Marketing Essentials for Travel and Tourism: Hilton Hotel Case Study

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MARKETING
ESSENTIALS FOR
TRAVEL AND
TOURISM
HILTON HOTEL
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
LO1........................................................................................................................................... 4
P1 EXPLANATION OF KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION
WITHIN HILTON HOTEL........................................................................................................ 4
P2 DISCUSSION OF HOW ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES RELATE TO WIDER
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT................................................................................................6
M1 ANALYSE THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING CONTEXT OF MARKETING
ENVIRONMENT.....................................................................................................................7
M2 ANALYSIS OF SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MARKETING AND
OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS WITHIN HILTON HOTEL............................................................8
LO2........................................................................................................................................... 9
P3 COMPARISION OF WAYS IN WHICH DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS APPLY MARKETING
MIX TO MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES...................9
M3 ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT TACTICS APPLIED BY HOSPITALITY ORGANISATIONS TO
ACHIEVE THE ORGANISATIONAL GOAL..............................................................................10
LO4......................................................................................................................................... 11
P4 PRODUCTION OF A BASIC MARKETING PLAN FOR HILTON HOTEL TO MEET THE
MARKETING OBJECTIVES OF THE ORGANISATION.............................................................11
M4 PRODUCTION OF A COHERENT EVIDENCE-BASED MARKETING PLAN THAT APPLIES IN
MARKETING MIX TO MEET THE MARKETING OBJECTIVES FOR HILTON HOTEL..................13
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 15
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 16
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INTRODUCTION
This assignment is based on marketing essentials in the travel and tourism sector and will
define the role of marketing in the travel and tourism industry. How marketing function
relates to other organizational functions in the organization to achieve the organizational
objective. There are seven different Ps of marketing that is important for an organization to
define its marketing strategy. The organization chosen here is Hilton hotel, Hilton hotel is a
big hotel brand and have a presence in 113 countries with 17 brands and 5600+ properties
all over the world, is headquartered in the USA and is in this industry since 1919. So at
Hilton hotel to achieve organizational goals they use different tactics and ways which will be
compared and evaluated in this assignment. There will a formation of a basic marketing plan
for Hilton hotel and how will it help in achieving the organizational goals through the
application of this marketing plan.
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LO1
P1 EXPLANATION OF KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING
FUNCTION WITHIN HILTON HOTEL
The marketing function has the role and responsibility to maximize the profitability and
revenues of the hotel by attracting more and more travelers and business corporate clients
at the hotel with a minimum cost of promoting and advertising. The motive is to increase
the occupancy rate and if it reaches 99% than maintaining it in the future is the aim of every
hotel including Hilton hotel (Line and Runyan, 2012).
Conducting market research- The marketing manager has the aim of scanning the
environment, gaining the knowledge of future changes in trends and technological changes
or any other environmental change that can affect the hotel’s operations. Marketing
function includes identifying future opportunities and future threats that the hotel will face.
There are many components that a consumer or a guest checks before they chose a hotel
like the location, distance from the airport or transportation facilities, price per room per
night, etc. so the role of marketing manager is to identify the components that build a brand
image of the hotel and its appeal to attract the customers and then using those factors in
own hotel to attract the customers (Line and Runyan, 2012).
Maximizing customer awareness - The marketing function includes building and
implementing the strategies that will attract the customers to the Hilton hotel, though
Hilton hotel is very popular and people recognize it by its name only and the luxury that
Hilton provides is enough for Hilton but to survive and compete in the competitive market
the company has to market itself and this can be done through the online posting on
websites to reach to the target audience (Line and Runyan, 2012).
Promoting facilities and luxury –Hilton hotel is a luxury hotel brand famous worldwide in
the hospitality sector for its services. The Hilton hotel’s marketing function includes the
responsibility to promote its hotel in the market highlighting its various facilities of
conference halls, leisure facilities, and five-star room facilities, etc. (Line and Runyan, 2012).
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Build customer relationships – To maintain a loyal customer is a big and significant
responsibility for the marketing function. This includes building a customer base that is
regular and which provides a high level of business to the hotel. Like Hilton hotel provides so
personalized services to the customers that they are so overwhelmed and visit again and
again. The discounts or customer rewarding system that rewards the guests that arrive
regularly at the Hilton hotel, this makes the customer delighted with the quality services and
discounts offered to them and if they get special treatment then who will not be coming to
that hotel in a regular basis (Line and Runyan, 2012).
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P2 DISCUSSION OF HOW ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES RELATE TO WIDER
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT
The roles and responsibilities of marketing function are extended to the whole organization
as this function involves functioning with the other departments of the organization.
