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Task 1
1. Introduction: Strategic Management And Marketing Assignment
Around the globe, businesses are exploring a wide range of opportunities due to the vast advancement in technology and the advent of globalization which has exposed the business to take advantage. Simultaneously, the demand of consumers is increasing and organizations are facing a rat race in the marketplace. In this context, it has become very crucial for organizations to maintain their sustainability through gaining a competitive advantage (Keat, Sam, and Kadir, 2018). To gain an advantage, over rivals, organizations are implementing strategic management and strategic marketing approach. Strategic management is all about setting goals, objectives, and procedures systematically to make an organization more competitive in the marketplace. The main purpose of strategic management is to manage the Organisational resources efficiently to achieve organizational objectives and goals.
For every business, consumers are the most crucial aspect and the main purpose of marketing is to attract consumers towards particular organizational products and services. Strategic marketing is related to the process of research conduction and developing goals and objectives for maximizing the efficiency and outcome of marketing strategy. This procedure benefits organizations by ensuring the right target market and developing the right mediums to deliver the marketing message. The tourism industry has seen an extraordinary boom in recent years, and due to this, the competition has also become neck to neck in the marketplace. Hence, strategic management is enabling the industry to deliver efficiency and effectiveness in achieving development goals.
This particular report will focus on analyzing various aspects of strategic management and marketing plans. In this regard, the report will choose Marriott International and Whitbread plc. Organizations from the tourism industry. Marriot International is an American MNC that was founded by J. Willard Marriot and Alice Marriot (Catana and Toma 2021). This is the largest hotel in the world with revenue of $10.571 billion dollars. Whitbread plc is a leading British hotel and restaurant organization that acquired £ 2,062.1 million in revenue in 2018 (M Rajasgeran, 2018).
2. Conceptualizing Strategic Management and Marketing
Nowadays strategic management has become an integral part of every business. Generally, strategic management is related to the idea of the planned use of business resources to achieve Organisational goals and objectives. It necessitated evaluation of the processes and procedures of a firm and impacting external factors that may impact an organization. The implication of strategic management enables an organization to gain a competitive advantage, achieve its goals easily, maintain sustainable growth, and encourage increased managerial awareness, etc. (Sassi, Pihlak, and Haldma, 2017). For strategic management, an organization is required to set objectives and goals for the firm, evaluate competitors' actions, and review internal structure and strategies for implementing the strategies throughout the company for the attainment of a successful outcome.
Another trending strategic application is seen in the marketing segment. Strategic marketing is related to the way through which a firm efficiently makes its appearance unique from the other competitors within a marketplace by emphasizing its strengths. Simply, it relates to being more creative with the marketing mix. The primary goal of strategic management is to deliver a competitive advantage by emphasizing their strengths. A well-planned strategic planning gives direction to the entire organization and also facilitates delivering efficient ways to execute all the business processes.
3. Understanding the Evolution of Strategic Management and Marketing
Managers plan, conduct research, execute, oversee, and evaluate marketing efforts to fulfill consumers' requirements and desires, as well as accomplish the organization's goals. To put it another way, "services marketing" is a field of marketing that only applies to service sectors because of its focus on the uniqueness of all services. "Create value for customers, cultivate strong connections, and collect value from customers in return" are the main goals of marketing. Tourism and hospitality marketing demands a grasp of the distinction between selling commodities, services, and experiences (Teece, 2019). Marketing tourism experiences requires a thorough understanding of the distinctive features, motivations, and behaviors of tourists, as well as a thorough understanding of the basic contrasts among marketing products and services. Until the 1930s, production was the major goal of enterprises, with little consideration provided to sales or marketing.
In the 1930s, sales grew increasingly significant because of technological advancements that allowed several enterprises to make comparable items, resulting in more rivalry among consumers. Even though firms came to realize how important sales were, consumer demands and desires were still overlooked. An advertisement for Bulova watches aired on television for the first time in 1944 when there were only 4,000 televisions. During the 1950s and '60s, marketing took off, with the quantity of media rising and TV advertising expenditure jumping from 5 percent of total TV earnings in 1953 to 15 percent only one year later. Between 1950 and 1970, the period was recognized as a time of marketing focus (McKiernan, 2017). Because buyers had more product options, businesses needed to refocus their efforts on helping them understand how their goods fit into their overall demands. Quality of service and consumer happiness were also included in organizational strategy at this time.
