Assignment on Digital Marketing | 1

Running Head: DIGITAL MARKETING
Digital Marketing
Student’s Name
University Name
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Organisational background..............................................................................................................3
The digital web business solution....................................................................................................3
Target market of digital business.....................................................................................................3
Importance of digital site marketing................................................................................................5
Business goals and internet marketing............................................................................................5
Competitive analysis........................................................................................................................6
Specific factors of communication mix...........................................................................................7
Influence of digital strategies on 4 P's of marketing........................................................................7
Reference List and Bibliography.....................................................................................................9

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Organisational background
Marriott group is hospitality organisation that manages a diversify business with a directly
owned as well as franchised portfolio of hotels as well as lodging facilities. The Organisation
was established by Williard Marriott. This group of hotels is proclaimed as the third largest Hotel
chain in the whole world. They have over 30 brands operating with more than 7000 properties in
above 100 countries in the world. Moreover they have ranked as the 33rdon the list of Fortune's
100 best organisations to work for.
The digital web business solution
Marriott Group of hotels has their digital business profile based on the the b2c model of of e-
commerce. The b2c market is biggest in the hospitality industry and all all biggest brands of
hospitality have their online business comma since the direct sales of the hospitality sectors
mostly ocas online. However, there are specific innovative digital marketing strategies based on
on the online channels like website and social media that are used by Marriott Group of hotels to
ensure maximum occupancy of the target market (Abdullah, Jayaraman & Kamal, 2016). Since
2010, married group started to attract large traffic over there social media channels and they were
among the initial Hospital the groups who started Facebook marketing. Currently, maximum
focus of the organisation has shifted to their digital sales profiles, compared to the physical
outlets run by them. This promulgates that more than 90% of their guests book rooms of Marriott
hotels over the online sources rather than visiting the the facilities to book rooms directly. Some
of the hotels of Marriott group have a single channel of booking that is online.
Target market of digital business

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There are three basic target market segmentation, namely Geographic segmentation,
demographic segmentation as well as capitalistic segmentation, based on which the target
markets are occupied by the Marriott Group of hotels. In the first place, talking of Geographic
segmentation, maximum of their customers of the customers pertain to the domestic business.
This implies, that Marriott Group of hotels attract maximum American customers. However,
Marriott group has there hotels in all popular travel locations in the world (Binninger,
Ourahmoune & Robert, 2015). However, they have positioned the costliest of their facilities in
specific areas of USA, almost all popular tourist spots of UK and majorly in the Middle East in
Asia. However, in recent times, Marriott Group of hotels is trying to diversified their business by
appealing to the middle class customers also.
Again, they are trying to achieve this by means of highly strategic social media marketing policy.
They are targeting new customers, pertaining to the salaried or entrepreneurial section. Based on
the database of the recent transactions over there social media portal or over their Instagram
profile as well as their website, they have discovered that people with comparatively low income
ranges, also want to avail premium Hospitality Services. Targeting such customers, they have
come up with new hotel facilities, that charge comparatively lower prices and provides almost
the same amount of facilities and services that are available in the costliest Hospitality facilities
of Marriott around the world. Again, considering the demographic segmentation, it can be
highlighted that the primary customer base that their targeting are are aged between 25 and 50
years (Chen, Wu & Yuan, 2016). They are mostly interested in targeting the earning community.
The middle aged customers are most loyal towards organisation, and this brand loyalty has been
insured by means of their digital marketing strategies. Digital marketing platforms mostly appeal
to the middle aged and young aged customer base who prefer to select hotels on the basis of the

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suggestive outcomes from various websites as well as online applications of social media
channels.
Importance of digital site marketing
One of the most preferred business strategies of Marriott group is to provide customers, both new
and listed, with amazing statistics and facts about their hotels around the world. In order to do so,
the organisation follows a strategy of email marketing, where bye specific travel information of
the places where the hotels are situated are also provided so that the customers are attracted to
visit the places. They also offer tour packages to customers against the condition of staying at
Marriott Hotel facilities.
These emails have links provided with them which redirect the customers directly to the website
of of Marriott hotels, where they can get elaborate information regarding the hotel facilities,
current discount offers and other important facts. Search suggestions are are sent to customers in
a customised way through the personalized social media channels like WhatsApp, Instagram,
Snapchat, Facebook and so on also (Jih & Lee, 2017).
In the recent times, the organization has come up with an innovative strategy of attracting
customers. In the first place, they attract customersby providing giveaways. The first hundred
people to react against their Facebook or any other social media post comma either by liking are
commenting for sharing in it, gets an opportunity of staying at the Marriott hotels at exquisite
locations around the world. Such contests, gains high popularity by means of sharing among the
various social media profiles. Often, there are giveaways for new followers over a specific time
period also. Such contests mainly occur over Facebook or Instagram only.
Business goals and internet marketing

