Hospitality Companies - Best Western International - Research Paper Example

Hospitality Companies Research Project BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Hospitality Companies Research Project The hotel brands selected to highlight include: Best Western – This hotel is very large with hotels all over America, therefore target customers are business travelers or families that have limited resources and cannot afford a higher-priced accommodation. This is a very competitive environment, and a chain this large must be available to all different market segments with the resources to use this hotel chain. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Red Roof Inn – This is a cost-conscious hotel chain that offers lower rate rooms with fewer amenities. This is for the personal traveler looking for a single night to rest or a family vacationer with less financial resources. It is not intended to be a vacation destination, but rather a clean and comfy place to rest before moving on with the journey. It is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Best Western International offers franchise rights to independent owners, therefore all Best Western hotels are independently owned. Other than any assets that are corporately-owned, this hotel administration acts as the team that handles marketing promotions and makes sure that the brand image is being sent consistently through the licensing efforts. Red Roof Inn has just over 325 locations across the country that are owned by the parent company. Best Western offers many different promotions aimed toward their target markets: the business traveler and the low-resource buyer. During a particular period, the buyer can stay twice and receive a $50 gift card (bestwestern.com, 2010). There is another promotion that involves completing a voting survey to win one million rewards points for Best Western. These promotions show how they have cost in mind and trying to build loyalty in mid-priced target segments. Red Roof Inn has the RediCard which is another type of promotion offering reward points for multiple stays at the chain (redroof.com, 2010). This promotion is aimed at the budget-minded traveler by offering more incentives to get them to remain loyal to Red Roof. There are many smaller, inexpensive hotels and motels that compete with Red Roof therefore they need to remain focused on cost and efficiency. Both Best Western and Red Roof have locations in Miami. Red Roof has a hotel at the Miami Airport with a nice exterior. Best Western has a facility known as the Floridian as well as another location at the Miami Airport. Best Western is located in over 30 different countries, including Belgium, Croatia, Ireland, New Zealand and India (bestwestern.com, 2010). This chain has a very large international presence which would demand local talent to support the different cultures. Red Roof Inn is located within the United States only and has not expanded internationally at this time. The restaurants highlighted include: Red Lobster – This restaurant is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The target customer is the more conservative diner with higher resources based on menu prices. The restaurant promotes freshness as its main target message, hoping to gain the attention of consumers in the higher middle class and above. However, it is still a mid-priced restaurant compared to competition. Chili’s – A bar and grill headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The target customers are the social young adult audience looking for friendly recreation. It does not necessarily target the family audience as many food products on the menu are adult-focused, however that does not mean as a chain it does not get untargeted buyers looking for food options. It is a mid-priced restaurant category. Chili’s has over 1900 restaurants worldwide and can be found in 25 different countries (juggle.com, 2010). This expansion is due to the company’s ability to understand the young adult buyer and their social needs and then develop a restaurant environment that is important for their cultural needs internationally. Red Lobster has 680 restaurants in the United States and Canada only (redlobster.com, 2010). It is likely it would be difficult to compete with other restaurants internationally where much of their product involves commercial fishing. Outside of just the commercial fishing environment, there is not much in terms of distribution to the consumer. There is usually a retail middle-man involved. This is why Red Lobster has found high success in North America and Canada because access to prepared and cooked seafood, outside of the home, is difficult to come by. Expanding this business concept into China or other sea-bordering countries would be poor business decision-making without regionally inspired menus for local cultural tastes. If a user signs up for Chili’s email club, they receive a free chips and queso appetizer (Chilis.com, 2009). The restaurant refers to its workers at Chiliheads, suggesting fun and interesting hospitality with down-to-earth staff members. This promotion works well for those who would be interested in using social media to discuss Chilis, which is the young adult target market. Red Lobster’s promotions are also very low-key, such as receiving free birthday menu items for signing up with a loyalty club program. This would