Marketing The Hospitality Experience Assignment Sample

Marketing The Hospitality Experience Assignment

Introduction - Marketing The Hospitality Experience

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The present assignment focuses on the subcategory of “experiential marketing” and provides an articulate critical evaluation of the notion. The first section of Section 1 involves a critical review, indicating what experiences/experiential marketing is, the benefits for customers and international hospitality organisations, as well as the pros and drawbacks. It provides a critical assessment and reflection on what experiences/experiential marketing theory is: definitions, benefits, and drawbacks derived from experience/experiential marketing theory, and why international hospitality businesses need to deliver experiences for customers. The concept of experiential marketing is applied in this part to a global hospitality company, Marriot International, and suggestions are made for an experience that the global hospitality company should implement into their product line to improve the entire brand experience. Section 2 of the assignment outlines a justified and prioritised communication strategy based on objectives, solutions, and proposals for successful methods for consumers to engage with the tourism/hospitality company brand before, during, and after consumption. Throughout this debate, significant emphasis is placed on the specific instance of “Marriot International” to provide a practical context for the same.

Section 1: Critical Evaluation and Synthesis of Experiential Marketing

1.1 Critical Evaluation and Reflection upon Experiences/Experiential Marketing Theory

1.1.1 Critical Analysis of the Theory of Experiential Marketing Theory

In recent years, customers tend to be more interested in having an experience than ever before. Although exciting digital and real-life events are more readily accessible than ever, it might be tough to stand out without a specific plan. The brands that can support exceptional consumer experiences will differentiate themselves. And CEOs are well aware of this, as 68% of marketing leaders report that their organisation is increasingly competing based on customer experience (Le, Scott and Lohmann, 2019). As customers’ expectations for experiences increase, more firms are resorting to experiential marketing to support such encounters.

Experiential marketing, often known as engagement marketing, is a type of marketing approach that immerses people in a product or engages them deeply. In a nutshell, experiential marketing enables customers to engage with a company beyond simply purchasing items or services (Yeh et al., 2019). Through memorable and unique experiences, emotional ties between the brand and the customer are formed. Experiential marketing not only entails client involvement but frequently enhances it as well (Wiedmann et al., 2018).

Experiential marketing is an excellent technique to engage existing and prospective consumers and establish an emotional connection with them (Ferreira and Sousa, 2020). Apart from experiential marketing events, organisations leverage internet platforms to augment in-person interactions and strive to create wonderful experiences across numerous touchpoints. Its aims should be unambiguous, it should always endeavour to understand its clients, and it should track outcomes (Österle, Kuhn and Henseler, 2018). If a firm is built around experiences, it has the potential to evolve into a brand that does much more than sell stuff. By using this principle, a firm may develop into a brand that encourages connection, elicits emotion, and attracts and maintains devoted consumers.

1.1.2 Advantages of Experiential Marketing

• Its sheer efficacy:
The simple reality is that experience marketing works. Otherwise, it would not be getting much attention and recognition. According to a poll conducted by EventTrack, 74% of participants had a more favourable brand image following an event, and 65% purchased the product or service offered (Skandalis, Byrom and Banister, 2019). Up to 70% of event attendees become repeat consumers, implying a high rate of return for organisations engaging in experiential marketing (Batat, 2019).
• It provides customers with a novel approach to interacting with a brand:
Experiential marketing builds real brand awareness by using unconventional marketing strategies. When it comes down to it, it’s intriguing, which draws in attention and helps with brand memory. Through interactions, consumers are encouraged to learn more about a brand. These concrete experiences may help forge deeper relationships between people and products, as they allow for true interaction with a brand and the formation of a favourable view of it (Skandalis, Byrom and Banister, 2019).
• It speaks to the new methods by which people consume media:
While social media has become a cornerstone of all forms of marketing, experiential marketing has elevated it to a new level of potency. Experiences leverage how people interact with social media platforms, encouraging users to record and share visual material with their networks, so increasing the reach of a campaign (Smilansky, 2017). The proclivity of individuals to snap and share images enables firms to use free grassroots marketing while engaging customers.
• It enables individuals to interact with a brand:
To establish a brand’s good connotations, customers must first engage with it. Brand experiences are often enjoyable, distinctive, and memorable - they give individuals engaging encounters (Smilansky, 2017). Loyalty is earned or lost with each engagement with a company, and experiential marketing allows brands to show their finest side to consumers, developing relationships and fueling that loyalty.

