Hospitality Consumer Behaviour: Path to Purchase and Influence

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of consumer behavior within the hospitality industry. It explores the consumer decision-making process, including need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, initiation, and post-initiation behavior. The report maps the path to purchase, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer psychology for personalized marketing and customer experience optimization. It differentiates between B2C and B2B marketing approaches, and evaluates various market research methods like quantitative, qualitative, social data collection, digital surveys, and interviews. The report also examines how marketers influence each stage of the consumer decision-making process through personalized campaigns and omnichannel strategies to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction, ultimately aiming to create a seamless and memorable experience. The conclusion emphasizes the role of social, cultural, personal, and psychological factors in consumer choices.

Hospitality Consumer
Behaviour Insight

Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
LO2: Demonstrate the ability to map a path to purchase in a hospitality context, including the
decision-making process.............................................................................................................3
P3 : Stages of the consumer decision- making journey.............................................................3
Mapping the path to the purchasing............................................................................................4
P4: Importance of mapping the path to purchase and understanding consumer decision.........4
LO3: Evaluate appropriate forms of research to understand influences on the hospitality
consumer decision-making process.............................................................................................5
P5: Differences of the hospitality decision-making process in the context of B2C and B2B. . .5
P6: Market research approaches to understand the decision-making process............................6
LO4: Evaluate how marketers influence the different stages of the hospitality consumer
decision-making process.............................................................................................................7
P7: Influence of marketers on the different stages of the hospitality decision-making process. 7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References .......................................................................................................................................9
.........................................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
The idea of consumer trends revolves around analysing the consumption and disposal of
several goods and services and the origin of the basic need behind this. Hospitality industry is
based on providing the best quality services, relaxation and satisfaction of customer needs in
accordance to social or psychological factors. UKHospitality is a London based organization
having control over many night-clubs, hotels, tour planning, restaurants, pubs, bars, etc. This
report focuses on the purchasing pattern of a consumer based on social, personal, psychological
and cultural factors. The report also sheds light on the stages of consumer decision-making
process and analyse these stages to map a journey of a customer from recognition or origin of
needs to purchase of the commodity and actions taken thereafter. The report also focuses on the
key differences between B2B marketing-mix and B2C marketing-mix regarding hospitality
industry. There are multiple market research techniques used to understand the purchasing
pattern of customers and personalizing marketing campaigns on the basis of it.
Main Body
LO2: Demonstrate the ability to map a path to purchase in a hospitality context, including the
decision-making process
P3 : Stages of the consumer decision- making journey
There are five stages of consumer decision-making journey as follows:
Recognition of need- The very first stage in the process of consumer's decision-making
is recognising the need to consume or dispose a commodity. The lower the need is in Maslow's
hierarchy of needs the more will be the chances of consumer making the purchase. The idea to
travel can come by influencing over social media or any other basic need.
Information search – The next step in consumer decision making process is gathering
information. This can be either intentional or latent but human brain is always collecting and
disposing information. Using internet a customer can gather all the information. In accordance to
hospitality sector the customer can compare countless hotels on the basis of quality of their
services and their affordability structure.
Evaluation of alternatives – Next step is evaluating all the information gathered. All of
the alternative courses of actions in order to find out the one which is most desirable. In

accordance to hospitality sector the customer here analyses different service providers and select
the one which suits their social status and affordability structure.
Initiation - The next step is going to that hotel, or making that vacation and making the
most of it. Hospitality ethics revolves around maximising and optimizing customer's experience.
Using omni-channel marketing and other personalized campaigns the service provider try to
enhance customer engagement and give them an unforgettable flawless experience.
Post-initiation behaviour – This refers to the set of activities a customer undergo after
the initiation phase. This includes posting a review on social media in order to let others know
how appreciable their experience was or posting the information or media collected by this
experience. This stage influences others as well.
Mapping the path to the purchasing
 The very first step in mapping the journey to purchase is recognition of customer needs.
Marketers can now use several techniques to generate the needs by personalized
marketing campaigns over social media platforms as well. But in order to do so they
should have a deep knowledge about the origin of customer needs.
 The next step is collection of knowledge, hospitality based organizations makes sure that
their websites and the information available about them online is appropriate and
influencing enough for customer to be attracted towards it.
 During the stage of evaluation, hospitality marketing campaigns use the target
advertisements in order to further influence and attract the target customers.
 The next phase is initiation and the hospitality sector uses many personalized omni-
channel practices to enhance the customer experience.
 The next step is post-initiation behaviour, in this stage the organisation have to do active
monitoring and use empathy to put themselves in the customer's shoes. If a customer
posts a negative review the organisation have to assure them that it won't happen ever
again and vice versa if a customer posts a positive feedback they have to make sure to
continue those practices in future.
P4: Importance of mapping the path to purchase and understanding consumer decision
Mapping the path to the purchase is very essential for hospitality industry in order to
understand the psychological origin of the ideas. This helps in personalization of marketing
campaigns and optimization of overall customer experience. The needs of customer are dynamic

