Comprehensive Marketing Report: Hilton Hotels' Strategies and Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of the marketing strategies employed by Hilton Hotels and Resorts. It begins with an introduction to the importance of marketing and its key roles, including market research, analysis of collected information, and the formation of effective strategies. The report highlights Hilton's customer-centric approach and its use of marketing campaigns and promotional activities. It then explores the relationship between the marketing department and other functional units within the organization, such as production, research and development, finance, and human resources. The core of the report focuses on the marketing mix of Hilton, comparing it with its competitor, Marriott, across product, price, place, promotion, physical evidence, process, and people. The analysis covers various aspects of Hilton's marketing, including pricing strategies, promotional channels, and the importance of physical evidence in delivering a superior customer experience. Overall, the report offers insights into how Hilton Hotels develops and implements its marketing strategies to maintain its position in the global hotel industry.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Key roles and responsibilities of marketing ...............................................................................3
Relation of marketing functions with other functional units of organisation.............................4
Marketing Mix of Company........................................................................................................6
Development of Marketing Plan of Hilton................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the most important department of company, it is essential for every
organisation to have a well organised marketing department which is engaged in promoting,
advertising and marketing services and products (Baker, 2016). There are various activities
which are undertaken by companies in this function to attract maximum number of customers.
Main aim of marketing department is to increase overall sales of company. Marketing is an
essential function which ensures that products & services are promoted in an effective manner.
This is important for every marketing department to do good market analysis and research. This
helps in increasing sales and profit of the company. The company considered in the following
report is Hilton Hotels and resorts. This is a global brand of full service hotel and resorts
properties. This organisation is working in around more than 85 countries (Hilton.com). This
hotel works under flagship of Hilton and this is one of the largest hotel brands of the world. This
hotel is targeted at both leisure travels and business with locations in convention centres, near
airports, popular destinations, etc.
Key roles and responsibilities of marketing
Marketing is a function which plays a very important role in informing and making their
customers aware of products and services of the company. There are various roles and
responsibilities of marketing which are important as it helps in making right decisions for
promoting and advertising products and services. Some of the roles and responsibilities of
marketing are mentioned below:
Market research: This is an essential role of marketing as it helps in analysing market
effectively and then developing strategies so that products can be promoted effectively (Cant,
and Wiid, 2016). In context of Hilton Hotel, the marketing department is responsible for doing
an effective market research that is helpful for company in knowing how to target potential
customers. Analysing market and target customers deeply is strong responsibility of marketing
department of Hilton. This is the first step of marketing department which has to be performed
with utmost care. Marketers of Hilton make sure that they are collecting relevant and authentic
information. The goal of market research of Hilton is to develop strategies for the company for

gaining greater penetration in the global hotel industry. The main purpose of this is to ensure the
survival and operation without which organisation will lose the grip in global hotel business.
Analysing collected information: When marketers have collected all relevant
information then there is turn for analysing that information in a correct manner. The main role
of marketing managers of Hilton is to do proper analysis of this relevant in information and take
considerable decisions for promotions of products. Hilton managers collect information related
to the new trends and patterns of customer experience.
Formation of strategies: It is important for marketing managers for analysing different
information that are related to make effective strategies in order to attract more number of
customers. It is the most essential thing that helps marketing department to develop strategies &
functions so that all subordinates and employees are clarified about what they have to perform in
order to attain organisational goals & objectives.
Using customer centric approaches: The marketing approach used by Hilton is
customer centric approach. They greet all customers who visits their hotel. They welcome
customers with a happy face and ensure that these customers are enjoying their stay. This
customer centric approach helps Hilton to attract a lot of customers.
Marketing campaigns and promotional activities: Managers of Hilton working in the
marketing department plays an essential role in organising various promotional events and
marketing campaigns (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). These promotional events and campaigns help
in providing company’s information about products and services to potential customers. By
analysing the market research, it is easy to know what are the facilities to be offered to customers
in order to meet their demands.
Hilton is performing various marketing activities.
Hilton hotel enacts in two phases i.e. Expect better, Expect Hilton. This campaign was
started by Hilton to attract customers. Promotional strategies are needed to market a brand.
Brand Hilton enjoys a dedicated promotional team. Advertising and promotions of Hilton Hotels
is done majorly through the internet. Public relations and publicity has been given a major role to
play to ensure that the promotion mix is realized. Communication strategy is used by this hotel to
connect personally to consumers and making them know that they are provided best service.

