California Grill and Bar - Research Paper Example

California Grill & Bar Analysis Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 ment of the problem 5 Findings 8 Conclusions 10 References 13 Executive summary Located at San Mateo Marriott San Francisco Airport, California Grill & bar enjoys a prime location that would otherwise entice profitability. While most marketers would argue that location is the most important feature in safeguarding the profitability of a business, the same is not the case with California Grill & Bar that continues to register poor performance owing to its inability to satisfy its customers. The report arises from an extensive research on the operations of the hotel with the view to determining the nature of the problem. California Grill promises fun and convenience, which it strives to deliver. However, official reports show a dwindling market share for the Grill with a growing list of customers who continue to express dissatisfactions with the facility as most explain that they ate at the hotel simply because it was convenient. The researcher uses a number of data collection strategies to measure up the level of satisfaction of the hotel’s customers and compares the operations of the hotel to those of other similar facilities. This way, the researcher determines the nature of the problem, which arises from the hotel’s inability to diversify its services and to expand with time. The report uses a number of graphical data presentation techniques such as tables and graphs to prove the nature and effects of the problems. This way, the research informs the recommendations key among which is the advice for the hotel to embrace new technologies and to expand its services in order to grow its market share both in the region and globally. Introduction The San Mateo Marriotts California Grill is an upscale hotel that offers a number of services and products. The hotel enjoys a strategic location, which is about ten minutes from the busy San Francisco International Airport. The Grill and bar offers a variety of meals including breakfast, lunch, dinners and an assortment of cocktails. The hotel prides itself in offering high quality services. It targets the middle class and the wealthy and therefore offers appropriate services for the various target markets. Despite the hotel’s attempt to diversify its products, it continues to register mixed performance with its profitability remaining unpredictable. While the strategic location should enhance the hotel’s favorability among both local and international travelers most of whom make maiden stops at the airport, such has not been the case since the hotel continues to register unprofitability with the grill and bar incurring major loses. \ Most of the hotel’s visitors express dissatisfaction with the quality of the service with some claiming that they sought the hotel’s services because it was convenient to their unique condition. The hotels industry is expanding with new players in the market employing unique yet timely marketing strategies in order to enhance their profitability. Competition has since intensified for the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill, a feature that requires the hotel to change its operations in order to fit in the new society. The hotel’s inability to change its operation and marketing strategies are therefore among the basic causes for the hotel’s current predicament. Competitiveness is a vital feature in business and the hotel must redefine and modify its competitive advantages (Hutt & Thomas, 2013). Among the latest trends in the industry that continue to enhance competition for the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill is the development of micro-hotels. The small-scale hotels are increasingly becoming popular with travelers at airports. The small hotels offer the basic features that any restaurant would only that they prioritize convenience. The development of such hotels poses a major threat to the profitability of San Mateo Marriotts California Grill, which sought to maximize its profitability based on its convenient and strategic location a few meters from the airport. This implies that the hotel must reinvent its competitive advantages and reposition itself effectively in the market in order to win over both its returning and new customers (Rosenbloom, 2015). Numerous other hotels in the city have noticed the problem and the competition posed by the micro-hotels. As such, the competitors have enhanced their competitiveness by developing appropriate product and services that would sustain their profitability. Key among such is using the internet to grow business. The internet offers marketers a limitless resources and effective platform for marketing. Effective marketers have since developed appropriate websites and continue to use the social media to enhance their competitiveness. Others have introduced the concept of rewarding customer loyalty. The San Mateo Marriotts California Grill is a chain hotel that would as well implement an equally appropriate reward program a feature that would help grow the hotel’s international market. Statement of the problem The reputation of a hotel is a fundamental feature that enhances the profitability and longevity of such a business. The reputation of the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill has dwindled over the past few years thereby resulting in the loss of a substantial market share for the hotel. Marketers strive to improve the reputation of their businesses as a basic way of positioning a business strategically thereby enhancing the competitiveness of such. Despite understanding the importance of the reputation of a business, the marketers at California Grill and bar have portrayed lack of interest in enhancing their public relations endeavors among other marketing strategies in order to improve the reputation of the hotel and safeguard its competitiveness in the region. The reputation of the restaurant has deteriorated as customers share their dissatisfaction through the various media. The researcher therefore