Sunderland Tall Ship Race Event: A Marketing Analysis

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

Marketing and Business for the Service Sector
The Grand Hotel, Sunderland

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................2
OVERVIEW ON THE SERVICES OF THE GRAND HOTEL TO ENHANCE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT................3
PRODUCT AND SERVICES DETAILS...............................................................................................................5
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF SERVICES IN TALL SHIP EVENT..............................................................6
Porter’s Five Forces.....................................................................................................................................6
Ansoff’s Matrix............................................................................................................................................7
SEGMENTATION, TARGETING, POSITIONING..............................................................................................8
BUDGET AND TACTICS.................................................................................................................................9
Monitoring and Control.............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................12
1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Sunderland is one of the beautiful cities in the UK and the beauty of this city is especially based
on sea views from every aspect. As Sunderland is going to conduct a Tall ship race which is very
famous in all over the world and the huge number of people visit to see and enjoy this event.
The Contribution of the grand hotel is making the trip and even more effective where the Grand
hotel is serving the varieties of food and beverages to the visitors and also providing the
accommodation services to all age groups as per their comfort. As per the Sunderland council,
this event is going to be the memorable and cherished event in the mind of visitors for many
upcoming years.
INTRODUCTION
In this project, the marketing plan of Sunderland event with accommodation services, food and
beverages for visitors will be examined. The Grand hotel is well-known Hotel for best
Accommodation services and for the meal and hence the Tourism agencies mainly prefer The
Grand Hotel in order to serve the best services to Visitors in Sunderland, UK (Elborough, 2013).
In addition, this project will also share the overview on services provided by the Hotel with
details and the strengths and weaknesses will be analyzed. The segmentation, targeting and
positioning will also be done in order to provide the facilities to visitors as per their demand and
the Budget of visitors, tactics, monitoring and Control of entire trip will be analyzed in a more
effective way. This project will be the most memorable project because this event is also
including the grand parades, fireworks and live music and Visitors can participate as per their
interest.
2

OVERVIEW ON THE SERVICES OF THE GRAND HOTEL TO ENHANCE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
The customers or visitors are always curious about different cultures and there are visitors from
different countries and nations who specially visit Sunderland to see the Tall ship race.
Sunderland is also very famous for the sea and hence the Visitors do not miss the opportunity
to participate and enjoy the sea activities. The Grand Hotel is one of the Hotels in Sunderland
from where the visitors can enjoy the sea view as well. This is a four-star hotel and affordable
for both high-class visitors as well as middle-class visitors. This Hotel also provides the choices
to of rooms to customers if they want comfort, standard rooms or the suit (Kim et al., 2017).
The visitors or customers can only enjoy the sea view from comfort rooms. Apart from this, The
Grand hotel especially takes care of the customers in terms of safety. The best part of this hotel
is it provides the Television, Seating area and espresso machines in every single room. This
Hotel also facilitates the Air conditioner & Wi-Fi facilities in rooms and wheelchair accessibility
for special visitors. This also involves the banquet room, lounge facility, pool, gym and parking
lots for guests. These verities of facilities with comfort and enjoyment attract the customers to
take the benefits of the Hotel. Customers or visitors get more engaged because of its attractive
amenities in Hotel, Room and wellness such as-
Hotel Amenities Room Amenities Wellness
Free Wi-Fi services.
Indoor swimming pool
24-hours room and reception
services
Free parking facilities
Non-smoking rooms
Wellness centres & Spa
Restaurant
Air conditioner
Bathrooms with bathtub &
shower
Refrigerator
Satellite Television
Central heating
Electric kettle
Beauty salon
Whirlpool or Hot tub
This hotel also provides the amenities of accessibilities for parking, wheelchairs and special
amenities for children as well (Hotel, 2018).
3

PRODUCT AND SERVICES DETAILS
The Grand Hotel of Sunderland is collaborating with Event managers of tall ship event and they
have made the policies and fixed the rates as per the services which they will provide on tall
ship race event. They have made the policies and pricing strategy as per visitor’s satisfaction.
Apart from this, the grand hotel is going to offer the different kinds of discounts on food and
beverages in order to make people aware of the hotel's services and that will ultimately
advertise and promote the services of hotel to visitors and this event is coming up with a wide
range of activities and amenities that will give the delightful experience to the visitors with
great discounts that will be beneficial for the Hotel as well as event managers. The grand hotel
with the collaboration of event managers has set three criteria to provide the discounts i.e.
Group discount, corporate discount and travel agent discount where the visitors can take the
benefits in different ways (Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie, 2018). There are some details of The
Grand Hotel for rates and policies described below-
 Rate Policy- The payment is allowed in USD only.
 Standard Room- the rooms are available from $113 to $214.
 Suite- Suites are available from $202 to $222.
 Credit Cards- this hotel also accepts the credit cards from the visitors.
 Reservation Policies- Visitors can reserve their place in this event with the help of credit
card also.
 Meals- This hotel doesn't facilitate the breakfast in summer discounts but in a tall ship
race event, this hotel is providing the full meal with breakfast on special discounts.
 Deposit policy- they are asking for written Confirmation for security purpose and to
maintain the discipline and crowd in the event.
 Cancellation policy- The visitors can cancel their booking only by 4 pm on the arrival
day.
All these policies and rates by the hotel help the visitors to take an accurate decision. The
visitors can check the details online also in order to save time. These details are quite helpful
for visitors to make their own budget to travel and accordingly visitors can plan their trip in
4

