Hotels Business Corporation

Question: Describe about the Hotels Business Corporation. Answer: Introduction Hyatt Hotels Corporation is a group of hotels and resorts. The Hyatt Hotels Corporation came into existence in 1957 and is headquartered in Chicago, United States of America. It has been listed as the best company to work for with the Fortune magazine. This hotel chain has won several other awards as well. This group has over 95,000 employees in different parts of the world. The annual revenue for this group is over 4 billion dollars. The present occupancy rate for Park Hyatt Hotel is around 70% (Sydney.park.hyatt.com, 2016). Park Hyatt Sydney offers an exquisite experience to its guests. Offices of some large and successful companies of Australia and head-offices of Multi-National Corporations are situated in Sydney for example Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Allianz, Citibank etc. Sydney Harbor Bridge, Darling Harbor, and Watsons Bay etc. are the major tourist attractions of Sydney (Chen, 2016). Thus tourists visit Sydney every year for site-seeing and shopping. Therefore, the hotel can target the local residents of Sydney as well as tourists visiting Sydney. Park Hyatt Sydney lays a lot of emphases on values like comfort, care, sophistication, and courtesy. The hotel has 155 rooms and suites. The hotel offers every facility to make the stay of the visitors memorable and has a multi-lingual staff. The Sydney international airport is only 16 kilometers away from the Park Hyatt hotel. This hotel is only 4.5 Km away from the Darling Harbor. The guest rooms have wall-length sliding windows made up of glass that provide gateway to private balconies. The Park Hyatt hotel offers every facility that the visitors can imagine (Sydney.park.hyatt.com, 2016). The hotel also offers facilities like 24-hours front desk service, facilities for physically challenged people, spa, salon, gymnasium, barbeque, mini-bars, kids entertainment section, option for babysitting, currency exchange center, roof-top pool, conference halls, option for private chefs, express laundry, florist, medical services, travel desk, option for chauffeur etc. It caters to people who wish to experience fine dining and world-class accommodation (Karadag, 2006). The hotel has highly professional, skilled and friendly staff members. Park Hyatt focuses on customer relationship management. Market and situation analysis: Market analysis is generally done before entering a particular industry in order to analyze the attractiveness of the market in which the industry operates. An organization makes use of market analysis in order to take decisions related to manpower, financial investment, technology, marketing activities, inventory etc. Market analysis helps an organization in making an assessment of the future opportunities and threats pertaining to the industry while taking into account its strengths and weaknesses (Corkery and Corkery, 2015). The elements considered in the market analysis include the size of the market, prevailing trends in the market, the growth rate of the market, availability of distribution channels, the scope of profitability, pricing trends within the industry. Strategic goal setting A brand should set pre-defined objectives for its promotional campaign in order to measure its impact on the business of the hotel. The objectives of promotional strategy for the hotel should be to increase awareness about Park Hyatt Sydney (especially the services offered by the hotel) and encourage people to visit the Park Hyatt Sydney to experience world-class food, beverages and services. The impact of the communication plan on the business of the hotel should be measured over a period of 1 year (Mueller and Kaufmann, 2001). The major KPIs for the marketing plan should be awareness, preference, occupancy and booking. The following should be the communication objectives for Park Hyatt Sydney: To increase the customer base by 12% within 1 year in comparison to the customer base in the previous financial year. To increase the awareness about the range of services offered by Park Hyatt Sydney by 80% in a time period of 6 months. To persuade 10% of the target audience to visit the hotel for the first time within a time period of 1 year (Cairncross and Kelly, 2008). To increase preference for Park Hyatt Sydney in comparison to other luxury hotels by 25% in 1 year by creating top-of-mind awareness and superior brand image. To increase occupancy by 10% in a period of 1 year. Occupancy can be defined as the total number of rooms booked over the total number of rooms that are available in a hotel (Cairncross and Kelly, 2008). To increase booking for Park Hyatt Sydney by 10% over a period of 1 year. Competitor analysis: Competitor analysis is done in order to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the existing and potential competitors. Formulation, implementation, and monitoring of strategies are done on the basis of this analysis. The main objectives of competitor analysis are to list the brands operating in the same market, understand the capabilities of competitor brands, understand the strategies formulated by the competitors etc. Competitor analysis, detailed profiling is done for the major competitors existing within the given industry that involves the following elements: