Task 1Marketing Strategies in Hospitality or Tourism Sector Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organisation to concentrate its

limitedresources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Marketingstrategies are dynamic and interactive. It involves careful scanning of the internal andexternal environments. Internal environment factors include the marketing mix, plus performance analysis and strategic constraints. External environment factors includecustomer analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of any elements of the technological economic, cultural or political likely to impact success.Large hospitality and tourism organisations normally have a director of marketing who isresponsible for the management of all marketing activities. In hospitality and tourismindustry, marketing function is the responsibility of an operations manager who must beconcerned with other functions as well.The successful marketing is not accomplished by just little effort. Establishing andmaintaining a successful marketing program requires significant management time andeffort. Marketing strategy plays an important role in running any business. It is the backbone of the successful business. Holiday Inn is a renowned hotel chain. They need todevelop an effective marketing strategy to compete its competitors. Attracting customer is the main focus of the organisation. There are number of possible strategies which can be adopted by Holiday Inn to attract people to chose Holiday Inn. There should be a separate counter within the hotel for tourists so that theycan get special services and warm welcome form the staff member of thehotel. Hotel can provide a tour service for the tourists to take them around the places. Hotel can advertise special offers and packages for tourists on airports, print media, channels etc. Organisation can sign contract with travel agents to convince more touriststo choose Holiday Inn. Organisation needs to categorise which type of customer they are lookingfor and offer the desires as per the requirement of that particular class. For example if the organisation is targeting rich class, they can offer luxurysuites with additional comforts or benefits or they can make contracts with premium airlines like British airways or Emirates to make packagestogether with air travel and hotel stay 1.2: Network and Customer Relationship Marketing Strategies Networking is building relationship and rapport with another person in business meetingsor in social events. Networking helps individual and organisations to developrelationships with different people and companies. Similarly networking is an essentialfactor for Holiday Inn, which can help organisation to grow its business and services.Organisation can build its networking through different companies events held within thehotel premises. In these events, different companies executives participate. Individualsare offered discount packages for personal or business trips to stick with the same hotel.In the events, Hotel intends to provide them best services to organise their event in a better way.Delegations from these companies can be offered a nice package and place within thehotel

and the management of the hotel needs to make sure that each person is satisfiedfrom the hotel services. This is a very good way of building a network and will helporganisation to grow its business.Customer relationship is the relationship with every individual who is staying in the hoteland using hotel services. Customer relationship management is a strategy for managingcompanys interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. The overall goal is toattract, find and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, enticeformer clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing. This relation is veryimportant in the hospitality and tourism industry. In general, people prefer to stay in a place recommended to them by someone who is close to them so management of thehotel should give equal importance. The best way to set marketing strategy for individualis to study and assess what other competitors are providing to their costumers. This willhelp company to improve their standards and set marketing strategies accordingly. Thefactors involved in customer relationship marketing strategies are: Warm welcomes form the hotel because customer expects a warm welcome fromthe hotel. They should be greeted properly when they arrive in the hotel The environment of the hotel should be friendly so that the customers feel likehome If the management of the hotel is aware that the customers are regular customersof the organisation, they should be given some benefits like discounts or specialrates so they feel happy and remain loyal customers of the hotel for long time Knowing the customer by refining insights into customer needs, behaviours andeconomics Targeting and tailoring value propositions Focusing business resources on activities that build long-term customer andeconomic value The hotel should be determined to provide all the essential and also luxuriousfacilities for which they are paid for 2.1: Marketing Communications to Develop Brand Identity Strategies Marketing communication is a way to convey message by using related media tocommunicate with a market. The sources used for the communication are email, fax, and print media, Internet and broachers. These sources could help Holiday Inn to develop and promote its brand. Organisation can send promotion emails to its loyal customers andother offers. In the present time, customers mostly browse online to search for the bestholiday package. So advertising promotion offers on different website browsedfrequently by users will help organisation to attract more customers and will develop brand loyalty. Marketing communication plays an important role in developing the brandidentity. There should be an effective marketing team communicating with customers andother companies to convince them to use services provided by the company.Developing a brand strategy can be a difficult step and could take quite a while but its

