Hospitality Marketing Essentials: Analysis of Conrad London

This report provides a comprehensive overview of hospitality marketing essentials, focusing on the concepts, trends, and processes within the industry. It begins by defining marketing and exploring current and future trends such as mobile booking, sustainable marketing, personalization, and influ...Read More

Unit 15 - Hospitality
Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Marketing and current and future trends of marketing................................................................3
Marketing processes....................................................................................................................4
Roles and responsibilities of marketing function in context of organisation..............................5
Influence of marketing and Interrelation of marketing with other functional departments........6
How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate with wider organisational context...............7
Value and importance of marketing role.....................................................................................8
Application of marketing mix......................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality marketing essentials refers to key elements of marketing that are part of
marketing activities at hospitality organisation. Marketing can be defined as societal process
through which groups and individuals work on what they need and desire by creating, offering
and exchanging products and services that have value with others. This report aims at discussing
different elements of marketing that involves its concepts and trends and process of marketing.
Followed by this roles and responsibilities of marketing along with influence of marketing and
its interrelationship with other functions will also be discussed. Report will also discuss value
and importance of marketing along with application of marketing mix by different organisations.
This report will contextualise Conrad London St. James hotel for discussion. This hotel is
international brand of luxury hotel and resort founded in 1985 and is headquartered at McLean,
Virginia, United State and is owned and operated by Hilton Worldwide.
MAIN BODY
Marketing and current and future trends of marketing
Marketing can be defined as activities or set of activities that an organisation undertake to
promote sell of their products and services. As defined by American Marketing Association
marketing is a process of planning and execution of conception, pricing, promotion and
distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange that satisfy individuals and
organisational goals.
Concepts of Marketing
Production concepts- This concept of marketing considers that consumer prefer goods and
services that are widely available and are not expensive.
Product concept- As per this concept of marketing consumers and customers prefer goods and
services that offer best performance, highest possible quality and unique and innovative features
(Grzegorczyk, 2017).

Selling concept- This is concept that considers that consumers of an organisation will only buy
their products when they are sold aggressively and this requires aggressive promotion.
Marketing concept- This is concept of marketing in which organisation develop products on the
basis of needs and desires of consumers in order to ensure they are purchased by customers.
Societal marketing concept- This is a concept in which organisation considers society as
connected unit of target market and works on delivering value to improve society.
Current and future trends of marketing
Current Trends
Mobile Booking- This is one of the trend in marketing that Conrad London St. James requires to
consider. This is a trend in which guests and customers are increasing using mobile for booking
hospitality services and this requires that booking services are mobile friendly.
Sustainable marketing- This is another current trend in hospitality marketing that Conrad
London St. James requires to consider. Sustainable marketing involves identifying impact of
hospitality practices on environment and taking actions to reduce that impact.
Future Trends
Personalisation- This involves offering personalised services to customers because this trend
will increase its value (Lim, 2017). The reason behind this is that customers and guests now
expect personalisation of services offered to them.
Influencer marketing- This is fastest growing marketing strategy in hospitality industry. This is
strategy which involves traditional word-of-mouth marketing strategy using technology. In this
influencers promote hospitality organisations to create and increase brand awareness.
Marketing processes
Mission- This is first step of marketing process that involves developing mission for marketing
activities of the company.

Situational Analysis- This involves analysis of existing situation of the company. This means
that internal and external environment of organisation is analysed and this helps in identifying
different factors affecting marketing.
Marketing Strategy- This step involves process through which marketing strategy or plan of
action for marketing is developed and determined. It is very important that strategy being
developed is in accordance with marketing objectives and goals.
Marketing Mix- This involves developing strategy for different elements of marketing that
includes product, price, place, promotion, process, people and physical evidence.
Implementation and Control- In this step process involves implementing plan or putting
planning into action (Seturi and Urotadze, 2017). Controlling involves undertaking measures
through which desired result for marketing can be achieved.
Roles and responsibilities of marketing function in context of organisation
Successfully promoting and managing brand- This is one of the important role and
responsibility of marketing function in which they work on promoting and managing brand. This
involves practices like advertising and creating and implementing campaign and along with this
managing brand or reputation of the brand is also a responsibility of marketing function in
Conrad London.
Managing relationships with agencies and partners- This is another role and responsibility of
marketing department in Conrad London. This is a role in which they are required to manage
relationship with agencies and partners outside organisation. This involves specially those
agencies and partners who affect marketing and brand of Conrad London. This involves
managing relations with advertising agencies and with partners of the Conrad London St. James
such as suppliers and agents through whom customers book hospitality services in Conrad
London.
Managing budget for advertising, marketing and promotions- Marketing function also has a
very important responsibility that involves managing budget for marketing. It is a responsibility
of marketing that budget is effectively managed in which they do not spend extra financial
resources for any of the marketing activities including advertising and promotions of Conrad

