Integrated Marketing Channels for Dakota Hotels

This report discusses the importance of communication channels in the hospitality industry, with a focus on Dakota Hotels. It covers different types of marketing channels, communication objectives, justifications for the choice and integration of communication channels, and evaluation of the marketing communication plan. The report also includes specific objectives for increasing social media presence and market share, and evaluates the application of communication objectives.

Integrated Marketing
Channels

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A marketing channel is defined as the medium of communication through which
organisation communicates with its intended audience. The main aim is to provide information
about products and services of a organisation to the customers so that they can use and consumer
while meet their expectations for the same. It also involves several types of communication
channels such as event marketing, social media marketing, telecommunication and so forth. It is
also essential to build clear and smart objectives of communication so that marketing aims can
be realised for the business.

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Task..................................................................................................................................................4
P1 Different types of marketing channels and how they serve communication objectives
within an organisational context..................................................................................................4
M1. Evaluation of how marketing channels of communication are integrated within a
hospitality organisation to add value and increase resources......................................................6
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
P2. Communication objectives for a given organisational situations..........................................6
P3. Justifications for the choice and integration of communication channels chosen.................8
M2. Evaluate the application of the communication objectives..................................................9
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................10
P4. Marketing communication plan to achieve communication objectives..............................10
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................14
P5. Critically evaluate the marketing communication plan in the relation to the communication
strategy, creative content and choice.........................................................................................14
M3. Critically analyse the success of the monitoring and impact of plan of marketing
communication...........................................................................................................................15
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17
Books and Journals:...................................................................................................................17

Introduction
Communication is a two way process where sender sends the message and receiver
receive message from sender. In context of corporate sector, it is essential for the companies to
communicate effectively with their customers and especially in hospitality industry. It is
essential for hotels and restaurants to choose their communication channel effectively whi9ch
will help them to attract more customers. (Caliskan, Özen and Ozturkoglu, 2020). Dakota hotels
is one of the most popular chain of hotels in UK which has five locations in UK and it is founded
in the year 2006. The hotel have luxurious rooms and well furnished dinning hall for their
customers. The respective brand also expanded their business into Leeds, Central Glasgow,
together with Manchester. Due to effective marketing strategies, it attracted many celebrities has
well and they stayed in the hotel. These celebrities include Hugh Jackman, Katy Perry, The
Stone Roses, Melaniew Brown and many more. The following report covers different types of
communication channel, communication objectives, justification for selecting one
communication channel, marketing communication plan and evaluation of marketing
communication plan in relation to communication strategy, channel choice and creative content.
Task
P1 Different types of marketing channels and how they serve communication objectives within
an organisational context
Marketing channel refers as a set of people, activities and organisations that work
mutually to move or flow products and services from one point to another for the consumption
purpose. The key goal is to make a connection between prospect customers and organisation.
Using different marketing channels aid company to reach its aimed audience and build healthy
relationship with them. It is essential for the chosen organisation to select effective
communication channel to communicate and make effective relations with their customers.
There are various kinds of marketing communication channels which are mentioned below- E-mails: This is one of the most formal way of communication channel with customers.
Here, companies send mails to their customers to aware them about their locations and
offerings as well as the benefits to choose them rather than other hotels. The positive side
of email is that it can sent anytime, whether it is night or day or any day of the year.
Whereas, it contains spam which is a major drawback. Dakota hotels send emails to their

customers in order to ask them to provide ratings on the hotel, employees, services and
many more. Social media channels: Today, this channel is commonly used by most of the companies
especially hospitality sector companies. In context of chosen organisation, they can
promote their hotels and its offerings effectively through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
and many other social media channels (Cartwright, Davies and Archer-Brown, 2021).
This social media channel for communication have global reach and hence it is effective
to attract more customers at worldwide to selected organisation. The positive side is that
social media can help in attaining large customer base for the company, while it can also
lead people towards mental depression and loneliness if misused. Dakota utilize YouTube
to take survey on the customers' expectations, choices, demands or what the company can
offer better to fulfil their needs. Telecommunication: This is another most popular channel for communication where
companies communicate with their customers through mobile phones by calling and
speaking about their hotel. The main advantage of tele-communication channel is that
here customers can ask quarries on the spot and make their doubts clear on the spot while
talking on the call with hotel marketers. The pro is that telecommunication can help
employees to exchange data or information in real time as well as reach out the potential
customers. On the other hand, it can also increase prank calls and creates
misunderstanding among people. In Dakota Hotels, the telecommunicator calls their
customers in order to know the timings when they will come to hotel for check-in
purpose, they may also ask for how many customers will arrive, for example, asking for
baby as they need extra facilities and many more. Event marketing: It can be held in person or even it can be held virtually through
webinars. The cost of web conferencing has made virtual events, webinars possible for all
kind of organisations (Chen, Lu and Tang, 2019). In addition with Dakota Groups, the
event marketing can be used to engage their customers with the brand and communicate
the information about its offers as well. The benefit is that event marketing can help in
building brand exposure and developing healthy bond with customers. While, the
drawback is that, event marketing requires time to plan, marketing and implement a
hosted event. Dakota can invite celebrities or famous people for their brand promotion.

