Marketing Strategies: Hilton's Marketing Mix and Competitive Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Hilton's marketing strategies, focusing on the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within the organization. It explores how marketing relates to the wider organizational context, including internal and external environments, and examines the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units. The report delves into the marketing environment using SWOT and PESTLE analyses, evaluates the application of the marketing mix (7Ps) by Hilton and Marriott, and concludes with a basic marketing plan to meet marketing objectives. The analysis covers market research, distribution of goods and services, financial management, pricing strategies, and promotional channels. The report also highlights the impact of internal factors like human resources and finance, and external factors such as political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental considerations.

HOSPITALITY
MARKETING ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Explanation of key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Hilton
organisation..................................................................................................................................1
P 2 Ways in which roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational
context..........................................................................................................................................2
M 1 Analyse roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing
environment.................................................................................................................................3
M 2 Analyse significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units
within Hilton organisation...........................................................................................................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P 3 Compare the way in which different hospitality organizations apply marketing mix to the
marketing planning process and achieve desirable objectives....................................................5
M 3 Evaluate different tactics applied by enterprise to demonstrate how objectives are achieve.
.....................................................................................................................................................8
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8
P 4 Produce a basic marketing plan for organization to meet marketing objectives...................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing helps an organization to promote products and services sold or provided by
them to their customers. it not only helps in generating awareness among their customers but also
helps them in increasing their productivity (Contreras and Ramos, 2016). This report will lay
emphasis upon role and responsibilities of a marketing functions, ways in which marketing
influences and interrelates with other functional departments of the organisation, value and
importance of the marketing role for Hilton, different ways Hilton can use the marketing
mix(7Ps) to achieve company objectives, and strategic marketing Plan.
LO 1
P 1 Explanation of key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Hilton
organisation
Hilton is the leading hospitality organization that was founded in 1919 by Conrad Hilton.
marketing is one of the most important function within an organization like Hilton as it helps
them to reach their potential customers, enhance brand image, increase understanding and
knowledge of products and services preferred by their customers. It also helps organizations like
Hilton in attracting a greater number of customers in order to increase their customer base,
satisfaction level and loyalty of their customers. marketing functions has various kinds of roles
and responsibilities that are required to be fulfilled by the organization (Matheson, 2017).
Fulfilment of these roles and responsibilities helps Hilton in enhancing their overall productivity
and efficiency to enhance overall experience of their customers. Key roles and responsibilities of
the marketing function within Hilton are as follows:
Market research: identifying main potential customers is one of the main roles of marketing
functions in Hilton and for fulfilment of this role, organization conducts market research in order
to understand what actually their customers wants, needs and ways in which they can reach their
target customers. this market research will help them t o get to know their potential customers in
a much better and appropriate manner. So that Hilton can fulfil needs, demands and requirements
of their customers and provide them higher quality products and services.
Distribution of goods and services: Another main role of Marketing functions within Hilton is
to satisfy their customers and their main responsibility is to distribute products ad services in
such a manner that required number of products and services can be made available required
goods and services to potential customers at right time which will further help them in enhancing
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their overall experience (Dzikowska, 2019). It can also be said that marketing functions within
Hilton helps in providing required products and customers as per the needs and requirements of
the customers whether they require those products.
Other than this retaining customer is another important role of marketing function within
Hilton. This can only be done by providing their customers or guest a reason to return back by
finding new opportunities that can help their organization to grow and expand. For this, they
need to focus upon fulfilment of other important responsibilities like finance, adopting
appropriate price, creating promotional channels for promotion of their products so that their
customers can get to know that products and services provided by Hilton match their needs and
requirements.
Finance: Finance management helps Hilton to manage all of their financial aspects like
expenditure so that marketing of their products and services can be done appropriately within
defined budget.
Adopting appropriate price: they are also responsible for setting appropriate price for their
products and services such that it can cover their overall operational cost, enhance their revenue
and profitability and can also help them in attracting a greater number of customers (Domi,
2020). They also need to focus upon providing different kinds of offers to the customers in off
seasons so that their sales and profitability is not affected much and their can maintained their
competitive advantage and sustain within the market.
