Hilton Hotels: Integrated Marketing Communications Plan Analysis

This report delves into the integrated marketing communications of Hilton Hotels, examining various marketing channels such as Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), websites, Global Distribution Systems (GDS), wholesalers, Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), tour operators, and offline channels. The report analyzes the importance of these channels in reaching target customers and achieving marketing objectives. It also discusses the development of an integrated marketing communication plan, including establishing a mission statement, identifying business objectives, developing buyer personas, identifying the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and Customer Value Propositions (CVPs), creating effective messaging, and executing in marketing channels. The report highlights the importance of aligning marketing strategies with the company's vision and business objectives, emphasizing the use of various mediums and channels to fulfill the goals of the marketing department. The report provides a comprehensive overview of Hilton's marketing communication strategies, offering insights into how the company can enhance its customer base and gain a competitive advantage in the global hospitality sector.

Integrated hospitality
marketing communications

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART - A.........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
Different types of marketing channels.........................................................................................3
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................6
Integrated marketing communication plan..................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
PART - B.......................................................................................................................................10
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................10
LO 2...............................................................................................................................................10
Communication objectives........................................................................................................10
Justifications for the selection and integration of communication channels.............................11
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................11
Developing marketing communication plan based on the communication objectives..............11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

PART - A
INTRODUCTION
Integrated marketing communications is a very easy concept which helps in ensuring all types of
communication and messages which are supposed to be connected together. Integrating
marketing is the strategic approach which uses integrating communications and interactive
experiences (Nozdreva and Churakova, 2021)Marketing channel consists of the people,
organisation and the activities which are important for the ownership of products coming from
different point of production. Communication strategy has the objective to achieve
communication. Hilton hotels are is an American based organisation which runs on the
multinational level. This report deals with the marketing and communication channels of Hilton
hotels (Hilton hotel, 2021).
LO 1
Different types of marketing channels
The major role of market manager is to take the products and services to the market and sell
them to more accounts. They are also responsible for the marketing channels of distribution
which take a product from production followed by sales and distribution and finally to the
customer. The marketing channel includes all the steps beginning from creation of need for the
raw goods and then sells them to the other companies which then transform the goods and sells
them to individual customers (Dimitrova, Smith and Andras, 2020). These channels of marketing
impacts all the industries but there are some changes in the companies which provide services to
the customers instead of providing them products to sell. This can be evident from the example
of hospitality and tourism industry where the customers majorly pay for the services they receive
from the company instead of taking the products. For example, the guests basically arrives at the
hotel and experiences variety of services such as leave bags with bellhop, get extra towels from
housekeeping, park with valet and ask for the concierge about the options for dinner. These
activities are considered more as service-oriented rather than being considered as product-
focused. In order to support the services, the reliance is on the products such as computers,
uniforms, towels, luggage carts etc. Hilton Hotel also makes use of various marketing channels
in order to its services and products (Hotel marketing channels, 2019). The different channels of
marketing are as follows:
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Online Travel Agencies: These are the digital platforms which help the consumers in
connecting to the travel suppliers for booking hotels, flights, cruises and many more. Hilton
Hotel can make use of OTAs for accessing large quantities of customers who loves travelling
and staying in hotels. This can also help the hotel in attracting specific types of customers and
also gain insights about the market programs for capturing the bookings. OTAs also provide
various opportunities to participate in various packages which include hotel and flight or care
and hotel etc. This is why; they are considered as the main points of contact to amend or cancel
bookings which enhances the guest experience in-house.
Website: This is considered to be the primary channel for selling rooms where the company can
easily communicate with the customers regarding the unique and special things about the
property directly. The company needs to design a site which is easily accessible on the mobile
phones and also provides streamlined secure booking experience for travellers (Chen and Tabari,
2017). The company also needs to ensure that their website ranks in the top results on the search
engines like Google, Bing etc.
Global Distribution systems: It is considered as the consolidated reservation network which is
mainly used y travel agents for reserving the hotel or rental cars etc. The hotel Hilton can make
use of GDS for keeping its listing updated through one interface by providing one connection to
many travel agency systems. This also helps in creating broad global exposure for the inventories
and helping to fill last-minute vacancies.
Wholesalers: These are considered as third parties who help in sourcing hotel room nights at
much discounted rates and selling them. These can be used by Hotel Hilton for maximising
occupancy and guaranteeing a certain occupancy rate. These can help the hotel in reaching the
international consumers which is not possible to establish direct communication with them.
There are multiple mark-ups between the wholesalers and the hotel and also between the travel
agent and wholesalers which leads to rate disparity and reduces the profitability of the hotel. This
is why; the company Hilton need to bring in innovation for creating transparency in the
wholesale distribution.
