Roles and Responsibility of Marketing in Hospitality Industry

This report covers the roles and responsibilities of marketing in the hospitality industry, including conducting market research, increasing customer awareness, promoting services, building customer relationships, and expanding business. It also explores the interrelationship of marketing with other functional units in the organization. The case study focuses on Marriott Hotel, London.

HOSPITALITY MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibility of marketing function......................................................................1
P2 Interrelationship of marketing with other functional units.....................................................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................4
P3 Comparative analysis of organization's marketing mix to achieve organizational objectives
......................................................................................................................................................4
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Developing marketing plan to meet organization marketing objectives................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a set of activities and processes for creating, communicating and offering
value to customers based on the customer's needs and wants. Hospitality marketing is also
marketing in the direction of increasing revenue of the hospitality industry. It takes into account
how different segments of the hospitality industry such as restaurants, amusement parks, hotel,
resorts use marketing techniques to promote its product ad services. Currently hospitality
industry is moving at a fast pace, there are over 3.5 million people employed in hospitality
industry and expected to be 6 million by 2020 in UK. In this report, Marriott Hotel, London is
taken, which is a multinational hospitality company with broad hotel portfolio. This report
covers roles and responsibility of marketing and its interrelation with other functional units in
hospitality industry, ways organization has used 7Ps of marketing mix in order to achieve
business objectives and at last development of strategic marketing plan for the business to
achieve marketing objectives.
LO1
P1 Roles and responsibility of marketing function
Marketing plays a crucial role in hospitality industry for maximizing a hotel's revenue.
This can be accomplished by comping up with different programs to make profitable use of its
accommodation and facilities. For this marketing personnel is appointed who takes the
responsibility for coordinating and promoting marketing activities. Some important marketing
role and responsibilities are described below.
Conduct market research: Customer chooses hotel and hotel services for a wide range of
reasons. Marketing manager conducts a research and identifies the factors that makes customer
choose a particular hotel and this requires a deep and extensive research. Timely review and
monitoring of customer reviews on the hotel website also helps it to identify its strength and
weaknesses (Rather and Sharma, 2017). Marriott hotel is a well recognized organization. It
conducts customer feedback in the form of face to face or in follow-up calls. Marriott hotel
tracks its customers feedback through Guest satisfaction Survey (GSS) which is conducted on an
ongoing basis. This survey helps Marriott to evaluate the hotel, its staff and services and works
on the areas of improvement which helps in maintaining a positive relationship with its
customers. It also reviews the tours and travel industry to identify the future trends which may
affect the hotel. So, Marriott has worked successfully on this of marketing.
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Increasing customer awareness: It is the responsibility of marketing manager to make it easy
for customers find its hotel. If the potential customer is unaware about the services offered in the
hotel, customers won't purchase it or look after it. Marketer needs to make sure that information
available about the hotel's product and services are up to date and easily available to the
customers. To increase brand awareness, marketing manager should do advertisements on
relevant travel sites and online booking sites in order to reach target audience. Marriott hotel has
designed a high impact campaigns and advertisements to specific target customers segment to
generate revenue and brand awareness and display a good public image (Šeric, Gil-Saura and
Ozretić-Došen, 2015). By increasing brand awareness has helped Marriott in fulfilling its one of
the objective of customer awareness and brand positioning.
Promoting the services: Promotion is an important part of hotel marketing. Timely promotion
can help in increasing occupancy during low bookings or non-holiday season or time. This can
be done through conducting special events like gourmet events or offering incentive such as
extra accommodation, especial services etc. which is the most prominent method as it can help in
attracting more guests. Hotel can target businesses also by making its hotel attractive for
conducting business meetings, conferences, seminars etc. by providing them conference room.
Marriott has broad range of hotel portfolio and services based on the customer needs and wants.
It has used terrific advertisement campaigns to attract its customers to spend holidays in its
hotels and take advantage of its services.
Building customer relationship: A good customer relationship is essential for the growth of the
business. There are number of ways to establish relationship and one such is customer loyalty
program that rewards customers based on the days spend or services availed in the hotel which
can be utilized by the customers in next bookings (Nieves and Diaz-Meneses, 2016). Marketing
manager needs to target the corporate guests or individual guest who require regular meeting
accommodation in large number. Marriott hotel follow up on its customers on an ongoing basis
to take corrective steps to meet with the needs of the customers. Also, it sends offers and latest
news about its hotel to its customers which creates a sense of belongingness to the customers
with the hotel. In this way Marriott hotel maintains its relationship with its customers.
Expanding Business: After effective execution of above roles, brings the opportunity for
expansion of the business. It is the responsibility of marketing manager to carry out a plan to
expand the business. It will help in global presence of the hotel and attract more customers.
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Marriott hotel has its global presence which is remarkable. This was possible only because of the
effective planning and promotion tactics which has helped in achieving its success.
