Information Communication Technology and Marketing of Hospitality Sector
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1. Introduction
The hospitality industry is a sector in the market which depends on their customers by making their buying process smooth. This sector is centred with hotels and management services, which are totally dependent over a selection of their customers. This sector of hospitality focuses on and over the comfort of their customers so that they do not feel or face any kind of problems in order to make or take any kind of trading decision. This study focuses on factors which are affecting this industry and its procedures of working. There are sudden points which are affecting this sector which is going to be covered with help of this study. Along with this factor, this study is also going to focus on aspects like the impact of ICT over this particular market. With help of these factors, this study is also going to recommend aspects which are going to help this industry to flourish.
2. Characteristics of the Hospitality Sector
This sector of hospitality focuses on sudden characteristics which are helping them to flourish in order to improve their process of marketing. In order to maintain their growth within their designated market, they follow and maintain these aspects. These aspects are helping them to develop themselves and know about their preferences of their customers. These characteristics are:
Accepting Change
This industry of hospitality sector consists of a number of businesses and they always focus on comforting their customers in order to maintain their growth. This industry consists of Hotels which constitute 12.5% of this market; approximately 4% of Restaurants are there in the existing market. There are Cafes and Bars which consists 2% of the market. Therefore in order to maintain its quality and reputation, this sector has to accept the change within trends. Therefore with help of this factor, this industry is going to be able to understand their customers and be able to prioritise their needs (Cassel et al. 2018). Due to these factors of acceptance of change, customers might be getting attracted towards this sector by flourishing and improving them.
Integrity Management
The hospitality industry is an industry which relies on morals and ethics. Therefore in order to maintain this industry, management sectors of various businesses accumulated within this sector have to make their standards high. Due to these factors, employees working in this industry are going to maintain themselves by providing their customers with the possible best service (Hoekstra and Kaptein, 2020). This aspect of integrity is helping this industry to flourish and maintain their service. With help of this process of integrity, various managers doing business within this sector might be able to make and take various difficult decisions easily in order to provide their customers with possible best solutions and comforts.
Support
Support is another most important aspect of this industry which is helping this sector to flourish. In order to maintain customers’ relationships, the process of supportive management is very important in this hospitality sector. Therefore in order to maintain this factor, employees and managers of various businesses within this sector focus on supporting and comforting their customers (Mayblin and James, 2019). Due to this factor, customers who get in this sector to get service do not get disappointed in order. The main priority of this sector is to provide support to the customers by resolving any kind of quarry raised by them.
3. Impact of ICT on the Marketing of Hospitality Sector
3.1 Market Segmentation
In order to obtain a market in the sector of hospitality, various businesses like hotels, bars and restaurants segment their designated market. These organizations divide their market into aspects of:
Demographic Segmentation
A restaurant like Waterside Inn segments their customers focusing on the aspect of demographic segmentation. This segmentation process is very common and effective in order to gain and attract customers. This type of segmentation process segments and divides their customers on basis of their observables. These aspects which these organizations focus on are the age of their customers, educational level and their monthly income (Wang et al. 2020). There is 0.4% of the market that has been using this process in order to gain and achieve their customers. It has been seen that ICT has made a massive impact over this sector making this process of segmentation very easy. In the case of Waterside Inn, they segment their customers with help of technical support like social media campaigning.
Behavioural Segmentation
Casamia is a restaurant in this market of hospitality uses this process of behavioural segmentation in order to gain their customers. This organization focuses on the behavioural pattern of its customers and gets to know about various facts about them. There are 6% organizations focused on factors like their shopping habits, their online action patterns, benefits which they are providing to their liked organizations and their loyalty (Ahmad et al. 2017). In order to maintain and monitor all these aspects, this organization is using technologies like a feedback process in their online portal and they are registering their contact information at the time of their first purchase from that organization. With help of these factors, they are able to know about their customers and their loyalty.
Geographic Segmentation
Geographic segmentation needs a huge grip and analytical power over this market of hospitality. Approximately 4.4% of the restaurants in this sector use this factor in order to attract their customers. Fat Duck is a restaurant in order to gain and achieve its customers segmented their market geographically. This business organization focused on factors like the location on which they are going to operate in order to provide their customers with services (Napierała et al. 2020). This organization has also focused on the needs of customers within their designated location. As the ICT sector is flourishing, therefore in order to maintain their research about the market, this organization is using online software named upBOARD in order to know about possibilities within the place in which they are going to work in.
Psychographic Segmentation
This process of segmentation is similar to geographic segmentation, but there is a small difference between these two processes. This process of psychographic segmentation focuses on the mental and emotional behaviour of the buyers. Therefore in order to obtain this market, an organization like Hand and Flowers has focused over the emotional and mental behaviours of their customers. This organization with help of their rating process by their customers on their online portals gets to know about the thoughts of their customers (Stylidis et al. 2018). With help of this process, this organization is able to make improvisation within their organization in order to gain their customers’ value towards their organization and its growth.
