Marketing and Customer Retention of Hospitality Industry

This report discusses the importance of marketing in the hospitality industry and focuses on the marketing strategies and customer retention tools used by The Landmark Hotel. It analyzes the characteristics of the hotel's relationship marketing program and its success as a customer retention tool. It also proposes strategies for developing a loyalty program in the hospitality industry.

Marketing and
Customer Retention of
Hospitality Industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
The marketing mix of The Landmark Hotel (and extended marketing mix) and its use in their
marketing strategies................................................................................................................3
Analyse the characteristics of the organisation’s relationship marketing programme and
explain its success or failure as a customer retention tool with reasons................................5
Proposing strategies for the development of a loyalty programme in for own business within
in the hospitality industry.......................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a business stream that deals in making promotions and spreading awareness
in market about the products and services of the firm or organisations. Marketing practices
enables a communication channel to respective organisation which allows it to stay in close
touch and contact with potential buyers and targeted audiences (Šerić, Ozretić-Došen and Škare,
2020). Like every other industry, hospitality service providers and the field do have similar
importance of the notion of marketing. The plans and methodologies of marketing enables the
hospitality firm to showcase their value to customers and to attract them for making purchases as
well stay connected with the firm for the longer period of time. Thus, in hospitality industry
marketing do have a critical role to play and offers its benefits to the firm and businesses by
increased profitability and proficiency.
The present report is based on The Landmark Hotel a five star luxury property located in
the heart of the city with a magnificent historic hotel and bringing together classic styles and
luxury with modern amenities preferences of people founded in 1899. The organisation deals
mainly in accommodation and food & beverage sector of hospitality amongst all four. The
Landmark hotel is famous for its spacious property with big sizes of rooms and the elegance it
offers. The present assignment includes the marketing mix strategies of the hotel and how it uses
them in their marketing activities. Moving along, the characteristics of company's relationship
marketing programme are elaborated with focus over its success in customer retention and
gaining their loyalty. Moreover, few strategies of customer retention and loyalty will be then
suggested after a thorough analysis.
MAIN BODY
The marketing mix of The Landmark Hotel (and extended marketing mix) and its use in their
marketing strategies.
Marketing mix is a framework that supports and administer company's marketing and
promotional actions. It is constituted of seven tactical factors which when combines together
presents a strong and long lasting marketing strategy for firms (Ta and Yang, 2018). These
tactics and factors are related with customers needs and developed in way to address them in the
best possible manner for keeping people happy and satisfied with the firm. The marketing mix of

The Landmark Hotel London is presented below in context of effectual contribution in marketing
strategies of the hotel. Product- As mentioned The Landmark Hotel deals I accommodation and food &
beverage sector of hospitality. The hotel has very spacious and elegant room with most
impressive suits and comfortable, peaceful environment to guests. The Landmark Hotel
also has a spectacular and charming dining settings in separate places like its winter
garden, Garden Terrace, Great Central its bar and restaurant, a Mirror bar and place for
meetings and events. The hotel also have a huge spa with blissful environment for
helping people nourish their mind and relaxation (Yam, Raybould and Gordon, 2018) . Price- The Landmark Hotel is a luxury brand which offers unique style of rooms to
customers which are big and elegant. The rooms are divided into two categories Superior
rooms and family executive rooms, then comes its Suites which are of two types Great
Central suite and Marylebone suites and lastly it presidential suits. According to service
and product offering the hotel attracted elite and high class people of society and thus, its
pricing strategy is premium. The prices of services showcases the elegance which The
Landmark Hotel will be providing the user and the value they will be adding in their
experiences. Place- The third tactical factor is place that focuses over the distribution channel of
organisations through which they stay connected with customers and serves them the
preferred products and services. The Landmark Hotel is a huge brand name in hospitality
market London and the hotel is situated right in the city centre and connected with
Marylebone Station Road. The hotel do offer online services as well where it enable
customers to make their booking online before head either by their official website or
through external websites like tripadvisor, bookings.com etc (Rahman and Ayaz, 2018) . Promotion- This is the factor which is directly related to marketing and making
provisions of information to external people about the offerings and values of the
company. The Landmark Hotel make use of social media platforms and digital marketing
techniques to make promotions. The hotel use beautiful pictures for its social media
pages to showcase its elegance. The official website is used to provide all information
about nee discount offers, vouchers and packages. Basically, company's website is used