 Word of mouth: It is the strategy of marketing communication through which many
organisation gets benefits as the person who visited once in a hotel organisation tell or
communicate their experiences, or feedback or reviews about services and products to
other people who are known or unknown to them. This is used an important tool as future
customer might gain actual reviews on the brand and its related services. Word of mouth
marketing can support customers to meet their expectations about certain goods and
services that may be tough to meet. The known ones or friends might help them out by
suggesting the good to try it, whereas if the item does not meet the expectations, then it
may lead to disappointments. For examples, the visitors and guests of Dakota
organisation may share their experience with their known ones whether it is positive or
negative. Hence, the company need to ensure that they should deliver every possible
effort to offer best customer experience.
M1. Evaluation of how marketing channels of communication are integrated within a hospitality
organisation to add value and increase resources
Communication channels plays an important role in creating brand value for the chosen
organisation which further help them to identify the ways and to manage their resources
appropriately. In context of social media channels, most of the customers will get attracted
toward the images of the hotel and their information which they share. Hence, while seeing the
post of mentioned hotel on social media sites, customers will contact to hotel and ask for more
details (Crittenden, Crittenden and Crittenden, 2019). Hence, they show more interest to use their
hospitality facilities. On the other hand, through communication channels companies can analyse
the needs and wants of their customers to work upon to fulfil them. Taking feedback from
customers through these marketing channels will further help to analyse where a hotel need to
invest more and where not.
Task 2
P2. Communication objectives for a given organisational situations.
Communication objectives can be defined as the long term objectives and aims of the
organisation where marketers wish to gain their brand value over time. Marketing objectives
helps in addressing the customer’s behaviours such as their visits, purchases and request for
information. In addition with Dakota hotels, the key purpose of marketing communication is to

communicate, convince as well as compete for the purpose of gaining competitive benefits in the
hospitality sector. Communicate: The communication objectives is covered with properly and clearly
communicate content to the targeted customers in respect of their brand as well as its
hospitality services. It give assistance in spreading awareness about their brand, together
with encourage people to experience multiple hospitality services and visit again. Compete: It refers to compete consistently and effectively in the target marketplace as
there are several other hospitality organisations provides similar services with similar
costs to the customers (Dabbous and Barakat, 2020). With an effective marketing
communication channel, marketers of the chosen hospitality firm may be able to attract
target masses, develop positive brand image and supports in differentiating their
hospitality services and much more. Convince: It is concerned with the marketing communication objectives of Dakota hotels
is to convince their customers to come again by indulging better quality services and
goods which improves their personal experience with the brand. With the use of
innovative ideas, and other e-commerce technology, the company can promote their
services and goods to gain the attention of audience to come and exploit their services in
the hotel while enjoying their vacay time. This way the chosen organisation fit into their
marketing communication aims in the most efficacious way and attain positive market
position.
Objectives Specific Measurable Achievable Relevancy Time-bound
1 To increase
presence on
social media
platforms.
It is
measurable by
comparing
how much
visitors have
attended the
hotel in
current month
and last
month.
It is
achievable by
focusing on
social media
marketing and
online
marketing to
increase brand
awareness and
promote their
It is found as
relevant to
increase
presence and
value of brand
on different
social media
platforms
(Koetz, 2018).
It can be
achieved
within three
months.

