Travelodge: Marketing Management, Objectives, and Campaign Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Travelodge's marketing management, focusing on a 12-month marketing campaign aimed at strengthening the brand. It includes a marketing audit based on macroenvironment and political factors, leading to a TOWS matrix that evaluates Travelodge's competitive environment within the hospitality industry. The report details marketing objectives based on the SMART model, emphasizing enhancing the hotel website, adopting cloud technologies, and aligning marketing with revenue management to increase revenue. It also highlights the 7Ps of the marketing mix for Travelodge, discussing product offerings, pricing strategies, placement considerations, promotional activities, physical evidence, people management, and process optimization. Furthermore, the report suggests ways to improve customer service levels, addressing current challenges and proposing adaptations for future improvements.

Marketing Management of
TRAVELODGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
LO 1: Marketing Audit Principles and TOWS Matrix of Travelodge.........................................4
LO 2: Marketing Objectives........................................................................................................7
LO 3: Marketing Mix of Travelodge using 7Ps ..........................................................................8
LO 4: Ways to improve the level of customer service...............................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Marketing campaign is an organized course of action and plan to promote or sell the
product or services of a company. Travelodge is a UK based private company operating in
Hospitality industry and serving across UK, Ireland and Spain. It has more than 570 hotels in
UK, making it the largest independent brand of hotels in UK. This report focuses on a 12 months
marketing campaign- “Enabling a leading Brand” for the company and will explain the
marketing audit principles undertaken in order to develop TOWS matrix which will help to
demonstrate its competitive environment. The report will also state and justify Marketing
Objectives based on SMART Model and highlight the 7 Ps of Marketing Mix for the hotel.
Important proposals have been recounted for future adaptations and improvements of
Travelodge's customer service as a part of the marketing campaign.

MAIN BODY
LO 1: Marketing Audit Principles and TOWS Matrix of Travelodge
Marketing Audit process of examine complete environment from direct mails to social
media campaigns. The purpose of marketing audit is to sort through resources of company and
find out the strategies, whether they are working or not. Marketing audit is based on macro-
environment and political factors, it checks the business mission and its feasibility. The Audit is
done in a systematic and comprehensive way and is ideal for generating TOWS matrix.
TOWS matrix is derived from Swot analysis model and it also aimed in generating the business
marketing strategies for Travelodge with the analysis of its internal and external business
environment factors in the sector of hospitality industry.
1. Threats:-
Threats in the hospitality market for Travelodge are the intense competition in the market
from their competitor, the market is so highly competitive in the sector and many of the
competitor are providing better deals and services which impact the company's business. Even
S
ource: www.travelodge.co.uk

the limited international presence effect the profitability of the business as most of the tourist
prefer the hotels with brand which they are aware of and this effect as Travelodge is not widely
known in the market world. The once in a lifetime threat which hotel industry have faced is
Covid-19 as it effect the worst to the tourism and the hospitality sector and causing huge losses
to the businesses (Farrington, 2018).
2. Opportunities:-
The opportunities for Travelodge are potential expansion in other countries of the world,
As Travelodge is focused majorly in the UK concentric operations and by this they are missing
the opportunities in new market. Europe is famous for its tourism and it can be a best place for
affordable hotels and is a huge market for Travelodge. The Ecotourism as in recent momentum
of economic and green & ecotourism can be very beneficial for Travelodge in achieving the
goodwill and positive feedback from its audience and guest in its services and programme.
Expansion in business also include expanding relations and in opportunities Travelodge can
make good marketing strategies for new partners and partnership which can help in expansion of
business.
3. Weakness:-
Travelodge need to provide the variety of services and product, the weakness are the
narrow range of product and services of Travelodge, It is not providing the wide range of product
to its customer like customer services, luxury like other hotels. The design are plains and basic,
which are not appreciated by its customer and guests. Travelodge need to innovate itself with the
technologies, policies for overbooking as mostly operates on full capacity which can cause
customer risk of turn down upon arrival due to unavailability of rooms.
4. Strength:-
The strength of hospitality are its facilities and services they provide to its customer on
affordable basis. Travelodge offer very reasonable prices for a family and individual and their
rooms and also provide various facilities and deals which attracts the customer. Travelodge also
provide schemes and initiatives, as rooms according to hours schemes which can help in saving
the money of the customer, schemes of coffees and catnap for regular drives and for those who
just need to recharge their batteries and stop to refresh themselves(Alnawas, 2019).