P2 Interrelationship of marketing with other functional units
Marketing function in an organization cannot perform all alone, it requires the support of
other organizational departments to accomplish its objectives. There is close link of marketing
function with other functions in the organization. Few essential relationship is stated below.
Marketing and Research and development: R&D department is focussed more on the
technical features and benefits of the product or service which can meet the customers
requirements. Marketing department based on market research identifies the customer
requirement and sends information to R&D to design and innovate the product which can attract
more customers and act as a distinguishing factor from its competitors. The R&D team of
Marriott of is hard-working and innovator (David Jo, 2019). Both R&D and marketing team
share the responsibility for successful market oriented innovation. R&D team takes the
responsibility of not only for innovation but for successful product launch whereas marketing
team not only focus on sales but also identifying customer preferences.
Marketing and Operations: Operation department is used for creating and providing services.
In hospitality industry, operations department includes housekeeping department, front office
department, food and beverages service department etc. Marketer promises the customers about
the high level of service and focusses on providing extraordinary services and customer
convenience. Based on marketers orders, operation department tries to produce goods and
services that will help in meeting up the customer requirements. In Marriott hotel, operation
department works in coordination with the marketing department in order to come up with the
changes that will help in satisfying the customers. Marriott's operation team is highly qualified
and innovative. It provides innovative product and service designs to increase customer
satisfaction level. Along with that, best practices and quality assurance system helps in
improving hotels performance.
Marketing and Purchase: Purchase department works with objective of effective and efficient
purchasing of materials to be utilized in its manufacturing activities. This department focus on
purchasing materials in right quantity and quality. Marketing team request purchase department
to purchase the material in small quantity of many items which can be perishable and non-
perishable. Marriott hotel has experienced purchase team which makes sure that materials are
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available in right quantity and quality at the most competitive prices. Marketing department
forecast the sales and based on which estimated budget for purchase is prepared to meet the
needs.
Marketing and Human Resource: Human resource department has several functions in
hospitality industry such as designing jobs, advertising jobs on appropriate channels, developing
job responsibility and person specification, hiring and training new employees etc. Marketing
department provides information to human resource department for the requirement of the
workforce and HR department develops job description with the help of marketing team so that
specific personnel is appointed with relevant qualification and experience. Marriott hotel has
highly competent human resource team which takes the responsibility of maintain the workforce
as per the requirement. It provides guidances and training to its employees and motivates them to
improve performance. The result is very clear by looking at efficient and effective staff in the
hotel.
Marketing and Finance: Finance department is at the heart of the organization. Finance
department provides budgets to the marketing team to carry out its activities. It also helps in
forecasting the revenue for the organization and the cost associated with it. It also helps in
reducing cost and different sources of finance. Finance department also establishes short term
and long term goals to be achieved in order to be successful in accomplishing the overall
objectives. Marriott hotel has experienced finance team which takes care of organizations
working capital, expenses and financial policies. It ensures that marketing plans are effective in
financial terms and also helps in setting the price of the new product and services or revising the
existing ones.
LO2
P3 Comparative analysis of organization's marketing mix to achieve organizational objectives
Marketing mix is a tool used by businesses and marketers to help determine a product or
brand offering. As marketing is a continually evolving discipline, businesses at the hospitality
market need to completely study the impacts of various factors while determining the marketing
strategies. The 7ps of marketing mix which different hospitality organizations apply for effective
marketing planning strategies can be explained as:
Basis of comparison Marriott Hotel Hotel Hilton
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PRODUCT Marriott hotel in the
hospitality sector manages a
broad and diversified portfolio
of resorts and hotels with
lavish facilities, constant up
gradation and has evolved over
years with impeccable services
and comfortable facilities for
all its guests (Saidani and
Sudiarditha, 2019). It has fully
furnished air-conditioned room
with homely-surrounding, with
several amenities.
Hilton hotel provides wide
range of product services for
marketing strategies in
Hospitality of its hotels.
Luxury hotel chains, focused
services like Hilton garden
Inn, extended stay suits. The
services it offers include
corporate meetings, weddings
and banquet facilities, different
cuisines and other premium
class luxury services for all
targeted customers.
PRICE Marriott hotel believes in
offering premium quality
services at fair prices. It has
targeted upper class, corporate
people, families And travellers
who wish to have leisure
experience. It offers value-
based prices and strategies to
reach the guests expectations.
It believes in serving with
excellence and integrity.
Hilton hotel offers five star
rooms and four star rooms
(Dudovskiy John, 2016).
Premium prices are calculated
with the premium cost for
value-added services like spa,
high quality restaurants,
breakfast and dynamism in the
services. The hotel keeps the
price range premium and it
varies according to all the
services it offers.
PLACE Marriott hotels are located at
prime locations keeping in
mind the convenience for
Hilton's hotels have presence
worldwide with hotels in more
than 103 countries and more
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customers. It focusses on
maintaining its distinctive
quality and includes strategic
places like near airports and
vital areas of city (Ikechi,
Chinenye and Chiyem, 2017).