products and
services in the
target market.
2 To increase
the market
share by 15%
for certain
services within
three years of
launch.
It can be
measured by
seeing the
satisfaction
level of
customers,
whether they
like it or not.
By giving
right
knowledge of
benefits of
services, this
can be
achieved.
It is relevant to
launch new
services as
many
customers
always need
something
new to try for
their
experience.
Three years
will be enough
to attain this
objective.
P3. Justifications for the choice and integration of communication channels chosen.
It is found that there are many channels which are available for the marketing
communication such as email marketing, telecommunication, digital marketing and much more.
In respect of Dakota hotels, after analysing and evaluating all the channels, the best identified
channels of marketing communication is social media marketing as it reaches target audience
with minimum time and less costs (Donthu and et.al., 2021). This is a suitable option to promote
brand and hospitality services as now almost every single customer is using social media
channels and are highly active on their account so they can see and visualise what the selected
brand wants to communicate and share with them. Also, these channels of communication helps
in convenient communication and interaction with various customers where they can ask queries,
information, provide comment on the hotel services, their food and maintenance and many more.
Hence, below are the justifications which signifies the importance of the selected marketing
communication channel: Increasing brand recognition: Social media marketing gives the hotel brand to improve
their customer base and increase share of market. With the right implementation of this
channel, the chosen brand assembles information about their customer's, together with

their tastes and preferences so that they the chosen hotel can provide better and high
quality hospitality services. Proper communication is the key to gain customer attention. Improve connectivity of customer's with brand: Social media and digital platforms
provides the organisation to improve their connection with desired customers and
stimulate them to consume business products and services (Du, Cui and Su, 2018).
Additionally, it gives an effective channel to share all the messages or content to its
potential customers while getting their feedback and comments on the services they have
given to them. Hence, this will help in improving their image while keeping healthy
relationships with customers. Social media campaigns are performed by the Dakota
hotels to increase their brand awareness about new innovative services. On social media
channels, there are options to make connectivity with customers such as like, comment or
share to other customers.
 Collect information about customers: Dakota hotels collect many information about the
targeted customers and their expectations with the brand. All such data and content can
help the company to create proper goods and services that fits into customer's demands
and needs. Hence, with all such benefits, it can be said that social media marketing can
have an essential role in the communication.
M2. Evaluate the application of the communication objectives.
This has been evaluated that the objectives of marketing communication is important to
select the appropriate tool or channels of communication. By having an effective marketing tool
and channel, the chosen hotel brand in UK can compete with other players in the hospitality
sector. Choosing the right tool will help the organisation to convince people or target audience to
use or consume hospitality services and have wonderful experiences with the brand. The
marketing communication relates with all the tools or channels of communication which
marketing professionals utilise such as email, telecommunication, social media marketing and
many more. Effective marketing strategies contains usually one or more than one tool in the
marketing plan to increase effectiveness and to add value to the customers which finally boost
their experiences with the brand. Therefore, choosing right communication tool is important to
meet marketing communication objective.

Task 3
P4. Marketing communication plan to achieve communication objectives.
A marketing communication plan is also known as marcom plan which emphasis a plan
or tactic used to inform the target customer audience about the good or service. In context to
Dakota hotels, the chosen organisation creates proper and impressive marketing communication
plan that gives organisation to collect all the data and knowledge related with the target
customers and also communicate them with business products and services that will be served to
the company (Gao and et.al., 2021). In order to create complete marketing communication plan,
the SOSTAC model has been used for the organisation. It helps in business and marketing
planning. Through SOSTAC model, the chosen hotel organisation can set clear goals, concise
objectives and allow them to measure the progress, together with whether they are going to attain
those goals or not.
Situation: This is the first stage in the model that aims to analyse the situation of business. In
addition to Dakota hotels, it is found that the existing situation of the business can be determined
with the help of SWOT analysis that aims to shed lights on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats of the respective business in hospitality industry.
SWOT:
Strengths  Employees are the strength of the business as they are developed and
trained to do their respective task in the most efficient way.
 It has a good brand image in the hospitality industry as they aimed to
satisfy the customer's demands and needs effectively.
 It can be the first choice of the customers as it located near Edinburgh
Airport where customers can book their rooms and enjoy different
hospitality services.
Weaknesses  It has a poor presence in global market due to which it is unable to
make connection with diverse clients (Hansen and et.al., 2020).
 As the global pandemic has fall down the hotel booking rates and
prices as customers tend to avoid travelling due to hygiene purpose,
the profit margin of the company also gets reduced.
Opportunities  The company can boost its online presence which also helps in

