Question:
Critically reflect upon the value of E-Marketing in relation to strategic Marketing Plans.
Hilton Hotels is one of the premium luxury hotels located in Shanghai. The hotel is based in the heart of Shanghai’s business and entertainment district. The hotel’s locational advantage is worth mentioning as it is present near the Pudong International Airport and the Hongqiao Airport and is located at the business center of Shanghai which is one of the busiest and most important financial hubs of Shanghai. The hotel offers an exotic view of Shanghai and also provides different facilities and services that are hard to match the services offered by the other hotels. The customers in the hotel can visit tourist attractions that are located nearby the hotel like The Bund, Grand Theater, Shanghai Museum, Jingi”an temple and Yu Garden and Bazaar which are present at close proximity. However the most prominent advantage of the hotel is its close location from Shanghai Disneyland which is just less than a hour’s drive. The hotel comprises of a number of premium rooms with luxury suites to attract all range of customers. Some of the premium services of the hotel include free Wi-Fi services, e-mailing, socializing and browsing the web. Apart from this the hotel also provides quality laundry and housekeeping services that prove to be of great help for the customers. The hotel also provides various other services to attract customers. These premium services include indoor heated pool, an open fitness center and a world class spa. The hotel also caters to a variety of different dishes for the visitors. There are seven restaurants and bars and it possess the distinction of having one of the largest restaurants of the Hilton Hotels group. The open kitchen is unique and one of its kind in the country and displays the vivid nature of the Chinese cuisine and helps the tourists to gather a whole lot of information about Chinese food. The main aim of the following research is to determine the E-Marketing techniques that are implemented by the management of the mentioned hotel to gain business reputation and increase the brand value of the hotel. The customers are offered a varied range of seafood that are an additional treat for the customers.
E- Marketing is also termed as Internet Marketing, online marketing as well as referred to as digital marketing in some cases. E marketing has seen a huge rise in the recent years. E marketing is beneficial for the hotels in many different ways namely;
Hilton hotel is very much successful in its e marketing initiative because of the marketing campaign that has been started by them. Them management at the beginning searches for a particular group of people who are then segmented into different groups. Some such examples are;
Customer Relationship Management and E-marketing:
The viewpoint of the close customer familiarity might lower or reduce the marketing expenditures and augment sales through closer affiliations and increased satisfaction. For this to take place, the overall Hilton hotel chain need to cooperate in the compilation, management and propagation of the information of customer- an exclusive and complex development (Ma, Gu, Wang, & Hampson, 2017). They generally highlight the dilemma of data-ownership caused by the configuration of the lodging industry existing in Australia where the owners, the management organizations and brands cooperate in the properties operation. It is intrinsically difficult for these three units in sharing the data of customer. In addition to the factor of cooperating, they recurrently contend with each other that could restrict the successful implementation of CRM. These difficulties could be surmounted; CRM would best be working at the brand level. It is important to understand the ways a successful CRM depends on the mining of the data. This process leads to difficult statistical techniques to the data of consumers in performing of tasks and might be important in better understanding and predicting behavior of guests.
Value chain and E-marketing:
Every movement within the process of physical value chain has an intrinsic information constituent. The quantity of information existing within the activities generally establishes, hotel like Hilton’s course towards e-commerce. It has been highly observed that hotels with higher presence of information like Hilton would be implementing e-commerce at a faster rate than other organizations or hotels having minor information incidence.
A hotel like Hilton has high information incidence, offering greater deal of service information through their website. Consumers also have suppleness in determining the product or service design using the website. Activities that comprises of the value chain activities are generally assumed by the company in producing and selling of the services and products. Certain activities performed within the value chain are about understanding of the needs of the consumers, procuring production materials, and after sales services like customer acre and products.
Supply Chain Management and E-marketing:
A mutual communication and a solid transportation are the keys in successful supply chain management. Managing of the relationships along with information making use of the electronic marketing helps each of the partners in supply chain in maintaining a competitive advantage for Hilton at marketplace. The bigger the role played by e-marketing in facilitating the communication process between the partners within supply chain, the bigger would be the advantages. For this motive, both the system of rapid communication along with shared database facet of electronic marketing plays significant role in the hotel’s efficient supply chain management (Gannon, Roper, & Doherty, 2015). This combination facilitates partners of supply chain, inclusive of customer service representatives, restaurant managers and operations manager to get hold of information and communicate with each other 24 hours per day.
Product/Service Development and E-marketing:
There are certain benefits associated to internet marketing that can be used in businesses for various reasons (Ma, Gu, Wang, & Hampson, 2017). E-marketing can be made use of in relation to the service development. For example, e-marketing provides a hotel with various sources that they can make use of in its development of service. This would ease things out as they are already being supplied with sources that are necessary, saving time for big hotels like Hilton. E-marketing enables big hotel groups in doing their own research work about anything going about in the industry and being able to find lot of customers and that sort of services are generally liked by the customers.
