Digital Marketing Plan for Marion Hotel: Communication Strategy

This report presents a comprehensive digital marketing plan designed for Marion Hotel, a hospitality industry leader. The report begins with an introduction to digital marketing, emphasizing its role in promoting products and services through online channels. It then delves into Task 1, evaluating various marketing channels such as advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling, and online media, and how they serve communication objectives within the organization. Task 2 focuses on designing communication objectives and providing justifications for the selection and integration of communication strategies, considering the marketing communication mix and business objectives. Task 3 outlines a detailed marketing communication plan to meet the communication objectives effectively, while Task 4 determines and evaluates measurement techniques and performance metrics in digital marketing, and presents actions to improve performance. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for Marion Hotel's digital marketing strategy.

Digital
Marketing Plan
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Evaluate different types of marketing channels and how they serve communication
objectives within an organisation context..............................................................................3
M1 Critically evaluate how marketing channels of communication are integrated within an
organisation to add value and maximise resources................................................................5
TASK 2 ..........................................................................................................................................6
P2 Design communication objectives for a given organisation situation...............................6
P3 Provide justifications for the selection and integration of communications.....................7
M2 & M3 Evaluate the application of the communication objectives in relations to the
marketing communication mix and the organisational business objectives...........................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Crete a marketing communication plan that effectively meets communication objectives
for a given organisation situation...........................................................................................8
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P5 Determine and evaluate measurement techniques and performance metrics in digital
marketing..............................................................................................................................10
P6 Present a set of actions to improve performance in digital marketing............................11
M4 Critically evaluate application of key digital measurement techniques and performance
metrics used in digital marketing.........................................................................................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing is considered as components of marketing which utilizes internet as
well as technologies based on online medium such as mobile phones, desktop computers and
several other mode. This is generally used by a company in order to promote their products and
services so that they able to attract more and more customers that leads to enhance in sales as
well as profitability ratio (Baltes, 2015). There are several types of digital marketing such as
search engine optimisation (SEO), Social media marketing, content marketing, pay per click
advertisement and many more. Organisation selected for respective report is Marion Hotel which
is operating its business operations and functions in hospitality industry as well as its predecessor
is Marriott Corporation. It is founded by J. Willard Marriott and Alice Marriott in year 1927 as
well as they are operating at the worldwide level. They are offering their products and services
through its hotel as well as resorts. Its subsidiaries are Marriott, Star wood, Le Méridien and
Ritz-Carlton. Topics which are included in this report are different marketing channels used by
company and how it will help in serving communication objective as well as it will also include
channels selection and integration process. Along with this, it will also include content which is
effective for communication and channel objectives as well as it will also include methods used
for monitoring and measuring digital marketing.
TASK 1
P1 Evaluate different types of marketing channels and how they serve communication objectives
within an organisation context.
Marketing communication is include numbers of different marketing tools and channel
on combine basis through which an organisation able to conduct communication to its desire
marketplace. Marketing communication include several aspects such as sales promotion,
advertisement, event and experience, direct marketing, public relation, personal selling, word of
mouth marketing and many more (Boelsen-Robinson, Backholer and Peeters, 2015). It is also
considered as process which is used to aware targeted audiences about the products and services
so that they get attract and convince to purchase it. In respect of Marriott Hotel, they may adopt
numbers of marketing channel which help them in facilitating communication objectives in
effective manner, from which some main methods are given below:-
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 Advertisement: It refers to paid form of marketing communication channel that is
employs for promoting or selling of products and services offer by a company. It is
considered as traditional media which include magazines, radio, billboards, posters,
television and many more channels (Chaffey and Allen, 2015). Now a day it is also
include digital channels of advertisement such as social media, digital display, internet
and so on. In respect of Marriott Hotel by adopting this communication channel they
able to communicate their objective to large people in small time duration.
 Sales promotion: It is determined as combination of different communication practices
that are attempted or adopted by a company in order to offer incentives to its potential
customers. In this an organisation generally add some values to their products and
services in order to ensure that grow of sales. Through this they able to attract customers
and encourage them to purchase their offering immediately which increase company
sales and profitability. In respect of Marriott Hotel they can adopt numbers of sales
promotion methods such as offer gift, discount on package, provide voucher and
coupons, free service and many more. Through this they able to attract visitors at huge
numbers towards their hotel.
