Hospitality Marketing Essentials in Hilton Hotel

HOSPITALITY
MARKETING
ESSENTIALS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
LO 1: .........................................................................................................................................4
Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units in the
Hilton Hotel on Park Lane.....................................................................................................4
LO2: ........................................................................................................................................14
Comparison of ways in which hospitality organizations use the elements of marketing mix
(7Ps) to achievement of its objectives.................................................................................14
LO3: ........................................................................................................................................20
Developing a basic marketing plan to meet the marketing objectives for a hospitality
organisation ........................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................25
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................26
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INTRODUCTION
Hospitality marketing is different from the marketing of any other product as it has to
promote mainly intangible goods and the experiences they offer. Promoting intangible goods
is much more difficult than promoting tangible goods. In this study, Hilton Hotels and
Resorts based on Park Lane London, will be analysed to evaluate the marketing methods used
by the company to attract customers and gain a competitive edge in the market.
This study aims to look at the various different roles of marketing in the hospitality industry.
It first and primarily defines what the hospitality industry is and explains the role of
marketing with regard to the Hilton Hotel. It also helps in analysing the various roles and
responsibilities of marketing in the context of an organisation. It further looks into the
different ways in which the Hilton Hotel use the different elements of marketing in order to
sustain itself and perform its functions. It looks into the development of a marketing plan and
its objectives.
The London Hilton on Park Lane is one of over 570 Hilton Hotels and Resort chain
around 85 countries, owned by a private company London & Regional. An icon of British
hospitality, London Hilton on Park Lane is the first Hilton Hotel open in 1963 in UK, in the
exclusive Mayfair district of London, overlooking Hyde Park and is located on the former
site of the historic Londonderry house. Also, the Hilton hotel is close to West End theate,
famous shopping districts, Piccadilly a minute away and easy access to Buckingham Palace
and Hyde park Corner underground station. The Hilton Hotel is 101 meters tall, has 453
rooms including 56 suites, 28 stores and on the top floor a Michelin starred restaurant Galvin
at Windows.
The Hilton Hotel is one of the known brand in the world, a 5 star hotel based on the
quality and amenities to provide customer satisfaction. In Hilton hotel the organizational
department is very well-structured and the order of hierarchy is: General Manager, Assistant
General Manager, Front Office manager, Housekeeping Manager, Maintenance Manager,
Food & Beverage Manager, Financial Manager, and HR Manager. Hilton Hotel has 538
employees in both full and part-time position, that means full time equivalent of 450 jobs.
The room occupancy rate in Hilton Hotel was 82% in 2018, and for 2019 was predicted to be
87%. All our departments collaborate to increase work productivity and efficiency. The
elegant rooms inside have original 1960s hard-wood furnishings, but smart and up to date
bathrooms and a magnificent view. In Hilton Park Lane hotel, the price for a guest
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room/night start up from £271 to £629, a suite with lounge access from £543 to £1,764, and a
Presidential Suite can be booked from £3,480/night. A similar hotel nearby is the 5 stars
Metropolitan Hotel, where rates start from£309/night. Each guest room at London Hilton on
Park Lane features: air conditioning, elegant bathrooms with exclusive organic bath products,
mini bar, telephone with voicemail, TV, tea and coffee making facilities, trousers press, well-
lit work desk. For an unforgettable experience, our clients can select a spacious suite which
offer separate living rooms, dining- areas, window- seats and walk-in-wardrobes. Each Suite
features: elegant bathrooms with bathrobes and slippers, butler service, standard Wi Fi, safe,
hairdryer, mini bar, etc. The Hilton hotel offer family options like free buffet breakfast for
children under 18, Children’s menu 5 under in Podium Restaurant, complementary Wi Fi for
family and children TV channels available in rooms. For business convenience, the Hilton
hotel has 11 flexible function rooms for up to 1,250 guests, with Audio/Visual Equipment
Rental, Business Center, Meeting Rooms, Video Conferencing available. Also, Podium
Restaurant and Bar offers all-dining in a relaxing and stylish atmosphere, a perfect location
for business lunch and dinner. The Hilton Park Lane offer many others services to ensure
maximum comfort: concierge shop, barber shop, SPA, fitness room, sauna, designer flowers,
laundry service, room service, foreign currency, exchange, lounge, safety deposit, parking
facility and wheelchair ramp for reception access. The Hilton Park Lane has seasonal rates to
maintain occupancy at higher levels, being both a luxury leisure and business hotel, leisure
demand compensates for periods when business is quiet and vice versa.
