A Comparison of Marketing Methods of Two Multinational Hotel Chains

This essay compares the marketing methods of Marriott International and Premier Inn, two multinational hotel chains. It also discusses their market position, marketing strategies, sustainability practices, and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essay

Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................4
References ......................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
The term hospitality is defined as the quality service offered by the staff, host member to
the guest in order to satisfy their needs and wants and enhance their satisfaction level. The main
focus of hospitality industry is offer quality food and accommodation services to their target
customers (Kumar and Nayak, 2019). This report highlights the comparison of marketing
methods of two multinational hotel chains Marriott international and Premier Inn. Marriott
international is one of the top American multinational company, founded in 1927 by J. Willard
Marriott and Alice Marriott. With the large presence in the global market and strong marketing
techniques used this company is considered for this essay. Premier Inn, which is another hotel
taken, it is one of the top British hotel brand with around more than 72,000 rooms and 800
hotels. It was founded in 1987, headquartered in England UK, having strong brand image in the
global market and wide range customer base. This report highlights the detailed description of
the marketing choices made by the chosen hotels along with their current market position. Also
the marketing strategy used by the chosen hotel chains is also highlighted in this report. In
addition to this marketing decisions taken in regards to sustainability and green messaging is
also highlighted. Furthermore how they are positioned regarding the covid 19 pandemic is also
determined in this report.
Main Body
Marketing choices
Marketing is the process of using various tools and techniques in order to make
consumers aware of their product and services and enhance their performance in the marketplace
(Ismaili, 2018). With the growing and changing trends the business organisation are using well
advance marketing practices in order to continue to enhance their performance in the
marketplace and attract large number of customers. In case of Premier Inn, the hotel is
effectively focusing on their marketing practices in order to smoothly carry out their activities in
the marketplace and enhance. The premier hotel has come from a generational approach of
marketing which is use of traditional advertising to use of well advance technology such as
social media marketing and google hotel ad (Pantano, Bassanoand Priporas, 2018). The use of
well advance technology as per the requirement allowed the hotel to gain large market share and
enhance their performance. Also in case of Marriott international hotel, the hotel is using
1

advertising and mixture of traditional hotel and modern marketing practices like direct marketing
and social media marketing in order to attract their customers and enhance their overall
performance (Kostelijkand Alsem, 2020).
Market position is refers to as perception of the consumers regarding the product and
services or the brand image of the company. Strong position of the brand in the eyes of the
customers helps the business to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace and enhance their
performance. In case of premier inn, hotel has strong market position around the globe with large
base of loyal customers (Kumar, 2018). The Premier Inn UK' overall accommodation sales
performance was 8.9% more than the wider market, with total market share growth of 4.1% in
the duration to 11.4% of the UK hotel market. Currently due to the current covid 19 pandemic,
the accommodation sale falling 55.2% with occupancy at 49.3%. whereas in case of Marriott
international, which is global hospitality chain offering quality services around the globe.
Despite the changes the hotel has managed to keep strong market position in the marketplace
attracting large number of customers. The number of hotels around the globe has exceeded by
7500 maintaining strong position (Mogajiand Yoon, 2019).
Both hotels also uses effective marketing strategies which enables them to attract large
number of position. The use of effective marketing strategy is one reason behind the strong
market position of both hotels. Marketing strategy is refers to as business overall plan and
activities taken into consideration in order to reach target customers and make them aware of the
product and services. In case of Premier Inn, the company uses effective marketing strategy in
order to attract large number of customers, the company focuses on using social media to create
awareness regarding the their product and services (Hisrich and Ramadani, 2018). The hotel also
uses email newsletters, website and social media to create strong brand presence. Hotel is also
using Google hotel ad to identify and attract large number of customers. Whereas in case of
Marriott international, their marketing strategy or promotion and advertising strategy is mainly
focused on digital promotion. The company focuses on using their website and various social
media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook in order to promote their product and services
among target customers. The company also uses these in order to make their target customers
aware of their product and services or any kind of new services offered (Hair Jrand Sarstedt,
2019). The Marriott international also focus on creating user generated content to attract or
capture millennials attentions effectively. The use of effective marketing strategy is very
2

