Performance Driven Digital Marketing in Strategy Development of the PPHE Hotel Group

Running head: MARKETING
Performance Driven Marketing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1
MARKETING
Executive Summary:
The aim of the report lies in providing a evaluation of effectiveness of the digital marketing over
the traditional marketing in strategy development of the PPHE Hotel Group. The report
commences with the definition of the definition of marketing, marketing strategy, traditional
marketing and digital marketing and goes on to explain how digital marketing is taking over
traditional marketing trends, skills and benefits.

2
MARKETING
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Critical Evaluation of or Digital Marketing Replaces Traditional Marketing in Strategy
Development....................................................................................................................................3
Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing...............................................................................7
Difference in Skills between Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing...............................9
Digital Marketing Puts across Clearer Customer Targeting......................................................11
The Benefits of Digital Marketing Agency...............................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................13

3
MARKETING
Introduction:
The report aims at providing a critical evaluation of how digital marketing replaced the
traditional marketing in the development of strategy in context of PPHE hotel group (pphe.com
2019). It is a real estate international hospitality group in possession of a portfolio of £ 1.6 billion
mostly including the long leasehold and the freehold assets in Europe and in the leading cities,
resort destinations and the urban markets. In recent times, the hospitality industry is facing
intense competition and challenges and there undergoes changes in holding significance to e to
the client. At the same time, the consumers are also undergoing a change in their habits and
preferences that makes them difficult for the firms in following and adapting to the change.
However, in response to shift in consumer behavior, hospitality industry like PPHE hotel group
started using strategies and newer tools along with mixing the available channels for not only
marketing but also engaging and connecting to the potential consumers. In other words, the focus
shifted to digital marketing. The report aims at provides an evaluation on whether the digital
marketing replaced the traditional marketing for strategy development. In doing so, the report
puts across the definitions of marketing and the marketing strategy and assesses how digital
marketing or online marketing is gradually replacing traditional marketing.
Critical Evaluation of or Digital Marketing Replaces Traditional Marketing in Strategy
Development
According to Kotler et.al (2015), marketing has influenced every individual in the
waking moment of the lives even when the individuals might not be conscious about. However,
it has been noted that throughout the hospitality industry that concept of marketing had an
evolution from the product orientation, sales orientation, marketing orientation to relationship

4
MARKETING
orientation. It is not only important for the hospitality brands in focusing on the customers and
building a stronger relationship with the stakeholders involved in the process of the value chain.
Öztamur and Karakadılar (2014) put forward the fact that marketing strategy plays a
key role in determining the long term goals of the PPHE hotel group. While setting the
marketing strategy the group aims in establishing a competitive strategy over the competitors
while articulating best use of the tactics and resources for achieving the marketing objectives.
Marketing is undergoing a digital revolution that encourages the PPHE hotel group in becoming
more adaptable and flexible and accesses the strategies relevant to the organization (pphe.com
2019). It has been found that the hotel operators agree on investment in the technology thereby
helping in increase sales, enhance productivity and ensure competitive edge. The hospitality
industry also makes concerted efforts in adopting e the mobile pay system which implies that in
the next few years it will represent something which the industry will not be able to ignore.
According to Xu, Frankwick and Ramirez (2016), traditional marketing refers to
whether a particular industry is capable of pursuing the right strategy, segmentation, product
differentiation and is able to take care of the 4Ps. An important and recent shift in the consumer
behavior has led to a decline in the traditional marketing. Consumers now have better control
over information received. One of the other aspects of the traditional marketing lies in the lack
of the customer engagement. Besides, communication in the traditional marketing depends on
one-to many- model that forces the company in maintaining a relationship with the customers
primarily dependent on the grabbing of attention than value. In addition to this it can be said that
traditional marketing is expensive compared to digital marketing. In spite of the shift in trend of
consumer behavior with trends pointing in favor of digital marketing, the hospitality sector still
has an investment in the traditional marketing. As per the records of 2016, close to 46 percent of

