Integrated Marketing Communication Strategies at Hilton Hotels

This report provides an overview of Hilton's integrated hospitality marketing communications strategies. It begins with an introduction to integrated marketing communication (IMC) and its importance in the hospitality industry. The report then offers a brief overview of Hilton, highlighting its history and global presence. It discusses Hilton's marketing strategies, including its emphasis on customer connections, quality services, and effective pricing. The report also examines current marketing trends in the hospitality industry, such as the focus on health and safety, virtual reality, and voice activation. It further explores the communication objectives within the hospitality sector, emphasizing the importance of building awareness and providing essential information to clients. The marketing mix, including price, place, promotion, product, physical evidence, process, and people, is analyzed in the context of the hospitality industry. The role of branding in the hotel business is discussed, with a focus on Hilton's branding strategies and the benefits of a strong brand. The report also touches on public relations and advertising in the hospitality industry and identifies some of the current problems Hilton faces. Finally, it offers strategic recommendations for Hilton to improve its marketing communications. Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students.

Integrated Hospitality
Marketing
Communications

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................................4
Hotel Overview-.....................................................................................................................................4
Marketing in Hospitality Industry-.........................................................................................................4
Marketing Strategy of Hilton-................................................................................................................4
Marketing Trends in Hospitality Industry-.............................................................................................5
Communication Objective in Hospitality Industry-................................................................................5
Marketing Mix in Hospitality Industry-..................................................................................................6
Role of Branding in hotel business-........................................................................................................7
Hilton hotel branding and benefits of branding-....................................................................................7
Public Relation and Advertisement in hospitality industry-....................................................................8
Current problems of Hilton in hospitality industry-................................................................................8
Strategic Recommendations-..................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Integrated marketing communication is defined as the mixture of different marketing
communicating factors like social media, public relation, advertisement, etc. which are bring
together for the betterment of the organisation. Various companies are developing this method of
communication for the improvement of the managerial activities of the business.The main purpose
of using this strategy of marketing to attract more and more customers for the product in the market
and also concentrate on maintaining the everlasting and good relation with those customers (Song,
and Lee, 2020). By using IMC companies can avoid those long time consuming process for
selecting the relevant marketing tools for the promotion of their products. In current time, integrated
marketing tool is adopting by the various companies belonging to different industry, such as
hospitality industry. Use of this technique of marketing tool is the current trend in the hospitality;
this report is about the marketing strategy which is used in the hospitality industry and development
or benefits of integrated marketing communication in the industry (Cerchione, and Bansal, 2020).
MAIN BODY
Hotel Overview-
Hilton is an America based hospitality company which is holding numbers of hotels and resorts running
around the different part of the worlds. This company was founded by Conrad Hilton in May 1919,
headquarter of Hilton is situated in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Company possess thousands of
hotels, resorts, many properties for holidays and brands which are operating in different market sections.
Company's main objective is to provide good experience to their customers and develop profitability by
using the different marketing strategies and channels to promote their services to attract the customers.
Marketing in Hospitality Industry-
For drawing the attention of new customers or holding the existing one and improving or
maintaining the image of the company's brand name, a successful and effective marketing is very
important for the any kind industry. The hospitality industry has not been staying away from this
visual aspect and role of marketing in the business area. These hotels and other hospitality industry
need to aware that expected customers in the market know about the type of services and facilities
they are providing and and how much existing customers are satisfied with their business offerings.
Customer who get the good experience while visiting any hotels or cafe give the maximum
assurance of coming back and also promotes the business to their near ones. The level of
competition in the marketing industry is very furious, thus Hilton needs build and hire such
marketing experts for their business who capable of keeping the company in such position where
they can easily compete with their rivals by offering different packages and vacation plans to their

customers and earn the maximum profit by adopting useful marketing process in the functions of
the business (Altinay, and Arici, 2021).
Marketing Strategy of Hilton-
Hilton's emphasis on reaching that place where company offers good quality services and facilities and make
the strong connections with their guests, which will increase the loyal customer base. The hotel is working
towards giving the maximum comfort to the visitors and increasing their goodwill. Hilton aims on giving
extreme quality of product and services which are able to assure completions of needs of the customers.
Hilton's has selected such pricing strategy for their business which displays the effectiveness of the
organisation and use different methods for the promotion of their hotels and resorts. In the era of internet,
company has build up such application which are easily accessible to the mobile to increase the distribution
of their product and services among the social media users (Abdullah, 2018). Now, it is become very
convenient for the customers as they can instantly do the bookings by using hotel's website and also growing
the competition with travel agencies which will promote and recommend the hotel to their customers.
With the implementation of Expect Better marketing campaign in the year 2018, Hilton commits to
provide safe and affordable price to those customers who will do bookings through their websites and special
offers will be given to those who are reaching the hotel by the use of Honors Loyalty Program by Hilton. It
has started its first campaign To New Memories in United States in the world after the occurrence of
COVID-19, the program has executed with the motive of reconnecting the people and spreading love in the
world. Company has became a trustworthy head in the market of hospitality industry during the pandemic,
company has made new strategy and code of conduct to support the consumer around the world, and make
them homelike. Hilton has build various marketing plans for the extension of the institution, and also
focusing on promoting itself on various types of social media platforms like facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc.
Marketing Trends in Hospitality Industry-
Pandemic has given rise to the importance of taking safety measures related to the health such as
introduction of hygiene programme and various types of other judgements which are supposed to
taken for the safety of the customers in the hospitality industry. Generally, hotels and resorts mainly
focus on attracting the customers from foreign countries to promote the business but due to the
pandemic international travel has became very low which turns the focus towards the local people
and new marketing scenarios has been developed. One of the major trend in the marketing sector of
hospitality industry is development of virtual reality technology and after pandemic its uses has
become very high to promote the business as it will allow the guests to take the look of the hotels
and its facilities by using electronic devices. Creation of voice activation programme will help the
companies to grow more efficiently in the coming time, now customers can easily do their booking
by giving the voice commands. Hilton has great chances to boosts its success by following
marketing trends in the field of hospitality industry (Putri, 2022).

