Hilton Hotel is one of the most well-known hotel industries in UK. The stated firm is recognized for its innovative products, facilities and service. The hotel is located in the middle of the city and is surrounded by museums and landmarks. The services offered by Hilton Hotel are very attractive, lucrative in attracting customers.
This report will present the articulation about the hotel elements, products and market segmentation and its contribution in the maximization of sales. The report will present the evaluation of the key components of the product and will also discuss the range of contributions to sales and profit of elements in the product mix. It will describe the external sales environment of the company and the usefulness of external merchandising to enhancing the customer amount.
Evaluate the key components of the product
The product mix considers as an important decisions that are associated with the products like design of product, packaging of product and quality of product. And the other significant thing involves with the product mix is product assortment. Product mix refers to the amount of items and goods a certain producer offers to the market. There are some key components of products that are given below:
Branding- branding is refers to the identification of the product which is can be in a form of a design, symbol and name. Branding is not only executed for identifying the producers but also for making the product superior that any rivalry’s products (Houliez, 2010). Branding is more effective than the identification mark as it is a producer’s commitment for delivering the quality and satisfaction of buyer’s expectations. With the help of brand the firm can easily identify that which goods belong to a certain firm. Branding helps in product differentiation as with the help of branding producer can differentiate the products from the rivalry’s product (Wang, 2014). Branding also helps in advertising the gods as it makes customers aware of the features of the products.
Packaging- Packaging is a basic activity of each and every firm and it can be defined as the set of activities that considered with the production of an innovative wrapper, containers for the product as well as designing of the bag for the product. Packaging is a key element of the products as it is important for rising standard of health (Houliez, 2010). Customers prefer packed products over lose as there are low chances of adulteration in packed product.
Labeling- labeling refers to attaching identification marks on the package as label is the carrier of information because it gives information such as name of the producers, name of the product, price, weight, contents of the product as well as producing date and also general instructions or information of the product (Houliez, 2010). Labeling helps the customers for identifying the product from the different kinds that are available. Apart from this, labeling also helps in grading system of products in different categories.
The product is the target of marketing efforts as well as making efforts. Product is the total of psychological as well as physical satisfaction as it gives to the buyer. A product is also the sum total segments of materials that are used in the constructions and also its ability to perform, its brands, its personality and also its packaging (Oktaviyanti, Masyhuri and Mulyo, 2016). The product mix is the composite of products offered for sale by the company, over period of time.
Place and distribution- it gives amenities to easily access of the products. Place and area of the hotel is located in the center of the city Watford. Location near the city is outskirt as well as hill station. It utilizes direct and indirect distribution process for penetrating much more customers. In direct process, hotel utilizes sales with the help of hotel sales team or group. Whereas, in indirect process, maintain effective relationship with the help of travel agents as well as event planners.
Price- Reputed and famous hotel attracts large amount of customers through giving discounting as well as devaluing facility and amenities on the products (Wang, 2014). It considered on various class of people such as luxury class, business class as well as special discount for the government workers at weekend.
Promotion- sales as well as marketing techniques executed by reputed hotel for communicating along with the targeted customers. Different types of communication modes are utilized such as social media, websites and also commercial advertisement.
Service provided- It offers standard types of services to their capable customers. It also has luxuries rooms as well as well trained workers for maintaining better relationship with the consumers; it also concentrates on the old customers as well as on the new customers towards products. Hilton Watford hotel provide various kinds of product guest room, seminar rooms parking facilities as well as banqueting rooms (Sukpanich and Rugman, 2007). For attracting business class of customers it also offers video conferencing, Wi-Fi facility as well as internet facility.
Market is segmented according to the demographic reasons, cultural and behavioral reasons as well as geographically. It encourages with the help buying power as well as consumer behavior (Stevens, Loudon and Nykiel, 2013). For the purpose of increasing profit and sales subdivision of market is required.
Demographic- Developed hotel offers different services to its customers according to the level of income. Various other factors like social motives of guests, contribution in increase sales and profits (Singh, 2013).