and so are the trends and therefore the hospitality sector have to keep an active eye on all the
potential opportunities that can be useful for the organisation. After introduction of digital
landscape in hospitality sector the completion have increased. There is a digital war between
different hospitality marketing campaigns to attract more customers. Analysing the information
gathered by mapping the journey and mixing it with creativity, innovation and personalization
the strategic planning can be used to establish a grip on the decision-making patterns of potential
customers. The hospitality firms also have to be active on digital landscape, it is crucial for their
'reputation management'. Mapping the journey of a potential customer helps the organisation to
master customer insight maximising customer's satisfaction.
LO3: Evaluate appropriate forms of research to understand influences on the hospitality
consumer decision-making process
P5: Differences of the hospitality decision-making process in the context of B2C and B2B
Basis of differences B2C Marketing-mix B2B marketing-mix
Customer Relationships This marketing mix focuses on
establishing good customer
relationship by giving
customers personalized
services.
This set of marketing
strategies focuses on building
long term relationships.
Branding This set of marketing-mix
focuses on increasing the
overall quality of their services
in order to establish their brand
name and earn customer
loyalty along the way.
This model focuses on
establishing a continuity in
deliverance of well-presented
goods and services.
Audience Targeting This model is broader than
B2B model. The audience
targetting revolves around the
idea of marketing funnel. This
means targetting the customers
This approach focuses on deep
analysis of customer data in
order to have a clear
understanding about the
methodologies that can be

that lie in their accessibility
zone.
used to attract the target
customers.
Advertisements The advertisements are
creative and innovative but
there is a noticeable pattern. In
this model advertisements are
designed in a way so that the
customer finds a ethical or
cultural value attached with it
in order to attract them. In
other words the advertisements
are based upon sentiments and
are personalized.
The advertisements here are
based on the products and
services. The emphasis of
advertisements is on showing
how unique and good their
products really are.
P6: Market research approaches to understand the decision-making process
Quantitative Market Research – This revolves around collecting non numeric data. This
data is usually collected using questionnaires. This shows the ethical side of the situation which
can not be analysed using numbers. This type of data is hard to read and sometimes is considered
unreliable due to its nature of not being able to be represented in graphs and charts. In hospitality
industry this type of data can be collected in the form of feedbacks and suggestions by the
customers.
Quantitative Market Research – This is the data which is in the form of numbers. The
results obtained from this type of data analysis are considered reliable. Quantitative data is easy
to interpret as it can be represented in the form of charts and diagrams. Hospitality industry
actively keeps collecting this data. For example having data about how much a visitor spent in
his last visit to a hotel, this help the organization to initiate a personalized strategy to take care of
that customer by providing him the best quality in his budget.
Social Data Collection Method – This implies the data collected over social-media.
Hospitality sector is based on reviews and ratings. The better they are the more will be the

possibility of attracting customers. The biggest strength of social data collection is that it helps in
collection of real-time data.
Digital Surveys Method – This methodology uses small surveys on digital platform
which usually take seconds to complete. Many huge brands use this data collection technique in
order to gather important information and views of their customers.
Interview Method – This is considered the most reliable source of information as there is
a personalized contact between the interviewer and the person the data is being collected from.
This usually requires a lot of time as well as monitory investment. Often this method is used by
the receptions or the check-out managers of hotels, collecting data about the customer
experience.
LO4: Evaluate how marketers influence the different stages of the hospitality consumer
decision-making process
P7: Influence of marketers on the different stages of the hospitality decision-making process
Marketers can now pretty much influence every stage of decision making by the potential
customers by using personalized omni-channel marketing campaigns. The very first step in the
process of decision-making is realization of needs and the marketers are able to generate
artificial need by targeting the psychological and social needs. Using social media influencing a
marketer can influence any target customer to travel. The next step is gathering the information,
the marketers makes sure that every single piece of information available about their hospitality
firm is in the favour of the organization . They make the organization's website a sight for eyes
with easy user interface and show positive reviews and ratings. Negative reviews are not
suppressed rather they use empathy and apologize to the customers making sure no such thing
will happen in future. The next step is evaluating all the alternatives. Marketers can influence
this stage of decision making by designing a personalized target advertisement sequence. By this
way the customer is more likely to be attracted towards that specific hotel or any other
hospitality based organisation. The next stage is initiation. Here the hospitality firm makes sure
that the customer have a good experience. They use several personalized omni-channel practices
that synchronises together and unable a customer' experience. They can personalize the
experience by keeping a record of all the customers, this way the hotel already have the
information about the services visitor liked and disliked in his last visit. They also use the
concept of smart rooms where the electrical appliances and t6he temperature can be operated

using voice commands. All of these units synchronises together and ensures a good customer
experience. The last stage of decision-making process is post-initiation behaviour. This is very
important as this have the power to influence others. Therefore the marketers of a hospitality
firm always maintain a user friendly digital landscape.
Conclusion
This report concludes that the decision making of a customer regarding the consumption
or disposal of certain commodity depends upon social, cultural, personal and psychological
factors. Each of these factor comprises of several units and each unit is powerful enough to
influence the decision making of a customer. There are five stages of consumer decision making
process starting from recognition of the needs to the consumption or disposal of desired product
or services and the actions taken thereafter, for example posting a review about it on social
media. All of these stages are analysed and on the basis of it the journey of a customer from
recognising the needs to purchasing the commodity is mapped and personalized marketing
campaigns are designed using the same. Different market research strategies are used to collect
further data. The report also sheds some light upon the influence of marketers on decision-
making of customers using specialized tactics.

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