Selchester Arms Hotel Marketing Plan: Business Improvement Strategy

This report presents a marketing plan developed for the Selchester Arms Hotel, aiming to enhance its business performance and overall reputation. The report begins with an introduction to business improvement, emphasizing the importance of measuring and altering strategies to boost efficiency and revenue. It outlines the hotel's mission to create an experience that integrates a comfortable stay with authentic local culture. The marketing section proposes various ideas, including virtual tours, digital advertising, scavenger hunts, event calendars, and loyalty programs. The report also suggests improvements in marketing performance through technological advancements, product development, and customer-centric approaches. A SWOT analysis is conducted to identify the hotel's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The marketing mix is then detailed, covering product offerings, pricing strategies, place of service, and promotion through digital and social media. The report concludes by summarizing the recommended actions to address challenges and sustain competitiveness within the hotel industry, referencing key academic sources to support its findings.

Running head: BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Business mission:...................................................................................................................2
Marketing Selchester Arms:...................................................................................................2
Improvement of marketing performance:..............................................................................3
SWOT Analysis:....................................................................................................................4
Marketing Mix.......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The procedure involved in measuring, altering and measuring for the purpose of
improving the efficiency, revenue and overall reputation of an organisation is known as a
business improvement (Wood and Jobber 2016). The purpose of the paper is to construct a
marketing plan for responding to the need for business improvement based on the
organisational information in the case study, Selchester Arms Hotel. A comprehensive
document which frames the outline for marketing efforts and advertising for short-term and
long-term success an organisation depicts the concept of a marketing plan. The paper will be
concluded by presenting a summary of the recommended actions and aspects of the chosen
business.
Discussion
Business mission:
The purpose of the hotel business, Selchester Arms is to offer a warm, well-
maintained and at-home atmosphere for the travellers with the complementary vibe of the
countryside. The business should aim at creating an experience rather than only focussing on
the stay. The experience should cover the activities of the locals, willing participation at the
community services, conducting local cultural programmes and improves the value of their
presence with authentic local cuisine. The mission of Selchester Arms can be, ‘To create an
exquisite experience for the travellers with the amalgamation of a comfortable stay, authentic
food and local culture of Selchester village”.
Marketing Selchester Arms:
Marketing ideas for Selchester Arms-

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Selchester Arms marketing ideas can be based upon the mission of the business. The
potential marketing ideas that can directly influence the goal of attracting travellers for the
stay, food and experience at Selchester are as follows:
 Creating virtual tour of the hotel: Offering virtual tour through social media platforms
and website can help in demonstrating the actual picture of the values and offerings
amalgamated for the target market in the village of Selchester (Hansen and Juslin
2018).
 Conducting digital advertisement: The advertisement campaign in digital platforms
for the hotel business can include the USP (Unique Selling Proposition), which is the
experience of ‘living like a local’ with the photos and videos of the cultural heritage
and local practices in which the travellers can be a significant part (McDONALD
2016).
 Scavenger Hunt for live promotion: Marketing the services can be extended to the
actual arrival of the travellers rather than limiting the promotion till the virtual
engagement. Scavenger Hunt can be treated as a program of demonstrating the
offered features, property tour and the experiences which can be lived like a local of
Selchester.
 Offering local events and occasion calendar: The local events and occasions of the
village can be listed or highlighted in a specialised calendar for the potential
customers of Selchester Arms (Kotler et al. 2017). The calendar can help the
customers in planning their vacation based on the preferred time of the year in
Selchester.
 Creating a loyalty program: The loyalty program for the travellers will encourage
their repeated visits, for a different occasion and unique experience with every visit
(Zheng and Forgacs 2017).

