Firmdale hotels are the award winning group of the hotels having eight boutique hotels in the country London. The hotel was founded in 1985 by the Tim Kemp and Kit. The management has to redefine the concept of luxury hotel with the stylish and reasonable priced properties. Firmdale hotels have the quality of unique services. The hotel has individually designed bedrooms having the original pieces of artwork with the unique colors. Along with this, the culture of hotel suits down to earth includes the assortment of ambitious, genuine friendly and hardworking personnel culture. The marketing plan of the Firmdale hotels is described below (Peck et al, 2013).
The business operations of the hotel are affected by the political factors in the operating market. There will be regulations from the government including food standards, hygiene, healthy and to serve approved food. The hotel industry is abided by the economic policies imposed by the government. Along with this, hotel industry has to follow some rules and regulations imposed by Department of food from the ministry of health (Cavusgil, 2012).
The hotel has to deal with the changed and fluctuating interests rates which impact on the cost of capital. The hotel is being affected by the economic growth of the operating country. Some events such as stock market collapse and crisis can reduce the buying power of individual and ability of purchasing. High exchange rates of the currency can also be problematic for the international customers as high exchange rates can discourage the business travel.
The culture of the society and the surrounded people affect the business of the hotel. In order to attract high customer base, it is important to provide the food based on the culture of the customers. For the growth of the hotel, some cultures of the region are now allowed to consume certain foods. Before initiating the restaurant business, it is important for the hotel group to understand the culture of the country, region and people of that area. The reason is that the eating habits always affect the sales of a restaurant.
For the growth and success of the restaurant, there should be good infrastructure which is helpful in improving the business. By using new technologies, the restaurant can be able to reduce the wages and other costs. Basically, technology has huge impact on the hotel business in the form of online rental services which provides individual rent rooms directly to the customers (Russell, 2010).
In current time, the main environmental factor which affects the restaurant business is fuel prices. Falling oil prices can reduce the travel cost and increase the demand for hotel rooms. Further, the increased electricity cost can have long term impact on the environment and can affect the business of the restaurants. Along with this, the climate change can also harm the restaurant business such as increased temperature due to global warming.
The restaurant has to follow the legal requirements which are important to run a business in the market. Legal factors are important source of the external impact on the performance of restaurant. If there are any changes in the jurisdiction of the country then it affect on the hotel industry in direct and indirect ways. Along with this, there are many visa restriction rules in some countries for the international visitors and those countries play an important role in the tourism industry. Further, the performance of the restaurant is directly affected the customer safety and protection and employment laws in the country.
In this case, new entrants are measured to be low. The reason is that there are many strong competitors which are dominating the industry. The new entrants wish to enter in the luxury hotel market and it is very hard to enter because they need large capital to establish the business. Along with this, brand image and initial investments are important for the success of a restaurant. So, the threat of new entrants is very low in the hotel industry.
During some years, the hotel industry is facing the threats of substitute. Some of the established hotels are more acceptable for the customers because the hotels are providing the quality services having very reasonable prices. The well established hotels do not need high capital and high budget to maintain the business, there is the need off acceptable environment for the customers such as the clean and small room with the bed for the customers to overnight, which are effective gain competitive advantage in the market.
The bargaining power of suppliers in the hotel industry is very weak. Hotel industry is the service field and there is the need of lots of manpower to run the business and to serve the customers. So, the staff of hotel is the main in-charge of daily operations.
The bargaining power of the customers is relatively high because there are many hotels and competition is very strong in the industry. So, it depends on the location, places where the hotels are established. If the customers do not like the services of one hotel, they can switch to another hotel for the best services. It means that the there are many hotel competitors in the tourists hotspot. So the bargaining power of the customers will be higher because the customers are now able to compare one hotel with another hotel in terms of prices, advertisements and strategies to attract customers (Lovelock, 2011).
