Assignment Sample on HTM729 Marketing Plan
Introduction
Marketing is stated as buying and selling of any product or goods by any individual or a company which helps the company to flourish. In this report, the Hilton Company of the UK will be taken to understand the marketing strategy of the company and the opportunities or challenges the company faces in order to efficiently run the business.
Synopsis of Audit
The Hilton hotels is an American hotel chain which is the second largest in the world just after Marriott is a luxury chain of hotels situated in the United States and around the world. The hotel was started by Conrad Hilton in Texas in 1919 by buying a motel named The Mobley (Hilton.com. 2021). The original hotel being a world renowned one helped the hotels in the UK in understanding of the market and opportunities it may get in order to spread the hotel in a vast arena. Moreover, the hotel has not only developed as a range of hotels although it included many other things besides being a hotel such as being the world’s best hospitality industry. However, the performance of the hotel is quite taken care of by making sure that the hotel is being advantageous by coming up with innovative strategies and advanced technologies which might help the hotel to check on the costs while keeping the quality intact. Furthermore, the hotel maintains a highly smooth relationship both with the employees and with the guests which might become a fair strategy in the path of improvement.
Moreover, the design and construction of the hotel is such that it helps the hotel go with the area or the place where the hotel is built which helps the hotel to have the local benefits such as the resources, skills and expertise. Furthermore, the management of the company is centred on to the hotel’s ownership, transparency, flexibility, local resources, fast responses and true partners. The hotel has a wonderful opportunity in the UK where the political stability has helped the hotel in flourishing and in the growth of the hotel widely (Refer to appendix 1). Moreover, the hotel’s highly well brand management such as the identity, image and personality has helped the hotel in flourishing in such a vast arena. The marketing of the brand however has to be well so that it helps the hotel to attract customers and also it might help the hotel to expand well worldwide. Furthermore, all this is possible only when the political stability of a place is well and it too helps hotels such as the Hilton to grow majorly throughout the country. However, the economic structure of the company is quite well provided with the kind of profits the company makes on a world-wide range (Refer to appendix 3).
Additionally, the stability of the company depends upon the way the company is working and the kind of management the company maintains so that the quality does not deteriorate (Ir.hilton.com. 2021). Moreover, the hotel maintains good employee relations by recognizing the kind of work the employees do and rewarding the employees accordingly and on top of that communicating with the employees by maintaining regular basis events and conferences with the hotel. Furthermore, to enhance the performance of the hotel and the employees, the hotel has found a way of creating technological advancement in the hotel which might help the hotel in working in a smooth manner. The management of the hotel helps in understanding the way the hotel works and the things which helps the hotel in working so efficiently. However, for managing the hotel efficiently, the owner-employee relationship has to be quite good which may only happen when the legal framework such as the policy and the implementation of the hotel is quite well. Additionally, the relationship between the owner and the employees has to be good rather than flexible which might help the employees as well as the owner working together efficiently.
The policies however may make sure that the transparency of the hotel is quite visible so that it may help the hotel to find skilled employees who are actually willing to work. Moreover, for the betterment of the hotel and to increase in the quality and efficiency of the hotel, the hotel needs to know about the local resources well and also it might help the hotel in giving out fast responses in favour of the customers. However, the Hilton Company needs to be more strategic while placing social media marketing for the company by putting up on different platforms with the same message although in a different content (DeYeso, 2019). The hotel because of its wonderful locations and sites have helped in attracting a great number of customers all over the world and for that the hotel always tries to make sure about being environment friendly. However, because of its vastness and customer retention facilities it has helped the hotel in maintaining the stability among the hotels quite well. The various marketing strategies used by the Hilton Company have helped the company in building up a great business empire all over the world (Antunica, 2021).
However, the vastness of the hotel and at the same time lack of flexibility among the hotels might become a huge issue for the hotel because of the large global market share which might have created huge debts for the hotel chain (Refer to appendix 2). Furthermore, the hotel has to be highly strategic towards the further expansion of the hotel chain which might be helped only when the hotel does extensive research and focuses more on the development. However, the change in the macroeconomic structure environment may affect the company widely as the change in one macro economy of the hotel may affect the other hotels. Thus, the chain of hotels may get quite affected by the macro economy which might help in removing the ethical issues as planned by the company.