`Hilton Hotel on Park Lane is a perfect location whether conducting business,
spending quality time with family and to make unforgettable experiences for customers by
offering the services they need, the amenities they expect and the extra they deserve.
LO 1:
Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units in the Hilton
Hotel on Park Lane
According to Kotler (1994), marketing is a social and managerial process by which
individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and
exchanging products of value with others. In Hilton Hotel, marketing has the first place in the
sequence of management functions and is concerned with identifying a need the organisation
can exploit with a right product or service, with the right price, in the right place, to the right
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customer. Marketing functions can be defined as roles of business organisation to identify a
new successful product, to promote and sell the product. The marketing functions involve
marketing research, product plan, development process, finance, promotion, sales and
customer service. In Hilton Hotel we use the marketing functions for strategy management,
marketing research, product development, sales, finance, HR and all these functions have
roles and responsibilities to growth business.
Proper marketing and use of marketing tools such as digital marketing, direct marketing and
other resources of the appropriate marketing plans and strategies are obtained in order to
provide ample exposure for the services that are offered by the marketing industry (Bowie et
al. 2016). Hilton Hotel’s Marketing department develops a basic plan for 12 months, to
increase the room occupancy and to achieve a new market segmentation. In Hilton Hotel,
every marketing function is separate entity, but they are link together for increasing the
profitability of the hotel. The role of Finance department is to provide the budget to the
marketing department for the planning and implementation of this basic marketing plan. The
role of Production department is to communicate the supply and demand of rooms and
services for the right quality and the right quantity. HR department has the role to provide a
high-level infrastructure for managing people by training and development of staff, and has
the legal responsibilities as well. An important role plays Sales department which is
responsible for identifying new business opportunities, build and keep a good relationship
with existing and new customers to enable future booking, to promote and manage the brand,
By promoting Hilton Hotel, we will make a loyalty program, will provide a virtual tour on
Hilton Hotel website, will make easier to book a room on Hilton Hotel, will create a special
packages for groups events (business class meetings, family and friends reunion), will
encourage the current and past customers to share their experience at Hilton Hotel. Also, we
will use The newspapers and travel magazines.
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Marketing Functions
Figure 1: Marketing Functions (Source: Created by Author)
The wide range of activities undertaken by an organisation to promote a product or service
with the view to earning maximum profits as well as customer satisfaction is known as
marketing. Marketing is done by involving various marketing functions like Market
Research, Planning, Marketing strategies, Advertising and Distribution. As opposed to the
traditional meaning of marketing, that simply meant to focus on selling a product to earn
maximum profits, the modern concept of marketing is to focus on the needs of the customer
and giving them what they want to maximise customer satisfaction (Minazzi, 2015). The key
roles and responsibilities of marketing functions are market research, financing, product
development, product distribution, planning, promotion and selling. According to Huang and
Cai (2015), this popularity can be attributed to the long history of excellent service provided
by the multiple hotels situated all over the world. However, successful implementation of
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marketing strategies, functions and plans are of extreme importance, since failure in
implementation of appropriate marketing strategies can cause immense losses to the
organisation.
Marketing Concepts
Marketing concepts refer to the marketing strategies that companies implement in
their marketing structure in order to gain popularity among customers and gain a competitive
edge in the market (Abratt and Bendixen, 2018). The five major marketing concepts are
production concept, product concept, selling concept, marketing concept and societal
marketing concept.
Figure 2: Marketing Concepts
(Source: Influenced from Abratt and Bendixen, 2018)
Production Concept
Production concept refers to the production aspect of the product or service. This
concept determines that The Hilton Hotel’s customer will only choose the product or service
that is available at an affordable cost.. The Hilton Hotel concentrate its attention on
production efficiency, distribution and cost in order to attract customers to its product.
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Product Concept
Product concept is the aspect that caters to the services provided in a product.
According to Marasco et al. (2018), this concept is based on the idea that the customer will
only choose the product that provides the most services and is the best in terms of quality,
performance and the availability of unique features while catering to the current market
trends and customer needs. This concept determines that products and services that are not in
alignment with the current trends and needs are useless regardless of their high quality. The
Hilton hotel manager makes sure the product is the right quality, the right standard, goes to
the luxury level, in a limited market.
Selling Concept
Figure 3: Selling Concept
(Source: Iedunote.com, 2019)
The selling concept is concerned with the marketing strategies used by the
organisation to promote and sell products and services. As opined by Noo-urai and
Jaroenwisam (2016), the basic idea behind the concept is that customers will only choose to
buy a certain product or service only if the organisation chooses to invest a monumental
amount of funds and time on marketing and promotion.