Analysis of marketing initiatives with variation from one CSF to other:
Guest Satisfaction and e-CRM:
As the contemporary hospitality industry expands in including more vacation rentals, hotels are fundamentally keeping up with the present trends. Hilton has been revamping its services in setting themselves apart from certain other sorts of accommodation, becoming savvier towards technology and of personalized nature. Customers have started valuing experiences connecting them to the local culture wherever Hilton is existing and associating them to the regional responsiveness. The Hilton Orlando supports ‘farm-to-fork’ attitude at its premiere restaurant, making use of the components within the radius of 100-mile and stressing on regional flavors.
Hilton is making use of innovative technologies in gaining loyalty of customers and creating satisfaction for guests and boosting its total revenue. Guests who are digitally enabled are more interested in virtual tours and digital check-ins. Using data from the histories of customers, Hilton has been improving personalized experiences for guests around temperature, lighting and refreshments. Comprehensive apps of mobiles are facilitating guests in streamlining cumbersome procedures and minimizing the time for check-in.
Human Resource factors and e-CRM:
Employees are stated to be important assets along with primary supports of profitable business for Hilton. The system of CRM is only being used in managing the clients along with customers, with most HR managers using technologies of CRM for handling of the company’s human capital. A technique of profile management is being used in managing profiles of the employees containing overall employees’ related information that is being exposed to the employees in HRIS tool. The human resource managers of Hilton have the zeal in furnishing response and offer letters online to fresh candidates (Bilgihan & Bujisic, 2015). Online alters are being produced whenever the employees have something outstanding. For example, Hilton employees are used to getting alerts mechanically while completing any survey or renewal of any software. The HRM managers also go for online schedules of the meetings and notifications being send routinely to all the staffs and employees informing them for being present in the meeting.
Managerial competency and e-CRM:
Managerial discretion is one of the most critical success factors to the success of the CRM in hotels. However in contrast to the popular beliefs of the CRM policies the managers as well as the officers of the hotel are least involved in the decision making process. Environments play a crucial role to the part of managers (Fadda & Sørensen, 2017). There are different scopes for the managers of the hotels in some of the areas to experiment with e-CRM whereas in other areas such options are not available to the managers. In the case of Hilton the managers gets the opportunity to experiment with such tools as because the management is always in search of innovative measures to make sure that the hotel turns out to be the very best in terms of performance. Apart from such discretions the managers makes significant contributions to the organizational growth of the hotels. With the help of e-CRM’s they tend to establish a proper relationship with the customers and provide high quality service to them. Each and every manager of different hotels have their own personal decisions that determines the different investment programs undertaken by the management of the hotel. The managers of Hilton ensure that they do not take unnecessary risks which may have an impact on the performance levels of the hotel. The organizational discretionary powers of the managers help large hotels like Hilton to make sure that they effectively follow the organizational strategies to bring success to the organization.
Technological aspects
The growing presence of the internet has made it one of the essential media of marketing communication. For gaining competitive advantage, Hilton has acted according to the recent trend of promoting its services through websites and mobile applications. It provides information to the internal and external publics at one click from any place of the world (Fraj, Matute, & Melero, 2015).
Legal aspects
The hoteliers of Hilton need to adopt and implement creative marketing tools. With an increasing growth in the e- marketing strategies and the distribution channels, there is not much known about the effectiveness. It is important to build good rapport with the guests and expand the brand’s online presence.
Ethical aspects
To throw light on the ethical aspects of hotel industries it should be taken into consideration that if the necessary standards are not maintained that there is a chance that the hotel might lose its customers. The information provided through e- marketing should be authentic and not misguide the customers (Fadda & Sørensen, 2017).
Global aspects
The global aspects are a combination of all the other factors. Hotel Hilton is an internationally acclaimed hotel which needs to look into the overall services of the customers. They have an updated system of e-marketing services which cater to the needs of the customers 24*7.
Social networking aspects
Social network had a large impact on the hospitality sector with the enhancement of online reviews. Hilton customers can go online to research for their suitable accommodations and the primary attractions nearby. They can also contact with the hot(Fadda & Sørensen, 2017)el for necessary query and thus the promotion can also be done online.
Impact of internet on consumer behavior
Internet has played a pivotal role in e- marketing. The easy accessibility at a cheap rate of transactions has increased the bargaining power of the customers with a strong global competition. The introduction of internet in the marketing level has helped in bringing new prospects for the company. E- Marketing is also a cost and time saving tool for the marketers in the corporate marketing strategy. In the case of Hilton, the internet marketing deals with the promotional mix of the hotel and its online services. The basic benefit of the e- marketing is the number of options available to the customers for a specific product category(Ma, Gu, Wang, & Hampson, 2017).