Relation of marketing functions with other functional units of organisation
Different departments are present in organisations for performing various roles and
responsibilities. The marketing department of every organisation is connected with other
departments for making strategies and achieving organisational objectives. There are various
departments which are given specific operations and functions. They have to do it in a proper
way so that organisational goals are achieved. The different relations between departments is
mentioned below -
Production and marketing: This departments of Hilton are interrelated to each other.
The production department of Hilton is related to each other such that production department of
company wants to increase effectiveness of their operations and process. The production
department of Hilton is ensuring that new technology and innovation is used in this hotel in order
to provide good service to all customers. On the other hand, marketing department takes care that
such innovation is expressed to customers in an effective manner. This helps in reaching
potential clients and customers. A strong collaboration of these two departments helps Hilton to
do operations effectively. The production department of Hilton is basically the food and
beverage operation in which raw material is kept in refrigerators. The marketing managers keep
themselves updated about new techniques used for storing food.
Marketing and Research: Research and development department is one of the most
important department that has to do a proper analysis of market before starting business in that
country. The research department of Hilton has to do strong marketing researches and get
information regarding places where establishing hotels and resorts will make more money for the
company (Davis, , 2017). The managers of Hilton hotel are involved in using new innovations
and technologies for attracting customers. The marketing department of Hilton works on results
and outcomes given by research department. The analysis done by research department helps
marketing department to attract wide range of potential customers. Market research is conducted
for knowing what are the new trends which are required by people. In this way, managers will
launch the new techniques that will satisfy the needs of customers. Research can be done for
starting a new business as well as for running an existing business.
Marketing and Finance: Marketing and finance department of are the most important
departments that help in increasing sales and market share of the company. There has to be good
relationship among both these departments as it helps in optimum utilisation of available

resources. Hilton adopts new and latest technologies including AI techniques. This enables
proper and smooth functioning of all business activities & operations. In context of managers of
Hilton it is seen that they adopt cost effective technologies (Taylor, 2015). This aids in
performing business activities and do work within budget decided by finance department of
company. In reference to Hilton, it makes an attempt that they have set their budget for carrying
functions within pre decided budget (Deepak, and Jeyakumar, 2019). The new changes and
trends of customers as well as markets affects business operations and budget is also affected by
this.
Marketing and Human resource: Marketing and human resource department should
share a good relationship as this helps in hiring and recruiting talented employees. In Hilton, the
marketing managers of this company provide details to HR managers about individuals they
want to hire. The specifications and required skills of employees of marketing managers and
employees is given to HR managers. They put this requisite information in the job advertisement.
In this way, talented and skilled employees are hired for working in Hilton.
Marketing Mix of Company
Marketing mix is defined as the set of actions, plans and tactics used by promoting brand
or product within the market. Marketing mix analysis is increasingly used by companies to
analyze their strength and weakness. There are some factors included in the marketing mix on
which company is evaluated and these are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Physical evidence,
Process and People. The marketing mix of Hilton and it's competitor Marriott is mentioned
below. The marketing mix will help to know what are the various factors that can be developed
for making more profits within the company. Marketing mix of an organisation is the analysis of
products, services that the company offers. Companies have to make strong strategies as it helps
in enhancing sales and profit of the company. The main objective of Hilton is to maintain and
increase satisfaction level of their clients & customers (Kerin and Hartley, 2015). Below
mentioned is marketing mix of Hilton and Marriott. This will help to know detailed analysis of
various aspects of organisation.

Basis Hilton Marriott
Product Hilton hotel and resorts are a
full service hotel. This
provides a range of services
such as business meetings,
restaurants and lounges,
wedding and banqueting, gift
shops, swimming pools, etc.
There are basically three types
of products offered by Hilton
such as core products,
facilitating products and
supporting products. Core
products includes hotel rooms
and infrastructure. Facilitating
products are services that helps
customers in consuming core
products
(Kingsnorth, 2019). These
consists of online reservations,
bars, restaurants, customer
service, etc. Augmented
products are membership
cards, luxurious rooms, high
class restaurants, relaxed hotel
atmosphere.
Product in context of Marriott
means good and services that
business is selling to it’s
potential customers and
clients. For increasing sales of
business, an individual furnish
proper information regarding
product or service. Marriott
sells it’s products under
categories and each of these
has different facilities. There
are normal hotel rooms, suites,
home stay, resorts, etc.
Price Hilton offers hotel rooms as
per facilities offered to the
customer. This company uses
different pricing strategies for
The pricing strategy used by
Marriott is competitive. There
are different competitors in
hotel industry thus Marriott

