Hospitality Marketing and the 7 Ps

This assignment analyzes the essential requirements of hospitality management, focusing on the roles of marketing and the interrelation of various functional units. It compares the 7 Ps marketing mix elements of McDonald's and KFC to achieve business objectives and provides a marketing plan for Travelodge, aiming to market its new strategies.

Hospitality marketing essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function within McDonald......................................1
P2 Relation of marketing role to wider organisational context...................................................2
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Compare ways in which hospitality organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps)
to achieve overall business objectives.........................................................................................6
P4 Produce a basic marketing plan to meet marketing objectives...............................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as the strategic approach to promote the products and services of an
organisation in a way that organisational profits can be maximized. Marketing concepts aims at
regulating factors which can affect the purchasing behaviour of consumers. The marketing plays
significant role in determining the success of any business. Thus, it is very essential for
organisations to develop highly efficient marketing strategies.
The report will discuss the impact of marketing on business performance and its
interrelationship with other functional department of organisations. It will describe the roles and
responsibilities of marketing functionality within McDonald which is the leading restaurant chain
in the world. The document will also analyse the seven elements of marketing mix which have
great impact on business functions. It will provide comparison of McDonald and KFC on the
basis of marketing mix elements. The report will produce a marketing plan for achieving the
marketing objectives for given case study.
LO 1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function within McDonald
Marketing can be considered as the key element for successful achievement of long term
business goals. The key responsibilities of marketing are described as follows:
Hospitality organisation: McDonald
Organisation overview: McDonald is ranked as top in fast food restaurants (Chandiok and
Sharma, 2017). The company operates globally and serves the variety of food products in its
restaurants which are located in several countries. The head quarter of organisation is in United
States.
Roles and responsibilities Execution in McDonald
Product development The different kind of dishes or products are prepared in
McDonald after appropriate research and the interest of
consumers. For example as organisation operates in different
countries the product preferences are different for each
customers. The marketing team analyse the choices of
customers and then promote the particular product for further
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development.
Promotion and advertising This is the key responsibility of marketing department of
McDonald (Kotoua and Ilkan, 2017). To promote the
services, organisation use various methods such as social
media publicity, advertisements and collaboration with other
leading brands in foreign countries to establish its roots.
Customer service The marketing objectives and policies are framed by keeping
in mind the interest and preferences of consumers.
McDonald keeps the prices and products in its menu as per
the consumer. To provide quality services the human
resources of McDonald are well trained so that they can
effectively communicate with customers and can provide
them required solutions. For enhancing the customer relation
company also use consumer loyalty rewards and give priority
to feedbacks so that McDonald can become first preference
of its target audience.
public relations It is important for marketing team to develop polices which
helps organisation to build long term public relations. These
relations are important for the company to enhance its market
share and to raise the brand value of organisation.
McDonald can achieve this objective by participating in
charity or cultural events and by contributing in corporate
social responsibilities.
Analysis of marketing responsibilities in relation with marketing environment
Role Responsibilities Interrelation between roles,
responsibilities and
marketing environment
Business promotion The marketing manager and If promotional team of
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associates are responsible for
creating innovative
promotional strategies.
McDonald experience tough
competition from
organisations like KFC, burger
king and many others (Dileep,
and Mathew, 2017). Thus,
advertisements and brand
management of company must
be powerful enough to gain the
attention of consumers
otherwise the company will
not be able to sustain its
position among its
competitors.
McDonald is not concerned
towards their responsibilities
then McDonald may not
achieve its sales target and thus
growth of company will
directly affect. The strategies
for business promotion are
highly affected by technology,
social, legal and competitive
factors.
Risk analysis With regularly advance
techniques the functioning
strategies of McDonald also
change continuously.
Marketing team analyses the
risk associated with the
strategies. For example if
company introduces any new
product or food item than
marketing team must analyse
in prior that will it give benefit
or new techniques will be easy
to manage or not.
The risk analysis of marketing
team of McDonald is
incomplete without macro
environment factors such as
technical, economical and legal
factors. The political factors
can also affect the extent of
risk and damages. However
micro factors also affect this
role but its extent is lower than
macro factors.
Maintaining customer relations Customer relations are key to The customers relations are
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sustain the long term growth.
Marketing managers helps to
retain the customers by
delivering them high quality
services in every aspects such
as food quality, comfort,
payment and order
management system as well as
feedback monitoring.
largely affected by micro
factors. For example if there is
conflict between suppliers or
competitors provide better
products at low cost then it will
become challenging or
marketing functional team of
McDonald to sustain the
consumers (Hinson, Abdul-
Hamid and Osabutey, 2017).
P2 Relation of marketing role to wider organisational context
The organisational hierarchy of McDonald has been shown below. The organisation has
its various stores in different regions. At broad level the organisation is distributed according to
region wise. For example Asia, Europe, Africa and America each region have its own segment of
the stores of McDonald. The corporate section of each of the McDonald unit consist of separate
departments of sales, market research, human resources and sales analysis (Neuninger, 2017).
