Strategic Marketing Plan for Marriott Residence Inn: Detailed Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive marketing plan for Marriott Residence Inn, beginning with a detailed situation analysis that examines demographic trends, psychographics, geographic emphasis, seasonality, and product evaluation. It delves into the demographic segmentation of Residence Inn's markets, focusing on countries with high populations and rising living standards, particularly Singapore. The analysis covers occupation, marital status, ethnic background, education, age, income, and families, highlighting the importance of middle and upper-class customers. The report also assesses the competitive landscape, marketing strengths and weaknesses of competitors, and their advertising strategies. Furthermore, it outlines marketing objectives, strategies, advertising creative, media plans, sales promotions, direct marketing, and interactive/social media recommendations, concluding with budget allocations and campaign evaluation methodologies. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Running head: MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
Marketing of Marriott Residence Inn
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
Table of Contents
I. Executive Summary:....................................................................................................................8
II. Situation analysis:...................................................................................................................8
A. Current:...................................................................................................................................8
1. Demographic:..........................................................................................................................8
a. Occupation:............................................................................................................................10
b. Marital status:....................................................................................................................12
c. Ethnic Background:...........................................................................................................12
d. Education:..........................................................................................................................13
e. Age:....................................................................................................................................14
f. Income:...............................................................................................................................14
g. Children:............................................................................................................................16
2. Psychographics/Lifestyle:......................................................................................................16
a. VAL category or Family life cycle segment:.....................................................................19
3. Current User Profile document:.............................................................................................19
a. Consumption facts:............................................................................................................19
Influences:..............................................................................................................................19
Where Consumed:.................................................................................................................19
How Consumed:....................................................................................................................19
Frequency of use:...................................................................................................................20

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
Quantity used:........................................................................................................................20
b. Attitudes about:..................................................................................................................20
Quality:..................................................................................................................................20
Price:......................................................................................................................................21
Packaging:..............................................................................................................................21
Style:......................................................................................................................................21
Brand reputation:...................................................................................................................22
c. Consumer buying habits:...................................................................................................22
d. Consumer awareness of the brand (percentage):...............................................................22
e. Attitudes toward current advertising-perceptions, believability:.......................................22
f. What problems does the product solve for the consumers?...............................................22
Is the consumer aware of these benefits?..............................................................................23
g. Are consumers brand loyal or switchers?..........................................................................23
B. Geographic Emphasis:..........................................................................................................23
C. Seasonality:...........................................................................................................................23
D. Product Evaluation:...............................................................................................................24
1. Product history:......................................................................................................................24
2. Sales history:..........................................................................................................................24
3. Pricing:...................................................................................................................................24
4. Distribution:..........................................................................................................................24

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
a. Current distribution channels:............................................................................................24
b. Distribution geography:.....................................................................................................24
c. Average retail shelf facings:..............................................................................................25
d. Where is the product located/positioned in stores?...........................................................25
e. Do distributors like the product? The company?...............................................................25
f. Do they gladly allow the space for displays?.....................................................................25
g. Is there an out-of-stock problem for retailers?..................................................................25
h. Does the brand use ‘push’ or ‘pull’ sales promotion?.......................................................26
5. Current product brand character............................................................................................26
a. Is current pricing acceptable to consumers?......................................................................26
b. Product ingredients? Quality? Construction?....................................................................26
c. Is packaging functional and convenient?...........................................................................26
d. How does product performance compare with competitors?............................................26
e. What consumer problems does the product solve?............................................................26
f. What is the overwhelming consumer benefit?...................................................................26
E. Creative Requirement (if any)...............................................................................................27
F. The Competition:...................................................................................................................27
1. Marketing Strengths and Weaknesses:..................................................................................27
a. Number and type of competitors:......................................................................................27
b. Major competitors’ market shares:....................................................................................27

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
c. Minor competitors’ market shares:....................................................................................27
d. Distribution, geography:....................................................................................................28
e. Retail shelf facing:.............................................................................................................28
f. Location of products in stores:...........................................................................................28
g. Distribution attitudes towards competitor:........................................................................28
h. Do competitors use ‘push’ and ‘pull’ sales promotion?....................................................28
2. Competitive Product Brand Character:..................................................................................28
a. Pricing policies:.................................................................................................................28
b. Product ingredients? Quality? Construction?....................................................................29
c. Packaging comparisons:.....................................................................................................29
3. Competitive advertising:........................................................................................................29
a. History (media used, creative themes, slogans, including examples):..............................29
b. Past advertising budgets (5 years, if possible)...................................................................29
c. Brand awareness for competition. Do consumers recognize the competition’s advertising
more than their own?.............................................................................................................30
d. Any weakness in the competition’s advertising?...............................................................30
III. Research:..................................................................................................................................30
A. Objectives:............................................................................................................................30
B. Strategies:..............................................................................................................................30
C. Methodology:........................................................................................................................30

