Strategic marketing and its operations in UK hotels and restaurants - Dissertation Example

? STRATEGIC MARKETING IN UK’S HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY by goes here] Presented to [your goes here] [your goes here] [your university’s name] [due date of the paper] TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE # 1. Introduction 1 2. What Is Strategic Marketing? 1 3. Impact of Strategic Marketing in UK Hotels and Restaurants 2 4. Focal Points Regarding Development of Strategic Plan 5 5. Goals of Strategic Marketing for UK Hospitality Industry 8 6. Conclusion 9 References 10 Strategic Marketing in UK’s Hospitality Industry 1. Introduction In any business or organization related to hospitality industry, the basic intent or desire of the management officials is to achieve desired goals and objectives. These goals and objectives can only be achieved when a company considers the needs and demands of the consumers, internal and external environments, and business opportunities while designing the business strategies. The hospitality industry includes all such businesses that provide accommodation services, tourism services, and food service to the people. Among all types of business strategies, marketing strategies hold key importance in the progress and development of the hospitality industry of a country. In order to attract and retain the customers through customer centric marketing strategies, a business faces many challenges. For this purpose, the business officials need to implement appropriate strategic marketing plans not only to overcome the marketing challenges but also to provide tourism and food services to the customers in an appropriate manner. In this paper, we will discuss the impact of strategic marketing on the progress and development of the United Kingdom’s tourism and hospitality industries. 2. What Is Strategic Marketing? Before going to examine the process of strategic marketing and its operations in the hotels and restaurants located in the United Kingdom, let us get a better understanding of what strategic marketing actually is. Masters (2011) states, “Strategic marketing is a consumer-based approach to product promotion that identifies market segments and attempts to make them more profitable by providing superior value”. Strategic marketing includes such plans and directions, which hospitality companies use to create effective plans that not only satisfy the customers’ needs and demands but also help the companies increase productivity and profitability. Almost all companies find strategic marketing planning a necessity (Samli 1998, p. 2). Strategic marketing improves productivity of a company. Productivity of a company depends on some critical factors, such as, customer satisfaction and employee retention. If we talk about hospitality industry, if the customers will be satisfied from the food and beverages provided by any specific restaurant, they will work as a source to attract more people towards the restaurant, which will ultimately increase the levels of productivity and profitability of the restaurant. It is a well-known fact that when a company makes a customer, it makes one customer, but when a company loses a customer, it loses a hundred customers. In case of hospitality and tourism industries, quality of foods and services is the main factor which attracts customers and improves customer satisfaction level for a company. So, a company should create and implement a marketing plan, which should not only reach target customer but also should increase customer satisfaction for the company. 3. Impact of Strategic Marketing in UK Hotels and Restaurants While talking about strategic marketing, we should also discuss the basic purpose of strategic marketing for the UK’s hotels and restaurants. So talking about the main purpose of strategic marketing, we can say that it helps hotels and restaurants improve their performance by attracting more customers and retaining old ones. In UK, hotel managers make use of effective marketing methods not only to reach new customers but also to make them realize their value and importance for the business. Strategic marketing is all about conveying product related messages to the targeted customers using appropriate ways of communication. Cavell (2008) states, “Strategic marketing has to do with What you Say, How you Say it and Who you Say it To”. Strategic marketing plays a considerable role in the success of the UK’s hospitality industry. It not only improves the image of a company but also reflects a company’s concern for the customers. Every organization or business related to the hospitality industry needs to create a well written strategic marketing plan which in order to promote the innovative products in the target markets. Not only that, the businesses should also develop the implementation strategies regarding those plans. Durand (2006) found innovation helps an organization achieve dominance in a competitive market and a well structured marketing strategy is proves to be a key towards successful innovation. In UK’s hospitality industry, there are two main reasons of designing and implementing appropriate strategic marketing plans. First reasons or task is to satisfy the customers’ demands through introducing such foods and services which they like and the second motive is to increase the productivity and profitability of the companies. In the United Kingdom, hospitality industry is the fifth largest industry which provides job opportunities to a large number of people. Therefore, the impact of strategic marketing of job opportunities can also be great on this aspect of the industry. If a hospitality business becomes able to attract a large number of customers in a competitive market through implementation of appropriate and effective marketing techniques, its success and dominance in the market can really be guaranteed. Hospitality businesses need to take such strategic decisions regarding marketing of their products and services which should be able to make their business