Importance Of Advertising As A Marketing Communication In UK Hotel Industry With Special Emphasis On Holiday Inn, UK

Research Aims and Objectives

Introduction.

Working Title.

Background of the Study.

Research Aims and Objectives.

Research Questions.

Research Hypothesis.

Literature Review.

Research Design and Research Methodology.

Research onion.

Research Philosophy.

Research Design.

Sampling Method.

Sample Size.

Data Collection Method.

Primary Data Collection Method.

Secondary Data Collection Method.

Data Analysis.

References.

“Importance of advertising as a form of marketing communication in UK hotel industry with special emphasis on Holiday Inn, UK”

In the present focused business sector, with a specific end goal to secure long haul productivity, the business associations now focusing on creating promotions in such a path so that it supports the business association to construct dedicated and delightful client base. Advertising is an important tool for promoting a business which is widely used in hospitality industry. A significant increase in the global travelers has been observed for the past few decades. Consequently, the hospitality industry is also expanding and giving rise to extensive competition (PwC, 2014) (Jamieson, 2013). Hotel industry is unique because it has to deal with tangible and intangible product. Advertising is a form of marketing communications that assists in reaching the potential as well as existing customer base. In order to scrutinize the importance of advertisement in hotel industry for increasing its customer base this research study will be carried out. This research study will consider Holiday Inn for analyzing its impact on television advertising (Ihg.com, 2014).

The aims and objectives of a research must be presented in a comprehensive manner. The research aim is to analyze the importance of television advertisement in hotel industry. The objectives of this research paper are:

• To analyze the core concepts of advertising and its strategies in marketing in context of hotel industry.
• To analyze the influence of television advertisement in consumer behavior.
• To evaluate the present trend in the hotel industry.
• The relevance of television advertisement in enhancing customer base in hotel industry.

The research questions of a research paper help to identify the major issues of the research topic. Hence, addressing the research questions will helps in proceeding in the right direction in an organized manner. Answering the following questions will help in achieving the research objectives of this paper.

• What is the present situation of hotel industry?
• What is the role of marketing communications in hotel industry?
• What is the impact of television advertisements in hotel industry?
• What are the present advertising strategies adopted by the hotels?
• What are the most important elements of effective advertisement for hotel industry?

H0: Television advertisement has a great impact on increasing the customer base of Holiday Inn

H1: Television advertisement has no significant impact on increasing the customer base of Holiday Inn.

The endurance of a business is extensively dependent upon the purchasing decision of the customers which is responsible for generating revenue for the business. Presently, the hotel industry of United Kingdom is focusing on developing marketing strategies in order to maximize their revenue in the extremely competitive market. The hotel groups in United Kingdom are attempting to gain competitive advantage by focusing on their promotional activities which connects them with their clients and help in creating enthusiastic bond with them. The hotel needs to recognize the need of the customers, their preferences for ensuring superior quality service. Thus, the customer retention rate will increase which will add to the profit margin of the organization (Arens and Schaefer, 2007).

Marketing communication is a crucial factor which helps to communicate the real essence of the brand so that their brand image over the time. Marketing mix elements help in developing strategies for enhancing the customer base (Hudson, 2004). Advertising is an effective tool for promoting brands by increasing brand awareness which highly influences the customer decision (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002). The most widely recognized medium for buyers to perceive any brand in a Television advertisement is verbal as well as visual yet numerous advertisements have failed to attain brand linkage (Jones, Hillier and Comfort, 2014). Hence there are significant numbers of customers who cannot recognize the brand effectively. Therefore, considering the marketing objectives and market segments, suitable advertisements must be designed for influencing the customers (Janes, 2006).

