Premier Inn: Evaluating Branding, Positioning, and Marketing Mix

This report provides an analysis of Premier Inn's marketing strategy, focusing on its branding, positioning, and marketing mix. It begins with an overview of the company, highlighting its establishment in 1987 and its aim to provide quality, affordable hospitality services. The report examines Premier Inn's branding strategy, emphasizing the 'Three Ps' (positioning, promise, and performance) and the use of the STP model to target businesses, travelers, and families. It evaluates the company's marketing mix, detailing the 7Ps (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence), and offers recommendations for improvement, including leveraging technology for new marketing strategies. The analysis covers Premier Inn's product offerings, pricing policies, distribution channels, promotional activities, people management, business processes, and physical evidence. The report concludes by suggesting ways for Premier Inn to enhance its marketing efforts, ensuring continued growth and customer satisfaction.

Marketing Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of company............................................................................................................3
Analyse their branding strategy, providing an insight into how they are positioning themselves
in the market space.................................................................................................................3
Based on their branding approaches and positioning, examine their current marketing mix,
focusing in 4Ps and 7Ps..........................................................................................................3
Provide recommendations on how a chosen organisation can improve its marketing strategy.
Consider using technology as a fundamental tool in approach to creation of new marketing
strategies. Recommendations with justification.....................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................4
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Marketing has been determined as a activities which an organisation undertakes to
promote the selling and buying of good and service. It includes advertising, offering, selling as
well as delivering products to other business and consumers. The aim of marketing to deliver
value for consumer and prospects through effective content, with long term objectives of
presenting product and services value, increasing sales or revenue addition to strengthening
brand image or loyalty (Ayele and Barabadi, 2018). The role of marketing is to identifies the
products as well as services to focusing on whole course of sales cycle addition to then develops
communications and materials which get the word out. Management refers to the administration
and coordination of tasks to meet a goal. Administration activities consist making the effective
Business's strategy along with coordination the employees efforts to achieve the goals by the
implementation of available resources. Management has five functions such as planning,
organising, arranging, directing or coordinating. Marketing management has been termed as
organisational discipline that focuses on practical implementation of marketing techniques,
orientation along with methods within an firm as well as on the management of an organisation's
marketing activities and resources. To define the concept of marketing management the selected
organisation is Premier Inn which is British hospitality company. It was established in 1987 by
Whitbread at UK and its many city to provide hospitality services at large scale to the people or
tourist.
This project covers Analysis of branding strategy, providing an insight into how they are
positioning themselves in the market space. Further, it highlights Based on their branding
approaches and positioning, examine their current marketing mix, focusing in 4Ps and 7Ps. At
last covers recommendations on how a chosen organisation can improve its marketing strategy.
MAIN BODY
Overview of company
The selected company is Premier Inn which is a most popular hotel chain in UK as well
as it provides premium hospitality services to people across the world. It was founded in 1987 by
Owner of Whitbread to provide best quality hospitality services to target segment. The aim of the
company is to offer quality, affordable hotels or services to their clients to help them to increase

their experience and meet their requirements. There are around 50,000 rooms across their 700
hotels as well as more than 20,000 employees are work in these hotels to provide best quality
services to increase the brand value of company (Balducci and Marinova, 2018). Premier Inn
used all the approaches and channels to make their brand strong and increase their value in
market.
Analyse their branding strategy, providing an insight into how they are positioning themselves in
the market space.
Branding strategy has been termed as strategy of a company for the development of their
brand as well as it is a long term plan to meet a multiple goals which results in identification
addition to preference of a brand by customers. When a organisation start formulating,
developing as well as improving their brand strategy by considering three key elements of brand
such as positioning, promise and performance (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). All these
elements are known as Three Ps of brand. A success of a brands depends on how management of
a company formulate, planned as well as executed these elements to increase customer
experience. An effective brand strategy allows a company to cultivate a leading brand. It sets a
standard and benchmark to evaluate progress to find out that there brand is on right path as well
as not. Brand positioning has been determined as a procedure of positioning the brand of
Premier Inn in mind of their targeted customers.
It refers to the effective branding strategy of Premier Inn to make their services, logo
and brand and business different from others (Gilmore and Carson, 2018). To make effective
branding strategy the professional of Premier Inn conduct deep research about market condition,
customer preference, demands, trends and issues in order to set their target segment. For this they
use STP model which stand for segmentation, targeting and positioning to make effective
strategy to attract large number of customers and increase their brand value in global market. The
target segment of Premier Inn are businesses, visitors, travellers and families which are looking
for affordable accommodation for their meeting, enjoyment and trip. Along with that they are
targeting those people who are backpackers, travellers and business men who visit the country
for holidays, business your and personal purpose. For positioning their brand the professionals of
company provide best quality room services, using new technology in their marketing and

