Marketing Communications in Hospitality - Essay Example

?Marketing Communications in hospitality Marketing is the presales activities in a bigger prospective which give the extra fuel to the products to get identified in the market. The proper marketing activities would help the products to get distinguishable identity among the same kinds of products in the market. However, all the marketing activities have to be supported by the proper marketing communication processes and these communications are primarily the combination of advertising, promotion and strong public relation. The hospitality industry has become one of the major players in the service industry. With the growing disposable income the most of the people want to avail the luxury to express the monitory power or some time just to enjoy they prefer to avail the luxury out of the boarding, dining or flying. However, in the recent time all the segments of the service industry are highly competitive and most of the companies are applying different marketing thoughts to retain their existing clients and at the same time they are also very much keen to acquire new customers. The selection of the proper target group and promoting the service oriented products are very much important. To satisfy the demanding customers most of the hospitality companies are creating new ways to win the customers mind. Introduction: Most of the tourists and local travelers look for a place where they get everything under one roof and the demanding factors are boarding facility, restaurants and bars, banquette halls, and definitely the parking facilities and some other value added services like spas, amusement facilities etc. it is very true that people have money to spend but the primary question in the customer’s mind is how to spend the money at par with the value of the services provided by the service providers. The service providers in the hospitality industry must know how to distinguish themselves among the others. The proper customer relationship management and interactive marketing communication are the keys for the success. This paper will take the initiatives to implement the best communication process in the hospitality industry to satisfy the customers to win the minds of the customers. The service marketing mix and hospitality management: Service marketing and the tangible product marketing are not the same. Service marketing required some more specifications as far as the marketing is concern. The traditional four Ps of marketing are very much important for the product marketing. However, according to Crane (1993) the additional three Ps are also very much important for the service oriented business. And they are people, physical evidence and the process. People: The people are the primary part of the service delivery process and these are the main people who can influence the customer’s mind towards the product. The perception towards the products relies on these people. The person who performs the service delivery he is the most important personnel in the service industry towards the customer’s mind. The people who demonstrates the product, he or she must know all the aspects of the products so he or she can explain all the details of the service. Physical evidence: For any hospitality businesses which are mostly service oriented are much tougher to sell as the customers do not get the actual feelings of the product while they are buying the product. However, they feel the product while they are availing the service and that is basically after they buy the product. For this particular reason the physical evidence of the product is very much important. The physical evidences are the actual environmental situation where the services are provided. The actual feeling of the products must be created by the sales person at the point of sales towards the customer so the customers would be feeling confident to buy the products. Process: This particular functional activity is actually the procedure or mechanism and flow of work towards the service. The proper process can be a great positive point towards the delivery of the best service. Mainly for the business like pubs, restaurants or conference halls the process is the ultimate functional activity which must be perfect to satisfy the customer. These above mentioned factors are very much important to analyze the proper way of doing the business in the hospitality industry. Before going for the expensive marketing activities these pints must be checked so the investment towards the planed marketing activity would yield a profitable business scenario. The particular business module is strictly falls under the hospitality industry and the best part is the complete package which is being provided by the company. The particular company provides a wonderful package for the people who are seeking for a place for business conferences that provides the 360 degree solution. However, even after having all the facilities sometimes the business module fails due to many small reasons which are being neglected. Most of the customers seek extra values added to their services, so that they can distinguish the specific company from the others. There are many kinds of tools in the marketing management which can be used to satisfy the existing customers and to provoke the new customers to get attracted towards the services. According to Ed (2008) the information technology is pretty much high on the agenda of most of the companies for the betterment of the customer relationship management. According to Rutherford and O’Fallon (2007) the hotel industry works with three main parties and they are the owner of the hotel, the management team and the brand itself. As per Brink & Berndt (2009) the customer database should be maintained to get a proper customer relation for a longer time. According to Kincaid (2003) the information technology and the software are the integrated factors attached with the CRM within the organization. New paradigm of marketing communication: Hospitality industry is based on the customers. If the customers are not satisfied then the business is no