The market research team evaluate the latest marketing trends so that engineering team can
formulate the concepts, methods and procedures for delivering services. For developing effective
marketing strategies McDonald aims that only skilled and talented human resources are
employed.
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Significance and impact of marketing functions on other functional departments
Marketing functions also affects the working and policies of other functional departments
of the company.
Marketing and range of products served in menu:
The promotional techniques and other elements of marketing greatly affect the product
range of McDonald. For example when marketing team analyses that any particular product is
prime choice of consumers then to gain more benefits from it the company can launch specific
discounts on it or can even present that product as its signature service (Veríssimo and Loureiro, ,
2018). It will increase the profits and sales margin. The quality, price of products are also
dependent on market research by marketing team. Like if French fries of McDonald are highly
appreciated in one country then it is not necessary that the same response will be observed in
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other countries as well. In the absence of this relationship it will not be possible for the company
to meet its desired sales targets or to attract new customers.
Marketing and information technology department:
Though marketing division of McDonald is not responsible for implementing technology
or concepts of information technology. However, the functional team has to follow the latest
trends of technology because it directly affects their functions. The interrelation between these
functional units will ensure that McDonald follows the latest trend. If company will not follow
technical advancements like digital payment or online booking then most of the consumers will
think organisation as outdated. In such condition it will be challenging for the company to retain
audience for long term. Similarly, with advent of social media newspaper advertising has been
limited. Thus, McDonald has to promote its services on digital platforms otherwise it will not be
able to gain profits from the new opportunities.
Key elements of marketing functions and their relation with other functional units of
organisation
The marketing functions consist of four essential key elements. These elements include
research, strategy, planning and tactics. Market research analyses the scope of product
development and how company can meet marketing goals. To deal with the competitors and to
enhance consumer loyalty discount offers or short term plans are made by McDonald. These
plans are known as the tactics. Marketing functions have significant relation with other
functional units.
Marketing and human resources: Marketing team can achieve its goals only if highly skilled
employees are recruited by HR department (Alnawas and Hemsley-Brown, 2018). IF there will
be no interrelation between both of these units then new recruited human resources will not be
able to understand the marketing requirements of organisation and hence McDonald may fail to
achieve its goals. Similarly, HR department must also have prior knowledge of the skills required
for a marketing team member. An inappropriate recruitment will cause wastage of time as well as
resources.
Marketing and finance unit: The product development, price and promotional expenses are the
fundamental parameters of marketing functioning. These parameters must be in alignment with
finance department of McDonald. If company will not have coordination between finance and
marketing team then there are possibilities that marketing plan and research does not fit well in
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budget consideration. Thus, it will be suitable that before executing actions marketing team must
follow up budget parameters.
Marketing and operational team: The promotional strategies and product development related
plans of marketing team are difficult to accomplish without support of operational team. Thus
marketing functions have dependency on operational unit as well. The prior coordination
between both departments will prevent unnecessary last moment work pressure on operational
team. Thus, organisational tasks will be performed with more accuracy. Before developing any
product operational team must keep in mind the specifications used by marketing team for
promotional description. It will prevent conflicting situation so that customer will not feel that
quality is compromised.
Marketing and information technology team: The current marketing strategies and methods are
largely based on technology. Thus, for safe and effective implementation it is necessary for
marketing team to have perfect coordination with technology team (Ozturk, Allahyari San,
Okumus and Rahimi, 2017). This dependency can also cause difficulties. For example if there is
any technical error then it will significantly affect the marketing operations. Similarly, for
providing advance marketing approaches the team must explain their needs to IT team so that
they can give suitable technical solution.
Thus, it can be observed that marketing functions have great impact on other functional
departments.
LO2
P3 Compare ways in which hospitality organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to
achieve overall business objectives
In hospitality sector it is very important for company to promote their products and
services through effective strategies. promotion helps in creating awareness in minds of people. It
also supports in giving an insight about who will be target audience, price, place of availability,
etc. this is done by using marketing mix. It is a portfolio that consists of several strategies which
is used by firm to achieve their goals and objectives. There are basically 4 P’s used by companies
which are product, place, price and promotion. Every organization have their own marketing mix
plan. Here, the 7 elements of McDonald’s and KFC are compared that is as follows:-
Elements McDonald’s KFC
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Product The product mix of McDonald’s is
very wide and allows customer to
choose from variety of products
that include burgers, fries, soft
drink, salads, etc. it has been
produced as per needs of people.
Company also provide services like
home delivery, online payment, etc.
in festive seasons offers and
discounts are provided to attract
more customers.
KFC products are also similar
with McDonald’s but it consists
of mostly non veg meals. Also,
there are burgers, sandwiches,
shakes, etc. they are designed
especially for non veg people.
Company does not provide
services like abc. It is having a
large customer base.
Price Prices of the McDonald's are
generally lower as compared to
KFC because this company
generally contains products wide
range of products. Prices are
comparatively cheap. MacDonalds
generally adopts various pricing
policies such as “campaign 55” this
provides hamburgers at bargain
prices.
