Hospitality Marketing Essentials: Roles, Mix, and Interconnections

This report provides an overview of hospitality marketing essentials, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of a marketing department within an organization, specifically using Intercontinental Hotels Group as a case study. It delves into the interconnection of marketing with other departments, such as research and development, operations, human resources, IT, and finance. The report also compares the marketing mix strategies of Intercontinental Hotels Group with a competitor, Whitbread, analyzing their approaches to product, price, place, and promotion. The report covers marketing concepts, processes, different functions of marketing department, inter relation of various units of organisation with marketing, marketing plan and application of marketing-mix.

Hospitality Marketing
Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Significant roles and responsibilities of marketing department in an organisation..........3
P2 Interconnection of marketing with other units in the organisation...................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3 Comparing the ways adopted by different organisations in implementation of marketing
mix to conduct marketing planning.......................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a conception that consists of movement of products from concept to the
final user. It is a set of various activities that are carried out to meet the demands of customers
and is directly concerned with consumers in the market (Jiang and Alexakis, 2017) Strategy
used by company to deal with marketing issues includes one comprehensive plan with proper
research and data collection. Hospitality organisations make use of marketing mix to determine
product offerings in market and introduce it successfully within targeted population. It is
essential for various businesses to frame marketing plan for continuous improvement of products
and raising the profit or sales margin of company. To conduct this study,Inter continental hotels
group company is taken. It is based in Denham, UK and is engaged in hospitality industry. This
report covers marketing concepts, processes, different functions of marketing department, inter
relation of various units of organisation with marketing, marketing plan and application of
marketing-mix.
TASK 1
P1 Significant roles and responsibilities of marketing department in an organisation
Marketing concepts in businesses is a philosophy which is utilised by company to
determine the requirements of potential customers and practices exercised to fulfil those needs
(Kolb, 2018). It is the responsibility of marketing department to look after proper application of
these concepts to beat competition, improve profitability and enhance sales. Concepts of
marketing are divided into five parts such as production, product, selling, societal marketing and
marketing concept.
Production concept focuses on maximizing the profitability by producing ample products
at low costs whereas product concept concentrates on engaging valuable consumers and gaining
brand loyalty by providing quality products and services in market. Selling one believes in
controlling the marketplace and customers by investing in emotional as well as aggressive
marketing on the other hand societal marketing is applied by most of the businesses in current
era and it is used in promoting social well being. Marketing concept is customer centric which
provides products as per their preferences and trends.

Marketing processes
It refers to a management process which covers identification of appropriate product,
discovering its demand in the market, determining price and choosing relevant distribution
channels. Marketing process is formed by four elements like analysis of strategic marketing,
planning of marketing mix, implementation of marketing and control. It is engaged in creating
value for consumers and satisfying their wants.
Roles and responsibilities of marketing function:-
Marketing unit in any hospitality organisation plays an important role in building brand
image, pulling new customers and maintaining effective relationship and loyalty with customers
(Rather, 2018). A company cannot think of performing its functions without this department as it
brings growth and development in performance of various units. The roles and responsibilities of
marketing department in International Hotels Group are mentioned below:-
Marketing research- Marketing manager conducts market research so as to discover the
factors which influence customers appeal for the organisation. Clients of hotels choose among
the various availabilities by going through the elements like location, transport facilities through
rail, road, and air, services rendered, or reputation of company. All these reviews are researched
by manager in Inter Continental Hotels Group to promote the services as well as to discover
changing consumer behaviour.
Improve brand awareness- Marketing function in a company looks after implementing
various strategies to improve and develop brand image of organisation in existing or new
markets. It establishes new facilities for increasing the accessibility of information so that
customers can avail it when needed. In Inter Continental Hotels Group, marketing team
continuously works to maximise the awareness among customers through online portals, direct
marketing and telephonic services.
Maximise promotional activities- It is an important function of marketing department in
organisation. It looks after increasing the occupancy of customers during weak season of sales by
accelerating promotional activities. Promotion is boosted by manager in Inter Continental Hotels
Group by conducting special events on weekends and festivals, providing incentives like free
accommodation of one day with three days bookings, extra dinner services between conferences
and private rooms for special meetings.

Build strong customer relations- Marketing unit is responsible to maintain and build
strong relationships with consumers in an organisation (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan, 2018). It will
enhance the growth of company by stabilising the revenues and prioritising the improved efforts
in weaker areas. In Inter continental hotels group, management team of marketing conducts
consumer loyalty programs to engage them and encourage to book the services by using the
rewards or referral options made available through company websites.
Manage marketing activities- Marketing unit in company handles all the operations
associated with marketing (Parsons and Lepkowska-White, 2018). It monitors the working of
research teams, salespersons, supply team, web developers and various others. Inter continental
hotels group has efficient marketing department which controls and manage the operations of
employees to accomplish the targets within specified time period.
Assists functioning of other departments:- Marketing unit assist and encourage the
performance of other functions like HR, finance, production to link their activities for attaining
success in market. It ensures effective utilisation of resources by developing market plan and
communicating it with other functions. In Inter Continental Hotels Group, marketing department
collaborates with all units to develop effective strategy to deal with the competitors and gain
competitive advantage in market.
P2 Interconnection of marketing with other units in the organisation
Marketing department is responsible for conducting effective marketing and good sales.
It encourage and develops business by focusing on the offerings of products and services (Atwal
and Williams, 2017). This unit discovers the areas where organisation can establish market for its
products and apply appropriate strategies to invest in maximising the coverage in marketplace.
All departments work jointly to deliver proper flow of operations and meet the requirements of
company on time to achieve success. Their interconnectedness can be understood from following
description;-
Marketing department's interface with other functional units of organisation-
Marketing & research and development- In an establishment, research & development
department performs the functions of generating new ideas, innovations, or creating new
products or services. Marketing unit works with this unit to determine whether customer
demands are met or not. The research on manufacturing processes carried out in Inter

