Market Segmentation and Customer Engagement Research Report: Novotel

This management research report examines market segmentation and customer engagement strategies within the context of the Novotel Wollongong North-Beach Hotel. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction, outlining the background of the hotel, its parent company Accor Hotel Group, and the identified research problem of market segmentation. A comprehensive literature review explores existing research on customer engagement, social media, and market segmentation within the hospitality industry, drawing on various academic sources. The methodology section details the research approach, including problem definition, research questions, and limitations. The analysis and interpretation chapter presents findings and discusses the application of suitable frameworks. The conclusion summarizes the key outcomes, offers managerial recommendations, and suggests areas for future research. The report aims to provide insights into improving customer engagement and refining market segmentation strategies for the Novotel Wollongong.

Running head - MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
Management Research
Name of the student
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Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Chapter I: Introduction...............................................................................................................3
Chapter II: Literature Review....................................................................................................4
Chapter III: Research Methodology...........................................................................................8
Statement of Problem.............................................................................................................8
Research questions.................................................................................................................8
Problem Definition.................................................................................................................9
Design and plan......................................................................................................................9
Limitation.............................................................................................................................10
Chapter IV: Research Analysis and Interpretation...................................................................10
Chapter V: Conclusion.............................................................................................................14
Outcome and Managerial Recommendation........................................................................14
Conclusion and learning.......................................................................................................14
Future Scope.........................................................................................................................14
References................................................................................................................................15

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Executive Summary
The following research would be helping in making research based on the proposal
that would be helping in solving all the issues that have been identified in the proposal. The
organization Novotel Wollongong North-Beach Hotel have been in the serving business more
than 100 years. The organization is currently run by Accor Hotel Group. The group have
been in the industry of hospitality and services for a long run of 50 years. The group is
constantly expanding and creating new hotel for providing utmost services to their customers.
The division of these potential customers is done on the basis of different characteristic that is
exhibited by the customers. Segments are created as per the requirement of the buyers or
accordingly to the need of the customers. The research would be ending with the feasible
outcomes of the research and providing future scopes.

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Chapter I: Introduction
In the previous research proposal, an idea was proposed for conducting a research
about the market segmentation and the identifying the potential customers that would be
helpful for the developing the market (University of Sydney 2016). A particular organization
named Novotel Wollongong North-Beach Hotel was taken into account for studying the
market. The market would be ideally be considered to be prosperous with many kind and
variety of customers. The market have been filled with organizations that deals with various
kind of hotels that particularly serve at the northern side of the beach at Wollongong,
Australia (Flannery et al. 2017).
The organization Novotel Wollongong North-Beach Hotel have been in the serving
business more than 100 years. The organization is currently run by Accor Hotel Group. The
group have been in the industry of hospitality and services for a long run of 50 years. The
group is constantly expanding and creating new hotel for providing utmost services to their
customers (Sen and Kaushik 2016). They are mostly recognized for their quality services and
also creating new opportunities for maximizing their business of hospitality. At the site of
Wollongong North-Beach, many organization have been standing for a long time.
The research problem that have been identified in the previous research proposal
states that market segmentation have been one of the most prominent problem that have
immerged in managing sales and also marketing. There are also have been another issue that
is needed to be solved is the engagement of the customers. The solo purpose of the research is
to understand the various concepts of market segmentation and the impact of market
segmentation upon the choses industry for conducting the research.

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The following assignment would be discussing about the literature review, the
methodology that would be used in the research, analysis of the results and discussion of the
results and along with recommendation.
Chapter II: Literature Review
In this chapter, the researcher would be emphasizing on the various problems that
have been identified in the proposal, that have been effecting the organization. As identified
from the problems that is pointed out at the research proposal, it could be said that customer
engagement have been one of the most important aspect that is needed at any kind of market
(Hatheway, Kwan and Zheng 2017). The engagement of customers is considered to be a
significant part of managing any kind of business. Other factors like, market segmentation
and engagement of social media have also created many issues at the marketing and the
service provided by in the hospitality industry. In essence to that, for finding prominent
evidences regarding to the research topic, the researcher have been implying theories and
models in order to that. The aim of the researcher would be conducting the research
successfully with the help of gathering knowledge regarding the how to solve the problems
that have been identified in the research proposal sufficiently. Thus, this chapter would be
helping in developing a better knowledge about the research topic and also enhancing the
knowledge by creating many possibilities by learning from all the previous reviews and
research works. The chapter would be discussing about the critical analysis that would be
conducted by the researcher for finding ways in solving the problems that have been
identified at the research proposal. In order to that, the researcher would be analyzing all the
considerate opinions and perspectives of various authors that have provided their work in the
field of hospitality management and service industry. From the works of the other authors,
the researcher would be measuring the efficiency of the models and the theories that would