essential for the business organisation in order to survive and grow in today's growing
competitive market. The use of various promotional activity helps the hotel like Premier Inn and
Marriott international to increase their customers and gain competitive advantage in the
marketplace (Cornwell, 2020).
Another factor that allows the business organisation to gain competitiveness is the
focusing on the use sustainability. With growing concern regarding the welfare of environment
and increasing number of consumers moving the use sustainable products, the organisation are
becoming more considerate towards the use of sustainability. In case of Premier Inn, the hotel is
largely contributing to the welfare and sustainability of the environment through committed
towards removing all the unwanted single use plastics. The hotel is also committed to reduce
their waste and carbon emission. The hotel is effectively working with the suppliers in order to
determine the all plastic used across all the organisation and trying to find the alternatives if
possible. In order to be sustainable the hotel has stopped using plastic straws and stirrers at all
their restaurants (Eagle, 2019). This allows the hotel to attract large number of customers and
enhance their performance at the marketplace, also enabling them to gain competitive advantage
at the marketplace. In case of Marriott international, company is committed to minimise their
environment footprints through sustainably managing their energy and water usage, the hotel is
also committed to cut down their waste and carbon emission and contributing towards the use of
renewable energy effectively. The hotel is committed to enhance or improve their sustainable
activity in order to contribute to the welfare of the environment and attract large number of
customers leading to increase their profitability and productivity. In addition to this the Marriott
international is also committed to reduce waste to landfill by 45% and reduce the food waste by
50%. contributing to the welfare of the environment and taking sustainable actions help the the
hotel to maintain their competitive position in the marketplace and become successful. As the
requirement and changing trends both the hotels are taking required corrective measures in order
to continue to grow and enhance themselves effectively (Stylosand Bellou,2019).
The outbreak of current covid 19 pandemic has directly impacted the functioning and
profitability of the business. It has directly impacted the operations of the business in all the
industry. In case of hospitality, it was the most impacted industry during the covid 19 pandemic
because of the lock-down policy and restrictions imposed on the movements (Greasley, 2019) .
In case of Premier Inn, the total market share of the hotel came down due to pandemic as well as
3

the overall revenue was also impacted. But in order to survive and continue to grow, the hotels is
planning to operate post pandemic in more restrained competitors set(Ahmad, 2018). Despite of
current covid 19 challenges, the premier inn unique operating model and strong financial
position in the marketplace along with their strong brand image allowed them to perform quite
well even during the covid 19. There faster recovering budget sector and large customer base
allowed them to enhance their performance and achieve desired goals and objectives (Cooper
and Buckley, 2021). Whereas in case of Marriott international, the outbreak of the current
COVID 19 pandemic has created huge impact on financial position of the company and has
directly impacted their performance. But due to the corrective safety measures taken by the hotel
and staff members and also implementation of safety measures policy allowed the hotel to
smoothly carry out their activity and achieve desired goals (Barnum, 2020).
Conclusion
From the above report, it has been analysed that the effective marketing strategy used by
the hospitality industry enables them to perform better and achieve desired goals and objectives.
It also helps to gain competitive advantage. This report helps in analysing the various marketing
choices used by the hotels in order to continue to perform better, along with the current market
position of hotels is also analysed in this report. It is analysed that use of marketing strategies
and sustainability practices help hotels to attract large number of customers.
4

References
Books and Journals
Ahmad, N., 2018. Toward advancing debates on Islamic marketing: a renewed perspective.
Journal of Islamic Marketing.
Barnum, C.M., 2020. Usability testing essentials: ready, set... test!. Morgan Kaufmann.
Cooper, M.A. and Buckley, R., 2021. Tourist mental health drives destination choice, marketing,
and matching. Journal of Travel Research, p.00472875211011548.
Cornwell, T.B., 2020. Sponsorship in marketing: Effective partnerships in sports, arts and events.
Routledge.
Eagle, W., 2019. YouTube marketing for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Greasley, A., 2019. Absolute Essentials of Operations Management. Routledge.
Hair Jr, J.F. and Sarstedt, M., 2019. Factors versus composites: guidelines for choosing the right
structural equation modeling method. Project Management Journal, 50(6), pp.619-624.
Hisrich, R.D. and Ramadani, V., 2018. Entrepreneurial marketing: a practical managerial
approach. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Ismaili, R., 2018. MARKETING STRATEGIES AMONG COMPANIES IN THE POLLOG
REGION. ECONOMIC VISION-International Scientific Journal in Economics,
Finance, Business, Marketing, Management and Tourism, 5(9-10), pp.149-159.
Kostelijk, E. and Alsem, K.J., 2020. Brand positioning: Connecting marketing strategy and
communications. Routledge.
Kumar, J. and Nayak, J.K., 2019. Exploring destination psychological ownership among tourists:
Antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 39, pp.30-
39.
Kumar, V., 2018. Marketing research. John Wiley & Sons.
Mogaji, E. and Yoon, H., 2019. Thematic analysis of marketing messages in UK universities’
prospectuses. International Journal of Educational Management.
Pantano, E., Bassano, C. and Priporas, C.V., 2018. Technology and innovation for marketing.
Routledge.
Stylos, N. and Bellou, V., 2019. Investigating tourists’ revisit proxies: The key role of
destination loyalty and its dimensions. Journal of Travel Research, 58(7), pp.1123-1145.
5