London (Rangaswamy and et.al., 2020). It is very important that budget is managed effectively
to ensure highest return on investment and lowest cost for marketing.
Monitoring competition- This is also a responsibility of marketing department in which it
works on monitoring competitors and their activities. Hospitality industry has become highly
competitive and in such situation it is important that activities and actions of competitors are
monitored to outperform competitors and create competitive strength for Conrad London.
Monitoring competition involves collecting knowledge of competitors about activities that they
have taken and they are likely to take in future and their impact on competition.
Influence of marketing and Interrelation of marketing with other functional departments
Marketing function within hospitality organisation is not limited to selling and
advertising but it has influence on all other organisational functions. Interrelationship of
marketing with other functional areas and influence of marketing on these functional areas is as
follows-
Marketing and sales function- Marketing and sales function share very important relationship
and marketing also has important influence on sales function in Conrad London. Sales function
is concerned with responsibility that involves making and increasing sales for Conrad London.
Sales function gets significantly affected by success of marketing functions (Sun, Price and
Ding, 2019). This means that when Conrad London’s marketing department effectively perform
which means it has managed to attract customers and guest towards hotel and this will enhance
performance of sales function in marketing.
Marketing and customer service function- Customer service function and marketing
department also share important relationship in which customer service department becomes a
source of information for marketing about customers and their issues. In addition to this
customer service department also gets influenced by marketing because its performance and
strategies are linked with marketing. Marketing also involves customer service and it is an part of
marketing of Conrad London St. James St. Jamesand functioning of customer service gets
significantly affected by marketing.
Marketing and ICT function- Marketing and ICT (Information communication technology)
function also share important relationship and specifically in times of digital marketing and

promotion. Marketing function has important influence on performance of ICT function in
Conrad London. This is because digital marketing activities are carried out with help of ICT
function and this is why, it forms important part of their functioning. This is why marketing
department has strong influence on functioning of information communication technology
function in Conrad London.
How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate with wider organisational context
Roles and responsibilities of marketing are strongly linked with wider organisation context. This
means that all roles and responsibilities that marketing function undertakes are not limited to
marketing only and have wider impact on other organisational functions as well. Relation of
marketing with wider organisational function is as follows-
Marketing and Housekeeping- Housekeeping function in Conrad London St. James is
concerned with responsibilities of cleaning and upkeep of rooms, public areas and other areas in
hotel (Arnett, Wittmann and Hansen, 2021). In addition to this housekeeping department is also
important for maintaining linen stock and providing laundry services to hotel. It is very
important that cleaning and environment of hotel is as good as it is promised during marketing.
Branding which is a role and responsibility of marketing gets significantly affected by
MarketingHousekeepingFrontDeskFinanceMaintenance

