Hospitality Marketing Essentials Report: Roles, Marketing Mix, Plan

This report delves into the fundamentals of hospitality marketing, using McDonald's as a case study. It examines the key roles and responsibilities of marketing functions, including meeting consumer needs, ensuring growth, and facing competition. The report also explores how marketing relates to the wider organizational context, particularly in relation to finance, technology, and human resources. Furthermore, it compares how different hospitality organizations apply the marketing mix to achieve business objectives, with a focus on product, place, promotion, and price strategies. Finally, the report culminates in the production of a basic marketing plan for a hospitality organization, outlining how to meet specific marketing objectives. The content provides a comprehensive overview of marketing strategies within the hospitality industry, offering insights into practical applications and real-world examples.

Hospitality Marketing
Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function within selected hospitality
organization. ...............................................................................................................................4
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational context. ............7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P3 Compare the ways in which different hospitality organizations apply the marketing mix to
marketing planning to achieve business objectives. ..................................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
P4 Produce a basic marketing plan for hospitality organization to meet marketing objectives.
...................................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry refers to the services which involves hotels, food and drink services,
event planning and so on. According to the marketing of Hospitality industry the main focus is to
attract customers by providing them all the facilities that customers wants whether they are in a
hotel, resort. There are many people who work in this industry like housekeepers, kitchen
workers and so on. In hospitality industry, there are four segments which are involved and that
are; food and beverage industry, lodging, travel and tourism and recreation. The below report
includes roles and responsibilities of marketing function within the organization, how roles and
responsibilities of marketing relate to woder organizational context, ways in which different
hospitality organizations apply marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve
business objectives, the marketing plan for hospitality organization to meet objectives. The
below report is based on Mc Donalds. It is an american food company which was founded by
Richard and Mc Donald in 1940. (Pike, 2015)
TASK 1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function within selected hospitality organization.
In marketing function there are are many roles and responsibilities which are performed
by marketers. The roles are explained as below:- Meet consumer needs and wants:- Customers has various needs which already exista in
the market and according to those needs and wants marketers make their strategies. All
customers are different so their needs and wants are all also different. It depends on their
personalities what they want from the particular brand.(Baker and Magnini, 2016)

 Ensures survival, reputation and growth:- The survival and growth of company depends
on customer satisfaction. If a customer is satisfied by the services of company so through
this it will lead to their growth and enhance reputation. Widens market:- It is a role of marketing that they promote their brand and in today's
world promotion is very necessary as there are many competitors so company shoud use
media technology so that it reach to more number of people. Right price:- It is the most important role of organization that they set fair prices and it
should be according to product so that each customer can afford it. It should be
favourable for all the customers.(Bojanic and Reid, 2017) Better product offerings:- If a product is designed properly and packaged in a good
manner then customers will get attracted by them. There should be proper labelling of
brand on the product and proper designing of products should be done. Face competition:- There are many competitors in the hospitality industry so marketers
have to face competition and attract consumers towards their brand. Every consumer
wants that they get proper services, all facilities should be provided to them and meet
their expectations.
 Economic growth:- The economy of organization can only be increased if company is
providing consumers best products and improve their standard of living so that economic
growth gets increased. (Cooper, 2020)
As in the case of Mc Donalds, there are different roles that marketers has to follow and these are
explained as below:- Product and service management:- It refers to the designing of products as well as
development of products to meet customer satisfactions. Mc donalds has reached a wide
market and provide variety of food products. The company also established pick up
services for customers through which they increased customer satisfaction. The main role
which company successfully fulfilled was that their communication skills were really
very good with customers due to which all of them were comfortable. Marketing information system:- The company has obtained all information regarding
market as well as managed everything in a proper manner. They used information so that
their decision making power improves. The main role which they followed was to attract
young children and reached target successfully.