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Destination marketing organisations: These are referred as DMOs which governmental
organisations are including the visitors’ bureaus, tourism boards which are responsible to
promote tourism and travel at the destinations. These are also responsible for creating and
executing marketing strategies which can help in tourism spending and can also help in
strengthening the economic position of the community. The hotel Hilton can be listed on the
local DMOs website automatically and the hotel can typically form partnerships for gaining
more exposure for the listings.
Tour operators: These are focussed on developing an end-to-end travel experience for the
customers, tour operators’ contract basically at a discount, the specific components of holiday
including hotels, flights, activities, guides, meals etc. and selling the combined package direct to
the travellers through wholesalers (Tajvidi and Karami, 2021). These tour operators specialise in
specific locations such as Mexico, experience such as diving, skiing etc. The companies also
provide discounts on the inventories for taking the benefits as the location and amenities of the
hotel Hilton align with the target traveller and expertise.
Offline: Though there are various online channels for marketing but the companies like Hilton
cannot overlook the off line channels for the marketing and distribution purpose. This can be
similar to the bookings which come from website, offline channels including emails and phone
which helps in setting the tone of end to end guest experience and maximising the profitability.
The major role of the marketing manager is monitoring these channels and being responsive to
inquiries. This can help the company Hilton as this has a strong off-line production.
This is how; various marketing channels can be used by Hotel Hilton to promote its goods and
services to majority of the customers across the world. The company can make use of more than
one channel at a time which can help in achieving the marketing objectives of the company and
increasing the sales simultaneously (Gonzalez-Padron, 2017). These channels can be used by any
organisation in the hospitality industry of UK. This will also help in adding the value to the
organisation and also helps in maximising the resources.
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LO 4
Integrated marketing communication plan
The marketing communication plan is basically a strategy which can inform the target
customer audience regarding the product or service. The plan also includes the communications
mix which helps in identifying and describing the various ways for promoting a product to the
target audience by using its strategies. Hilton Worldwide Holding Inc. is considered to be a
luxury brand in the luxury hospitality industry which operates in all the countries and provides
hotel and booking services. The company has more than 500 established hotels and resorts in
more than 85 different countries (Hudson and Hudson, 2017). The marketing communication
plan includes the marketing communication mix which integrates the sales promotion, print and
media advertising, events and experiences, direct marketing and public relations.
The marketing strategies of company include the CEO, Chief Executive Officer and the
other executives who can align all the marketing processes and the projects with the vision and
business of the enterprise. The scope of marketing strategies helps in making use of several
mediums or channels to fulfil the goals of marketing department of the company. While
developing marketing communication plan, the company Hilton hotel needs to follow various
systematic steps such as establishing the mission statement, identifying the business objectives,
developing buyer personas, identifying the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and Customer
Value Propositions (CVPs), creating effective messaging and positioning, executing in the
marketing channels and many more (Anderson and et.al., 2020).
The mission statement of Hilton is to create heartfelt experiences for the guests, high value
for the owners, meaningful opportunities for the team members and positive impact on the
communities. The company develops and implements various strategies based on this mission.
The company strives hard to fill the earth with the warmth and light of hospitality by delivering
the exceptional experiences to every guest every time (Strategic marketing communication in
Hilton Hotel, 2020). This mission can be achieved when the marketing of the company is good
which can help in increasing the customer base.
Particulars Cost (£)
Online advertising 900
Software installation 1000
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Offline campaigning 900
Newspapers, radio, TV etc. 2000
Words of mouth 500
Tour operators 1500
Total 6,800
The business objectives of the company Hilton include making profit by selling and
providing various things such as meals, room services and expanding the business for potentially
maximising the sales and customers. The next step in the marketing communication plan is to
develop buyer personas which mean to define the target buyers. The target buyers of the hotel
Hilton must be the middle and senior aged professionals who belong to the age group of 26-60
years and also the company must focus on the travellers having high income and also coming to
the upper social class because the services and the products provided by the company are of high
quality so providing such services at average price can lead to loss for the company. The
company must also use Google Analytics for becoming aware of the travellers visiting the
website. The social media followers of the competitors can also be seen to evaluate the most
attractive followers. After this, the USP and CVPs must be identified. These basically are the
things which make the company unique from its competitors (Nicoli and Papadopoulou, 2017).