grow. Strategic marketing plays a considerable role in improving a company’s performance in the market without affecting its day-to-day marketing activities. Proctor (2000) found that strategic marketing is the powerful force which drives a business towards achievement of desired goals and objectives in a successful manner. Talking about the impact of strategic marketing on the UK’s hospitality industry, we must say that it helps an organization achieve market dominance in a competitive market. “Strategic market management is motivated by the assumption that the planning cycle is inadequate to deal with the rapid rate of change” (Proctor 2000, p. 16). A hospitality business can achieve market dominance by properly analyzing and evaluating basic demands of the customers and then working on those demands in order to gain customer satisfaction and product value. Strategic marketing not only helps a company penetrate in a competitive market but also helps a company improve its value by making customers know about quality of the products. A hospitality business can also achieve market supremacy by implementing such strategy for the marketing of its foods and services which should not only attract customers but also should be reliable and profitable for the business. A business can attract customers by using such modes of marketing which make use of latest technologies, such as, television ads, emails, web advertisements. Market domination and minimized expenses should be the mission of a hospitality company and this mission can only be achieved through effective strategic marketing planning. When a business or organization related to hospitality industry wants to create a strategic marketing plan for its products and services, the strategic managers perform their tasks in proper collaboration with the heads of all departments, which include sales, accounts, food and beverages, and operation department for identification of the marketing goals. Tatum (n.d.) states, “The development of a proper marketing plan involves information collected from several different sources”. It is the role of a strategic marketing manager to set up the marketing mechanisms for marketing of the products and services being introduced by a company. The ultimate impact of strategic marketing planning for the UK’s hospitality industry is very positive as it helps the companies and businesses improve their market share growth and levels of revenues by minimizing the expenses and improving efficiency of the marketing activities. 4. Focal Points Regarding Development of Strategic Plan Tatum (2011) states, “A strategic marketing plan is an approach to structuring marketing efforts in a manner that identifies and meets consumer demand”. In any organization or a company related to the hospitality industry, the objective of implementing an appropriate strategic marketing plan is achieved when all departments of the organization work in proper collaboration with each other. They not only work together to create a marketing plan by researching customer attitudes and designing metrics to measure performance but also help the authorities implement those plans effectively and efficiently. An effective marketing plan is one which creates customer value by making customers aware of their importance for the company. When a company identifies some marketing goals, the managers of that company start working for the development of such marketing strategies which can help the company achieve those goals successfully. After marketing managers of a company develop a marketing plan for the company, the next step is to implement the plan through creating tactical marketing programs and identifying target markets. Planning is the first and the most important step in the strategic marketing process. Hamm (2010) states, “In order for any business to succeed, there is a planning process that needs to take place”. Without proper planning, managers cannot develop a productive plan for the company. Managers also need to perform comprehensive analysis of all aspects of the developed plan in order to know its strengths and weaknesses before actually implementing the plan. Once the analysis is done and all the aspects of the proposed plan are examined, managers can give the green signal to the subordinates to implement the plan. In the hospitality industry of the United Kingdom, managers need to be very proficient in developing effective strategic marketing plans because the competition in the UK is very high and there exist a number of hospitality businesses providing high quality products and services to the customers. Some of the key factors which managers need to consider while developing strategic marketing plans include needs and demands of the customers, changing market trends, seasons, and spending limit of the customers. Strategic marketing professionals always look at the things from customers’ perspective and take the decisions accordingly. Some of the main factors which marketers consider while developing strategic marketing plans include needs and demands of the customers, ways in which a customer’s needs can be met, potential market segments, and changing trends in the customers’ taste. Marketing professionals develop the strategic marketing plans in three stages. In the first stage, they segment the market according to the geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral aspects. In the next step, managers develop profiles of the market segments by considering the revenue potential, profitability potential, and market share potential of the company. In the last step, managers develop a market segment based marketing strategy. In this step, they test all aspects of the plan after determining whether they have to do targeted marketing or mass marketing. Generally, in the United Kingdom, mass marketing is given preference for the marketing of a restaurant’s foods and services. When we talk about strategic planning process for the hospitality industry of the United Kingdom, we should also discuss some very critical