5
MARKETING
the hospitality sector planned in keeping aside offline budgets for marketing which is 21 percent
higher compared to the previous year although offline marketing has been quite expense
compared to the digital ones(Mavoothu 2013). This is because of various reasons which include:
 Traditional marketing results in more lead generation
 Plays a key role in decision making regarding strategy development.
On other hand, Chaffey and Smith (2013) proposed that digital marketing holds an
importance as marketing strategy in particular sector irrespective of the size, sector or the origin
country. The hospitality sector in order to maintain a competitive advantage exploits this
particular kind of marketing that also brings in huge benefits at lower cost. Initially,
communication between the company and the consumer had linear format but it became more
interactive with the shift in the model from one to one to many to many model. In digital
marketing, the customers have the freedom of sharing ideas, thoughts, content and building
relationship online. This form of marketing also enables the hospitality sector with greater
information from the customers along with receiving valuable insight about the preferences and
behavior. This in a way helps the PPHE hotel group in increasing the awareness and the brand
loyalty, minimizing the campaign mistakes and increasing the profitability (pphe.com 2019).
According to Collier and Bienstock (2015), the key concept in digital marketing depends on
the inbound approach of marketing which is also known as the customer centric approach.
Companies using the inbound marketing work have two key strategies: the first refers to the
communication with the audience through channels that received permission for undertaking
communication while the second refers to paying attention to the questions that people ask
throughout internet thereby answering them and proliferating the answers across the web for

6
MARKETING
anticipating the questions that the others have. In this regard, Dodson (2016) stated that there are
digital marketers who doesn’t understand the complexities of the inbound marketing and sticks
to the linear approach they are comfortable with. It has been found that, the most marketers use
the inbound marketing for providing value to the consumers who remain actively involved in
searching for the information about the product.
The hospitality industry like PPHE group is likely to enter the new industry standards by
adopting the following digital marketing trends (pphe.com 2019).
 Increased Penetration of Technology: It is found that 83 percent of the adults use
tablets or smart phones for searching restaurant locations, hours and directions. This
represented a larger segment of the consumer going online leads to the creation of digital
market within industry (El Sawy and Pereira 2013).
 Customization and Cost Effectiveness: Advertisement through the digital markets is
cost effective compared to the traditional methods of marketing. For instance, the chefs
of the hospitality sector like the PPHE hotel group encourages the customers in posting
the pictures of the food on the social media sites thereby providing free publicity to
restaurant owners (Hess et al. 2016). The sector also connects with the customers via
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram thereby allowing the marketers in capturing the social
profile of the consumers that can be used for running target email campaigns.
 Enhanced Adoption by Industry: It has been found that close to 80 percent of the
restaurant operators agrees that investment in the technology aids in enhancing the sales,
making the restaurants increasingly productive thereby providing them with a
competitive edge (Killian and McManus 2015). This has forced the owners in enhancing
the use of mainstream technology by 14 percent.

7
MARKETING
Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing
According to Nosrati et al. (2013), digital marketing refers to the marketing mode via the
internet that influences each realm of life. The platform for digital marketing represents social
media like the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, business networking sites like the LinkedIn,
promotional ads via emails, blogs, paid pop-ups and clickbait links for the viral content.
Nevertheless, online marketing is thus unique compared to the traditional marketing due to
following reasons:
1. Digital Marketing has Reduced Cost than Traditional Marketing: Traditional marketing
mediums like television newspaper have a higher cost. While on the other hand, digital
marketing cost lower and the young entrepreneurs can afford it from the saved money.
2. Digital Marketing Puts Forward Real Time Result compared to Traditional
Marketing: In traditional marketing one has to wait for the weeks and sometimes for months for
results while in digital marketing results are quick and can overview everything in real time like
the number of the visitors, conversion and the bounce rates.
3. Digital Marketing Results in Brand Development Compared to Traditional Marketing:
This is because in this case traditional marketing has limitation in advertisements frequency and
space compared to the digital marketing. In digital marketing an entire website is available for
advertisements. Besides, digital marketing helps in rebranding of the business
4. Digital Marketing is Non Intrusive compared to Traditional Marketing: Digital
marketing allows in choosing whether an individual wants to see an online advertising. Unlike
traditional marketing, emails cam be ignored as long as a person wants. Thus, digital marketing
knows the ways of intriguing people without annoying them