investigates the source of the poor reputation that California Grill and bar continue to acquire despite the management’s attempt to revive the hotel’s profitability. In doing this, the researcher seeks to establish the failures of the hotel’s marketers. Numerous other hotels in the city both old and new continue to enjoy steady profitability and desirable reputation. Such features show the viability of the market in the city. Such developments therefore make the problem at the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill conspicuous thereby validating the need for an extensive research in order to establish the nature and extent of the problem. Researching the problem and developing systematic and practical solutions will contribute to the growing pool of knowledge on the importance of public relations, which is a new yet rapidly growing technique of marketing in the contemporary society. The nature of the problem at the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill shows the marketers’ inability to employ appropriate public relations techniques coupled with the hotel’s inability to change its operations in order to fit the changing demands from the market. The researcher therefore investigates the nature, extent and effects of the problems. The researcher further strives to make appropriate conclusion that draws on the research findings. From such findings, the researcher will develop practical recommendations that will help the hotel and any other business that is facing similar challenges to reposition themselves thereby enjoy immense profitability given the market’s sustained growth (Novikova, 2009). Methodology In analyzing the nature of the problem at the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill, the researcher employs a number of data collection methodologies key among which is content analysis. Content analysis is a unique method of data collection that will help understand the nature of the problem. The method requires an extensive analysis of existing literatures that show the nature of the problem. In this context, the researcher investigates official reports from the hotel and newspaper articles that reports instances of the problems and their effects on the profitability of the hotel. Through the analysis of such materials, the researcher will understand the nature of the problem as reported by other people either who have experienced the problem or who are affected by the problems at the hotel. Additionally, the researcher will employ the random sampling technique to select fifty travelers who visit the city of San Francisco. The researcher will further select an additional fifty customers of the California Grill and bar. With such a sample, the researcher will employ a number of effective data collection techniques in order to understand the problem and collect computable data that will help formulate a reliable hypothesis. The researcher will use questionnaires and interviews to seek the respondents’ views on the prevalence of the problem at the hotel, their opinion about the hotel and reasons for the same. From this category of respondents, the researcher will obtain primary data that will influence his conclusions and recommendations. The researcher adopts the quantitative research structure. Such is a unique structure that investigates the prevalence of mathematically computable variables and data. Quantitate research is appropriate in this context since it provides variables that are easy to observe and relate. This way, the methodology provides the researcher with an opportunity to formulate workable and reliable hypothesis concerning the relationship between public relations and profitability of a business. After collecting the data from the various quarters, the researcher will use appropriate data computation and analysis techniques to find the relationship between public relations in marketing and the profitability of a business. Such techniques as tabulation provide a clear way of comparing data in a research. The researcher will therefore use such in ensuring that the data look presentable and easy to understand. In presenting the research findings, the researcher uses appropriate graphical presentations such as pie charts, graphs and tables among others in showing the prevalence of the problem and its effects to the hotel. The use of the various graphical presentations provides a descent presentation of the data. Furthermore, they make comprehension of the data easy since they readily compare the data. Findings The researcher made significant discoveries about California Grill & bar concerning its ability to satisfy customers as the analysis below portrays. I. Less than 50% of the respondents claimed that they did not know about the hotel The researcher interviewed fifty travelers who visited the city of San Francisco. The researcher selected the respondents carefully with the view of recruiting both local and international. Out of the fifty, twenty of the respondents turned out to be international travelers who come to the city from Europe and East Asia. A few others had come from Africa. The remaining number comprised of local travelers with some being Americans from other states while seven were residents of the city who were travelling back from various regions of both the world and the country. II. 26% of the respondents hinted that they would visit the hotel The researcher interviewed fifty potential customers who admitted that they would be staying in hotels during their stay in the city. Some including locals stated that while they would not be staying in a hotel, they are likely to go out either for leisure or for business meetings. The venues for such meetings are always hotels. As such, the researcher asked all the fifty respondents about their hotel of choice while in the city of San Francisco. The respondents gave various answers with thirteen responded admitting that they would either stay or visit the California Grill and bar for their meetings. The responded gave their hotels of choice with reasons for the choices. Some