for promotions by the loyalty programmes and for attracting the potential buyers or
guests. People- When it comes to employees or people in an hospitality organisation, it is a
tactical area for the firm to be used in their promotional plans and concepts. This is
because employees are the face of the hotel who stay most close to customers and who
fulfil every need of the buyers. Thus, employees are well professionally trained which
will adds value for future and new purchases of The Landmark Hotel with mouth
publicity and their exquisite services. Process- The Landmark Hotel indulges in physical functions for serving customers that
is visitors in hotel with the prescribed services and products they have opted for and paid
a significant amount. The processes helps in developing mouth publicity as the
effectiveness of services and staff performance increases experience value at the time of
stay and brings in loyalty of guests towards the brand (Kasemsap, 2018).
 Physical Evidence- The major physical evidence which contributes to effectual
promotions and marketing of The Landmark Hotel is its premises. The hotel uses its
premises photos such as rooms and health clubs for its websites to seek attention with eye
catching, beautiful photos of the hotel.
Analyse the characteristics of the organisation’s relationship marketing programme and explain
its success or failure as a customer retention tool with reasons.
Relationship Marketing is a feature of effective and potential customer relationship
management (CRM) system of an organisation. The notion of relationship marketing is aimed at
increasing customer loyalty and developing longer term engagement with guests for the
hospitality service provider or customers for other firms and businesses. The concept is goals are
divided into smaller parts that is to create a strong connections with clients, connects on
personalised level with the buyer for benefit of the brand and engage customers in marketing by
mouth publicity and promotion. The characteristics of customer relationship marketing
programme of The Landmark Hotel, London are presented underneath. The hotel has divided its
customer loyalty programmes into three segments. Individual memberships, these are made for individual members who are frequently
visiting London and enjoys a safe and magnificent stay in luxury hotels. The member has
to pay joining fee of £125 with variation that is the individual can take the full plan or opt

for gym or for swimming according to their conveniences. The loyalty membership
scheme is best suited when taken annual plan as it cost less and benefits involved are
more. Joint memberships, is for two persons where joining fee for per person is £125 can avail
monthly (£300), quarterly (£1,700) and annual (£3,300) plans. The joint membership can
be changes into family membership in which each member can is allowed one addition
child costing £500 annually (Huang, Lee, and Chen, 2019).
 Corporate memberships, is for business professionals and democrats who travels a lot to
London for work purposes. The membership for joining is same of £125 and includes
five or more member with flexible annual (£1,200) and monthly plans (£110).
All the three memberships are the part of customer loyalty programme of The Landmark
Hotel with additional terms and conditions applied. These are some flexible and cost saving
plans made available for regular traveller and customer of the brand who enjoys the quality and
elegance of services being rendered while they are away from their homes and wishes for
comfort.
Success of loyalty programme of The Landmark Hotel as customer retention tool:
The loyalty programme is one tool which enables the hotel to develop long term
relationships with potential buyers and regular customers of the organisation. The membership
phenomena of The Landmark Hotel is offering different types of membership to three types of
customers an individual, a business professional and family membership. The loyalty programme
addressed to increasing profitability and revenues of hotel by getting regular fee of members and
making the firm gain mouth publicity. The customers satisfaction and higher degree of
experiences results in increasing mouth publicity and attracting more and more guests in relation
to existing guests and m,ember so hotel. Despite of the memberships and the lower cost involved
there are number of benefits which individuals enjoy with these memberships such as 3 and 5
complementary days of stay with six months and annual plans. Additional discounts on bills of
dine in restaurants like in Garden Restaurant of the hotel and Bars too. These benefits which
comes with the memberships boosts customer retention aspect of the hotel. The loyalty of
customers are technically in account of The Landmark Hotel and now its responsibilities of hotel
management and staff to provide the customer with best to keep them engaged and attached for
the longer period with the firm.