Psychographic- Market segmented according to the basis of life style and standard of living of the customers that involves attitude and belief associated with the product. Prices are set as well as room are segmented according to that (Shi et al., 2016).
Geographic- For getting huge number of customers divide the market into international, region and national wise. Categorize the market concerned the factors such as business, income, occupation and general way (Schwartz, 2006).
Behavioral- Customers are focused according to the behavior associated with the services and product involves parties organize, marriage functions in the hotel (Singh, 2013). So, much more customers attract towards the products as well as increase the sales of the company.
Discuss the factors affecting buyer behaviour.
Different factors that affect behavior of customers are summarized in the following:
Cultural factor- Culture is the part of community as it is really important for understanding the wants, behavior and desires of the customers. It also delivers messages of ideas, thoughts and values which can be quite helpful for individual (Belz, 2017). The culture of hotel is quite excellent and innovative and the management behaves well with every customers.
Social factors- Status, role, family and reference groups are encourage the behavior of the customers. It provides different types of services to their customers such as discount at weekends to government workers, dining-out habits as well as travel guide (Belz, 2017). Hotel focusing loyal class of customers with the help of organize meetings as well as marriage functions.
Personal factors- Factors which encourages the customers’ behavior are income level, age, economic condition, personality, level and self-concept that associated with the activities such as demographics erratic offer discount government workers at weekend (Oktaviyanti, Masyhuri and Mulyo, 2016).
Psychological factors- It includes factors those affect the customer purchasing behavior are attitudes, perception and beliefs (Morrison and O’Gorman, 2008). Through launching special campaigns marketers can modify the attitude and belief of the customers.
Hilton hotel of UK advertises and promotes their products with the support and help of direct and indirect advertising modes. It also focuses on the loyal class customers by organizing events as well as invites celebrity for promoting its brands. Reputed hotel even utilized various other modes for marketing posters, bulletin boards and magazines. Government class workers attract with the help of discount policies offered by them (Schwartz, 2006). In order to attract business class customers they provide are internet facility, video conferencing facility, and telemarketing as well as Wi- fi connectivity facility. The company also maintains database of consumers segments and also maintain the record of the existing customers (Oktaviyanti, Masyhuri and Mulyo, 2016). Developed company utilizes direct mail for informing customers regarding the new plans as well as discounting policies. Market campaigning is also executed for triggering rapid sales which results in then firm of enhancing the profit and sales (Schwartz, 2006). Hotel creates strategy for enhancing awareness regarding target huge part of customers and also brands.
External merchandising here means the procedure to promote the product for the purpose of attracting more and more customers with the help of product presentation in the retail outlets. With assistance from the product merchandising, the sale of the brand increases (Ming, Houé and Grabot, 2012). External merchandising plays a very significant part in attaining a huge number of customers and also in enhancing the sales of the product.
Some of the recommendations for the improvement in external merchandising are:
In addition to this, Hilton Hotel can also execute some specific design aspects like:
Location: The location of the hotel must be near to the market. It should not be in a congested place otherwise people would get the relaxation for which they have come to hotel (Martynova, 2011). But, it must be near to the market so that important elements like airport, tourist places are in the reaching range. Location surely helps in increasing the demand as tourists usually like to have hotels near to the stated terms.
Display at surrounding stores and areas: displaying the design of the hotel and pictures of its excellent services to the customers through surrounding stores and areas also helps in grabbing the attention of the customers.
Exterior view of the hotel: The management of Hilton Hotel must keep the exterior of the hotel neat and clean. It is the first thing that comes in the view of the customers (Martynova, 2011). The exterior of the building must be eye-catching so that its can gain the attraction of the customers. Attractive entrance, beautiful exterior view helps in grabbing the attention of the audiences.
Facilities: It is important to provide some of the facilities like parking, gym, and restaurant facility to the customers. Parking facility helps in increasing the number of the customers (Johnson, 2014). Some other facilities that support the convenience of the customers are reception and help desk.