 Personal selling: It refers to method in which company's sales person or representative
will interact to potential and targeted customers face to face. Through this they able to
provide proper informations to customers related to benefits, offers, features, prices,
package and so on. Along with this it will also aid in resolving issues of customers by
interacting with them as well as it also develop true relationship among company and
customers (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). In respect of Marriott Hotel they can use
this method, according to this their representative will visit to offices, residential areas
and malls in order to aware audiences about their offering and packages.
 Online Media: In today's time almost every company use online media channel for
conduct its marketing communication because through it they able to target huge
numbers of people as well as it is not expensive. According to this companies advertise
and promote their products as well as services on different online channels such as social
media, internet and many others. In context of Marriott Hotel they can advertise their
packages and offering or services through online medium like Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and many more.
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These are main marketing communication channel which can be adopted by Marriott
Hotel in order to communicate their objective in the potential marketplace for attract huge
numbers of customers.
M1 Critically evaluate how marketing channels of communication are integrated within an
organisation to add value and maximise resources.
According to the perspective of Nikki Richard, 2018, marketing channel adopted by a
company help them in adding value as well as maximising resources through which they can
attain their goal as well as objectives effectively (5 Reasons Why You Need an Integrated
Marketing Communications Strategy, 2020). In respect of Marriott Hotel they can also gain
various benefits when they adopt marketing channel of communication, from which some are
mentioned below:-
 Promoting Brands: In respect of Marriott Hotel by adopting marketing channels of
communication they able to promote or advertise their brand which help them in
increasing its profitability. This is so because by adopting marketing channel hotel able to
attract more audiences and encourage them to purchase their products immediately which
directly increase sales (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). So through implementation of
marketing channel communication hotel able to promote their brand and business.
 Developing brand awareness: Through the implementation of different marketing
channels of communication such as advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling and
online media Marriott Hotel able to increase brand awareness at the potential
marketplace. That will directly help them in attracting more and more customers which
aid in attaining desire goal and objective.
 Building Customer Loyalty: By adopting proper marketing channel of communication a
company able to interact with customers in effective manner. Similarly in respect of
Marriott Hotel through different marketing channels of communication they able to
interact with their potential customers as well as it will also help in resolving issues of
customers (De Pelsmacker, Van Tilburg and Holthof, 2018). Moreover that will help
them in developing an effective customers loyalty which directly increase profitability.
These are the main benefits of marketing channels of communication which are gain by
Marriott Hotel for adding value as well as maximising resources in successful manner.
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TASK 2
P2 Design communication objectives for a given organisation situation.
Communication objectives is considered as broad term which is generally used by a
company in several areas such as sales, creative work, marketing, knowledge work, public
speaking, leadership and many more. It is essential for every organisations to develop or design
effective communication objective because it help in several practices such as communication,
decision and planning methods and determining result (de Vicuña Ancín, 2018). There are major
four goal of developing communication objective i.e. inform, persuade, request and build
relationship. In respect of Marriott Hotel they are need to develop effective communication
objective as that will help them in conducting their work properly by attracting huge customers
and increasing profitability ration. In respect of that there are several communication objective of
Marriott Hotel such as they want to adopt online, sales promotion and advertisement channels
because through that they able to attract more and more customers. Along with this another
communication objective of respective company is they want to increase their brand awareness
and brand recognition so that their sales get increased. These communication objectives are
developed by Marriott Hotel because they want to increase their sales, market value and
customer's base at both national as well as international level.
In addition to this, Marriott Hotel can adopt communication planning process as that will
help them in attaining desire objectives effectively by develop proper action plan or strategies.
Communication planning process which a company design in order to attain its predetermined
objective or goal in successful manner include several steps i.e. identification of goal,
determining context, identified potential audiences (Dodson, 2016). After that company need to
develop messages which they want to convey or communicate, then selection of tactics or
method will be done and then measurement of effectiveness will be evaluate then
implementation will done. Through this respective company able to achieve their desire
objectives i.e. implementation of online, sales promotion and advertisement channels for
attracting more and more customers. Another objective of Marriott Hotel is to increase its brand
awareness as well as brand recognition for enhance sales and profitability ration at the potential
marketplace. In order to attain objective respective hotel need to considered several factors such
as budget, employees skills and capabilities and so on.