The major USP of the hotel Hilton is that it is run by an experienced management. Also, the
company tries to bring in innovation regularly to upgrade the business processes. Also, being in
the same industry for many years the company has a good reputation in the market and also this
makes them real experts of what they do. This is how; the company can make use of its image
and can make itself digitalised by using the advanced technologies in better way. The company
must therefore also expand itself in the global hospitality sectors which can help in gaining
higher competitive advantage. The high cost of the services of the company though are not
affordable by average class people but the higher class people are attracted towards the same as
this builds trust in the best quality services of the hotel Hilton. This makes the company
completely indistinguishable from those of the competition. The company needs customer value
propositions which mean knowing about the thing which is valued by the customers in the
products and services of the company. This can also help the company in knowing about the
products and services which can bring greater profitability to the company as well as also fulfil
the needs of the target buyers. The Hotel Hilton must also develop effective and catchy messages
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which can attract the guests towards it. The company must then choose the best platforms for its
marketing and promotion. These can include website + landing pages, search engine
optimization, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Email marketing, Facebook Marketing and Remarketing,
Road shows and events, YouTube, Email marketing and even blogging can prove to be profitable
for the company. Proper budget must be set and must ensure that these marketing activities do
not take the budget from the major processes and operations of the company (Fernández-Cavia
and et.al., 2017). This is how; marketing communication plan can help the hotel Hilton in
increasing the revenue by connecting to the platforms and people who can promote the services
of the company and can convey the indistinguishable aspects of the company which makes it
unique from its competitors. The monitoring of these strategies can be done by setting
benchmarks and KPIs, customer response, market reaction, sales performance, cost-per-
acquisition, return-on-investment etc.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that for an organisation working in the hospitality industry must follow
different types of marketing channels which will help in serving the objectives of the company
related to the communication. The hospitality case of Hilton hotels is studied which concluded
the communication strategies used by the organisation on the different channels and by making
creative forms of content.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anderson, R.E. and et.al., 2020. Provenance, evolution, and transition of personal selling and
sales management to strategic marketing channel management. Journal of Marketing
Channels. 26(1). pp.28-42.
Chen, W. and Tabari, S., 2017. A study of negative customer online reviews and managerial
responses on social media—case study of the Marriott Hotel Group in Beijing. Journal
of Marketing and Consumer Research. 41. pp.53-64.
Dimitrova, B.V., Smith, B. and Andras, T.L., 2020. Marketing channel evolution: From
contactual efficiency to brand value co-creation and appropriation within the platform
enterprise. Journal of Marketing Channels. 26(1). pp.60-71.
Fernández-Cavia, J. and et.al., 2017. Online communication in Spanish destination marketing
organizations: The view of practitioners. Journal of vacation marketing. 23(3). pp.264-
273.
Gonzalez-Padron, T.L., 2017. Ethics in the sharing economy: Creating a legitimate marketing
channel. Journal of Marketing Channels. 24(1-2). pp.84-96.
Hudson, S. and Hudson, L., 2017. Marketing for tourism, hospitality & events: a global & digital
approach. Sage.
Nicoli, N. and Papadopoulou, E., 2017. TripAdvisor and reputation: a case study of the hotel
industry in Cyprus. EuroMed Journal of Business.
Nozdreva, R. and Churakova, A., 2021. Digital Tools in Empirical Marketing Strategies of
Global Hotel Companies. Digital Strategies in a Global Market. pp.213-227.
Tajvidi, R. and Karami, A., 2021. The effect of social media on firm performance. Computers in
Human Behavior. 115. p.105174.
Online
Hilton hotel, 2021. [ONLINE]. Available through :< https://www.hilton.com/en/>
Hotel marketing channels, 2019. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://www.eztexting.com/blog/hotel-marketing-channels-you-must-use-compete-2019>
Strategic marketing communication in Hilton Hotel, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://desklib.com/document/strategic-marketing-communications-in-hilton-hotel/>
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PART - B
INTRODUCTION
Integrated marketing communications is the means of integrating all the tools required for
promotion in order to create an environment of team work which is done in harmony. They help
in targeting the desired audience with the help of all the aspects coming in the marketing brand.
Hilton corporations have a broad range of hotels and resorts in many places of the world
(Walelign, 2019). The company is headquartered in Virginia, United States. Communication
objectives are the goals used for communication to identify the audience and craft messages
accordingly. Channel integration is the idea chosen by the customers which helps in funnelling
the traffic present in the single channel.
LO 2
Communication objectives
Communication objectives are considered to be the goals for the programs or messages of
communication (Michopoulou and Moisa, 2019). These help in identifying the audience, crafting
messages and evaluating results. There are various communication objectives of the company
hotel Hilton. The main objective of the company is to improve the customer service. The
company strives hard to provide the clients with the best service so that the guests can leave with
good memory (Tajvidi and Karami, 2021). The other objectives include generating maximum
hotel revenue, achieving maximum hotel profit, boosting food and beverage revenue, optimizing
the food and beverage profit, satisfying maximum number of customers and employees and
many more. The company aims at increasing its sales by more than 50% till the end of the year
2021. The company also has an objective to increase the customer base by 40% before beginning
of the year 2022. These objectives are based on the communication mix which includes all the
tools which are used for communicating with the potential or existing customers (Dudovskiy,
2016). The major objective of Hotel Hilton also includes attracting the high class guests and
travellers from all the countries so that the company can earn greater profit margin by providing
them with the best quality services and facilities during stay. These objectives can be achieved
by promoting the services and products of the company through direct marketing, exhibitions,
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events, advertising, social media, product packaging, websites etc. The hospitality companies
also organise various campaigns by considering all the elements of communication mix. Hilton
hotel also integrates and coordinates various communication channels for delivering a consistent,
clear and compelling message regarding the organisation and product (Tussyadiah and Park,
2018). These communication channels include TV and newspapers, official website, paid search
and display, online review sites, social media platforms, text message marketing tool etc. Making
use of these platforms simultaneously can help in achieving the communication objectives of the
hotel Hilton.