continental hotels group assists marketing manager to evaluate marketing mix and other
strategies.
Marketing unit & Operations- The roles of operation unit consists of warehousing,
production, packaging and supply chain management (Hsiao and Ma, 2017). For example, in
hospitality industry the production of food and supply of various services is managed by
production department. Marketing department has to operate with this department to ensure
marketing and selling of only those products that are available in manufacturing unit. In Inter
continental Hotels Group, marketing interfaces with operation to keep track of services and food
products to assure its availability for satisfying consumers.
Human resources and marketing- Human resource management looks after recruitment,
selection, developing training programs and conducting development programs for improving
the performance of employees. Other roles and responsibilities of HR department alludes
employee well-being, individual motivation, performance management, application of employee
legislation, etc. Human resource unit helps marketing department to recruit and select relevant
employees for performing the functions of marketing. It also aids in determining the performance
of various functions in organisation. In Inter Continental Hotels Group, both these departments
collaborates to carry out Staff development course of study to improve internal marketing
activities.
Information Technology & marketing- IT department manages the functions like
computer software, computer hardware, programming languages and information systems
(Kotoua, and Ilkan, 2017). Marketing unit integrates with Information technology unit to collect
necessary information about customers and recent trends adopted by both competitors and
consumers. This data is utilised by marketing to make appropriate changes for continuous
development and growth of company. In Inter Continental Hotels Group, marketing & IT
functions work together to monitor the data made available by company on its websites and
check the activities of potential customers.
Marketing department & Finance- Finance department monitors the financial
capabilities of company and ensure maintenance of proper balance between inflow & outflow of
funds (Murphy, Gretzel, and Pesonen, 2019). It also generates budget for every department so
that the expenses do not exceed their limits within financial year. It assists marketing department
to manage its spending in providing commodities or services to customers, new product

development and promotional activities. In Inter Continental Hotels Group, if marketing unit
requires additional funds for conducting promotional programs to make use of profitable
opportunities then finance department collects funds for satisfying the need of marketing.
It is found from the above study that marketing department is an important function in an
organisation. Marketing unit coordinates with various departments in Inter Continental Hotels
Group to maintain free open communications for discovering different ways for serving visitors
and clients. The integration of all units assist the organisation in establishing its value in market.
TASK 2
P3 Comparing the ways adopted by different organisations in implementation of marketing mix
to conduct marketing planning
Marketing-mix is a formula adopted by businesses to conduct continuous evaluation of
activities (Barreda, 2017). It provides assistance to organisation for developing new product,
improve company's operations and establish competitive advantage in marketplace. Through the
following comparison table, the strategy adopted by different companies in applying marketing
mix can be understood-
Inter Continental Hotels group- It is one of the leading hotel firm which is present all over the
world and provides its services to 180 million customers every year. The company has around
4500 hotels with 6,50,000 rooms across 100 countries. It operates in Denham, Buckinghamshire
in United Kingdom. Whitbread is the competitors of this company in hospitality market.
Whitbread- It is working as multinational hotel and has its headquarter in Dunstable, UK.
Whitbread is also engaged in brewing and owns hotel chain Premier Inn. It is spread in various
geographical regions in United Kingdom and other countries.
Marketing mix Inter Continental Hotels
group
Whitbread
Product It renders its hotel services in
brands like Intercontinental
hotels, Hotel Indigo,
Candlewood Suites, Holiday
Inn Express, Crowne plaza,
etc.
It provides four & five star
services like deluxe rooms,
hotels, wedding banquet,
restaurants and event
celebrations.

Price It make use of pricing strategy
based on the competition in
market. Inter Continental
Hotels group always sets
prices of services higher than
competitors.
Whitbread hotel maintains
high quality in services and
uses premium pricing strategy.
Place It sells its products to customer
directly through online portals
and to wholesalers across the
country. Inter Continental
Hotels group has omni-
channel distribution network
system.
It is present in around several
countries and across
continents. Whitbread hotel
selects their places
appropriately in providing
services to enhance customer
experience.
Promotion Inter Continental Hotels group
make use of various channels
to promote its services. It
utilises television, radio, social
media like YouTube, Twitter,
Instagram and Facebook.
Exhibitions, personal selling
with discount offers and
allowance is carried out by
company.
Whitbread selects specific
promotional activities to make
difference among various
hospitality companies in
industry. It uses the
promotional strategies like
providing membership to
customer, tracking strong
feedbacks and evaluating the
result of that strategy.
People It consists of trained
employees in persuasive
techniques, customer service
unit, suppliers and customers
in different geographical areas.
It alludes employers and staff
engaged in functions like
reception, security, serving,
room service, laundry,
cleaning service, managers,
assistants, chefs and its client.
Process Inter Continental Hotels group Service is provided through the

provides its products through
bookings physically by
customers in hotels and online
sites.
processes like guest booking,
check in, hotel stay, using
services, final payment and
check out.
Physical Evidence It has provided website
through which the bookings of
the services can be done.
Customers can make
appropriate selection of their
destinations by viewing
availability with price quote.
It includes hotel lobby,
restaurants, mobile
applications, conference rooms
and private rooms.
TASK 3
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
From this study it can be concluded that it is important to implement effective marketing
in businesses to grow and survive in competitive market. Marketing management goes through
several processes for conducting buying and selling operations of company. Marketing
department is required in an organisation to perform market research, develop strategies,
promote products, establish strong brand image, conduct sales and maintain public relations.
There is need of efficient communication between all the department and marketing in the
company to understand the need of customers and satisfy it along with companies goals. The
main role of all functions in organisation is to carry out smooth operations which provides
expected profit margins.

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