Marketing Audit and Set Marketing Objectives for Holiday Inn - Report Example

Marketing Audit and Set Marketing Objectives for Holiday Inn (Hotel Company) Table of Contents Marketing Audit and Set Marketing Objectives for Holiday Inn (Hotel Company) 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Internal Environment 4 Strengths 4 Weaknesses 5 External Environment 7 Opportunities 7 Threats 8 Result of Analysis 10 Marketing Objectives 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction The present market scenario has intensified with competition due to globalisation and advent of technology. Market competition is one of the major factors considered by organisations for ensuring better sustainability and performance. In this context, organisations are identified to be focussed on marketing activities in an immense manner with the aim of ascertaining that products and/or services are offered in accordance with market demand and consumers’ preferences. Every industry uses marketing activities to generate more consumers for products and/or services that are offered in the market segments. In this regard, organizations are identified to use diverse marketing strategy for better understanding their target consumers on the basis of requirements as well as preferences (Pine & Gilmore, 2011). Notably, organizations are using marketing activities for setting objectives for future improvement. Sustainability is one of important factors for every organization (Marsha Pardee Wooding, 2003). Due to intense competitive market, every organization mainly focuses on sustainability and retaining customers for future growth. Marketing objectives of organisations comprises different strategic planning. To set marketing objectives, organizations formulate plan to set ultimate marketing goals for sustaining in the markets (McCally, 1992). Marketing audit is an essential part of marketing planning. Marketing audit gives a critical and fair review about present status of an organization. Marketing plan of an organisation is needed to be based on different tools and SWOT analysis is an important tool (McDonald & Leppard, 1991). Respectively, in this report, SWOT analysis has been used for having a better understanding of the hotel i.e. Holiday Inn to prepare marketing audit and reform marketing objectives. Internal Environment Strengths Globalization and technological advancement have proved to be effective for all industry and hotel industry is one of them. Due to good connectivity to all parts of the world, people of different nations are able to travel more frequently. Accordingly, hotels are identified to restructure their objectives for better performance. Hotel Inn is recognised as hotel chains operating on a global context. The hotel is a segment of a hotel group i.e. British InterContinental Hotels Group. The hotel conducts a marketing audit and accordingly, formulate marketing objective with the aim of conducting operations in a competitive manner (Morgan & et. al., 2002; Morrison, 1996). Holiday inn is an internationally recognised hotel known for good hospitality. The hote ensures that products and/services offered are in accordance with the needs as well as preferences of the customers. In this respect, customer satisfaction is the main motive of the hotel. The hotel is also known for maintaining a good relationship with suppliers and its prospective customers (Petzer & et. al., 2008). It has highly professional chefs and team members, which make the hotel unique and acceptable in the society. Holiday inn has online reservation system, so that customers are able to make their bookings conveniently. The staffs are focussed on two important aspects that include customer care and hospitability. Different international cuisines are served by the hotel in order to meet the preferences of the diverse customers (Tybout & Hauser, 1981). Holiday Inn serves quality food and services in affordable prices. Due to economic pitfall, food lovers and frequent travellers always search for quality services (Reid & Bojanic, 2009). In this regard, holiday inn is identified to fulfil the needs of customers and offer quality services in affordable prices are the major strengths of the hotel. The main vision of Holiday Inn is to serve quality food and services to its prospective customers. The management ensures that the vision of the hotel is accomplished successfully. It is the biggest strength of Holiday Inn. To retain more customers, Holiday Inn has provided multiple value added services such as tour packages, based on stay packages it provides complimentary breakfast, lunch as well as dinners to varied customers along with provide pick up services from stations and airports. These value added services is another important strength of Holiday inn. Holiday Inn is known for its unique service called “First comes service”. A customer who first checks-in the hotel, he/she will enjoy a free lunch. To grab this service of Holiday Inn, huge number of customers wants to check in at the beginning of the day. This service has been a vital strength of the hotel in improving its guests (Tesone, 2009). Weaknesses Holiday Inn is identified to have certain weaknesses that are obstructing the growth of the hotel in the long run. One of the important weaknesses of Holiday Inn is that it has very limited staff members. During the rush hours such as in the morning time, most of the time customers are being unattainable by the hotel staffs. For this reason, Holiday Inn has been losing customers day-by-day. Holiday Inn is known for quality food at cheap prices but it does not provide home delivery services for local customers. Due to limited staffs, Holiday