operations to increase the value for customers (What makes Premier Inn the world’s strongest
hotel chain, 2022).
The brand position of premier is based on simple or effective premise along with they
promises their clients a good night's sleep. If anyone faced problems and not experiencing this so
they will get their amount of money back with future offers also. It provide competitive
advantage to company in dynamic hospitality market as no other organisation has offer this type
of promise to their guests (Grewal, 2018). They promised and gave guarantee to their clients to
great night's sleep with better quality room services so they spend their nights with comfort so
they feel like home as they are away from home. The company follows vertically integrated
model that consolidates places, functions of hotel, brand as well as inventory dispersion which
enable them to develop effectively and efficiently along with increase brand image in all over the
world. The company use various marketing communication channels such as direct marketing,
advertising and social media marketing to spread awareness about their brand in whole world to
gain leading position in market.
Based on their branding approaches and positioning, examine their current marketing mix,
focusing in 4Ps and 7Ps.
Marketing mix has been termed as the set of marketing tools to make effective marketing
strategy to meet the goals of company. Marketing mix includes various elements which is
commonly known as 7Ps such as price, product, place, promotion, people, process along with
physical evidence (Hua, 2019). It helps the management of Premier in to make marketing plan to
promote their brand among large number of people in target market. On the basis of positioning
of Premier Inn they used this tool to make their services, brand different from other business to
increase their customer base and profitability. It includes pricing policy, products, services,
location, promotional techniques, number of employees, business process and physical evidence
of company which increases their brand image and value in market. The 7ps of marketing mix in
context to Premier Inn are as follows-
Product- It is related with product, quality of services, design, and many other aspects
which a company offer to customers to meet the requirement and demand. In premier Inn they
provide hospitality services which includes various items such as premium size bed with
comfortable matrix, offers various types of room as per clients demands such as large room for
family which consist two single bed for children, sofa bed near window and king size bed for

couple (Hüttner, 2018). Along with several hotels have interlinked rooms for family members so
parents keep their eye on activities of their kids. Hotels rooms are classified as double, single
along with accessible which is specially designed for disable people and wheelchair access. They
also provide various other room facilities to their clients such as free WIFI 24 hours, TV, hair-
dryer, coffee and tea making machines to increase customer experience. More over in Premier
Inn hotels have restaurant, bars, dinning area so the clients do not have to search or go for foods
and beverages (Jalalova, 2021). Also they have strict cleaning program on daily basis to make
sure the well being and safety of clients as well as they also give focus to make sustainability in
their operation. It has been seen that some guest are satisfied and some are not satisfied with the
services and room facilities of brand.
Price- It is concerned with price, offers, discounts, reward strategy of an organisation
which they offer to their potential clients for the achievement of company goals. Premier Inn has
multiple pricing strategy such as Non Flex rates, advance standard, semi flex and flex in order to
provide various option to customers so they can chose as per their needs (Misztal, 2019). Flex
refers to the flexibility in their pricing policy which allow clients to set their package according
to it. Moreover, Premier Inn has a effective pricing strategy intending to offer the customers with
standard value of their given money. Along with management also follows a price discrimination
policy with their lowest rooms rates being rarely for hotel rooms on weekend nights. It has been
determined that some customers complain that Premier Inn fails sometimes to keep up with their
reasonable pricing promise as people faced various problem to book a room for affordable price
due to less availability of promotional rooms (Lim, 2020).
Place- It is related with location, approaches, platforms, place and boundaries of an
organisation. It has been determined as Premier Inn has more than 700 hotels in UK along with
50,000 rooms to provide hospitality services to maximum number of clients. Also they operates
their business in almost all cities and states of UK to increase their market value and brand image
such as Germany, Qatar, UAE, London and many other (Mizik and Hanssens, 2018). Also they
provide online booking and payment facilities to customers so they can book their rooms in
advance in order to enjoy their vacations. Such as they also collaborate with other online booking
websites such as Last-minute.com, Booking.com and many other. Such as customers can book
their tables, rooms from their phone by login these website. It has been determined that

