Marketing of the Dorchester Hotel in London - Assignment Example

The Dorchester Hotel London Qn1 Target Strategy Dorchester Hotel is one of the leading hotels in the worldover and is known to many as the simple place to be. Located at the heart of London, the hotel is known as hub fornumerous celebrities, leaders from all over the world from both royalty and high society. Apparently, its location and facilities has continuously become an attraction symbol for such personalities across the world. Services offered At Dorchester, there are various services that the offered in relation to the type of target market and the essence of being a 5 Star luxury hotel. These services include; restaurants and bars, spa, weddings and events rooms, hotels services and also offers a place for meeting and banquets events(Rao 2011). First, the hotel is known to offer perfect venue particularly for groups who require some special experience. In essence, the groups of people planning for conferences, top board meetings, lavish employee incentives and other related events, the hotel guarantees a combined elegance and old- world charm luxuries and effective technology. In addition, experienced meeting directors are known to assist in every detail necessary in enjoying services that are seamless and hassle free. Secondly, the hotel has suitable facilities for wedding events ranging from marriages to champagne events. Thirdly, the hotel is infamous for its fully equipped spa where individuals utilize for unwinding sessions. For instance, the spa offers facilities such as signature facial by Carol Joy in London and other related treatments from European skincare. Additionally, the spa has nine rooms that include two double suites, experienced showers among other facilities. Fourthly, it is worth noting that been one of the world class hotels, the hotel providessome of the best facilities in relation to restaurantsand bars. Of importance to note is that the restaurants and bars have been rated in in the awarding column for having the best and most welcoming teams. For instance, they have the best of home grown British in the Grill. Finally, the Dorchester has maintained the best traditional values for their Hotel services at the same time ensuring that it continually introduces newservices with inclusion of the latest technology. Moreover, they ensure that guests have the assurance of a friendly and a staff that is highly professional. For instance, there are up to datebusiness and entertainment systems throughout the rooms in the hotel. Pricing Strategy According to information provided by the Dorchester, it is apparent that there has been continuous use of affordable and reasonable prices for their range of products. Hence, it has been difficult for new entrant in the market to achieve the same level of competitiveness in reference to their services. Moreover, there has been an increase in the market share further leading to new ventures in other markets. As a result, prices have been set in reference to the needs of potential customers with much consideration being on making maximum profit depending on their target and competition lines. Places for Sale Apparently, London being the home of Dorchester is graced by numerous unique blends of history and culture that act as attractive symbols for target audience. As such, London has been related as one of the best destinations in the world, having been recently voted as a gourmet capital in the world. As a result, the hotel is able to accommodate people from different parts of the world who use most of its facilities. Of most importance is that, the hotel is surrounded by exclusive shopping centers such as Old Bond Street and Knightsbridge among others thatincrease its value. Promotion mix Consequently, the Dorchester hotel in the category of world class hotels has been acquired enough loyalty from its target audience due to its wide variety of services that it offers. Moreover, the hotel has continuously maintained and sustained its sales in London through personalized selling, use of various advertising strategies such as use of gift cards in most of their services. Similarly, the hotel has different types of marketing strategies such as internet and direct marketing. Through these elements the hotel has generated and received an increase in demand for their services fromdifferent personalities across the world. Thehotel has managed to communicate to customers by presentinghotel information to them and other potential stake holders. In this regard, it becomes easy for customers to differentiate various products that the hotel offers. Qn2 It is apparent that the Dorchester hotel website is aimed at marketing the hotel. However, the website has different strategies that capture the attention of customers. First, the website has some enticing features that present its organisational culture. For instance, the website portrays different forms of graphics that depicts various services or products it offers. This features the suits and rooms, furniture and the whole package of the hotel’s products. Pictures of different rooms taken from different angles denote the quality and the size of the rooms. Fig. 1 showing different rooms Source: http://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/london/the-dorchester/hotel-suitesrooms Luther (2001) argued that it is indispensable for any organisation that wants to maintain competitive advantage to have different marketing strategies that sells the organisation in a unique way. In this regard, Dorchester hotel has managed to do so by not only focusing on potential customers, but also on the already existing customers. By the virtue of the hotel to have online chat, email, and phone contacts, the existing customers can comfortably contact the hotel to express their experience while they spent time in it. Fig. 2 showing contacts displayed on the website Source: http://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/london/the-dorchester/hotel-suitesrooms Equally, if the customers were not satisfied with the services while in their stay in the hotel, they have the opportunity to forward their grievances to the hotel management. This way, the hotel has an opportunity of investigating what transpired and perhaps improve on that. In another dimension, the hotel might also benefit from such information in that it can obtain survey data from customers to design new or improve on the existing products or services in the future. In light of this, it is essential to note that Dorchester hotel has greatly benefited with the way it has utilised the website as far as customer satisfaction is concerned. Website content The information presented on the website is logical and readable to many people. The graphics have been presented in such a way that even the first visitor of the website can clearly have a picture of what the hotel stands for and its services and products. Without much struggle, one can easily navigate through the website to obtain the information desired in a span of minutes. In fact, the home page is put in such a way that the contents of the website are visible with heading of every content put at the top bar where every person can see without problems. The language used is easy to understand with no complex grammar. This means that most people can be able to read the website’s content without difficulties. With the placing of the services offered being placed at the top and in big icons, one is able to click on the icons and view its content easily. For instance, under the “destinations”, one is able to check places where the hotel is situated. This way, customers are able to establish areas where they can get Dorchester hotel’s services in case they visit those places. Visitor friendly environment The contacts are clearly put on the right side of the website where details such as phone numbers and email address are put. This is convenient way customers can inquire different things about the hotel. The chat offers a good chance for customers to get direct feedback from the hotel representatives. In