Consumer Behavior in Hotel Industry: Hilton Hotels Case Study

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consumer behavior
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1CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Brand overview............................................................................................................................2
Identification and major impacts of relevant theories.....................................................................4
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.......................................................................................................4
Consumer decision making process.............................................................................................5
Determination of the future trends...................................................................................................6
Identification of the issues...............................................................................................................8
Recommended steps........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

2CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Introduction
Determination of the needs and preferences of the target customers is important in the
current time due to the reason that designing of the value propositions according to the customer
needs can help in gaining competitive advantages. In addition, the rapid change in the consumer
behavior trends is also creating challenges for the business entities in managing their value
propositions. Thus, it is important for the contemporary entities to have the effective mechanism
of determination of the consumer behavior in order to gain the competitive advantages
(Cantallops and Salvi 2014). However, in this case, it should also be noted that different
industrial sectors are facing different trends of consumer behavior trends and thus they are not
having the similar sets of mechanisms in managing the consumer behavior. There are number of
the consumer behavior concepts that are being followed by the marketers in aligning the
consumer trends with their value proposition and positioning. In the current business scenario,
these framework are gaining more importance due to the reason that emergence of newer trends
in terms of the consumer behaviors should be well managed (Zhang 2015).
This report will discuss about the consumer behavior trends relevant in the hotel industry
and on the basis of the marketing strategy of Hilton hotels. They are one of leading hotel chains
in the world as well as in the Australian region. This report will include different consumer
behavior theories in critiquing the marketing process of Hilton Hotels along with identifying the
major gap areas. In addition, the major future trends will also be discussed in this report, which
will have long term impact on the consumer behavior trends in the hotel industry. Based on the
identified gap areas, a few recommended steps will be discussed.
Brand overview

3CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Hilton Hotels are the leading revenue units for the Hilton group and they are having more
than 570 hotels across the world. They are present in more than 85 countries and this denotes
their worldwide extensive presence. They are major offering premium accommodation and
hospitality services and accordingly their brand is being positioned in the market. However, even
though Hilton is having extensive presence across the world but the intensity of the competition
is high due to the presence if number of others premium hotel brands such as Marriott and Hyatt.
Thus, competitive forces are having higher influences on the business activities of Hilton Hotel
(Fregonese and Ramadan 2015). It is identified one of the major influencing competitive factors
of consumer behavior in the hotel industry are the availability of the alternatives in the market.
This is due to the reason that if the customers are having more and diverse options, then they are
more likely to be stringent in terms of selecting the hotel brands. In this case, customers are
having more criterions for selection. On the other hand, if the presence of alternatives is low for
the customers, then the selection criteria will also be lower for them (Krawczyk and Xiang
2016).
In terms of the environmental factors, social preferences also influence the consumer
behavior in the hotel industry due to the reason that preferences towards the premium
experiences will determine the extent to which the brands such as Hilton and Marriott will be
able to attract the potential customers. The locality and region where Hilton is currently
operating should have the positive social preferences towards the premium services. Economical
factors are also having influences on the consumer behavior for the hotel industry due to the
reason that economical conditions of the target market will determine the need recognition of the
customers (Jones, Hillier and Comfort 2014). Positive economical factors will ensure that
internal push for factors for need recognition are more as the customers will have the financial