MKT00720 Marketing

Introduction

The report will analyze the marketing strategies of two eminent hotel companies in the hospitality sector. Marketing is considered to be an essential aspect of an organization and any company who wants to attain success in the long run needs to ensure that the different components of the marketing are covered adequately (Malhotra and Peterson 2014). A good marketing strategy helps the firm to attract larger audiences and to ensure that a competitive advantage is created. The report will be analyzing the marketing strategy of two hotels named Accord hotels and Marriot Hotels.  The marketing process of each company will be discussed, which will then be followed by the discussion of the marketing success for each organization. Lastly, this evidence will then be linked to various theories and strategies which will then help in understanding the related concepts.

The case study of Accord Hotels

The Accor Hotels is a French multinational hospitality company which owns and manages various resorts, hotels and vocational properties. It is the largest hotel group present outside of the United States. The hotel group operates in more than 95 countries with more than 4000 hotel groups and more than 250000 employees around the globe. The capacity of the hotel is approximately 5, 50,000 rooms and 25% of them are located in France itself (Accorhotels.com. 2018).  The Accor group of hotels has various hotels under its management which are Fairmont, Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman and others. Moreover, it has various mid-range hotels as well under its domain like Mercure and Adagio. The marketing process in the form of the Marketing Mix of the organization is as follows:

Product: The Accor group of hotels has various hotels under its management which are Fairmont, Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman and others (Gustavo 2013).

Price: The hotel group has been earning a revenue and net income of Euro 1.93 billion and Euro 481 million. The hotel caters to the needs of the upper scale of the society and is priced high.

Place: The hotel has various branches in Lisbon, Budapest, Hong Kong, Paris, Berlin, Bangkok, Singapore, Vienna, San Francisco and Milan.

Promotion: With the help of radios, television, newspapers, billboards and travel magazines. Various loyalty programs are as formed for the different customers.

The company has applied a Market development strategy based on the Ansoff Matrix and a gain from this has been the continuous rise in profits and the expansion of various hotels.

The case study of Marriot Hotels

The Marriot International organization is an American multinational diversified hospitality organization which manages a wide range of hotels and lodging facilities. The company was found by Willard Marriot and currently the company is held by his son. The company has its headquarters in Maryland in the Washington. The hotel group has more than 6500 properties in more than 128 countries (Marriott.com. 2018). There are more than 1 million rooms and additionally more rooms are being added for the benefit of the organization. The company was ranked #33 on the best companies to work for in 2017. The marketing mix of the company is given as follows:

Product: The Company owns more than 30 premier brands which belong to Luxury, Premium, Classic Select, and Classic Long stays, The Ritz Carlton, Renaissance and Residence Inn among the others.

Price: The hotel group offers high pricing solutions to the different consumers.

Promotion: High brand recall because of innovative ideas

Place: The hotels are situated in various countries like Malaysia, Peru, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Switzerland among the others.

The competitive gain from the given marketing process is that the company has been able to utilize the Product Development strategy and serve the different strata’s of the society at large (Shukre 2013).

Marketing Success Evidence: Marriot Hotels

In August, 2017, the Marriot Group of Hotels came up with its first campaign with respect to a new marketing approach.  The company came up with a new strategic advertising approach in order to connect the guests at the hotel with the different associates as well as the brand. The given approach is known as the Golden rule approach. This is a category marketing approach, using which the company made a powerful offering to the consumers (Marriott News Center. 2018). This was formed after noticing the increase in challenges while travelling and hence, the Golden Rule campaign aimed to personify the manner in which the different associates tend to go beyond their duties to make marketing successful. This was supported by a multi-platform media plan which would hit all screens and complimented by digital only content. Various social media channels shall also be used.

The impact of this campaign was largely observed and the customer and guest relationship at the market increased considerably.

Accor Hotel

Back in 2017 in the month of November, the Accor group of hotels came out with a new marketing strategy whereby the decided to adapt a new growth strategy. In china, there was an increase in the number of high end hotels which were present and the competition between various popular brands had been increasing considerably (Chinadaily.com.cn. 2018). Hence, in order to avoid this kind of competition and to ensure that the hotel chain is able to fulfill customer demand, the company decided to cater to the needs of these customers of the middle income group customers. To accelerate this and raise the demand of the Accor Hotel group, the company has made a strategic alliance with the Huazhu Hotels group which owns medium range of hotels and lodgings (Ramaswamy and Mosher 2013). The company has made use of this strategy to meet the demands of the growing millennial generation and therefore, with the acquisition and venture, the firm has been successful in capturing the needs of the target market and has been successful in increasing its market share.

