Digital Marketing Strategy for The Grove Hotel Bournemouth: Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the marketing strategies employed by The Grove Hotel Bournemouth, a non-profit organization catering to cancer patients and individuals with life-limiting diseases. The report begins with an executive summary and introduction, followed by a situational analysis utilizing the SWOT framework to assess the hotel's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A detailed digital marketing strategy and tactics section explores the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, alongside Google AdWords and website review platforms like TripAdvisor, to enhance the hotel's online presence and reach. The report also covers market segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies, as well as the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence). An internal marketing plan is outlined to align employees with the organization's objectives. Finally, the report includes financial projections, implementation controls, conclusions, and recommendations to guide the hotel's marketing efforts and ensure its long-term sustainability and success in providing services to its target demographic.

Strategic Applied
Marketing

Executive Summary
In modern era, marketing is a concept that is not unfamiliar to anyone or any business
organisation. In corporate world, marketing is an element that is providing a strategic edge to
many small and large scale companies to maintain its sustainability at marketplace (Wilson and
Gilligan, 2012). This report is based upon The Grove Hotel Bournemouth which is a not-for-
profit hotel owned by local charity, Macmillan Caring Locally. It is seen that this hotel is
involved in providing holiday packages for guests that have Cancer or any other life limiting
disease with the assurance that in case of any illness, medical assistance will be provided on-
hand. This hotel specially designed and developed for medical patients is not very famous due to
lack of traffic on its website and less number of followers on its social media pages.
There is increasing need for making people aware about the importance of such hotels
made for patients with life limiting disease in UK. For this, a digital media marketing plan has
been developed so as to enhance its presence over digital media. This will assist in rapidly
increasing its online booking. Also, as awareness is increased about this hotel, many famous
celebrities and VIP will indulge in contributing towards this social cause as well as leisure
experience for patients. For this, company has chosen AdWords where company can generate
traffic for its website or videos. Other social media tools adopted by The Grove are Facebook,
Twitter and Youtube and the famous website Trip Advisor where critics and customers give
reviews for various kinds of hotels. The time set for successfully implementing this strategy is 12
months. It is recommended that company keeps a backup plan in case the strategy does not work
as per the expected outcomes.

Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Situational Analysis (SWOT)......................................................................................................1
Marketing strategy and tactics.....................................................................................................3
Internal Marketing Plan...............................................................................................................5
Financial Projections...................................................................................................................6
Implementation Controls.............................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
This report is based upon The Grove Hotel Bournemouth which is a unique hotel owned
by a local charitable organisation. It serves individuals suffering from cancer or other life
threatening disease. The respective hotel has exclusive services of on-site nurse for any
emergencies and daily care. Also, there is a panic button in every room which assures the safety
of customers. This report will help in understanding internal situation of the respective hotel
through swot analysis. Besides this, digital marketing strategy and tactics have been discussed
along with internal marketing plan. Furthermore, financial projections as well as implementation
of controls have been assessed in context of marketing plan.
Situational Analysis (SWOT)
The Grove has planned to adopt and implement a digital marketing strategy adopted by to
significantly enhance its public reach as well as give a boost to its social media channels. For
this, the time duration decided by company is 12 months. Within this period, marketing
department is focussing upon bringing a positive change in the traffic of company’s website. The
digital marketing strategy adopted by The Grove is putting an advertisement campaign on
AdWords to boost the reach of hotel’s website. Also, company is largely emphasizing upon
introducing new interactive programmes upon social media like Facebook and Twitter to reflect
its constant activeness upon it. Along with this, hotel management is also capturing the attention
of people by uploading videos on YouTube where patients are being given treatment by nurses in
case of medical emergencies or sudden chronic illness (SWOT Analysis, 2018).
After the marketing audit is conducted, The Grove Hotel management is making use of
SWOT analysis to ascertain the shortcomings and strong point. Thus, this analysis is conducted
as follows:-
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Strengths
 The humanitarian service provided by The Grove Hotel Bournemouth in terms of medical
assistance to cancer patients is unique and exceptionally well. Thus, by publicising about
it through digital marketing strategy to increase awareness amongst people becomes
strength as this has a large scope in market.
 This hotel has high ratings on Trip Advisor. Thus by focussing upon efficiently utilising
the digital marketing strategy to increase its reach, company can gain high stakes in
marketplace.
Weaknesses
 The marketing strategies are not strong enough due to which there is a very less
awareness about the facilities of the respective hotel in UK market (Vellas, 2016).
 The digital marketing tool of the respective organisation is very poor due to which it is
not able to approach the market and customers are unaware of the products and services
that The Grove Hotel is currently offering in terms of medical assistance to patients.
Opportunities
 The Grove Hotel Bournemouth can become a leader in hotel industry by focussing upon
successfully implementing the digital marketing strategy to increase its reach along with
serving humanitarian purpose.