1.1.3 Disadvantages of Experiential Marketing

One of the most successful ways to promote a business is to create a live experience for customers through an inventive type of connection. After all, research indicates that individuals recall situations requiring the employment of multiple of their five senses. Events, conferences, and fairs allow customers to not only try out products and learn about services but also to be personally influenced by the experience (Urdea, Constantin and Purcaru, 2021). Experiential marketing is engaged with the psyche and receptive senses of an individual, rather than with the instantaneous behaviour that a person performs while interacting with another human.

• Problems faced while shifting from Conventional Marketing Approaches: While forsaking traditional marketing methods is a dangerous decision, it is necessary in an era of ad blockers and channel hopping. Keeping a prospective customer engaged may be challenging. Using technology and software to interact with and engage consumers with a brand requires substantial study and behavioural analysis (Setiono, 2019). Indeed, the location for the installation of the live marketing model should be determined in advance; otherwise, the entire campaign may disappear without a trace. Due to the dynamic nature of its target and the inherent risk, the burgeoning and blossoming experiential marketing approach is prone to hit hurdles (?ahin, 2020).
• Budget Restriction: It is both a must and a disadvantage when undertaking an in-person marketing stunt. It is important because, in the absence of a definite distribution of cash, expenditures may tend to exceed expectations (González-Díaz and Acosta-Moltó, 2020). Experiential marketing needs considerable human work to develop a system that not only maintains an individual’s attention but also leaves a lasting impression on his or her mind. This becomes a disadvantage once the budget constraints are exceeded due to the increased cognition required to create a successful live-marketing platform. “Experiential marketing” is often more expensive than traditional marketing.
• Proactive Action: It is impossible to predict how individuals would respond. Only a razor-sharp mentality can truly revive a floundering experiential marketing effort. Another disadvantage is that machines are pre-programmed and will perform the algorithm supplied to them (Setiono, 2019). Because bots are not people, it might be challenging to transform a negative experience into a positive one based on the circumstances.
• Execution-related Adversity: This has to do with the fact that the model’s target audience may not be able to comprehend it. If a business is trying to figure out how a campaign will affect hundreds of people, it is not an easy process. Sahin, 2020). Individuals remember and associate feelings with their experiences. A snooty consumer who is theoretically ideal for a business may abandon the campaign if it is not relevant to him
• Uncertainty Regarding the Outcome: Although the unpredictable outcome of a campaign is a risk inherent in all forms of marketing, the stakes are often higher with experiential marketing. As a result of the considerable resources required for an experiential marketing campaign, including the budget, specialised staff, and so on (Skandalis, Byrom and Banister, 2019). Without any human interference, the customer is left with the decision to continue with the brand or not. A lack of belief in a product or brand may dissuade a prospective customer from making a purchase.
• Inadequate Talent: When it comes to experimental marketing, there’s a shortage of qualified persons, which has resulted in a shrinking pool of candidates with a strong need for personal connection and face to face encounters. Nonetheless, the direct client interaction afforded by experiential marketing is unmatched in comparison to more traditional forms of promotion. It encourages consumers to engage with a brand by providing them with a customised sense of affiliation with it (Dettori, 2019). Except for these inherent impediments, experiential marketing efforts have shown to be quite beneficial to brand owners. The enormous expenditures associated with it frequently result in enormous returns.

1.1.4 The Reasons Which Make It Imperative for International Hospitality Brands to Adopt Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing strategies, if implemented effectively, can yield multiple benefits for the hospitality industry. This is so because, it has a significant positive impact on customer perceived value, customer satisfaction as well as customer retention, all of which are highly essential for hospitality businesses to survive and thrive in this highly competitive and ever-evolving sector (García, Galindo and Suárez, 2018).

Creating a delightful experience is the next step on the consumer wants checklist that comes with purchased goods (service or good) (Wiedmann et al., 2018). As a result, the number of individuals expecting to uncover sensations, core values, the purpose behind the purchase, happiness, and novel methods of satisfaction in market products is steadily growing. The aforementioned components are hedonic aspects of consumer behaviour that have evolved in recent years from solely functional models (Batat, 2019). Customers receive hedonic advantages through the notion of customer experiences. It is conveyed through “interactions between a client and a product or service, a business or a component of its organisation that elicit a response.