reaching the global customer base.
 Introduction of new services can support in attracting customers while
retaining the older ones the same time.
 Providing training and development workshops employees may better
provide hospitality services to their customers.
Threats  There are many small and bigger firms in the hospitality industry
which can offer tough competition to the Dakota Groups.
 Changing tastes and preferences of targeted audience can be a major
threat if the company is not able to satisfy them.
PESTLE Analysis:
 Political factors: The company has been highly impacted by the Brexit as it creates trade
restrictions on the business while others think that it created employment opportunities
for the people.
 Economic factors: Covid-19 is the factor that increases the unemployment rates in the
country which results in low staff members in Dakota Groups.
 Social factors: It can be taken as an opportunity by considering the hygiene needs and
demands of the customers.
 Technological factors: The company can enhance their online booking system and
check in and check out system by employing new technology in the business.
 Legal factors: The respective organisation needs to consider the privacy laws and
legislations so that the personal details and information of customers shall be protected
by the company. Environmental factors: The wastage of water is a threat for the organisation and thus,
needs to take initiatives by the organisation.
Objectives: To enhance the brand awareness on social media platforms such as Instagram or
YouTube.
Strategy:
STP: Segmentation: The company aims to segment their customers on the basis of
demographic basis, behavioural basis, together with psychographic segmentation.

 Targeting: The customers are targeted on the regional basis so that effective reach can
be possible. Positioning: Dakota hotel groups is having a strong position in the market so it can easily
be the choice of their target customers. They use many marketing tools and techniques to
reach their message to the targeted audience. They exploit email marketing,
telecommunication, social media marketing and much more.
RACE model: Reach: This is the stage where brand aims to create its awareness in the target audience
to use its hospitality products and services. Dakota Groups aims to build their audience
with the help of both online and offline marketing communication tools so that maximum
customers can come and visit their hotel. Act: For the marketers, it is quite challenging to the interact with customers on online
mediums and convince them to use various services offered by the hotel brand. In
addition with Dakota, they can use google analytics to know which product or demand
has been increasing among customers, what they look or search for, what they add into
their card and many more (Ma and Du, 2018). This information can help customers to
interact with the audience and suggest them to use their services. Convert: This is the stage to convert customers into paying customers whether the
payment is done from offline or online channels. Dakota group can modify or put some
changes into content of marketing so that they can attract and reach their customers to
convert them to pay for the services. Engage: This signifies as the long term engagement or relationship with the brand. It is
the effort that puts by the organisation in the first meeting or interaction with the
customers in order to make them engaged with the brand for repeat purchases. Dakota
Groups can engage their customers through social media platforms, direct marketing,
email marketing and many more.
Tactics:
Marketing mix:
Product Price Promotion Place
Bed rooms, bars,
banquet hall,
Prices are set as per
the season and
Email marketing,
social media
Hospitality services is
provided to all local

conference rooms,
swimming pool and
much more.
holidays. It is also set
as per needs and
requirements of
customers.
marketing and also
advertisement will be
good to communicate
the messages or offers
of brand.
and international
customers.
Action:
Marketing budget of Dakota Groups
Particulars
1st year
(£)
2nd year
(£)
3rd year
(£)
4th year
(£)
5th year
(£)
Initial money 9000 6500 7000 32000 13500
Investment 8000 9000 7000 14500 18350
Total 17000 15500 14000 46500 31850
Marketing outlay
Promotion 4500 3200 4300 3300 3250
Online marketing 2000 2100 3300 2200 2000
Direct marketing 7200 2500 6000 3000 4650
Total 13700 7800 13600 8500 9900
Control:
Benchmarking and KPI techniques will be used in order to track the overall performance of the
plan and then changes will be made, if necessary (Valos, Mavondo and Nyadzayo, 2019). Thus,
this helps in gaining the ultimate result of the respective organisation.