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P3 Provide justifications for the selection and integration of communications.
Selection and integration of communications refers to the process which are adopted by a
company in order to design most appropriate action plan that help them in attaining their desire
goal as well as objective in successful manner. In respect of Marriott Hotel, they also have main
two objectives i.e. implementation of online, sales promotion and advertisement channels for
attracting customers (Järvinen and Karjaluoto, 2015). Another objective is to increase brand
awareness as well as recognition in the potential marketplace. So in order to attain both the
objectives respective hotel need to determine effectiveness of selection and integration of
communication as that will help them in developing effective decision as well as action plan. In
context of Marriott Hotel, they choose to two kinds of communication tools that are advertising
and sales promotion as both tools helps to attract the consumers positively. The major benefits
occurs by using the advertising that it enhance the sales volume of respective organisation. It
helps to produce products and services in large quantity which leads towards reduction in cost of
production and organisation ultimately able to provide goods at reasonable price range.
To reach at large no. of consumer base it is potential to create reputation, advertisement is
sole tool that helps to build image of product and goodwill of manufacturer. The another
important tool that used by Marriott Hotel is sales promotion as it helps to spread brand
recognition not only communicate sales promotion but consider one of most trusted source for an
organisation to enlarge business opportunities (Kannan, 2017). After reaching at potential
consumers it is very much important for business to provide the reason to buy their products, in
context of Marriott Hotel to sell their products respective tool proved very much beneficial. For
integrating the communication advertisement and sales promotion plays very much important
role as advertisement create awareness and sales promotion intend to buying products and
services.
M2 & M3 Evaluate the application of the communication objectives in relations to the marketing
communication mix and the organisational business objectives.
Communication is one of the most important aspect of the marketing mix, marketing
communication one of important and largest component of communication in an organisation
that represent organisational values, objectives and specified products and service of them. In
context of Marriott Hotel, their primary objective is to communicate and reach at large no. of
consumer base by using the marketing communication tools. For an organisation it is very
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potential to reach at large no. of consumer base by frame products and services as per their
demand in order to remain competitive in marketplace (Kaushik, 2016). Their are various kinds
of marketing communication tools such as advertisement, personal selling, sales promotions,
direct marketing and public relations in order to gain desirable outcomes.
Respective organisation uses the advertisement and sales promotion tool as both proved
very much beneficial for organisation to communicate about value derived by products and
services and that is rare in nature. Each and every communication tool has their own
characteristic and cost. By using the combination of various promotional tool such as
advertisement and sales promotion to reach at large no. of consumers in order to satisfy their
present as well as future needs to remain competitive marketplace (Kingsnorth, 2019).
Advertising defined as an non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services
by an identified sponsor. The reason behind use the respective tool that other kinds of
promotional tools are impersonal in nature and communicate with large no. of people by using
paid media channels. In context of Marriott Hotel they to promote their products such as room
service, food and beverages and tourism so they by using advertisement and then sales
promotion in comparatively less price range from competitors so that consumers can take
appropriate decision making.
So it can be said that marketing communication tools plays very much important role in
an organisation for achieving the business objectives such as bring awareness, enhance brand
recognition and goodwill and many more benefits in order to gain desirable outcomes.
TASK 3
P4 Crete a marketing communication plan that effectively meets communication objectives for a
given organisation situation
Marketing communication plan is considered as strategy which help a company in
informing their targeted or potential customers about its offering, products and services (Kotler
and et. al., 2017). There are several stage incorporated in marketing communication plan whose
explanation are given below in respect of Marriott Hotel:-
 Step 1. Develop a Brand Statement: According to this stage respective hotel will
conduct analysis and understand their strengths, weakness, targeted audiences, their
demand and need and many other factors. In respect of Marriott Hotel, they are they want
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to adopt new communication channel so that they can effectively interact or reach to
customers as well as it will also help them in increasing brand awareness.
