SWOT Analysis of Marriott Corporation

This article provides a comprehensive SWOT analysis of Marriott Corporation, including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It discusses the company's operational norms, performance, reliable suppliers, financial planning, rate of attrition, and more. It also explores the opportunities and threats faced by the company, such as intense competition, new technologies, currency fluctuations, and unethical branding. Additionally, it highlights the company's core competencies and concludes with an overview of Marriott's position in the market.

Running head: SWOT ANALYSIS OF MARRIOTT CORPORATION
SWOT analysis of Marriott Corporation
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1SWOT ANALYSIS OF MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Strengths.............................................................................................................................3
Weakness............................................................................................................................4
Opportunities......................................................................................................................4
Threats................................................................................................................................5
Strength, weakness and opportunity (customer trends):........................................................5
Virtual companions............................................................................................................6
Breaking bricks and mortar................................................................................................6
Magic point of sale.............................................................................................................6
New workforce...................................................................................................................6
Strength, weakness and opportunity (ethics):........................................................................7
Trademarks and Copyrights...............................................................................................7
Dishonesty..........................................................................................................................7
Marketing to children.........................................................................................................7
Controversial Branding......................................................................................................8
Strength and weaknesses (Affect):.........................................................................................8
Core competencies.....................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Reference..................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Marriott Corporation is a premium brand of hospitality and hotel chain of USA. The
company has a number of seven and five star rated hotels all over the world. J. Willard
Marriott in Washington DC established the chain of hotels in 1927. They have established
6000 properties in more than 122 countries. They own 1.2 million rooms and plans to expand
it more by 1, 95,000. Marriott right from the beginning has been in the Fortune 100 list. The
Marriott Group got the Ritz Carlton in the year 1995. Today, they own 81 hotels under their
brand. The company has various strengths that have made them one of the market leaders.
Discussion
Strengths
 Operational norms: The biggest strength of the company is that they strictly adhere to
the operational norms. The top-level management has designed the code of conduct
and every employee is bound to follow it. Many of these policies revolve around
resourcefulness.
 Performance: Marriott is expert in penetrating into the new markets and becoming
successful in every aspect. The expansion of the company has helped them to build
new stream of revenue and in turn diversify the risk of economic cycle in those
markets where they are operating.
 Reliable suppliers: Marriott has very reliable suppliers of the raw ingredients, which
enables the organization to overcome the supply chain bottlenecks.
 Cash flow: The organization has very strong flow of cash that provides resources to
the company for expanding into new projects (Cavusgil et al., 2014).

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4SWOT ANALYSIS OF MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Weakness
 Financial planning: The financial planning of the company is not done efficiently,
which in turn affects the profitability of the organization (Bremser, del Mar Alonso-
Almeida & Gohlich, 2014). The liquid asset and the current asset ratios suggest that
the organization is not able to use the cash efficiently.
 Rate of attrition: The organization has high rate of attrition compared to other
organizations and they spend a lot of money compared to its competitors for training
and development program of the employees.
 The organization is not able to handle the challenges due to the threat of new entrants
and is losing the small market shares in the niche categories. They have no
mechanism for internal feedbacks.
Opportunities
 The company has invested in order to venture into the online platform. This
investment has opened new channels of sales for the organization.
 The new technologies provide opportunity to the company for practicing
differentiated pricing strategy. This will help the firm to retain the loyal customers
with their outstanding service and attract new customers by their various value-
oriented proposals.
 Taxation policies: The new policies will create opportunities for the players in the
market. It will affect the way of business of Marriott and in turn increase the
profitability.
 The lower rate of inflation provides more stability in the market. It enables credit at
lower rate of interest to its customers (Stock & Watson, 2018, June).

