This assessment will cover the following questions:
- Examine important digital tools, channels, and platforms used by the Marriott hotel in their work.
- Explain methods of monitoring and measuring digital marketing effectively.
- Elaborate on how to organise digital marketing activities and build multi-channel activities in the context of the Marriott hotel.
- Marriott hotel is a chain of hotels working across the globe. Demonstrate an understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and impact of the digital environment.
INTRODUCTION
Hospitality digital marketing refers to developing and maintaining the presence and existence of hotel by using online channels and its defined channels which are system based and helps in creating and developing the value of product from the customer to producer. Digital marketing is firstly introduced in 1990s to 2000s and make modifications in its marketing methods of developing business and also make use of suitable technology in business environment (Adeyinka-Ojo and Abdullah, 2019). Digital marketing is useful in enhancing the various segments of organisations in order to reach to new customers and acquire more and more market segment. This marketing method supports the digital technologies in order to advertise its goods and services and it is mostly done with the help of internet. This report describes the understanding of opportunities and challenges which impacts the digital conditions and also analyse the basic digital tools which is used by hotel companies. Additionally, it identifies the digital marketing activities and also develop various channels for hotel. At last, it also evaluates the various methods of monitoring and measuring the digital activities in an effective manner in terms of Marriott which is a multinational diversified hotel company which manages the broad functions of hotels and other related facilities.
TASK 1
Develop the digital marketing report on Marriott hotel and require to provide an environmental analysis in detail manner
Digital marketing assist in promoting the product and its services to the larger people and it also provide ease to support the business to earn more profit in a shorter time span. Digital marketing enhances the area of companies or marketers to reach new customers and grasp more and more market segment (Dewnarain and et., al., 2019). Pestle analyses is the strategic tool which stands for political, economical and technological factors. Marriott hotel must use such kind of factor which help to understand the market effectively. Further it also involves the effect these factors on Marriott hotel revenues and its long term growth prospects. Here is the detail explanation of pestle which is explained down below:
Political factor: This factor is consist of different laws such as trade policies, international trade law, digitization and different norms and policies. This also impact how the government of respective nation sees the digital presence of the company. As different nation have there own set of laws and regulation for so company like Marriott hotel to identify all the norms as well as regulation for the smooth functioning of the hotel. For country like UK the political environment is stable and the government support the organization to expand the business effectively. Hence this provide opportunity to Marriott hotel to expand the business and provide high services to consumer (Dinis, Breda and Barreiro, 2020). For example in different countries like Vietnam and North Korea the internet is banned and on the other hand UK legislation body promotes digitization as to provide convenience to visitors. Further the political climate of nation is supportive and provide different platforms to company to explore and expand business effectively. The major challenges of this factor is to tackle the changing rules and legislation of nation and keep update about the new policies. There is vast opportunities present such as government support through which firm can expand.
Economical factor: National and international environment situations and the events impact the situations which are the major factor which impact the Marriott hotel and the business. This include inflation, interest rate and the gross domestic product. If the country has the has low business which indicates that people have less incomes respective to develop nations. In the case of UK the digital marketing have the significant role in improving the scale of business as this aid to provide better services with the assistance of digital technology. The government is spending more the cloud computing and virtual marketing as to facilitates uses with the new experience. Hence the vast expansion in the digital marketing and technology have increase the economy of the country and have support in enriching the life of people effectively. The main difficulty of this particular factor is Brexit as this impact the sales and growth opportunities to an extent. On the other hand there is opportunities for the company to bring new customer to developed nation for earning more profit.
Social factor: These are the factor which consist of individuals needs and preference. There are different factor which effect the requirements of person as because of there backgrounds and environment of particular nation. In UK the population is more towards digitization and they usually work upon different platform such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and etc. Most of the people use technology to day to da activities as this provide opportunities for Marriott hotel to implement digitization for there customer (Filimonau and Naumova, 2019). This method aid organisation to provide better services and also provide convenience for user to book hotels and also can conduct payment with the help of digitization. The major hurdle for the company is to understand the needs of user as they are very dynamic in nature. Hence this can also become opportunities for the organisation as to improve their sales for longer time period.