In the 1960s, the first full-service advertising agencies started to develop as firms began to build their marketing departments. Companies started to acknowledge their role and responsibilities in society in the 1970s, and societal marketing was born. Natural resource extraction businesses, for instance, are demonstrating this shift by supporting environmental problems and instituting more open practices. LIFE Magazine was shut down in 1972 due to accusations that TV advertising was too tough to compete with, and this decade witnessed the rise of the media people use today and the demise of conventional marketing vehicles like print (Teece, 2019). The Internet marketing revolution began in the 1990s. Almost every business has been affected by e-commerce, but the tourism industry may have been hit the most. These technologies are now being used by the travel and hospitality industry, from marketing campaigns to reservation management and transaction facilitation to partner and package travel information and the provision of channels for customer feedback, as well as data collection, mining, analysis, and sales and automation.
In this era, marketing opportunities popped up boundlessly, paving the way for the growth and development of social media marketing and several other advertising transitions, such as an energized and engaged consumer and the enhanced utilization of "big data, mobile technology, and short- and long-form video content" in marketing. Strategic managers in organizations often use a variety of approaches. Nowadays, Marriott International's worldwide strategy team is concentrating on implementing sustainable practices across the world (McKiernan, 2017). Sustainable strategies refer to the methods used to protect the environment and maintain a healthy work environment. The UN Sustainable Development department's aims are being followed by the organization's strategy team. Strengthening societies and fostering resilience in the nations in which Marriott operates is a top priority for the company's top executives.
Leadership at Marriott has embraced a transformational leadership approach to lessen the environmental effect of Marriott's operational operations and mitigate the risks of climate change. Whitbread Plc. (Premier Inn) sees this as a major component in their plans to expand their inexpensive hotel franchises. As a result of this increased demand, they are expanding their operations tremendously. There are now more than 590 Premier Inn hotels in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with upwards of 43,000 rooms spread throughout the two countries (Wilden et al., 2017). Until 2014, they hope to add another 55,000 rooms to the total number of rooms they now have available. Hotels in Dubai and India are also part of the company's international expansion strategy. Currently, they have three hotels in Dubai, one in Bangalore, and a fourth in Delhi scheduled to launch in the next year.
4. Evaluation of the Significance of Strategic Management and Strategic Marketing for the Travel and Tourism and Hospitality Industry
Strategic management
In the present business context, strategic management is very crucial as it has become essential for organizations to gain a competitive advantage to sustain in the highly competitive business environment. And the travel and tourism industry has undoubtedly seen huge popularity over some years. The application of strategic management enable travel and tourism organization to make a more efficient decision and also benefit from equipping with different management tools. Along with this, strategic management also benefits tourism organizations to anticipate changes and give the right direction to the Organisational activities. It also helps in mitigating the risk of operation and assists firms in making innovations. Furthermore, strategic management is entirely objective oriented which can deliver organizations a clear conception of all the whereabouts. Hence, orientation with strategic management assures great performance and greater unity inside an organization (Abdullah, Salman, and Ahmed, 2019). There are a wide range of benefits of strategic management, which include,
In this constantly evolving digital world, surrounding circumstances are evolving simultaneously. Change in one place gives organizations a challenge to cope with the evolving situation, in the same way, it also delivers an opportunity to overcome the challenge and become a market leader by setting a unique standard in a market. Due to the fast-changing nature, managers often fail to plan in the long term. The irony of change is it gives different setbacks which make the planning procedure more complex. However, to stay current in the market, organizations have to cope with the change anyway. Strategic management comes into play in these situations where it encourages innovation and assists in taking advantage of the new opportunity brought by the changing environment and also lessens the risk as these changes are previously anticipated with the help of strategic management(Abdullah, Salman, and Ahmed, 2019). Along with this, it also benefits in ensuring the full exploitation of diverse opportunities.
In sum, strategic management helps travel and tourism organizations to take immediate actions at a very early phase and the high time for efficient management. The entire process stimulates thinking about the future and makes the entire business process flexible enough to adapt to changes. Marriott International is the epitome of strategic management (Evans, 2019). The organizations maintain their management through different levels, such include, corporate, business level, and functional level strategy which enable organizations to become more efficient.
For better performance, it is very significant for organizations to set and make clear objectives that enable the employees to perform their roles better. Strategic management delivers a strong incentive for the management and the employees to achieve Organisational goals. It also delivers a foundation for management and evaluation (Moutinho, and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). Furthermore, strategic management also contributes to enhancing efficiency. According to multiple reliable research, it has been found that strategic planning enables travel and tourism organizations to enhance their efficiency which enhances their probability of success.