Creation of promotional channels: It helps Hilton in promoting all kinds of products and
services provided by them and can reach their potential customers. It simply helps the
organization in enhancing overall knowledge and understanding of their customers and make
them aware about different kinds of products and services provided or sold by them. It not only
helps in attracting a greater number of clients, guest but also helps Hilton in gaining competitive
advantage.
P 2 Ways in which roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational
context
Most of the marketing functions are similar for all kinds of organizations whether they
are B2B to B2C especially public relations, advertisements etc. It can help accompany in
achievement of main desired business objectives in an appropriate manner (Whitler, Morgan and
Rego, 2020). Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context
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can be explained in terms of internal and external environment as both internal and external
environment of an organization directly impact a firm in positive and negative manner.
Internal Environment: it focuses upon internal condition that surrounds a company. Major
internal environmental factors that controls main marketing functions of an organization are
human resources, finance, etc. These control helps affirm to deliver products and services to their
customers as per their needs and requirements (Norouzi, 2017). It is important for firm to
maintain positive internal environment by ficin upon their internal functions so that thy can
deliver their products and service to their potential customers and fulfil their requirements.
Internal environment of a organization like research and development department also helps in
identifying changing future needs and requirements of their guest/ clients and customers.
External Environment: External environment of a company impacts marketing functions
drastically in both positive and negative manner. Change in external environment directly impact
an organization’s current and potential customers. a company need to focus upon their external
environment and changes within it so that its negative impact on organization like Hilton can be
reduced. it is important to focus upon changing external environment because it they have no
control over the changes that occur within this environment. bring changes within functions and
internal environment of an organization helps them to gain competitive advantage as well and
attract a greater number of potential customers (Martensen and Mouritsen, 2017). It further helps
in providing a brief idea to firm like Hilton to bring changes within overall quality and other
features of the products and services to increase their customer base ad give tough competition to
their competitors.
Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context in
following manner:
Marketing and Housekeeping: Housekeeping is responsible for keeping rooms clean and well
maintained where customers would like to go. There is a strong relationship between marketing
and housekeeping as marketing helps in informing housekeeping about cleaning standards that
are required to be maintained as per the need and requirement of guest.
Marketing and front office: Front office and marketing share important relationship as interaction
between both the department helps in developing strong relationship with customers. This is
because front office directly communicates with customers and identify need and requirement of
guest and communicate same to marketing department.
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Marketing and human resource: HR department successfully fulfil employee and maintenance
requirement of marketing department so that correct number of employees are available to carry
out marketing functions.
M 1 Analyse roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing environment
roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing environment can be
explained with the help of SWOT (internal environment) and PESTLE analysis (external
environment)
SWOT
 Strengths: their main strength is their strong business history, strong leadership and positive
brand equity.
 Weaknesses: limited presence in Asia Pacific region is their main weakness.
 Opportunities: Introduction of mid- level product and service expansion for middle class
people.
 Threats: Increasing competition and changing preferences and needs of people like in current
Covid-19 situation.
PESTLE
 Political: Hilton comply with all kinds of legislations like trading legislation etc. in order to
provide timely, required high quality of products and service to customers.
 Economic: Due to Covid-19 overall economy of UK has been impacted and it has direct
impact upon Hilton
 Social: Current pandemic situation has changed overall preference of customers like
customers prefer contact less service, contactless payment, free room sanitization etc.
 Technological: adoption of modern and advance technology can help Hilton in competing
with the competitive market.
 Legal: All kinds of laws and legislations are required to be followed by Hilton that are
applicable in Hospitality sector.
 Environmental: Initiatives taken by company can help in reducing negative impact
environment and sustainability which can further help them in attracting a greater number of
customers
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M 2 Analyse significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units
within Hilton organisation
Different business functions of Hilton have direct relationship with marketing function, such as:
 Marketing and finance: Marketing plans and strategies should be developed within
specific budget and that budget should be passed by finance department. in this cost
margin, profit, product line etc. are taken into considerations.
