INFORMATION NEEDS FOR THE MARKETING PLAN OF HOTEL X
The report highlights the
importance of information collation as a pre-requisite to the marketing plan
process.
In order to lend sensibility to this exercise, information must first
be collected on a macro level followed by a narrower focus to the confines of
the immediate environment that impacts Hotel X. The paper also looks to address
sources of information that may be used and highlights potential problems that
the researcher may face in the process. The report concludes with a synopsis of
what is required with regards to the collation of information and how to go
about delivering it.
Marketing plans
are essential to the effective functioning of any organisation. They require to
be synchronised with the overall business plan and larger objectives of the
company. In this case, Hotel X requires to put together a marketing plan for
the year 2006. However, as a pre-cursor to the activity, it is important to
understand the information needs that would be able to help direct the process
in the most appropriate way forward. This report looks to identify the various
sources of information that can be used in the marketing plan, the issues with
the collection of the information, the processing of the information into
intelligent data and the analysis of information.
RESEARCH
PROBLEM
A marketing plan
is the roadmap for an organisation. It is the document that gives the team
direction and vision of where they want to get to. It also helps define the
deliverables and the resource capabilities of the organisation. Hotel X is at
the preliminary stage of information collation. It is important to define how
this process needs to be conducted so as to ensure consistency and continuity
in the creation of the marketing plan.
DISCUSSION
Information Needs
Planning is the key ingredient
for a successful marketing strategy. Through an organised and well thought
through plan, Hotel X can leverage the use of information that it gathers, and
finally convert it into intelligent data to be utilised for more effective
decision-making. To ensure the accurate delivery of the marketing planning
process, Hotel X must undertake the exercise in a phased manner. Hence, the way
forward is to ensure that the Director of Sales and Marketing prepares a
marketing plan in accordance with the various phases that follow.
Typically, considering the
pre-requisites of the hospitality industry, the first step in the planning
process would be to develop an insight into the current market situation.
Following which; objectives need to be established as to what the organisation
desires. This would then translate into a feasibility study which looks to
understand if the goals and objectives can in fact be met through the analysis
of opportunities, threats etc. Finally, the marketing plan for Hotel X must
define the deliverables and expectations that would dictate the progress of the
plan and its final implementation.
Square One
According to Kotler (2003), the
first step in the planning process requires the understanding of the current
scenario in the market place. Only after a marketing manager is able to conduct
a situational analysis, is he / she in a position to take decisions on how they
should move forward.
(Kotler, Philip (2003)
Marketing Management, pg 116)
This first step is also perhaps
the most important. It provides the foundation stone on which the remaining
areas of the strategic planning process moves forward. Therefore, Ms Tessa
Lander should ideally look towards collating information on the environment
that surrounds Hotel X. This is segregated into 2 primary areas - the
macroeconomic environment and the microenvironment. Information collation at
the macro level would be concerned with the political and economic policies
that influence the hospitality sector, government regulation and local
legislation.
Regulation and guidelines are
imperative to the success of the overall marketing plans. For instance, the
hospitality sector has stringent rules on quality compliance, timings and
processes. Unless Hotel X is aware of these, it cannot move forward. In
addition, there are a number of government policies related to taxation,
corporate responsibility and human resource requirements that are of primary
importance.
Information at the
macro-economic level is best collated through government and trade
publications. Some of these are:
The
Department of Trade & Industry
The
Office of National Statistics
The
British Hospitality Association
The
Environment Agency - http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk
http://www.caterer-online.com/news/
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/
It is important to remember
that information collated can be biased even though it might be present in
trade publications. The more reliant and non-biased sources of information are
limited to the government led agencies and organisations.
Microscopic
On the other hand, the
microenvironment would involve areas such as the internal functions of Hotel X,
its suppliers, distributors and vendors as well as encompass the competitive
landscape. For instance, it is imperative to be abreast on the hotels that are
in the area close to Hotel X, what their rates and service offerings are, the
kind of customers that they look to target, the value-adds of staying at those
hotels and other peripherals that impact Hotel X either directly or indirectly.
Once this is done, information
collated in the above would help establish certain specifics in the research
and planning process. For instance, a view of the competitive landscape would
be able to help establish the opportunities and threats that are existent in
the marketplace. In this case, information would need to be analysed from what
was discovered on the competitive landscape and other areas such as
regulations, policies etc. Should research find that there are a number of
hotels within the vicinity of Hotel X; there is a definite threat to the
acquisition of Hotel X's customer base. At the same time, with more in depth
research, an opportunity may present itself since the target segment of the
surrounding hotels could be very different from the segment that Hotel X are
looking to target.
Information requirements on the
micro environment need to be collated through interviews and questionnaires,
articles on competitors, printed publications by other hotels and industry
critics, travel agencies, and finally mystery shoppers who pose as customers
and gather insightful information on the service offerings of the competitors.
When analysing the strengths and weaknesses of Hotel X in comparison to others,
the external information can be collected from the above sources, but the
internal comparison can only be conducted through the collation of information
from internal sources such as the accounts departments, sales performance and
senior level management who can share a strategic outlook that Hotel X has
planned. It must be noted that primary sources of information are usually far more
accurate albeit occasionally biased.
(Dibbs, Simkin, Pride
& Ferrell (2001) Marketing - Concepts & Strategies, pg 696 to 698)
Some of the external sources
that provide statistics such as sales figures, room occupancy levels etc are
held by organisations such as Datamonitor and Mintel. In addition, there are a
number of market research companies who have undertaken specific projects on
issues related to the hotel industry, competitive figures and trends in the
market. Hotel X should utilise statistics from these sources provided it can
incorporate them into their analysis. What would be of exceptional interest
would be statistics related to hotels that are in close proximity to Hotel X.
Once information has been
collated, it is important that objectives, aims and goals are set in accordance
with the findings. This would help provide an overview of sorts to the readers
of the marketing plan. At the same time, senior management and key stakeholders
utilise this to gain an understanding of where the plan falls into the remit of
the overall business strategy.
The objectives phase is
followed by the implementation stage where actions that are required during the
roll out of the marketing plan are documented. The information needs here are
usually limited to past experiences and contributions from the operational
departments. Here, financial projections would also be made, keeping in mind
the overall strategy and financial resource capabilities. Information on the
level of financial resource, the options available to the management in terms
of generating finance for the roll out etc would be required - all of which can
be sourced from the financial analysts and finance managers within the company.
In some cases, especially in the case of resource constraints, the use of
external consultants can also be utilised.
We know that the
importance of an effective marketing plan cannot be undermined to ensure the
success of Hotel X. The report attempts to highlight the more pressing issues
with regards to information needs that are most likely to present themselves.
For the purpose of ease, the information collation exercise must be segregated
into two areas - the macro environment and the micro environment. This would
provide the process a methodology that works from the outside by considering
options that will impact Hotel X on a holistic level and permeates down to core
areas of concern where the impact is more immediate.
The sources that
have been suggested in this report are by no means, exhaustive. They are merely
the triggers on which other areas of investigation can be initiated. At the
same time, the quality of the information should be upheld as the highest
priority.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kotler, Philip (2003) 'Marketing Management', USA (116 to
119)
Dibbs, Simkin, Pride & Ferrell (2001) 'Marketing -
Concepts & Strategies', USA (689 to 701)
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