Marketing function first has to communicate with the other departments to gain knowledge
of the customers staying at the hotel, their requirement, etc. The marketing department has
the responsibility to perform the function of increasing the sales and customer base of the
company and for that, it needs the coordination of all other departments of the
organization. Marketing department depends on the occupancy rates and occupied a
quantity of the hotel in the previous year and in the previous quarter and hence according
to the season the trends are forecasted by the sales and marketing department. There are
requirements of the consumers that only reception or other working staff can tell, further
this information is used by the marketing department to attract the customers and
reception department helps in formulating discount schemes that the customers appreciate
in order to maintain the loyal customers (Aithal, 2016).
The marketing department is dependent on the finance department as the finance
department designs the budget of every department and controls the cash flow, the same
budget is decided for the marketing department and it has to follow that budget and
optimize the capital resource as decided by the finance department.
The reception staffs are highly related to the marketing department as they are the source
of information about the guests or the customers in the hotel, the consumer preferences.
The marketing department is highly dependent on the technology department to promote
the hotel online; the technology department will help in creating the website, online
promotion techniques, etc.
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M1 ANALYSE THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING CONTEXT
OF MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
The marketing function involves various processes of planning and executing the strategies
to achieve higher revenues and higher profitability and large and continuous customer base
this can only be done if the company adapts to the change in environment so it is necessary
to follow these roles of marketing -
Market strategies- The main role is to formulate and implement market strategies that
include recognizing the needs of the target audience and providing the same to the
customers (Purohit and Purohit, 2013).
Market information system- The other function of the marketing manager is to gain the
information and manage the data of the guests maintain their privacy and to extract the
useful information from these data from the information system (Purohit and Purohit,
2013).
Analyzing the business environment – There are political, legal, social, economic,
technological and environment, these factors affect the operations of the hotel so these
factors are to be analyzed properly for predicting future trends (Purohit and Purohit, 2013).
Market segmenting – To subcategorize the audience and do segmenting and to decide the
target audience is the responsibility of the marketing manager of the hotel (Purohit and
Purohit, 2013).
Brand image- To maintain and build the brand image is a very challenging and important
role for the marketing manager. The service providing organizations run on goodwill and
positive brand image that can only be maintained through promoting the brand and
differentiating it from others regularly.
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M2 ANALYSIS OF SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
MARKETING AND OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS WITHIN HILTON HOTEL
The marketing function is a part of the organization and so this department will have its
interdependencies on other department functions of the organization like human resource
department, finance department, cleaning department, and front desk department.
Finance department- The finance department has the responsibility to allocate every
department with a specified budget that includes the restricted spending amount on each
activity of the specified department, like for marketing function at Hilton hotel, the finance
department will allocate some specified amount that should be spent at the promotional
activities and how much to be spent on discounts to retain the loyal customers. The finance
department also allocates budget for the human resource department for training
employees, the cost for recruitment and selection, etc. (Jang and Park, 2011).
Human resource department – This department is related to all other departments as this
department is responsible for recruiting, selecting and training the employees at Hilton
hotel, this must be according to the job specification required at the hotel, different
department require different qualification and different skills that are to be analyzed by the
human resource department before recruiting the prospective employees. Also, the human
resource department is responsible for managing and organizing the human capital,
motivating them and simultaneously retaining them to reduce the employee turnover in the
hotel (Hoque, 2013).
Housekeeping and Maintenance staff – This department is responsible for maintaining the
rooms, cleaning them, meeting to the demands of the guests on time, this department is
dependent on the front desk staff for the room occupancy details so that the housekeeping
function can be performed. Also, the front desk department is also dependent on this
housekeeping department as if the rooms are ready then only customers can be given the
room keys. Reception and front desk department is the core department for all the other
departments as the details of the guest their check in and check out timings, customers
special requests the quantity of total guest, total occupancy, this department also helps the
restaurants at the hotel for identifying the number of people that are to be served with
food.
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LO2
P3 COMPARISION OF WAYS IN WHICH DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS APPLY
MARKETING MIX TO MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS TO ACHIEVE
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The marketing mix is a tool to define and formulate the strategies of marketing. There is
four marketing mix originally but in the service sector, there is an extension of 3 more mixes
in the marketing mix. This marketing mix defines the components that are necessary to
study before promoting the company’s brand in the consumer market. This marketing mix is
product, place, price, promotion, process, physical evidence and people. The application of
marketing mix is done to achieve the organizational goal effectively and efficiently. This
marketing tool helps to attract the costumes and retain the existing customers. Hilton hotel
only focuses on the customer satisfaction and customer convenience of customers so they
provide exceptional guest experiences through their 17 brands worldwide with a
responsibility of urgency and discipline.