Assess how design and layout might affect customer spend.
It is a true fact that customer satisfaction helps in getting more revenue. Customer satisfaction is interconnected with the different physical elements of hotels such as technology, welcoming music, flooring, hotel fixtures and cleanliness. Examining the physical environment of the hotel impact on the customer satisfaction has become an important issue in the current business situation. It is of no doubt that providing service quality is the principal of having customer’s loyalty (Ashraf et al., 2014). Thus, it is surely important to pay necessary attention to different parts of the hotel operations. People at Hilton Hotel, travels from different parts of the world; so, it is important for the management to provide quality assistance and provide them with the services of their demand (Houliez, 2010). Effective hotel designs provide balance between the operational functionality and physical environmental elements like hotel furniture, fixtures; cleanliness helps in creating the required ambience for the guests.
Figure 1: Physical appearance of Hilton Hotel
Here are the five different points of Hilton Hotel that effect the customer spend:
Technology: technology plays a very important role in the hospitality industry (Ashraf et al., 2014). Both businesses and customers get assistance from it. Hilton Hotel provides free Wi-Fi service to its guests. In the current business context, hotel guests expect to able to connect the internet seamlessly and without any interruptions (Heese and Swaminathan, 2010). Another modern technology that Hilton Hotel provides to its customer is the facility of smart room keys. The system of Hilton hotel allows the guests to unlock their doors by simply swiping their phones across a keyless pad on the door. Providing technology services to the customers helps in increases the expenditure of the customers.
Welcoming music: After a long travel, guests usually want to get relaxed. Hilton Hotel provides welcoming music to its customers that help the customers to get relaxed. The cool and calm nature of the music affects the customers to settle there and also raise a restriction to the customers to visit any other hotel.
Lightening: lightening can affect the mood and value of the hotels as lightening is one of the must have basic function. Lightening provides more than illumination as it also complements the furniture, architecture, and artwork of a hotel (Houliez, 2010). Hilton Hotel has a great lightening system that attracts customers to have a look into the hotel. The lightening of Hilton Hotel makes it as a luxury hotel for the guests.
Figure 2: Lightening in a Hilton Hotel room
Flooring: flooring is often called the fifth wall and it must not be ignored. Hilton Hotel gets both aesthetic appeal and functional durability with its flooring design. It is a thing that may be overlooked sometimes but it also contributes in a big way in attracting customers (Christou, 2011).
Cleanliness: guests are always worried about the cleanliness of the hotel room. An unclean room is the most pivotal factor in demotivating the customers for staying in a hotel (Christou, 2011). The management of Hilton Hotel provides complete cleanliness to its guests. It is done by providing clean sheets and clean fluffy towels and by on-premise laundry. Cleanliness helps in retaining customers.
Figure 3: Cleanliness at Hilton Hotel
Internal merchandising is utilized to develop revenue and grab the market opportunity. It is important to collect proper information about the targeted customers before creating hotel’s internal merchandising. Internal merchandising is done through electronic marquees, lobby posters, and guest’s service directories.
Cohesive merchandising plans involve all the guest contact areas and it gets developed in the form of brand name or positioning statement. All the merchandising elements of Hilton Hotel are placed in an excellent condition (Chen, 2015). Guest directories, menus, table tent cards are placed and laminated inside acrylic. It is securely tie up with the marketing plan and offers various plans to attract different category of people like weekend discount to governmental employees. The internal merchandising of the Hilton Hotel execute through consistency (which includes position statement and brand), condition (table tent cards, guest directories), and cost effectiveness (monitoring tasks and services).
Sales of Hilton Hotel also get enhanced by its attractive designs and layout. Interior decoration of the hotel, well trained employees, god infrastructure helps in attracting consumers towards the products (Chen, 2015). Hilton Hotel also offers services like Gym, high speed internet facility, parking facility and restaurant and bar facility.