it's products. These are
skimming pricing, economy
pricing and bundle pricing.
Hilton uses skimming pricing
and in this prices are set high
for taking advantage of
customer's desire towards new
product or design.
selects it’s price by analysing
information of rates offered by
it’s competitors. This hotel
offers more facilities and
quality features so it
comparatively has higher price
than other hotels.
Promotion Hilton advertises it’s services
at every possible place such as
airports, hoardings,
universities, etc. this hotel
offers discounts and fare
reduction at times of
occasions. This helps in
attracting more people to
people to visit their hotel. It
advertises on various social
media platforms with a focus
on YouTube, Facebook and
Twitter due to the high
monthly usage of these. It has
over one hundred thousand
likes or customer following on
these pages, which are exposed
to frequent content uploaded
by Hilton.
Marriott uses multiple media
channels to promote its
products. It uses traditional
media, which includes an
advertisement on television
and radio. This is beneficial as
it helps in reaching large area
of customers and this increases
ability for attracting more
customers (Linton, 2017). The
advertising tools used by
Marriott are online and social
media advertising, which is
cheaper and beneficial due to
the increasing usage of the
internet.

Physical Evidence
Hilton has superb
infrastructure. It provides
luxurious stay to people. Hotel
rooms have good interiors and
décor. For e.g. Waldorf
Astoria Ras Al Khaimah is one
of the exciting properties of
Hilton Worldwide and so is the
upcoming 47 storey Curio
Property in Dubai with
Tropical Rainforest and
artificial beach in the house.
Marriott sells it’s products
in different color
packaging and this is easily
identifiable on retail sector.
Marriott has online website
which is user friendly and
this helps customers for
viewing high quality image
to customers.
Process The services offered by
Hilton are very effective and it
follows hierarchy structure and
managers guide their
subordinates for doing
business activities and
operations in an effective
manner (Macarthy, 2018).
Hilton support the design and
delivery of truly exceptional
properties that delight our
guests, reward our partners,
and reflect the unique cultures
of their geographical locations.
Marriott products are
available at retail stores
and it has systems installed
in which retailers can
notify in cases where
inventory is low. This hotel
service has online delivery
process in which orders are
received in computer
system and these are based
on orders.
People Employees hired by Hilton
hotel are very talented.
Marriott has people working
under its sales team that play a
W
T
T
E
R
N
K
E
D
N
A
C
E
B
O
O
K

Basically this organisation
focuses on recruiting people
who have good
communication skills. The
employees have effective
marketing skills, analytical
skills, etc.
vital role in its marketing
efforts. These people have
been trained in persuasive
techniques, but also to show
respect to the business
customers taking into
consideration their preferences.
Place Hilton hotels uses distribution
strategy for placing their
business. This depends on
information technology and
internet. Hilton provides
availability of it’s hotel rooms
on website (McDonald, and
Wilson, 2016)
. Customers can visit this
website and book a room, plan
events, weddings, book airport
pick ups, schedule meetings
etc.
Marriott sells it’s products by
two marketing channels. One
is it sells directly to customers
and people. On the second
option, it sells to wholesalers
then they provide to retailers
located across the world. This
organisation has huge amount
of online sales with traffic on
website.
Marketing mix of Hilton and Marriott is discussed in the above table and it suggests that each
and every company has to analyse various factors before marketing it’s products and services. In
case of both these hotel organisations it is seen that main aim is to provide an extra ordinary
service to customers (Pooler, 2018). In this way, sales and profit of these is increased.
Promotional activities help them to attract more customers for staying in these hotels.
Development of Marketing Plan of Hilton
Strategic marketing planning involves setting goals and objectives, analysing internal and
external business factors, product planning, implementation, and tracking your progress.