points which need to be considered by the marketing managers while development of the strategic plans. A company is able to meet all of its goals successfully, if the managers of the company consider the following points during plan development process. First focal point is that the marketing managers should have a complete understanding of the tourism and hospitality needs of the customers and the issues that make the public buy any specific product or service from the company. Managers need to study and analyze the customers’ attitudes towards different sorts of products and services in order to make the plan accordingly. Another focal point is to analyze the product and service categories and the competitiveness of the external environment. Grant (2002) found that managers also need to do situational analysis of the business. The situational analysis shows the current standing of the company. It makes the managers know whether the company’s products are living up to the expectations of the customers or not. Managers need to analyze market characteristics, technology aspects, new food arrivals, competition, and opportunities in order to develop an effective strategic marketing plan. Managers also need to analyze the attractiveness and magnetism of the target markets. A proper SWOT analysis can help the managers of a company know whether the marketing of the company’s products and services is going in the right direction or it needs some improvements. For doing proper strategic marketing, marketing officials need to include 4 P’s of the marketing mix in the marketing plan. Understanding of the concepts of place, promotion, product, and people is very critical for the development of a successful strategic marketing plan. In the United Kingdom, managers of a hospitality company, whether it is a hotel, a restaurant, a restaurant group, or a caterer, always identify and recognize customers’ needs in order to develop effective marketing strategies with the intent to make improvements in the products and services which customers like to buy from the company. The managers need to identify competitive advantages that it may have in the market in order to use them for the benefit of the company. The managers also need to take considerable steps to improve quality of the products in order to attract more customers towards the company. A hospitality business, such as, a restaurant, should also be able to know which group of customers is more attracted towards the company’s products and services and why some other customers are not attracted towards the food and services of the restaurant as yet. The managers of the restaurant should identify and examine the issues which stop certain groups of customers from visiting the restaurant and enjoy the food. The last focal point regarding strategic marketing plan development is that the marketing managers should be able to identify the changing trends regarding food choice of the customers. The managers belonging to hospitality industry should implement such strategies, which should be able to accommodate the future trends related to foods and tourism services in the existing strategies. 5. Goals of Strategic Marketing for UK Hospitality Industry For UK’s hospitality industry, there exist such goals which are to be met by the organizations in order to achieve excellence and competitive edge. If these goals are not met, the ultimate goal of achieving competitive advantage can never be achieved. Some of the most important goals for strategic marketing include: Setting realistic and reasonable objectives for the organization Creation of effective marketing plans to reach target markets Bringing improvements in the performance of the hospitality businesses Improving customer satisfaction regarding food and services Improving productivity and profitability of the businesses Identifying market segments and making them more profitable Providing superior value to the customers If the strategic marketing manager of a company considers these goals before actually developing a strategic marketing plan, he/she will be able to develop an effective and productive plan for the company. 6. Conclusion Summing it up, hospitality industry is the fifth largest industry of the United Kingdom. Having more than 250000 outlets in UK, the industry needs effective planning to maintain its success. Strategic marketing helps the hospitality industry achieve its desired goals by using consumer-focused approach for products’ promotion. Strategic marketing puts a deep impact on the overall success of the UK’s hospitality and tourism industries. It not only improves the performance of different types of businesses associated with the hospitality industry but also helps them generate high levels of revenue. Managers need to consider many important points while developing strategic marketing plans for their companies in order to make the plans productive and profit-oriented. References Cavell, J 2008, Strategic Vs Tactical Marketing, viewed 10 September, 2011, . Durand, R 2006, Organizational evolution and strategic management, SAGE Publications, London. Grant, R 2002, Contemporary strategy analysis: concepts, techniques, application, 4th edn, Blackwell Publishing, U.S.A. Hamm, S 2010, Strategic Marketing Plans - 5 Steps to Developing a Plan That Works, viewed 10 September, 2011, . Masters, T 2011, What is Strategic Marketing?, viewed 10 September, 2011, . Proctor, T 2000, Strategic Marketing: An Introduction, Routledge, London. Proctor, T 2000, ‘Strategic marketing management for health management: cross impact matrix and TOWS’, Journal of Management in Medicine, Vol. 14, no. 1, pp.47 – 56, viewed 10 September, 2011, http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1411540&show=abstract Samli, C 1998, Strategic Marketing for Success in Retailing, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport. Tatum, M 2011, What Is a Strategic Marketing Plan?, viewed 10 September, 2011, . Tatum, M n.d., What is a Marketing Plan?, viewed 10 September, 2011, . Read More