3.2 The Marketing Mix
Figure 1: 7P’s Marketing Mix
(Source: Influenced by Lawless and Morgenroth, 2019)
Product
In order to maintain and gain customers, quality of their product is the main focus of various hotel organizations. Organizations like Coach and Midsummer House focus on their quality of their products. Technological help like social media championing helps these organizations to gain information about their customer’s views towards their organization (Lawless and Morgenroth, 2019). Approximately 24.3% of the people are there in this market that use technological help in order to get benefits from this sector. These two organizations have focused on their service and maintained them in order to gain more customers.
Price
In order to maintain the service of hospitality along with well-maintained products, a reasonable price is also very important. An organization like 64 Degrees focuses on the pricing process of their service. With help of this process, they are able to gain more customers and are able to increase their sales (Varelas and Georgopoulos, 2017). This organization with help of database management follows the pricing process of other organizations and thus they are able to determine their own. This process helps them to gain and obtain more customers.
Place
The place is a very important aspect of this hospitality sector, as without proper selection of place, it becomes very difficult for an organization to maintain their business (Filimonau and Mika, 2019). Organizations like Paul Ainsworth at No. 6 used technological help like Buffer in order to get an insight about the place in which they were going to do their business.
Promotion
This sector of hospitality is there to provide their customers with their designated and desired services. Therefore in order to gain their attention, these hospitality sectors are using help from the promotional sector in order to populate their business (Shamim et al. 2017). Organizations like Crown at Burchetts Green are using social media like Facebook and Instagram in order to promote their business.
Process
Building a good relationship with the customers is a main focus of this sector. Therefore in order to build a good customer and service provider relationship, organizations like Morston Hall and Man behind the Curtain are using technological help. These organizations are providing their customers with an online review system through which they are able to rate these organizations (Shamim et al. 2017). With help of this process, these organizations are able to know what their customers want from them.
People
In order to know about the success rate of customers, various organizations like Etch by Steven Edwards and Freemasons at Wiswell are depending on their customers. With help from their online review system; these organizations get to know about their value. Thus with this help they are able to improve and upgrade their service.
Physical Evidence
Customers want to have their relaxation in a place which is well maintained and furnished. Therefore in order to respect and maintain their decisions and likings, this sector of hospitality focuses on maintenance of their organization in order to provide their customers with best experiences.
3.3 Customer Relationship Management
In order to enhance and maintain customer’s relationship, businesses within this sector focuses on aspects and they are:
Enhancing Customers Experiences
Satisfaction of customers is the main focus of this hospitality sector. If customers slightly find any kind of problem from any of the services from any hotels or restaurants, they are not going to visit there. These customers with help of social media like Facebook and Instagram share their experiences and help an organization to promote their business (Rather et al. 2019). Therefore if they are unsatisfied with any of their services, they might provide a negative impact over their future customers. Therefore in order to maintain services, hotels and restaurants have to focus on enhancing experiences which they are going to provide to their customers in order to impress them and improve their sales.
Centralized Hub Providence
Customer management software is a kind of software which provides this sector of hospitality with information about their customers. With help of these technologies, various business organizations are able to segment their customers on the basis of their needs and habits. This process helps a business organization within this sector to know and gain information about their customers (Bartosik-Vélez, 2019). Therefore when their customers visit again, with help of this information they are able to identify likings of their customers and are able to provide them with the best service they desire. Due to this factor, customers visit the same place again and again to gain their most desired experiences.
Customers Information Analysis
Hospitality industry like hotels handles massive data of their customers which helps them to get detailed information about their customers. This information’s might be of records about their visit or their records oriented to their financial factors. These factors are being monitored by the hotel management with the help of CRM software excel system. With this information, a hotel gets to know about their customer’s choice and behavioural process (Khalifa and Ali, 2017). After gaining this information they are able to connect with their customers and are able to provide them with their best experiences. Due to this process, a hospitality sector makes sure about their success and is able to maintain their goal within their designated market.
Hotels Loyalty
It has been seen that the success of this sector lies behind the process of loyalty of this sector. Customers who get services from these sectors always want to get the best experiences. Therefore in order to maintain their standards, various hotel organizations make and maintain their prospects very loyal so that customers who get associated with this sector might be able to obtain best service (Lu and Tabari, 2019). With the help of the CRM system, various hotels detect and get to know about the needs and selection process of their customers. By maintaining these factors, this sector is able to maintain their progress and is able to attract more customers. Due to the increase of their customers this sector is flourishing.