Sunderland for tall ship race. The visitors from other countries can plan their different activities
also that they will perform on this tall ship race event in 2019 (Russo et al., 2016).
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF SERVICES IN TALL SHIP EVENT
Strengths Weaknesses
 Increasing the Profitability of hotel by
selling the services.
 Creating lots of Business Opportunities.
 Great accommodation and meal
facilities for visitors with the safety and
security of health.
 Lots of fun activities and business
activities for all age group of people.
 A large number of visitors with limited
bookings.
 Responsibility to control the cost and a
large amount of investment.
 Maintenance of hygiene of meals and
to take care of customers’ health as
well (Albayrak and Caber, 2015).
Porter’s Five Forces
Porter's five forces are based on those forces that give shape to the organizational activities. It
also helps to determine and to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the industry. The Event
managers and the Grand hotel managers can take the help of this method in order to provide a
proper shape to the tall ship event management that will help them to understand the
strengths and weaknesses of the services which are being provided to visitors and will also help
to maintain the profitability of the hotel as well as for event managers. The forces are described
below-
1. Competition in the industry- This force mainly focuses on the competition with other
competitor's services. There will be a lot of other hotels and Food Company's which will
be the competitors for The Grand hotel. Therefore, the grand hotel can reduce the
prices without any deduction of its quality and taste. This will help the hotel to increase
its sales volume in the event.
2. Potential of new entrants- The entrance of new competitors in the market also affect
the company's position, profit and time. There will be lots of new entrants in the event
5

that can affect the Services of the grand hotel in the event and hence, a hotel can also
add some attractive features into the food services in order to attract the customers
(Mathooko and Ogutu, 2015).
3. Power of suppliers- The supply of goods also impacts the quality of goods and the cost
of the goods. The hotel managers and event managers can build a good relationship
with suppliers in order to purchase the goods at low prices that will help them to
increase their sales and ultimately will increase profitability.
4. Power of customers- Power to bargain is deeply impacted the company's cost and
hence the hotel and managers can fix the rates of foods and accommodation services in
order to maintain the profitable cost of the hotel and the event.
5. The threat of substitute products- Substitute products in the market is a big threat that
impacts the other company's products and services. The Grand Hotel can make people
aware of the correct products and services in the market so that the profitability could
be maintained.
Ansoff’s Matrix
Ansoff’s matrix is mainly helpful to analyze the market and business risks so that it could be
reduced. There are four strategies in Ansoff’s matrix described below-
1. Market penetration- market penetration will be helpful for hotel managers and event
managers to reduce the prices of the food and accommodation that will attract new and
existing customers towards low-cost services.
2. Product Development- It will help the management in proper research and
development process in order to produce product and services with proper planning
and strategy in the existing market.
3. Market development- This will help the management to serve different customers who
are from different segments and ultimately the Hotel services will be expanded
regionally as well as internationally.
4. Diversification- the hotel can diversify the products and services in the event in order to
attract the customers towards the services. The hotel can choose the unrelated
6

diversification in which they can add a small gift for the customers in order to make
their ship event memorable. Related diversification is also helpful if it will be provided at
a low cost but that will impact the profitability of the hotel (Gurcaylilar-Yenidogan and
Aksoy, 2018).
SEGMENTATION, TARGETING, POSITIONING
The Hotel managers and event managers can make the strategy to provide the services in
different segments. This could be done on the basis of interest and taste of food of the
customers and according to the age group as well. The segmentation according to the age
group will be helpful because more of the youngsters carry the same taste of food and
beverages. They will be able to enjoy the event with their age groups with different verities of
food and beverages and the other activities like live music and many more activities will also
not disturb the other age groups. The segmentation could be done on the basis of region and
country also where people will be able to enjoy their own regional taste of food in this event
that will satisfy them in the event. The segmentation is also possible in terms of visitor's
personality, attitude, and lifestyle and on the basis of their behaviours also. As per the research,
the best segmentation would be the demographic segmentation where the different age
groups will be able to enjoy the event at their comfort level and the Hotel managers and event
managers can easily avail the facilities for accommodation and food to them as per their area of
interest (Camilleri, 2018).
Targeting is helpful to determine the size and the potential of the segmented groups. Targeting
will help the hotel managers and event managers to understand legal, technological and social
issues that will prepare them to deal with these problems in the event. This will also help the
management to get the profitable Return on investment if the management will be done
properly.
Positioning is the final stage after segmentation and targeting. The event managers and hotel
managers are required to position their services in the market place. Here the question arises
that why the customer is required to purchase the food and accommodation services from
7