 Marketing and HR: HR department is responsible for hiring and recruiting right skilled
employees, HR department and marketing department need to coordinate with each other
so that if there is requirement t provide any kind of training to employees then it can be
provided to them.
LO 2
P 3 Differentiate between Hilton and Marriott hotel in context marketing mix to the marketing
planning process and achieve desirable objectives.
Marketing is based on the important function within Hilton hotel that supports for performing
different operations (Dixit, Lee and Loo, 2019). There is a market in place which provide a better
platform to seller as well as buyers. In order to increase sales and production needs to use various
advertising or marketing strategies.
In Hilton hotel, it can be applied marketing mix is a process which may include different
process to execute an effective plan in proper manner. It including all different elements that are
important for Hilton from to sales of product as well as service. Therefore, it is considered as set
of marketing tools, which blends together to generate a better marketing response in global
marketplace.
Marketing Mix Hilton Hotel Marriott Hotel
Product Hilton has a chain of luxuries
hotel rooms, bars and
restaurants. Not just traveler’s
paradise but it also serves as
one of better solution for
business. In order to meet the
expectation of existing
consumer in global
Marriott hotel is one of the
most recognized luxury hotel
chain in global world. This
hotel is providing its core
products such as luxuries
rooms, drinks, and different
food items such as Chinese,
italic and so on. Different
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marketplace. Hilton provide
the various exotic food and
drinks on hotel menu which
delight for its clients. It
provides the service of
member with exclusive
membership discounts and
other facilities such as rooms,
Wi-Fi. Additionally, it also
giving the services of event
celebrations, wedding and
banquet facility.
product will attract more and
more customer towards
organization.
Place Hilton hotel and resorts is
basically engaged in deluxe
experience of giving luxuries
service across 84 countries. It
covers continents with 570
properties.
Marriott has established their
business itself in more than
120 countries across the global
world. The hotels are located
in various places across cities
such as highways, airports,
central markets. This is the
reason for attracting large
number of potential consumer
in global marketplace.
Price Hilton hotel is maintain its rep
with top class and high quality
of amenities. Usually, it
adopts premium pricing
policies for its upscale
services. This hotel is
dedicated towards research or
expertise to maintain pricing.
In Marriot hotel, it is mainly
focused on the price which
may varies with different
location. Marriott hotel keep
maintain value of business and
then satisfied the customer
expectation. It should consider
pricing strategy to give
discount, offers.
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Promotion Hilton is well-known
hospitality, which is always
selecting unique promotional
activities such as website,
email, it provide the exclusive
membership to people and
adopt marketing strategies for
targeting large number of
customers.
For purpose of promotional
activities, Marriott can use
advertising channel such as
video, campaigns with social
media sites. It help for
maintain loyalty of customer
by coming with email, text
marketing.
People In Hilton, there are large
number of employee working
under its sales team. It plays
important role in marketing
efforts. As estimation 173
thousand employee people
globally in 2019. Each and
every staff member have
obtained raw materials, plays
a vital role in improving or
maintaining quality of final
product development.
Marriott knows importance of
serving better facilities and
services their guests. It should
consider as people strategy in
order to deliver order and
maintain services (Koc, 2020).
Process Hilton can perform the process
of installed new system where
notify when inventory levels
are low. It provide them with
more items while ordering its
production to replenish its
current stock. Online delivery
process, where ordered as
received in system and
shipped in marketplace.
In Marriott hotel, there are
various business process in
place to ensure quality of
customer services. It can
perform different processes
such as online booking, check
in , check-out activities.
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Physical Evidence Hilton hotel can sell its
product within distinct color
packaging. It help for
identifying the special shelves
and make it easier for
customer to be located at
particular shelves in bury
retail stores.
Physical evidence of Marriott
hotel which may represent as
intangible but gives better
ambience with lasting physical
experience. Other additional
objects provided by service
staff member such as towels,
soaps, booklets and so on.
Table: 1
M 3 Evaluate different tactics applied by enterprise to demonstrate how objectives are achieve.
