Marketing Database for Grace Hotel - Case Study Example

Students Name] [Students ID] Introduction The importance of information management for any organization cannot be overemphasized because originates from the fact that the particular organization can establish ways of obtaining relevant information from various avenues and utilize that information for overall business success. Furthermore the organization whether small or large needs to articulate the available information obtained through stored data and expertise in order to create value for the information and make it beneficial for the present and future plans for that particular organization. Data in an organization is considered information because the data consists of facts and trends and the data can also have a particular relationship with other aspects of the organization. Information and information are very valuable for any organization because they contain data about the clients, employees, competitors and can also be used to predict future trends of an organization with a substantial degree of precision. Grace Hotel is one of the major hotels in Sidney competing against one of the best hotels in the area. Just like any other business entity or organization proper management of information determines how Grace Hotel fairs in the market and how competitive the Hotel is when competing with other players in the market. One outstanding factor about information management realized from the studying Grace Hotel is that information management follows the same simple concepts regardless of the business nature or size. This was established when the objectives of the Hotel were observed critically and how the objectives related to information management. The concepts derived from these objectives is that information management creates an easy to access link between customers and the company, ensures easy access sharing of information within and saves valuable time. Sharing of information between sales people would be important and valuable information concerning employees would be easy to access. However it is also important to know that apart from the basic concepts information management system can vary from one organization to another. Marketing Database Grace Hotel keeps database of customers especially the ones that have established themselves as patrons. Customers database assist the Hotel when making important marketing decisions and future business development plans. Over the years the Hotel has managed to gather substantial information concerning its customers. Marketing database is an important asset for Grace Hotel because it contains information on the customers and proper analysis of this information can provide useful data that can be used for future marketing plans. The information includes eating trends and habits of the consumers. However the most important part of developing and efficient marketing database is the collection of information from consumers and it is important to know the type of information that when collected, broken down and analyzed can provide relevant marketing information. The Hotel currently boasts of a customer database of approximately 300 people. In collection of customer information, the Hotel requires that customers who want to subscribe to their mailing list provide the following information: First name, Last name, Postal address, Email address, Telephone, Date of Birth and additional information on customer’s special interest in terms of food, food, cooking classes and preferred method of contact; either Email or Post. Additional consumer information that can be added is how the customers found out about the Hotel. This information can be useful to the Hotel when looking for the most effective way to reach to a large number of consumers within a short time in a cost effective way. For instance if most customers knew about the Hotel through their friends and colleagues, Grace Hotel can make brochures or fliers and hand them over to customers whenever they visit. This information can be useful especially when conducting promotion campaigns because they can help in coming up with the most effective time when a large number of customer are present to organize the campaigns. Many hotels and restaurants remain unknown to customers not because the food they sell is bad, but because people do not know of the varieties available. The problem therefore is not the food but in the marketing strategies employed. The food club can be an important way to improve sales by increasing membership in the club. Clubs are a way of bringing people who share the same interest together and in this case the common interest is food, therefore Grace Hotel should look for aspects of food that can attract as many members as possible. Furthermore clubs should have the capacity to benefit people as a group and individual members of the club. To increase the number of membership t the club it is important that the Hotel can attach the membership to some form of prestige. Prestige will make more people join the club not only for the benefits that come along but because of the social stature associated with the club. Furthermore people join clubs to network and most people will join the club because of the kind of people they will expect to meet there as a way of business or professional networking. One way of attaching prestige to the club is by charging a considerable fee for the club membership and then providing the club members with special cards as a way of recognition. The club members can then be given first priorities in activities such as food tasting sessions. This is a marketing tool because more and more people will want to join the club so that they can attend the food festivals therefore increasing the membership. Furthermore the club members will also be able to lure the people they meet during the festival to at least visit the cellar door of Grace Hotel. This strategy will increase both the membership and the sales. Customer database of 3000 people has the ability to provide valuable information concerning issues such as customer preferences and customer purchasing trends including such important