 Financing:- Mc donalds is directed by franchisee. Their finance is run by individual
owners. People who have invested in their business the company helps them in controling
production. Purchasing:- The company used production line method so that their product quality is
maintained at a good level. Consumers always had expectations from company because
of their product quality and their established their brand at all locations. (Guilding, 2014) Distribution:- Mc donalds has around 30000 local restaurants and in approx 121
countries. Their market share was very strong as compared to other fast food industries.
 Promotion:- The company used a strategy of advertisements to promote their products
around the world and made the positive effect on all consumers. Everyone was convinced
by their advertising, they used different quotes for young children, offers so that
consumers gets attracted to their products.
The responsibilities of marketing fuction are explained as below:- Listening to customer needs:- It is very important for organization to listen to all
consumer needs so that their marketing can be done in a better way. When customer
gives any feedback then marketer should listen to that and them make strategies. As in
the case of McDonalds they listened to all consumer needs as audiences gave feedback
and they took it seriously and established their strategies according to that.(Chandiok, and
Sharma, 2017)

 Track trends and monitor competiton:- The organization should always track about their
competition, their strategies, what best they are doing that customers are getting attracted
to them and then change their strategies and make improvements according to that. There
are many competitors for McDonalds like Subway, KFC so they tracked their
competition very well and made improvements and is now the strongest fast food center. Work and brand values:- It is very much necessary that brand should be represented in
an efficient manner through various images, messages and they should communicate to
all consumers in an effective manner so that value of their brand increases. Mc Donalds
used many images to attract young children and implemented good brand value for them. New marketing tools:- In today's world trends and technologies change very fast so
marketers should focus on those trends and make strategies according to that and use new
marketing tools wherever it is necessary.
 Product management tools:- There are different softwares through which customer can
give feedback and marketers work according to that like Project tracking, Survey
Monkey, Canny and so on. In case of McDonalds they launched “ My Voice” app
through which customers were giving feedback and rate their experience. (Pappas, 2015 )
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational context. Marketing and finance:- The relationship between marketing and finance is important
for every business organization. As company spends their money to promote their
products but finance department saves their money for future benefits. Finance always
keeps you on budget as all marketers wants that designing and development of product
should be effectively done but is only possible when they have good money to invest in.
It is a responsibility for marketing department that they invest properly. So, here the
connection between both finance department and marketing department is necessary
because its finance department who tells marketers that where they should invest their
money and how much money they should invest while doing marketing. Finance
department always thinks on the analytical side as well as they take decisions by thinking
logically because there are times when marketers just think about promotion and not
about their investments. Marketing and Technology:- There is an impact of technology on marketing so their
relation is also very important for an organization. Technology has completely

transformed marketing by using digital ways and more personalised methods. In today's
world technology is necessary for marketers so that promotion can be done in a better
way. Around 4 billion consumers use Internet around the globe so through the use of
Internet marketing is done. There are millions of customers who are using smartphones
and watch videos, so marketers promote their products through use of digital
technologies. In case of McDonalds, they also used digital technologies by creating
advertisements and did entertaining things for consumers especially for kids and it was
all possible through relation between marketing and technology. ( Mariani, Borghi and
Okumus, 2020)
 Marketing and Human resource:- Relation between both marketing and human resource
is necessary because it helps to create a mutually beneficial relationship and through this
value of whole organization gets increased. There are different consumers and both
marketing and human resource department have same goals to target them. The
responsibility of marketers is to enhance their brand image, establishing relation with
consumers and attracting them towards their brand and responsibility of human resource
department is that all managemnet team is performing well for their company.
TASK 2
P3 Compare the ways in which different hospitality organizations apply the marketing mix to
marketing planning to achieve business objectives.
BASIS Marketing mix of McDonald's Marketing mix of McDonald's