In Hilton, There are different tactics applied with business processes in order to achieve desirable
goal and objective. The tactics include product and service strategy, low/ higher pricing
strategies, marketing strategy, operational and financial strategies (Prayag and de Cellery
d’Allens 2020).
These are considered as important tactics that applicable in Hilton hotel to achieve
desirable goal regarding revenue generation, production and maintain customer loyalty.
LO 3
P 4 Produce a basic marketing plan for organization to meet marketing objectives.
Executive Summary-
Hilton hotel is a leading hotel company and provide the best quality of accommodation
service of customers. This company is providing 7,000 rooms across 84 countries. The primary
aim of hotel is to propose as marketing plan, which is increasingly foods, drinks and other
beverage facilities. in order to increase production and sales in marketplace.
Mission-
To enhance the overall business profitability as well as productivity in global marketplace.
Key objectives-
 Introduce or launch a new product in January 2020
 Identifying new market for product as well as service system
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 Increasing the business productivity or profitability 5-8% in every years.
Market Audit-
The market audit of Hilton hotel can be defined as systematic appraisal of both internal as
well as external factors. These are directly affected overall business performance of Hilton
within specific interval of time.
Market analysis-
Hilton hotel is a type of learning corporation in term of hospitality industry. it is consider
as luxury hotels founded by Conrad Hilton. As per survey, it has found that total revenue of hotel
increased from USD 3.8 billion to 8.3 billion with increasing its growth rate 16%. Which is
become higher than other hotels such as Marriott 7% and starwood 5% (Das, 2020 Goh, and Jie,
2019). In this way, it become easier for analysis on hotel, which include SWOT analysis.
Situational analysis-
This analysis was developed on the basis of information and data sourced from internet.
It is considered as important of business to implement effective strategies. Internal analysis of
company can be defined as identifying internal factors that directly affects overall business
functioning. It may involve financial analysis, value chain, strength and weakness. It help for
Hilton hotel to make an effective improvement plan which may identify its faults and
competitive advantage.
SWOT analysis
Strength
The strength of Hilton hotel is located in the prime areas or place. Therefore, it is always
attracting more and more potential customers. The service quality of Hilton is the biggest thing
which has been created as successful brand image. Moreover, Hilton hotel have a huge
investment budget reserved for marketing its product as well as services.
Weakness
The biggest weakness of Hilton is their interior design which is always attracting
potential client and improved. There are huge amount of debt that can give a lot of financial
problem or issues. Otherwise, it is directly affecting the entire business performance of Hilton
hotel.
Threat
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Threat for Hilton hotel is over expansion and mixing with gaming. Terrorist attack can
give a lower profitability. Thus, it can lead into loss for company. Due to Covid-19, higher
competition level in market which become intense in hospitality industry.
Opportunities
Hilton hotel has a gain more opportunity to offer various type of services to their existing
consumers. in this way, it is not only establish a personal interaction with client but also improve
business profitable rate in global world.
Marketing objective and Strategies
Hilton hotel is basically used the different advertising tool or platform such as social
media network, print, text, email-marketing. These are different way to promote the various
product as well as service of organization. It allows for customer to access information on
service that offered by Hilton.
For purpose of marketing, Hilton hotel can use various strategies such as personal selling,
sales activities, public relations etc.
Budget-
The overall budget requires to complete the whole project within Euro 12000.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP)-
it is based on the process of dividing the current market on the basis of common
characteristics. The overall market could be divided into different ways: behavioural,
demographic and geographic. These are most relevant approach for Hilton hotel that divide on
the basis of customer behaviour.
 Targeting- Hilton has to concern about selecting few segments and then targeted in
proper manner. It is important process for selecting the young adults generation and
traveller to spend time with families, friends.
 Positioning- It is based on the technique of represent as image in mind of target
consumers with differentiating traits from other competitors. Hilton tries to maintain their
position as premium pricing. It has been analysed that Hilton change high price and
provide high quality of product as well as service. Sometimes, it will implement as
pricing strategy to improve current business performance.
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