 Step 2. Identify Unique Selling Proposition: At this stage respective hotel management
will determined their unique selling proposition through which they can different
themselves from other competitors (Levy and Gvili, 2015). This will help them in
attracting customers and ensuring that they will purchase their offerings.
 Step 3. Identify Business Objectives or Goal: After identifying brand effectiveness and
USP (Unique selling proposition) Marriott Hotel will determine its goal which they want
to attain. Goal of hotel is to implement online digital channel such as social media,
advertisement and sales promotion in order to attract wide range customers.
 Step 4. Develop Audience / Customer Personas: After identifying goal or objective
respective hotel will identify their audiences such as their audiences will be all age group
people (How To Create A Communications Plan in 12 Steps (Template), 2020). This is so
because Marriott Hotel offer their services in several sections such as eat & drinks, game,
stay and functions.
 Step 5. Understand Other Key Public: Marriott Hotel will identify people other than
customers who will directly as well indirectly support in conducting business operations
and functions effectively. In respect of respective hotel the key public are media,
government agencies, stakeholders, suppliers and so on.
 Step 6. Determine What the World Needs to Know About company or brand: After
that Marriott Hotel management will evaluate in order to know what information
audiences want to know about hotel. Such as hotel operations, facilities provided by
them, their USP and many more.
 Step 7. Choose Channels according to business: At this stage respective company
determine channels which they can adopt in order to attain their objectives such as social
media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and so on (Mandal and Joshi, 2017). Along
with this they also need to adopt other methods such as advertisement as well as sales
promotions.
 Step 8. Plan a Messaging Matrix: In this management of Marriott Hotel need to
develop several documents such as brand statement, determine target audiences, identify
core issue or problems and key messages which hotel want to communicate.
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 Step 9. Determine Important Events and Campaigns: According to this respective
hotel will develop special strategies for important event such as Christmas, Thanksgiving,
Hanukkah and so on. This is so because at that time people plan for journey and eat
outside, so due to offers they able to attract more and more customers.
 Step 10. Set Communications Goals: After that management of Marriott Hotel will
develop SMART goal according to their strategies because that will help them in
developing effective strategies (Medell, 2018).
 Step 11. Plan Content and Campaigns on Marketing Calendar: In respect of this
stage Marriott Hotel management need to plan their strategies and functions properly on
marketing calendar as that will help in proper execution.
 Step 12. Measure Impact: At the last stage management of Marriott Hotel will conduct
impact of their strategies that is related to implementation of new strategies for
conducting promotional activities.
TASK 4
P5 Determine and evaluate measurement techniques and performance metrics in digital
marketing.
Digital media is considered as digitalized content which can be sent through internet or
computer network. It can include several factors such as audio, text, video and graphics through
that company able to communicate their objective to potential customers. It plays an effective
role in the succession of business as well as there are several measurement techniques and
performance metric which can be adopted by a company. This is so because that will help them
in determining effectiveness of digital marketing. Below explanation of some measurement
techniques and performance metric in respect of Marriott Hotel is given below:-
 Return on Investment – It is considered as one of the essential techniques which used
by a company in order to determine effectiveness of digital marketing. Through this
respective hotel able to understand their efforts which they are putting in order to conduct
digital promotion activities (Ohanwe, 2018). Moreover it will also help them in
determining whether they are adopting right method or not as well as this is observed as
predetermined method for calculating effectiveness of digital marketing.
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 New Sessions and Bounce Rates – According to this an organisation can track its new
session on website as well as it will also help in determining impact of digital marketing
campaigns which is conducted by firm for promoting their business or products (Pradiani,
2017). Respective method is generally help in generating idea how offerings can be
display so that it will attract and retain customers for long time. In respect of Marriott
Hotel, they can calculate effectiveness of digital marketing by determining percentage of
visitors visited at hotel website and how much time type explore the website.
 Website traffic – This refers numbers of audiences who are visited to the website of
company, through this firm can estimate its popularity in the potential marketplace.
Along with this, in respect of Marriott Hotel in order to attract more and more audiences
or visitors to website they need to design it creatively as well as innovatively so that
customers get attracted and get influence to visit at hotel.
These are the main measurement techniques and performance metrics which can be
adopted by Marriott Hotel in order to determined or evaluate effectiveness of digital marketing.