Strategic marketing
The tourism market is dynamic and the industry demand is also evolving with the change of taste of consumers. Hence, the application of strategic marketing has become crucial more than it was ever before. Strategic management can enable tourism organizations to significantly improve marketing performance and achieve Organisational goals within the tourism industry. The main purpose of strategic marketing is to enhance and attract consumers by delivering product value in a unique way to the consumers. There are multiple benefits a travel and tourism organization can explore through implementing a strategic marketing plan, such are, it helps an organization to evaluate the current environment. Hence, it benefits in assessing the performance and positioning of an organization. The assessment result helps a tourism firm to understand the organization's performance level and assist in comprehending the competitive environment which assists the firm in planning future strategic marketing plans and activities. For instance, the Marriott International hotel takes huge benefit of strategic marketing by demonstrating their true interest in delivering guests a memorable experience (Emelda, 2018).
Having an aim and objective benefits an organization to have a clear direction. The strategic marketing plan also helps a tourism firm to build achievable marketing objectives. It also needs to be considered that the objective needs to be specific and measurable (Chernev, 2018). Along with these benefits, strategic marketing adds more benefits to an organization. In addition to all these advantages, the right strategic marketing plan helps in developing a product or service which can help an organization to earn high revenue. It is because the marketing plan initiates with conducting an internal analysis through a SWOT model upon the organization and market analysis of the customers and the trends within the tourism market. All this information is then used and implemented to develop the optimal product and service for the consumers.
5. Analysis and Understanding of the Performance of Tourism and Hospitality Companies from the Viewpoint of Marketing theories and Strategic Management
Hospitality industries tend to use different marketing theories to stay competitive in the marketplace or to run the business for a long period. The appliance of marketing mix theories has always been proven to be accommodating for a brand or a company to position itself competitively in the market along with accomplishing marketing objectives. In this section, there will be analyses of the marketing mix of the two most popular hotel brands, Marriott International and Whitbread PLC.
The marketing mix (4p) of Marriott International
Product
In terms of MarriottInternational, consists of an extensive and diversified portfolio of hotels and resorts. The ultimate strategy of this hotel group is to do invariable up-gradation and therefore give comforting service to the clients (Mazen Alomari, 2017). Approximately 30 hotels belong to the hotel group. Some of them are Aloft Hotels, Courtyard, Delta Hotels, Le Meridien, and Residence Inn. It has been observed that the hotel group comprises a wide variety of facilities for the guests such as medical facilities, money exchange, Wi-Fi, courier services, and baby-care facilities (Madar, 2017). Furthermore, it is equipped with multiple amenities including a refrigerator, payable laundry service, newspaper, etc. The provision of these exceptional services has been able to lead the hotel group towards achieving a vast level of stardom in the international market (Reference for Business. 2019).
Price
Keeping a reasonable price in terms of all services has been considered a strategic tool for the industry. The ultimate intention of them is to offer the product or services according to their quality and nature. In terms of premium quality services, the price range will be extremely high (Songur, 2018). Therefore, Marriott decides the prices of their hotels by maintaining the significance with a quality framework. The primary purpose of this specific pricing strategy is to not only improve their brand name but also to maximize their profitability efficiently (www.referenceforbusiness.com, 2019). It is very confident about its pricing strategy to the specific demand of its visitors’ flawless products and services and is willing to pay for the opportunity (Mazen Alomari, 2017).
Place
The international existence of this hotel group has been able to create a special advantage for the brand to stay competitive in the global marketplace. It has spread to 110 countries with almost 5,700 belongings (Wu, 2021). Marriott operates in Argentina, Venezuela, India, Turkey, Canada, Mexico, etc. Moreover, The implementation of the mixed channel strategy has been proven to be accommodating for its worldwide expansion (Songur, 2018). This augments the rapidity in maintaining the inventory across the dissimilar infrastructure along with diminishing the general costs.
Promotion
Due to the impact of exceptional promotional strategy, the brand has been able to become the market leader in the international market (Reference for Business. 2019). The official website of Marriott showcases all of its products efficiently and comprehensively manner along within permitting consumers to pre-book rooms in hotels with an uncomplicated process (Wu, 2021). Through streaming videos and campaigns on dissimilar media platforms, Marriott does their promotional activities. On the other hand, it provides vacations, bonuses, and gifts to its potential customers. The company has instigated elevated-impact ad campaigns and targeted detailed consumers to enlarge its brand awareness (Malm, Pikkarainen, and Hyrkäs, 2020).