Marketing Concept
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Figure 4: Marketing Concept
(Source: Iedunote.com, 2019)
The marketing concept determines that The Hilton Hotel need to have a thorough
understanding of the needs of customers in order to deliver them and provide better
satisfaction than competitors to the customers (Soelberg et al. 2018).
Societal Marketing Concept
Figure 5: Societal Marketing Concept
(Source: Iedunote.com, 2019)
This concept of marketing questions the idea that the marketing concept may overlook
a potential conflict between the short-term and long-term wants of the consumer. In this
concept, the organizations work with the goal to provide value to the well-being of both the
customer and the society (Kim et al. 2016). The Hilton Hotel make marketing decision not
only by considering consumer’s wants and the company’ requirements, but also society long-
terms interests.
Role of Marketing and other functional units
Other tools of marketing also help in the development of this sector in order to help
the hospitality industry companies such as Hilton Hotel to gain a competitive advantage. The
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marketing tools of finance and competitive financing can be effectively used in order to
create a competitive advantage over the competitors in the industry.
Marketing as a business function can help Hilton Hotel to integrate active marketing
into its operations and its organizational structure in order to improve the efficiency and the
exposure of the services that are offered by the company. It also helps the company in
effectively competing with its competitors in the market such as Marriott and Hyatt in order
to gain market shares. The presence of innovative marketing further helps it in increasing its
chances of capturing larger market shares as per the saturation of the industry.
Roles and responsibilities of marketing in the wider organizational context
The responsibility of marketing in Hilton Hotel is to inform about product, to satisfy
the customer and achieves the profit, and the marketing role is to find the right way to
achieve these. Marketing functions play a very important role in Hilton Hotel, as other
organizational functions are very closely linked with marketing functions. Only if all the
departments of an organization work together can the marketing strategy be successful
implementation of a marketing plan needs cooperation from all departments of an
organization, like Finance, Sales and HR. The HR function in Hilton Hotel provides a high-
level infrastructure for managing people and monitor, key indices such as absences, turnover,
wage costs. Finance function play the lead role in Hilton hotel, in collecting key financial
information and preparing reports for management. The Sales function sets the strategies and
decides what marketing communications it needs to support its efforts, guides the
development of product, promote the product. As stated by (Alegre and Sard, 2017), the
organizations compete in becoming the top priority of their consumers and protecting their
market share. Marketing focuses on creating consumer retention and gaining their trust. So,
we carry out our promotions and campaigns from time to time which have been proven as a
successful initiative for attracting more customers. Marketing is also essentially responsible
for carrying out the functions and integrating the processes of the organizations into
achieving the goals that have been set. Marketing is responsible for understanding and
tracking the various changes and shifts in the customer demands of the market and effectively
maintaining a proper communication process in the industry between the company and the
customers of the company (Kandampully et al.2015). Therefore, The Hilton hotel develop a
basic plan for next 12 month, and the main goal is to increase the hotel occupancy. Also,
other objectives are to be the most known brand in each customer segment and to increase a
high level of customer satisfaction. Marketing environment plays an important role in
planning process and consist in research of internal environment factors such as customers,
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staff management, culture structure, resources, budget (using SWOT analysis), and external
environment factors like suppliers, local authorities, competitors, (using PEST analysis). So,
after the marketing department set the goals, make the research, the SWOT and Pest analysis.
Micro environment
Internal environment exists inside the organization. There are various factors of
internal environment such as existing workers, organizational culture, Technological
capabilities, behaviour of employees, management etc. All these factors directly impact the
performance of the company. Hilton Hotel should use different tools and techniques to
understand the impact of internal factors on the operations of the Hotel.
Company can use framework such as SWOT analysis to evaluate the changes that are
occurring in internal factors (Raja and et.al., 2019). This will help to identify the strengths
and weaknesses of the Hotel. Through which firm will make efforts to use its strengths for
grabbing the opportunities that are existing in the environment outside the Hilton Hotel.
Internal environment analysis will also help to control the impact of these factors.
Macro Environment
External environment analysis refers to analysing the factors of macro environment
that can impact the business of company indirectly. These factors exist in the environment
outside the firm. Hilton Hotel should use PEST analysis framework to determine the changes
that are happening in macro environment that can indirectly affect the operations of the Hotel
(Akkanen, 2017). External environment includes factors such as Social, Technological,
Political, economical etc. Analysis of external environment helps to identify the opportunities
that are existing in the environment. It will help Hilton Hotel to use its strengths for grabbing
the opportunities that are existing in the market. For example- Hotel can use advance
technology for offering services to the guests. This will help the company to gain competitive
advantage over other Hotels.