Justifications for the selection and integration of communication channels
The communication channels selected by the hotel Hilton are selected such that it can attract
various numbers of customers towards it. The major evidence for this is that the company is
present offline as well as online. The communication channels like the social networking sites,
websites etc. helped the company in gaining greater competitive advantage and yielding
productive results (Foroudi, 2019). The combining of these marketing channels helps the
company in maximising the online and offline presence as well as establishing direct
communication with the customers through various channels. The company knows the ways in
which the right marketing channels can be combined with the right messaging for engaging their
target guests and securing the bookings (Adeyinka-Ojo, 2018).
LO 3
Developing marketing communication plan based on the communication objectives
In order to develop the systematic and appropriate communication plan, the company must
be aware of its communication objectives (Hill, 2020). The major objective of the company is to
attract the high class people as the pricing of the hotel is premium. The company must also make
use of various online channels and most of the social networking sites on which the people are
updated on. Hotel Hilton must also do complete research of the market and its analysis so that it
can come to know about the marketing strategies of the competitors. This can help in setting the
benchmarks so that they can make use of more advanced technologies for becoming the leader of
the hospitality industry in UK. The major audience which must be targeted by the hotel Hilton
must be the people of all the class instead of high class people only (Hilton transforms
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hospitality in digital age, 2021). This is because the people in UK are majority average class
people and due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the financial state of the people is becoming low
which is why they prefer the hotels which can provide good quality services at average prices.
All the employees of the company must engage in communicating the services to the public and
also keep in mind the goals of the communication plan. Furthermore, the company must decide
the investment which is done while marketing through different channels online as well as
offline (Macnamara and Gregory, 2018). The company must also engage the stakeholders and
must abreast them of all the decisions made regarding the communication marketing. The proper
budget must be decided so that the employees can be aware of the investment which can be
made. The risks of the communication must also be analysed so that there can be no negative
impacts of any strategies. The marketing and communication strategies must be evaluated by
setting the KPIs and benchmarks. Also, the hotel Hilton must monitor the success which is
gained through different channels (Macnamara and Gregory, 2018). The platform which helps in
gaining more return must be focussed more and also the channels which do not attract the guests
must be avoided so that investment cannot go waste and also this can help in increasing the
profitability of the hotel Hilton.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that setting the communication objectives are very important and must be
appropriate with the selection and integration of the channels. It is important for the companies
like Hilton cooperation which works on the multinational level to have a proper design and
production of the content which is related to the channel as well as the objectives of
communication.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adeyinka-Ojo, S., 2018. A strategic framework for analysing employability skills deficits in
rural hospitality and tourism destinations. Tourism Management Perspectives. 27.
pp.47-54.
Foroudi, P., 2019. Influence of brand signature, brand awareness, brand attitude, brand
reputation on hotel industry’s brand performance. International journal of hospitality
management. 76. pp.271-285.
Macnamara, J. and Gregory, A., 2018. Expanding evaluation to progress strategic
communication: Beyond message tracking to open listening. International Journal of
Strategic Communication. 12(4). pp.469-486.
Michopoulou, E. and Moisa, D.G., 2019. Hotel social media metrics: The ROI
dilemma. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 76. pp.308-315.
Tajvidi, R. and Karami, A., 2021. The effect of social media on firm performance. Computers in
Human Behavior. 115. p.105174.
Tussyadiah, I.P. and Park, S., 2018. Consumer evaluation of hotel service robots. In Information
and communication technologies in tourism 2018 (pp. 308-320). Springer, Cham.
Walelign, A., 2019. Communication and Its Impact on Customer Satisfaction in Hospitality
Industry. iRASD Journal of Management. 1(2). pp.35-42.
Online
Dudovskiy, J., 2016. Hilton marketing communication mix. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://research-methodology.net/hilton-marketing-communication-mix/>
Hill, B., 2020. Objectives of hospitality business. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/objectives-hospitality-business-27604.html>
Hilton transforms hospitality in digital age, 2021. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://smarterhq.com/blog/hilton-hotels-interview>
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