Strength Weaknesses
Opportunities SO WO
Threats ST WT
S-O strategies:
1. Stability programme of Travelogue's Green programmes can be effect the company in its
strength of getting market gathering for Ecotourism Market.
2. Providing facilities of discounts to its fresh customers and first time users from different
countries helps in expansion in increasing their goodwill worldwide.
W-O Strategies:
1. Partnership can increase the ideas and develops the infrastructure of the company where
company is lacking in and it can improve the architecture and designs. Even switching to
skimming from basic attracts and for that partners can help in finance to the company.
2. Increasing the online presence of the company by providing facilities of portals &
websites which can help the audience worldwide, it also benefits by the software to track
problems of overbooking.
S-T Strategies:
 High competition increase threats and to secure that Travelodge can use pricing policies
and strategies and increase facilities by up-gradation of the rooms and hotel infrastructure
to attract and offer discount for regular customer (Goryushkina, 2016).
 Linking of Travelodge business cards with other services of company and offer discounts
and rewards.
 Travelodge can increase services to the foreigner crowd by providing them Guides on
calls to explore the places which can ease the pressure of guests.
W-T Strategies:
 Narrow range product is a weakness of Travelodge and it is important to minimize the
threat by providing more products and services to its customer and tendering local
workers for extra services.

 Overbooking policy is a weakness and it should be minimized as it is important to avoid
threats of customer dissatisfaction and it can increase advantage to others competitors.
LO 2: Marketing Objectives
Marketing Objectives are defined goals of a company for a specific period. It outlines the
strategies, targets and intentions of the marketing team in order to state clear directions for team
members to follow and review. The objectives should be based on the SMART model of being
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. (Jaremen, Jędrasiakand Rapacz,
2016) It is essential to use this model to achieve long term goals. Various tests can be done to
check the relevancy of the objectives: the truth test, the focus test, the assess test, the consistency
tests, the clarity tests, the cost test etc.
Travelodge is currently facing impacts of the slowdown in hospitality industry due to Corona
Virus Pandemic. Its current 12-month marketing campaign- “Enabling the brand Strategy” is
aimed to consolidate its position by embracing the Internet technologies needed to create
competitive advantage. The appropriate marketing objectives for the company are as follows:
1. Enhancing the Hotel Website to enrich user experience : The Travelodge website has
to be updated with a new interface and improved to become more helpful, easy to
browse, welcoming, informative, and user-friendly. Mobile optimization with a target of
70% same-day reservations. Enabling virtual tours on the website with 360º view of the
specific branch of the hotel. Provision for guests to upload pictures of the stay. Making
amenities and room information easy to navigate and ensure it is being updated regularly.
The goal is to enrich usage of the website and mirror the experience of guests at
Travelodge.
2. Adopting cloud technologies: The primary marketing objective of Travelodge should be
increasing the customer base online by continuous interaction with people using various
social media sites and keep them educating about upcoming offers post lock-down, safety
protocols and other information. Apart from all this the company should adopt the latest
cloud technology in its operations using which hotels can be managed without physical
presence. PMS systems should be incorporated with mobile concierge apps and help

guests engagement without personal contact. Hotel jobs can be transferred to completely
remote work like e-commerce and digital marketing.
3. Aligning Marketing and Revenue Management to Increase revenue by 20%: The
slowdown should be countered by achieving higher sales targets by concentrating on new
customer base. It is important to align with revenue management for parity across
channels, perks on direct booking, exciting packages, deals and offers and most
importantly, a flexible cancellation policy. After expansion in online platform is
increased by two folds, the revenue target should be achieved by focussing on online
marketing and increasing sales. Monthly and daily reports should be developed to do
revenue management of the hotel and keep track of hotel rooms' booking prices. This is
necessary for gaining key insights of room comparison with previous month or year.
Demand forecasting is vital to maximize revenues and minimize unexpected surprises
and optimize hotel's potential.
LO 3: Marketing Mix of Travelodge using 7Ps
1. Product: Travelodge offers accommodation and associated services for guests. The
products include fully-furnished double rooms, standard sized rooms, premium rooms
and family room which include satellite television with cartoon, sports and film channels,
tea and coffee making facilities, luxury beds, newspaper along with a limited range of
services like Wi-Fi, reception, housekeeping and room service. The hotel is currently
upgrading rooms across the estate and replacing most of the old style pull-out beds with
new Sleepeezee models in the family rooms. (Kotler and et.al., 2017) For Britain’s
business people, Travelodge offers full in-room facilities and access to a telephone and
fax machine and business “meeting points”. Guests pay on arrival and can drop the key at
reception on departure. As a budget hotel, its infrastructure is standard and suitable for
short stay.
2. Price: Travelodge aims to provide the best services at the cheapest rates, targeting low-
income and casual travellers. It runs competitive promotional programs including special
offers for early booking and other special deals. (Išoraitė, 2016) Early bookings are