How Internal macro environment affect marketing function
Internal and external business environment is very much effective to the business
function that force outside marketing that influence marketing management ability to develop
and maintain a successful relationship with its targets. Such changes and market research
affect the marketing functions in different context. Such as internal environment such as
employees, customers, intermediaries all such factors affect the business the marketing
manager. For example: due to lack of employee skills and knowledge it affects the marketing
functions. On the other side, external environment factors affect the marketing activities like
political, legal, environmental (Wang and et.al., 2016). Such as demographic factors include
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human populations in terms of size, destiny, age, location, race and occupation all such
factors affect the business organization and its goals and objectives. Economic environmental
affect directly business power and spending patterns and income, policies, trade cycles,
distribution of income and wealth.
Technological factors and economic factors are affect the business in different
manner. Marketing is the only sector that influenced by the external environmental factors an
affect the business opportunity gains. Marketing function factor affecting business in direct or
indirect manner. Such as suppliers, market intermediaries, competitors, customers. Macro
environment of the marketing is that most influencing different task manner (Ansah and
Sorooshian, 2017)
PEST analysis
The business environment of Hilton Hotel can be divided into internal business
environment and external business environment. Internal business environment includes
mission and vision of company, organisational structure, quality of HRM, labour unions,
physical resources and technological capability. The external environment of business can be
divided into two parts that is micro external environment and macro external environment.
The micro external environment includes employees, management, suppliers, resellers,
customers, competitors and the general public. The macro external environmental factors
include demographic forces, economic factors, technological elements, social and cultural
forces. PEST is a concept of marketing principle which is used by companies for analysing
the external environmental factor which are affect to business and its operations. This
framework is includes such as political, economic, social and technological factors. This help
to identify a change in macro business environment. With the help of this model, manager of
Hilton hotel successfully monitor and respond towards the changes at macro environment
able to differentiate by competitors. This provides best details of operating challenges. To
analysis the changes in macro environment which are affect to Hilton hotel are as follows:
Political factor:
The marketing functions of the company includes performing the market research,
producing the marketing plan and development of product. The marketing function gets
affected due to the political factors because it intervenes in the economy and even the
particular industry. The tax policies, trade regulations, trade restrictions and employment
laws leads to bring influences on the how business operates and thus on the marketing
function as well. Political factor plays significant role for analysing those factor that may
impact Hilton hotel in political manner. Political factor includes tax policies, labour law,
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fiscal policy, environmental law, trade factor etc. For example: government introduce new
regulations in relation to the marketing, then the marketing practices and operations of Hilton
Hotel will lead to get impacted and affected. Political factor can influence number visitors
such as business travelers and tourist either directly or indirectly (Yi, Liand Jai, 2018).
The political factors lead to bring influences on the marketing functions of Hilton
hotel. Lack of political stability in a country will lead to impact the business and marketing
operations and its practices as well. For example: an aggressive takeover can bring disorder
in the environment. This will also disturb the marketing functions such as promotion of goods
and services at marketplace, development process, customers services. Other hand, economic
policy can impact to Hilton hotel marketing functions. For example, government increases
the tax rate on the advertising sector. In this manner, Hilton Hotel has to pay extra tax rate
and amount for promoting the products and services at market place. Thus, the increase in tax
rates brings great affects on the marketing functions and operations of Hilton Hotel.
Economic factor:
macro and micro economical factors leads to bring influences on how business
operates and even on the functions and practices of business. The marketing function of the
Hilton Hotel may get affected due toe economical factors including interest rates, economic
situation of country, inflation, disposable income of customers and excahnge rates. National
and international economic condition impact to Hilton hotel and its operations. For example:
at the time of Olympic in the country, hotels are highly occupied and booked for full time.
This may lead to bring impact on business of Hilton hotel as well. The marketing function
will get affected as it have to highly promote and advertise about the services of Hilton Hotel
so that it can achieve great number of customers in the peak seasons or at Olympic or any
other big events happening in the country. In such situations, manager of Hilton hotel also
needs to provide proper training and hire more employees for managing the work load and
extra customers.
The other economic factors such as exchange rates and stability of the host nation's
currency leads to bring influences on how company operates its business and various
functions. For example, the new regulations and taxes on the restaurants and food business
affects the eating habits of customers. Thus, the marketing efforts by the Hilton Hotel needs
to increased for attarcting an dpersuading customers.