The reason for Hilton’s large market share and huge customer appreciation is because it has
injected the customer satisfaction approach in all of its operations whether it is restaurants,
tourism sector, hotels, etc. the only thing that is important is to delight the customer and
their experience at Hilton. This differentiates it from its competitors and helps in gaining a
competitive advantage over the others.
The next factor that differentiates the Hilton hotel from its competitors is the price for
value, the Hilton hotel provides an optimum value of services for the fare per room. They
provide for all the facilities excellent services, all leisure services in the price offered.
Hilton Marriott
Product The product not only
constitutes a tangible
product but also includes
services offered and the
intangible facilities offered.
In the service sector, the
main product offered is not a
physical product but an
For Marriott, its core product
includes hotels, hospitality
management, logging, and
resorts. The most part of the
revenue is generated from
Marriott hotels. Marriott has
11 brands in total which is 6
less than the Hilton hotel.
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intangible one time
experience that cannot be
carried forward or cannot be
consumed in the future. At
the Hilton, the core or main
product is service of enjoying
the experience of staying in
the hotel. For Hilton hotel,
its core product is its
hospitality service at hotels
among all the 17 brands.
(Khan, 2014).
Place The place where the
company or the Hilton hotel
is planning to build its hotel
or in the case of existing
hotels the place, location is
very much important as the
tourists prefer locations near
to the city or near to the
biggest monuments etc. also
the ambiance of the hotel is
a major part of customer
attraction, ambiance at the
Hilton hotel is very
pleasuring luxurious and very
appealing, this attracts the
customers very much. Hilton
hotel has its presence in 113
countries with 5600+
properties. (Khan, 2014).
Marriott hotel is having its
presence in 120 countries
which is a bit larger number
than that of the Hilton hotel.
Price The price structure is to be
decided after researching
and surveying the
environment. The price per
room per night will be in the
range of prices decided by
the competitor’s and since
the Hilton hotel provides
luxury hotel services so the
price should provide high
value to its guests, Hilton
hotel changes its price
schemes with the change in
season and demand of the
consumers. (Khan, 2014).
Marriott hotel aims to
deliver the right services at
the right price. The
determination of the price at
the Marriott hotel is done by
price value and quality
framework and also without
losing the brand value of the
company.
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Promotion Promotion is another
element which includes
advertising of the product or
services that the hotel offers,
promotion of the best
facilities offered like
conference room facility,
pool facility, restaurants and
other auxiliary facilities
Hilton hotel promotes
through both offline and
online platforms since it is an
international brand it has its
different websites for
different continents like for
UK website is different and
for the US the online website
of Hilton is different. (Khan,
2014).
Marriott only promotes itself
and its brand through digital
technology.
Physical evidence This is an element that is to
be delivered before the
service is delivered to the
customers like at Hilton
hotel the services provided
are of staying in a hotel and
the physical evidence is
room, the bed, Jacuzzi
bathtub and all the things
present in the room, free
breakfast services, etc.
physical evidence includes
the other auxiliary things
other than the main product,
which are important for
delivering the core services.
These ancillary services are
complementary services
which provide evidence for
the main service provided
(Khan, 2014).
The Marriott hotel has its
ambiance and buildings as its
physical evidence and it
offers pen, towels, booklets
and other merchandise
especially crafted for all the
Marriott branches but the
luxury facilities are not that
much high as Hilton.
Process The process involves whole
integrated activities involved
in the delivery of core
services. There are various
activities that are also
required to be given after
the sales. In hospitality
The way of working in the
Marriott hotel is also
transparent like Hilton hotel
and the consumers can see,
analyze the process from
booking the tickets to staying
at the hotel but at Hilton
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industry relation building is
most important and for
doing the same there are
some activities that are to be
performed after the main
service is performed or after
the sales services, these
services help in creating loyal
customers Hilton hotel
provides very safe and
transparent process of
booking through online, the
privacy and security of the
user is maintained (Khan,
2014).
hotel, the offline booking
process is also customer-
centric.
People People include human
capital, at hospitality
industry there are only
human resources that can
provide services, and the
goodwill of the brand is in
the hands of employees and
the reception staff as they
are the ones that interact
with customers and if these
employees are properly
trained than only they can
satisfy the needs of the
guests. Hilton hotel is having
more experienced staff as its
been in the business since
1919 (Khan, 2014).
The Marriott hotel is less
experienced than the Hilton
as Marriott hotel is in this
business since 1993, so the
management team is not
that experienced as a Hilton
hotel.
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