Hospitality Marketing: Functions, Mix, and Planning Analysis

This report delves into the essentials of marketing within the hospitality industry, emphasizing its crucial role in attracting customers and promoting services. It examines the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions, including market research, product development, branding, and pricing. The report explores the interrelation between marketing and other organizational units, such as HR, finance, and research and development, highlighting their collaborative impact on achieving business goals. Furthermore, it provides a comparative analysis of the marketing mix strategies of Hilton and Marriott hotels, focusing on product, place, and price. The report concludes with an overview of fundamental marketing plan components, offering insights into effective strategies for the hospitality sector. The report draws examples from the Hilton and Marriott hotels to illustrate key concepts and strategies.

HOSPITALITY
MARKETING ESSENTIAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Roles as well as responsibilities of marketing functions........................................................3
P2 Interrelation between marketing and other units of organization..........................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................7
P3 Comparison between the marketing mix of hotels................................................................7
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
P4 Fundamental Marketing plan..................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing essential is primarily the attributes which helps an organization to effectively
use marketing mix and promote their products as well as services. It plays a vital role in
hospitality industry where they help the hotels to entice large number of customers. Hotel Hilton
is a renowned hotel providing full services and having the global presence. It is being established
by Conard Hilton in 1919 and headquartered in Virginia, US. It offers a wide range of amenities
and luxury services to the customers and houses more than 300 brands. J.W. Marriott is a highly
acclaimed luxury hotel established by J.W. Marriott in 1984 and headquartered in Maryland, US.
This report addresses the Roles as well as responsibilities of marketing functions,
Interrelation between marketing and other units of organization, Comparison between the
marketing mix of hotels & Fundamental marketing plan.
MAIN BODY
LO1
P1 Roles as well as responsibilities of marketing functions
Marketing essentials are basically the attributes which helps an organization to utilize the
correct marketing mix for promoting their products and services. Irrespective of the sectors,
marketing plays a great role in helping the organizations to grow their business but it has a
significant presence in hospitality industry where they are predominately used to attract the
customers and other business users. Marketing plays a great role and responsibility in this
industry.
Market research
The foremost function of the marketing constitute marketing research wherein the
organizations are mainly responsible for carrying out the the extensive research of outside
market to know the market trends, needs and demands of the consumers as well as the suppliers.
Marketing plays the role of marketing research under which it is mainly responsible for
recognizing the opportunities as well as the problems present in the market and thus improving
the communication mix (Pike 2015). On contrary to this, the major responsibility of marketing in
marketing research is analysing the trends of the industries and the competitors and based on this
analysis, formulating the different marketing programmes and measuring their effectiveness. For
example in hotel Hilton, marketing plays an essential role where they have a well defined

marketing strategy and conducts the market research in each & every market of their presence to
know the preference & expectations of customers from the hotel.
Product research & development
Product development forms the another function of marketing which is significant to each
and every organization. In this function, the organizations research the market about the new
product to know whether the new product which is being developed will be feasible or not.
Marketing thus plays the role of product development where their main role is analysing the
needs and wants of the customers and thus designing a product that fulfils all their expectations
(Baker and Saren, 2016). Apart from this, the major responsibility of marketing in product
development is analysing the weakness as well as the strengths of the competitors as well as after
assessing the needs of customers, design a product plan to produce innovative products that will
entice the large number of customers. In hotel Hilton, this function revolves around providing
exceptional services to their customers. While introducing any services in their hotel, firstly they
analyse their competitors in terms of services they are providing as well as understand the needs
of the customers whether they wants luxury services or normal services and hence comes out
with their new products.
Branding
Marketing is generally incomplete without the branding thus this forms their third
function under which organisations decide whether their products needs an individual identity
within the market or been identified by their own brand name. The main role of marketing in this
function is to take the branding message to the wider audience and advertise the products on a
large platform. Through the extensive marketing, organizations tries to convey their brand equity
in the minds and heart of the consumers and promotes their services. Besides this, the major
responsibility of marketing in branding is to design a great branding strategy in order to manage
the brand integrity worldwide and maintain a goodwill of the organization (Chandiok and
Sharma, 2017). For example Hilton is a renowned brand in the hospitality industry where
branding has played a major role in establishing their equity among the consumers. Hilton has
made use of their marketing strategy is such a innovative ways that they have left an
unforgettable impression in the hearts of their consumers and visitors by disseminating their
brand message through their creative services.