them. So the best answer will be the best quality of food and accommodation services they are
providing at a reasonable cost by taking care of the health, safety and security of people who
are from different age groups.
BUDGET AND TACTICS
Budgeting is the crucial, challenge for the planners or event managers. They are required to
plan the each and every activity according to the budget of the event. The event managers face
a lot of challenges in terms of money and they are restricted to plan the activities in the limited
amount so that the profitability could be increased (Andre et al., 2016). First of all, planners can
make an effective plan where they can add most important activities and second of all they can
prepare the expenses list in which they can add unnecessary expense which can be stopped
such as audio-visual expenses that can be controlled. The managers or planners can promote
the activities online in order to reduce the advertisement expenses offline. They can fix the
wages of the workers on priority basis who are going to work in the event and also they can
build the basic budget of the event so that the unnecessary expense could be cut down. The
planners can also look at the decoration part, performers in the grand parade and the number
of the attendees. This will help the organizers to prepare the effective budget to organize an
effective and memorable tall ship event for people.
The budgeting could be very effective if there will be proper utilization of marketing tactics. The
managers and planners can create a large number of networks on social media with the help of
Facebook, Email, SEO and optimization, referrals and so on. This is completely saving the
advertisement and promotional cost and hence the advertisement and promotion of the Tall
ship event could be done with the help of these marketing tactics that will save the time as well
as money (Grewal et al., 2016). The grand hotel can also make an effective budget for
providing effective accommodation services to the customers and the food and beverages
services.
8

Monitoring and Control
Every event has a wide range of food varieties. The Grand Hotel is going to provide the verities
of food to the customers of different segments and hence this is very important for the food
managers of the Hotel to take care of the quality of the food. A manager is required to control
the inventory as well so that unnecessary cost could be saved. They are required to analyze the
numbers of customers first and then the stock which will be required for the food production.
The main task that managers face is that they are needed to purchase the food ingredients at a
low price and produce it in the best possible manner with high quality and delicious taste of the
food. The managers are also required to monitor the whole process of production in order to
control the quality of the food. The hotel managers and event managers can focus on a few
things such as-
 Market List- this will help them to understand that how much ingredients are required
and which supplier can supply the ingredients in low prices (Farrand et al, 2017).
 Nutrition- The managers are also required to analyze the health of the customers so
that the food could be prepared accordingly and the proper nutrition could be provided
to the customers.
 Recipe management- the recipe is very important for every food company in order to
maintain the best test of the food in the market. The recipe of food should be unique so
that the visitors can rate the food services with the highest points.
 Stock control and purchasing- the managers should focus on the stock also in order to
make the availability of the stock as per the requirement. If the stock is less than the
goods could be purchased as per the requirement and if the optimum stock is available
then there is no need to purchase more. Apart from this, the prepared food which the
company is offering to the customers, the managers should check the quantity that
staffs are delivering the food at how much quantity as per the set prices. This will help
to manage to control the stock and will increase profitability.
 Reporting- There is one more responsibility that should be taken care of by managers is
to check the market volatility. The high fluctuation of ingredients in the market creates
low-profit margins. In such situations, food managers are required to change the pricing
9

strategy and they are required to report and inform to all people of production about
the changes in the pricing of the food (Muzaffer et al, 2017).
This marketing plan was all about the Tall Ship Event management in Sunderland where the
great contribution has given by the Grand Hotel with the collaboration of event managers. The
grand hotel has given its Contribution in order to provide the accommodation, food and
beverages services.
10

REFERENCES
Albayrak, T. and Caber, M., 2015. Prioritisation of the hotel attributes according to their
influence on satisfaction: A comparison of two techniques. Tourism Management, 46, pp.43-50.
Andre, S.M., Lam, M. and O'Donnell, M., 2016. Budgetary Slack: Exploring the Effect of Different
Types, Directions, and Repeated Attempts of Influence Tactics on Padding a Budget. Academy
of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, 20(3), p.147.
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. Market segmentation, targeting and positioning. In Travel Marketing,
tourism economics and the airline product (pp. 69-83). Springer, Cham.
Elborough, T., 2013. London Bridge in America: the tall story of a transatlantic crossing. Random
House.
Farrand, T.E., Gillon, W.M., Snow, K.D., Krein, W.T. and Bryan, D.A., Ooma Inc, 2017. Security
monitoring and control. U.S. Patent 9,633,547.
Grewal, D., Roggeveen, A.L. and Nordfält, J., 2016. Roles of retailer tactics and customer-
specific factors in shopper marketing: Substantive, methodological, and conceptual issues.
Journal of Business Research, 69(3), pp.1009-1013.
Gurcaylilar-Yenidogan, T. and Aksoy, S., 2018. Applying Ansoff’S Growth Strategy Matrix To
Innovation Classification. International Journal of Innovation Management, 22(04), p.1850039.
Hotel, H., 2018. Accommodation.
Kim, W.G., Li, J., Han, J.S. and Kim, Y., 2017. The influence of recent hotel amenities and green
practices on guests’ price premium and revisit intention. Tourism Economics, 23(3), pp.577-593.
Mathooko, F.M. and Ogutu, M., 2015. Porter’s five competitive forces framework and other
factors that influence the choice of response strategies adopted by public universities in Kenya.
International Journal of Educational Management, 29(3), pp.334-354.
11