Social factor:
This includes various factors such as beliefs, attitudes, trends & lifestyle,
demographics, population analytics and so on. Like buying demand is high during the holiday
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season. For example: lifestyle choices and attitudes are highly impacted to the marketing
functions product design and development process (Della Corte, 2016). The socio-cultural
factors brings great influences on the marketing function as it has to focus on development
and implementation of successful and effective marketing strategy. For example, now-a-day,
women has the decision-making role for shopping and other parts of marketing campaigns.
Thus, marketing manager of Hilton Hotel needs to focus on developing successful marketing
campaign by adopting effective advertising strategy that is focused on targeting women.
Hilton hotel’s marketing manager designs the services with accordance to current trends, but
when new trend comes up with more innovation and uniqueness it results in loss and manager
again has to develop their services as per new market requirements. By these social factors
such as lifestyle marketing function of product design and development is highly impacted. In
this, manager have to understand needs and wants of customers at current market situation.
Technological factor:
Technology is the best ways of product development in effective ways. This includes
new and advanced technology is good in case of hotel industry. Hilton hotel is highly affected
by the technological factor. Hilton Hotel needs to consider various changes in the
technological factors and accordingly adopt the changes for providing better value to the
customers. The marketing efforts and functions will also get influenced due to the changes in
technological factors. Promotion and market information both are main marketing functions
which are highly impacted by the technology. Now day's technology is more advanced at
marketplace, this reduces changes in old technologies. For example: for promoting the
product and services of company, manager makes use of various technologies. In that, social
media and promotion of product and services are stop, by this technological factor is highly
influence to marketing function of Hilton hotel.
LO2:
Comparison of ways in which hospitality organizations use the elements of marketing mix
(7Ps) to achievement of its objectives
The 7Ps of marketing mix in tourism includes People, Price, and Place, physical
evidence, Process, Promotion and products. There are different ways in which it is adopted
by organization to achieve their business objectives. As commented by Ryan (2015), in
hospitality marketing it plays a crucial role. An organization can opt for promotional
strategies to make its services widely recognizable. Hilton Hotel opts for effective
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promotional strategies that make it one of the leading companies in tourism and hospitality
industry. On the other hand, if an organization wants to impose a competitive price, pricing
strategies can be implemented. It helps it to foster effective marketing. Hilton Hotel had an
income of 19 million pounds because it opted for mid premium pricing strategy. Physical
evidence can be in form of hoardings to advertise hospitality services. Companies may or
may not opt for physical evidences depending upon its scale of operations. Social media is
the biggest platform used by Hilton Hotels to advertise. Hilton Hotels has five distinct
divisions to carry out its operations. Place of operations differ from one organization to
another as their financial resources are variable. Products are different on various
organizations as it depends upon their type of consumers.
Marketing Mix 4Ps
The 4Ps of the marketing mix include product, place, promotion and price.
Figure 6: 4Ps of Marketing Mix
(Source: Influenced by Cifci et al. 2018)
Product
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This aspect of the marketing mix caters to the actual product or service that needs to
be marketed. In this aspect, the marketers need to be well aware regarding the production
process of the product and plan for the various stages of marketing. Hilton hotel is 5 stars
hotel, a well-known brand and luxury rooms and suites to sell.
Price
Price refers to determining the pricing of the product or service with careful
consideration regarding the production process and the target market of the product or
service. The price per room, in Hilton hotel, start from £271, comparing to a similar hotel
nearby (Metropolitan Hotel), where rates start from£309.
Promotion
Promotion refers to the methods of promotion and marketing that will help to create
an awareness and interest among the customers. The Hilton hotel use many methods for
promotion like social media, online booking and good online presence, company website,
newspapers, etc.
Place
Place refers to the location and the channels that the product will be sold through. The
marketing strategy needs to be carefully calculated and assessed to figure out the best
possible.
Evaluation of different tactics that are applied by hospitality organizations to
demonstrate the achievement of business objectives
Hilton hotel has different tactics of achieve their individual business objectives. As
per the view of Manoharan and Singal (2017), hospitality sector contributed 4.7% to its total
GDP. It includes following tactics:
Clear vision
Organizations in hospitality sector have a clear vision of what they want to achieve in
future. When goals are concise and specific, it becomes easy to achieve them. At the same
time, people feel motivated to work towards their goals and deviations can be judged.
Business objectives of Hilton Hotels could be met because its workforce and managers had a
precise forecast of future scenarios.