aspects such as customer demographics. The information can be used as a starting point to steer a direct marketing and make it successful. The reason why some brands of food are bought more than others could be because the least bought foods are not known to consumers. Therefore the Hotel can take the initiative of contacting customers through the provided e-mail addresses and postal addresses to tell customers more about the least bought brands of food and their unique characteristics this will have the effect of increasing the overall sales. Use of Information Systems for Direct Marketing Information System can also be useful to Grace Hotel in establishing direct marketing strategies. Grace Hotel can make use of the information systems as a tool for direct marketing. Direct marketing that can be used to increase sales is where the company can use recorded sales messages which can then be sent to customers informing them about products and upcoming events that the company has organized and this may help in increasing sales because more people can be reached through telemarketing. However telemarketing, especially over the phone is always viewed by consumers as a nuisance and if used uncontrollably can have negative effects. It is always wise to seek the services of a telemarketing company which is more experienced in the field to avoid the negative effects. Just as mentioned previously telemarketing is a very sensitive form of direct sales and it therefore requires that it is carried out by a professional company. Telemarketing companies first contact the list of customers targeted by a particular company and request them if they can have some time to interact with the company’s sales people, this will prevent the company from approaching customers who do not like being disturbed over the phone. The telemarketing company will then follow up on the request and makes sure that as many customers attend the interactive sessions. Telemarketing companies also provide valuable information concerning the right questions and conducting effective marketing research. The initiative of conducting telemarketing therefore requires a professional company and therefore Grace Hotel should seek the services of a telemarketing company. Successful wordings on a sales offer should be able to focus on the most essential things about a particular product. The essentials include the name of the product, the quantity of the product, the duration of the offer and what percentage is the offer off from the recommended price. This information is essential because they are able to capture the customer’s attention and determine whether the customer will buy that product then, soon or later. The information is also important because it will be able to convince the customer that they are actually saving some time or money. Pursuing of rented lists or purchasing of a list from business to business sounds like a very good idea for utilizing an already available list for marketing instead of developing one’s list. It is however important to buy a particular list because in this way Grace Hotel will have the chance of seeing the actual mail addresses and even reusing the list for future promotions. The only disadvantage of pursuing lists is that a company might be labeled as a spam company. Posting of information to customers is a very interactive sales tool because it gives the customers a sense of belonging and acceptance and therefore the customer will be convinced to buy more products. Although posting of information is rather expensive, the information it carries is much and the Grace Hotel can use the method to relay to the customers a lot of information in a single posting. According to an article by PRLEAP.COM, (2006) online food sales have increased the number of food sales dramatically since 2006. This is because most restaurants have taken advantage of digital technologies to reach out to customers. The article goes on to goes on to give an example of Inertia Beverage Group which increased its clients by 423% using on line sales. On-Line selling could be a good strategy for Grace Hotel since the company already has a customers’ database that can act as a starting point. On-Line sales can be used to inform customers about upcoming event such as promotions and discounts offered by hotels. Recommendations The major problem faced by Grace Hotel was that information and information was so scattered within the organization making it difficult to retrieve considering the geographical distribution of various branches. The Hotel’s information mapping was more staff centered, aiming at providing a system that would ensure that sales staff would share important information about aspects such as shopping behaviours and trends and would also serve as an important resource during brainstorming sessions. On the other hand the hotel was faced by both staff and customer related problems and therefore considered a system that would be directly beneficial to both the staff and the clients by providing easy access. However both companies aimed at improving efficiency in communication, optimally utilizing information and information and saving time. The solutions that Grace Hotel should come up with is to develop a centralized store of information and information that would be accessible to sales persons and that would be password protected at various levels to ensure that only authorized persons could have easy access. The hotel’s solution was also to create a centralized store of information but that would serve both the customers and the staff. Sharing of information and knowledge is an important aspect of any organization but it also posses security problems especially if this information can be accessed by competitors either directly or by manipulating disloyal staff members. The issue of security was not addressed sufficiently by the two companies and it should be a key consideration when analysing the merits and demerits of a particular information management system. References Shein, E. (2001) Case Study: Grace HotelSales Force Sells More Through Information Collaboration. 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