Product McDonalds is a company which offers
variety of food products. The main
products which they offer are hamburgers,
chicken, shakes. They expanded their
business and achieve huge growth.
Mcdonalds was mainly famous for its
burger but they offered many products to
consumers. They were successful in
improving customer satisfaction, attracted
young generation, kids very well.
(Neuninger, 2017)
Kfc is one of the strongest fast food
centre and is a strong competitor for
McDonald's. They are most popular
for their burgers as well as chicken. In
1990, they expanded their business and
offered variety of products. It has
around 300 different menus and is
expanded across the world. They has
association with PepsiCo, so the
beverages which they offer are mostly
from Pepsi only.
Place It means the location where the company
is offering products to all consumers. Mc
donalds were distributing their products
across restaurants, McDonald mobile
apps, Postmates websites and Kiosks.
Most of the revenue was earned through
restaurants. In sports competitions, Kiosks
was probably used. In case of Mobile apps
for McDonalds consumers just find
location, place their orders and pay for
particular order.
Kfc is famous and most preferable
because they offer products at fair
prices. Their main target is people
belonging from upper middle class to
middle class. As they need to target
low income group also so they reduced
their prices. The products which they
were offering was individual also as
well as combos. (Okumus and Cetin,
2018)
Promotion It is very important for company to
promote their brand and target customers.
So, McDonald's used different things to
promote their brand like advertising,
public relation, sales promotions and
direct marketing. Advertising was the
most important thing which company used
as they were promoting their products
Kfc has their restaurants across the
world. They opened their first
restaurant in Utah but they also opened
international outlets. It has located
their restaurants in around 125
countries and has over 20500 outlets
and it shows that they are a strong
competitor for other fast food

through online media, television. They
also developed public relation which helps
them to increase their goodwill as Ronald
McDonald house charities were
supporting community through which
their value got increased and led to better
brand image. They also offer discounts
through which they do sales promotion
and attract consumers.
organizations. The deciding factors to
chose location was business climate,
cost, labour quality, infrastructure.
Price McDonald uses two strategies of pricing;
Bundle pricing strategy and Psychological
pricing strategy. According to bundle
pricing strategy, company offers those
products that offer discounts while in
Psychological pricing strategy, company
uses those prices that are affordable. Due
to these strategies consumers gets attract
towards their brand. (Mahadevan,2018)
Kfc has promoted their company
through various websites like Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube. They not not
used broadcast media but also print
media . They gave advertisements in
magazines which used to display about
their offers and prices. It was most
famous for their tagline “ Finger
Lickin Good” and everyone got
attracted by their tagline.
People They offered fast friendly service and
ensured customer satisfaction which
attracted all the people.
The main target of Kfc was to offer
high quality food product at fair price
so that all consumers can buy it. All
employees received trainig for
communication and customer service.
Physical
Evidence
Mc Donald's is famous for its cleanliness,
speed of their services, their location and
appearance which created good
impression.
Kfc products were free of hormones,
steroids and chicken item were without
food dyes and customers can meet the
cook.
Process They implemented effective and effcient
cooking equipments and allows people to
The website includes common
telephone number where they can

see the area where process is taking place. place order at the nearest location and
all offers are available to them.
TASK 3
P4 Produce a basic marketing plan for hospitality organization to meet marketing objectives.
Marketing plan:- refers to strategies that an organization makes for future. It includes
present marketing position , goals of the organization, overview when tasks will be achieved
according to strategies made , who is the target market and what customer wants from company.
It should be planned according to future goals of the organization. The below marketing plan is
considering Cheese melting icecream.
Company background:- McDonald's is an american fast food center which is the world largest
and strongest across world and is famous especially for their hamburgers. It started its restaurant
in 1948 by Maurice and Richard McDonald in california. It's headquarters are in Oak Brook,
Illinois. They bought their appliances for their restaurant from salesman Ray Kroc. Earlier they
were selling milk shakes but earned profit so Ray Kroc implemented an idea that they should sell
more food products at affordable prices. The chain expanded at domestic as well as international
level and were operating in around 35000 outlets in more than 100 countries. McDonalds
became the most famous fast food center especially for young generation. (Dixit, Lee, and Loo,
2019)
Swot Analysis:-
Strengths:-The company offered various
variety of products which atrracted many
consumers. So, they introduced a new product
that is cheese melting icecream. It became their
strength because main target was young
generation annd kids so by thinking about
them, they introduced this product which
attracted kids very much.
Weakness:- In today's world almost all the
people are health conscious so by introducing a
new cheese icecream product it was considered
as a weakness for them because many
customers were not prefering to eat that
icecream.
Opportunities:- The company was expanding
their brand at international level so it was
Threats:- There are many competitors of
McDonalds and as it introduced a new product

