SHR037-6 Marketing Plan: Hotel InterContinental Muscat Strategy

This report presents a marketing plan for the Hotel InterContinental in Muscat, aiming to increase sales by 10% and enhance brand awareness and customer satisfaction. The plan includes a SWOT analysis to assess the internal environment and a PESTLE analysis to evaluate the external environment. Key strategies recommended include product differentiation, premium pricing, strategic location near the airport and tourist attractions, and extensive promotional activities using both traditional and digital marketing tools. The plan also outlines SMART objectives, a detailed marketing mix, and methods for evaluation and control, such as total quality management, customer feedback analysis, and sales figure monitoring. The marketing budget allocates resources to direct marketing, traditional media, and social media marketing to achieve the stated goals. Desklib provides access to this document and many other resources for students.

Running Head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT 0
Marketing management
Student name
MARCH 5, 2019

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Executive Summary
The Hotel InterContinental in Muscat, founded in 1946, with the initial launch by pan American
world airways as InterContinental hotels as one of their international hotel brands. The company
is willing to market itself and establish the brand as one of the world’s leading hotel brand, for
which the company is undergoing a major change for a year.
The major objective of this marketing plan was increase in sales by ten percent and enhance
customer satisfaction and brand awareness.According to this analysis, the recommended
marketing mix strategy included product differentiation strategy, premium pricing strategy,
location strategy to be placed near the airport, and near popular tourist places. Moreover,
extensive promotional tools like sales promotion, digital promotion, an advertisement would be
done.

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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis................................................................................................................................4
PESTLE analysis.............................................................................................................................4
Political environment...................................................................................................................4
Economic environment................................................................................................................6
Socio-cultural environment.........................................................................................................6
Technological environment.........................................................................................................7
Legal environment.......................................................................................................................7
Environmental factors..................................................................................................................7
Market segmentation.......................................................................................................................7
SMART objectives..........................................................................................................................7
Marketing mix.................................................................................................................................8
Evaluation and control.....................................................................................................................9
Marketing Budget of InterContinental (In million Dollars)..........................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Marketing is one of the most relevant aspects of the business, which needs to be planned as per
the external and internal environment. The report will include various models to assess the
external environment that is PESTLE analysis, and the internal environment through SWOT
analysis (Adam & Kotler, 2014). The marketing plan will be prepared in the report, considering
one of the organizational cases for better understanding.
The Hotel InterContinental in Muscat, founded in 1946, with the initial launch by pan American
world airways as InterContinental hotels as one of their international hotel brands. The brand
initial setup was in Brazil, which the brand tends to expand across the globe with customer
service excellence as USP of the brand. The company is willing to market itself and establish the
brand as one of the world’s leading hotel brand, for which the company is undergoing a major
change for a year (ihg, 2019).

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SWOT analysis
For analyzing the internal environment of the company that is the initial aspect to be considered,
while preparing the marketing plan for Muscat InterContinental.
Strengths Weakness
 Quality of food (As per ratings on trip
advisor (tripadvisor, 2019)
 Performance in the new market
 Reliable supply chain
 Customer satisfaction
 High skilled workforce (ihg, 2019)
 Technological advancement
 Marketing of products
 Demand forecasting
 Inefficient financial planning
Opportunities Threats
 Market development
 Reduced transportation cost
 New technology
 New customers through e-commerce
 Change in consumer behavior trends
 Lower inflation rate
 Increase in cost of raw material
 Seasonal demand
 New trade regulations
 Increase in salary
 Dynamic consumer behavior (Bull &
Sitas, 2016)
PESTLE analysis
Political environment
Political factors of Oman will be considered for analyzing the external environment for the hotel.
These factors include political stability of the nation, which affect the business in the nation.
Considering Oman, the political stability index indicates that it is neither too strong nor weak,
which means that it is not the treat for the company (theglobaleconomy, 2019). Some other
aspect of this environment would be corruption level, and control of the corruption in the
country. Considering the control of corruption index, it seems to be decreasing and not stable
since many years, which indicates that that the political environment of the country could be the
threat to the business (theglobaleconomy, 2019).