Experience has long been seen as a critical component of the tourism and hospitality industries. Organizations in this industry leverage the chance to manage customer experience to develop influential tools that help them gain a competitive edge and differentiate themselves from rivals. Indeed, hotels’ services are not limited to the provision of clean, pleasant, and warm rooms, but also the provision of an unparalleled experience (Oliveira, 2019). Numerous experts believe that firms’ delivery of well-designed experiences has a favourable effect on consumer perceived values, which results in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Experiential marketing may assist organisations in the hotel and hospitality sector is focusing on “sense” and “feel”, two factors that have been shown to have a significant influence on visitor pleasure and perceived value, respectively (Oliveira, 2019). Customer happiness and perceived value both have a favourable effect on behavioural intention. However, consumer happiness has a larger role in establishing client loyalty (Danurdara, Hidayah and Masatip, 2017). That example, if the objective of strategic marketing is to connect customers to the hotel and to reward the hotel with favourable word-of-mouth and retention, it is necessary to invest more “sense”. In general, acquiring client loyalty through the satisfaction factor has a greater influence. Experiential marketing also has a favourable effect on client loyalty.

2.1 Application of the Experiential Marketing Theory to Marriott

Experiential Marketing Theories of Marriott

In the short and long term, experiential marketing has been proven to increase brand awareness, affinity, and sales. Whereas many people assume experiential marketing is only for B2C companies, the truth is that B2b companies are also reaping the benefits of face-to-face advertising. Marriott is no stranger to brand experience (Sadek, 2021).

Marriott Vignettes and 29rooms

Once again, Marriott has chosen to step up their experience game, this time for their annual sales conference. Despite the fact that the gathering was designed for internal employees, the brand recognises the importance of a brand in terms of motivating audiences. Building 25 “rooms” that each showcased a distinct aspect of the brand’s branding, architecture, and values was made possible through a collaboration with immersive marketing agency BMF media (Buhalis and Park, 2021). Furthermore, the event provided an opportunity for attendees to become more familiar with the brand and everything it has to offer its customers. It was via Marriott Vignettes that 29Rooms’ ingenuity and wonder could be transformed into an academic opportunity. It’s a great idea that takes use of the variety of ways people learn. Some people learn best by reading, while others learn best by listening, and still others learn best by doing.

In addition, Marriott created a MI30 smartphone app to be used in conjunction with each installation. Using the QR scanner on their phone, visitors could scan the corporate logo, which would direct them to the firm’s landing page (Sadek, 2021). “The landing page was a location where you could find out more specific information,” Pavlov stated further. “With the content, we wanted to make it snackable rather than overloading guests with information. They may only read one phrase and come away with a greater knowledge of that particular brand’s positioning (Buhalis and Park, 2021). “This section was designed to encourage people to unwind and play Twister. Numerous coloured dots were scattered throughout the floor, continuing up the walls. Each dot features a depiction of the Courtyard experience: food, beverages, and even sports. Attendees who took part in Courtyard’s “Classics with a Twist” activity received a souvenir picture.

Travel Brilliantly’ campaign with Teleporter

A series of initiatives, including virtual travel, have been implemented as part of Marriott’s ‘Travel Brilliantly’ campaign, which aims to attract a younger generation of travellers by marketing the corporation as modern and technologically advanced. In an effort to make the future of travel brighter for its consumers, Marriott’s social media channels encouraged guests, travel enthusiasts, and business leaders to contribute their opinions on the future of travel and how the Marriott corporation might make it “more brilliant” (Punday, 2021). In the wake of the campaign, a number of practical enhancements have been implemented, including the implementation of a digital checkout process, the development of a mobile app for interaction between resort guests and employees, as well as the installation of portable charger-cubes for charging a variety of digital devices.

As an added bonus, Marriott teamed with students from MIT’s Mobile Interaction Lab to build ‘Six Degrees,’ a social network that was specifically designed for usage in hotel lobbies (Event Architecture, n.d.). A visit to Six Degrees allows people to discover their ties to one another and socialise at events held at the hotel. The potential uses of Oculus Rift technology are practically limitless in their scope.

The affordability and sophistication of technology are increasing all of the time, and it may very well become a crucial component of the digital marketing mix in the near future. Virtual reality social networks are expected to develop - large social websites that will allow businesses to establish a presence in virtual reality (Lestari, 2021).

The ‘Teleporter,’ developed by the hotel chain in conjunction with experiential marketing firm Pertinent and Academy Award-winning special effects studio Framestore, incorporates Oculus Rift DK2 vr headsets, wireless headphones, and an office of five ambient factors to augment the brand and heighten the immersive experience (Lestari, 2021).’Ocean mist’ showers users from misting nozzles, while heat fans release an 80-degree heat that users experience as the sun’s warmth across their skin. Underfloor pumps all do this.

Disconfirmation Paradigm

According to disconfirmation theory, clients evaluate new service experiences against a pre-established standard. Their opinion of the service is based on how well it adheres to these criteria. Consumers buy stuff with expectations, emotions, and intentions, according to the notion (Dinh, 2021). Later, either during intake, a patient’s evaluation of the experience results in a sense of effectiveness. From the above evaluation it has been that, the customers are felt over their expectations.