Proposing strategies for the development of a loyalty programme in for own business within in
the hospitality industry.
Loyalty marketing strategies and ideas supports the notion of marketing and developing
awareness in market about the company, its offerings that tangible and intangible resources the
company willing to provide customers and develops a unique presence in competitive
marketplace. The loyalty programme proceedings and ideas are effectual and value adding for
the hospitality industry firms. Thus, with the evaluation conducted in above section about the
loyalty programme of The Landmark Hotel in London assisted and supported me in gaining an
idea for a loyalty procedures for my own hospitality brand which I am wishing to build after
completion of my LUM BA hospitality management course (Griffin, 2020).
I am planning to enter in accommodation sector and willing to build a hotel attracting
only business travellers and those who needs a comforting place to stay which feels like home
even when they are away form home due to work in very low prices and in their tour budgets.
Thus, for the same some loyalty strategies which I am wishing to include in my hotel are as
follows: Reward Points is a basic customer loyalty and retention factor in which rewarded points
to customers will make them visit the hotel again. Thus, according to my target
audiences that is business travellers I will be using rewards for motivating them and
encouraging future purchases. Membership- This loyalty scheme is favourable to those who are regular travellers and
are out for work in same location for multiple days in a month. The memberships will be
available on monthly and annual basis where prepayments can be made for frequent stay
on pre informed dates by the guests with additional benefits as per the scenarios.
 Flexible Check Inn and Check Outs- The person travelling for business needs
flexibility and thus, it will be provided by me. I will be making flexible check inn and
check out for my member customers and those who are frequent to my hotel (Bratton
and Watson, 2018).
CONCLUSION
The above report is constructed on hospitality industry and marketing which summarises
the interlinking of both and certain level of dependency of service providing firms on effective
and influential marketing. A thorough analysis is produced for understanding the relationship

management and loyalty programmes of the organisation. The customers needs to be kept
attached and in close touch thus, the loyalty programmes offers a unique power to organisation in
doing so for achieving goals and serving the best to fulfil clients desires and expectations form
the hotel.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bratton, J. and Watson, S., 2018. Talent management, emotional labour and the role of line
managers in the Scottish hospitality industry. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
Themes.
Griffin, W.C., 2020. Hospitality faculty: are we meeting the demands of industry?. Journal of
Teaching in Travel & Tourism, pp.1-22.
Huang, P.L., Lee, B.C. and Chen, C.C., 2019. The influence of service quality on customer
satisfaction and loyalty in B2B technology service industry. Total Quality Management
& Business Excellence. 30(13-14). pp.1449-1465.
Kasemsap, K., 2018. Hospitality and tourism management: Advanced issues and
implications. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the
Digital Age (IJTHMDA). 2(2). pp.37-52.
Rahman, M.K.U. and Ayaz, M., 2018. The Impact of Marketing Mix on Customer Buying
Behavior: A Case Study of Footwear Industry. NUML International Journal of Business
& Management. 13(1). pp.107-117.
Šerić, M., Ozretić-Došen, Đ. and Škare, V., 2020. How can perceived consistency in marketing
communications influence customer–brand relationship outcomes?. European
Management Journal. 38(2). pp.335-343.
Ta, D.T. and Yang, C.H., 2018. Exploring the impacts of service innovation on customer
satisfaction in the telecom industry: A perspective from interactive and supportive
service innovations. International Journal of Innovation Management. 22(07).
p.1850053.
Yam, L., Raybould, M. and Gordon, R., 2018. Employment stability and retention in the
hospitality industry: Exploring the role of job embeddedness. Journal of Human
Resources in Hospitality & Tourism. 17(4). pp.445-464.
Online:
The Landmark Hotel, 2020. [Online] Available Through: <https://www.landmarklondon.co.uk/>