Hospitality Marketing Essentials: Roles, Mix and Strategies

This report delves into the essentials of hospitality marketing, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of marketing managers within the Hilton Hotel context and their interrelation with other functional units. It examines the marketing environment and strategic development. The report further compares the marketing mix elements (7Ps) of Hilton Hotel and McDonald's. It also evaluates tactics used to achieve Hilton's objectives and outlines the importance of customer satisfaction and effective marketing strategies. The study covers key elements of the marketing function and their interrelation with other functional units, including human resources, reservations, food and beverage, room division, and purchasing/accounting. A basic marketing plan for Travelodge is also developed in this assignment.

Hospitality Marketing
Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Explain the key roles and responsibilities of marketing and there relationship with other
functional units in Hilton Hotel. .................................................................................................1
Roles and Responsibilities of marketing manager in context to marketing environment...........3
Discuss the roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context
as well as significance of marketing with other functional units................................................4
Critical analysis of the key elements of the marketing function and their interrelation with
other functional units is to be carried out. ..................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
Compare marketing mix elements of 7P's between Hilton Hotel and McDonald’s...................8
Evaluate the tactics used in the marketing in order to achieve the objectives of Hilton Hotel.11
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
Covered in Poster .....................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the backbone for all types of industries and even for hospitality sector. It is
very essential for hospitality industry because it focuses on creating experiences as well as
relationship with customers and patrons (Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan, 2015). Marketing
also inspires customer loyalty while it also help in reaching out to new customers which is very
essential part of ensuring a member of the hospitality industries in order to achieve success. This
report is context with two hotels of United Kingdom which are Hilton Hotel and Travelodge
company. Hilton Hotel is a global brand of full service hotels. It was found in the year 1919.
Travelodge Hotel is a private company operating in the hotels as well as hospitality industry.
This report will cover the roles and responsibilities of marketing and there interrelation with
other functional units of hospitality company. Furthermore, comparison of marketing mix
between two companies will also include in this study. In addition to this, a basic marketing plan
in order to meet the objectives of Travelodge company will also develop in this assignment.
TASK 1
Explain the key roles and responsibilities of marketing and there relationship with other
functional units in Hilton Hotel.
Hilton Hotel is a global brand of full service hotels. It was found in the year 1919
founded by Conrad Hilton. Its headquarters are located in McLean, Virginia and United States. It
has more than 570 plus hotels across the world.
Here are some roles and responsibilities of marketing manager of Hilton Hotel and there
relationship with other functional units are as follows-
Roles and Responsibilities How it is executed in the company
 Promotion is the primary roles and
responsibility of a marketing manager.
Promotion is the essence of hotel. Marketing
manager will plan an action to promote the
services of hotel to the customers. Manager has
to manage all the tools, techniques, resources
for promotion. Manager have to decide which
channels or methods is best for promoting the
services of Hilton Hotel. Manager of Hilton
hotel gave responsibility to make a beautiful
1

and attractive website of Hotel and keep them
updated (Jauhari and Bharwani, 2017).
Secondly, manager will paste banners and give
advertisement on televisions and use social
media to promote there services by uploading
pictures, offering discounts and many other
ways, so that more and more customers will be
attracted towards there hotel.
 Market Research is also one of the
most important role and responsibility
of marketing manager. The role of
marketing manager is to determine the
factors that customer will choose the
services of the hotel.
It is the tendency of customers that they choose
hotels services for broad range of reasons.
Thus, manager has to do extensive research.
By conducting this research, hotel will come to
know what is actual needs of customers. There
are some factors that attract customers such as
location of the hotel, easy conveyance, safety
and security, low cost and high quality of
services, food and beverages, discounts and
offers and ambience of hotel (Šerić, Gil-Saura
and Ruiz-Molina, 2014). These are all the
factors that is manager, plan and control by
marketing manager. `
 Effective relationship with customers
is also an important role as well as the
responsibility of marketing manager.
It is very important to build the healthy and
effective relationship with customers.
Marketing manager will organize programme
for loyal customers and give them rewards
who book regularly in the hotel (Kim, Vogt
and Knutson, 2015). Marketing manager will
target corporate customers who regularly
require meeting facilities or accommodation
for hue number of travelling staff.
2