Communication Objective in Hospitality Industry-
In any industry communication plays a crucial role as it allows individuals to know each others
views or ideas while working together in a business management. Communication refers to the
process of giving and taking the information and decrease in the mistakes in the job. In business
communication is necessary as it allows the person or employee to express their new business ideas
and make design for the successful execution of the idea.
In marketing process, companies are trying to create or build such goals which are meant for the
communication. Communication elaborates the aim which an organisation is planning to achieve by
performing various duties and responsibilities which is allotted to the individual employee in the group, after
deciding the plan, it will become simple for the company to check the process and identifying that the task is
achievable or not (Chekalina, 2021). There are number of objectives which are use in the process of
communication like building awareness among the companies which are still not known or grown up in the
market. Company must provide essential information to the clients, so that they will know about purchasing
process.
In hospitality industry, communication objective are helpful in determining the various ways by which hotels
can provide good services to their customers. The urgency of establishing the good communication skills
among the managers and staff of the hotels is beneficial for proper explanation and quick working of the
management. Companies which are operating in the hospitality industry should emphasis on developing such
objectives for the communication which can helps in taking out productive and skilful thought of the workers
and creates more sense of team spirit by boosting each other and listening carefully to the other which helps
in increasing their confidence.
Marketing Mix in Hospitality Industry-
Price- Various types of pricing policy can be accepted by the hotels to attract the custoemrs like they can
offer product services with some basic features and quality in the budget of the customers who have low
income and for taking over the market share from the competitors they can issue these product and services
in low prices but in good quality ( Szende, Catalfamo, and Upenja,2019).
Place- Hotels should select such location for their establishment which can easily attract the people for
holidays and vacation, they should focus on providing the ambience of hotel which is able describe the
culture and social values of the country or the region in which it is located which is helpful in building more
trust in the eyes of the local residents that the hotels are responsible for their culture and heritage.
Promotion- For the effective promotion in the hospitality industry they must focus on creating different type
of programmes like providing vouchers and tour package to their regular visitors and providing various other
facilities and benefits which results in increasing faith of these customers towards the hospitality companies.
But they should not neglect the presence of their current customers as they are helpful in giving the long term
benefits to the hospitality industry.

Product- The main focus of the hospitality company is on issuing such extreme level quality of product that
will helpful in building the image and brand value against the competitors which are present in the market.
Serving good and healthy foods to the customers will help in attracting those customers who love to eat but
at the same time they are also conscious about their health and for the generation who belongs to the era of
using online media they can offer good Wi-Fi connectivity.
Physical evidence- This term is related to the type of environment, quality of staffs and interior of the hotels
which are maintained for giving beautiful appearance of the place to the customers. Hotels should focus on
creating building good interior decor and offering premium services to the customers for developing their
popularity in the market as in current time people mostly visit to those cafes, resorts and hotels who build
their infrastructure in unique way.
Process- There different kind of activities which take place in the hotels and various sectors of hospitality
industry like providing service of foods and drinking items to the guests who are staying in the hotel and
organising some programmes and events for their entertainment like dancing, music, etc. which provide
these customer experience by the hotels (Lucarelli, 2018).
People- In hospitality different types of activities has been performed like appointment of housekeeping for
cleaning and dusting of the rooms managers for the queries related to the hotel managements and for the
solving the problems of the workers who are employed with the company. And for the cooking of foods from
different various chefs has been hired, they will offer wide varieties of the food items to the customers in the
hotels.
Role of Branding in hotel business-
In hospitality industry branding is important for maintaining the sincerity and staying above from the
competitors in the eyes of the customers. The amount of strength in the story of your brand is helpful for
persuading customers who are already connected with the company to stay for the longer period of time.
Making your potential customers guests and treats them like a ambassadors is the main secret behind the
success story of many hotels, which could be hard if they do not have proper branding strategy for their
business. Humans as a most emotional organism in the world like to see and accept those things and ideas
which are strongly get connected to their emotions and feelings, they mostly select those services and
products which are able to touch their heart. So for gaining such customers companies should develop such
plans which are emotional and relatable to the life of the consumers, which is essential for connecting more
consumers to them and able to assure the loyalty for brand. By using such different kind of brand techniques
for the products and services various hospitality industries are able to maintain themselves superior in
comparison to their existing rivals and also do not allow the new small business to enter in this industry.
Hilton hotel branding and benefits of branding-
The global expansion of Hilton in the world comprises of around 18 brands in approximate 120 different
countries of the globe, and also holds maximum 6000 or more properties. Several loyalty or reward programs
which are started by the company carry millions of people as the members (Putra, 2018). Not only this, but