 The digital marketing strategy of the hotel currently being used by the hotel management
can be revised to assure more traffic on company’s website and social media portals
which will lead to enhanced customer visits in respective hotel.
 The official website can also be promoted through Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
which is a tool that helps in promoting the website at the first page of search engine.
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Illustration 1: SWOT Analysis
Source: Swot Analysis, 2019

Threat
 If any other enters the marketplace with the same concept as The Grove, it can pose
threat to the position of company and it would also reflect inefficiency of current digital
marketing strategy as it is not able to gain attention of people.
 If the organisation does not regularly update its official website and does not remain
much active on social media platforms, it can become a threat as it would reflect that
customers will no more be attracted towards the hotel and its special services in terms of
medical assistance to cancer patients.
 If company makes use of traditional and outdated digital marketing modes, it will not be
able to increase its followers and customer base and this will restrict growth of The
Grove Hotel.
Marketing strategy and tactics
The Grove Hotel Bournemouth is a non-profit organisation providing holiday package to
guests who have life limiting disease. As their concept is unique but, it is essential for them to
adopt effective digital marketing strategy in order to fulfil travelling dreams of patients who are
suffering from hazardous diseases. This will help the chosen organisation in creating awareness
among more people as now they are also providing this opportunity to friends and families of the
patients (Vellas, 2016).
In this present context, The Grove Hotel Bournemouth is planning to opt effective digital
marketing strategy in order to aware their target people about, the travelling experience they are
providing to cancer patients or people with life limiting diseases and their friends or families. In
this regard, the chosen organisation is planning to use social media marketing tools and various
website review platform in order to improve their reach.
In social media marketing tools, the chosen organisation is using strong content driven marketing
strategy via facebook and twitter. This will help them in generating awareness among people by
sharing travelling experience of the patients, who already gained this opportunity. On the other
hand, they are also advertising their website through Google Adwords in order to promote their
website. As they are non-profit organisation, this will help them in achieving loyalty from their
potential customers (Sargeant and MACQUILLIN, 2016).
The Grove Hotel Bournemouth is also using website review platforms like Trip Advisor
with a motive to show authenticity to their potential customers. It is essential for the chosen
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organisation to manage its website review platform effectively as it helpsthem in generating
transparency about their unique initiative.
Market segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy
Segmentation: It is a strategy of dividing target customers in accordance with their needs
and expectation from a particular product or services (Proctor, 2014). In this context, The Grove
Hotel Bournemouth is a non-profit organisation providing holiday package to cancer patients and
their families. In this context, most of the patients are above 70 years and they are not using
social media tools. Now, the chosen organisation is also giving this holiday package to family
members and friends of patients, who have this life limiting disease. In this situation, social
media marketing tools will aware family members of patients, which eventually helps the chosen
organisation in overcoming this challenge.
Targeting: It is a strategy of targeting the right market in order to increase productivity of a
business organisation (Liu and Ko, 2011). As per the above mentioned scenario, it is essential for
the chosen organisation to collect appropriate data in order to identify availability of patients
with life limiting disease. This will help them in formulating their digital marketing strategy in
order to aware peoples about their initiative. In this context, social media marketing tools like
facebook and twitter will help in creating awareness among families of respective patients.
Positioning: As per the scenario, current market positioning of The Grove Hotel
Bournemouth is not much effective as many people are not aware about their holiday package
opportunity. For this, the chosen organisation is using various social media marketing tools and
various other marketing platforms like Trip Advisor, in order to increase their customer reach at
a global level. It will also help the chosen organisation in improving their market presence,
which eventually leads in raising more funds.
Marketing mix
This tool will help The Grove Hotel Bournemouth in controlling factors like product, price,
place, promotion in order to achieve its marketing objective. The marketing mix of this entity is
discussed below:
Product: It includes products and services offered by a business entity. In this context,
the chosen organisation is providing lifetime travelling experience to cancer patients or patients
who have life limiting diseases and their families or friends. They are also providing 24-hour
nurse services to their customers keep them safe and healthy.
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Price: The chosen organisation is providing free of cost holiday package to the cancer
patients and their families or friends (How to use the 7Ps Marketing Mix, 2018). They are using
various digital media marketing tools in order to aware people about their unique concept. As
they are non-profit organisation, it is essential to opt effective digital marketing strategy in order
to attract public to raise funds.
Promotions: The Grove Hotel Bournemouth is promoting their unique concept by using
various social media tools like facebook and twitter. They are also using Google AdWords to
promote their website and Trip Advisor in order to generate transparency among their target
peoples.
People: The staff members of the chosen organisation are well trained in order to keep
patients safe and healthy. The nurses are available for 24-hour, which will helps them in
reducing health related problems.
Process: In this context, it is essential for patient who is travelling to book appointment
with nurse in order to check if patient is eligible to travel or not. The friends or family members
of patients can also contact manager in order to check travelling criteria for a patient.