Technological factor: As the name suggest, technological factor consist of advance technology, automation and innovation to empower the economy and productivity of the nation as well as organisation. These all factor help in company to provide better services to consumer which help in increasing sales and revenue for the company. In the context of UK digitization most of the people depend upon the technology and prefers innovation product for convenience. There has been drastic change in technology in present UK as most of the organisation have done full automation in hotel as to attract the customer. In this case Marriott hotel management should implement new technology such as pre booking with apps and chat box for customer to clear the doubts regarding hotel. With such intention the UK digitization sector can improve the positing of the company effectively. As technology comes with high price and funds can be major challenge for the company. Apart from this there are vast option present as with the help of technology company can capture large market share.
Legal factor: This is consider as most essential factor in the organisation as it is essential for the company to follow all the rules and regulation as per the needs and requirements of the government. This factor include policies, government rules and regulation. These laws have direct impact on the organisation so management is responsible to abide all such rules for proper and smooth functioning. In the aspect of legal factor the UK is adhering and complying all legislation or laws which aid to provide stability in the government (Fyall and et., al., 2019). Furthermore the government bodies have several department for managing and controlling the digitization activities in order to minimize risk and uncertainty present in the market. This is feasible for the company like Marriott hotel to expand the business activities by using all the norms which falls under government of UK. Apart from this this, legislation body support the digitalization which is beneficial for the company to support and expand the business for the longer time duration. It is difficult task to understand the different laws of nation and HR have major challenge to expand and follow all the rules as per the guidelines.
Environmental factor: This factor have recently plays an vital role in as there have been rise in temperature and climate change which concern every nation and companies. This also impact on the digital services for hotel as government has made different laws and regulation for preventing the environment which cause pollution generated by different companies. For UK the government as well as population is highly concerned about the climate change as this become prime responsibility of the company to use less carbon emission and provide better and safe environment of people. For the organisation like Marriott hotel the management have to improvise the plan and implement new policies which are beneficial for the company to produce less carbon and this method will create awareness and brand image of the company at larger scale. Along with this, organisation must use 3R(Reuse, recycle and reduce) techniques as to support the nature. With such contribution entity digitalization can increase the customer base and able to capture larger audience for a longer time duration. The main challenge for the company is to reduce carbon footprint as make a safer environment. Hence there is immense option present in the market to provide healthy services to consumer.
TASK 2
Key digital tools, platforms and channels used by various organisations and comparing its digital presence
Digital tools and techniques are widely used by businesses and organisations for conducting their operations. Digitalisation is taking place and becoming part of every day life of individuals. In present scenario digital tools and techniques are the most commonly used in promotion and marketing actions by the organisations (Rather and Hollebeek, 2019). Hospitality industry is also developing their digital presence and utilising digital tools for marketing their offerings in order to reach to maximum population. In this section of the report, digital marketing tools which are used by Marriott Hotel for marketing their offering and attracting potential customers are discussed.
Marriott Hotel
Digital marketing tools used by Marriott Hotel are as follows which are helpful for them to effectively market their different offerings online. Marriott Hotel is investing almost 38% of their investments in digital marketing for enhancing its use and effectiveness. This is due to day to day increasing competition and aggressively changing marketplace. These marketing tools upgrades its digital presence, assist in attaining sustainable growth and increasing customer base. Some tools which are used by Marriott are as follows:
Google Ads- Marriott Hotel is using Google Ads for digital marketing which is one of the most influencing marketing channel. Through Google A ds company is reaching to maximum number of people as the advertisement pops up on screen of users while they are searching for the similar suggestions on google application. This is a cost effective tool of marketing enabling Marriott Hotel to increase their customer base by reaching to maximum number of population and converting them into potential buyers or guests.
