Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy for Marriott Hotels

This report presents an in-depth analysis of Marriott Hotel's integrated marketing communication strategy. It begins by evaluating various marketing channels, such as advertising, personal selling, and digital marketing, and their effectiveness in achieving communication objectives within the hospitality sector. The report then outlines the communication objectives specific to Marriott, including brand awareness, demand stimulation, and information dissemination. It provides a justification for the selection and integration of communication channels, emphasizing the role of social media marketing. Furthermore, the report details the creation of a marketing communication plan designed to meet the company's objectives, including mission statement establishment, identification of target buyers, and the creation of a unique selling proposition. Finally, it critically evaluates the marketing communication plan in relation to communication strategy, channel choice, and creative content, offering insights into the strengths and weaknesses of Marriott's approach. The analysis is supported by relevant academic sources and provides a comprehensive overview of marketing communication strategies in the hospitality industry.

Development of an
Integrated Marketing
Communication
Strategy

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
P1. Evaluation of different types of marketing channel and their ways to service
communication objectives of hospitality organisation................................................................1
P2. Developing communication objectives of organisation........................................................3
P3. Justification for selection as well as integration of communication channels.......................4
P4. Creation of marketing communication plan which helps to meet communication objectives
of enterprise.................................................................................................................................5
P5. Critical evaluation of marketing communication plan in relation of communication
strategy, channel choice as well as creative content....................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication is one of important term for business as it helps business to
communicate their message to customers in order to increase awareness of their products,
reminds customers about their products and motivate them to buy their products (Arnold, 2017).
There are different types of marketing communication channels including advertising, digital
marketing, personal selling, sales promotion. This project reports includes study of Marriott
Hotel and resort which is America based company operating in different parts of world. It is
established J. Willard Marriott in the year 1927. This projects report includes discussion of
different types of channel for marketing communication and their ways to attain business
objectives. It devises objectives of communication of business and justify channel selection for
business. It also includes design of channel and communication objectives and implementing
marketing communication plan.
MAIN BODY
P1. Evaluation of different types of marketing channel and their ways to service communication
objectives of hospitality organisation
Marketing communication refers to process which increase awareness in customers related to
products, remind them and persuade customers in order to purchase products offered by
enterprise (Arora, Arora and Sivakumar, 2016). Marketing is focused with creation of desire
among buyers for purchase of goods and service and also implementing their actions into final
purchase. There is different method of marketing communication which are mentioned below:
Advertisement: Advertising refers to paid form of communication channel of marketing which
is conducted for purpose of promotion as well as selling goods, service, idea with message of
organisation. Advertisement are sponsored by those businesses which are willing to promote
other business and their products. Advertising channels includes television, magazines,
newspaper, radio, billboard. Organisation need to select advertising content for products and
service offered by then in order to target large customers base within less time. All these
advertising efforts helps organisation in attracting customers towards their brand. Advantage and
disadvantage to Marriott Hotel and Resort from advertisement are as follows:
Advantage Disadvantage
 It helps organisation to reach large  In this mode of marketing, organisation
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customers base in less time.
 Advertisement also includes celebrities
which helps to increase image of
products offered by company.
cannot take instant feedback from
customer.
 This method of marketing
communication is less persuasive in
compare to personal selling.
Personal selling: Personal selling is one of process for selling in which sales executives of
organisation interaction directly with customers in order to provide information related to
features, price, benefits and advantage of products and service offered by organisation to
customers (Chu and Kim, 2018). This allow Marriott Hotel and Resort to attain communication
objectives of business in efficient manner as in this method, customers queries are solved by
companies instantly which results in increasing loyalty and also in increasing trust of customers
towards goods and service offered by organisation.
Advantage Disadvantage
 In this method of marketing
communication, sales person customise
or alter message of organisation as per
their needs and attitude.
 It helps organisation to take feedback
form customers as it includes direct
interaction of business with customers.
 With use of this marketing tool,
organisation can reach to limited
numbers of customers.
 Cost of this marketing communication
tool is high as it includes cost of salary
of sales executives.
Digital Marketing: Digital marketing refers to promotion of products and service in order to
connect customers with use of internet as well as other digital communication tool (Clark, Black
and Judson, 2017). This includes various methods including email marketing, web-based
advertising, social medial marketing. This method of digital marketing helps Marriott Hotel and
Resort to interact with customers and cost-effective method which saves cost of company. This
method of digital marketing is focused with increasing awareness and also increase loyalty of
customers.