environment that hotel provides and housekeeping play a significant role in providing good and
welcoming environment to guest in Conrad London St. James.
Marketing and Front Desk- Marketing and front desk also share important relationship. This is
because product and service that are developed by marketing department within Conrad London
St. James is sold by front desk. This means to directly communicate with guests regarding their
room and booking in hotel is responsibility of Conrad London St. James. It is important that front
desk have adequate information of customers who have booked services from different sources.
Marketing and Finance- Marketing and finance share relationship that is based on finances and
budget in organisation. Finance department allocates budget to marketing and marketing
department works on managing budget and in addition to this finance department also provide
financial management services so that marketing department can determine their ROI.
Marketing and Maintenance- Maintenance is very important for ensuring brand image and
goodwill of Conrad London St. James (Kollatsch and et.al., 2017). It is very important that
maintenance services in organisation are completed on time so that it can provide quality
services to guests as promised during promotions and sale of services.
Value and importance of marketing role
Building and maintaining reputation of the company- Marketing is very helpful and valuable
in creating and building reputation of Conrad London. Marketing works on building reputation
of business that helps in attracting customers towards business. This involves using advisement
and different methods of marketing and promotion through which organisation can create a
position in minds of customers.
Helps in building relations between customers and business- This is very important and
specifically to create loyalty in customers towards a business organisation. Marketing function in
present marketing environment has significant emphasis on building relationships with
customers. With help of relationship that customers and business have businesses work on
gaining repetitive business from a customer (Menegaki and Alexopoulos, 2017). This is
important for reducing overall cost of marketing and strong relationship of business and
customers also help them in becoming brand ambassador of the business.

Communication to inform customers- Information about existence of a product or service is
first step to attract customers towards buying a product. Marketing is very important so that
organisation can communicate with its potential customers and target market regarding products’
existence and its value for customers. Marketing works on communicating with customers in
different ways, this involves advertisement, customer service and communicating with customers
to build relations with them. Advertisement helps in communicating value that Conrad London
St. James provides to its guests and customer service is concerned with communicating with
customers about their issues and solving them. Both ways marketing works on informing
customers.
Marketing contributes in increasing revenue- Marketing has a significant contribution in
increasing revenue of the company (Chiang and Liu, 2017). This is because all efforts of
marketing are directed towards increasing sales of Conrad London St. James’s services and
increase in sales leads to increase in revenue and profit of Conrad London St. James.
Application of marketing mix
Marketing mix Conrad London St. James InterContinental
Product Product offering of Conrad London St.
James is luxury hospitality services.
Categories of services are differentiated on
the basis of rooms that include guest
rooms, suites, executive and accessible
rooms. Along with this, services for dining
and drinks and meetings are also available
in Conrad London St. James.
Product of InterContinental involves
premium hospitality services through
different types of rooms and dining
location.
Price Premium price strategy has been adopted
by Conrad London St. James.
Price strategy of InterContinental is
premium price strategy because of its
high class and luxury hospitality
services.
Place It is located in one of the best location in
London and concerned with distribution
services of Conrad London St. James can
be booked through its website (Khatab,
Esmaeel and Othman, 2019). In addition to
Services of InterContinental can be
accessed through website of the
company and third party agents and
travel and tourism websites.

this, services can also be booked through
travel agents and websites.
Promotion Its promotions are done through
advertisement in premium magazine and
also through providing exclusive
membership to members.
Promotion are done through social
media and digital platforms.
Process Process in Conrad London St. James
includes housekeeping, food and beverage,
concierge and reservation process.
Process of InterContinental includes
supply chain process, booking services
and process of check-in and check-out.
People Conrad London St. James hires best
employees available in job market and
provide them attractive compensation and
benefits to motivate them.
People are trained regularly so that they
can meet changing requirements of
customers (Gunawan and Wahyuni,
2018).
Physical
evidence
Physical evidence of Conrad London St.
James includes interior and exterior and
rooms and suites of Conrad London St.
James.
Physical evidence of InterContinental
includes its suites, hotels, staff uniforms
and its logo.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that marketing function within
Conrad London St. James is very important. It is very important that organisations are aware of
different marketing trends in order to ensure that their activities are relevant as per trends of
market. Report also discussed about marketing processes and along with this different roles and
responsibilities of marketing were also discussed in report. Marketing within Conrad London St.
James plays very important role and it contributes in overall growth of organisation. Later in
report interrelationship of marketing with other functional area was also discussed along with
value and importance of marketing in organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Markets. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, Sectio H Oeconomia. 51(2).
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Gunawan, A. and Wahyuni, S.F., 2018. The effect of marketing mix, service quality, islamic
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effects on customer satisfaction: a case study of international Kurdistan Bankin Erbil
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