Marketing Information System Analysis: The Ritz London and Hospitality

This report focuses on the Marketing Information System (MkIS) and its application within The Ritz London, a five-star hotel in London, United Kingdom. It explores the significance of MkIS in the hospitality and tourism industry, emphasizing its role in gathering, analyzing, and interpreting marketing research data. The report details the components of MkIS, including internal records, marketing intelligence systems, marketing research, and marketing decision support systems. It highlights the benefits of MkIS, such as improved customer understanding, effective market monitoring, informed decision-making, and cost reduction. The report emphasizes how MkIS facilitates strategic planning, communication, and competitive advantage for entities like The Ritz London. It concludes by summarizing the importance of MkIS for efficient marketing operations, effective communication, and the ability to adapt to changing market dynamics, ensuring customer satisfaction and profitability.

Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Marketing comprises of activities ranging from identifying potential customers who can
be targetted for selling the goods or services (Kotler and et. al., 2017). Activities involved in this
are advertisement, promotion, sales, and distribution of the produced products/services. In this
report, The Ritz London has been chosen which is a fives star hotel located in London, United
Kingdom. Furthermore, in this report the importance of marketing information system has been
discussed along with its effectiveness within hospitality and tourism industry.
MAIN BODY
Hospitality and tourism industry is associated with providing services related to
accommodation, travelling and restaurant. These are intangible in nature and generate huge
revenue in the economy. This report talks about contribution of marketing information system
and its effectiveness in the organizations operating in the selected industry. Every such
organizations implement software programs in order to help managing the work efficiently and
smoothly. This requires good amount of investment for the development of a software suitable to
the hotel or other organization.
Marketing information system (MkIS) refers to a software which allows an organization
to have information and data about marketing research (Ashmarina and Zotova, 2016). With the
help of this, variety of data can be analysed in different ways followed by proper compilation. It
works as a tool which is used for making decisions regarding consumer behaviour and marketing
mix by comprising products or services. It comprises of many components such as internal
records which is related with extraction of data from records available with the entity such as
customer database, sales records, financial data etc. The next component being marketing
intelligence system which provides information about the current situations prevailing in the
market which is beyond the control of the entity. Marketing research is another element which
refers to systematic collection, organization, analysis and interpretation of data belonging to
primary or secondary sources. And the last is marketing decision support system which is again a
software program used for analysing the extracted data.
There are more than one benefits that MkIS can provide to an organization if it is used in
an appropriate manner. First being better understanding of needs and wants of customers, the
information about the same can be gathered with by using MkIS. Second importance is effective
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monitoring of the forces prevailing in the market that may affect the business of entities and to
examine the market trends. The other significance is that, the information so gathered can be
analysed for making decisions that can provide number of benefits to the operations. Making
right choices is very vital for carrying out the activities in a proper way. Furthermore, MkIS
assists entities in Hospitality and Tourism industry to develop strategies and plans related to
marketing. These are the steps on which the success of entities depend. Furthermore, MkIS
works as a common platform which is the main point that can be accessed by all the units in the
organization for forming a co-ordination. The last importance about the same cannot be avoided
which is that the application of MkIS helps in reducing the costs and wastage of time is also
mitigated.
Te above discussed significance are common to all the organizations using for achieving
goals and objectives. Hospitality and tourism industry deals in services for increasing customer
satisfaction and to earn higher profit (Kerin and Hartley, 2015). It is marketing tool by which
The Ritz London or any other entities can gather information as per the requirements. Since, it is
a software the level of reliability and accuracy is on the positive and higher side. It collects data
from different sources which may be primary as well as secondary. Every organization saves the
details of its customers who have availed or are availing the services. This can be in physical or
computerised form however, many entities have started to store data in computers for many
different reasons. Thus, MkIS as a software program gathers data from the information stored by
it which is then analysed further for obtaining a result. However, MkIS is required to be given
some commands to perform the function and adjustments can be made in these according to the
needs of the users.
Apart from this, the data extracted by this can be relied upon as it is authentic, complete
and material having very low or negligible level of errors. The use of MkIS has increased in
couple of years by considering the benefits it provide to entities. In addition to this, it is effective
in many ways (Park and Lee, 2014). The final outcomes of all the extracted information are used
in making decisions which can be implemented within the organization for carrying the activities
efficiently and smoothly. Entities operating in Hospitality and Tourism industry maintains the
records of their customers, the sales made against them, profit earned and revenue generated etc.
are considered for by MkIS. It totally depends on the organization from which year it wants to
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use the data for making decisions. Apart from this, there is one more use of this software and that
is communication.
Communication in literal term refers to the process or act of transferring information
from one place, person or group to another. There are two parties involved i.e. sender and
receiver, wherein one sends messages and other receives them. In other words, it is the exchange
of information which is treated as the most important element for any activity. MkIS software
provides a platform which is common to all the individuals working in The Ritz London. It
contains data which can be accessed by the staff and look at the decisions made by it for their
implementation.
When its comes to the marketing, the scope of MkIS gets expanded as it covers all the
areas which are targetted by the company. When the activity of collecting data is done manually,
it is not always possible to extract reliable, accurate and complete information which can be used
in making decisions. MkIS gathers these data not from internal sources only but also take into
account the external sources. The software done this process on a continuous basis for providing
material to the entity to make decisions or make adjustments in existing ones. For example, The
Ritz London has launched bundled services including food, accommodation, flights etc. This has
gained success within the time that has been fixed for target. Therefore, it is planning to launch
exclusive service related to its restaurants. This requires analysing the market trends and the
demands and opinions of customers in the chosen market. In such a situations, it can take the
help of MkIS for gathering information about the same and analyse it for making decision
whether to proceed with the plan or not. This can help it saving the costs depending on the
results acquired from the research done by MkIS software (Hakhu, Kiran and Goyal, 2012).
In nutshell, it can be said that MkIS makes the work of marketing department easy. There
are different parties and entities involved in Hospitality and Tourism industry which must have
an effective co-ordination among them in order to fulfil the expectations and needs of the
customers. In addition to this, communication can be done effectively by having a common
platform for sharing the information. It reduces the chances of having different opinions or
acting differently. Some of the data provided by this are market size, current trends, changing
customers' needs, strategies followed by and position of competitors, policies of government and
similar information. When all these are combined together for making plans which can
contribute to continuous improvement within the organizations. If right decisions are made and
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implemented then positive impact can be there within the entity. This can also help it gaining
competitive advantage and make its position more stronger in the market among al its rivals.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that organizations have marketing
department for performing number of activities in order to meet the goals and objectives
specified by this department. With the use of MkIS software, there can be proper and effective
communication among various units. Also, the information gathered by this are used in making
decisions which can be implemented within the organization. These are the importance of MkIS
which should be known to all the entities operating in Hospitality and Tourism industry. Since,
services are provided under this sector, the introduction of any new service or plan should be
made with great cautious on the basis of data that are reliable and accurate.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Kotler, P., and et. al., 2017. Marketing for hospitality and tourism.
Kerin, R. and Hartley, S., 2015. Marketing: the core. McGraw-Hill.
Ashmarina, S. and Zotova, A., 2016. The system of marketing information management:
development, assessment, improvement. Економічний часопис-ХХІ, (160), pp.51-56.
Park, J.G. and Lee, J., 2014. Knowledge sharing in information systems development projects:
Explicating the role of dependence and trust. International Journal of Project
Management. 32(1). pp.153-165.
Hakhu, R., Kiran, R. and Goyal, D., 2012. Success of marketing information system (MKIS)
model: Analysis of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMES). Middle-East
Journal of Science Research. 11(6). pp.777-86.
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