longer in a profitable situation. However, the customer relation is a great factor in the service oriented business. According to Smith and Taylor (2004) the hospitality industry is looking for customer retention than the customer acquisition which is basically pulling more new customers into the business. The hospitality industry mostly falls under the service industry which is much more different than that of the manufacturing industry. However, the restaurants are having the touch of the manufacturing industry too. According to Lovelock (2010) the restaurants can be taken as the quasi- manufacturing units as at the same time they manufacture food in the kitchen and in other hand they provide some value added services too. This is a reason a community hall or hotels having restaurants or pubs attach with it are having a complex organizational model. In the recent time, the total business scenarios have changed. Today it is a highly competitive market where millions of consumers are involved and many competitors are there to grab hold of the customers. Before selling and package deal to any corporate house or any individual person the service center must find out why the customer will buy from them, how they are different than others. If these questions are answered properly by the management of the service center then it is ok to proceed for the further marketing activities. According to Yeshin (1998) today the market is the open market, companies are spending millions of dollar to pull the customers. The frequency of the Paper advertisement and investment in TV ads has increased in a higher manner. It is very much surprising to know that the amount of paper ads taken 30 percent investment in the advertising industry and that was 3,647 million pound. And the television ad took 28 percent market share and that was 3333 million pounds. According to Yeshin (1998) the total investment in the advertising industry in UK was 11. 9 billion pound. However, Yeshin (1998) also thinks that sales are the direct functional activity to the marketing expenditure. It means the direct output of marketing activities and the investment towards the advertising can be calculated by the increase or decrease in the sales figure. However, advertisings are long term marketing communication to upgrade the value of the brand. Branding is the primary initiative, but sales are also very important. The marketing communication mix has different entity among it. And they are adverting, customer relation, valued added services, public relation, sales promotion and many more. However, advertising in one of the main functional entity to communicate with the prospective consumers. But, the Target Group (TG) must be defined properly before investing in advertising. First of all the specific service center is mostly for the conference hall provider where the food and beverages can be taken as well. In this case most of the times the targeted customers are the corporate houses and sometimes some individuals for some specific occasion of themselves. Most of the time corporate houses should be targeted as they provide the combined profit from the full package of the services in the service center. According to Bowie and Buttle (2004) the hospitality industry survives on the demand in the market. It is very important to analyze the status of the demand before going forward with the advertising and other marketing communication packages. Bowie and Buttle (2004) think there are some specific marketing task to be done to rectify the demand in the market and all the respective marketing task must be at par with the targeted audiences and the respective demand in the market. In this specific case the demand needs to be increased to most of the marketing task must be to increase the demand through the specific marketing communications. Analyzing the demand: Hospitality industry must analyze the demands to pull more customers into the business for the profitable business flow. According to Bowie and Buttle (2004) there are four kinds of demand can be analyzed among the consumers towards the services and they are stated below. 1. Business travel demand: Most of the times the business people travel a lot to meet their clients, suppliers and attend conferences, seminar, exhibitions etc. the demand created from the business traveler is pretty effective. However, the specific company must understand that these people are not the daily consumers. 2. Leisure travel demand: This is the demand created by the people who travel abroad for holidays. Most of the cases people come with family in these kinds of travels. Most of the time travelers go away from the house for amusements and entertainments in these cases. However, in these cases the demand is basically for the food and drinks in the restaurants, the conference halls are no use for these customers. 3. Domestic travelers: Domestic travelers can be the office employees, or some family etc. this particular demand is very much important to be analyzed and utilized by the company. Most of the domestic offices arrange their yearly parties, conferences, exhibitions etc in the conference hall provided by the company. It is very obvious that a domestic company would not waste extra money to travel abroad to conduct a seminar for the domestic needs with domestic employees. However, the proper facilities and place must be available domestically for these kinds of conferences. This particular company must utilize the opportunity with these domestic companies for more business and for that the integrated marketing communication is the ultimate tool to be used wisely. 