % and profitability from 17 % to 25 %. It shows that measurable objectives shall be backed with attainable part of SMART objectives.

Realistic- Objectives or goals of marketing plan shall be realistic and shall be based on some facts and figures. Under these point of SMART objectives, business organisation shall establish marketing plan objectives on the basis of available resources. In this case of Hotel Sheraton Tower, they are available with sufficient resources in term of human resource, capital resource, financial resources, Hotel Sheraton Tower also available with strategic management team and many other resources (Tofade et al., 2012).  

SWOT analysis of Hotel Sheraton Towers

Timeframe- Timeframe of objectives and goals shall be established so that time limit can be established. Timeframe is the time limit within which objectives are to be achieved so that it does not dilute the importance of objectives or results. Timeframe in case of Hotel Sheraton Tower will be four months that means desired objectives and goals shall be achieved within four month from the date of implementation of marketing strategy.

Marketing strategy of the Hotel Sheraton Tower shall be based on segmentation strategy, targeting strategy and positioning strategy that was established earlier. Following is the recommended marketing mix for Hotel Sheraton Tower:

Product or Services- Facilities or services that Hotel Sheraton Tower is planned to deliver shall be best in class. Personal services and personal facilities shall be developed under new marketing plan. Best quality as compared to competitors will be maintained so that product or service differentiation objective shall be achieved (Astuti et al., 2015). Following are some facilities that shall be implemented in their new marketing plan:

• Improved food and beverage facilities
• New recreational activities or facilities shall be implemented.
• New marketing plan includes health and wellness facilitates
• Travel desk, express check-in and check-out, etc will be improved

Price- Since differentiation objectives is to be achieved under new marketing strategy; therefore new pricing strategy shall be implemented. Marketing plan suggest that price shall be kept at higher side so that it matches with world class facilities and services (Newton et al., 2013). New terrace room and pool room will be developed and price of these facilities and services will be kept higher. This will improve sales revenue and ultimately profitability of the year. Following is the price for the facilities:

Terrace room- $ 120 without breakfast and $ 130 with breakfast

Pool room- $ 140 without breakfast and $ 150 with breakfast

Promotion Plan- Under this new marketing plan, promotion plays vital role in terms of attracting new customers. As a part of marketing plan, promotional activities shall be undertaken in term of mass promotion (Foster et al., 2016). In this case of Hotel Sheraton Tower, following is the recommended promotion plan:

Promotional activities includes advertisement published in TV, outdoor transit billboard will be established, glow hoardings, etc are mode of promotional activities for new services (McNeill, 2013).

Sales promotion will also be undertaken as while providing discount coupons at promotional events, many events will organise so as to attract new customers, premium cards will be published.

Another form of promotion activities that is to be undertaken in the form of mass promotion activities. This includes press release in vernacular newspaper and in one English newspaper, new marketing plan of Hotel Sheraton Tower includes sponsorship undertaken of for sports team.

Competitive advantage (USP)

Place

Another important aspect of marketing mix of Hotel Sheraton Tower is place and distribution method that will be used in the marketing process. Place of Hotel Sheraton Tower plays important role in attracting more customers or new customers (Olaru and Olaru, 2012). There are two types of distribution methods that will be adopted by Hotel Sheraton Tower. Following are some methods that will be used in generating more sales or services:

Printed media advertisement will be undertaken in this regards

GDS i.e. global distribution system will be used to attract more customers

Mass media advertisement will be used to attract international customers and new customers

Personal telephone calls will be used to inform new customers regarding new and improved services and facilities that Hotel Sheraton Tower will be providing under new marketing strategy

Event planners will be appointed for marketing purpose

Travel agent will be appointed to bring new customers 

Conclusion

From the above analysis of marketing plan of Hotel Sheraton Towers it can be concluded that there are many issues that has reduced their goodwill in the market. Eternal environment of hotel has put them in back foot as external factors have impacted them in negative manner. Political factor, environmental factor and economic factors has impacted business operations of Hotel Sheraton Towers. Apart from external environment their internal environment has also impacted their profitability. Strength of hotly has been over shadowed by their weakness present in internal environment. SWOT analysis has been used for the same. From the above report it can be concluded that low cost and better facilities are their competitive advantages in terms of business operations.  Many customers have been attracted by this USP of hotel. Therefore on this basis new marketing strategy has been developed so that short comings in current marketing plan can be overcome. Under new marketing plan objectives and goals of same has been provided on the basis of SMART technique. Apart from new marketing plan's objectives or outcomes, new marketing mix has been developed to attract new customer line. In this marketing mix, more attention is provided to promotional strategies so that hotel can attract more customers in terms of their new service line. 

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