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Economic environment
The company business depends on the economic factors of eth nation. For instance the GDP
growth, which reflects the consumption level in the nation. Taxation policy of the nation, and
inflation in the nation which will eventually affect the business. From the figure, it can be said
that, considering the last few years, the GDP is constant or decreasing, which means the
opportunity for the company in the nation does not seem to be increased (theglobaleconomy,
2019).
Figure 1:( Source: (theglobaleconomy, 2019)
Moreover, the inflation rate of the country can be calculated on the basis of the consumer price
index, which is between 2-3 in 2016 and 2017, which majority of the company tries to keep for
reducing the risk for the business.
Socio-cultural environment
Culture plays a relevant role in conducting business. The major ethnic groups found in the nation
are Arab, South Asian, Baluci, and African. Considering the religion, Muslims are found the
maximum. This is the reason the company has to consider the culture, their lifestyle for targeting
potential customers in the nation. For InterContinental hotels, the food, taste preference, the
ambiance could be so as to attract these people to a greater extent (cia, 2019).

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Technological environment
The country is not as technologically advanced country as some of the western countries.
However, the technological updating is necessary for the nation, and the company can gain
advantage through integrating technology to the business in the nation (Tari, 2015).
Legal environment
These factors include laws followed in the nation, for instance, the employment law, consumer
protection law, which will affect the business in the nation. The rule of law index can indicate if
the society abides by the law or do not consider the laws to a large extent. The country according
to the statistics does not have an average of 0.47 point at this index from 1996 to 2017, which is
not so high neither to low (theglobaleconomy, 2019).
Environmental factors
These include the major climate change in the nation, water, and air pollution, which the
company has to consider before investing in the nation. Considering the recent environmental
issue in the nation increases in soil salinity, limited freshwater, which the company must
consider during CSR (indexmundi, 2019).
Market segmentation
The market segmentation for InterContinental hotel in OMAN, the target market would be the
closest to the traveling aspects of the nation that is the airports. The company is targeting tourism
as a potential customer. Another market that the company can target would be the business
travelers, this would help the brand to increase the database. The company can provide the
facilities that will make the dealing and the business conferences possible in the hotel (Doole &
Lowe, 2008).
SMART objectives
The objectives of the marketing plan include
1. Increase in sale of the service by 10 percent by next year – through this marketing plan,
the company would like to target new segment and can be measured through visible
growth in the sale of the services by end of the financial year

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2. Increase in brand awareness within next six month and customer satisfaction till next
year- this plan would be liable to reach out to maximum customers and increase the brand
awareness, which can be measured through the visits of people on social networking that
is through social media marketing included in the plan, the company can observe the
number of views, like and feedback from the customers (Tari, 2015)
Marketing mix
After analyzing the internal and external environment of the company, the major
recommendation for the company includes:
1. Products strategy – the recommended strategy for the company regarding the product and
service offered to the customers include the product innovation and product
differentiation, this could include the increase of facilities for the company. For instance,
a business conference facility, kids room, pool for travelers to enjoy (Chung, 2015)
2. Price strategy – the recommended pricing strategy for the company would be premium
pricing, the company is targeting the premium customer and providing high-quality
service, for which the company must keep the prices high and premium. The reason being
the company is providing high-quality services, and through its high price the company
prefers to create brand positioning as the premium service brand (Aksoy, 2018)
Figure 2: (Source: (Aksoy, 2018)