Marketing plan of an organisation is made by different organisations for analysing various
aspects of marketing. This is helpful for drawing conclusions that help to develop strong
strategies. In the following marketing plan of Hilton it wants to expand it’s market share in UK
market.
Company overview: Hilton worldwide is a multinational hospitality corporation which
manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and resorts. The owner of this company was
Conrad Hilton who started this hotel chain in the year 1919(Hilton, 2019)The present owner of
this company is Christopher J. Nessetta. The headquarters of this company are situated in
Virginia (Hilton, 2019).
Executive Summary: This hotel chain consists of more than 5000 properties in around
113 countries and territories. Among these, 689 are managed by Hilton itself and remaining
properties are franchised (Pride and Ferrell, 2016). Hilton operates in different marketing
segment such as franchised properties, variable interest entities, resorts, embassy suites, garden
Inn, Homewood suites, Tru, Grand vacations, etc.
Vision: The vision of Hilton is to fill earth with light and warmth of hospitality.
Mission: Hilton’s mission statement is to become first choice of guests, owners and team
members and provide value services to people.
Marketing objective: Hilton’s marketing objective is to expand it’s market share in UK
market by placing new hotel and hiring new talents in existing hotels. Hilton has SMART
objective i.e. capturing market share of 15% in UK market within a year.
Another objective of Hilton Hotel is to increase the customer base of the company by 10%
within 6 months.
SWOT Analysis: Swot analysis of companies is mainly done so that companies are able to make
analysis of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of companies in external environment.
Below mentioned is swot analysis of Hilton hotel:
Strength Weakness
 This hotel chain has high brand
recognition.
 This hotel is involved in technical
 This hotel organisation has limited
market share in spite of having good

innovations for improving customer
experience (Ryan, 2016).
 This has good employee retention and
it works in more than 100 countries.
 This company is succeeding in market
for around more than 93 years.
brand recall.
 Operations of Hilton are affected
globally because of various
governmental policies & parameters.
Opportunity Threat
 . This has great potential of emerging
market.
 This has great opportunity in
innovating in customer service.
 This organisation can better use
technology and digitisation for
providing more effective services.
 . There are various other organisations
that are entering in market.
 While operating in different countries,
there is problem of economic as well as
political turbulence.
STP Approach: This is used by organisations for segmenting market as per well- defined
criteria. Hilton is involved in targeting a particular sector of market in order to grab potential
customers.
 Segmentation: Hilton hotel is using segmentation strategy for differentiating it’s market.
This includes geographic and demographic segmentation. Hilton is operating in different
countries that is why this segmentation is chosen. In context of marketing managers of
Hilton, it is necessary to reach potential customers in segmented market.
 Targeting: When segmentation of market is done, the next step is targeting the market.
Hilton is targeting market segment of UK. This organisation is using selective strategy
for targeting it’s customers. Hilton is expanding it’s market share in UK by making new
hotel and hiring new employees.
 Positioning: When segmentation of market is done, next step is positioning and it
includes satisfying customers in an effective manner. Basically there are two main
concepts that Hilton emphasises on which are brand image and brand loyalty. This helps
Hilton in making distinct position in the hospitality sector.

Financial budget: The amount of money required by Hilton for expanding it’s market share
is approximately £1.6 million for implementing marketing plan (Tan and Sousa, 2015). Hilton’s
finance department has to make an attempt for effectively manage budget and performing all
activities.
Monitoring & control: From above mentioned plan, it can be concluded that Hilton can
effectively increase it’s market share in UK. Budget given by finance department must be
effectively managed and then proper monitoring has to be done for attaining organisational goals
and objectives.
Create Marketing planning process
State your
objectives
you want to
achieve
here
Resources
required to
achieve
those
objectives
( ex: people,
finance etc)
Who is
responsible
to
implement
the plan
etc.,
Strategies/
tool to
achieve your
objectives
Time frame
Example:
0-2 month
2-6mnt
2y-4y
etc
Monitoring
techniques
etc
Hilton has
SMART
objective i.e.
capturing
market share
of 15% in
UK market
within a
year.
Finance is
needed by this
company for
incraesing
marketshare.
Also new
employees
hired for
working in the
company.
The managers
of hilton are
responsible
implementing
this plan.
An effective
market
research by
taking surveys
from different
customers.
An year The managers
will compare
the sales of the
company with
competitors
and evaluate
the
performance.
Another
objective of
Hilton Hotel
is to increase
the customer
With the help
of high quality
products and
services and
use of
In this context
managers of
Hotle Hilton
are required to
develop
With the
assistance of
identifying the
requirements
of customers,
6 months Manager of
the company
examine
customer base
of the

base of the
company by
10% within 6
months.
innovative
techniques in
order to
produce goods
and services
assist in
fulfiling the
objectives in
an effective
manner.
effective
strategies and
policies so
taht they can
fuldil their
objectives.
company will
be able to
attract large
number of
customers.
company by
examining
different
organisations
customers.

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