Prices of KFC are high because
this company deals with limited
products and also the
production of such food items
are so costly because it mostly
deals with non vegetarian
eatables.
Place This company is located in many
countries across the world. Its
outlets are mainly present in 12
eastern coastal provinces. Mainly
80% outlets of MacDonalds are
situated in 1376 places. No outlet of
this organisation is present in those
cities which are below the level of
provincial capital. It is located in
prime locations such as malls,
It is a Chinese fast food which
is normally located in a very
less area. This company mainly
deals with Chinese products
which usually chooses fast food
industrial marketing area. China
has become one of the most
important markets for
international fast-food over last
many years. Approximately
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complexes etc. 71% of KFC outlets are in the
western regions as relatively
compared to ordinary cities.
Promotion Being a global brand it basically
explore in the old market because
children are more likely to attract
from such variety of eatable items.
They target large middle class
audience because it provides lowest
prices products.
This enterprise mainly target
non vegetarian people so casts
and religious are mostly
targetted. Advertisement and
promotion on social media had
a great impact promoting KFC
items.
physical evidence This can be considered as a lowest
paying job which generally requires
less skills and it also had a fewer
advancement opportunities.
Physical evidence appearance
creates long lasting impression in
the minds of consumers. It might be
staff members, building
maintenance in terms of speed,
quality transparency, cleanliness
etc.
It is also referred as the
physical environment of Outlets
where customer visits so Staff
management of KFC have to
follow certain standards which
are adopted by parent company.
It attracts customers (Ozturk,
Allahyari, Okumus and Rahimi,
2017). KFC uses good
technology equipment as
compared to MacDonald.
packaging Packaging of the product is the
most important aspect as this
packaging influence large number
of people it can also be referred as a
physical evidence. Packaging of
MacDonald contains an attractive
logo which is big yellow colored
'M'
KFC provides very attractive
packaging to its product which
mostly influence people who
belongs to the those group who
likes to try different chicken
varieties.
Process This is referred as the food
products which are manufactured
Here process starts with the
visits of the consumers into any
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needs to be transparent to
customers so that this builds strong
faith among customers. MacDonald
have invented the most efficient
cooking equipment's
of the outlet which leads to
great customer satisfaction.
This organization also allows
customers to order online
P4 Produce a basic marketing plan to meet marketing objectives
Marketing plan is a most strategic plan which involves most creative ways for potential;
clients and this can be done by visiting by providing open invitation to people. Marketing plan of
Travelodge includes new designed structure and satisfied room services. Marketing plan is
basically considered as a strategy which helps in exploring different services across the world.
This is covered in Poster
CONCLUSION
It is been concluded that hospitality management is a much wider scope which requires
planning and marketing strategies in order to communicate large variety of services to customers.
This study had provided the main essential requirements of hospitality management. The study
had mainly discussed the various roles of marketing and interrelation of different functional units
with each other. The research had widely focussed towards comparing various marketing mix (7
P's) elements of MacDonald and KFC in order to achieve over all business objective. The study
had also provided a marketing mix plan of a hospitality management company named as
Travelodge which aimed at marketing its new strategies to large of people.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Chandiok, S. and Sharma, P., 2017. Hospitality Marketing: Strategic Issues. In Strategic
Marketing Management and Tactics in the Service Industry (pp. 213-242). IGI Global.
Loo, P.T. and Leung, R., 2018. A service failure framework of hotels in Taiwan:
Adaptation of 7Ps marketing mix elements. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 24(1), pp.79-
100.
Kotoua, S. and Ilkan, M., 2017. Tourism destination marketing and information technology in
Ghana. Journal of destination marketing & management, 6(2), pp.127-135.
Dileep, M.R. and Mathew, V., 2017. Marketing of Tourism Industry: Enhancing Services
through Marketing Mix Elements. In Strategic Marketing Management and Tactics in the
Service Industry (pp. 304-329). IGI Global.
Hinson, R.E., Abdul-Hamid, I.K. and Osabutey, E.L., 2017. Investigating market orientation and
positioning in star-rated hotels in Ghana. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 29(10), pp.2629-2646.
Neuninger, R., 2017. Qualitative marketing methodology. In Routledge Handbook of Hospitality
Marketing (pp. 54-65). Routledge.
Veríssimo, M. and Loureiro, S.M.C., 2018. Enhancers and tools to improve luxury customer
experience: Hotel managers’ perspective. Revista Turismo & Desenvolvimento, 4(21/22),
pp.197-206.
Alnawas, I. and Hemsley-Brown, J., 2018. The differential effect of cognitive and emotional
elements of experience quality on the customer-service provider’s
relationship. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 46(2), pp.125-
147.
Ozturk, Y., Allahyari San, R., Okumus, F. and Rahimi, R., 2017. Travel motivations of Iranian
tourists to Turkey and their satisfaction level with all-inclusive package tours. Journal of
Vacation Marketing, p.1356766717725562.
Online
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The 7 Ps of Marketing. 2018. [online]. Available
through:<https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/70824>
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