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Threats
 Intense competition: Profitability in this industry has increased the number of players
in the market, which has increased the pressure on the overall sales of the company.
 New technologies introduced by the competitors are a serious threat for the company
for the longer run.
 The company is facing extreme currency fluctuations as they present in numerous
countries. It also varies because of the volatile political climate in most of the markets
across the globe.
 Imitating the counterfeit and providing low quality product to the customers is a
major threat for Marriott Corporation especially in the low-income markets and the
emerging markets.
Strength, weakness and opportunity (customer trends):
The hospitality and hotel industry is always reinventing itself, adapting to new
changes according to the needs of the customers. Thus, digital transformation is a priority for
the hoteliers as they can provide more personalized offers. Interaction of individuals with
new technologies, brands and even space creates opportunities for the hoteliers. Travelers
visit the hotels for the amenities and comfort but they are continuously seeking for newer
facilities. The main intention of the company is to meet the wellness and sustainability goals.
The Marriott International is following a couple of trends for meeting the demands of the
customers. Marriott has focused on ecotourism and sustainable practices (Deale, 2013).
Another important trend is the social travel that is traveling solo for personal or business
purposes. Marriott pays attention to the minute details. They try to connect the likeminded
people while traveling who can share their aspiration, lifestyle that will align with the

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purpose of the trip. Most of the travelers in USA prefer social travelling experience. The most
relevant trends affecting hospitality and hotels are-
Virtual companions: Many passengers wish to avoid other people during the stay, few
others welcome companionship even in virtual form. Travelers who are accustomed to chat
bots, digital assistance will look for innovation in artificial intelligence. They seek for virtual
personalities that can entertain, befriend or educate them. Virtual digital assistance has grown
over the years and shows no sign of stopping.
Breaking bricks and mortar: Traditional retailers of brick and mortar are expanding into
the hotel and hospitality industry in order to build immersive experiences of the brand by the
customers and providing a new breed for competition for the traditional players. Social media
is filled with picture-perfect snapshots of branded lifestyle, travel and hotels raising the
standard of living of most of the consumers. Brands holding the capacity of reaching the over
stimulated consumers by introducing unique techniques.
Magic point of sale: Using this method can engage travelers to browse products, test and
innovate in various ways. Smart brands are utilizing technologies in order to increase their
customer base and gain rich data on the preferences of the customers, their habits (Rather &
Sharma, 2017). The companies including Marriott Corporation use innovative channels to
attract newer customers and retain the loyal ones. The maturing of the virtual reality
revolutionizes where and how customers engage and shop with the brand.
New workforce: The proliferation of customized services and co-working environment are
changing the expectations around travel and work. A growing number of professionals are
making travel their priority by transforming into digital nomads. Consumers want alternative
lifestyle, which Marriott Corporation is providing.

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Strength, weakness and opportunity (ethics):
Branding helps to establish a reputation and a theme for product or business. When the
strategies of branding are unethical or are perceived as unethical by the consumers it can
significantly increase the negative publicity for the business.
Trademarks and Copyrights: Trademarks offers legal protection to creative works that is
fixed in tangible forms like books, movies, records, logo, design. It is to ensure that not the
anything of the company is copied by any anyone else. Thus, this is strength of the company.
If any organization uses the logo or the design of the brand, legal actions can help the
company to enhance its brand image (Lutzker, 2013). The U.S office of Patent and trademark
provides a free search tool in order to ensure that no one is using the design or the logo of the
company. This acts as the strength of the company as the copyrights and the trademarks are
entirely owned by the company and any unethical practice by other companies will be
advantageous for the company.
Dishonesty: If the company provides different information about the organization than the
actual one, consumers considers it a lie. Marketing of the brand sometimes depict that the
product is best, safest or most scientifically sound. These claims are not entirely true in most
of the cases. False advertising is a civil offense and the consumers can sue the company when
advertising is misleading, dangerous and false. For example: If the company is serving
products that have crossed the expiry date as fresh products that is extremely unethical and is
considered a lie. This can act as a threat to the company’s existence (Hartman & Werhane,
2013).
Marketing to children: Advertisers should be careful in establishing brand strategies and
avoid tricks that will annoy the parents. Offensive images of the hotel, rooms, washroom,
kitchen, dining in order to brand a product can negatively influence the brand image of the