Marketing Theories: Marriot Hotels

The golden rule strategy as applied by the company aims to build a better relationship with the different customers and in order to help the customers to understand that effort that associate puts behind the relationship and the experience of the guests who will stay at the given hotel group (Kotler 2017).  These days marketing for various hotels has become a rather difficult concept whereby the service of the customers is largely dependent on the associates.

Hence, with the help of the new strategy based on the Golden rule where the different associates working in different hotels under the Marriot group will be allowed to give their point of view on how they help the customers and how they tend to go out of way to make sure that the customers enjoy their stay at the different Marriot Hotels (Meffert 2013). Using this method, the company aims to increase the popularity of the hotels.

The theory related to this is largely associated with the concepts of Relationship Marketing.  Relationship marketing can be described as a marketing technique which aims to form long term relationships with the different consumers. This relationship marketing aims to bring long term loyal relationship with the customers and this kind pf marketing strategy is popularly used in service industry. This is done to create maximum value for the different consumers.

The improvement of the internal operations is the main objective of Relationship marketing. This can have a positive impact on the business as it will assist the brand to improve its image in the organization (Narteh et al. 2013).  Hence, by using this strategy, Marriot hotels has been able to improve its business considerably.

Accor Hotels

With respect to the new growth strategy as targeted by the organization, it can be stated that the Accor group of hotels aimed to use two kinds of Marketing Strategy. The first kind of Marketing strategy which the company made use of was the strategy related to the Product Development strategy. In the product development strategy the company has aimed to target a new segment and invest largely in the medium range of hotels. Through the given procedure, the organization has aimed to ensure that the millennials are being targeted as the potential customers and that the hotel group is able to make considerable profits by increase the market share (SW Chan 2013).

Moreover, the second marketing strategy having been adopted by the hotel is the target market strategy whereby the hotel group has targeted the new millennials who do not comprise of the upscale earning capacity and due to this comprise of the purchasing power to be a guest in the middle scale hotels.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the given analysis it can be stated that, marketing tends to form an essential aspect of the organization and in order to attain a competitive edge in the long run, companies need to ensure that they apply the correct marketing strategy. The given report highlighted the importance of a proper marketing strategy for any organization and highlighted the manner in which marketing success has been able to ensure that the revenues of the firm increases. The report undertook the example of two different hotels named Accor Hotels and the Marriot Group of Hotels. The marketing success evidence of the two hotels were analyzed and the marketing strategy as adopted by them were also examined extensively.

References

Accorhotels.com. ,2018. Book Hotel Online - Best Price Guarantee - AccorHotels.com. [online] Available at: https://www.accorhotels.com/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

Chinadaily.com.cn. ,2018. AccorHotels adapts new growth strategy - Chinadaily.com.cn. [online] Available at: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2017-10/28/content_33801943.htm [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

Gustavo, N., 2013. Marketing management trends in tourism and hospitality industry: Facing the 21st century environment. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(3), p.13.

Malhotra, N.K. and Peterson, M., 2014. Basic marketing research. Pearson.

Marriott News Center. ,2018. Marriott International Debuts First-Ever Campaign for New Category Marketing Approach - Marriott News Center. [online] Available at: https://news.marriott.com/2017/08/marriott-international-debuts-first-ever-campaign-new-category-marketing-approach/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

Marriott.com. ,2018. Hotels & Resorts | Book your Hotel directly with Marriott. [online] Available at: https://www.marriott.com/default.mi [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

Meffert, H., 2013. Marketing-Management: Analyse—Strategie—Implementierung. Springer-Verlag.

Narteh, B., Agbemabiese, G.C., Kodua, P. and Braimah, M., 2013. Relationship marketing and customer loyalty: Evidence from the Ghanaian luxury hotel industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 22(4), pp.407-436.

Philip.; Keller Kotler (Kevin Lane.; Ang, Swee-Hoon.; Tan, Chin-Tiong.; Leong, Siew Meng), 2017. Marketing management. Pearson.

Ramaswamy, S.K. and Mosher, G.A., 2013. Marketing Management.

Shukre, A., 2013. Marketing management. 99-100.

SW Chan, E., 2013. Gap analysis of green hotel marketing. International journal of contemporary hospitality management, 25(7), pp.1017-1048.