sometimes they forgot to update their website, room allotments and booking which create
confusion among customers (Nogueira and Luís, 2022).
Promotion- It is most important element of marketing Mix which is related to the
advertising, marketing of product and services in target market to attract large number of
customers. Promotion play most important role to increase the brand image in the eye of targeted
customers. Premier Inn invests huge amount of money on promotion and advertising in many
platforms like Radio, outdoor by putting holdings on main market, posters, pamphlets, digital
and social media (Park, 2020). The main aim of company to invest huge amount on marketing
by putting main focus on increasing their digital reach. Most of the people and clients follow the
Facebook page of Premier Inn. Moreover, It has more than 20 thousands people are the followers
on Instagram account of company. It represent that Premier Inn require to increase their digital
presence on various popular social media platforms. However, company are engaged in
traditional methods to promote their product and services to target targeted segment. Such as
they also use direct marketing by sending mails, letters about their offers, discounts and package
to their regular clients in order to spread more awareness about their brand in market and
hospitality industry (Parsons and Lepkowska-White, 2018).
People- It is another element of marketing mix which is concerned with employees, staff
member, workers and other people working along with their action and behaviour with in an
organisation. It show how well skilled, trained and coordinated the employees which gave their
best efforts to provide quality services to increase the customer experiencing for the achievement
of company goals (Rust, 2020). In Premier Inn there are around 50,000 employees in all hotels
which works for increasing the brand value and market share of organisation. They serve their
services over millions customers each month. Premier Inn provides many work placements and
apprenticeships for youth each year that shows it contribution to corporate social responsibility.
Also many customers said that they are treated well while they visit the hotel such as employees
and manager greet them with friendly and most gently. It has been seen that many employees
arranged protests against the company to increase their salary and wages as well as demanding to
be salaried the living wage (Samoggia, Bertazzoli and Ruggeri, 2019). It has been also
determined that almost more than 50% employees are salaried the minimum wage. Staff
members are most valuable resources in hospitality industry so the top management of Premier
Inn must take it seriously in order to avoid future disruptions and protests.

Procedures- It includes business and buying process of an organisation such as Premier
Inn implement online process of booking and payments which allow their customers to book
room online by any website. As they make very easy of their customers to book a room as per
their choice within their budget. Clients can browse the app, website of hotel as well as search
hotel which is nearby them. Once they found right room then they click on Book now in order to
continue or give Premier Inn with needed information. As customer booked the room then the
hotel give all detail to them regarding their check in(Sharma, 2020). Along with that If the
customers want to book more than 10 rooms or halls for their personal occasion then they have
to direct contact with management by mail or phone for advance booking. The entire booking
process can place online which helps customers to save their time and cost.
Physical evidence- This element is related to the physics, logo, outlook, display and other things
of company which drive the attention of public towards them. In Premier Inn there are toasty
duvets, king size comfortable beds, attractive logo, soft pillow, adjustable dinning chairs, large
desk or table, large size room with proper ventilation and many other physical objects. All these
makes Premier inn more attractive and strong brand. Moreover they works by keeping in their
mind about hygiene, cleanness in order to maintain sustainability in their organisation. They
also use eco friendly practices and guide their guest to not do unethical practices which harm the
environment and resources (Shemyatikhina, Shipitsyna and Usheva, 2020). They make their logo
with purple colour which is very soothing and attractive as well as they provide luxury services
with effective curtains, high quality mattresses and comfortable pillow to increase customer
experience. It has been determined that the company must use advance technology of lock
system and scanning in order to prevent customers form fraud or spread of virus (Rahman,
2021).
Provide recommendations on how a chosen organisation can improve its marketing strategy.
Consider using technology as a fundamental tool in approach to creation of new marketing
strategies. Recommendations with justification.
As per above discussion and analysis it has been determined that Premier Inn need to
change their marketing mix to increase their impact on customers mind and make them
permanent for life long. There are various problems has been seen that in their product, price,

people, promotion and physical evidence mix which indirectly hinder their growth. Such as they
need to give more focus on all these elements to increase their effectiveness and productivity.
Such as they can use various advance technology to remove all obstacles which can leads to
decline their profitability in near future. It has been recommended to the professionals of Premier
Inn as they must review their current marketing mix and find out the area for development and
changes in order to enhance their brand value. The various recommendation in context to
Premier Inn are shown below-
Add more features in their services and rooms- This is related to the services and
products of Premier Inn as various customers had complain about the bar, room and its related
services which leads to poor experience of them about Hotel. In order to correct it the
professionals of Premier Inn must conduct deep research about the problems of clients and take
their feedback as the are for improvement (Vaghela, 2021). For that they can add more advance
technology in their rooms, bar such as code locker in every room for the safety of belongings of
clients, more lights, attractive interior, better sound system and drink collection in their bar to
increase customer experience. Also they can introduce more innovative methods of serving and
increase the quality of their items in their restaurants which make them different from others. It
helps them to resolve the issues of people and invite them again to have good experience every
time they visit the hotel which leads to increase in revenue and profitability of company.
Reducing the price of services by reducing the cost of operations- The management of
premier Inn can make effective pricing strategy for every income group of customers. As they
adopt cost focus strategy in their operations by reducing the cost of business operations as well
as utilised the resources wisely so they can save money to use it for future development. As cost
of operations decreased leads to they can also decrease the price of services which attract large
number of customers of each income group (Wang, 2019). The another suggestion to company
that they can provide various discounts offers, rebates, free club nights for special guest and gifts
to their regular customers so they visit again the hotel to take all these benefits. It helps the
company to make their policy more profitable which leads to increase their customer base or
revenue.
Use digital technology and content marketing in their promotional activities- It this
most important element of marketing mix which can foster the development of company and
increase their global presence in international market. Marketers of Premier Inn can use more