8SWOT ANALYSIS OF MARRIOTT CORPORATION
organization. The FTC can penalize false and inappropriate marketing to children. For
example: applying sexualized branding methods for creating a lingerie brand for the young
girls is unethical for the image of the company. Encouraging children for consuming
unhealthy food is unethical and that affects the brand negatively and in turn decrease the
revenue generation of the company (Sherman et al., 2017). This can be an opportunity for the
company to grow and expand to all types and age groups of customers if the competitors are
seen to promote children marketing that will hamper their image in turn.
Controversial Branding: Marketing strategies that are controversial can draw attention to
the organization, as these advertisements are offensive and incur negative publicity and even
can be sued. Stereotypical advertising like racism, sexism is considered as unethical behavior.
This weakness can be improved by utilizing strategies that will not negatively impact the
progress of the company (Dinnie, 2015).
Strength and weaknesses (Affect):
Various factors affect the branding of an organization. The performance of Marriott
Corporation affects the brand image of the company. Marriott provides outstanding services
to its customers. They venture into new markets with great advertisements that help in
creating brand image. It positively affects the company by creating a positive impact of the
chain of hotels in the minds of the consumers (Olk, Rainsford & Tsungting, 2015). The
company uses various innovative ways and technologies for attracting new customers and
retains the old customers. This also helps in improving the trust of the customers towards this
brand (Hoque, 2013). Customers are experiencing newer things in the hotel, which is making
the customers ignore the weaknesses of the organization. The logo and the designs of the
company are unique and help in uniquely identifying the brand. Customers can relate to the
brand through their logo and utmost uniqueness. Whereas the loopholes of the company is

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reducing the customer base and creating a slightly negative impact of the brand. The attrition
rate and new work force creates a negative impact in the minds of its regular customers. The
controversial branding strategy of the company leads to dissatisfaction of the customers
thereby affecting the company’s image. The Marriott Corporation considers these factors and
plans the strategies accordingly in order to incur the maximum benefit. They try to ignore
false advertising and bad service in order to enhance their brand image and remain one of the
market leaders globally.
Core competencies
Marriott Corporation has core values that make them unique and ahead of its
competitors. They have high recognition of their brand through their high quality customer
service. They attentively care for their guests provide exceptional amenities, possess in depth
knowledge of the local area and organize loyalty programs and offers for their customers
(Harper, 2013). The company uses newer technologies to attract new customers and provide
them better quality of products and services than its competitors. They have built goodwill in
the limited service segment. Introduction of electronic check-in, online booking and 10,000
square feet innovation lab makes them all the more unique (Kasiri et al., 2017). The key
values of the company are- they put people first which provides a great platform for all the
employees to work for more than 85 years. This culture has earned the company rewards and
recognition all over the world. The company pursues excellence by providing the best quality
food and service at a very reasonable price. They look after the minute details every day, in
every destination around the globe. They act with integrity that is the company does not
encourage unethical practices and always follow the legal standards.

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Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that Marriott Corporation is the top most firms in the hotel
and hospitality industry. They maintain a prominent position in the market by reviewing and
analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company. This helps the
company in continuously improving its quality of product, services and business amenities,
methods and technologies.

11SWOT ANALYSIS OF MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Reference
Bremser, K., del Mar Alonso-Almeida, M., & Gohlich, V. (2014). The relevance of
organizational characteristics for crisis planning. Business and Management
Research, 3(4), 26-35.
Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L.
(2014). International business. Pearson Australia.
Deale, C. S. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility and the Sustainable Tourism Practices of
Marriott International. International Cases In Sustainable Travel & Tourism. 1st ed.
East Carolina: Goodfellow Publishers International Cases In Sustainable Travel &
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Dinnie, K. (2015). Nation branding: Concepts, issues, practice. Routledge.
Harper, D. (2013). Valuation of hotels for investors. Estates Gazette.
Hartman, L. P., & Werhane, P. H. (2013). The Global Corporation: Sustainable, Effective
and Ethical Practices, A Case Book. Routledge.
Hoque, K. (2013). Human resource management in the hotel industry: Strategy, innovation
and performance. Routledge.
Kasiri, L. A., Cheng, K. T. G., Sambasivan, M., & Sidin, S. M. (2017). Integration of
standardization and customization: Impact on service quality, customer satisfaction,
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Lutzker, A. (2013). Content Rights for Creative Professionals: Copyrights & Trademarks in
a Digital Age. Routledge.

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Olk, P., Rainsford, P., & Tsungting, C. (2015). Creating a Strategic Direction.
Rather, R. A., & Sharma, J. (2017). Customer engagement for evaluating customer
relationships in hotel industry. European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and
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Sherman, S. M., Follows, H., Mushore, A. B., Hampson-Jones, K., & Wright-Bevans, K.
(2015). Television advertisements create false memories for competitor
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Stock, J., & Watson, M. (2018, June). Slack and cyclically sensitive inflation. In V presented
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