Research Questions

The major elements of advertising designing are target market, message, media, timeframe and budget. There are four sorts of audiences and each one portion requires an alternate methodology while outlining promotional strategies. The first section is non-clients, who have the knowledge of the product yet are not the potential clients (MacRury, 2009). The other fragment is new, generally individuals who are new to the market and are recognized as growth section (Kotler, Bowen and Makens, 2006). The promotional strategy aims to provide product knowledge and it may affect their purchasing behavior. There are two other groups: loyals and switchers. These two groups are already established segment of market. The objective of the advertisements in hotel industry is to reassure the loyal customers that they are making right choices. The advertisement must be able to attract the switchers by offering lucrative offers etc. Message or Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is an important element of advertising planning. USP is the theme of campaigning for services offered and many times becomes the slogan. It should reflect the benefits for buying the services of hotels which can be supported by highlighting the features of the offered services (Kotler, Bowen and Makens, 2006). In the hotel industry, hotels must choose a suitable media for publishing its advertisements so that it can reach to the target audience (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002). The hotel industry has been using broadcasting media like TV, radio and print media like daily papers and magazines for advertising their product and service. Tele-showcasing and web advertising are picking up significance in the hotel business nowadays. Another factor involved in planning to achieve objectives of advertising is the amount of money an organization is willing to spend on advertisements. The funds allocated for advertisement make up the advertising budget which is approved by the management. Timing is exceptionally imperative for the accomplishment of a publicizing battle. Distinguishing when the shoppers are eager to use is worth for business (Lasune and others, 2012). Some organizations select to promote when their intended interest group wants to purchase the product or services (Shoemaker, Lewis and Yesawich, 2007).

The goal of television advertising is to make the viewers watch and get the real essence or message. Television advertising revenues has fluctuations and it decline by about 6% in 2009, following a 7.6% gain in 2010. In 2011, television advertising could go either way, showing a gain of up to several percentage points or a decline of the same magnitude or more. Television advertisement revenue went up by 3.5% which is considered to be record high (Gravelle, 2014). Broadcast television advertising is likely to come back later than newspaper advertising, simply because demand for brand advertising and national advertising is likely to lag local and retail advertising in the months ahead (HsinHui and others, 2012). In addition, budget-conscious advertisers will be keeping an eye on every pound spent. It was expected that worldwide promotional activities spending will grow by 3.5% in 2013, arriving at $503 billion at the end of the year. According to ZentithOptmedia, largest share in the advertising is contributed by the television advertisement. The travel and hospitality enterprises are in the main five business sectors that are spending on this broadcasting media, using more than $152 million communally (Hositality Net, 2014). The hotels use television advertisement for rising brand awareness and knowledge about the value added service which will help in differentiating the brand from other similar priced hotels (www.nielsen.com, 2009) (Parsons, 2013).

Literature Review

Research strategy or methodology delineates the synthesis of the various segments of the whole research, which incorporates examination methodology, exploration configuration and information gathering technique in order to meet the research objective. Accordingly, research outline and approach is about the methodology emulated by the researcher and through which the researcher can make a suitable inference of the present research study. Then again, the choice of an improper system may cause the disparity of conclusions from the specified research objectives. Hence, a researcher needs to concentrate in order to recognize the significance of each step of the research study. In this section, the research approach adopted for this topic will be discussed.

The research onion is the conceptual reproduction of the whole research strategy embraced for the specific research study. In research onion, each of the layers delineates each venture of the research technique to direct the present research. Moreover, each of the individual layers of this onion helped the researcher to distinguish the proper pathway or the suitable strategies to complete the study. Each of these layers has its own particular ramifications and achievement.

Throughout the conduction of a research, the exploration rationality upholds the researcher to improve the information base about the present research subject. Once more, the appropriation of relevant reasoning empowers the researcher to choose and review various systems at the preparatory period of the research study. As research theory empowers the researcher to take up proper strategies for completing the present research, the researcher may embrace the positivism logic for the present research study. The essential purpose behind picking the positivism rationality is that, with the assistance of positivism theory, the researcher can smoothly accomplish the targets of the research study. Moreover, this positivism research reasoning likewise underpins the researcher to empower the respondents throughout the time of gathering the essential information. Consequently, it might be said that the positivism rationality is suitable methodology for analyzing the impact of the television advertising in hotel industry of UK, especially in case of Holiday Inn (Morgan and Pritchard, 2001).

The Research Design fundamentally backs the research study by building a schema of the whole research study. The research work itself all together can draw the research arrangement to gather the objectives of the study. Hence, it is clear that the research outline of any study concentrate on the essential goals of the research study. An adequate illustration of the research configuration empowers the researcher to keep up the supremacy of the research study. The explanation behind receiving graphic configuration for the flow research study is that, the distinctive examination outline will give steady hand towards the researcher, so as to relate the discoveries of the research study with its objectives and aim. Moreover, the clear research plan additionally backs the researcher to return to the research questions, associating with what, how, who, when and whom of the research study. The comprehensive research design focuses on the quantitative analysis of the collected information. This gathered information are assessed in the data analysis segment with the assistance of charts, outlines, graphs and so forth. Additionally, the research study needs an in depth discussion in order to make a concluding statement regarding the impact of television advertisement in hotel industry of UK (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2003).

