The effectiveness of social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) in promoting marketing strategies of an organization: A case study of JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts

Running head: DISSERTATION
The effectiveness of social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) in promoting marketing
strategies of an organization: A case study of JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
Aim, Objective and Research Questions......................................................................................................4
Aim..........................................................................................................................................................4
Objective.................................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions.................................................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: Literature Review.......................................................................................................................6
Chapter 3: Data Collection.........................................................................................................................13
Time Plan...................................................................................................................................................13
Chapter 4: Methodology...........................................................................................................................16
3.1: Theory of Research.........................................................................................................................16
3.1.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................16
3.1.2 Methodology............................................................................................................................17
3.1.3 Method.....................................................................................................................................17
3.1.4 Secondary research..................................................................................................................18
3.2 Limitations and further research.....................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS...............................................................................................................................20
Thematic Analysis..................................................................................................................................20
Theme 1: Effectiveness of social media in promoting marketing strategies......................................20
Theme 2: Utilization of social media platforms by JW Marriott Hotels and Resorts..........................20
Theme 3: Usage of social media platforms in marketing: Case study of JW Marriott Hotels and
Resorts...............................................................................................................................................21
Theme 4: Potential issues faced by different organizations in using social media for promoting their
marketing strategies..........................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION................................................................................25
5.1 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................25
References:................................................................................................................................................28

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Chapter 1: Introduction
The modern contemporary world is structured on the basis of capitalism and
technological advancements. The capitalist nature of the market has led to intense competition
among the private sector organizations as they are propelled by their profit motives. In this sense,
they are using the various available platforms, both the virtual and the real platforms in order to
advertise about their products and resources so that they are able to effectively reach the target
consumers. The target consumers refer to those people who are the most likely to buy those
products and services. This is done so that the sales volume of the concerned private
organizations increase to a considerable extent. The more the sales of a particular firm rises, the
higher shall be the profit generation. In this era of high competition, social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, etc. have become one of the most efficient ways to reach out to consumers.
Facebook and Twitter are two of the most influential social media platforms in existence today.
Nearly half of the population of the world is in active in these two platforms. As a result, it
proves to be advantageous for the different organizations to showcase their products and services
in these two platforms as there is a higher chance that these advertisements will definitely reach
to the target consumers. Today, marketers are behind consumers to get their attention and social
media platforms provide an opportunity to brand and marketers to established loyal relationship
with consumers (Munar & Jacobsen, 2013). The focus on the brand is important as the
consumers of the contemporary times are guided by the goodwill of the organization and the
reputation of the firms. As a result, the social media platforms proves to be essential as the
consumers are able to get an effective feedback from the other consumers in the same platform
who have used such products and services before. In this regard, it can be assumed that any
negative response or review about the organization and its product and services on a social media

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platform will prove to be detrimental for the effective growth of the organization. Moreover, the
positive reviews will largely propel the growth of the firm. The large hotel chains always find it
difficult to attain and retain customers as customer switching cost is almost nil in hotel industry.
This is the reason that the large hotels must have a strong marketing function in place. In last
decade or so, marketing function has evolved from a transactional way to relationship way. It is
important that marketers must continuously analyse the new ways like social media marketing to
influence consumers decision (Rosman & Stuhura, 2013). It would be interesting to study and
analyse the impact of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter on the marketing of
large hotel chains like JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts.
Aim, Objective and Research Questions
The overall aim, objectives and research questions for this research work can be
discussed as:
Aim
To study the importance of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter on the
marketing of large hotel chains like JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts.
Objective
The objective of this research can be stated as follows –
1. To analyse the necessity of social media platforms on the marketing activities of an
organization
2. To analyse the advantages of social media on the aspect of marketing strategies of
organization of JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts.

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3. To discuss how JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts uses Facebook and Twitter to improve their
relations with the customers.
4. To analyse the impact of social media platforms on the marketing strategies of JW Marriott
Hotels & Resorts.
Research Questions
1. What is the necessity of social media platforms on the marketing activities of an organization?
2. What are the various advantages of social media on the aspect of marketing strategies of
organization of JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts?
3. How does JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts uses Facebook and Twitter to improve their relations
with the customers?
4. What is the impact of social media platforms on the marketing strategies of JW Marriott
Hotels & Resorts?

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
The research is based on the analysis of secondary data collected from various sources. In
this respect, one of the themes which is looked in to is the theories pertaining to marketing. It is
quite difficult to manage an entire organisation. There are too many constituent units all
interrelated to each other such as the factor of employees, the manufacturing sector, the
distribution sector as well as the advertising team. All of them need to work in consonance with
each other so that effective results may be achieved. The aim of any organization is to earn a
higher profit margin. This is only possible when the target consumers buy the products and
services of these organization is large volumes. However, in order to do this, it is first needed to
advertise these products in the market. This is done with the help of social media platforms and
offline such as hoardings and newspapers. One of the theories of marketing which is applicable
in this case is that of motivation. According to Cook and Artino (2016) the theory of motivation
aids in the positive development of the employees to work harder. If the employees work in an
efficient manner in all the different sectors of the firms, especially that in the advertisement
sector, then the products of the firm will come to the lime light and the target consumers will be
aware about the existence and usage of the concerned products. In this respect, it is essential that
the management level of the organization should motivate the employees in a proper manner.
Motivation can take different forms such as rewards and recognition or the fear of repercussions.
The fear of repercussion has proved to be ineffective within the capitalist market as the
employees always have the option to resign and shift to another firm if they feel they are not
being treated in a proper manner in their place of work. However, the form of rewards and
recognition has proved to have an immense effect on the effectiveness of the employees. In other
words, if the employees are assured of certain rewards in the form of incentives or are promoted

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higher in the organization, then they will feel obligated to the organization and work harder for
the growth and development of the organization.
Another area of research which is looked in to is that of the importance of social media. In
the contemporary times, the technology has advanced to a considerable extent. Nowadays,
almost all the people across the world are available through the social media platforms,
especially on Facebook and Twitter. The aim of such platforms was initially to bring the people
closer to one another but now the objective has expanded through the ages. Now, the platforms
are being used by many professional organizations in order to further their profit motives. They
showcase their products and services on to such social media platforms with the objective of
reaching out to the people. The social media platforms hence act as the agents of advertisements
for such organizations. This has been greatly elaborated by Knoll (2016) in the article titled
“Advertising in social media: a review of empirical evidence”. In this article, around two
international business and their database of information were analyzed where around fifty one
relevant studies were identified. In this article, the author had used several themes such as use of
social media and advertising in them, behavior of the consumers to be exposed to such
advertising, the concept of targeting the consumers, the impact of consumer generated marketing
and other effects of advertising.
One of the common theme from literature review is that social media platforms are one the of
best ways to reach out to users. Dijkmans, Kerkhof & Beukeboom (2015) argued that biggest
advantage of social media platforms is their reach. Today, no other channel can beat the user
reach of 2 Billion users on Facebook platform. Therefore, marketers have the opportunity to
target users on Facebook. Loureiro & Solnet (2013) argued that people are always glued on their
mobile phones. Leung & Bai (2013) highlighted that people spend close to 4 hours per day on