rewarded with lower prices, and customers also get a better price according to their
flexibility with dates. This further lowers Travelodge’s price and gives a boost to its
guests’ demands. The room prices have been kept considering the dynamic nature of the
level of demand. The higher the demand for a room, the higher the price is likely to be. In
general the lowest price rooms are sold well in advance and are not available for
immediate bookings. Visitors are offered year-round prices starting from £25 in
Travelodge's 240 hotels around UK.
3. Place: In any business, Places need to be convenient for both the customer and owner
(Wu, 2018). Hospitality industry in UK is highly competitive and for that the locations
need to be placed according to the needs of target customers with ease in transportation.
Unlike luxury hotels that can afford to locate their hotels at the most strategic and
expensive locations, budget hotels like Travelodge have limited options when it comes to
location. For Travelodge, the areas along the roads close to or at the entrance of the city
are more suitable. Transportation is important for the guests to travel to the hotel easily
and have proper roads and travel facilities.
4. Promotion: Promotions objective need to meet the appealing, the reason why customer
should choose your product rather than your competitor. A good communication
strategies embrace the dialogue between the audience and company. Travelodge
communicate the strategies of their product to customer by different ways in
advertisement, prospectuses etc. Promotion can be done by the social media as social
media is playing an important role in promoting the products. Social media is the basic
tool for communicating with customers. Nowadays people are using social media in wide
range.
5. Physical evidence: ambience and layout are most important aspects of physical evidence
in hotels. Physical evidences are the proof of the quality and services provide by the
company to its customer and it is the evidence which can help the new customers to look
for on the websites about the company and see the reviews of the old customers and take
decision accordingly. Evidence shows the structure and working of the company, in
hospitality evidence refer to the cleaning, facilities, decorations and tidiness. But it's not
possible for the customer to experience the services without purchasing, so in that case
they need to come to the hotel but reviews and website gives a brief of the scenario.

6. People: Employees who are responsible for Customer service such as staff of Travelodge
chefs, waiters, room service, cleaners, mangers, butlers, receptionist, security are people
in marketing mix.In hospitality and hotels people play an important role as it creates
impressions that can effect outstanding in either the positive and negative to the
company. The value and goodwill og the company are in the hands of its customers and
people, customer feedback can effect the company in both positive and negative
7. Process: Guest booking, check in, quality and time taken for service consumption,
payment, check out etc. are the process of the hotel. Internet technologies and softwares,
business process management and workflow, total quality management using six sigma
can be applied to enhance the process. The process of working is very important as it
shows how responsible a company is and how they can work fast in the process, Waiting
in the lobby is not acceptable by the customer every single times and for that they need to
provide better services and fast working. Customers call and the services should be fast
working and should take minimum to minimum time. Even Travelodge can adopt the
social networking for its working as it can help the process in working versatile ways.
LO 4: Ways to improve the level of customer service
Working in a hospitality sector is totally dependent on customer services and it is the
main priority of every company to provide the best of the services to its customer so that in
future the customer choose to come to the same hotel and doesn't switch. Ways to improve the
customer services are:-
Make your hotel different from competitors: Hospitality services also attract the customer by
its verity and customer are always choosy in nature, for that Travelodge need to identify the
competitor in the market and should provide facilities according to it so it can help the company
in finding the weakness of the competitor and working on them as a strength can increase the
sale of the company and helps in growth.
Customer's satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is a priority of the hospitality and service sector
market and its an aim to company to provide services which can satisfy the customer and helps
in increasing the goodwill of company. To work on the customer service the manager can take
help of the feedbacks by its customer to increase the customer services. Feedback by the
customer can be taken through the surveys and websites and mouth publicity. Social platform is

the best way to know customer feedbacks and it can help both customer and company and ease
their work as if a customer is facing any issues so can feedback the company for its queries
(Chandiok, 2017).
Identify the base of customers: Target market is the best way for a manager to identify the base
of customer. According to the target the manager need to change the facilities to the base of
customer, seeking the customers emotions can help the company in targeting the base of the
customer.
Listen to guests and change their attitudes: Customer service is all focus about how company
is providing its services to a customer, the company need to listen to the customer and should
focus on taking seriously to what a customer is asking for. If a query is raised by the customer
than it is important for the company to overcome them to increase the customer satisfaction and
it also increases the bond and relation of the company to its customer.
Fulfilling the expectation: Travelodge need to provide the best of the services to its customer so
that it can help the customer in fulfilling its expectation and in future also customer rely on the
services of the hotels. It is important part factor to a hotel to provide the services which can fulfil
the expectation.
Easy your operational processes: Working nowadays need to be fast and effective and for that
hotels are using more of technologies to ease their operations and process. Providing online
facilities, customer services chain etc. These can help the audience to use the digital features and
select the place and room by their own preferences at anytime anywhere (Blagoev, 2019).
Staff's relationship: Customers are connected with the service management of a company, the
staff is totally reliable on the services and customer want the service to its best from the staff.
Company owner need to communicate the staff and increase their morale with rewards and
profits so that they work with more energy and effectively. It can improve in the services and
directly connect with customer.
The Best problem solver: Hotels need to be aware about what a issue customer is facing with
the hospitality, On that basis employees need to focus on providing the best of the services to the
customer and provide them solutions of their queries with fast solutions. Provided feedback
should be regular checked by the management so that they get to know the issues quickly and
can utilize the time to overcome the issues. Travelodge need to be the problem solver for the

customer and make them feel that they can rely on the company and its services, and they are
working for them 24×7 (Nikolskaya, 2018).
CONCLUSION
This report explains the TOWS of marketing for Travelodge and its marketing audits as
the process of audits in the marketing. Report provide data in improvement of customer services
level by the part of their Campaign. In this the customer service shows that its so important for
an organization or company to have a customer service as it can solve many issues of both
customer and company.