appeal to most of their target buyers, especially higher-resourced families that like to celebrate these events in public or an interesting environment. For the non-target audience, such as the walk-in couple looking for a new alternative in dining, contest sweepstakes are used in promotion to get their attention to the email club at Red Lobster. Having this email data makes it easier to identify key market segments or provide direct mailing opportunities (at home or email) to send special events or offers in the future. Data mining is a reason for this type of marketing to the target buyer. The only Chili’s available in Miami is a kiosk-style restaurant at Miami Airport and a secondary location on Biscayne Boulevard. There are four different Red Lobster locations scattered across Miami, including NW and SW Miami. The cruise lines highlighted include: Carnival Cruise Lines – This cruise line is headquartered in Miami, Florida. Middle America is usually the target audience of choice for this company, with the family or household resources needed for higher-priced adventure trips. Offers the cruise line, “Our target guy is 40 some odd years old and may have a family, but he is not making $1 million a year – he just want to have a great vacation experience” (cruiseindustrynews.com, 2010, p.1). It is more budget positioned. Star Cruises – This cruise line is headquartered in Hong Kong. It is more luxury with a higher price and representatives with a different attitude than lower-cost fun ships. The ships look sophisticated and the price tag is for the higher-priced traveler or partnered travelling companions looking for international travels. This is the more elite buyer who is the target group. This company differentiates itself not through value, but through visual appeal and special offerings found on higher priced cruise lines. This means less funky-style fun and more thoughtful or inspiring travelers. Carnival is looking to expand its target clients to include the buyers with less experience in taking cruise vacations (cruiseindustrynews.com, 2010). This is because the cruise experience is more affordable and the company can limit its amenities by promoting more fun, created by the passenger and the resources that the cruise line provides them. As an easy and laid back kind of business model, the company has many different methods of gaining loyalty or interest from new clients through price and the sale of fun as a lifestyle need. Both Star and Carnival Cruises have 22 different boats operating in their fleet. Star Cruises can be found in Sydney, Tokyo, Stockholm, and Dubai (starcruises.com, 2008). Star Cruises is also a majority shareholder/owner in Norwegian Cruise Lines, giving them more destination exposure and flexibility. Carnival Cruise Lines can be found in North America, Germany, Australia and South America. Carnival Cruises has a port in Miami, with the Miami Dade port authority printing their schedules for departure along with images of the ships themselves. This gives the target customers another excellent resource for researching cruise times and destinations to make their scheduling needs more convenient. Star Cruises also works with the Port of Miami for stop-offs or final destinations. Carnival Cruises is the more budget-oriented company, therefore this company’s promotional package includes price focus, such as offering discounted last minute packages. For the fun seeker type, the company offers previews of the type of music to expect on its ships as another incentive to invite consumers to make a final purchase. The key in all of this company’s promotions are focused around fun, both visual (such as music and celebrity) and recreational. Star Cruises does not seem to rely on any promotional efforts, due to its prestige and higher price for more elite and professional travel. To use price promotions might change its brand image related to differentiated offerings against competition. This is a quality-focused marketing strategy in promotion. References Bestwestern.com. (2010). “Best Western International Websites”. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from http://www.bestwestern.com/travelprofessionals/internationallinks.asp Bestwestern.com. (2010). “Stay now….save later!”. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://www.bestwestern.com/ Chilis.com. (2009). “Chili’s Folklore”. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://www.chilis.com/EN/aboutchilis/Pages/chilisfolklore.aspx Cruiseindustrynews.com. (2010). “Company profile: Carnival Cruise Lines: Targeting Middle America”. Retrieved April 19, 2010 from http://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news-articles/67-articles/3540-winter-09-10-company-profile-carnival-cruise-lines-targeting-middle-america.html Juggle.com. (2010). “Parent company of Chili’s”. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://www.juggle.com/chilis#headquarters Redlobster.com. (2010). “The History of Red Lobster”. Retrieved April 19, 2010 from http://www.redlobster.com/passion/our_story/history.asp Redroof.com. (2010). “Get RediCard and earn special rewards!”. Retrieved April 21, 2010 from http://www.redroof.com/ Starcruises.com. (2008). “Star Cruises Limited ’08 Annual Report”. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://www.starcruises.com/Investor/Releases/2008/Ar/E012AnnualRpt2008dated9Apr09.pdf Read More