 Customer Satisfaction is also the most
important roles and responsibility of
marketing manager of Hilton Hotel,
and make improvement and changes
according to the needs and demands of
customers.
Customer satisfaction is very important in
order to meet the needs and requirement of
customers. Marketer will take feedbacks and
reviews of customers by using some tools like
playing of suggestion boxes, commenting on
social media etc.
Roles and Responsibilities of marketing manager in context to marketing environment.
Marketing manager plays a crucial role and responsibilities in marketing environment.
Marketer have to work for organisation both internally and externally. They are responsible to
achieve the goals and objectives of Hilton Hotel. Here are some roles and responsibilities of
marketer of Hilton Hotel which are as follows-
 They have to develop the strategies as well as plan for efficient marketing of
products and services of Hilton Hotel.
 They are responsible for monitoring the marketing environment like the factors
that affect the operations and functions of business (Jones, Hillier and Comfort,
2016).
 They are responsible for marketing research.
 They are also responsible for creating customer value, satisfaction as well as
loyalty.
 They are responsible for making strategy for selling and advertising more and
more services of Hilton Hotel.
 They are responsible for the designing as well as managing integrated marketing
communication.
Role Responsibility Relate to each other and to the
Marketing environment
1.
Developing Strategies
They have to develop the
strategies as well as plan for
efficient marketing of products
and services of Hilton Hotel and
3

it directly related with the
marketing environment as
without strategies it is not
possible to conduct marketing
activities successfully.
2
Marketing research. They are responsible for
marketing research as it is also
directly linked with marketing
environment as research is the
heart of marketing without
research it is not possible that
marketing activities can run
smoothly.
3
Integrated marketing
communication.
Integrated marketing
communication is very important
for marketing environment as it
helps in conducting marketing
campaigns, sales promotion,
direct response, public relation
etc.
Discuss the roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context as
well as significance of marketing with other functional units.
The roles and responsibilities of marketing is directly related with the functions of Hilton
Hotel. There are various functions performed at Hilton Hotel which are Front Desk Services,
Reservation, Room Division, Food and Beverages, Purchasing/Accounting and Human Resource
Management. These are all the functions that are performed at Hilton Hotel and they are directly
related with the marketing functions. These departmental function cannot able to work
effectively without marketing (Leung, Bai and Stahura, 2015). Here are interrelationship with the
departmental functions of Hilton Hotel and marketing as well as there significance-
Human Resource Management with Marketing- These are two departmental functions
of Hilton Hotel. Both are interlinked with each other. Human resource departments cannot able
4

to performed there functions without marketing. With the help of marketing, human resource can
hire attractive as well as talented workforce within organisation. Marketing department and
human resource department work very closely with each other in order to make sure that
organisation have skilled and knowledgable workforce. Marketing manager also help HR
manager to recruit as well as select of candidates in the company by scoping out personal profile,
job description, job advertising (Tsai, Dev and Chintagunta, 2015). Marketing is very important
for the smooth working of human resource department.
Reservation with Marketing- Reservations are the most reliable revenue stream of many
hotels and they affect everything form the profit margin to staffing. The term reservation is used
mostly in the hotel's means reserving or booking rooms or accommodation by a guest. It leads to
reserving of a specific type of room for specific guest with consideration to their requirement.
Thus, marketing manager advertise the designing, layouts of rooms by pasting banners and
posters as well as they also communicate offers in booking, packages of holidays to people in
more effective manner. They place advertisement of accommodations on there websites also so
that customers who make booking from the website can view the hotel and offers. Thus,
reservation function of Hilton Hotel and Marketing functions work very closely with the each
other in order to reach maximum customers and achieve the highest profit margin. Without
marketing the department of reservation cannot able to work in a systematic manner, so
marketing is very essential for reservation department to generate more revenue.
Food and Beverages with Marketing- The food and beverage department in Hilton Hotel
is responsible for maintaining top quality of food and services, costing of food, managing and
controlling restaurants, bars, pubs etc. The food and beverage department of Hilton Hotel is very
giant with many seats but still they cannot work lonely. They have to work with marketing
department of hotel (Naderian and Baharun, 2015). They both work closely with each other as
manager of marketing have responsibility or duty for the entire development as well as execution
of marketing initiatives and project of food and beverages for Hilton Hotel. In addition to this,
the voice and efforts of marketing manager creates connectivity with customers across the hotel.
For effective and efficient working of food and beverages department, marketing is very
important so that it can generate more profit for the organisation.
Room Division with Marketing- Room division is the department that provides services
guest expect during a hotel stay. It is fact that the revenue generated from the department of
5

room division is much greater than compare to other departments in hotels. There are three major
areas of room division which are from office, uniformed services and housekeeping. Marketing
department is very essential for room division department as Hilton Hotel is a luxury hotel, thus
marketer will put there efforts and do marketing for higher income group (Relationship with
Marketing and other functional units, 2017). The interaction between both departments will
ensure rooms are readily available at the required times and have been prepared impeccably.
Thus, marketing is very important for room division department to generate more profit margin
and book more room in Hilton Hotel.
Purchasing/ Accounting with Marketing- Purchasing department have responsibility of
procuring raw materials as well as building relationship with suppliers. But there function is not
limited up to buying raw material as they have to identify new suppliers, developing innovative
ideas and these two activities can only be executed by marketing manager. Marketing manager
will assemble all the information from the market place about the product and deliver it to
production department (Lanz and Carmichael, 2015). Moreover, marketing is very essential for
purchasing department so that marketer will identify various suppliers and inform purchasing
department to select the cost effective suppliers. This interrelation between purchasing and
marketing department will make sure that distinct customer requirement are fulfilled.
Front Desk Services with Marketing- Front Desk is most essential department of hotel
and it is visible section of the organisation. Reception desk is the focal point of activity within
front office desk and reception desk is the first and last impression of the visitor. There is direct
and indirect relationship between marketing department and front office desk because marketer
put there efforts and understand the perception of customers in particular area and try to make
the reception area as per the perception of customers. Thus, the design or layout of hotel are set
according to the location. For example, Hilton hotel in India, the layout and design of reception
area should speak about the culture of India (Pappas, 2015). Therefore, marketing is very
essential for a beautiful and attractive layout of Hilton so that customers are more attracted to use
the services of hotel.
6

