Analysis of Customer Behaviour and Insights for Hospitality Industry

This report delves into the intricacies of customer behavior and decision-making within the hospitality sector, using Dorchester Group Limited as a case study. It explores the customer decision-making journey, highlighting the importance of understanding this process for marketers. The report differentiates between B2B and B2C activities, outlines various market research methods, and evaluates the factors influencing decision-making and buying behavior. Furthermore, it examines how marketers influence different stages of hospitality decision-making, incorporating cognitive and behavioral learning theories. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of customer behavior and offers valuable insights for the hospitality industry.

Hospitality Customer
Behaviour and Insights

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Covered in PPT...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
P3 Stages of customer decision-making journey:.......................................................................1
P4 Importance of understanding customer decision-making for marketers:..............................2
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
P5 Key differences of hospitality decision-making between B2B and B2C:.............................3
P6 Different approaches to market research and method of research:........................................4
Justified evaluation of different factors that influence decision-making and buying behaviour:
.....................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
P7 Influence of marketers on different stages of hospitality decision making:..........................5
Critical evaluation of application of appropriate theories, concepts and models:......................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Customer behaviour can be defined as the series of numerous responses of the customers,
individuals, groups or activities that represent the purchase, obtain, use and dispose patterns or
trends of consumers. It is a sum of all the activities that are directly involved in pertaining,
consuming and disposing off business products or services including the decision making
procedure which execute and implement these actions (Rahimi and others, 2017). An
interpretation that is used by business persons to understand the needs, desires and feeling of
their audience is known as customer insights. Being aware about customers insights for other
organizations' product and services can be extremely helpful.
The organization that have been chosen for preparing this report is Dorchester Group
Limited which is a luxury hotel operator chain established in 1981 by Brunei Investment Agency
with its headquarter in London, UK. This report will include a study of customer decision-
making process and importance of understanding this process. It will also describe differences
between B2B and B2C activities and various methods of conducting market research. At the end
it will elaborate influence of marketers in decision-making along with the conclusion.
TASK 1
Covered in PPT
TASK 2
P3 Stages of customer decision-making journey:
Evolution of technology and digital shopping have completely changed the customers'
behaviour regarding purchasing or opting services. Organizations are forced to look into the new
and creative ways to attract the customers on the each stage of customers' decision making
process. The modern decision-making procedure of the audience helps in generating conversions
and enhance brand awareness. The journey of customer decision making has been divided into 5
steps or stages by the marketers of Dorchester Group Limited, which are presented below:
Need recognition: In order to purchase a product or service, individuals need to develop
a need or there must be a problem to be solved. Customers feel that something is missing and
need to address or fulfil that requirement. As the purchase decisions of the customers can not be
understand without recognising their needs, the marketers of the selected company need to gather
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the information regarding customer needs for instance if customers are searching for vacation
locations continuously, they will definitely look for hotels at the vacation locations.
Information search: After recognising their needs, customers try to get more and more
information regarding the products and services which can fulfil their needs. They perform
extensive search regarding various business offerings available in the market. By recognising
customers' needs according to customer behaviour, marketing team of Dorchester Group can
provide them informations regarding company's offerings with the necessary information.
Alternative evaluation: Once the customers have prepared their minds regarding the
products or services that can satisfy them, they start looking for best deals within the market.
Customer compare the business offerings with other alternatives, read the reviews, evaluate
prices and ultimately chooses that one that is most satisfying according to their parameters. At
this stage, marketers of respective firm can help them by providing their best features, services
and offers (Lombarts, 2018).
Purchase decision: At this final stage of purchasing, customers have already made up
their mind to purchase a particular product or service. They may choose or abandoned the
services provided by the selected company because of the specification, processing, experience
or assistance proved to them. If the process will be lengthy or overwhelming, customer will get a
poor experience and refuse to choose the selected firm for purchasing.
Post-purchase behaviour: If the customers get satisfied with the services of the
respective company, they remember the experience and prefer the same hotel when a similar
need arises on the other side, if the purchase disappoint them, they follow the above mentioned
steps again to find a better product or service and it affects the brand image of the company.
P4 Importance of understanding customer decision-making for marketers:
Costumers are the people who purchase business offerings for their own use and
marketers need to understand the reason behind the purchase of such product or service rather
than others in order to create value for the customers and make profit for the organization.
Customers' purchasing behaviour is difficult to understand as it is often unpredictable and
irrational still the marketers try to understand their purchasing patterns for successful marketing.