opportunity for them to promote their product
internationally also.
that was icecream so usually people don't
prefer to eat ice-cream at a complete different
restaurant that is famous for their burgers and
has just tried something new.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning:-
Segmentation:- It means to
divide the market into different
groups such that their needs
are similar. McDonald's used
geographic as well as
demographic segmentation.
Their main segments were
America, Europe, Asia and
canada. So, they divided their
product according to countries.
When they introduced cheese
melting icecream they targeted
India as here people mostly
like cheese related products.
They also did demographic
segmentation as they targeted
mainly kids and young
generation so they introduced
new product according to
them.
Targeting:- It means to select
those segments on which
company wants to focus
according to their future.
McDonald's targeted those
segments where they can
expand their growth. So,
through their new product they
mainly targeted kids and made
strategies according to that.
(Cheng and Chen, 2017)
Positioning:- It means
developing marketing
plansand achieve goals
according to that. McDonald's
created proper positioning and
through that they chose correct
price, promoted their products
very well. So, they promoted
their new product through
digital media.
Marketing Mix:- Product:- McDonald's is the largest fast food center. Earlier they used to sell cheese
burgers, hamburgers, chicken products and shakes. Then they introduced salads as well
as fish wraps and started selling it. They were selling their product worldwide.

McDonald's products are mostly prefered by kids so they also introduced new product
according to them. They introduced new food item as Cheese melting ice-cream. Due to
this new product kids got very attracted especially by its designing of product. Price:- McDonald's is famous for its pricing strategies as they were offering their
products at a affordable price and used to offer discounts, offers and also reduced tehior
prices by 25%. Their main competitors were Pizza hut, Dominos so they set prices
according to that. By introducing new product; cheese melting ice-cream, price of that
product was also low and affordable for everyone. To expand its growth they offered
coupons to all consumers. Place:- McDonald's has set up their restaurants worldwide. They provided different
facilities to consumers like indoor as well as outdoor seating and at the same time pick up
service was also available. So, while introducing new product they expanded it across all
locations so that each consumer can try it.
 Promotion:- The company promoted its product mainly through adevrtising and digital
media. So, they advertised their new product also by giving advertisements on television
which showed them positive impact.
Monitoring and Controlling techniques:-
McDonald's used various monitoring and controlling techniques for their products.
Before introducing new product, they made a marketing plan and strategies that through
initiating new product they should get a better output and should earn profits as compared to the
profits they are earning from other products. When they introduced cheese melting ice-cream,
they expanded it to all locations and all consumers tried that food item so their got a good output
from consumers and earn profits at earler stage only. Mc Donald's use benchmarking technique
for controlling so they discovered strategies that their competitors were using and made
marketing plan according to that. So, while introducing new product they first discovered
competitor strategy and then designed their food product. (Beck, 2017)
CONCLUSION
According to the above report it is concluded that, in a hospitality industry it is very
important to meet consumer needs and wants. An organization can only be successful if their
expectations are fulfilled. When marketing is done by organization is is necessary that they
establish a effective relation with finance, technology as well as human resource department. So,

hospitality industry should also focus on thrir marketing mix so that they can expand tehir
business and become successful.
REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Baker, M.A. and Magnini, V.P., 2016. The evolution of services marketing, hospitality marketing
and building the constituency model for hospitality marketing.International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Beck, J.A., 2017. Selling in the hospitality industry. Routledge Handbook of Hospitality
Marketing, pp.160-167.
Bojanic, D.C. and Reid, R.D., 2017. Hospitality marketing management. Wiley.
Chandiok, S. and Sharma, P., 2017. Hospitality Marketing: Strategic Issues. In Strategic
Marketing Management and Tactics in the Service Industry (pp. 213-242). IGI Global.
Cheng, J.C. and Chen, C.Y., 2017. Job resourcefulness, work engagement and prosocial service
behaviors in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management.
Cooper, C., 2020. Essentials of tourism. SAGE.
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accommodation sharing economy. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management,
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Marketing, pp.54-65.
Okumus, B. and Cetin, G., 2018. Marketing Istanbul as a culinary destination. Journal of
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Pappas, N., 2015. Marketing hospitality industry in an era of crisis. Tourism Planning &
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Pike, S., 2015. Destination marketing: essentials. Routledge.
YRAR, I., HOSPITALITY & TOURISM MARKETING LTPC. Shri Ramasamy Memorial
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