The Firmdale hotels experience the direct competition from other companies in the same locality or same area around the city of London. The hotel is experiencing the competition in terms of same kind of services and products to the customer group. Along with this, hotel is also experiencing the indirect competition from non-profit organizations which are giving competition for the customers’ non-refundable income. Firmdale hotels are the leading hotels in the London and it is giving strong competition to the other hotels.
This section provides a brief description of the internal strength and weakness of the company and the external opportunities and challenges to run the business. Basically, the SWOT analysis provides an overview of the internal strength of the hotel including flaws in the business. Along with this, the external environment including threats and challenges faced by the hotel. The SWOT analysis of Firmdale hotels is as follows:
The strength of Firmdale hotels in terms of opening new restaurant is described below.
Reputation- It is well known that the Firmdale hotels have good reputation in the hotel industry. The restaurant is seeking to establish itself with the strong position in the market. Hotel is trying to build the strong image in both local market and travel and corporate trade markets. Along with this, hotel is trying to establish its reputation by providing quality, reliability and excellent services.
Brand strength- There should be brand values in the hotel which are helpful for the hotel in gaining competitive advantage over the strong and established hotels. The brand values of Firmdale hotels include brand loyalty amongst existing and new clients in the market.
Shared values- Firmdale hotels have the quality of shared value which is the uniqueness of the hotel. By the shared value, the proposed restaurant will be able to achieve good propositional value which is well communicated and clear (Fifield, 2012).
Globalization- The biggest weakness which has to face by Firmdale hotels is due to their globalization or the entry in the global market. The business operations of Firmdale hotels can be affected because of the availability of the well established local hotels in the countries. This makes the harder for Firmdale hotels to run business continuously in the global market.
Management system- It can be said that Firmdale hotels has weak management system for the business operations. Because of the business expansion, the management system of the hotel is becoming very weak because the hotel is supposed to be very weak in the performance.
Client dependency- There is the opportunities for Firmdale hotels’ new restaurants in terms of clients’ dependency on the restaurants. Customers always want the individual quality and services having the luxurious environment. So, it is important for the restaurant to attract the customers with the unique quality services (Assaf et al, 2015).
Marketing promotions- Firmdale hotels have the opportunity of promoting the new restaurant by the innovative marketing promotions. The improvement can be done by the hotel in order to grow its services to grasp the customers’ loyalty. Further, various planning and strategies should be made to promote the services of the restaurants (Peñaloza, Toulouse & Visconti, 2013).
Increased competition- For the Firmdale hotels, the increased competition in the hotel industry can be the major threat. The competition is increasing in the hotel industry as the hotel chains are entering in the market with new brands and new services. There are many hotels in the different areas of the world so; there is the high rate of substitution for the customers in terms of brand and services.
Political issues- It is not easy for the Firmdale hotels to enter in the new country as there can be the risk of political issues in the selected country. The involvement of the government and the risk of the political issues create the risk for the hotel while it is seeking for its business in the global market.
Pricing- It is well known that there is the high rate of fluctuation in the prices of the hotels. The reason is that there is the high and intense competition in the hotel industry because there are numbers of foreighn hotels in the country. So, it is the tough challenge for the Firmdale hotels to set the competitive prices to achieve the set customer base (Martínez, 2012).
Firmdale hotels want the customers to come not only form the country London but also from all over the world. The hotel seeks for the tourists who come to London to spend their holidays. In the country London, there are many competitors such as Ham yard Hotel and Soho Hotels which are giving tough competition to Firmdale hotels. To compete with these hotels, Firmdale hotels will provide the services 24 hours in a day along with the variety of wine and meal with the green tea to the customers. This will be served according to the English tradition and culture (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2012).
The marketing strategies of Firmdale hotels are focused in creating the brand awareness among the customers regarding services to build the customer base and loyalty in the market. Firmdale hotels have good position in the market so; the hotel will be able to use the print advertisements for the promotions. Along with this, the hotel can also use social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to attract most of the customers in the market. For the good performance in the global market, it is important for the Firmdale hotels to build the long term relationship with the partners and suppliers by satisfying them with their needs. It is also very crucial for the hotel to choose the global partners carefully to gain the successful entry in the international market. Along with this, Firmdale hotels should have possible market mix to gain competitive advantage in the market (Godsmark & Godsmark, 2010).