Physical evidence: The hotel building and website of Grove Hotel Bournemouth is the
major physical evidence. Besides this, the chosen organisation is also generating transparency by
promoting its website on Google AdWords.
As per the above mentioned report, the chosen organisation is using various digital
marketing tools like facebook, twitter, Google AdWords in order to aware its potential customers
(Kitchen and Burgmann, 2015).
Internal Marketing Plan
In this regard, Internal marketing plan will help The Grove Hotel Bournemouth to aware
its employees about their specific aims and objectives. As the chosen organisation is using digital
marketing strategies with a motive to aware people about their unique concept. In this case, it is
essential to aware their employees at first in order to build strong and healthy relationship. It is
also essential for the chosen organisation to recruit new employees, who have adequate skills and
competence in order to handle digital marketing tool.
The Grove Hotel Bournemouth is using in-house radio programmes to transfer
information to their staff members as quickly as possible. They also reward or compensate their
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employees based on their performance in order to build a healthy competitive business
environment within an organisation.
As the chosen organisation is bringing huge change in their activities by digital marketing
tools. Then, it is essential for them to organise training and development sessions to make them
aware about benefits of these digital marketing strategies.
So, internal marketing strategy will help the chosen organisation in providing best in quality
experience to their potential customers. As they are providing 24-hour nurses facility to keep
their travelling patient safe.
Financial Projections
The financial investment that has to be done for implementing the digital marketing
strategy effectively in force is to be considered by the hotel management (Line and Runyan,
2014). For this, elements of financial data that has to be covered include aspects from where cash
will flow inside or outside the organisational premise. The major source for acquisition of fund is
grant received from government along with subscription which is a form of financial assistance
provided to not for profit organisations. Also, funds can be raised from general public who are
made aware of the social cause by way of social media and digital marketing media.
Implementation Controls
The Grove Hotel Bournemouth is using digital marketing strategy in order to improve its
market image. In this context, the chosen organisation is using social media marketing tools like
facebook and twitter and also using Google AdWords to promote its websites among its potential
customers. As the chosen organisation is providing holiday package to cancer patients and their
families or friends, so they are using Trip Advisor in order to build transparency.
In this context, it is also important for the chosen organisation to control efficiency by
using latest tools and techniques in order to sustain their productivity in a business market.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above assignment, it can be concluded that marketing strategies play a major
role in improving the sales and enhancing the growth of a company. In addition to this, there are
various internal and external factors which reflect the strength, weakness, opportunities and
threat of a company. This helps in gaining a better understanding about the enterprise and assists
in managing marketing planning of a hotel. Besides this, it can also be analysed that the current
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marketing position of the company is a key factor that decides the sustainability of company.
However, it is essential that company appropriately segments, targets and position the customers
so that digital marketing strategy can help enterprise in substantially increasing its reach.
To enhance its public reach and position, hotel management should make use of effective
digital marketing strategies like social media tools, AdWords and Trip Advisor reviews. Along
with this, internal marketing plan has been made emphasizing upon communicating the digital
marketing strategy to internal human resources, i.e., employees. Furthermore, it is necessary to
decide the goals and objectives associated with the marketing strategy so that variances between
the actual and desired position can be determined and reduced with passage of time. Also, it has
been evaluated that entity should make use of a budget for projecting financial estimate to
implement the digital marketing strategy. Marketing mix can be adopted by enterprise to check
the feasibility as well as functioning of marketing strategy. It is also recommended that
organisations should decide the exact timeline within which the digital marketing strategy can be
successfully executed within the organisational premises.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Wilson, R. M. and Gilligan, C., 2012. Strategic marketing management. Routledge.
Sargeant, A. and MACQUILLIN, I., 2016. Marketing for nonprofit organisations. In The
Marketing Book (pp. 555-576). Routledge.
Vellas, F., 2016. The international marketing of travel and tourism: A strategic approach.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Proctor, T., 2014. Strategic marketing: an introduction. Routledge.
Kitchen, P. J. and Burgmann, I., 2015. Integrated marketing communication: making it work at a
strategic level. Journal of Business Strategy. 36(4). pp.34-39.
Liu, G. and Ko, W. W., 2011. An analysis of cause-related marketing implementation strategies
through social alliance: Partnership conditions and strategic objectives. Journal of
business ethics. 100(2). pp.253-281.
Line, N. D. and Runyan, R. C., 2014. Destination marketing and the service-dominant logic: A
resource-based operationalization of strategic marketing assets. Tourism Management.
43. pp.91-102.
Online
SWOT Analysis. 2018. [Online]. Available through: <https://casservice.gsu.edu/swot-analysis/>.
How to use the 7Ps Marketing Mix, 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/how-
to-use-the-7ps-marketing-mix/>.
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