Operational efficiency
Methods through which organizations operate help to enhance its profitability. As
commented by Madera et al. (2017), when there is efficiency in operations, consumers are
highly satisfied which makes an organization flourish. Resource allocation is effective which
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enables cost effective production. UK hospitality sector has been able to make its mark
because its organizations are technically updated.
Strategic approach
Strategies are developed in order to quality and reliable service. Hilton Hotel puts
great values to reliable services to achieve its business objectives. They ensure safety of
money for their clients which increase their confidence in the company. As commented by
Gursoy (2018), they monitor customer reviews and work towards the same. Strategies are
developed for future operations so that there is stability in operations and overall performance
of the organization.
Marketing plan that applies the use of 7Ps
Figure 7: 7Ps of marketing
(Source: Influenced by Tresidder, 2015)
People
Hilton Hotel can create better customer relations by satisfying the interests if its target
customers. Similarly, if the employees are trained and skilled, they can render quality
services to their customers. This also enables customer retention through good behaviour
shown by the employees. They can attract new people as well when they have a large and
loyal customer base. Customer interfacing and support personnel within the hotel need to be
knowledgeable to solve the crisis that customers may face while consuming the services.
Price
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Pricing strategies are main driving force of marketing plans. Hilton Hotel can ensure
quality services at affordable prices. Since price war continues to rule the markets, it is
important to develop pricing strategies and apply tactics that are cost effective as well as
profitable. It can provide services that attract more people by rendering them at efficient
rates.
Place
`Although Hilton Hotel has already captured several global countries, it can plan its
expansion by marketing its services to places lack efficiency in hospitality sector. New stores
can be opened and employees can be noted that bring on new ideas and innovative
techniques. This will help the organization to deliver services worldwide. Additionally,
channel management needs to be done to ensure that the latest channels are used to facilitate
reaching a vast number of consumers.
Physical Evidence
Marketing plan needs to be accompanied by physical evidences like hoardings or
pamphlets. This encompasses both tangible and intangible methods of marketing, through
tools to appeal to the customers visually and sensory attraction. This is a method of
Servicescape, which incorporates appealing to customers through such tangible and
intangible tools (Koritos et al. 2018). Hilton Hotel can print pamphlets and distribute them to
attract new customers. This can also help in actual service encounter, where the customer can
feel satisfied after fulfilling of expectations.
Promotion
Hilton Hotel can increase its brand awareness by organizing campaigns and
advertising on social media. Newspapers and travel magazines are also popular means of
promoting services. As commented by Pantelidis (2016), effective marketing plan can be
framed only when there is due consideration for various innovative campaigns. It does not
only facilitate effective marketing, but integrated communication and promotional tools also
ensure effective communication among workforce. The AIDA model is a good method of
promoting products and services due to the detailed explanation of the steps that customers
go through in order to choose a certain product or service. Taking the model into
consideration can help organisations to get a better idea of the aspect that need to be focused
on.
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Figure
8: AIDA Model
(Source: Influenced by Wijaya, 2015)
Products
Products need to be cost effective and of high quality to ensure effective marketing.
When products offered are a good value of money, they find a wider market. Hilton Hotel
can ensure high quality products and service delivery to enhance its profitability. In order to
sell the products created, organisations need to create a good and appealing product image.
Products differ from services in this case in the context that products are tangible, including
complementary goods that come along with the room. However, services refer to good
housekeeping and immediate remedy of grievances and complaints that customers face.
Constant product development needs to be done to ensure that customer needs are constantly
fulfilled on all levels.
Process
Documentations form a back bone for organizations as to removes clashes amid
workforce. After sale services are followed by organizations to ensure high satisfaction of its
clients. As per the view of Papargyropoulou et al. (2016), hospitality sector organizations
ensure that their customers have best experiences by maintaining coordination among its
extended branches.
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Marketing Mix Elements Strategies
People Better customer relations
Price Providing high quality services at lower
prices
Place Effective place for operational activities
Physical Evidence Hoardings and pamphlets to gain wide
recognition
Promotion Advertising through social media or
launching innovative campaigns
Products High quality products at reasonable rates
Process Cost effective production process and
service deliveries
Table 1: Marketing mix elements and strategies
(Source: Created by Author)
LO3:
Developing a basic marketing plan to meet the marketing objectives for a hospitality
organisation
Marketing planning means to give a direction to achieve goals, to set who is going to
do and strategies and implementation and this is an extremely important aspect for Hilton
hotel, where plans are made with accordance to the needs and requirements of reaching the
target market. The first step for Hilton hotel’s planning process is to research internal and
external factors and make a SWOT analyse. Careful planning allows businesses to carefully
plan out all the methods that can have the maximum impact and appeal to as many customers
as possible. Marketing plans, objective and strategies are highly interrelated and highly inter-
dependent.