Firmdale hotels are providing the modified and best services to target the large customer base in global market. The hotel will provide the essentials in the facilities such as internet connection, wireless access, technology and audio-visual needs with catering for long meetings. Further, sustainability is also the business strategy to balance the social, environmental and economic impact on the business. So, the management would have renowned and good image among the customers (Tan & Dwyer, 2014).
The Firmdale hotels will choose in the US market for the expansion. Firmdale hotels wants that the target market can be segmented into four various groups. One group will be rich customers including the number around 4000 customers. Further, second group is the young happy customers including the annual rate of 5.5% with 2500 potential clients. In the group third, there are rich and happy people who are concerned for the organic foods and ethnic cooking. At last, the final category of the customers includes those people who are interested in the healthy offerings and mostly comprise of dieting women. The sales strategy of Firmdale hotels will be based on the new locations for increasing revenue.
Firmdale hotels will experience many economic climatic challenges while entering in the new market. The climate challenges can be reduced by the expansion plan with the process of acquisition. Further, Firmdale hotels can face various challenges by the established hotels in the country. So, it is critical for the hotel to have some approaches such as planning, talent development and communication. Competition is the key challenge for the Firmdale hotels. The Firmdale group of hotel needs to encounter the impact of problems which affect the hospitality sector.
Firmdale hotels targets basically three types of market i.e. people working in the business during the normal working day, neighboring business seeking for dinner and workers who go for the cheap food. Firmdale hotels are dedicated to offer the values to the customers. Further, the hotel is seeking to provide an exceptional individual service to the customers. In this manner, hotel will provide the services with the luxurious and relaxed environment which will be sufficient to conduct any form of business meetings. The restaurant should always develop mutual relationship in terms of efficiency, money and dependability with the customers by providing them the required support. In case of positioning, Firmdale hotels understand the needs of the customers. The approach of restaurant is very simple to provide great mixture of interesting and healthy food to attract the ‘trendy’ customers (Bickhoff, Hollensen & Opresnik, 2014).
There are three phases or methods for the evaluation of effective sales promotion for the Firmdale hotels i.e. pre-testing, monitoring and follow up and post-testing. The aim of sales promotion can be achieved by using various techniques of promotions. There are many techniques of achieving cost effectiveness to accomplish the goals of promotions. This can be done by the method of ‘pre-testing’. By the monitoring and follow up, hotel will be able to gather the important data to movement of sales. The data is collected and reviewed based on the past sales data. By the post testing, hotel can also focus on the effectiveness or performance of the sales such as cost effectiveness, number of coupon redeemed number of people participating in the event and quantity demanded (Daniels, 2002).
Firmdale hotels have to deal with many challenges while doing business in global market. It is well known that there are different ways to collect business in different countries. So, Firmdale hotels have to face the cultural differences in the various countries so, there is the need to understand the cultural mix in the areas of target market. Along with this, hotel will also face the issues related to the food choices. So, it is crucial for the hotel to provide the food based on the culture and tradition of the customers. The cultural issue can be the major issue for the hotel while entering in the global market. For this manner, it is important for the market participants to have the meeting to deal with the issue (Boone & Kurtz, 2013).
This strategy can be said as the ‘adaptation strategy’ by focusing on the packaging, design, and the function component to fulfill the requirement s of the market. For the Firmdale hotels, the main elements of the marketing mix are as follows:
The product is important in the business because if it is absent then it will not be accepted by the customers in the market. In case of Firmdale hotels, the products include hospitality services for the various business services, food and beverages, leisure, and high quality services to attract the customers (Chakravarthy & Coughlan, 2011).