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D. Summary of Findings:..........................................................................................................31
IV. Problems and Opportunities:...................................................................................................31
V. Marketing Objectives:...............................................................................................................31
A. Current sales vs sales goals:..................................................................................................31
B. Current market share vs market share goal for next fiscal year:...........................................31
C. Current market penetration (percentage of all distributors carrying the products) vs
Penetration goal for the next fiscal year:...................................................................................32
VI. Marketing strategies:...............................................................................................................32
VII. Advertising creative:..............................................................................................................32
A. Creative strategy document (ROI):.......................................................................................32
B. Strategy- The Big Idea:.........................................................................................................32
C. Support for The Big Idea:.....................................................................................................33
D. Tone of Creative:..................................................................................................................33
E. Tactics-Samples/Mock-ups of Creative Executions:............................................................33
VIII. Advertising media:................................................................................................................33
A. Objectives:............................................................................................................................33
1. Target audience:.................................................................................................................33
2. Geography:........................................................................................................................33
3. Seasonality:........................................................................................................................33
4. Continuity. flighting etc.....................................................................................................33

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5. Creative consideration:......................................................................................................33
6. Reach vs Frequency:..........................................................................................................33
B. Strategies:..............................................................................................................................34
C. Tactics:..................................................................................................................................34
1. Media Mix or not:..............................................................................................................34
2. Media Types:.....................................................................................................................34
3. Media Formats, Classes, Channels, Sections, Sizes, Colours:..........................................34
4. Geographic Use of Media:.................................................................................................34
5. Seasonal Use:.....................................................................................................................34
6. Flighting vs Continuity:.....................................................................................................35
IX. Sales Promotion:......................................................................................................................35
A. Objectives:............................................................................................................................35
B. Strategies:..............................................................................................................................35
C. Tactics:..................................................................................................................................35
X. Direct marketing Recommendations:.......................................................................................35
A. Objectives:............................................................................................................................36
B. Strategies:..............................................................................................................................36
C. Tactics:..................................................................................................................................36
XI. Interactive & Social Media Recommendations:......................................................................36
A. Objectives:............................................................................................................................36

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
B. Strategies:..............................................................................................................................36
XII. Flowcharts and schedules:......................................................................................................36
XIII. Budget:..................................................................................................................................36
XIV. Campaign evaluation:...........................................................................................................36
A. Objectives:............................................................................................................................37
B. Strategies:..............................................................................................................................37
C. Methodology:........................................................................................................................37
References:....................................................................................................................................38

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
I. Executive Summary:
II. Situation analysis:
The situation analysis of would take into account the marketing environment of
Residence Inn which is a subsidiary to M/s Marriott International. The market considered for
the analysis would be global since Marriot International is a multinational hospitality company
and operates in more than a hundred countries (Residenceinn.marriott.com. 2018). The analysis
would then be narrowed down to Singapore, the target market and country under consideration.
A. Current:
1. Demographic:
A demographic customer segmentation of the markets of Residence Inn, the bungalow
style accommodation which Marriott International offers shows that major markets consist of
countries with high population. This is because higher population also means that the
multinational hotel chains are able to get access to larger number of consumers.

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
Figure 1.Table showing population of Singapore
(Strategygroup.gov.sg. 2018)
Figure 2.Proportion of Singles among Resident Population by Selected Age Group,

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
(Source: Singstat.gov.sg. 2018)
The first figure above shows that the population of citizens in Singapore has grown to
3471900 as on June 2018 from 3439200 as on June 2017. The population of permanent residents
and resident population have also increased in 2018 compared to 2017. The second figure shows
that on average the number of people with higher educational qualification has also increased
among both male and female of 30 to 39 year band as well as 40 to 49 years band. Kim and
Sakamoto (2017) mention that higher qualification is directly related to opportunities of getting
employed at higher posts with better salaries. Thus, it can be inferred in the light of the third
figure that more highly educated people in Singapore means that more people would earn higher
salaries. Lindeman (2015) strengthens the opinion by mentioning that higher salaries means
more disposable income among consumers. This means that more number of consumers would
be able to afford the premium accommodation facilities of Residence Inn, which is a premium
flagship product by Marriott International. Thus, it can inferred from the discussion that the
current demographic segmentation of the market of Marriott International consist of countries
like Singapore which have increasing population along with increasing living standards. This
gives the multinational accommodation owned by Marriott generate immense revenue.
a. Occupation:
The occupation of the customer segments of Residence Inn consist of customers
employed with companies at high levels. This is evident from two aspects which are clearly
mentioned from the official website of the accommodation chain. The chain has as many as 97
and 52 branches in countries like the United Kingdom and France. This is because these
countries are experiencing not only high population but also an increase in the population of
customers with highly paid occupations. These highly paid occupation attribute the customers

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MARKETING OF MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN
with higher disposable incomes which make it feasible for them to avail premium
accommodation facilities like Residence Inn. It can also pointed out that, on the contrary, the
multinational bungalow style chain has very few branches in the African markets with average
number of branches coming to 8 approximately whereas the premium accommodation chain has
5037 branches in the US alone. This low number of branches in Africa compared other markets
can be attributed to the smaller consumer population with highly paying income. Thus, it can be
inferred that the Residence Inn targets markets like the US having higher population of high
income consumers.
Country No of locations
Algeria 9
Djibouti 1
Egypt 19
Ethiopia 2
Ghana 2
Guinea 1
Kenya 3
Libya 3
Malawi 1
Morocco 5
Namibia 6
Nigeria 8
Rwanda 1
Seychelles 1
South Africa 63
Tunisia 1
Uganda 4
Zambia 8
Total 138
Average 7.67
Figure 3. Table showing average number of branches of Residence Inn in Africa
(Source: Residenceinn.marriott.com. 2018)