4. International travel demand: International travel demand is basically generated from the international tourists. However, in this case this group of customers is not the primary target group. The integrated marketing communication planning: The complete planning is pretty much important for any marketing communication planning. According to Ace (2001) there are three main functional entities in the in the promotional triangle or reliance and they are client, agency and the owner. For any big scale marketing planning these three entities are closely related to each other and most of the times the branding, advertising and communication plans are planned accordingly with the mutual agreement with these three entities. However, for the company specified in this case the agency is not primarily required as the service is not for the mass so the agency cost would be very much above the budget. The TG is not too big in the particular case; mostly corporate clients are the primary target group. So all the communication strategies must be focused on the corporate clients. Advertising campaigns: Advertising is an essential part of the branding. However in this case the high profile advertising campaign would be very expensive as the product is not for the mass so the mass media must be avoided to maintain the advertising budget. Bellow the line (BTL) advertising strategy must be chosen. The company must give some print advertisements in selective business magazines and in some business to business domestic magazines to be notified among the target group. It has to be remembered that the primary target group is strictly the niche corporate houses. However, sometimes TV advertisements can be aired in some selective television channels like business channels or travel and living channels. But, the time of the advertisements must be taken seriously as it is too expensive. However, it would be pretty expensive if the service provider is not having a chain of service centers. Corporate gifting: The corporate gifting is one of the most innovative marketing communication methods in the business to business module. In this case the business module is basically B2B. Corporate gifts must be sent to all the existing customers and also to the new selected clients for the customer acquisition. The clear massage about the products must be distributed among the target group and in this case the integrated marketing communication (IMC) is very important. According to Smith and Taylor (2004) the IMC is pretty important as it generates the instant profit out of the communication process. The corporate gifting also falls under the IMC. However the basic motto of the corporate gifting is to create a reminder effects in the client’s mind about the product so whenever the corporate house looking for the service it see the specific service provider as the primary option. Corporate communication: The corporate gifting comes under the corporate communication however, the corporate communication is much more different than the normal marketing communication and it is not only just sending corporate gifts. According to Masterman and Wood (2006) the corporate communication helps the company to build a corporate image among the target group. Keeping a healthy relation with the corporate client is very much important and in this case one person must be employed to handle this important functional activity carefully. Company must have a interactive website to communicate online with the respective clients. The online booking must be there to save the time of the corporate clients. Facility Cards: One of the most important questions in the industry is how to retain the existing customers. Many companies have tried many options. However, the facility card is one of the most appreciated initiatives taken by many service based companies in UK. These facility cards are very important to tool to retain the existing customers. As mentioned in the book of Buttle (2008) Nectar is an example of the facility card. It is basically a loyalty card where a customer will get many offers and discounts in many top grade service stations like Debenhams, Sainsbury’s, and many other hotels and restaurants. The specific company must get registered with these third party service providers to get close to more corporate houses. According to Van Bennekom, (2002) the loyal customers are the real buyers of the products in the long term basis. Customer relation management (CRM): Customers are the main factor which generates sales. The customers must be taken seriously and they must be taken care of. In the field of service oriented industry like hospitality industry the customer satisfaction is the ultimate agenda of all the communication presses. The satisfying customer service can fetch more business out of the references from the existing clients. The loyalty cards, free gifts, price discount, and many other value added services can make the clients more special. However, According to Kanki, Helmreich and Anca (2010) the barrier for the proper CRM is the proper funding for the suitable programs related to the customer relationship. Conclusion: From this study it has been cleared that in today’s business scenario mainly in the service industry, the customer relation has become a great virtue and the proper marketing communication is the key to the success. The loyalty programs are far more effective than that of expensive marketing and advertising campaigns. Most of the hotels, cafe and restaurants are giving loyalty cards to the customers so that they come back again. However, the proper investment and proper tools should be used to get the ultimate result in the term of profit and brand building. The specific service provider must focus on the corporate communication with the respective clients and the promotional strategies must be maintained to attract more consumers towards the services provided by the specific company. References: Ace C and Chartered Institute of Marketing. 2001. “Successful marketing communications: a practical guide to planning and implementation”. Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann. 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New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Smith P R and Taylor J. 2004. “Marketing communications: an integrated approach”. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Van Bennekom Frederick C. (2002) “Customer surveying: a guidebook for service managers”. Customer Service Press. Yeshin T. 1998. “Integrated marketing communications: the holistic approach”. Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More