The importance of understanding customer decision-making process for the marketers of
Dorchester Group limited can be defined with below mentioned points:
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Understand the factors: There are various factors that influence the behaviour and
purchasing decisions of the customers such as cultural, social, technological, psychological
factors. By understanding these factors, marketers are able to understand and attract the
customers towards the company which is profitable for the entire organization. Marketers of the
respective company are able to understand various technological and social factors by evaluating
the process of customers' decision-making (Ladkin and Buhalis, 2016).
Balancing marketing mix: By understanding the customer needs and requirements,
marketing department of the company is able to maintain the elements of marketing mix that
influence the decisions of the consumers. Service quality, prices for the services, promotional
strategies, placement of services, process of booking services, etc. are the factors of marketing
mix that impact the decisions of the clients and marketers are able to decide their policies
regarding these factors with better understanding of customer behaviour.
Customer satisfaction: In order to understand the customer needs and desires, it is
necessary to understand their buying patterns so that marketers can add the features or services
into the business offerings that may satisfy the customers needs. In context with Dorchester
Group's marketers, they are able to develop the products and services according to customer
requirement with the help of understanding customer purchase patterns (Del Chiappa and
Dall’Aglio, 2016).
TASK 3
P5 Key differences of hospitality decision-making between B2B and B2C:
B2B business: The activities that take place between two business companies, known as
Business to Business (B2B) transaction or activity such as transaction between manufacturer and
wholesaler, supplier and manufacturer, travel agency and hotels, etc. The major objective of such
kind of businesses is to make customers from prospects.
B2C business: The transactions or activities that take place between business
organization and final consumer of the products or services can be defined as Business to
Consumer actions for instance, online product purchasing or service booking is a B2C
transaction. The major objective of these business transactions is to change the customers into
buyers (Kasim and others, 2018).
Key difference between B2B and B2C:
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B2B Business Model B2C Business Model
This is the business model where two business
organizations decide to perform the business
transactions.
In this model, business companies decide to
provide their products and services to the final
consumer directly.
Decision making regarding hospitality services
is quite difficult due to tortuous transactions.
Decision making in B2C business model is
very easy because transactions can be done in a
single step.
Decisions regarding business transactions are
taken on the basis of personal relationships and
trust between the two companies.
Business transactions and purchase decisions
are based on the promotion and advertising
strategies in this business model.
Business to business transactions and decisions
are fully planned and logical (Kaurand France,
2018).
Decision making depends upon emotional and
social factors in business to consumer model.
The decision making procedures in B2B
involves problem recognition, information
collection considering tradition and modern
aspects, generating and evaluating alternatives.
B2C, decision making procedure include
problem recognition, search process,
alternative evaluation, final selection and
decision evaluation.
P6 Different approaches to market research and method of research:
There are various methods or approaches that helps in conducting an effective marketing
research. The selection of a specific approach is based on the budget for the research, type of
data required, time consumption, etc. The four basic approaches that are preferred by most of the
organizations in hospitality industry are presented below:
Survey: Survey is the method of gathering and analysing customer behaviour with
straightforward and concise questionnaires that represents the target market of the company.
Surveys are mostly conducted in high-traffic area such as shopping malls or on famous online
platforms to gather immediate feedback. These surveys may also be conducted on telephone or
through mails.
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Focus Groups: In focus groups, a researcher uses a series of questions or topic that is
scripted to lead the discussion among the groups of individuals. Focus surveys are conducted at a
neutral place or location which usually facilitate with video recording technologies or
equipments, consider at least three groups to make discussion and one observation room to focus
on the balanced outcomes (Higgins-Desbiolles, Moskwa and Wijesinghe, 2019).
Personal Interviews: Personal interviews provide more subjective data rather than
surveys and focus groups since they involve unstructured and open-ended questions. Interviews
yield valuable insights into customer attitudes and are excellent ways to uncover issues related to
new products or service development.
Field Trials: Placing a new product in selected stores to test customer response under
real-life selling conditions can help you make product modifications, adjust prices, or improve
packaging. Small business owners should try to establish rapport with local store owners and
Web sites that can help them test their products.
Justified evaluation of different factors that influence decision-making and buying behaviour:
Social factors: Customers' needs, learning, motives are related to the leaders, family,
opinion, reference groups, culture, social class, etc. Organizations that are involved in service
delivery such as Dorchester Group Limited can help the consumers trough decision-making
process with reinforcing an existing brand image.
Personal Factors: Factors that are related to the age, gender, demographics, attitude, etc.
are personal factors. These factors influence the opinion, lifestyle and economic condition of the
consumers therefore these factors are most important in decision making and influencing buying
behaviour (Sasmita, and Mohd Suki, 2015).
Cultural factors: Cultural factors plays an important role in consumer buying behaviour.