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Marriott hotels mainly use the strategy of raising brand awareness using the internet marketing
techniques. One primary vehicle of enhancing brand awareness is to link their social media post
and videos or pictures with maximum possible people, irrespective of their targeted
demographics.
The brand awareness of the organisation is also developed by means of customer
communication. The content development and customer representative team of the organisation
works over big data of customer profiles, where buy they have specific knowledge about the
likes and dislikes of selective customer segments. This helps them in developing appropriate
content that attracts customers or gives Swift and relevant replies to customers reactions and
comments against their social media posts (Kirk, Ractham & Abrahams, 2016).
Competitive analysis
The premium brands of hospitality like the Marriott group have less competitors comma
however the competition among the feworganisations are fierce. In the first place, this happens
because they seem to be sharing the same demographics, same price range as well as the same
locations for their business. That is why, an Occupancy of a higher target market is based upon
the innovativeness of the marketing strategies employed by the organizations. In this context,
diversification of customer base is one of the unique business strategies adopted by Marriott
hotels. However, it has been observed by researchers like Kouser, Niazi & Bakari (2018), that
social media channels and social media advertising is becoming gradually popular among a more
diversify the age group which spans from 25 to 65 years. As an outcome, Marriott group, which
is already targeting and diversify audience, should also include people of higher age groups.
Other popular hospitality groups, belonging to the same business range like Hyatt or Mandarin
and few others are also dealing with customer groups who are aged from 20 to 50 on an average.

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Specific factors of communication mix
The first factor of the seven C's of communication for Marriott hotels, that should you specified
here is advertising. The investment it and budgeting for development of social media ads are
always three times that of traditional advertisements. Almost no where outside their home
country, USA, they develop any advertisement for traditional marketing channels like television,
radio and so on. Over 80% of their foreign customers are interested in their Facebook or
Instagram or YouTube advertisement videos and promotional links. Another interesting
campaign that is conducted by the organisation is to post Instagram videos of the popular events
that are organised at Marriott hotels, setting a token of reminding people of the events to be taken
place in future also. This attracts a large number of people to you stay at Marriott hotels, from
various sections of the world.
Majority of the marketing goals of the organisation is fulfilled by this digital strategy. Most of
the customers interact which the customer representatives of marriage over the social media
posts, either by committee or by using the hashtags of the events and sending direct messages on
the website of the organisation to enquire (Lal, 2017). The major queries include date and price
of events, prices of hotels, room stay and various other facilities of Marriott hotels as well as
location of Marriott hotels at various unique as well as offbeat locations. This is why, it can be
easily commented that the business goal of of high brand awareness and customer satisfaction is
easily satisfied by their digital marketing strategies.
Influence of digital strategies on 4 P's of marketing
The product, among the four categories of 4 P's of marketing is mostly highlighted by the digital
marketing strategies of Marriott group. In this context it should be conveyed that for premium

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priced products as well as services, promotion of the product is most essential, since the
customers are willing to pay the prices if the product is worthy. That is why, digital marketing
media is mostly used to make the customers aware of the services, facilities as well as other
amenities that they can enjoy at Marriott Hotel, which are absolutely abstract and different from
other brands. The organization's promotional strategies are also full filled over social media and
internet marketing (Mazzarol, 2015). This is proved by the fact that more than 90% of the hotel
bookings take place online and among that over 40% take place over their website directly.

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Reference List and Bibliography
Abdullah, D., Jayaraman, K., & Kamal, S. B. M. (2016). A conceptual model of interactive hotel
website: The role of perceived website interactivity and customer perceived value toward
website revisit intention. Procedia Economics and Finance, 37, 170-175.
Binninger, A. S., Ourahmoune, N., & Robert, I. (2015). Collaborative Consumption And
Sustainability: A Discursive Analysis Of Consumer Representations And Collaborative
Website Narratives. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 31(3), 969-986.
Chen, H. M., Wu, C. H., & Yuan, Y. H. (2016, November). Exploring the Service Quality
Assessment and Competition Strategy of Online Shopping Website. In First International
Conference Economic and Business Management 2016. Atlantis Press.
Jih, W. J. K., & Lee, S. F. (2017). Effects of Social Presence and Social Capital on User Loyalty
to the Social Networking Website: The Case of Facebook Usage in Taiwan. International
Journal of E-Business Research (IJEBR), 13(3), 18-32.
Kirk, K., Ractham, P., & Abrahams, A. (2016). Website development by nonprofit organizations
in an emerging market: a case study of Thai websites. International Journal of Nonprofit
and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 21(3), 195-211.
Kouser, R., Niazi, G. S. K., & Bakari, H. (2018). How does website quality and trust towards
website influence online purchase intention?. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social
Sciences (PJCSS), 12(3), 909-934.
Lal, P. (2017). Analyzing determinants influencing an individual׳ s intention to use social
commerce website. Future Business Journal, 3(1), 70-85.

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Mazzarol, T. (2015). SMEs engagement with e-commerce, e-business and e-marketing. Small
enterprise research, 22(1), 79-90.
Musa, H., Mohamad, N., Rajiani, I., Hasman, N. S. B., & Azmi, F. R. (2015). The website usage
among private sector: A case of Malaysian business organization. European Journal of
Business and Management, 7(6), 121-125.
Nilashi, M., Jannach, D., bin Ibrahim, O., Esfahani, M. D., & Ahmadi, H. (2016).
Recommendation quality, transparency, and website quality for trust-building in
recommendation agents. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 19, 70-84.