MKTG3040 : Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix

Defining a proper marketing mix for hotel industry is crucial for the success of hotels marketing efforts. A marketing mix is used to indicate the several marketing variables used by the sales team to target specific guests or target market segments (E.g.: Corporate, Transient, Groups, Conference, Leisure etc.).

Product

A product is divided into three different levels and they are Core, Facilitating and Supporting products. Hilton Hotels can be identified as a up market fully serviced hotel, which offers services such as hotel rooms, meeting/ conference facilities, hosting weddings receptions, banquets Restaurant, lounges Bars, food & beverage services, room service swimming pools, gift shops, retail facilities and other services such as but not limited to airport transfers. The core products of Hilton Hotels are the hotel rooms that Guest stay in for a precise period of time (Hotel 2017). With the same, Hilton offers a group of common facilitating product like client services, bars and restaurants, meetings/events and on-line reservation facilities. Moreover, Hilton Hotels provides 24/7 room service, free newspapers and magazines for enterprise travellers, concierge offerings etc. Furthermore, the augmented products supplied by Hilton Hotels consist of membership discounts, luxurious room and exterior designs, high end restaurant with relaxed ambiances. It also provide augmented products. It is to note that the Augmented product is advantage provide made by way of companies that consist of core product and peripheral services. Augmented products supplied by Hilton Hotels consist of membership discounts, luxurious room and exterior designs, high end restaurant with relaxed ambiances.

Questions to asked when marketing a hotel

What's the name of the presented product? (brand)

The environment of the product? (Colour, size, design, and so forth.)

In which, how and who is capable of use it?

Customers’ expectancies from the supplied product?

Form of supplied accommodation? (budget or high end)

Highly-priced features of the product?

What is the level of competitiveness?

What is the variety of supplied services?

How does the product satisfy demand

Price

Pricing techniques used by Hilton can be divided into four vast classes within the framework of Pricing approach Matrix: financial system, penetration, skimming and top rate pricing techniques. Penetration pricing approach, includes offering high end services and products in low prices than the competition to be able to increase market share. The skimming strategy is to position Hilton among the most prestigious of hotels. Skimming, as a pricing strategy is contrary to penetration in a way that products and services are presented for a better price tiers than the competition. The principle intent for the selection of skimming pricing approach may also include the preference to companion services or products with exclusiveness and excessive best. It would be used for a well-established hotel dropping prices at the last minute to increase occupancy rate. These rate would be found on booking website such as booking.com and hotels combined.  Furthermore, premium pricing approach includes charging excessive for products and services which are gave the impression to have superb satisfactory and further traits and capabilities. Majority rooms of Hilton belong to upper upscale and upscale pricing classes. Consequently, on the premise of category above the type of pricing strategy followed by way of Hilton inns & lodges can be targeted as premium. It also ‘sells’ a hard and fast of intangible advantages which includes sense of fulfilment, high popularity and comfort.

Place/ Distribution

Place or distribution refers to the accessibility of the goods to customers. Whilst comparing to different merchandise generally resorts products would not travel to clients but the customers come to the product. Hilton makes use of both direct or indirect distribution techniques to attain out its potential clients, beneath are few techniques or channels used by resorts. Hilton international serves visitors operating greater than 745,000 rooms in greater than one hundred international locations and territories. Hilton resorts & inns brand particularly operates 206,635 rooms in eighty five nations and territories. Hilton’s distribution approach heavily is based on facts technology and internet in numerous formats (Su, Mariadoss and Reynolds 2015). The official Hilton worldwide website of the employer serves as an effective platform for provider distribution as it is supplied with a wide variety of features and skills imparting sensible assistance to customers together with booking a room, planning occasions etc. and reserving airport pick out-ups. It is also to note that the distribution of Hilton services and products is also facilitated through mobile apps made available for iPhone and Android systems. Social media is also customized and wholesalers would also be used to sell services. The principle reason behind the choice of net platform because the base of Hilton’s distribution method relates to an extensive range of conveniences related to website. In particular, the net affords Hilton’s customers with the opportunities of buying services and products in advance in a short period of time. Hilton would also use wholesalers to sell rooms as it would put holiday packages together whom then would on sell these packages to travel agents.

Promotion

The Hilton group is the well-known brand in the hospitality industry for a long time. The group have collaborated with many business firms, multi-national companies, institutes and various groups of their booking on priority (Zheng 2018). Also, The Hilton group has collaborated with Payment Banks and many different restaurants. Other marketing is done with the content of premium magazines as well. Typical promotional strategy adopted by Hilton is incentive trips, which is aimed at potential customers offering premium packages. It will also conduct discount program assigning certain times where they will offer 50% discount. With the same, it also has a loyalty program legal responsibility of $1,461 million of December 31, 2017, along with $622 million reflected as a contemporary legal responsibility in money owed payable, amassed expenses and other. Adjustments inside the estimates used in developing our breakage fee or other anticipated destiny application operations 

Conclusion:

Hence, from the above discussion it is to state that Hilton hotels own a very solid incorporation features starting from owning the companies that manufacture its fittings to being an investor in the online booking travel enterprises. It has endeavoured to a mixtures of business and gaming. The enterprise does this for raising more profit. However, it is to state that it is working continuously on improving its business and customer satisfaction. It is also improving the guest services in international boundaries along with the iPad technology. In order to maintain this position of it, it needs to be consistent in its business operation and work more on enhancing and improving its business strategy with the ever changing trends.

References:

Hotel, Hilton Deansgate, M. M. R. Perkin, K. Logan, T. Marrs, J. Craven, D. T. Greenblatt, and D. Strachan. "British Society for Investigative Dermatology Annual Meeting 2017, Hilton Deansgate Hotel, Manchester, 3-5 April 2017." (2017).

Su, Na, Babu John Mariadoss, and Dennis Reynolds. "Friendship on social networking sites: Improving relationships between hotel brands and consumers." International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015): 76-86.

Zheng, Xin. "The Influence of the Difference between Chinese and Western Culture on Advertising Translation and Strategy." Theory and Practice in Language Studies 8, no. 3 (2018): 331-339.