Basically, clients have high expectations in the hotel industry as they want unique services and products at the fair prices with extra care. In case of pricing, Firmdale hotels will have the consideration of profit margin along with the product quality. Food quality is the reason for the consumers to pay large amount of money.
In case of Firmdale hotels, the hotel management will figure out the proper location for its new restaurant business. The location of Firmdale’s main hotel and its branches will be at the ideal places where most of the customers’ base can be targeted (Thomas, 2014).
In the promotion strategy, Firmdale hotels will advertise for its new restaurant by the print media and social media sites. By the FaceBook, and Twitter, hotel can attract more and more customers. By creating brand awareness through personal emails, hotel will get competitive advantage in the market (Ryan, 2014).
Risk assessment can be described as the process of identifying, assessing, and selecting the risk associated in the business. It basically includes the monitoring, minimizing and controlling the chances of most possible risk in the business. Risk can be raise due to various sources including liabilities, accidents, credit risks, and threats in the business. So, Firmdale hotels should take steps to eliminate the risk in the business. The hotel can seek to reduce the risk by collaborating with the stakeholders of the hotels. In the risk management will reduce the financial and legal distresses. Hotel can also use the concept of brand protection in the risk management because it is the long-term strategy for the hotel. The hotel should take cautions while advertising its products and services as the advertisements are the mirror of the services which are provided by the hotel to the services (Iplik, Topsakal & Dogan, 2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important for the hotel group to have good relationship with the customers for the success of new restaurant. In case of Firmdale hotels, there are many risks while entering in the global market. It is important for the Firmdale hotels to have all the responsibilities to ensure that the hotel is going on right track. It is crucial for Firmdale hotels to analyze the progress, and growth of the financial and marketing strengths.
References
Armstrong, G., & Cunningham, M. H., (2012), Principles of marketing, Australia: Pearson publication
Assaf, G. A., Josiassen, A., Knez?evic?, C. L., & Woo, L., (2015), The effects of customer voice on hotel performance: International Journal of Hospitality Management, 44, 77-83
Bickhoff, N., Hollensen, S., & Opresnik, M., (2014), The Quintessence of Marketing: Strategic and Operative Marketing Planning—Segmenting, Targeting, Positioning. pp. 47-11
Boone, L., & Kurtz, D., (2013), Contemporary marketing. USA: Cengage Learning
Cavusgil, S. T., (2012), International Business: The New Realities. Australia: Pearson Education
Chakravarthy, B., & Coughlan, S., (2011), Emerging market strategy: innovating both products and delivery systems, 40(1), 27-32
Daniels, P., (2002), Restaurant business start-up guide: A complete guide to establishing your business. Chino Hills, Calif: Venture Marketing
Fifield, P., (2012), Marketing strategy (2nd edition), Berlin: Reed educational & publishing Pvt Ltd
Godsmark, C., & Godsmark, C., (2010), Start and run a restaurant, Oxford: How To Books
Iplik, FN., Topsakal, Y., & Dogan, O., (2014), strategic innovation: an empirical study on hotel firms operating in antalya region, 2(1), 16-29
Lovelock, C., ( 2011), Services Marketing (7th edition), India: Pearson Education
Martínez, P., (2012), The Consumer Mind: Brand Perception and the Implications for Marketers, USA: Kogan Page Ltd
Peck, H., Christopher, M., Clark, M., & Payne, A., (2013), Relationship Marketing, Burlington: Linacre house, Jordon hill
Peñaloza, L., Toulouse, N., & Visconti, L. M., (2013), Marketing management: A cultural perspective, USA: Routledge
Russell, J., (2010), Evaluate the Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing on Hotels. Hospitality Management Review Student Journal at Sheffield Hallam University, 1
Ryan, D., (2014), Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation, Kogan Page Publishers
Tan, J., & Dwyer, L., (2014), Managing distribution channel confict in the hotel industry: International Journal of Marketing and Business Communication, 3, 9-19
Thomas, D. F., (2014), Business Plan Competitions and Their Impact on New Ventures’ Business Models: Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability, p. 35
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