Customer value proposition plays an important role in gaining competitive advantages for the service sector organizations. This is due to the reason that the more will be the value proposition being offered by the service providers to their customers, the more will be their attractiveness in the market. This is majorly applicable in the hotel industries due to the reason that customer loyalty is being determined by the quality and standard of service delivery process of the organizations (Payne, Grow & Eggert, 2017). Quality of the service delivery process also determines the generation of positive or negative word of mouth in the market. In addition, it should also be noted that effective marketing plan also plays an important role in influencing the generation of word of mouth among the customers. Thus, marketing plan is also having a major importance among the service providers in deter mining their brand value and awareness (Martelo Landroguez, Barroso Castro & Cepeda-Carrion, 2013).
This essay will discuss about the distinctive values being offered by Courtyard by Marriott in Prince George over their competitors. In addition, the factors affecting the positive and negative word of mouth will also be discussed along with the evaluation of importance of marketing plan.
It is can be concluded that Courtyard by Marriott is the best hotel available in the Prince George location of Canada. There are number of reasons behind choosing Courtyard as the best hotel of Prince George. One of the major reasons is the competitive scenario in the location with having the competition for Courtyard in the forms of Coast Inn of the North, Ramada Plaza by Wyndham and Sandman (He et al., 2016). Thus, among the major hotel brands operating in the Prince George, Courtyard is the only international brand with having their presence across the world. Thus, the service quality of Courtyard is more of world class compared to their competitors. It is also being identified that price for Courtyard is low compared to some of their competitors. Thus, the service quality standard for Courtyard is higher along with offering at competitive price point helping in providing the best value for money service in the region. In addition, the market focus strategy of Courtyard in targeting and catering to only business travelers helped them to design their service elements accordingly. Thus, the satisfaction of the target customers is more for Courtyard compared to their competitors (Kunkel, Funk & King, 2014).
One of the major distinctive values being offered by them is having desks, couches and free internet services across all the accommodations including the budget rooms. This denotes that diversity of the complementary services for Courtyard is more over their competitors. In addition, the visitors are also having the access to the live bistro service, which provides fresh cooked breakfast and snacks (Bradic, Kosar & Kalenjuk, 2013). This is another differentiating value for Courtyard. As discussed in the previous section about the market focus strategy of Courtyard of catering only to the business travelers, it is helping them to provide the holistic service to the target customers. It is identified that Courtyard is having dedicated business center for their guests where they can have their business work done perfectly. This distinctive and focused approach of Courtyard is helping in meeting the expectations of the business travelers effectively and retention ratio is also increasing for them. The guests visiting Courtyard are having the free access to these added benefits and facilities, which are not being provided by the other brands in Prince George. The shopping experience offered by Courtyard to their guests is also enhancing the value proposition of them. It is identified that guests are having the opportunity to shop for the exclusive household and serve ware products from the Courtyard home collection. This is increasing the physical evidence for the customers, which will further increase the brand recall among the customers.
One of the major factors affecting the trend of word of mouth in the restaurant industry and this is the dining experience. This is due to the reason that dining is the core service for the restaurants and the quality of it determines the trend of word of mouth among the customers. According to Blazevic et al., (2013) the core expectation of the customers from visiting the restaurants is having a fine dining experience and if the desired level of them cannot get fulfilled, then the probability of emergence of negative word of mouth will be more irrespective of effective added and auxiliary services. On the other hand, if the dining experience is meeting the expectation of the customers, then the probability for positive word of mouth will be more. Thus, dining experience can be concluded as one of the major factors in affecting the trend of word of mouth. Another major factor is the marketing effectiveness. The more will be the reach and penetration of the marketing activities for the restaurant, the more will the word of mouth trend among the target customers. According to Lu et al., (2013), marketing and promotional activities of the restaurants helps in determining the brand awareness among the customers, which will further reflect the emergence of buzz regarding the particular restaurant. On the other hand, it is also stated by the authors that ineffective and intensive marketing and promotional activities will reduce the word of mouth trend in the market. However, it is also being identified that the more will be the buzz around the brand in the market, the more will be the probability of spreading of word of mouth including positive and negative.