Advantage Disadvantage
 Digital marketing is cost effective  To use this method of marketing
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method of marketing communication.
 This method has global reach as
organisation can share their message to
their customers all over world.
communication, enterprise needs to hire
skilled employees who has knowledge
related to digital marketing.
 It is time consuming process as in
creating content for digital marketing,
proper tie is required.
P2. Developing communication objectives of organisation
Marketing communication is important for any organisation as it helps to provide information of
products and service of company to their potential customers. There are various objectives of
Marriott Hotel and Resort for communication which are mentioned below:
Business awareness: Marketing communication is used by hospitality organisation for
increasing awareness of products and service offered by enterprise (Doz, 2017). It helps to
provide message of company to their customers which create awareness in minds of customers.
This provide choice to customers while buying any products as they have knowledge about
products of company, their benefits, prices which influence their choices. This not only increase
awareness of new products of company but also helps to remind them about previous products
and service.
Stimulating demand: Objectives of hospitality business for marketing communication is
to create demand for their products and service in market place. With helps of marketing
activities, organisation identify preference as well as taste of customers which helps them in
satisfying needs of customers. This result in increased demand for products of company as
through marketing communication organisation provide information about their uniquids
products as well as service to customers.
Provide information: With marketing communication, organisation can provide
information related to products and service of their target customers which helps them in
increasing sales of their products in marketing. This marketing communication provide
information related to features, benefits, prices of products of company to their customers which
results in speeding up of purchase process. This information about products of company provide
choices to customers while buying products in market. This communication also helps
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organisation to differentiate their products from other market players which helps to influence
purchasing process of customers.
P3. Justification for selection as well as integration of communication channels
For selection of communication channel for Marriott Hotel and Resort various steps to be
followed which are mentioned below:
Selection of potential channels: In this step, organisation needs to select communication
channel which is good for their business (Hafez and Othman, 2017). For this, business of
Marriott Hotel and Resort needs to select various channel of communication which are suitable
for enterprise. Business needs to select at least 4-5 channels than they can research on these
channels.
Research: After selection of various communication channels for business, managers of
business needs to research information about each channel which helps to rank these channels. In
this business needs to be more creative about their research and also find various information
about communication channels. In this research, business needs to find target makrut including
demographic, psychographic, geographic. They also find out monetary cost time cost as well as
skills required. There is various source to identify this information about communication channel
like from internet.
Rank: In this step, enterprise is needs to rank these channels on basis of information gather
in previous steps. This ranking is important for business of Marriott Hotel and Resort as it helps
to select communication channels and also allow them to allocate resources. All communication
channels are different from each other as all channels has benefits and limitation. These rank to
each communication channel is given on different basis including target market focus, monetary
cost, skills required and time cost.
Evaluation of resource: This last step includes evaluation of resources after ranking of
communication channels (Kennedy and Guzmán, 2016). This is one of important step in order to
build sales funnel. This helps business of Marriott Hotel and Resort in checking short term
feasibility of communication channel for hospitality business. This helps to saves time, money
and other resources of business in long term. These resources include employees, products and
service offered by company and budget of business.
Form above mentioned process, best suitable comunicaito0n channel for business of
Marriott Hotel and Resort is social media marketing as it helps company to interaction with their
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customers and also by positing several videos and images of their resorts, they can attract their
customers. They can communication on social media platform with their customers and can also
solves queries and problems of their customers.
P4. Creation of marketing communication plan which helps to meet communication objectives of
enterprise
Establishing mission statement: For purpose of communication plan of business, organisation
needs to create mission statement of enterprise (Kuo and Smith, 2018). Mission statement of
business comprise goals of company which they want to attain. Mission statement of business of
Marriott Hotel and Resort includes provide environment to customers in which they enjoy and
relax from stressful life and enhance experience of customers with service of company.
Identification of objectives of business: For development of communication plan, business
needs to identify objectives of their organisation. There is various objective of business of
Marriott Hotel and Resort which are as follows:
 To increase products and service range of their enterprise.
 To increase their market share.
 To increase sales as well as profitability of business.
Identification of buyer: For development of communication plan of business, they also need to
identify their potential target customers. It is important for business to identify potential buyers
as it helps business to target then effectively. Marriott Hotel and Resort is targeting young
customers who loves to travel in different parts of world and like to explore new destinations.