Inn is unable to provide home delivery services. Most of the customers of Holiday Inn complain that the parking area in not maintained in an effective manner. During the visit in the hotel, customers are identified to face difficulties regarding parking their vehicles. Holiday Inn has a customer care desk but due to avoidance of the management, service level is decreasing day-by-day. Most of customers are waiting for accommodation in the hotel to gain the service of “First comes service”. Holiday Inn has a limited room facility for that reason the management is not able to provide rooms at the time of urgency. Holiday Inn provides numerous value added services to those customers who are staying for 1week or 3 nights 4 days. The management has not provided any service to those customers who are staying for 2 nights and 2 days in the hotel (Lorat, 2009). To maintain low cost and high quality service, Holiday Inn is distracted from its main objectives of expansion. For any organization, weaknesses are very sensitive part of SWOT analysis. Due to multiple weaknesses, organizations are recognised to lacking competiveness and accordingly, face issues in meeting its desired growth level. Weaknesses in the internal environment of an organisation are recognised to adversely affect sustainability as well as growth. To stable the growth of the organization, only the respective management can energize level of development (Lockyer, 2007). In this regard, the management of Holiday Inn is accountable for minimizing the weaknesses and on the basis of which apocopate plans as well as strategies are required to be formulated with the aim of ascertaining that the hotel is able to develop with better sustainability. Value added services are very lucrative benefits, which are accountable for attracting the customers or guests towards the hotel (Lamb & et al., 2010). Initially, the hotel managed the value added services skilfully owing to which the hotel has earned maximum customer support. However, in the present day context, the hotel has been performing in an ineffective manner due to ambiguity of the staffs and has been facing with the issue of low amount of customer support (Kusluvan, 2003). The hotel in order to retain customers has developed a customer service desk (McDonald, 2007). The development of the customer desk service was inadequate due to inadequate technical service, which in turn resulted in the ignorance of hotel services by the guests (Kotler & et. al., 1984). External Environment Opportunities Every organization faces challenges owing to the changing market condition and customers’ preferences. In addition, the challenges are required to be perceived as opportunities for enhanced performance and sustainability of an organisation (Karppinen, 2011). Opportunities assist an organization to conduct operations in a productive as well as effective manner as compared to competitors. In the hospitality sector, everyday new organizations enter with chain of restaurants or hotels. In the current global economy setup, number of frequent travellers has increased and throughout the year, people are travelling across the globe. For that reason, hospitality sector has been increasing day-by-day and varied opportunities have been creating for the hotels. Holiday Inn is one of them who are coming under hospitality sector (Klincekova & Salgovicova, 2014; Goffee, 1983). Holiday Inn has been providing quality food and services at cheap prices, which have created an opportunity among the industry for conducting operations with better competitiveness. Travellers of varied nations travel throughout the year and they search for low price quality accommodations. In this regard, Holiday inn has a chance to gain maximum customers for the provision of quality products and/or services at affordable costs. Due to limited staff, the management of the hotel has been unable to handle operations of varied departments in an effective manner (Ford & et. al., 2011). Notably, Holiday inn improving its departmental crisis would be facilitated with the opportunity of acquiring an increased customer base in the future. On the other side, different hotels have been providing seasonal discounts as well as occasional benefits to its new customers. These benefits have helped the hotels to gain more customers. Likewise, Holiday Inn provides seasonal as well as occasional benefits like discounts in dinners. These benefits have created an opportunity for the Holiday Inn for attaining a better competitive position (Coy, 2004). Apparently, Holiday Inn has started its chain of hotels at international level. The opportunity level of the hotel has been higher in the hotel industry with increased hotel chains. Maintain sustainability is the only vision of Holiday Inn and through expansion of its business has been able to create a new opportunity for it. The unique value added service called “First comes service” is regarded as another opportunity for the hotel. Thus, Holiday Inn continuing its services in different regions of the world would aid in performing beneficially. Customer relationship management is another important way to attain higher opportunity level for the hotel. Use of new age technology in the customer service desk higher the chances of opportunity (Chopra, 2011). Threats Globalisation and technological advancement are accountable for changing the market scenario to a large extent. New entrants in the same business field always create a threat for existing organizations. In this respect, Holiday Inn is identified to face intense competition due to the development of the market segments. Due to global recession, every business sector has been faced