digital marketing to promote their brand and services to large number of customers. By making
accounts on more social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Snap chat, Twitter and Instagram to
drive the attention of youth and tourist. As almost half of the population of whole world are the
users of social media. So the company can make effective content to post on all these platforms
such as attractive pics, videos with innovative transactions, GIF with effective written notes, use
hashtags, comments of clients and many more which helps them to increase their followers on
these accounts (Zahay, 2020). They can also use content marketing by inviting famous
influencers, celebrity and other as it is very popular methods in nowadays which attract
travellers, youth to visit the place. They must give more focus on digital technology of marketing
instead of traditional approach which saves their cost and time for future development.
Modified their organisation employment policy, culture and structure- Human
resources are most valuable source which helps the company their promises which they did with
their customers effectively. As they can effective recruitment and human resource management
policy to motivate their employees to increase quality of their performance and services to meet
the requirements effectively. Also they provide training to them to increased their skills to adopt
the recent trends and technology in their working systematically. By modifying their culture and
organisational structure they can make their internal environment healthy and positive which
allow employees to interact more with each other and bring unity among their working for the
achievement of organisation goals. By providing incentives and rewards to employees for their
better work done they can solve the problems regarding salary. They also must listen the issues
of employees and interact them polity in order to find out the solution of protest and make new
policy regarding salary and living wage.
Use IT technology and software in their website and app- Professional of Premier Inn
must implement Advance software, IT technology in their website and app which automatically
updated the room booking slot to make clear and easy for customers to get proper information
about the vacant room. It also reduce the confusion among clients as which rooms slot is
available for their advance booking in order to meet their needs. They can also hire professionals
which has proper knowledge about the advance technology and how they use it in their website
to resolve the issues.
3D effects, advance technology in their interior- Specialist of Premier Inn can also
implement Advance technology and 3D effects in their logo, display and many other things

which make their outlook more attractive and appealing. It also helps them to increase the impact
of their physical evidence on the mind of clients. It allow them to make their company and
display different from their competitors in order to gain competitive advantage. They must
update their re innovate their physical evidence, interior and implement advance technology for
scanning, testing, room locking and cleaning which enable them to attract large number of clients
in target market. They can also use innovative colour theme to make their logo, display and
rooms more attractive which act as marketing tools for Premier Inn for increasing their
profitability and brand value.
CONCLUSION
As per above presented information, it has been concluded that marketing management
plays a most important role in an organisation to convert the potential customers or buyers into
real customer for long term. It is an art of selecting target market as well as keeping, getting and
growing buyers by making, delivering as well as communicating high quality customer value.
Branding strategy refers the plan of action of an organisation to increase their brand value and
market share as well as make their services and brand apart form other competitors. As per given
information to above report that hospitality organisation gave grantee to their clients about
conform, peace and standard quality services in order to increase their experience. The marketing
mix is the most important marketing tool which helps marketers of a hospitality organisation to
increase their customers base by adding value to them. It includes various elements such as
place, product, price, promotion, people, process and physical evidence which are interlinked
with each other. All these elements helps a company to make their brand more popular across the
world and win the trust of their potential customer to retain them for long run. It has been also
determined that the company need to many changes in their current marketing mix to improve
the overall effectiveness and profitability. For that they must give the focus on their quality of
product and services as well as add more features as per the demand of customers. Also they
must make changes in their pricing policy, promotion strategy and employment agreements to
achieve success in market. All these changes helps them to earn competitive advantages in future
in order to get leading position in hospitality industry.

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Online
What makes Premier Inn the world’s strongest hotel chain, 2022. [Online]. Available through:
<https://econsultancy.com/what-makes-premier-inn-the-world-s-strongest-hotel-chain/>
Rahman, M., 2021. Marketing mix of Premier Inn. [Online]. Available through:
<https://howandwhat.net/marketing-mix-premier-inn/>