Through this respective hotel also able to develop effective decision which help them in adopting
digital technology platform in effective manner.
P6 Present a set of actions to improve performance in digital marketing.
Digital marketing plays an effective role in attainment of business goal and objectives.
There are different set of actions which should be adopted in order to improve performance in
digital marketing by Marriott Hotel. They are described below:
 Assessing Tech- It is very important for respective Hotel to make proper budget in order
to overcome from gaps of time and money. In this case, business has to improve digital
marketing by asking different questions to teams like type of personas preferred by
people and others. They has to use different platforms such as CMS (Content
management system), CRM (Customers Relationship Management), Marketing
automation, Content management platform, social media and so on (Taylor, 2015). These
helps to align key objectives for respective organisation capabilities of technology.
 Optimising SEO- This helps in auditing score of SEO (Search engine optimization) with
competitive environment. It should be very effective which should be used by
organisation for positive outcomes. This is used by large number of people which should
be very easy and simple to enhance performance of digital marketing. Team expert in
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SEO uses content which is optimised with different keywords, HTML formatting and so
on. The success of SEO can be measured by Marriott Hotel by using traffic, A/B testing,
heat map analytics and others.
 Measuring Content Reach-It is significant to measure internal as well as external reach
that helps in providing broad picture about types of content, messaging, topics and so on.
As it is difficult to measure external reach but it assist in improving performance of
digital marketing in proper manner (Yasmin, Tasneem and Fatema, 2015). For auditing
external surrounding some points should be considered such as number of engagement
per month, type of content, sales stage, persona and many more. If business is able to
measure reach then they can attain goal and objectives of work.
 Tracking Social Channels- Social media is used by large number of people which helps
in creating awareness among consumers regarding business, their product, services and
so on. In survey, it was found that social media as well as content marketing were used
by more than 71% of B2B (Business to business) marketers. For better improvement in
digital marketing, social channels should be tracked on regular basis.
These are the main methods which can be adopted by Marriott Hotel in order to improve
their performance related to digital marketing. This is essential for respective hotel to conduct as
that will help them in attracting more and more customers towards their hotel services and
facilities. Along with this it will also aid them in attaining their desire goal as well as objectives
successfully i.e. to increase profitability by implementing new channels such as digital media,
sales promotion and so on.
M4 Critically evaluate application of key digital measurement techniques and performance
metrics used in digital marketing.
According to the perspective of Yejas, 2016, there are numbers of method which a
company can adopt in order to measure performance of digital marketing activities. By
conducting evaluation of this, firm management able to determined whether their selected digital
technology method is appropriate or not according to their business operations and functions.
Along with this, it will also help them in developing effective action plan through which firm can
attain their desire goal as well as target. In respect of Marriott Hotel, they adopt several methods
of digital measurement techniques as well as performance metric used in respect of digital
marketing such as evaluation of Return on Investment, New Sessions and Bounce Rates and
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Website traffic. Through this respective hotel able to understand that whether their selected
digital marketing methods is effective or not. Moreover it will also help Marriott Hotel
management in attracting more and more potential audiences through which they can increase
their sales and profitability ratio.
CONCLUSION
By analysing above discussed point it can be determined or summarised that now a day
each and every company are adopting digital marketing channel as that will help them in
attaining their desire goal and objectives in effective manner. There are numbers of digital
marketing channels that an organisation can adopt in order to conduct effective communication
at the potential market. For example advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling and online
media, selection of which is depend on the business operation and functions. By adopting these
communication channels firm can gain various benefits such as promoting brands, developing
brand awareness and building customer loyalty. Along with this there are several method which
a firm can adopt in respect of implementing communication plan at the workplace as that will
help in attaining pre determined goal as well as objectives successfully. There are numbers of
methods which can be used by an organisation in order to measure effectiveness of digital
marketing channels.
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5 Reasons Why You Need an Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy. 2020. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.business2community.com/integrated-marketing/5-
reasons-why-you-need-an-integrated-marketing-communications-strategy-02123959>.
How To Create A Communications Plan in 12 Steps (Template). 2020. [Online]. Available
through: <https://coschedule.com/blog/communications-plan-template/>.
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