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3. Place strategy – considering the placing, the location is important to plan, which is
recommended to be near the airport for the business travelers as potential customers and
near the popular tourist places to provide leisure tourism services. Moreover, the
company can expand business through placing a various number of the hotel in various
places to target maximum customers (Hu et al., 2016)
4. Promotional strategy – the company is recommended to have intensive promotional
activities like sponsoring the events, hoardings on road, membership system for special
offers for regular customers, advertisement through television and radio, and printed form
through the newspaper, journals, and pamphlets. The company could also hold various
events like crockery competitions to create brand awareness (Gong & Yi, 2018).
Moreover, the company must use modern promotional tools like social media marketing,
content marketing, and email marketing through popular social media platforms like
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to interact with the customer and increase the customer
satisfaction. Another aspect in this strategy that the company could have to adopt
considering the increase in digitalization, that is a link up to the various tourism
companies like trip advisor, and various other travel agencies like Cox and Kings (Finne,
2017).
Evaluation and control
To monitor and control the marketing plan implemented would be
 Total quality management – this is to ensure that the service provided to the customers
are the best quality service and up to the benchmark (Alegre & Marimon, 20188)
 Customer feedback – the customer is now able to contact and provide feedback online
and offline, which the company can control in case of any dissatisfaction factor observed
by the company through their comments
 Sales figures – keeping the track over the sales figures of the company, as the objective is
to increase the sales, in case of any decrease in sales figure are observed, the cause of the
deviation must be found and fixed regularly, so the controlling is not to be done after a
particular period (Birasnav, 2014)

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Marketing Budget of InterContinental (In million Dollars)
Particulars 1st 2nd 3rd
Direct marketing 22000 21000 16000
Traditional
advertisement
7000 8000 11000
Social Media
marketing
6100 8000 9000
Sales marketing 30000 16000 18000
Total 65,100 53,000 54,000

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Conclusion
From the report, it can be concluded that the Hotel InterContinental in Muscat, would like to
have a marketing plan in order to increase the sale of the brand by 10 percent by next year, and
increase brand awareness and customer satisfaction within next six months. The marketing plan
initiated by identifying the internal and external environmental factors of the company.
According to which the product strategy recommended to the company include product
differentiation and innovation. The price strategy would be the premium strategy, and the
company can include the location to be near the airport and near the tourist places for targeting
leisure tourism and business travelers. Moreover considering the promotional strategy, the
company can use various promotional tools like traditional tools like an advertisement,
sponsorship, and events. Moreover, digital tools can be used like social media marketing, email
marketing and connecting to the travel agency brands like trip advisors, and Cox and Kings.

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References
Adam, S. & Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Australia: Pearson Australia.
Aksoy, S., 2018. Applying Ansoff’S Growth Strategy Matrix To Innovation Classification.
International Journal of Innovation Management, p.1850039.
Alegre, I. & Marimon, F., 20188. Quality management systems in European social service
organizations: A survey of EQUASS Assurance pioneer adopters. International Journal of
Quality & Reliability Management, 35(2), pp.354-72.
Birasnav, M., 2014. Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service
industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional leadership..
Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp.1622-29.
Bull, J.W. & Sitas, N., 2016. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT
analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem Services, 17(1), p.99.
Chung, T.L., 2015. The role of listening in e-contact center customer relationship management.
Journal of services marketing, 29(1), pp.49-58.
cia, 2019. the-world-factbook. [Online] Available at:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mu.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/
library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mu.html.
Doole, L. & Lowe, R., 2008. nternational marketing strategy: analysis, development and
implementation. Cengage Learning EMEA.
Finne, A., 2017. Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing communication.
European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), p.445.
Gong, T. & Yi, Y., 2018. The effect of service quality on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and
happiness in five Asian countries. Psychology & Marketing, p.472.
Hu, M.Y., Krush, M.T. & Agnihotri, R., 2016. Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in
B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, p.172.
ihg, 2019. home. [Online] Available at:
https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental/hotels/us/en/muscat/mscha/hoteldetail.
indexmundi, 2019. oman/environment_current_issues. [Online] Available at:
https://www.indexmundi.com/oman/environment_current_issues.html.
Tari, J.J., 2015. The effects of quality and environmental management on competitive advantage:
A mixed methods study in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 50(1), pp.41-54.
theglobaleconomy, 2019. Oman/gdp_current_local_currency. [Online] Available at:
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Oman/gdp_current_local_currency/.

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theglobaleconomy, 2019. Oman/wb_corruption. [Online] Available at:
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Oman/wb_corruption/.
theglobaleconomy, 2019. Oman/wb_political_stability. [Online] Available at:
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Oman/wb_political_stability/.
theglobaleconomy, 2019. Oman/wb_ruleoflaw. [Online] Available at:
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Oman/wb_ruleoflaw/.