Marketing mix (4p) of Whitbread PLC
Product
The brand offers different types of rooms according to the basis of dissimilar customers (Rashid, 2018). For example, it provides king-sized bed facilities to families having children along with providing extra amenities for the baby. They offer Wi-Fi 24/7, tea and coffee-making facilities, Freeview TV, etc which are considered extremely enjoyable for the guests. On the other hand, the bar facilities also proved to be accommodating in Whitbread PLC (Whitbread PLC, 2018).
Price
The pricing strategy of this hotel group is quite dissimilar from any other hotel brand. Not only does this pricing strategy make it exceptional but also it helps create differentiation among its competitors (Rashid, 2018). The pricing rate has been divided into premium, value-based, and flexible manner. The ultimate intention of Whitbread PLC is to focus on not only higher-class customers but also visitors from middle-class families (Whitbread PLC, 2018). Usually, the hotel has a value pricing approach to make available the regulars with immense value for their funds (Zu and Krever, 2020). For example, Premier Inn (one of its hotel brands) also follows a price discrimination policy with its lowest rates being frequently for rooms on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. These strategies have been proven to be extremely accommodating for Whitbread PLC to stay competitive in the international market.
Place
Whitbread is the owner of Premier Inn which is considered one of the most successful hotel brands in the UK. The hotel brand consists of more than 800 hotels in the UK and more than 78,500 rooms in enormous locations (Whitbread PLC, 2018). It operates in various countries and territories similar to Marriott. Whitbread PLC operates in Qatar, the UK, Mexico, Ireland, United Arab Emirates and China.
Promotion
Whitbread PLC invests a lot to create a competitive advantage for the hotel group. Therefore, it aims to the social media platforms for its marketing or promotion. It has been proven to be extremely accommodating for Whitbread PLC providing its focus on brand awareness (He et al., 2018). The ultimate strategy of this hotel group is to provide the guests with incomparable facilities and a comforting atmosphere. The offerings of great quality food, comfy rooms, and outstanding behavior among the guests have been able to draw the attention of a range of potential customers (Zu and Krever, 2020). On the other hand, Whitbread PLC has proved itself stronger than ever to remain one of the most renowned brands in the UK during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Analysis and Understanding of the Strategic Management Theory
Human Relation Theory
In this section, there will be an efficient discussion of the Human Relation Theory. The ultimate purpose of the theory is to emphasize the significance of employee approaches, interpersonal relations, group dynamics, and leadership methods. The utilization of this particular Human Relation Theory has been proven to be accommodating in terms of hospitality industries to maintain their brand awareness.
In terms of Marriott International, the hotel group has been able to successfully ply the fact of human relation theory efficiently. Therefore, it has been proven to be accommodating for this hotel group to stay competitive in the global market while creating sustainability for the long-term business. The ultimate strategy of this hotel group is to provide exceptional accommodation services along with maintaining health and safety. Therefore, it has been observed extensively (Malm, Pikkarainen, and Hyrkäs, 2020). During the time of conveying any type of services, the staff that are delivering the services is very critical to expand the confidence of the consumers. Regarding this fact, the staff of Marriott is constantly educated and has been provoked to deliver marvelous services that outstand the prospects of regulars. The company has more than 100,000 employees worldwide and its ultimate purpose is to serve the guests by providing an outstanding level of comfort.
On the other hand, Whitbread PLC has been able to create an exceptional brand image among its customers. Therefore, it has been observed that this hotel group focuses on creating friendly relationships during the time of booking process or in case of gathering information from its official websites (He et al., 2018). This strategy has been proven to be accommodating in the process of sustaining brand reputation and increasing revenue margin. Therefore, during the time of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic which has formed an unparalleled challenge for every organization, the hotel groups stay more strong-minded than ever to keep increasing one of the most renowned brands in the UK. The exceptional service provided by Whitbread PLC has been able to make a major differentiation among its competitors making it the market leader among the hospitality industries.
6. Conclusion
This particular assignment gives data on the function of strategic marketing, various procedures concerned in strategic marketing, the theories utilized in strategic marketing planning, the connection between strategic positioning and advertising technique, and the association between strategic marketing and corporate policy. Strategic management theories are developed over time to go well with the external and internal requirements of multiple organizations and also to accomplish the necessities of the macro environments. Furthermore, it has been observed in an extensive manner that Strategic management theories require to be extended particularly to provide for the impression of competitive advantage of the organization. In that case, both Marriott International and Whitbread PLC have to make some changes regarding the fact of their strategic management theories to stay competitive in the long run of business.
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