Research Design and Research Methodology

There are two types of sampling method used for carrying out a research study. Between probability sampling and non-probability sampling, probability sampling will be most suitable for the present study. The probability sampling can be classified into three types such as simple random sampling, stratified random sampling and cluster sampling. According to the goals and objectives of this research simple random sampling must be chosen. The random sampling method is an unbiased method which is appropriate for large volume of samples.

Sample size depicts how many samples should be considered for performing the research study. Basically, sample size depicts the number of respondents participated in the survey. As random probabilistic sampling method has been chosen for this study large number of sample size will generate good result. Hence, for this research study 70 respondents has been chosen.

There are two types of data that will be used in this research study. While collecting data from research study, the researcher must choose reliable sources and follow ethical data collection method. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of the television advertisement on the hotel industry, especially in case of Holiday Inn. In order to complete the research study efficiently, data must be collected form reliable resources (Hair, 2007).

Primary data can be collected by conducting survey. Initially, a questionnaire must be prepared which must be closed ended. Before conducting the survey, a pilot survey can be arranged in order to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of the questionnaire. Therefore, with the help of random sampling method, respondents must be chosen and interviewed.

Secondary data refers to the existing relevant theories, models, historical researches which can be accessed from the reliable sources. For collecting secondary data, journals, books, magazines, newspapers, websites etc can be used.

Researcher needs to adopt suitable analytical or statistical tools for analyzing the data. Both primary and secondary data needs to be analyzed. The quantitative primary data must be analyzed and the outcome needs to be supported by the secondary data collected from past researches and existing theories. While evaluating the impact of advertisements on Holiday Inn, correlation techniques must be used.

Gantt Chart

Principal Activities	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Selection of topic and scope analysis
Identification of the sources for    secondary data
Preparation of Research Proposal
Literature Review
Description of Research Methodology
Preparation of survey questions
Collection of primary data
Analyzing data
Comparison of findings
Conclusion and recommendation
Final submission

References

Arens, W. and Schaefer, D. (2007). Essentials of contemporary advertising. 1st ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Christopher, M., Payne, A. and Ballantyne, D. (2002). Relationship marketing. 1st ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Field, S. (2005). Advertising and Public Relations. 1st ed. New York: Infobase Publishing.

Gravelle, A. (2014). TV ad revenues up 3.5% to record high | Advertising news | Campaign.

Hair, J. (2007). Research methods for business. 1st ed. Chichester, West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons.

Hospitality Net, (2014). Hospitality Net – Online Video vs. Television – Advertising in the Digital Age | By Frank Vertolli.

HsinHui, H. and others, (2012). The effectiveness of environmental advertising in the hotel industry.Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53(2), pp.154–164.

Hudson, S. (2004). Marketing for tourism and hospitality. 1st ed. Toronto: Nelson.

Ihg.com, (2014). Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts | Book Hotel Rooms & Hotel Accommodation.

Jamieson, L. (2013). Data Centre. [online] Hotel Industry Magazine.

Janes, P. (2006). Marketing in leisure and tourism. 1st ed. State College, Pa.: Venture Pub., Inc.

Jones, P., Hillier, D. and Comfort, D. (2014). Sustainability in the global hotel industry.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(1), pp.5–17.

Kotler, P., Bowen, J. and Makens, J. (2006). Marketing for hospitality and tourism. 1st ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Lasune, S. and others, (2012). Marketing strategies and quality management of five star hotels in order to improve its revenue with special reference to selected five star hotels in Mumbai.ABHINAV NATIONAL MONTHLY REFEREED JOURNAL OF REASEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT, p.28.

MacRury, I. (2009). Advertising. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

Morgan, N. and Pritchard, A. (2001). Advertising in tourism and leisure. 1st ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Parsons, R. (2013). Holiday Inn Express launches first UK TV ad | News | Marketing Week.

PwC, (2014). Hotels forecast – The Regions.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2003). Research methods for business students. 1st ed. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall.

Shoemaker, S., Lewis, R. and Yesawich, P. (2007). Marketing leadership in hospitality and tourism. 1st ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.