It has a trained workforce with
good hospitality skills for
handling all the expectations
of potential customers satisfied
and also help in direct dealings
with customers.
than 5100 properties. It
focuses on western countries
as the company targets
exclusive segment of people.
The locations of hotels are
prime and near airports for the
ease of customers.
PROMOTION Marriott hotel occupies the
position of market leader in the
global arena because of its
high brand name (Davis
Henry, 2018). It has
collaborated with many
business, firms, and potential
customers who look for five
star experience. Promotional
marketing is done by
advertising in premium
magazines, customer review
websites.
Hilton hotel holds a well-
known brand name in the
hospitality services from a
long time. It uses strategies to
Advertise and promote its
hotels and services on online
portals, social media platforms
and travelling magazines to
reach large number of
potential travellers .
PEOPLE Marriott hotel provides
excellent hotel stay facilities to
Hilton hotels target people
directly related to business
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all people, premium quality
services. By creating a positive
experience for the guests and
making their experience
cherish able with the hotel, it
increases their loyalty towards
the brand name.
worldwide and the loyal
customers and upcoming
market customers who hold
corporate meetings and events
where they look for good
quality services.
PROCESS Marriott hotel delivers the
process factor of marketing
with proper processing details
about its hotel suits (Bhasin
Hitesh, 2019). Easy
availability of the hotel rooms,
services it offers on online
platforms with their website
having all details make the
process to book rooms easy for
customers.
Hilton's hotels are considered
as one of the main best
management hotel chains in
the world. The flow of
processes, services to the
customers is consistent. Due to
reliable processes and
maintained supply chain
management of all the hotels it
offers haste free experience for
customers to book their rooms.
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE Marriott hotel gives immense
importance to its interior
designs, environment of hotel
and the hygienic factor for all
its hotels while presenting the
brand name to its customers.
The Hilton group of hotels
have global reach, it has ties
with many hotel booking
chains and websites to increase
its reach and evidence in the
market. It holds the position of
market leader in the hospitality
sector and has established its
goodwill when it comes to
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offer best services.
LO3
P4 Developing marketing plan to meet organization marketing objectives
COVERED IN PPT.
CONCLUSION
From the above it can be summarized that marketing plays a huge role in hospitality
industry. There exist an interrelationship among the other organizational units which is beneficial
for an organization in achieving its objectives. Comparative analysis of marketing mix gives a
clear picture of the current position of the organization and in developing future marketing plan.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chernysheva, Y. G., et.al, 2017. Business analysis as an important component of ensuring
enterprise’s economic security.
Ikechi, A., Chinenye, E. P. and Chiyem, O., 2017. Marketing Mix Concept: Blending the
Variables to Suit the Contemporary Marketers. International Academic Journal of
Management and Marketing. 9(1). pp.55-65.
Nieves, J. and Diaz-Meneses, G., 2016. Antecedents and outcomes of marketing innovation: An
empirical analysis in the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management. 28(8). pp.1554-1576.
Rather, R. A. and Sharma, J., 2017. Customer engagement for evaluating customer relationships
in hotel industry. European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation. 8(1).
pp.1-13.
Saidani, B. and Sudiarditha, I. K. R., 2019. Marketing Mix-7Ps: The Effect on Customer
Satisfaction. Jurnal Pendidikan Ekonomi Dan Bisnis (JPEB). 7(1). pp.72-86.
Sammut‐Bonnici, T. and Galea, D., 2015. PEST analysis. Wiley Encyclopedia of management,
pp.1-1.
Šeric, M., Gil-Saura, I. and Ozretić-Došen, Đ., 2015. Insights on integrated marketing
communications: implementation and impact in hotel companies. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(5). pp.958-979.
Veluru, M. R., 2018. Strategic Market Segmentation in the Dynamic Emerging Markets.
In Strategic Marketing Issues in Emerging Markets (pp. 123-135). Springer,
Singapore.
Online
Bhasin Hitesh, 2019. Marketing Mix Of Marriott – Marriott Marketing Mix. [Online]. Available
through : <https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-marriott/>.
David Jo, 2019. Operational and functional departments within a hospitality business.[Online].
Available through : <>https://www.howandwhat.net/operational-functional-
departments-hospitality-business/.
Davis Henry, 2018. Marriott Marketing Mix Strategy 7Ps Analysis.[Online]. Available through :
<https://www.essay48.com/term-paper/13833-Marriott-Marketing-Mix>
Dudovskiy John, 2016. Hilton Hotels Marketing Mix – 7Ps of Marketing. [Online] Available
Through: <https://research-methodology.net/hilton-hotels-marketing-mix/>.
PESTLE Analysis of Marriott International. 2015.[Online]. Available through :
<https://pestleanalysis.com/pestle-analysis-of-marriott/>.
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