financial problem. In this respect, organisations are identified to face issues in minimising total cost and provide quality services to the prospective customers. Similarly, Holiday Inn faced with the financial problem and according faced ample challenges in providing quality services and food at low cost. Financial crisis has limited its profit level. Due to economic recession, Holiday Inn had to cut down its labour cost and downsized its workforce largely. For that reason, most of the department of Holiday Inn have been suffering tremendous losses. In a large extent, the management cannot provide quality service to the guests due to inadequate staff members (Burkard, 2013). On the other side, intense competition among the same rated hotels developed threat for Holiday Inn. Natural disaster and terrorist activity has been limited the growth of hotel industry. In the recent times, organizations have used high tech technology for handing operational activity more sufficiently (Wilson, 2005). Day-by-day operational cost is increasing, which also create a threat to the hotels. For high operational cost, Holiday Inn cannot afford to upgrade its systems. For that reason, Holiday Inn is recognised to lose prospective customers and is unable to attract new customers (Bowie & Buttle, 2013). Result of Analysis Strengths Unique service i.e. “First comes service” for the first checks in customers Serves different cuisines Highly professional chiefs and staff Weaknesses Have limited staff Poor packing facility Do not provide home delivery Opportunities Frequent travellers Provide quality food and service at economical rate Seasonal and occasional benefits Threats Global economic recession Higher rate of operational cost New entrants Marketing Objectives Marketing objectives is one of the important parts of an organizational goal. Contextually, organizations planning to change present format and introduce a new format at that time the management is required to set objectives or goals. On the other side, organizations wanting to promote new products or services to its prospective customers at that time the management set some objectives to achieve its assigned goal. In this regard, Holiday Inn wants to expand its business in different nationals as well as international regions. To earn maximum profit, Holiday Inn has to form marketing objective to achieve its goal and make it successful. Holiday Inn has been known for its quality service and food at low cost for better success. Accordingly, the management has planned its budget properly and skilfully. Proper budget planning will help Holiday Inn authority to sustain in the economic recession. Due to global economic pitfall, Holiday Inn is identified to make losses and accordingly, downsized its workforce. For this reason, day-by-day service level is adversely deteriorating and the hotel is ineffective in providing quality services to the guests. Currently, Holiday Inn has suffered from difficult situations and these situations have created threat for it. Due to security reasons, most of the customers avoid hotels, which are situated in highway locations. In this context, location of Holiday Inn in the highway has been a threat for it. Holiday Inn has to form its marketing objective in such a way that it can offer quality services to its prospective customers. To improve the services, Holiday Inn has cut down unnecessary value added services. In this way, the management of hotel can minimum its overall expenses and provide quality service to its new as well as existing customers. Holiday Inn has to restructure its popular service “First comes service” and recruit more workforces to make services and/or products attractive and satisfactory to the customers. Moreover, the hotel with the assistance of advanced technology in areas booking system and room services among others will be facilitated with the opportunity of providing customers better accessibility to the hotel services Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be comprehended that marketing objective and marketing audit aid in determining the performance of the hotel i.e. Holiday Inn. Through proper SWOT analysis, the hotel would be facilitated in having an immense understanding of its present status in the market. Global economic pitfall, natural disaster and terrorist activity are identified to adversely affect the tourism industry. In this regard, Holiday Inn also affected for this. Subsequently, Holiday Inn with the assistance of marketing audit is able to have a better understanding about its activities and services. Improvement in the various services is required for the sustainability of the hotel. In this respect, the hotel is required to recruit additional workforce to generate more profit and enhance customer base. Implementation of home delivery service also enhances its profitability and popularity among the locals. References Bowie, D. & Buttle, F., 2013. Hospitality Marketing. Taylor & Francis. Burkard, N., 2013. Market Segmentation and Branding In the Hotel Industry with Special References to Hilton Cooperation. Grin Verlag. Chopra, A., 2011. Technical Guide on Audit in Hotel Industry. The Institute Of Chartered Accountants of India, pp. 1-108. Coy, J., 2004. Evaluation of Client Marketing Effectiveness. Marketing Environment Audit, pp.1-8. Ford, R. & et. al., 2011. Managing Quality Service In Hospitality: How Organizations Achieve Excellence In The Guest Experience. Cengage Learning. Goffee, P., 1983. Evaluating Hotel Marketing Effectiveness: The Audit. Hospitality Review, pp. 1-17. Karppinen, M., 2011. Strategic marketing plan for a hotel. 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