The Hilton group totally makes use of these e- marketing strategies. The low searching cost associated with the online activities provides a scope of several alternatives to the customers which would not have been possible otherwise. E- marketing is grabbing the attention of the marketers to extend the information services and considering more significant strategies for the hotel to promote and interact with the customers through online advertising. With the e- marketing strategies the hotel authorities enable direct communication with the customers; offer a number of alternatives to the customers and stakeholders; store safely a large amount of information at a very low cost; provide intense and cheap ways to search, arrange and disseminate information; serve as an effective digital medium (Ma, Gu, Wang, & Hampson, 2017).
Online distribution
Hilton hotels have introduced a new electronic and online distribution strategy which has integrated the elements such as price, enhancing brand websites and the chosen stakeholders’ online programs. Due to this strategy the brand standards of the hotel will call for the offering of constant rates at all the distribution channels, such as the proprietary websites of Hilton, their worldwide call centers, global distribution system directly through the hotel (Gannon, Roper, & Doherty, 2015). The upgrades in the hotel websites included advanced hotel searches with respect to the city, airport, address or the prime attraction from a single webpage. The easy design features and the superior content with the profile and account accessibility of the hotel are among the improved version of the online distribution of the hotel. Moreover, the agreement between Hilton and Expedia Inc has reflected a direct combination with the central reservation system and the database of Expedia. The new design has been useful for the participating hotels to arrange their price and accommodations on Expedia’s website in a vibrant manner. The customers while booking also receive specific rewards for booking through online distribution channels mentioned above.
Supply Dynamics
There are very few organizations in the hospitality sector which provide premium services such as Hilton. They have the tradition of delivering end- to- end global supply chain solution. As they are an organization which deal with procurement worldwide, their focus is more on development and execution of the policies and norms to cater to the needs and demands of the guests. The Hilton Supply Management is totally owned by the Hilton Group which provides services in the properties of independent owners, real estate investors and the management companies (Leung, Xue, & Bai, 2015). They intend to be the superior provider of hospitality services in any area that they operate in. As similar to the high standard set by the Hilton hotels, the Hilton Supply Management has also set a remarkable standard for contributing to the international hospitality sector with an outstanding procurement solutions and an operational mentality arriving from the rich legacy in hospitality. The experts in the core of service industry set this hotel apart from the other general hotels.
Opportunities and threats of hotel
|
Opportunities |
Threats |
|
· Their mission is to be the top international hospitality organization with respect to guests, team members and owners · HILTON as per its name take care of hospitality, integrity, leadership, teamwork, ownership and now · They have high potential in the upcoming markets · Innovation in customer services and improved use of technology |
· Growth of internet reservation methods having an impact on profitability · Share of total shareholder returns is below average level · Loss of foreign currency exchange · Entry of competitors · Stagnant growth · Economic and political disturbance(Bilgihan & Bujisic, 2015) |
E- Mail Marketing
E-mail marketing is defined as the marketing that is conducted by an organization to promote its goods and services. However in broader perspectives it can be defined as the most effective tool for the management of Human Resource. E-Mail marketing segment comprises of websites, social media, blogs and many other different internet sources. Personal groups of customers can be targeted or even individuals can also be targeted. Through e mail marketing customers are offered special deals that attract them and increases their trust towards the organization. The most useful part of these e- Mail marketing is that it is the most cheapest and the cost effective form of marketing as because no promotion is needed to be done to carry on such marketing. E-Mail marketing turns out to be friendlier once it is integrated with social media. Such integration helps the management of the hotels to easily search for the potential customers and approach them personally (Bilgihan & Bujisic, 2015). The management of Hilton Hotels has implemented and integrated a proper e mail marketing plan to make sure that they constantly keep in touch with their loyal and reliable customers as well as approaching new customers with a varied range of offers.
Conclusion
The research has been effective to achieve all its objectives. The discussion of the different sources of e marketing initiatives in the following research has helped it to become compact in nature. After a thorough analysis of the following research the readers will be able to gain a clear understanding of the procedures followed by the large hotels to attract customers through the use of the latest e marketing techniques. Hilton hotel has effected different changes to make sure that the organization meets all the necessary standards to maintain the following and make sure that the use of online marketing helps them to have a degree of competitive advantage in the market.
Bilgihan, A., & Bujisic, M. (2015). The effect of website features in online relationship marketing: A case of online hotel booking. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 222-232.
Fadda, N., & Sørensen, J. F. (2017). The importance of destination attractiveness and entrepreneurial orientation in explaining firm performance in the Sardinian accommodation sector. . International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Fraj, E., Matute, J., & Melero, I. (2015). Environmental strategies and organizational competitiveness in the hotel industry: The role of learning and innovation as determinants of environmental success. . Tourism Management, 30-42.
Gannon, J. M., Roper, A., & Doherty, L. (2015). Strategic human resource management: Insights from the international hotel industry. . International Journal of Hospitality Management, 65- 75.
Leung, X. Y., Xue, L., & Bai, B. (2015). Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism: a review and journal preferences. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 1556- 1572.
Ma, S., Gu, H., Wang, Y., & Hampson, D. P. (2017). Opportunities and challenges of value co-creation: the role of customer involvement in hotel service development. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
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