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be used in order to analyze the problems and the possible research questions that have been
identified earlier.
From previous studies and researches, it could be analysed that market segmentation
could be implied by the Novotel Hotel. The segmentation would be helping the organization
in gathering and attracting more customers (Alt and Iversen 2017). It would be helpful for the
hotel in making more assumption about their customer satisfaction by providing eminent
services for their customers. As for the magnificent view of the beach from the hotel, there
would be more customers getting attracted to the hotel after the implication of the market
segmentation. Thus, it would be more helpful for the organization for attracting more
customers with the help of the market segmentation. According to Ernst and Dolnicar (2018),
the main purpose of the organization would be targeting the desired customer for making the
considerate amount of tourists for their sales. Thus, it would be more convenient for Novotel
in developing better marketing plan and strategies.
The term customer engagement is somewhat similar for defining the correspondence
that develops regarding the communication, product or the service that is provided by the
organization. It might also be one of the most deliberate dissemination that have been
originating from any form of business to customer interaction which would be resonating in a
level of subconscious mind.
The practice of marketing is said to be aiming for creating a behaviour that would be
stimulating or influencing the customers. As discussed by Hollebeek, Conduit and Brodie
(2016), this would help in placing a conversation that would be more in the context of
strategic management for the organization to have a quantitative analysis of the business
processes. This would also be premised upon the understanding of the focus on particularly
maximizing the conversions of some circumstances which is likely to be decreased for

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repeating the conversions. However, it is seen that customers are said to be in advocacy
which has always been a primary goal for the marketers. The rise of online user have been
generating the content that has directly been in the influence of the levels of advocacy
(Harmeling et al. 2017). The engagement of the targets with long term interactions will be
encouraging the customers for keeping their loyalty and advocacy. Meanwhile, the
engagement of the customers have been consistence in both the form of online and offline as
for in terms of marketing and getting service that is provided by the organizations. They
would be in the form of marketing and hospitality services which is either helpful for the
organization or would be in vain.
In the resent development of the internet, there have been many upgrades regarding
the service that is provided by the organizations that are a part of the hospitality management.
There have been many consistent plans made by Novotel for developing their skills in the
field of engaging and interacting with the customers. According to Kandampully, Zhang and
Bilgihan (2015), due to the rise of social media, most of engagement have been redirected via
the internet. There have been online platforms that have helped many organizations for by
interacting with the customers on online basis. It have been seen that the purpose of offline
engagement with customers have been predating online, it have always been seen that the
latter have a progressive qualitative different social phenomenon where, unlike all the
customers engagement in offline have developed theoretical frameworks which would be
easy for the organizations to recognize. The practice of online customer engagement have
been enabling Novotel for responding to all the fundamental changes in the customer
behaviour that the platform have brought about to them (Pansari and Kumar 2017). The
fundamental changes in the behaviour of the customers would be bringing the points which
would be helpful for understanding all the constraints that is needed for better understanding.
The engagement of customers have been put forward in such a manner of view that it created

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an impression which could be shared by many others. It have developed many ways of
analytic and insight process which clearly states that the engagement of the customers could
be measured on a different kind of level where the information would allowing the
organization in recording all the processes and the results of customer engagement.
The particular industry that have been taken into account for assessing in the research
of topic is the hospitality and service industry. According to Jones, Hillier and Comfort
(2016), the industry of hospitality have been classified as a broad category of fields within
which there have been many categories like services which significantly states all the
possible services like food service, lodging, and drink services. There have been other
services in the industry like event planning, theme parks and transportation. The industry
have been depending upon the availability and the leisure time of the disposable income. In
essence to the, authors Pirani and Arafat (2016), the unit of hospitality would be categorised
as any hotels and restaurants which has many services like multiple facilities for maintenance
and direct operations.
The industry have been in the field of business regardless of all the various kind of
relies of heavy excellent level of service in the field. There have been many customers that
have been visiting the business for a get-away of their troubles. According to Bharwani and
Jauhari (2017), the industry have to keep up to date of all the various kind of services that is
produced by the organization. It would be more prominent to be clear that as customers rely
upon the industry for keeping a good matter of interest of all the people that rely on them for
their comfort. Brand loyalty sis one of the important factor that is needed to be kept in mind
by all the companies that share their interest in the industry of hospitality management. The
companies have to keep in mind that they needed to provide a quality of service that would
be helping them in maintaining their brand and name of the organization that would be