Identification of USP: It is also important for business to identify their USP for creation of
marketing communication plan. USP stands for unique selling proposition which helps business
to differentiate company and their products from other market players. Marriott Hotel and Resort
is differentiating their products and service with quality of their service as well as their effective
marketing strategies.
Creating effective message and positioning: In this step, business of Marriott Hotel and Resort
needs to create different and unique message for their enterprise satiable to their target customers
(Rahimi, Møller and Hvam, 2016). This message creates by business should be impactful and
clear which helps business to create unique position for their products in customer’s minds.
Execute marketing channel: In this final step, business execute their marketing channel in
business. Marriott Hotel and Resort can execute different marketing channels suitable to their
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requirement. In this business can implement social media marketing as it helps them to
effectively interact with their customer and also customers are actively using these social media
platforms.
P5. Critical evaluation of marketing communication plan in relation of communication strategy,
channel choice as well as creative content
Identification of marketing communication method: It is important of business of Marriott
Hotel and Resort to identify communication method for marketing of business as it is part of
their marketing strategy (Rossi, Germani and Zamagni, 2016). Business also needs to consider
their target customers as it understands how information is received by their customers. How
they gather facts as well as researching solution for their problem. On this basis, enterprise
identify best channels suited to their requirement. Some of examples for their marketing
communication channels are mentioned below:
 Content marketing: Business can share their content on online platform with video
marketing, premium content, blog content, dynamics websites content which helps
customers to linked with as well as learn about enterprise before making their decisions.
 Social media Marketing: Social media marketing is used in order to build good relation
with their customers and also helps to increase awareness of products and service offered
by company.
Developing marketing communication plan: It is important for business to develop
communication plan as with business can communicate effectively with their customers. There
are some components in which business of Marriott Hotel and Resort needs to focus in this step
which are mentioned below:
 Audience: Business needs to identify their buyers for marketing communication plan as
it helps them to effectively understand their customers.
 Content: Business needs to develop content of their organisation as per their audience
and their preference.
 Cadence: This includes ways in which customers receive information. Organisation
needs to identify how their customers are receive information about products and service
of company.
Understanding process of customers decision making: It is important for business to
understand decision making process of customer (Schultz, 2016). This includes what factors
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motivate customers to buy a product, what they buy products from a particular brand. Some
customers are involving more in decision making process in compare to others. All these things
are depended on products and service offered by organisation. As customers are less involving in
low prices proacts but are more involved in high price products.
Implementation of communication plan: In this process, business actually implement their
plans and monitor their results (Sia, Soh and Weill, 2016). If any problems occur in
implementing this plan, managers of business need to take corrective actions. Thera are some
steps which is to be taken by business in order to effectively implement this plan. Which
includes checking calendar, automation of software, analyse process and also stay in trends.
CONCLUSION
From above mentioned project report, it can be concluded that marketing communication is one
way in which organisation provide information about their products and service, their benefits,
feature to their target customers. It helps to increase awareness of products and service of
company in minds of their customers. There are different method of marketing communication
including advertising, personal selling., sales promotion, social medial marketing, digital
marketing and many more. All these methods have their advantage and disadvantage for
business. All their suits as per requirement of business which helps them effectively
communicate with their customers. There are different objectives of business which can be
attained with these marketing plan. These objectives include increasing profit, sales, market
share and range of products of business. There are different steps to be followed by business
which helps them to prepare marketing communication plan that helps in attainment of
marketing goals and objectives of business.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
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organizational performance, and technological and market turbulences. The
International Journal of Logistics Management.
Chu, S.C. and Kim, J., 2018. The current state of knowledge on electronic word-of-mouth in
advertising research. International Journal of Advertising, 37(1), pp.1-13.
Clark, M., Black, H.G. and Judson, K., 2017. Brand community integration and satisfaction with
social media sites: a comparative study. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing.
Doz, Y.L., 2017. Strategic management in multinational companies. In International
Business (pp. 229-248). Routledge.
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strategy for architectural design firms in developing countries: a corporate social
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Kennedy, E. and Guzmán, F., 2016. Co-creation of brand identities: consumer and industry
influence and motivations. Journal of Consumer Marketing.
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220.
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Advertising, 45(3), pp.276-285.
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