Pricing
Pricing is oner of the most significant function of the marketing whereby the
organizations determines the price of their products and services in order to know the viability of
the products. Marketing plays a crucial role in this function as through the extensive marketing,
the organizations are able to determine the paying capacity of consumers, prices of their
competitors, expectations of the suppliers which eventually helps them in fixing prices. Along
with this, the primary responsibility of marketing in pricing is developing the pricing strategies
that helps them to cover their overhead expenses as well as goes beyond the customer
satisfaction. Hotel Hilton is well known for its luxury services and extensively use marketing to
know the spending patterns of their target segment. Thus through this, they have their services
ranging from high to normal which suits all types of their customers.
Illustration 1: Marketing functions
(Source: SWOT analysis, 2015 )
P2 Interrelation between marketing and other units of organization
Marketing with HR

Marketing is basically the procedure of advertising the products and services on a large
platform and enticing the customers to purchase the. On the other hand, HR is mainly
responsible for hiring and selecting the best candidate that will help in meeting the goals of the
organization as ans employee. There is an unbreakable relation between these two departments
and hence correspond to each other in a wider context. Talking about the marketing department,
they conducts the extensive market research and thus analyse the trends prevailing in the market.
Besides this, they are mainly responsible for forecasting the sales in future as well as estimating
how much resources will be required for achieving the goals (Pantelidis, 2016). This in turn,
helps the HR department whose role is to manage the human resources and bridge the gap
between future and present. The forecasting done by the marketing department helps HR to
estimate how much human resource will be needed for the future to accomplish the task and how
will they contribute to tye organization. Besides this, HR has also significant impact on the
marketing department where they hire the best competent employees for the organization who
have the potential to take the branding message to the audience. Thus their effective selection
provides the marketing department with efficient employees who are able to satisfy the needs of
the consumers. For example the marketing team of Hotel Hilton forecast the personnels that
would be required in future as well as currently which in turn helps the HR department to
develop required policies for attracting the candidates.
Marketing with finance
Finance department is mainly concerned with different financial aspects such as profit,
loss, sales of the company, its profitability ratio. They are required to evaluate the overall
financial performance of the company thus these both the department complement each other
and directly dependent to make the company a success. While the accounting department
manages the sales as well as the expense trends, they provide information to the management
about the various expansion and cost reduction plans. Based on this, the expenditures are
allocated in the areas of marketing and make this department aware about the advertising cost
which they have to apply while promoting the products (Neves, 2016). On the basis of the
expense and financial report prepared by the finance department, Marketing department makes
plans and thus divide this cost in various marketing campaign which gives them the idea about
the amount of cost to be spent on each programme and campaign.

On contrary to this, through the various programs and sales promotions, marketing
department develops a report containing the amount of profit gained form each activity which in
turn assist the finance department to know the overall growth of the company in a particular
product or sector. Apart from this, marketing department through their effective promotion,
brings the sale of the product which ultimately brings profit for the company and helps the
finance department to know the financial progress of the organization. In hotel Hilton, these both
the department plays an important role where the marketing of their services brings profit for the
hotel and the effective allocation of budget helps its marketing department to know how much to
spend.
Marketing with research and development
Apart from the above two departments, Marketing and R & D department are also
dependent on each other and collaboratively helps the company to accomplish their goals. R & D
department is mainly responsible for making the innovation within the product or producing new
product and thus both the department interrelate with each other. While R & is concerned with
providing the innovative products to marketing, marketing departments analyses the market and
brings need and demands of the consumers to R & D. Sales personnels conducts the market
research through which they comes across the various demands and expectations of the
consumer from a given product or a new product. This information becomes helpful for R & D
which assist them in knowing what feature to add in a product or what innovative product to
produce. On contrary to this, R & D department produces exceptional products and hands over to
the marketing department which then develops a marketing plan to promote them. For example
sales team of Hotel Hilton assess what new services a consumer needs from hotel and this in turn
signals R & D who make changes in their existing services or launch new services.
LO 2
P3 Comparison between the marketing mix of hotels
Hotel Hilton Hotel J.W. Marriott
Product- Hilton provides a range of luxury
services like deluxe rooms, bars along with
restaurants. Besides this, it also act as the end
solution for various business meetings. It is
Product- J.W. Marriott have a diversified
portfolio under which it has more than 25 hotel
brands. Its services are generally divided into 3
parts namely core, augmented and actual