Hilton Hotels uses different activities in different scenarios to promote their brand image and to increase the market share. The management offers services to business class, loyal class and middle class (Government employees). These services are described below:
Business class people: these segment for people are attracted through conferences, and meeting rooms along with other amenities like internet, Wi-Fi and video conferencing equipment’s (Belz, 2017). In order to attract the business class people, Hilton Hotel offer businesses packages by sending letters, e-mails, brochures and pamphlets.
Loyal Class people: this segment of people is attracted from amenities like parking facility, cherish library, position of the hotel, accommodation room, spa facility and event organize by hotel in which celebrities are invited. For attracting this segment of people, Hilton Hotel utilizes telemarketing and personal contract (Baum, 2011). Hilton Hotel offers services to enjoy the cultural break or weekend offer to participate in Hilton events.
Middle class people: this segment of people is attracted through hygienic foods and service in proper manner. Hilton attracts the government employees by providing discounts up to 40% on the base price during weekends. Restaurant and bar of the Hilton also helps in attracting middle class people.
Evaluate personal selling techniques, making recommendations for improvement.
Communication skills and good interpersonal skills are essential in personal selling technique. For selling a product it is essential to have knowledge about the product and service. Hilton Hotel maintains relationship with the customers and also consistently aware them about the new discount policy and plans. For personal selling, it is essential that right employees are chosen and right training is provided to them (Johnson, 2014). It is important to provide them training so that their selling skills can be improved that will be beneficial for the employees, consumers and hotel also.
Hilton Hotel uses different personal selling tactics that can be described as follows:
Sales call: day to day target is planned by the management that is achieved with a well-developed plan.
Sales trip: it is conducted by the management of Hilton Hotel to expand their business operations and to enhance awareness of the products (Johnson, 2014).
Telephone selling: The management of Hilton Hotel interacts with its customers by receiving incoming calls and placing outgoing calls for stating the hotel facilities (Baum, 2011). The Tele caller of the company are well trained and behaved to analyze the consumer’s needs and aims at give answer to customers as quickly as possible.
The Hilton Hotel also provides entertaining facility to the customers like cycling, tracking, gaming zone service and casino to attract them in the direction of hotel brand. The management for the stated hotel is also involved with the community and cultural base events in order to attract large number of audiences for the assistance of the business (Johnson, 2014).
It is the accountability of the staffs to maximize the operational performance. In order to diminish the cost and to increase the efficiency of the corporation, companies must perform its operation in an effective manner (Heese and Swaminathan, 2010).
Direct sales are utilized by Hilton Hotel to segment the customers and to make a position in the current competitive marketplace. Hilton Hotel develops and formulas the strategy plan and properly executes it to enhance the business operations and to have the targeted goals in a well-planned manner (Heese and Swaminathan, 2010). The senior executive of the stated hotel provides training to the workers so that they could have the required knowledge and skills to operate the business functions properly.
The senior executive of Hilton Hotel does the marketing efforts effectively so that they could support the sales actively. Prices of the services in Hotel are set on the basis of the product so that to understand the market properly and to charge customers according to their required services (Heese and Swaminathan, 2010).
Some of the chief principles that must be includes in a sales training programme are:
Conclusion
It has been found in the study that the product mix considers as an important decisions that are associated with the products like design of product, packaging of product and quality of product. And the other significant thing involves with the product mix is product assortment. Product mix refers to the amount of items and goods a certain producer offers to the market. The study also identified that the management of Hilton Hotel interacts with its customers by receiving incoming calls and placing outgoing calls for stating the hotel facilities. The Tele caller of the company are well trained and behaved to analyze the consumer’s needs and aims at give answer to customers as quickly as possible. It has also identified in the study that communication skills and good interpersonal skills are essential in personal selling technique. For selling a product it is essential to have knowledge about the product and service. Hilton Hotel maintains relationship with the customers and also consistently aware them about the new discount policy and plans. For personal selling, it is essential that right employees are chosen and right training is provided to them.
References
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