Social media- Another very commonly used and digital marketing platform is social media. It includes numerous channels such as twitter, Instagram, Facebook and own website (Saura, Reyes-Menendez and Palos-Sanchez, 2020). These are few channels which Marriott Hotel uses by which they render information to public about their operations and activities. For instance, Marriott Hotel is placing a poster on their Instagram, Facebook and twitter accounts, informing public about the new holiday packages developed for different segments of society targeting their existing potential consumers. This part include various channels which are discussed as under:
- Instagram and Facebook: These social media channels are considered in the trends and also plays an important role in order to attract many customer. In respect of this, nowadays organisations want to attract youth and teenagers which becomes possible by using these channels in order to market and promote its products. Firstly, these channels are effortless and does not include any sort of charges. By determining the current usage of internet, it is determined that many youth use these channels and to attract them with this method is helpful for them to increase their sales and revenues (Tsourgiannis and Valsamidis, 2019).
- Twitter: It is an app or social media channel which covers all the trending topics that are hugely rated and its is somehow considered as the trend as most of the news and trends gets viral from twitter at a very rapid rate. Through this, various topics becomes popular by concerted efforts through its users or due to various events which prompts people to talk regarding the particular topic.
Modern Traveller- This are the persons who are connected with technology and internet savvy. This traveller travels efficiently and enjoys luxury that means sleeping in a five star hotel. These people interested in quality over quantity and follow a healthy life. In context of Marriott hotel, manager makes a strategy to go with digital platform for this they target the modern traveller person who are internet friendly and live their life very luxurious (Silva and et. al., 2019). So the organisation use this platform to connect with their customer which is the top priority. Here they use the online media to advertise their hotel group because the traveller seeking person finds the new place on that.
Social Media- In today's world people are most conscious about to share all their experiences and opinions very importantly good one about business on social media. In this digital marketing is the important aspects especially for online experiencing. In this Marriott Hotel use social media to attract and retain their customers for a long period of time. The motive of using social media is most people share their experiences while using this and it contains low cost on advertise Hotel on this platform. It is one of the best leading opportunity to enhance or grow their sector in different sectors. Marriott promote their business where there are number of audience is present like Facebook,Instagram etc. the best digital tools to make a online social media account which describes services and ambience creatively in front of wide number of people. It is the best source to engage and participate online media as well.
Search Engine and official website- It is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of website traffic by maximising the visibility of webpage to the persons. It is the improvement of natural results which excludes direct users. Today' s fashion is people like independent research rather then going to the travel agent. Most of the travellers use search engine or they use official website too enhance and grow the credibility of their hotel group. Manager use search engine because it is the unpaid strategy and provide relevant results. Here the company use visuals add and media for developing the innovative website that engage audience and improve bounce rates.
TASK 3
Develop a plan for digital marketing activities to support Marriott Hotel
Hospitality industry where Marriott Hotel operates its business function is turning competitive and challenging with every passing day. This directly impact over organisation in order to be effective and potentially attaining competitive position in marketplace (Tsourgiannis and Valsamidis, 2019). In this report it is mentioned that Marriott Hotel is making huge investment in digital marketing for maximizing their profits without any obstacles. There are several competitors who are challenging Marriott Hotel in marketplace such as Marriott Hotel, IHG, Four season hotel and many more. For dealing with competitors and attaining competitive advantage Marriott Hotel is developing a plan for its two new extensions which are made below.