8
MARKETING
5. Digital Marketing also results in Higher Exposure Compared to Traditional Marketing:
Digital marketing reaches to the entire world without missing out anything while the traditional
marketing is restricted only to certain locality.
6. Digital Marketing Involves Higher Engagement Compared to Traditional Marketing:
Digital marketing allows in engaging with real time audience where one can discuss and chat
about the company or the brand while in the traditional marketing it is not possible to undertake
interaction with the target audience and involves a long and tedious process.
7. Digital Marketing Results in Quicker Publicity Compared to Traditional Marketing:
This is because the real-time results of the digital marketing results in getting instant publicity.
8. Digital Marketing is Non Interruptive Compared to the Traditional Marketing: This is
because digital marketing allows the audience in choosing to skip the advertisements which is
usually not the case with the traditional marketing modes that includes the flyers and the
television commercial.
9. Digital Marketing involves Easier Analytics Compared to Traditional Marketing:
Digital marketing allows in knowing what works for any individual and what doesn’t through
Google analytics. Unlike traditional marketing, it allows in measuring the bounce rate, inbound
traffic, profit, rate of conversion rate and the Audience trend in real time.
10. Digital Marketing results in Strategy Refinement Compared to Traditional Marketing:
The real time aspect of the digital marketing ensures undertaking steps of improvement while in
traditional marketing steps of improvement is difficult to implement since receiving feedback is
quite an elongated process.

9
MARKETING
Therefore, digital marketing will gradually taking over the traditional means of
marketing.
Difference in Skills between Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing
Royle and Laing (2014) put across that traditional marketing concentrates more on
strategy and planning and less on the aspect of implementation. This is because there has been
evolution of an entire ecosystem surrounding the traditional marketing which includes
advertising agencies, image and branding firms, promotional companies and the firms
undergoing market research. This implies that the marketers does not require technical skills and
is capable of outsourcing the implementation. On the other hand, according to Ryan (2016)
digital marketing results in outsourcing along with requirement for extensive skill set when it
solely involves the technical skills. Therefore, digital marketing requires the below mentioned
skills which is usually not required for the traditional marketing (Todor 2016):
1. Possession of Creative Expertise:
In the traditional marketing the entire department remains dedicated to be creative while
in the digital marketing although the folks can still be used but the content is created on fly.
Thus, instead of the months or the weeks of building campaign through bringing in right talent in
combination with ample time of coordinating and editing thereby leading to the creation of the
fresh content on a day to day basis (Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi 2015). It is to be noted
that outsourcing might not work in presence of images and info graphics. Thus, the digital
marketers require certain basic creative skills.

10
MARKETING
2. Possession of Digital Expertise:
The Traditional marketers are known to little aware about the aspect of printing and
broadcasting. In fact they do not have to. While the digital marketers requires digital expertise
which includes CSS and HTML and thereby design the content as they require it (Kumar, Choi,
and Greene 2017). Besides, the Digital marketers also require certain experience with the
databases for extracting information for the analysis. Besides the digital marketers also needs
understanding of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the other technical parts of the
online marketing that includes meta tags and the keywords. It is also vital for the digital
marketers to understand the social media platforms like the Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter and
Facebook along with the knowledge of optimizing the performance on the platforms.
3. Encourage One to One Communication:
It is probably, one of the vital skills required for the success of the digital marketing. It is
necessary for the digital marketers for taking care of the target audience and related to these as
friend. It is however very unlike the roles of the sales person in traditional marketing since the
digital marketers needs to relate on a lesser commercial basis for being successful (Men 2014).
However, the act of balancing between providing the value and driving the sales is however
difficult. It also becomes difficult for the clients in understanding. Thus, in addition to engaging
in the one to one communication the digital marketers should develop friendship with the
customers and the prospect and not just undertake commercial transaction. This will let the
customers consider the digital marketers as someone who is more than a spokesperson at the
hand.

11
MARKETING
Thus, digital marketing puts across better opportunities and has been gradually replacing
the traditional marketing in the development of strategy.
Digital Marketing Puts across Clearer Customer Targeting
According to Baltes (2015), the world has become increasingly connected and the ways
individuals undertaken marketing has become targeted. The reach of the Facebook along with the
demographic data provides one of examples as to how much data is capable of reaching a
particular person by interest, lifestyle or beliefs. Initially, such audiences have never been
separated. In today’s scenario, the ads on the Facebook or the Google act as the huge opportunity
in refining and retargeting a particular person who represents the ideal demographic. It is more
similar to the using of the GPS and the paper map where both puts across similar service where
one remains uniquely customized towards the individuals. There has been business that thrives
with the conventional television advertising and the print media. It can thus be said that larger
business can have better brand exposure from the traditional marketing. Hospitality sector like
the PPHE hotel group can benefit from the content marketing and the digital advertising when it
undertakes specific targeting of particular group.
The Benefits of Digital Marketing Agency
The benefits of a digital marketing agency help in tracking and refining the market. The
content of the website and the search engine optimization adds to the value of the online
marketing (Kingsnorth 2016). An agency helps in ensuring that the sector is getting enough