basically the service hotel equipped with
diversified experience for its guests like hotel,
wedding, banqueting, event celebration etc.
product that constitute different services such
as hospitality management, Hotels, resorts etc.
It is usually sub-categorized into various
brands like The Ritz-Carlton, Bulgari, St.
Regiis and many more.
Place- Hotel Hilton provides deluxe
experiences worldwide in more the 83
countries. It generally surrounds six continents
together with 570 properties. In-spite of its
international presence, this hotel also addresses
the customised demands of population
(Melissen and Sauer, 2018). Besides its
presence in vacation spots, it is also present
near the airport which eventually make s it
easier for visitors to approach them.
Place- J.W. Marriott marks its global presence
in more than 100 countries along with around
5700 properties. It is headquartered in
Bethesda. All its resorts and hotels are situated
at the spacious and prime location like
highways, airports as well as in the city's vital
parts.
Price- Hotel Hilton generally adopts strategy
of premium pricing in order to maintain its
goodwill as well as high class amenities.
Although it has the specialized team of experts
to decide upon pricing but it only offers five
star and seven star customer services.
Price- Marriott generally believes in providing
good services at reasonable prices and adopts
the strategy of premium pricing as its services
are well known for value based pricing. It
offers its loyal customers and guests with the
best services and primarily charges superior
rates.
Promotion- Due to its renowned name, Hilton
chooses exceptional promotional strategy
which helps them to differentiate them form
competitors. They provides exclusive
membership services to their people. Besides
this, they adopt usually believes in word of
mouth and publicity where they establish a
great customer base by simply making the
Promotion- This hotel occupies the position of
market leader due to its brand recall. They
often uses loyalty programmes for their
frequent customers and provides free
merchandise, gifts, bonuses, vacations to their
guest. Besides this, they frequently launches ad
campaign to target their specific customers and
increase the brand awareness.

experience of customers unforgettable.
People-Hotel Hilton comprises of more than
10,000 staff who are highly trained and
motivated to provide the best services to
customers. It has its own training centre in
more than 70 countries where they train their
staff on managing the visitors effectively
(Riley, 2018). Apart from this, they have
highly specialized chefs from all over the
world who are involved in offering world class
food.
People- While serving the guests, J.W.
Marriott has a very competent staff which are
highly trained as well as motivated to deliver
the top class amenities to their guests. It
consists of around 8000 staff spread across the
world who are well trained to gain the trust of
customer and provide the outstanding services
to them.
Positioning- Hilton generally positions
multiple segments and has more than 12 brands
in their portfolio like luxury, lifestyle, full
service, focused services etc. Each of the brand
is positioned according to their own way and in
different manner.
Positioning- Marriott positions itself by having
a range of services and brand in its portfolio
(Campos and Oliveira, 2018). It houses more
than 30 brands which belongs to classic
premium, classic luxury, Classic select. Thus it
has a unique positioning strategy.
Process- This hotel has a well defined process
of delivering the services to their customers.
They have more than 200 distribution channels
across the world and an efficient logistics
management. They uses dingle channel of
distribution where the customers the customers
get what they wish for in a short period of
time.
Process- J.W. Marriott has numerous
processes to ensure the great customer service
& efficient bookings. To satisfy their guests,
Marriott utilizes transparent process that is
easy to operate and user friendly from booking
online to check in and check out.
LO 4
P4 Fundamental Marketing plan
A marketing plan is basically the document which h assists the organization in creating a
thorough marketing strategy for promoting the products and achieving the goals.
Executive summary