Hilton also possess three exclusive and expensive brands- Curio Collection, LXR and Tapestry Collection,
these hotels provide premium quality of services to their customers. In the starting of the year, company has
planned to grow and expand the working areas and establishment of Curio Collection- with this they have
opened a new property of this brand completed the century, and opens a new branch of Tapestry Collection
in the parts of Europe and this is the first brand in this country. Hilton Company has controlled over the
hotels and restaurants which in total is around 600 properties situated in hundreds of the country across the
world. These hotel chains mainly work in providing their services to the young generation who like good and
advanced services. The roots of this hotel is very old, it was estimated set up hundred years ago, which
consider this brand more reliable and trustworthy among the people in the hospitality industry. The other
activity in which company is involved is related to the arrangement of marriage functions, conference
meeting and various other college programs in various nations. Main rivals of Hilton in the hospitality sector
are Ritz Carlton, Peninsula, Marriot, Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental and many more. Home 2 suites line of Hilton
is for those people who usually went on tours in case of attending business meetings and need stays for the
longer period of time in the hotel.
Public Relation and Advertisement in hospitality industry-
Advertising plays an important role in the area of hospitality industry, companies adopts various type
advertisements for the promotion of their hotels (Sharrab, Alsmadi, and Sarhan, 2022). Use of social media
for the purpose of advertisement is very common in any kind of business industry, there are wide varities of
social media apps and platforms such as facebook, Instagram, Twitter are available for this purpose. But
companies need to identify the best option among these as it is not necessary that all these platforms will
provide same type of popularities, some platforms may provide better visibility of the business plan to the
customers while some do not, so for this advertising must be pre decided for the different business plans.
Performing advertising with the help of recording and creating videos, as it can easily reach to the customers
and they can forward it to their friends and family.
By making good strategy for the public relation helps in creating the dissimilarity among Having a good
PR strategy could make the difference and can take you in the forward direction for facing the competition
by the helps of different media platform of the region, which can increase the conversation about the brand
of the company in between the customers by focusing and targeting them (Chai, Yang, and Li, 2022).
Moreover, by maintaining smooth public relation you are capable developing goods connections or relation
with the buyers who are expecting to be your regular customer and can enable the control on the buying
decision and behavior of the guests. Hospitality Company can take the help of professional in pubic relation
as they can be very advantageous investment of the business. They are very proficient in explaining the
things in a story line, and have abundant knowledge regarding the kind of customers and publications they
need to concentrate to reach their actual customers.
Current problems of Hilton in hospitality industry-

Various problems which have been visible in the working of the Hilton and acting as challenges for the
company technological issues, with the emerging use technologies, it becomes the part of human to make
their working easy through these technologies. But Hilton has left behind in this sector as they are not
focusing on providing and creating the more use of technology in their hotels even when they are aware of
this fact that in present people avoid such sectors who do not have proper implementation of technology.
Pandemic has also made the functioning of the company inefficient as maximum people were avoiding to
went in public places and meeting strangers, along with people are becoming more concern about the
cleaning and hygienic activities but company is taking very slow step in covering these emergent
requirements in the hospitality industry.
Strategic Recommendations-
Hilton can install various technological tools in their hotels to avoid the inconvenience for the customers,
they can use such water taps in the bathrooms which are operate by the identifying the motions of hands and
can also use technologies like robotics to avoid the involvement of human workforce for the welcoming the
guests which also solve the problem people who are afraid of coming in contact with the people due the
global pandemic. They can also take necessary step to maintain the hygiene safety in the hotels (Кобзарь,
and Карпенко, 2020).
Recommendations Actions to be taken Result Timeline
Using more
technological
advancement tools
Employing robots as
room keeping service
and taps which operates
through motion.
Will attract the
customers as they are
more fascinated towards
the use of technology.
3 months
Taking steps for ensuring
safety of customers
Use of sanitizer and
mask by every visitors
Helpful in increasing the
image in the of the
company in industry
2 months
Maintaining proper
hygiene in the hotels
Proper cleaning of rooms
and bathrooms
Attract the customers
who are concerned about
hygiene in any sector
2 Months
CONCLUSION
From the above given report it is concluded that marketing has an important base in every business industry
and in hospitality it play crucial role to ensure the success of the business. In this report, a complete
discussion on the role of marketing, marketing strategy and marketing mix and there importance in

hospitality industry has been conducted. In last importance of branding and branding strategy of Hilton and
challenges which is faced by the companies and ways to tackle these problems has been discussed.

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