Task 4
P5. Critically evaluate the marketing communication plan in the relation to the communication
strategy, creative content and choice.
Integrated marketing communication plan of Dakota hotels which is mentioned above
explains how marketers advertise and promote their hospitality services to target masses in
world-wide marketplace (Mark and et.al., 2019). In addition with Dakota hotels, it needs to
consider effective marketing communication tactic, selection of channel and creative content
which are elaborated underneath:
Communication strategy: In Dakota hotels, the communication strategy has been
developed by marketers to increase their brand awareness and presence in the target market in
which they communicate about certain goals and objectives and how they attain as well as what
is the prominence for their company and so on. As they make plan and tactic to reach their target
audience without having proper research related with market trends and market situation which
has both benefits and downside (Swan, Brown and Mudambi, 2020). The positive side is that it
assists in attracting customers and improve business profitability. On the other side, it leads to
boost in expenditures and also it consumers time.
STP: Segmentation: The segmentation of customers is based on the geographic factors,
behavioural factors and demographic factors. Targeting: The company target the customers all around the world and try to approach
international customers by their services.
 Positioning: The Dakota Groups uses mainly social media marketing to reach its
customers and communicate the offers of brand.
Channels choice: The marketing team of the chosen hotel brand exploit mostly social
media channels to increase their presence and brand awareness to the big group of audience. It
helps in lowering the expenditures, boosts market shares, brand worth and much more. On the
second hand, it needs time to looking for the right bloggers and influencers who can make
content for the brand and to accomplish the marketing communication objectives. Dakota
organization also uses email marketing to share current offers and services to their customers.
They also create seminars and conferences for the event marketing so that maximum members
can be involved towards the company.

Creative Content: In context to Dakota hotels, marketing team delivers their full
contribution to make their content effective and impressive at the same time. They emphasise on
the marketing mix with the intent to meet their predetermined objectives effectively. This is
found and examined that there are some positive and negative points of their marketing content
which impact their overall operations of organisation (Pedersen and et.al., 2020). Due to the
implementation of some changes in the tag line, prospectus as well as logo can assist in driving
customer attention towards them and attain the success of their new innovation to raise value of
brand. While, it also impact the budget of the chosen org' as they require to appoint experts and
professionals who has complete knowledge about advanced technology to make their content
attractive. This will also increase the cost to printing new logo, tag line, along with cover page,
moreover, it also facilitate training to utilise online tools and technologies in promotion.
Advertisement can be used by the chosen hotel business in which they can use creativity to show
their idea of product or service and also makes clear communication with the customers through
visual view. It helps in reaching customers all around the world.
M3. Critically analyse the success of the monitoring and impact of plan of marketing
communication.
It has been critically analysed that marketing plan has been used by management of the
Dakota Groups to promote their business and its products and services among target audience. In
order to convey their marketing message or information, different tools and channels have been
exploited by the chosen hotel group such as social media marketing which is one of the most
effective and trending tools for conveying marketing communication. An effective marketing
plan can aid the business firm to analyse different channels, produce marketing mix covering its
products, prices, promotion and place. Segmentation can support in targeting the right audience
to attract towards the organisation and to consume different kinds of hospitality services such as
food, staying, bars and many more. A budget is also important in the overall plan which is
determined with the help of financial team of the company (Peter and Dalla Vecchia, 2021). It is
also analysed that the success and performance of the marketing communication can be
measured by the benchmarking and KPI tools so as to make necessary alterations to attain the
predetermined objectives and goals. KPI tool support the company to know how digital
marketing works for their organisation such as it is worth to use it in their business or it is adding
value to the brand or not. Dakota can track their performance by seeing number of viewers, post,

comments, likes, reactions or shares. It also has been critically evaluated that the chosen
hospitality organisation gains success after implementing their marketing communication tactic
as they make timely alterations in the whole procedure which leads to enhance their customer
base (Schultz, Block and Viswanathan, 2018). On the other side, it faced issues such as
disagreements among different stakeholders regarding which channel can used to get promoted
in public. Also, due to the deficiencies in digital skills, they do mistakes which can negatively
affect the costs, together with time.
Conclusion
This has been concluded from the above report is that marketing communication is
important for the businesses in order to convey, share or communicate essential message or
information of the organisation to its potential customers. This can be done with the help of
multiple marketing channels such as email marketing, direct marketing, digital marketing and
many more. All such tools support business firms in increasing brand awareness and advertise
products and services in an efficient way. In any industry or sector, information related with
customers has been gathered and analysed for the purpose of attaining its objectives. An
effective marketing communication plan support the business organisation to know its target
customers, budget and what actions can be taken attain those marketing aims and much more.

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