Objectives
The objective in any report helps in understanding about the areas which the report may cover which helps in understanding about the report and the analysis. In this report, the objective may be given with the help of SMART objectives for better understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by the Hilton Company.
| SMART | Objective 1 | Objective 2 | Objective 3 | Objective 4 |
| Specific | Increase in the loyalty of the customers | Increase in the technological innovation | Expansion in the global market | Economic growth of the company |
| Measurable | By taking feedbacks from the customers after the stay | Recruiting skilled employees in the area of technology | Great enhanced marketing strategies | Looks after the macro economy of the company |
| Actionable | Keep track on the social media platforms about the company reviews given by the customers on a monthly basis | Human Resource Management (HRM) have to be efficient in order to recruit efficient candidates | By creating good content with good design in all social media platforms | The management team’s teamwork have to be well so as to make growth of the company |
| Realistic | Availability of sufficient technological resources | Training of the employees have to be efficient and well | Make the content attractive by posting various schemes and offers | Keep check on the money spent as well as the money gained from the hotels |
| Time | Achieve by January 2022 | |||
Table 1: SMART Objectives
(Source: Self-created)
The Hilton Hotels in the UK has to be efficient in using the SMART objective in order to run the chain of hotels well and good for which the company has to look into the specific objectives. However, the company in order to enhance the economic growth of the company has to make sure that the company expands in the global market with the help of technological innovation which might help in gaining the loyalty of the customers (Annualreport.stocklight.com. 2021). Moreover, the objectives have to be measured in order to work on it so that it helps the company to run well and implement the objectives in the company within a timeframe and also realistically to get a desired outcome.
Strategy
The marketing strategy for any company is highly necessary for the company to expand by creating good opportunities as well as challenges for the company which the company might be able to take care of. Ansoff’s market expansion strategy may help in understanding the available information about the market and the company’s products in order to understand the right path of business development by taking into consideration the resources as available (Yu, 2019). Moreover, through Ansoff’s growth matrix in the first step that is the market penetration it has to be seen that the products the business is trying to sell in the existing business markets. The Hilton too however, initially did a market penetration by building the hotel business in the home country which led to such an expansion. Furthermore, with the increase in the success of the hotel business, the Hilton Company made sure that the company had to expand further worldwide with the help of profits made by the company in the home country. Additionally, the growth strategy as adopted by the company helped the company in expanding not only the expansion of the hotel as well as the enhancing the quality of the projects. Moreover, after such great success might help the hotel in taking up diversification by taking up new strategies for new markets. Therefore, by taking up all these strategies carefully might help the company in advancing the hotel business in a smooth and efficient way which may increase the company’s profits more and more.
The marketing strategy of any company has to be quite right so that it helps the company in understanding the path the company might take in order to understand the results. The STP marketing model was used in order to understand the marketing strategies which might give a successful outcome provided that each of the steps such as segmentation, targeting and positioning, have been maintained correctly (Marketing-Insider. 2021).
Segmentation
In the STP model, the segmentation is the most important step which helps the company in taking up the strategies according to the segments as taken by the company. In the population graph it may be seen that the population in the country United Kingdom (UK) has fluctuated in the year 2021 may be due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which too shows that the population of women is much higher than the population of men (Populationpyramid.net. 2021). This may help in understanding that the population of females being higher is what may become the company’s segment where the company would try to give schemes and offers in order to attract the female customers more than he male. Moreover, the company may look into the matter that if the company segments the female audience then the company has to understand the kind of offers and schemes the company ought to make so that the female attracts towards the hotels during the vacations. Furthermore, many females come on solo trips or rather with other female friends which may be beneficial for the hotel if the hotel is made safer and more reliable for women. Thus, it is necessary for the hotel to make the marketing strategies right so as to make it reliable for the customers to come and feel welcomed in it which may be done with the help of social media.
Targeting
| Target market | Target method |
| Families | Facebook and Instagram |
| Adolescents | |
| Immediate family and friends | |
| Middle aged and Old aged | Company’s Websites |
Table 2: Targeting model
(Source: Self-created)
The target audience was segmented previously by the company to be the female customers because of the huge amount of population in the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the graph shows that the social media usage by British shows that due to the pandemic situation and the lockdown, the social media usage has been at a rise which might be beneficial for the company (Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. 2021). Furthermore, the company may be able to make sure that the target customers are getting the available information about the better offers and so the customers may get attracted by the company. Therefore, as the hotel is a luxury hotel, the target customers have to be made sure through social media that the facilities may be provided as promised and at the same time there might be no such discomfort be provided from the company’s side.
Positioning
The positioning of the company is extremely important when it comes about the position of the company in the minds of the customers. Additionally, the company has to make sure that the customers are quite aware about the company and the provided schemes and offers which might help the company to know well if the company is able to reach the target customers. Furthermore, the company has to make sure that the offers which the company is offering to the target customers fulfils all the four levels of the customers’ needs such as actual features, emotional benefits, functional benefits and the social benefits (Romppanen, 2021). Moreover, the company has to make sure that the customers’ offers are fulfilled keeping in mind the profits of the company. Additionally, the company too has to make sure that the customers feel good about the offers such as if it is for women then spa and massaging may be highly beneficial and helpful for women. In addition to that, women need to be happy and at the same time be able to spread it to the friends of these women who might too come to the hotel. However, the hotel may host various kinds of events for which women have to use certain benefits which might be available in the offers which might help attract others.