Another key factor in determining the positive and negative word of mouth is the service delivery process. This also includes the quality of the food. This is due to the reason that ideal and high quality service and ambience will also cause emergence of negative word of mouth if the quality of the food is not up to the desired level (Rahman & Areni, 2014). Thus, if the food quality cannot be maintained, then the probability of negative word of mouth will be more and vice versa. The service delivery process also includes the effectiveness of the employees in providing the desired standards to the customers. Thus, if the employees are effective enough in offering the desire d service standard to the customers, then it will enhance the positive word of mouth among the customers and vice versa.
In the recent time, marketing plan is having more importance than it was before. This is due to the reason that in the current competitive market scenario, effective marketing plan will help the business organizations in having larger penetration among the target customers. This is due to the reason that marketing plan includes the product, pricing and promotional strategies coordinated with each other. Hence, the products or services will be better designed in accordance to the target market preferences (McDonald, 2016). On the other hand, marketing plan is also important due to the reason that it helps in proper allocation of fund for different elements and activities in initiating the marketing activities. An ideal marketing plan includes the budgetary considerations, which helps the business organizations to have the understanding about the capital required. This also helps in further evaluation of the marketing effectiveness by estimating the return on investments. In the recent time, determination of the target customers along with their taste and preference pattern is important especially for the service providers. This is due to the reason that effective determination of target market helps the service providers to offer their services in more personalized manner (Holliman & Rowley, 2014). With the help of the marketing plan, business organizations can effectively identify the target customers along with their trend patterns. This will increase the effectiveness of the of service delivery process. Selection of the proper marketing and promotional mediums is also important in reaching out to the target customers. In addition, these mediums should be diverse in nature catering to different customer segments. With the help of the effective marketing plan, these mediums are being chosen based on their effectiveness among the target market. This ensures that the promotional activities are being communicated through right set of mediums and right set of customers are being targeted (Shea, 2015). These are the major important benefits that can be gained from an ideal marketing plan.
Conclusion
This essay concludes that Courtyard is the best hotel available in the Prince George, Canada. There are number of reasons being identified in this paper, which proves that they are the best option available in the location. This essay also discussed about the factors that are affecting the negative and positive word of mouth trend. There are number of factors being identified based on different theories by the authors. It is also discussed about why the marketing plan is important for the business organizations and how it can be prove beneficial in enhancing their strategic intent.
References
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Bradi?, M., Kosar, L., & Kalenjuk, B. (2013). Business guests satisfaction in the hotel industry: A case study of North American hotel chains. Turizam, 17(2), 60-70.
He, Y., Chen, Q., Tam, L., & Lee, R. P. (2016). Managing sub-branding affect transfer: the role of consideration set size and brand loyalty. Marketing Letters, 27(1), 103-113.
Holliman, G., & Rowley, J. (2014). Business to business digital content marketing: marketers’ perceptions of best practice. Journal of research in interactive marketing, 8(4), 269-293.
Kunkel, T., Funk, D., & King, C. (2014). Developing a conceptual understanding of consumer-based league brand associations. Journal of Sport Management, 28(1), 49-67.
Lu, X., Ba, S., Huang, L., & Feng, Y. (2013). Promotional marketing or word-of-mouth? Evidence from online restaurant reviews. Information Systems Research, 24(3), 596-612.
Martelo Landroguez, S., Barroso Castro, C., & Cepeda-Carrión, G. (2013). Developing an integrated vision of customer value. Journal of Services Marketing, 27(3), 234-244.
McDONALD, M. A. L. C. O. L. M. (2016). Strategic marketing planning: theory and practice. In The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
Payne, A., Frow, P., & Eggert, A. (2017). The customer value proposition: evolution, development, and application in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(4), 467-489.
Rahman, K., & Areni, C. S. (2014). Generic, genuine, or completely new? Branding strategies to leverage new products. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 22(1), 3-15.
Shea, E. (2015). Amplify your impact: Taking stock of your institution’s marketing efforts. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 54(3), 27-29.
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