SWOT Analysis
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It is the most important tool or technique which help to identify all the micro
environment factors which help the business to run in effective and efficient manner. SWOT
analysis include strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. It helps to determine the several
key factors which impact the working of the business. Hotel Hilton is a leading organization
which has numerous strength which not only make the unique position in the market but also
help in piercing new market. It also determines the opportunities which help Hotel Hilton in
expansion and grabbing new customers. It identifies all the weakness and threats in order to
overcome them in any possible manner (Williams, 2018).
Strength
Strength help to make unique position in the market. As Hotel Hilton has various
strengths which help to gain competitive advantage over other companies. The first and
foremost strength is that it focusses or give priority to customer satisfaction as the company
with its dedicated customer relationship management department has able to achieve high
level of customer satisfaction. It helps to gain loyal customers base which will directly
increase the profitability of the company. As a result, it will increase its brand image. It also
provides the best facilities which help to gather large number of customers as it services give
a hundred percentage satisfaction to the customers.
In addition to it, this has string brand portfolio which will extremely useful of
company wants to expand into a new product categorize. Also, it has strong dealer
community which has built a culture among distributor and dealers which helps the
organization in promoting the products and services and also explain the customers about the
maximum benefit which can be got by the services. Hotel Hilton has successful track record
of developing new product as it invests huge amount in research and development in order to
bring innovative product and services. It has high skilled workforce as Hotel Hilton provide
effective training session to its employees and develop and enhance their skills which help
them in future and also motivate them to work in effective manner. Also, good reputation in
the market which helps to increase the profitability of the business. Hotel Hilton has strategic
location which itself make unique position in the market.
All these strengths help Hotel Hilton to grow and expand its position and build
different image in the market (Williams, 2018).
Weakness
It has various weaknesses which are to be improved by the organization in order to
work in the effective and efficient manner. As the first and foremost weakness is that its
financial planning is not properly done in effective manner. The current asset ratio suggest
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that the company can use the cash in more effective way. As innovation and investing in
advance technology is very crucial as it enables the organization to build a unique position.
Hotel Hilton has spent less amount in promotional activity which makes the organization to
lack behind.
. Hotel Hilton has not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture
(Zhang and Hong, 2017).
Opportunity
Hotel Hilton has many opportunities which helps the organization to grow and work
in the effective manner. As one of the opportunity is that its online presence as organization
has invested large amount of money into the online platform. By the help of online services,
it has impact in positive manner as it helps customers to book the room online as it helps to
save the cost and time. And also Hotel Hilton has provided various information to its
customers on its websites which helps the customers in many ways. It will directly impact the
sales of the company. The second opportunity is that stable cash flow provide opportunity to
invest into new market segments. Also, it has the opportunity for Hotel Hilton to invest more
in new technologies. This will also help to open new door for opportunity which helps the
company in expansion and diversification. And also the low cost of transportation because of
lower shipping prices can help the company in boosting its profits (Lehr, 2015).
In addition, after the recession and slow growth economy, customers spending as well
as income increase which has given an opportunity to Hotel Hilton in grabbing the new
customer base and helps to increase the profitability and market share. Also, opening of new
market because of government agreement has provided Hotel Hilton an opportunity to enter
the new emerging in china market. Lower inflation rate also helps to bring stability in the
market as it helps to give lower interest rate to the customers of Hilton worldwide Holdings.
All the opportunity helps Hotel Hilton in increasing the efficiency (Agrawal, 2016).
Threat
There are various threats which the company need to work on it. One of the major
threat from its competitor as it cannot tackle competition in positive manner and cannot take
critical situation. It has pressurized the company and impact its profitability and sales figure.
Also, the company has to face many lawsuits in various market segments. As declining
economy can be the major threat as many customers can have low income and low spending
which affect the working and productivity of the company. Also it has to increase the salaries
of its staff which has cause hinder to the hotel. As by increasing the salary it has to increase
22

the price of the services and hence it will affect the profitability in the negative manner as
customer might switch other hotel.
Political instability also affects the Hotel Hilton efficiency. As at the time of Brexit, it
has negative impact on the company and also liability laws in different countries are varied
and Hilton worldwide holding may be exposed to various liability claims given change in
policies in those market (Singh, 2018).