a) Luxury business division
Identify the channel
This is the first step of the plan where Marriott Hotel analyse or understand the channel for reaching to its audience in an effective manner. Marriott Hotel, they are an active member in terms of using digital marketing platform as they are most likely use numerous digital platforms for marketing their goods and services which they are offering to people, such as different holiday packages, restaurant services and other in house services. Hence, as per the current state of UK population, it has been analysed that majority of the population are using online sources and different website application for acquiring the information or data related to company's service, brand, products (Rather and Hollebeek, 2019). Also, consumers make prefer ease and comforts and rather than going to hotel and other hospitality service provider they prefers making bookings online using different applications and media channels, which is another beneficial part for Marriott Hotel. Along with this, customers are also much attracted towards luxury services especially in hotels or resorts which empowered Marriott Hotel to achieve its pre defined objective in a better manner and in given time frame. Therefore, in case of exploring luxury business division, Marriott Hotel make an effort to identify some marketing channel such as social media platform, Google Ads, Instagram, Facebook and twitter for promoting and marketing their offerings. Through these marketing platforms Marriott Hotel can smoothly manage its sales and other operations, also attract larger population of the society. Enabling Marriott Hotel in increasing its brand awareness in global marketplace
Developing objective
Once, channels are identified the next stage of of developing an objective for enhancing overall performance of Marriott Hotel and operating in better manner. In case of Marriott Hotel its objectives are as follows:
- To increase its revenue by 25% in next one year.
- To enhance its customer base by 20% in next 9 months.
- Also, to increase its online presence through digital channels, platforms and tools.
In order to attain all these objective Marriott Hotel is concentrating to maintain its quality and rendering best products and services to its visitors or guests. This is done by conducting thorough market analysis and considering consumer demands, tastes and preferences. These practices allows Marriott Hotel to serve best experiences to their customers and attain best responses from their targeted audiences.
Determine target audience
This dimension is in context of identifying and distinguishing best suitable customer base or segment of society, which are helpful in improving the market share to size. Marriott Hotel, mainly focus on quality rather than pricing strategy (Saura, Reyes-Menendez and Palos-Sanchez, 2020). The targeted audience of Marriott Hotel are families who desires to spend their vacations with luxury and business class people. The main reason behind targeting higher class segment of society is they are more in touch of internet and digital tool which enable Marriott Hotel to reach them quickly increasing their brand publicity.
Generate integration
This is the last stage of the plan where Marriott Hotel marketing team management will take steps for combining its online and offline channels of marketing and make them work together for gathering effective results. Integrating different marketing channels enable Marriott Hotel to understand needs of individuals or their target market segment. It will motivate them to take corrective actions for gaining competitive advantage. This strategy will allow Marriott Hotel to increase their customer base and enhance their buying experiences
b) Active holiday seekers
- Identifying the channels: It is considered as the basic phase in which Marriott hotel take suitable initiative and wishes to expand its business in all over the world and because of this, also earn profitability ratio of its travel segments. So, with the increment rate of using the online methods and internet techniques among the population, Marriott hotel can make suitable attempts for the use of social media marketing channels, e-mails and advertisements with the help of both offline and online methods and search engine as well (Guchait and et., al., 2019). By opting these kinds of channels, it empowers the Marriott hotel in attracting the attention of people across the world and also enhance its overall proficiency ratio among competitors.
- Developing objectives: Under this method, Marriott hotel can determine the market and its probable conditions on the basis of implementing the best strategic decisions to achieve the sales and probable targets in specific time. It helps in identifying the suitable objectives of Marriott hotel and its main objective is to combine the various culture, values and beliefs in order to develop strong and healthy relationship among customers and organisation.
- Determining target audience: Under this factor, Marriott hotel determine its consumers and analyse that who can give their best and probable contribution towards in order to enhance the capability of an organisation and its profitability ratio. In addition to this, for attaining the enhanced level of sales within the travel division, Marriott hotel can easily target the families and youth travellers as due to this, it offers various services such as adventure tour, vacation package and so on (Gustavo, 2019). Because of this, it also allows them to expand their overall sales and profitability as it helps in enhancing the overall sales and performance which helps in fulfilling the current trends of customers tastes and demand in suitable manner.