3.4 Integrated Marketing Communications
Integrated Marketing Communications is a process through which an organization is able to establish their thought process in order to maintain their position. This process helps an organization to state their thoughts very clearly with help of various tools like:
Advertising
Hospitality sectors in order to gain and improve their reach use this process of advertisements. With help of this process, businesses within these organizations are able to gain a massive geographical growth within a short period of time. These business organizations in order to attract customers use technological help like radio and television to promote their business. With help of networking technology like phone calls, these organizations promote their organization in order to attract more customers. As this organization values their customers in order to grow and make profit, therefore they design and make their advertisement process very attractive to attract more and more customers.
Sales Promotions
This sector in order to gain more customers focus on attracting them, therefore they use the process of sales. With help of this process, they provide their customers with discounts and free trials. Therefore this process helps these business organizations to gain more customers by increasing their business value. These hospitality organizations also provide their customers with free products on their purchase (Phuong and Tran, 2020). Therefore with help of these processes and procedures, they are able to attract more customers and increase their value. This process of sales promotion helps these organizations to attract more customers in order to increase their sales and recommendations.
Public Relation
In order to gain a maximum amount of benefit, this hospitality sector believes in maintaining and managing the public relation. This process of public relation is a two way process as reviews by the customers increases sales of organizations within this business sector. Therefore in order to maintain and manage this process of public relation, this sector makes an additional effort for it. Process of publicity helps this organization to flourish and achieve their designated goal in order to maintain their stable position within the market. These organizations with help of various free sample distributions in case of restaurant service and inviting various popular personals help this organization to flourish the hotels. Due to this factor they are able to attract more customers.
Social Media Marketing
This sector of hospitality focuses on valuing their customers, therefore in order to maintain use of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to promote their business. With help of these two social media platforms, businesses within this organization are able to connect with their customers and are able to provide them with deals which they are going to like. With help of these social platforms, customers get to know about various hotels and restaurants (Ebrahim, 2020). This knowing process helps these organizations to become transparent in front of their customers. Thus customers who were intending to buy service from them are able to get a better deal.
3.5 Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy is a process which helps a business organization to get information about the market in which they are operating in. Therefore in the hospitality sector this process is very important in order to gain a stable business. This marketing strategy is divided into 4 parts and they are:
Cause Marketing
This process of cause marketing helps an organization within this sector tolerate their business process with a social cause. Due to this factor, customers get attracted towards these organizations to be a part of their cause. This process helps these organizations to grow and flourish. Ondine is a hotel who donates their excess food to needy peoples (Pappas, 2019). Therefore in order to help them accomplish their goals customers come and help them.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is a process which helps business organizations within this sector to maintain their relationship with their customers. With help of these maintained relationship processes, these organizations are able to comfort their customers and are able to gain their attention in order to improve and increase their sales.
Scarcity Marketing
Organizations like Terre à Terre use the process of scarcity marketing in order to increase their value towards their customers. This organization occasionally makes and promotes some special dishes and provides limited offers towards them. Due to this factor, customers who do not want to miss out their opportunity to gain the offer get attracted (Chkalova et al. 2019). Due to this factor, this organization is able to increase their sales and become able to be stable within this market.
Undercover Marketing
The Kitchin is an organization who is there in the market using this type of process in order to gain their customers’ value. This organization uses their marketing process very tactfully so that their customers do not understand that they are selling their service towards them (Anglada et al. 2020). This organization has got an improved rate of hospitality therefore their customers get attracted towards this organization.
4. Recommendations
In order to maintain the service within this sector, business organizations have to focus on sudden factors. With help of these recommended services, hotels and restaurants is able gain more customers. These processes are:
Cloud Migration
In order to access mass data within a short span of time, this sector of hospitality can use Cloud Migration technology. With help of this function, organizations within this sector might be able to access their customer’s information within a short span of time. By maintaining this process, these business organizations might be able to secure their customers’ information.
Going Touch Less
In the recent days due to this current situation, organizations associated within this sector might use technologies which might be able to provide customers with touch less experiences. Organizations associated within this sector might have to install various motion censored services. Therefore with help of this process, these organizations might be able to provide their customers with better experiences.
Location-Based Services
Hotel services can register themselves with SIP-DECT technology. With help of this technological help, these organizations might provide their customers with better hospitality experience. Customers face a lot of trouble while searching hotels and services; therefore with help of this technology they are able to help their customers by providing them with a perfect location.
5. Conclusion
This study of Information Communication Technology and Marketing of Hospitality Sector describes various aspects which affect and might affect the progress within this sector. This study focuses on factors like characterises of this sector which includes accepting the changes within the market and integrity management along with supporting the system. Various technologies lay impact on this sector, therefore this study also focuses on those facts also. These technologies lay an effect on the market segmentation process and help organizations within this process to gain customers very easily. This study also focuses on the marketing mix of this industry of hospitality. It can be concluded that people who are intending to invest within this market might be able to get help with this study. With the section of recommendation, they might be able to know about the improvements which they might have to make in order to gain a stable growth within this market.
6. References
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