vital step in creating the identity of the organisation. It is essential to research, define and build your brand, as it is a source of a promise to the customers. The steps involved indeveloping the brand strategy is to: Define the brand, as it is the foundation for all other components to build on Define the brand audience and objectives that the brand needs to achieve. Thisshould comprise of the company personality, image, core competencies andcharacteristics Focus on the target audience as this will help to strengthen the brand effectiveness Perform a careful analysis to determine principal barriers that company may incontact with Brand is the identity of the organisation in the marketplace 2.2: Effectiveness of e marketing, Virtual and Guerrilla MarketingStrategy Email marketing is a form of direct marketing, which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fund-raising messages to an audience. It has become themost effective and popular media of advertising. The helps organisations to get the product or services message to limitless potential clients. By using email as the marketingmedia, hospitality or tourism industry can target its online marketing efforts to a specificaudience of individuals for a particular product or service. E marketing allows to keep incontact with the current customers which encourages customer loyalty for the businessand generates leads giving opportunity of acquiring new clients. The advantages of usinge marketing are: Its the cheaper way of executing, sending and receiving information Organisation can initiate campaigns using graphics, videos etc. that will be of companys prospect to grab his attention and interest It enables to personalise and greet every person being targeted. This helps increating a special bond with the prospects With an email the audience can understand your offering Executing an email campaign is simple and this can be done very easily andwithout any extensive resources Increase sales conversion Generate repeat sales Up-sell and cross-sell products or services

 Gain valuable feedback from visitorsViral marketing are the marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives throughself-replicating viral processes. Viral marketing help hospitality or tourism industry: To gain short term objectives Enables organisation to remain buoyant within the competitive business world,via a strategy that is not easy to integrate within a defined buyer-society, but also one of that empowers the unattached onlooker within training and guidance Enables business propositions to reach out to a global audience by effectively putting the internet connectivity to play It works as a faster mode of reaching the customers Helps to build the reputation of the firm fact through increased sales and promotions Gain immediate visitors Attract visitors for years to come Causes exponential growth Automate marketing methodsGuerilla marketing is specifically tailored to meet the needs of small businesses, whereastraditional advertising venues are complicated and expensive to the point of exclusion. Itis a cheap way of marketing and involves networking, both with customers and withother businesses. Some of the important factors involved in effective guerrilla marketingare: Organisation must be committed to the designed marketing plan To consider the plan as an investment Making prospects confident in the organisation Organisation must be patient to keep a commitment Management must aim to run the industry in a way that makes it convenient for the customers Put an element of amazement in the marketing Use measurement to judge the effectiveness of the marketing

 Prove the involvement with customers and prospects by regular follow-up withthem Use marketing to gain consent from prospects, and then broaden that consent sothat it leads to the saleThe important factor involved in all types of marketing is the commitment with themarketing or advertising plan, as this will help Holiday Inn to implement the planeffectively and get the desired results. Also it is essential to review and update themarketing plan and techniques by investigating market and the behaviour of thecustomers. The role of guerrilla marketing has extended today; becoming not only anattribute for small businesses, but also the number of large companies using it isconstantly increasing. In the hospitality and tourism industry, guerrilla marketing helpsin: Product or service comparison advertising Execute raiding Short-term alliances Selective price cuts and offers Deliberate sabotage of the competitions test markets, marketing research,advertising campaigns or sales promotion Orchestrating negative publicity for a competitor One of the most important feature of guerrilla marketer is his flexibility in making rapidtactics changes, abandoning a market segment, product, brand, business model or objective. The strategy being used is considered to be suitable when the resources of theattacker are quite weak, but those of the target competitor are relatively strong, makinghim able to withstand a head on attack.