- Generate integration: Because of the rapid growth among people, they prefer various channels of communication as it empowers the Marriott hotel and integrate its methods in different marketing communication channels to deal with all kind of competitors and competition in an unique manner. By implementing suitable strategies and techniques, it assist in improving and enhancing the customer relationship and also helps in discovering the new and probable trends to attract customers. In addition to this, by analysing the integration channels, it helps in supporting the Marriott hotel in acquiring, overviewing and suggesting their probable experience from the development of goods and services. Because of this, it helps in attaining the competitive advantage by their performance among the competitors in an suitable manner.
TASK 4
Methods to evaluate, monitor and measure digital marketing effectiveness
Many organisations are trying to use digital marketing tools in effective manner in order to create and promote the awareness of products among the customers and market. By analysing the digital marketing tools and techniques it is determined that it needs to be conducted in effective manner by marketing campaign as short fall of expectations can fail to reap a successful result from all the suitable efforts (Inanc-Demir and Kozak, 2019). In this case, reason behind the success and failure of business depends on the lack of marketing campaigns, creativity, quality materials and skilled personnel as due to this, success is monitored and performance of digital marketing campaigns.
By determining the above information and discussed marketing plan for Marriott hotel expansion of market which is the luxury business divisions and active holiday seekers. Therefore, there are various types of methods which are helpful for Marriott hotel are monitored, evaluated and measured in prominent manner are discussed as under:
CTR (Click through rate): It is the prominent manner to measure the efficiency and the suitable marketing channels which are enabled by Marriott hotel in order to evaluate the number of people in relation with visiting the webpage and also take considerable and suitable actions which are based on the overlooking services (Ivanov and Webster, 2019). With the help of this prominent method, companies can analyse the various attributes and frame of mind of targeted market and customers. For this, they can also take corrective actions to improve the buying behaviour of consumers with suitable method without any sort of hurdles.
Questionnaire: It is considered as the most old and traditional method to collect information and data from the suitable respondents to take suitable decisions in prominent and best manner. Therefore, in relation with Marriott hotel, from the suitable use of this method helps in enabling the organisation for collecting the exact and relevant information by reviewing and suggesting from it to the population too and also allows them to make clear decisions with suitable solutions for the predetermined objectives and issues in an improved manner (Kriechbaumer and Teare, 2019). By considering this way, it supports Marriott hotel for the expansion of profit and also enlarge the market share among business rivals.
Return on investment metric: By analysing the above scenario the marketplace of company, this method is considered as the most effective and prominent as it is one of the best and prominent manner to evaluate and monitor the overall performance of marketing plan. Therefore, it is the application of ROI metric, as it helps in examining the potential of competitors in order to apply best and effective method to acquiring the suitable position in the hotel sector (Perinotto and Soares, 2020). In addition to this, it is cost saving method which is useful in analysing the benefits of Marriott hotel in order to reach to potential customers without and sort of time limit and barriers.
Therefore, different methods which are discussed in above section helps the Marriott hotel in exploring the target market and sales in effective manner as it helps in improving its customer base in suitable manner. In addition to this, it also helps in motivating and generating the response of customers as it helps in achieving the competitive advantage.
Also read: Marketing Management - Coca-Cola Company
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded that to survive in the dynamic business environment in effective manner, digital marketing plays an important role. In addition to this, it also helps in enabling the digital marketing methods to cope up by analysing the taste of customers and their preferences and also useful in making suitable strategic decisions to achieve competitive advantage. Furthermore, PESTLE analysis is done in order to identify its external factors and also develop suitable strategic decisions for the expansion of company by analysing the market share and size. In addition to this, the development of digital marketing plan which allows and understand the market challenges and also lead to enhance the productivity and performance of market in revised manner. If you are Looking for Online Assignment Help services in the UK contact Instant Assignment Help, We offer all types of Assignment help services for UK students. We have the best writer who can solve all your educational problems at a reasonable price.