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helping them in keeping all the necessary accessories which would eventually create loyalty
among all the customers they serve.
With the broad industry, it would not be easy to incorporate many different kind of
businesses. There always would be some of the defining elements which would set the people
apart from many similar kind of businesses. There would not only incorporate of the
companies which is eventually be focusing in the services and luxury, hence forgetting the
major aspects of the constraints (Bharwani and Jauhari 2017). They would be depending on
the disposable income and would also be giving their customers actually what they have been
wanting. The broad industry of hospitality management have been ensuring that there should
be more customers that they could serve so that organizations like Novotel would be
managing the essential needs for ensuring the brand loyalty and customers loyalty. Thus
following research would be necessary for incorporating all the necessary trends and points.
Chapter III: Research Methodology
Research methodology is considered one of the most important chapter in any
research. It would be helping in depicting the various methods that would be applied at the
research, including theoretical analysis.
Statement of Problem
The research problem would be identifying various kind of trends that have been
effecting the hospitality and service industry and it would also be analysing other issues like
business model being used by the organization and strategic advantages.
Research questions
The following are the research questions which would be analysed as answered:

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RQ1. What would be the contemporary marketing trends which are prevailing in the
hospitality industry?
RQ2. In the competitive market of the industry, where does Novotel stands?
RQ3. Strategies taken in account by Novotel for differentiating itself from the competitive
market.
RQ4. Business model that is sued by Accor group and how does Novotel Wollongong fit in
that model.
RQ5. Strategic advantages if the business.
Problem Definition
According to Oulasvirta and Hornbæk (2016), the segmentation process would also
help in reducing any particular kind of risks that could rise any matter of unsuccessful or any
kind of ineffective campaign of marketing. While dividing the market into various other kind
of segments, the division of market is generally done by the marketers by dividing the market
based on the various key characteristics and also would be personalizing all of their strategies
that are particularly based on the information that they are gathered by the marketers. In
doing so, it would be higher chances for the organization in gathering success than my
creating a generic kind of campaign and it would try to implement it across all the various
segments. Engagement of the customers is said to be one of the most prominent and most
demonstrated part of any business management. The process is classified as the business
communication also sometimes. This kind of channel of communication is said to be a set of
channel or a system that is eventually made for developing a connection in between all the
feasible stakeholders, who are involved in the matters of the organization and the external
affairs too. According to Harrigan et al. (2017), the communication for the orientation is
based on the many channels and that of many correspondences. Therefore, the connection

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that have been identified in terms of a relation could be represented as an interaction or as an
after effects of what the customers are experiencing. This matter is quantified as both offline
and online.
Design and plan
The design of the research that would be using in the study by the researcher would be
completely descriptive in nature. According to Creswell and Poth (2017), the nature of
descriptive research design would be emphasizing in the process of describing the
characteristic of the population through the collection of data. For the dual characteristic of
the nature of descriptive research design, it would be helpful for most of the widely used
research design.
In this current research of design, it would be more precise for using the descriptive as
it would be providing the opportunity for the researcher for clarifying the research topic in a
clear way. The use of this particular kind of design would also be allowing the researcher for
developing a deep understanding if the cause and the effect of the specific research topic and
also predicting the future occurrences.
The nature of the data collection would be secondary. After quantifying all the
problem that have been identified in the research proposal, the data collection that is to being
selected in the research will be secondary (Bharwani and Jauhari 2017). All the relevant data
would be collected from various kind of scholarly papers, articles, and existing research that
were made on the organization. Thus, in the research, it would be descriptive in nature.
Limitation
Research limitation like formulation of research aim and objectives, implementations
of data collection method and lack of evidences to previous studies of the research topic have
been considered while completing the research because secondary data have been used in the

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research instead of primary data. Another limitation which is needed to be considered in the
research states that scope of the research is limited to only Australian market, thus
investigation have been concentrated on a particular domain.
Chapter IV: Research Analysis and Interpretation
As per the research problems that have been discussed earlier, the mode of finding
those research problem would be secondary in nature (Lim 2016). With the analysis of many
kind of scholarly article and peer reviewed research done earlier upon Novotel, it could be
said that there are some contemporary hospitality trend that have been effecting the industry
from gaining maximum efficiency. According to Ali (2016), one of the most common trend
that is faced by most of the organization serving in the industry is faced while catering and
serving to millennial. Millennial are classified to be the customers from the age group of 18
to 25. As discussed by Pirani and Arafat (2016), it could be said that organization need to
change their strategies and qualities as based on the demographics. From the trends, it could
be stated that most of the clients in future would be consisting of millennial so Novotel would
be needing to change their strategic approach based on the traits and habits of their customers
(Bharwani and Jauhari 2017). As these customers, that is the millennial, travels a lot, it would
be wise for Novotel to catch up with the pace as per their clients.