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 Constructing packages for the occasion: The booking packages can be categorised
based on the occasion of booking such as friends and family reunions, office meetings
and weddings.
Improvement of marketing performance:
The marketing performance of Selchester Arms Hotels can be improved by:
 Firstly, the hotel business needs to invest in technological advancements, salesforce
and record-keeping software for incorporating efficiency and security of data
management.
 The hotel business should focus on product development by adding services to their
core business for an ultimate experience.
 Demonstrating efficiency by recruiting specialist in treating the client with warmth
and immediate response.
 The business expansion of Selchester Arms Hotels can be enabled through the
amalgamation of digitalisation in the reservation and transforming theme in
restaurants and sports facilities (Murphy, Chen and Shapiro 2017).
 Co-creation can be another marketing tactics to improve the business practices based
on customer involvement and feedback.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths- The business can offer the unique experience along with the comfortable stay
combined with the local influencers such as the culture, countryside experience and
occasional practices. The medium-sized hotel business can use its expertise of offering
services in various areas such as hotel, restaurant and sports facilities for a complete
experience building exercise directed towards the audience. It also allows for occasion-based
bookings.

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Weaknesses- The main weakness of the business, for which the company is struggling, is
keeping a record for the business practices and customer data. Another weakness can be the
incorporation of innovation and values for sustaining in the competitive market.
Opportunities- The business can undergo product development by adding values through
innovative services and experience building exercise. The business result can expand its
business in terms of staying options, by establishing rentals, tiny house experiences and
cottages.
Threats- The business should start spending in digitalisation and technological up-gradation
for creating a complete valuable experience. The company needs to involve consumers in
creating a positive experience through promoting the brand virtually and traditionally.
Marketing Mix
Product- The offerings of Selchester Arms focuses on services with respect to the stay,
restaurant and sports centre. The service offerings will expand its boundaries for the purpose
of offering unique experiences accompanied by existent service offerings. The offerings will
focus on creating an atmosphere, where the travellers can ‘live the life of localities’.
Price- The pricing strategy for the hotel business can be occupancy-based dynamic and guest
segment-based pricing. For introducing the newer offering of experiences, the hotel business
can adopt premium pricing for portraying the quality of the services. The occasional packages
will include occasion-based pricing.
Place- The point of delivery of services will be from Selchester, a village or countryside in
England. The service delivery will be enabled through the trained hotel management staff or
specialists.

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Promotion- The promotion of the services of Selchester Arms will be majorly dependent on
digital and social media (Siakalli, Masouras and Papademetriou 2017). The company can
conduct a digital campaign named, ‘live like a local’, in which the promotional campaign will
enable the participation of the customers. Virtual tours and reflection of experiences from
events and local practices will attract the attention of the target audience (Honerkamp 2020).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from the paper that Selchester Arms is facing various
challenges that is directly impacting its potential of sustaining with the increasing
competition. The identified issues with the hotel business can be addressed by the adding
service values, unique selling proposition, improved operational and promotional activities.

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References:
Hansen, E. and Juslin, H., 2018. Putting together a Marketing Plan. Strategic Marketing in
the Global Forest Industries.
Honerkamp, Y., 2020. The Marketing Effectiveness of Social Media in the Hotel Industry
[Summary].
Kotler, P., Bowen, J.T., Makens, J. and Baloglu, S., 2017. Marketing for hospitality and
tourism.
McDONALD, M.A.L.C.O.L.M., 2016. Strategic marketing planning: theory and practice. In
The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
Murphy, H.C., Chen, M.M. and Shapiro, T., 2017. Digital marketing performance: How
effective are the tactics and metrics used by hotels?. CAUTHE 2017: Time For Big Ideas?
Re-thinking The Field For Tomorrow, p.255.
Siakalli, M., Masouras, A. and Papademetriou, C., 2017. e-Marketing in the hotel industry:
marketing mix strategies. In Strategic Innovative Marketing (pp. 123-129). Springer, Cham.
Wood, M.B. and Jobber, L., 2016. The marketing plan handbook. Pearson.
Zheng, C. and Forgacs, G., 2017. The emerging trend of hotel total revenue management.
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 16(3), pp.238-245.