Critical analysis of the key elements of the marketing function and their interrelation with other
functional units is to be carried out.
There are some advantages of interrelationship which were discussed above but still it is
somewhat not good to dependent much more on each other departments. High dependency on
marketing functions leads to issue of security, lack of trust, cost of operation is increased and
accountability of loss is also not examined that who is responsible for the loss, either marketing
or particular department.
7
Illustration 1: Relationship with Marketing and other
functional units
(Source: Relationship with Marketing and other functional
units, 2017)

TASK 2
Compare marketing mix elements of 7P's between Hilton Hotel and McDonald’s.
There are 7P's in marketing mix which are product, price, place, promotion, people,
process and physical evidence. With the help of these elements companies strategies are
explained. It is the foundation theory in marketing. 7P's is the modern method of marketing.
ELEMENTS McDonald’s HILTON HOTEL
Product Product is the element that can
able to satisfy the needs and
wants of customers. The
product of McDonald’s are
produced and designed as per
the expectations of customer.
They are offering both
vegetarian. They also involved
combo pack. Such as burgers,
Chicken grill, Tikki burger,
maharaja burger, veg loaded
pizza and so many dished are
available at the store of
McDonald’s (Dixit, 2016).
Hilton Hotel is offering
services including facilities of
wedding, banquet, meetings,
special event services, lodges
and restaurants, swimming
pools, retail facilities,
convenience facilities and
many other types of services
are offered by Hilton Hotel.
The services of Hilton Hotel is
regularly improving day by
day in order to attract more
customers and make them
satisfied.
Price Price is the most important
element in 7P's. The product
that company is offering their
products and service through
value pricing. McDonald’s
charge prices as per the
The price of services is
guaranteed by Hilton Hotel
that what customers arr
paying, they will surely return
the best as possible. High price
strategy is used by Hilton
8

location or income of people.
The cost of menu of
McDonald's is high.
Hotel. They also set the price
according to the specific
purpose like lakeside or beach
side hotels are costlier than
compare to nearby airport
(Riasi and Pourmiri, 2015).
Place Place defined as the area
where customers can easily
reach to use the product or
services of organisation. The
products of McDonald's can
able to reach to maximum
customers as the stores are
located at prime location.
Stores are present almost in all
big cities, malls, residential
areas.
The services of Hilton is
available only in metro or big
cities. However, Hilton hotel
has almost located in 103
countries. Customers are very
attracted towards the services
of Hilton Hotel, so more
customers used to stay in
Hilton Hotel.
Promotion Promotion is also one of the
most essential element of
marketing mix. McDonald's
promotion activities are very
attractive as they used to target
children's from there
promotional activities.
Customers are highly aware of
products offered by
McDonald's. They used to
promote there product through
televisions, banners, taking
sponsorship in sports,
Hilton Hotel is well known
brand and it is known all over
the world. The most common
strategy of promotion used by
Hilton is incentive trips to
visitors. They offer deluxe
packaging, discounts offers
that attract customers to use
the services of hotel.
9

hoardings (Dzhandzhugazova
and et.al., 2016).
People People are the employees of
company that are directly and
indirectly key for achieve
success in the business. The
employees of McDonald's are
very skilled and they have
uniform standard of working.
They deliver friendly and fast
services to customers.
The employees at Hilton Hotel
are very skilled and
knowledgeable employee's.
They deliver services that
make customer fully satisfied
and happy. They provide
training to there employees
and make them eligible to
serve the entire organisation in
effective manner.
Process Process means the delivery of
products and services to
customers in systematic
manner. The process of
delivering product to
customers at McDonald's is
very efficient and effective by
its consistency in taste and
quality.
The processes as well as
system of Hilton Hotel are
considers as one of the best
hotel management chain across
the world. They used to deliver
same and exact quality of
service to customers (Zervas,
Proserpio and Byers, 2017).
Physical Evidence Physical evidence is the
intangible factor that affect the
mind of customers instantly.
Such as environment of
organisation, layouts,
designing, furniture, location
and entire appearance of
organisation. The appearance
of McDonald's stores is very
The accommodations,
restaurants, resorts of Hilton is
amazing and outstanding. The
website is also very beautifully
planned which attract many
customers.
10