Understanding the background of the competitors like their history, mission, vision, values, their organizational structure and their presence in the market. Understanding the existing product portfolio of the competitors, development of new products/ services, licenses, investment in Research Development activities (Smeral, 2014). Understanding the financial stability of competitors, understanding the promotional techniques adopted by competitors, their target customers, market share, the budget for promotional campaigns, online and offline modes of promotion, positioning strategy, pricing strategy etc. The competitor list for Park Hyatt Sydney includes luxury hotels like Pier One Sydney Harbor, Sheraton on the Park, The Westin Sydney, The Amora Jamison, The Langham Sydney, Quay Grand Suites Sydney, Four Seasons Sydney, 1888 Hotel, QT Sydney, Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay, The Darling Hotel Sydney, Swissotel Sydney etc (Fivestaralliance.com, 2016). It is important to keep a check on the potential competitors along with the existing competitors. Low entry barriers, greater demand in comparison to the supply, high profit margins etc. increase the probability of potential competitors. Competitive advantage In todays competitive world, hotels are making strategic moves to gain advantages over other hotels targeting the same market segments. A strategy is basically a plan of action chosen by a brand for achieving its the desired objectives. All the internal and external factors affecting the business are analyzed while considering the uncertain conditions/ situations. These days hotels are trying to gain leadership in terms of customer experience, pricing of food/ services along with the quality of food/ services offered to visitors. Park Hyatt Sydney provides unique value to its guests on the basis of differentiation (customer experience, innovation, quality of services etc.). Competitive advantage is achieved by brands on the basis of their key strengths like human resource management, inventory stock management, distribution network, technology etc. Competitive advantage leads to enhanced efficiency, reduction in costs incurred to the brand and superior quality. Having an edge over the competitors results in higher market share and increased profits. Segmentation Segmentation of the market is critical for making a strategic marketing communication plan. This is a technique used by brands to divide the market served by the industry into small sections. In a market segment, customers have the similar likings/ demands/ priorities/ aspirations/ and respond in a similar manner to a marketing initiative taken by the brand. The target audience for the product/ service category is selected on the basis of market segmentation. This helps in gaining a competitive advantage. Segmentation is done on the basis of geographic location, demography (age, gender, religion, income level, educational level), behavior and lifestyle (activities, interest, values, spending pattern) of people. Targeting and positioning process Targeting strategy takes into consideration the diversity of customers for an industry. Brands make different offerings on the basis of market segments. Segmentation should be done in such a way that same promotional techniques should attract the group of customers belonging to a particular segment. Brands try to create brand loyalty and top-of-mind recall in the minds of the target audience by highlighting the USP of their products/ services and creating a positive perception about their products/ services. This technique known as the positioning technique is very important for low-involvement decisions like selecting a hotel. A positioning statement is generally used while communicating with the stakeholders (Yusof and Jamaludin, 2014). Positioning statement helps to distinguish the brand from its competitors. This is done by highlighting the brands USP, credibility and other details that influence the buying decision of people. For this hotel, the people of Sydney and the tourists visiting Sydney should be targeted on the basis of geography. On the basis of demography, people who are unmarried/ married, live in urban areas and are falling in the age group of 20-40 years should be targeted. Educated people who fall in the high-income bracket should be targeted. Those people should be a target who enjoys fine dining. The positioning statement for this project should be- Experience luxury with our hotel. We value our customers. Our genuine hospitality, exquisite decor and attention to details will turn your moments into memories. It is a perfect option for people with gourmet tastes (Yusof and Jamaludin, 2014). Design message The presentation (layout, color scheme, fonts etc.) and the content of the promotional message play a vital role in determining the impact of the chosen communication strategy. All the online and offline communications should include the positioning statement. The message should have images of how the hotel will look from the exterior as well as from the interior (Curtis, 2002). Pictures of the reception, dining area, mini-bars, spas, and rooms should be used. The message should include facts that lend exclusivity to the brand. The message should be designed in such a way that it leaves a lasting impression on the minds of viewers and it entices the viewers to visit the hotel at least once. Development of IMC program Different marketing tools are used by brands to achieve their marketing and communication objectives like advertisements, viral marketing, direct marketing, internet marketing, viral marketing, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling and outdoor marketing (kiosks, shopping malls, air-borne, stadiums). Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) makes use of different marketing tools for accomplishing the objectives relevant to the brand where all the tools convey the same message to the target customers. Park Hyatt hotel should make use of offline and online advertising, internet marketing and publicity/ public relations. The approximate budget for a promotional campaign for Park Hyatt Sydney would be around 70,000 dollars for 1 year (Grewal and Kishen, 2010). Implementation of communication strategies For online as well as offline advertisements, brands use different appeals to convey the message- rational appeal and emotional appeal. For Park Hyatt hotel emotional appeal (pleasure and comfort) should be used. The advertisement should urge people to come and book a room in the hotel during their family vacations or select the hotel for business trips. The hotel will help them to unwind, forget about professional stress and energize themselves. Some actor, sportsperson or politician can be asked to promote the hotel (Huertas, Casas and Subira, 2013). Before exposing the target audience to the promotional messages, media planning is done by a brand. Following elements are included in media planning: Selection of medium: It can be classified into different categories for delivering the promotional messages like print media (newspaper, journals, and magazines), broadcast media (radio, television), outdoor media and internet. Print media (television and newspaper) and internet marketing should be used for advertising the luxury hotel. Selection of media vehicle: It is the specific carrier or tool that is selected within the given medium (print media, broadcast media, internet, outdoor media). For this hotel, advertisements should be given in a newspaper named Times Today and television channel named Your Food Travel Guide. Reach and Frequency: Number of people exposed to the advertisement at least once in the given time period comprises the reach. The number of times in a given time period the viewer is exposed to an advertisement is known as frequency. For Park Hyatt Sydney, advertisement should be given once in a month in the newspaper and once in 3 days on the television channel (Huertas, Casas and Subira, 2013). For marketing through online mode, blogs should be created, pages should be created on social networking sites like Face book and Twitter for promoting the hotel and banner advertisements should appear when a person visits a website related to tourism and food. Monitoring and analyzing the IMC program The effectiveness of the marketing strategy for the hotel should be analyzed because a lot of monetary stakes are involved in the promotional campaigns. Thus the campaign should achieve the desired objectives. Evaluating of the marketing and communication strategy is done so that if the chosen promotional mix is unable to achieve the set objectives, alternate marketing strategies can be formulated. Following are the techniques that should be used to monitor the impact of advertisements and publicity/ Public relations: Market surveys: After the target audience gets exposed to the online and offline advertisements, consumer surveys should be conducted to analyze the change in awareness, perception, and preference (Brinia and Chryssi-Alexandra, 2016). These surveys should be conducted after every 3 months. The Percentage increases the level of occupancy and bookings over a period of 3 months. Test for recall and retention of advertisement: Random customers from the target segment should be selected and they should be asked to recollect the message delivered by the advertisement, positioning statement and the appeal used in the advertisement. It is important to measure the total number of impressions over a time span of 3 months Analysis can be done by monitoring the percentage change in the number of positive reviews or negative reviews over a time span of 3 months. The impact and effectiveness of internet marketing should be measured through the volume of unique visitor traffic on the website of Park Hyatt hotel, number of comments/ likes/ posts/ shares on different social media sites like Face book, Twitter etc. It should also be measured by the customer queries posted on the website and the Return on Investment (ROI). Conclusion: An effective promotional mix including advertisements, publicity/ public relations and internet marketing should be used by Park Hyatt hotel to increase the customer base and market share. The chosen promotional mix should help in creating a positive brand image. This will result in target customer base visiting the hotel and even recommending the hotel to other people (Brown, 2002). Undoubtedly, focusing on customer experience will help in becoming successful in this industry. Taking feedback from the customers on a regular basis will help to improve the customer experience. 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