Culture of one nation includes values, beliefs, perception and attitude of the consumers of that
nation. Price of the product, promotional programs and most important the product should be
suitable for the target population’s culture.
TASK 4
P7 Influence of marketers on different stages of hospitality decision making:
Every business has to sale its products and services to gain the expected profits for which,
it is essential to understand customer behaviour and focus on the activities and purchasing
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pattern of the consumers. Marketers of the Dorchester Group Limited helps the organization in
understanding and influencing customer behaviour and decision-making according to the
company. With the help of different learning theories, marketers try to understand the customer
behaviour. The two basic theories of customer learning are:
Cognitive learning theory: This learning theory suggests that learning is a mental
processing of getting informed that is very complex. This theory promotes learning by
information, mental process and motivation. The consumer feeds that the collected information
on various competitive products with regard to their price, performance and other aspects of
information into his human computer, process them logically and then only arrives at a
conclusion. Therefore the marketers of the respective hotel group provide informations to
different people as per their requirements and retention power (Mahadi, Siti-Nabiha and Stocker,
2017).
Behavioural learning theory: This theory believes that behaviour of the customers can
be learnt by their responses regarding the experiences. When a customer continuously think
about a particular product or services, the one can not enjoy the other business offerings. The
marketer studies these phenomena and uses them in sales campaign, advertising strategy, product
development, demonstration of product, free samples and serving product free. Marketers of the
selected company stimulate the consumers in different ways to take the benefit of their
psychological behaviour by repeating same promotional strategies (Wood, 2016).
Critical evaluation of application of appropriate theories, concepts and models:
Cognitive learning approach: Unlike the behavioural learning approach, cognitive
learning highlights the thought processes of the individuals. This theory is greatly helpful for
those marketers who wants to change the behaviour of the customers. This approach can also be
combined with other earning approaches or theories. On the other side, this theory denies or
refuse the important factors of human behaviour. It also based on controlling practices or
experiments. By overseeing the people in controlling environment, psychologists only get
responses that are closely tied to the stimuli that their subjects are exposed to.
Behavioural learning approach: This theory uses experimental and rigorous methods of
research that provides strong arguments for natural side of human nature and s number of
practical and technical approaches to shape the behaviour of the customers. On the contrary, it
avoid the mental process that are involved in learning. It rejects the possibilities of biological
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factors and the principles of classical and operant conditioning do not account for apontaneous
behaviour.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded with the help of this report that understanding of consumer behaviour
and insights is essential for the marketers so that they can prepare effective marketing strategies
and provide services according to customer needs. By learning the various stages of customer
decision making, marketers are able to understand the customer needs and buying patterns.
Quantitative and qualitative approaches are part of research approaches within B2C and B2B that
helps in collecting data about consumer's opinions and beliefs. Cognitive learning theory as well
as Behavioural learning theory are some ways through which marketers can influences decision
making procedures.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Del Chiappa, G. and Dall’Aglio, S., 2016. 16 Do Negative Experiences of Hospitality Services
Always Lead to Dissatisfaction?. Tourist Behaviour: An International Perspective.
p.145.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F., Moskwa, E. and Wijesinghe, G., 2019. How sustainable is sustainable
hospitality research? A review of sustainable restaurant literature from 1991 to
2015. Current Issues in Tourism. 22(13). pp.1551-1580.
Kasim, A. and et.al, 2018. Impact of market orientation, organizational learning and market
conditions on small and medium-size hospitality enterprises. Journal of Hospitality
Marketing & Management. 27(7). pp.855-875.
Kaur, N. and France, A., 2018. Gaining a competitive advantage in hospitality.
Ladkin, A. and Buhalis, D., 2016. Online and social media recruitment: Hospitality employer
and prospective employee considerations. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management. 28(2). pp.327-345.
Lombarts, A., 2018. The hospitality model revisited: Developing a hospitality model for today
and tomorrow. Hospitality & Society. 8(3). pp.297-311.
Mahadi, R., Siti-Nabiha, A. K. and Stocker, K., 2017. The Realisation of Green Ideals into
Management Practice: The Use of Management Control System in a Hospitality
Setting. Jurnal Pengurusan (UKM Journal of Management). 51.
Rahimi, R. and et.al, 2017. Customer relationship management research in tourism and
hospitality: a state-of-the-art. Tourism review. 72(2). pp.209-220.
Sasmita, J. and Mohd Suki, N., 2015. Young consumers’ insights on brand equity: Effects of
brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image. International
Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. 43(3). pp.276-292.
Wood, R. C., 2016. Sociological perspectives on hospitality. In The Routledge Handbook of
Hospitality Studies (pp. 29-45). Routledge.
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