case customers would wish to have a clearly picture of the services and products offered, the website has a section for gallery where customers can view different photos ranging from customer service, the size and quality of the rooms. Additionally, the website is also connected with different social media platforms where customers can freely interact with the hotel. Social media has been noted to boost business operations since most of its features are clearly put across through social media. For instance, twitter and facebook are the widely used social media where organisations post their products and services and any new item or news. Social media has also been noted to be the most influence in terms of passing of information to people that use internet services. Besides, social media is less expensive form of advertisement as compared to other forms of advertisement such as television adverts. For loyal customers, the website has made it possible for them to learn about new features since the website has the section named as “what’s new”. This way, the customers do not have to literally walk or visit the hotel for such details. However, navigation is hampered by the moving contents especially the graphics that tend to disrupt the reader on some contents. Although such moving contents are aimed at taking the customer through the website in a short time, this can be annoying in a way as some people would only wish to access specific information without being taken through different contents. Nevertheless, simple titles and pictures placed on each of the titles make it easy for the customer to identify different contents in a short time. Graphics plays a vital role in helping the reader to identify what they are looking for without necessarily having to search for the literature. The website has also been designed in such a way that customers can learn about the local time in London where the hotel is situated. This is very critical in ensuring that customers do not have to do their own arithmetic in the effort to find out the current time for the hotel. This way, customers can be able to plan on the right time to visit the hotel especially if they come from different locations or countries. Fig. 3 showing graphics used to represent titles Source: http://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/london/the-dorchester/hotel-suitesrooms Qn3 The Importance of Marketing Plan According to Luther (2001), most organization that has continuously thrived in their businesses must have put the marketing plan in as one of the most crucial strategies. It is for undoubted reasons that the like of Dorchester must insist on the use of marketing plan to ensure that their businesses remain in high profits. As such, organizations should use this plan to keep their mission alive, have their services in line, as well as, their financial situation and marketing tactics. To begin with, marketing plan is essential in ensuring that organization and / or businesses are able to assess its strengths and weaknesses by use of internal and external analysis which further boosts its search for market opportunities. Moreover, through marketing plan, businesses are in a position to analyze their products and services from the customers’ perceptive, to verify on what the customer needs and how they are bound to benefit. At the same time, businesses and /or organizations analyze their target markets and emphasize on other methods that may be necessary for their businesses with inclusion of new products and services that may be crucial for addition in their line. Through the marketing plan, businesses and/or organizations are to analyze their competition levels both potential and current, processes that allow them to make decisions on how to apply their resources to target market (Rao 2011). In this regard, businesses and /or organizations must utilize the gathered information pertaining to their customers, marketing and competition in order to develop a marketing plan that has measurable goals and further achieve and surpass their goals(Luther 2001). For any organisation to have a workable marketing plan, it is indispensable to have clear stages that would produce the marketing plan. This is critical in that missing some key components of the marketing plan can cause problems with the plan. The first stage Dorchester hotel should consider in the development of the market plan is indicating the goals that the organisation wants to achieve in every product or service offered. This ensures that strategic measures are taken to realise every goal set for each of the products or services. The next stage is having a situational analysis. This section entails a belief description of the organisation’s customer base and the market at large. Additionally, long-term and short-term goals need to be outlined and various ways of meeting them well articulated upon. At this point, SWOT analysis should be given in order to evaluate or come up with best ways to achieve the intended marketing goals. Strengths This denotes the strong position of the company that can be used to conquer the target market. For instance, since Dorchester hotel has strong financial base, this can be used as a strong hold of forming different marketing strategies. Many organisations are unable to have successful marketing plan because of lack of resources. Weaknesses Dorchester hotel should evaluate its weaknesses in order to find out the right strategies of overcoming the weaknesses. Opportunities Marketing strategy is aimed at targeting a given market to capture new customers or retain the existing ones. Therefore, Dorchester hotel should conduct a market research to identify the market that has potential of consuming its products and services. For instance, different regions have been categorised as having greater number of tourists than others. Such places should be targeted by the hotel to convince them to use Dorchester hotel products and services. Threats In every industry, competition is considered healthy. However, for the Dorchester hotel to remain relevant in the hotel industry, the company has to have a comprehensive research on the rivals and come up with ways of beating them in terms of offering best quality, competitive prices and customer service. This way, the company will be better positioned to design mechanisms of improving its marketing strategy. The next stage of marketing plan involves market segmentation. This is critical in that Dorchester hotel will be able to understand the best ways of adjusting its marketing mix. Marketing mix involves promoting organisations’ products and services by articulating on, price, product, promotion, and place. The other stage involves creating an alternative marketing strategy in case the current one fails. This would include eliminating some products and services that might appear not to do well in the market or even changing the price as a way of attracting more customers. There should be a clear projection of what the marketing plan aims at achieving. This involves forecasting or revenues and expenses. Finally, there should be an executive summary. This is the summary of the whole marketing plan. Although it is the last stage in the development of a marketing plan, this appears as the number one item of the marketing plan. With these stages, Dorchester hotel should be in a better position to capture a wider market and improve its products and services. This would ensure that the hotel makes more profits and remain relevant in the hotel industry. In fact, according to Luther (2001) marketing plan is among the ingredients of maintaining competitive advantage. It gives guidelines on how the company can successfully meet its goals both short-term and long-term. Bibliography: Luther, W., 2001.The marketing plan: how to prepare and implement it. New York: AMACOM, Rao, K., 2011. Services Marketing. New Delhi: Pearson. Dorchester hotel. Accessed on 236rd April 2014 from: http://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/london/the-dorchester/hotel-suites-rooms Read More