From the evaluation it has been seen that, it incorporates Oculus Rift DK2 vr headsets, cordless Bluetooth earbuds, and a five-factor office to significantly improve the product and magnify the immersive interface. The Teleporter was developed by the hotel chain in cooperation with expertise marketing company Pertinent and significant and Academy Award-winning special effects production company Framestore (Sutarso et al., 2021). The ‘ocean mist’ showers users through misting nozzles, and heat fans create an 80-degree heat that resembles the heat of the sun on their skin, according to the manufacturer. Subfloor pumps are no exception to this rule.

Marriott has opted to amplify up their experiential approach once again, this time for their annual sales convention in Las Vegas. In spite of the fact that the event was intended for internal personnel only, the brand recognises the power of a brand when it comes to encouraging consumers (Sutarso et al., 2021).

The result is an extraordinary level of immersion, emulating genuine travel to Hawaii’s Waianapanapa Black Sand Beach in Maui and London, as viewed from the absurd levels of Tower 42. To discover more and watch the video of the virtual reality travel experience’s creation, click here.

Multisensory from the 5 Senses

A multimodal planning approach is critical for meeting the physiological demands of persons who spend some time in the settings they help build. Whether through deliberately placed things that customers can touch, feel, taste, or smell, the idea is to acclimate them to a pleasant and genuine atmosphere that was developed with their physical and mentally welfare in heart (Deeb, 2021).

Notwithstanding the gathering’s intended target, the brand understands the value of the brand in terms of encouraging people. Collaborating with immersive marketing firm BMF media, we were able to create 25 “rooms” that each showed a different part of the brand’s identity, design, and ideals (Brochado, Stoleriu and Lupu, 2021). Additionally, the event allowed guests to become more acquainted with the business and all that it has to offer its clients.

Travel Brilliantly’ campaign is Marriott’s newest attempt to attract younger travellers by portraying the corporation as modern and tech-savvy. Digital travel is the latest in a string of efforts. As a part of Marriott’s social media campaign for its guests, travel enthusiasts, and influencer, they were asked to express their opinions on how the Marriott brand might make travel more “brighter” for its consumers. For example, a new mobile check-in and checkout service, an app for communicating with hotel guests, and portable charger-cubes for recharging a range of electronic devices were all implemented as a consequence of the campaign (Deeb, 2021). Six Degrees, an exclusive social network for hotel lobbies, was built with the help of students from the Mobile Experience Lab at MIT. At hotel-hosted events, guests may use Six Degrees to discover their personal connections with one another.

Oculus Rift technology has an almost limitless number of potential uses. Digital marketing may soon need the use of technological advancements, as they become more affordable and advanced. Massive internet community platforms that allow businesses to have a footprint are expected to exist in augmented worlds, including social networking sites.

From this evaluation it has been seen that the consumers are faced with a great experience from these services. It has been seen that the customers feel every aspect that they have felt the oceanic smell and felt the sandy beach from through this advanced technology. On the other hand, it has been seen that they have also felt the scorching heat from this technology.

Clients will enter a Teleporter to participate in the Marriott Virtual Travel Experience, where they will don virtual reality glasses and earphones to become completely immersed in a virtual environment (Brochado, Stoleriu and Lupu, 2021). They will next take a virtual voyage to a black sandy beach in Maui, Hawaii, and to the top of a tall structure in downtown London, England, before returning to the United States. While “travelling,” four-dimensional elements come into play – the sense of the warm sun on the skin, the breeze in the hair, the rumble of waves beneath the toes, and the splash of the ocean in the face to produce an astoundingly authentic experience that is unlike anything else.

Section 2: Communication Plan

Conclusion

“Experiential marketing” has been the central topic of the current assignment, which has critically evaluated the concept in a detailed fashion. To begin, Section 1 has provided a critical analysis of the concept of “experiences” and “experiential marketing,” outlining the advantages and downsides for both customers and international hospitality organisations. Furthermore, the section has presented a discussion on the definitions, benefits, and drawbacks derived from the experience/experiential marketing philosophy, as well as reasons why international hospitality organisations must provide customers with experiences. Using the principle of experiential marketing, this section has also explored how an international hospitality company might include an experience into their product line to enhance their customers’ overall impression of their brand. Section two of the assignment has effectively outlined a strategy for connecting customers with the tourism/hospitality firm’s brand before, during, and after their visit, based on goals, solutions, and ideas, paying close attention to the specific instance of “Marriot International”, one of the most exemplary businesses in this sector which have successfully utilised this concept to the advantage of its international business.

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Appendices

Section 2: Communication Plan