Hotel Hilton is a renowned hotel offering a wide range and high quality services to their
customers. It provides its guests with world class amenities and has three levels of products
namely facilitating, supporting and core products. It basically houses a wide range of renowned
brands from all over the world and serve as the ultimate solution for various business meetings.
Their exceptional vision and mission has enabled them to provide quality services to their guests
at best price. Besides this, It strength, weakness, opportunities and threats helps them to gain
competitive advantage over their competitors (Beck, 2017). The portfolio of Hilton encompasses
diversified brands ranging from Luxury, lifestyle to the high class suites and mainly positions
their strategy around these brands.
Mission
To become the most reputable and hospitable company across the world through creation
of earnest experiences for the customers and useful opportunities for the team along with the
increased value for stakeholders and owners and positive impact on the society.
Vision
To inculcate light as well as warmth of generosity in the earth by delivering outstanding
and exceptional experiences for every guest at every time.
Objectives
 To increase the market share by 30% till the end of year 2022.
 To enhance consumer experience by 10% in upcoming 6 months.
 To increase the profitability by 20% till the end of year 2020.
 To increase the sale of various products and services by 30% towards the end of 2020.
 To reduce the consumption of energy from direct management and operation by 40% in
the upcoming 5 months.
SWOT analysis
Strength
The main strength of Hilton is the strong performance in the new markets where they
have built expertise for entering the different and new markets and thus making them a success.

This expansion helped the company to generate new stream of revenues as well as diversify the
cycle of economic risks within market (Wirtz and Lovelock, 2016).
Weaknesses
The major weakness which has dominated Hilton is that they are unsuccessful in
integrating the different with various work culture. Besides this, the hotel is unable to handle the
challenges created by new entrants with the segment as well as has lost the considerable market
capture in niche categories
Opportunities
The new trends within the behaviour of consumers can be a remarkable opportunity for
hotel to open the new markets and diversify their products into different categories. Besides this,
the advancement in technology offers a golden opportunity to hotel for practising the
differentiated pricing tactics within new markets. It will eventually aids the hotel to maintain
their loyal customer base.
Threats
As the hotel operates in numerous countries, it is generally exposed to different liability
laws and currency fluctuations therefore this can be a biggest threat for the hotel which can
hinder their operations (Chik and Bakhtiar, 2015). Besides this, the imitation of counterfeit as
well as low quality services can also be potential threat for the Hilton which might reduces their
revenue and profitability ratio.
Illustration 2: SWOT analysis
(Source: SWOT analysis, 2015 )
Budget

Expenses Amount
Rent £70.00
Salary £40.00
Total £110.00
STP
Segmentation- Hilton generally uses geographic segmentation where they target the customer
base according to the geographic location. They mainly focuses on developing their hotels on the
location where most of their target customers are present like business locations.
Targeting- Hilton uses concentrated targeting where they target the niche market comprising of
high as well as middle class groups. As they uses premium pricing and keeps the price of their
services high, they usually target small group of customers whose spending pattern is desirable.
Positioning- This hotel emphasizes on price quality positioning where they charges high and
supreme prices for their services due to world class services and amenities. Based on the types of
services, their prices ranges from normal to high.
Monitoring and controlling
Monitoring and controlling is generally done to measure the effectiveness of the various
strategies used by the company. Hilton uses various controlling tools that help them to know
their sales and revenues.
Key performance indicators
KPI is generally the measurable value which addresses how effectively the company has
achieved the business objectives. There are many indicators which Hilton uses to know the
effectiveness of their marketing strategy like customer satisfaction, sales by region.
Benchmarking
Once with the help of tools, company has analysed the marketing effectiveness, in the
next step they will measure the performance of different marketing campaign and products with
the base indicators set by them to know whether they have achieved their target or not (Orantes-
Jiménez, Vázquez-Álvarez and Tejeida-Padilla, 2016).
Thus with the help of various tools like cost per acquisition, sales revenue, Hilton analyses that
whether the expenses incurred on different promotional strategies has been covered up or not by
measuring the total revenue.