Brand strategy
The Hilton Company has a lot of standing brands which helps the company standing tall in spite of many challenges such as the biggest being the Covid-19 pandemic. The brand strategy of the company has to be made in such a way that the company is being recognised by the customers and helps the company in achieving the long-term goals. However, the brand strategy helps in commercialization of the business by operating the challenges by smoothing it with technologies (Forti et al., 2020). The brand of the company however has to be commercialized which might help the company in reaching the target customers and at the same time help the customers to understand the brand well and recommend others. Moreover, the branding of the company helps when the innovation as taken up by the company has worked out well for the company which might have helped the company in sustaining further. Therefore, it may be stated that the band of any company is an essential part of the company for making the company to flourish regionally as well as globally. Thus, it may seem that the Hilton Company has been able to make the brand of the company quite well for which it helped the company to gain such profits and helped it understand the future sustaining strategy.
Resources and control
The Hilton Company is a fast growing company which since its inauguration has helped the company to earn huge amounts of profits regionally as well as globally. Moreover, the various resources of the company such as technological innovation has made the company quite a vast industry whose aim to bring forth hospitality management for the world has made the company quite well known all around the world. Furthermore, the company is available with a number of resources such as the human resources which helps the company in the management and other affairs. The other resources however, are the financial resources which helps the company in a number of ways such as the profits which are gained by the company helps the company to expand the chain of hotels far and wide in various places which has helped the company in times of needs. Therefore, the company’s data and insight are mostly valuable for the company so that it may help the company to prosper well globally and also helps the owners to keep track of the challenges which may later be crucial in keeping the company in position (Refer appendix 4).
The company has a huge amount of control among the employees and also it keeps check about the work of the employees well enough so that it may help the company to work in organization. Moreover, the company maintains a quite flexible engagement with the company’s employees as well as the employers. Furthermore, the company maintains a well transparency among the customers as well as the employees which might be helpful for the company in the sustenance and also in the progress. However, with the introduction of the digital technology, which has helped the company in fulfilling the desired needs of the company on one hand and on the other hand it helped in keeping track with the company’s desired needs and benefits (Ivanetset al., 2021). Moreover, with the help of these technologies it has become quite available for the customers in the times of needs such that when the customer may need to know the available offers as provided for the customers. Therefore, the resource and the control management of the company has helped the company reach such a height by making markets globally and on top of that the company’s use of local resources as per the country the hotel is in helps the company vastly.
Conclusion
It may be concluded that the Hilton Company hotel has been able to reach the goal and yet the company is still at large growing and making huge profits irrespective of the obstacles the company faces. Thus, the company’s progress does not only include the owners although all kinds of investors be it the sponsors, the employees or the customers.
References
Annualreport.stocklight.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://annualreport.stocklight.com/NYSE/HLT/20594965.pdf> [Accessed 15 November 2021].
Antunica, N., 2021. Primjenamarketinškihstrategija u poslovanjupoduzeća hotel Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik (Doctoral dissertation, University of Dubrovnik. Department of Economics and Business Economics).
DeYeso, K.L., 2019. The influence of social media on the Hilton brand (Doctoral dissertation, Southern New Hampshire University).
Forti, E., Munari, F. and Zhang, C., 2020. Does VC backing affect brand strategy in technology ventures?.Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 14(2), pp.265-286.
Hilton.com. 2021. Hilton Brands | Global Hospitality Company. [online] Available at: <https://www.hilton.com/en/corporate/> [Accessed 15 November 2021].
Ir.hilton.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://ir.hilton.com/~/media/Files/H/Hilton-Worldwide-IR-V3/quarterly-results/2021/q3-2021-earnings-release.pdf> [Accessed 15 November 2021].
Ivanets, I.О., Thorevskaya, A.V. and Mruts, B.I., 2021. Automatization resource management systems of a transport company (Doctoral dissertation, National Aviation University).
Marketing-Insider. 2021. The STP-Model – Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning done right. [online] Available at: <https://marketing-insider.eu/the-stp-model-segmentation-targeting-positioning-done-right/> [Accessed 15 November 2021].
Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. 2021. Available at: <https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/> [Accessed 15 November 2021].
Populationpyramid.net. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-kingdom/2021/> [Accessed 15 November 2021].
Romppanen, J.M., 2021. Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP).
Yu, V.D., 2019. The analysis of methods for developing the marketing strategies.
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