respondents named hotels in the city center while others named hotels located in the outskirts of the city. The reasons for the answers were equally varied with some claiming that they knew only about hotels they suggested while others were returning customers who named their respective hotels given the quality of the services they obtained from the hotels. A majority of those who chose the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill claimed that the hotel was conveniently located near the airport and was therefore favorable since it would not inconvenience them in case they needed to travel out of the city at short notices. III. 57% of those who visited the hotel promised not to return to the hotel citing a number of varied reasons Finally, the researcher selected fifty responded who had visited the grill and bar. The researcher interviewed this category of respondents when they were about to check out of the facility and asked a number of questions concerning their experience at the hotel. Key among the questions was whether they would return or refer their others to the hotel. Twenty-seven of the customers claimed that they would neither return to the hotel nor refer any of their friends to the hotel. Twenty of the remaining twenty-three promised to come back while the remaining three remained non-bothered by the question. The respondents gave varying reasons for their answers with some claiming that the quality of service was poor while others claiming that costs of services at the hotel were higher than other similar hotels. Those who said that they would visit the hotel once more or even refer their friends explained that the hotel was conveniently located close to the airport a feature that made their stay in the city more comfortable. Conclusions The findings of the research show that the San Mateo Marriotts California Grill is underperforming owing to a number of factors. Firstly, a majority of the international travelers claimed that they did not know about the hotel. This implies that the hotel is not carrying out effective marketing of its products and services to the international community. Such is a fundamental concern that arises from the marketer’s inability to use appropriate media and marketing strategies in order to raise adequate awareness of the hotel. Promotion is a vital element of the marketing mix that dictates that marketer must always raise adequate awareness on the existence of a product in order to create a need thus attracts customers. The marketers of the hotel were failing to create adequate awareness on the existence of the hotel thereby costing it the lucrative international travelers. Additionally, the findings show competition is intense in the hotel industry in the city of San Francisco. The few respondents gave varied answers when asked about their hotels of preference. This implies that California Grill and bar must employ appropriate marketing strategies in order to improve its market position given the intense competition rom the numerous other players. The hotel offers a few services. The hotel industry targets a large market with most customers always seeking a number of services. An ideal hotel must therefore strive to provide as much of the services as possible depending on the demands of its target market. As explained earlier, California grill and bar is an upscale hotel. This implies that the hotel must offer services that help set it a part in the segment of the market. Another equally important conclusion is the fact that the hotel has unmotivated employees who do not strive to impress and retain customers. A substantial section of the respondents explained that they would neither visit the hotel again nor refer their friends. In justifying their answers, the respondents gave varied reasons with some citing the high price while others claiming that the quality of the services and food was poor. Such is a fundamental factor that the hotel’s management must investigate in order to rectify. Recommendations I. The hotel’s marketers must carry out extensive marketing and advertising on the international market. The hotel has a chain management structure. This implies that it should develop an effective system of rewarding customer loyalty (Enz, 2010). Such customer loyalty products as redeemable points increase cases of referral while lowering the cost of carrying out international marketing. II. The management must appreciate the use of the internet in marketing. While the hotel has a functional website, it should enhance its marketing on the online platform by using the various social media platforms that offer marketers appropriate ways of interacting with target customers. Such creates an opportunity for marketers to carry out effective market researches (Sheth, Parvatiyar & Shainesh, 2001). Additionally, the hotel should embrace online bookings. Such enhances convenience in service delivery thereby endearing to international travelers thereby enhancing the hotels competitiveness. III. The hotel should employ effective employees and use appropriate management theories in enhancing the productivity of the employees. Currently, lack of customer satisfaction is a major concern that continues to threaten the future of the hotel. By creating a motivate workforce, the hotel will improve its competitiveness by ensuring that it retains most of its first time customers who are currently expressing disappointments. References Enz, C. A. (2010). Hospitality Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Hutt, M. D. & Thomas, W. S. (2013). Business Marketing Management: B2b. Australia: South Western, Cengage Learning. Novikova, K. (2009). A study of customer satisfaction factors and employee satisfaction in the hospitality industry. New York: Southern Illinois University. Rosenbloom, S. (2015). The Travel Selfie: I Was Here, Give Me a Discount. The New York Times. Sheth, J. N., Parvatiyar, A., & Shainesh, G. (2001). Customer relationship management: Emerging concepts, tools, and applications. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub. Co. Read More