12
MARKETING
value for the investment thereby making right targeting decisions for the services and the
products.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that the share of working millennial are growing that
implies that the hospitality sector requires to address the marketing efforts. There are many who
are not even aware how the life was before the commencement of the internet. This is because
the mindset of the millennial is different and they have different affinity for constant necessity of
the freedom and the visuals that is gradually turning the traditional marketing lesser effective.
The newer generation likes to be provided with a choice but the companies still needs to address
mature group of the customers attached to the strategies of traditional marketing and spends
more time on the radio, television or the reading of the paper magazines. To digitalize the
content, brands should take a note that the people spends more amount of time on the pages with
the user produced content, a channel that proved more efficient in making them click the final
button that allows them in making a booking.
In present day’s competitive global scenario, digital marketing acts as the effective type of
marketing practiced by the organizations. To attain success the companies should rely on the
omni-channel strategy. Companies in most of the sectors deals with the human beings and it is
therefore difficult in determining the things that works and what does not. Therefore, marketers
frequently use the trail and the error method in fulfilling the customer needs and the wants. In
this respect, use of digital marketing instead of traditional marketing will enable the hospitality
sector in achieving more success through tailoring of the strategy based on the target audience.

13
MARKETING
References:
Baltes, L.P., 2015. Content marketing-the fundamental tool of digital marketing. Bulletin of the
Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 8(2), p.111.
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P. R. 2013. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital
marketing. Routledge.
Collier, J. E., and Bienstock, C. C. 2015. A conceptual framework for measuring e-service
quality. In Creating and Delivering Value in Marketing pp. 158-162. Springer, Cham.
Dodson, I. 2016. The Art of Digital Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Creating Strategic,
Targeted, and Measurable Online Campaigns. John Wiley & Sons.
El Sawy, O. A.and Pereira, F. 2013. Digital business models: review and synthesis. In Business
modelling in the dynamic digital space pp. 13-20. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Hess, T., Matt, C., Benlian, A., & Wiesböck, F. 2016. Options for Formulating a Digital
Transformation Strategy. MIS Quarterly Executive, 15(2).
Karjaluoto, H., Mustonen, N. and Ulkuniemi, P., 2015. The role of digital channels in industrial
marketing communications. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 30(6), pp.703-710.
Killian, G.,and McManus, K. 2015. A marketing communications approach for the digital era:
Managerial guidelines for social media integration. Business Horizons, 58(5), pp. 539-549.
Kingsnorth, S., 2016. Digital marketing strategy: an integrated approach to online marketing.
Kogan Page Publishers.

14
MARKETING
Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L. and Armstrong, G., 2015. Marketing. Pearson
Higher Education AU.
Kumar, V., Choi, J.B. and Greene, M., 2017. Synergistic effects of social media and traditional
marketing on brand sales: capturing the time-varying effects. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science, 45(2), pp.268-288.
Mavoothu, D., 2013. Social Media-A relevant tool for tourism and hospitality marketing.
Men, L.R., 2014. Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication
channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), pp.264-284.
Nosrati, M., Karimi, R., Mohammadi, M. and Malekian, K., 2013. Internet marketing or modern
advertising! How? Why. International Journal of Economy, Management and Social
Sciences, 2(3), pp.56-63.
Öztamur, D. and Karakadılar, İ.S., 2014. Exploring the role of social media for SMEs: as a new
marketing strategy tool for the firm performance perspective. Procedia-Social and behavioral
sciences, 150, pp.511-520.
pphe.com 2019. [online] Available at :https://www.pphe.com/responsibility/our-approach.
[Accessed 5 Mar. 2019].
pphe.com 2019. [online] Available at: https://www.pphe.com/about/ [Accessed 5 Mar. 2019].
pphe.com 2019. [online] Available at: https://www.pphe.com/about/our-services[Accessed 5
Mar. 2019].

15
MARKETING
pphe.com 2019. [online] Available at: https://www.pphe.com/development/development-
approach/ [Accessed 5 Mar. 2019].
Royle, J. and Laing, A., 2014. The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer
Model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information
Management, 34(2), pp.65-73.
Ryan, D. 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Todor, R.D., 2016. Blending traditional and digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania
University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 9(1), p.51.
Xu, Z., Frankwick, G.L. and Ramirez, E., 2016. Effects of big data analytics and traditional
marketing analytics on new product success: A knowledge fusion perspective. Journal of
Business Research, 69(5), pp.1562-1566.

16
MARKETING
.