Strengths
Strategic location
Brand recognition
Good reputation
Best facilities
Loyalty program
Weakness
Difficult to find high quality employees
Not-much developed network
Less promotional activities
High level of debts
Opportunities
Online booking and online
presence
Health and wellness trend
Ability to host events in off-
season
Take advantages of emerging
markets, especially with
business class and mid-priced
markets
Threats
Declining economy
Political, Brexit
Increasing salaries
Competitors expanding
Table 2: SWOT analysis
(Source: created by author)
Tracking results to be achieved
Marketing objective’s Hilton hotel include targeting new customers, creating brand
awareness, improving customer relations and many more. For this purpose, analysis of sales
through efficiency ratios and cost-profitability analysis needs to be done. As per the view of
Rahimi et al. (2017), marketing objectives can be achieved in an organization when there is a
track record of the processes that are being carried out to achieve them.
23

Share of market
There has to be a clear understanding about the share of market that Hilton hotel
intends to capture. Marketing objectives can be achieved when services are able to find and
wide market domestically as well as globally. As commented by Leung et al. (2015),
organizations can plan its target market and frame strategies that are needed to enter and
capture them. Market share analysis needs to be carried out to analyse the section and share
of the market that needs to be captured in order to gain an edge over competitors.
Setting Goals and Objectives
Marketing goals and objectives need to be determined and analysis of these goals and
objectives needs to be carefully done before framing a plan to achieve them. The Hilton hotel
need to have well framed strategies and allocate resources judiciously to achieve its
objectives. It can launch new products and services to boost innovation in markets. At the
same time, it can make its existing products cost effective to ensure that they contribute to
capture the market. Monitoring of these objectives can be done through situational analysis
tools and techniques to determine and devise control measures. As per the view of Tresidder
(2015), it will also avoid competitive threat to the product.
Market Segmentation and Target Market
Segmentation of the market allows for a better identification of the target market.
Correctly identifying the target market can enable Hilton Hotels to devise strategies that can
have the maximum impact and reach the desired target market in an effective way.
Fair execution of operations
Marketing plan ensures that operational activities of the Hilton hotel are fair and
strategic. Strategically framed objectives also will not be fruitful if ineffective ways are
adapted to its execution. As commented by Schuckert et al. (2015), marketing plan includes
strategies that are implemented to carry out smooth operations in an organization.
Evidence based marketing plan that applies to marketing objectives
In today’s economically developed scenario, Hilton Hotel has managed to stay intact
by adopting halfway premium pricing technique to attract and retain its customers. It ensures
luxury in holiday trips and high customer satisfaction. As commented by Dzhandzhugazova
et al. (2016), cost effective and quality driven services enjoy a wide market globally. Hilton
Hotel marketing plan includes:
Customer acquisitions
Hilton Hotel provides customization facilities to its customers. When alterations can
be made as per the needs, customers are retained and satisfied. It strategically acquired new
24

customers to enlarge the customer base. It has considerations for effective documentation and
visa processing in its marketing plan. As commented by Festa et al. (2016), it can provide
discounting techniques as well to further explore its markets.
Currency exchange strategies
As Hilton Hotel works in both domestic and international markets, currency exchange
facilities form a core part of its marketing plan. It provides exchanging facilities at low rates
to attract more people. At the same time, with such facilities, it saves it customers from high
rates exchanges that increase their loyalty over the company.
Brand awareness
Hilton Hotel creates brand awareness through advertisements on TV, internet and
many other such sources. It plans to increase its profitability through entrance of new
customers in such campaigns (Hiltonhotels.com, 2019). As commented by Lugosi and
Jameson (2017), events are organised by companies to increase brand visibility
internationally. The Hilton hotel has opened its official websites on all social media platforms
where information is easily accessible by the customers. It helps in enhancing its marketing
in different sectors beyond geographical boundaries.
CONCLUSION
This study looks at the various aspects of hospitality marketing in the context of
Hilton Hotel on park Lane. It first enumerates how the marketing correlates to the various
different roles of marketing in the industry of hospitality and specifically around the
functions of Hilton Hotel. The study reveals the importance of marketing in the intangible
markets sector of the company and it helps to get a better understanding of the full
functionality of the same within the industry of hospitality. It further moves on to describe
and reveals the how the various marketing functions such as customer support, branding,
packaging and such other various tools play in the sector of hospitality. This study finally
defines the roles and responsibilities that are entailed with marketing within the
organisational context of Hilton Hotel and the entire hospitality sector on a whole. This study
thus gives a good look into the functioning and roles of marketing in the hospitality sector
and allows in gaining a better insight of the entire process.
25

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