Marketing Strategies and Public Relation Tactics of Hospitality and Tourism: Kangaroo Island Hotel - Case Study Example

Marketing Strategies and Public Relation Tactics of Hospitality and Tourism: Kangaroo Island Hotel Name Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name Date Introduction The Kangaroo Island Hotel is one of the hotels located in the pristine wildernesses in Australia. It is a place in Australia that has given the native animals in Australia habitation; it is a place of beauty as well as one of the escape places. The area is well surrounded by rich waters and fertile land hence making it one of the Australian places that produces gourmet finest foods. The other natural feature is the availability of animals that are mainly found in the surrounding parks. These parks offer the tourist an attraction because of the variety of animals that are found there. Some of the animals that are there included the Kangaroo, variety of births and so many species of fish and other aquatic animals. Some other very important natural features include the waterfalls and the climate of the area. The hotel has devised many marketing strategies to ensure its services and products are of high quality and that they maximally satisfy the customers. In any kind of business, it should be noted that Marketing strategies are important for the success of the business as well as in the process of achieving all the objectives. This is due to the fact that for development of any profitable and clear strategies, balancing of abilities and competency of the business against any form of opportunities in the future is important. It is the expectations of an individual together with the perceived performances that will lead to the post purchase satisfaction of the customer. This is due to the negative and the positive disconfirmations of that particular customer between the expectations and performance. Current situation In every industry, human resource is a very important fact as far as its productivity is concerned. Therefore, the issue of staff turnover is to be keenly taken into consideration. Therefore, staff turnover means the rate at which the industry losses or gains employees. A company with a high turnover compared to the competitor companies, means that it only offers a short tenure to its employees. High turnover rate in a company as Robert (2003) noted, can negatively or positively affect the productivity of such company depending on the quality of the employees in terms of skills and knowledge as far as their services is concerned, leaving and joining the company. Service promotion in any industry should always be the first priority as far as the productivity of the industry and satisfaction of the customers is concerned (Eric, 2004). Tourism and hospitality industry for instance, is quite a volatile, complex and very competitive in this modern world. New challenges keep emerging day after day and the industry has to invent ways and means to curb them while delivering quality services (Robert, 2003). A great and notable change is also evident in the fast growth in consumer’s orientation as they emphasize and even demand for quality services and most important from qualified and experienced employees. With that in mind, therefore, it should be noted that a high turnover rate in any industry is definitely bound to affect the productivity of that company in a number of ways. Turnover in any industry means regular recruitment. This aspect according to Melanie (2009) comes with its demands in terms of cost. Cost in terms of time taken to carry out recruitment instead of working, costs in terms of finances and also the opportunity cost in terms of the lost productivity. These direct cost in terms of the finances used to carry out the exercise is very harmful to the company. This is because the cash would have rather been used in the improvement of the services. The indirect costs like the loss of production when an excellent employee leaves, reduction of the level of performance in an event of a number of employees leaving, un necessary time usage and the demoralization feeling lived by the workers is very harmful to the promotion of service production of the company. Internal as well as external turnover affects the industry in different ways. Internal turnover involves an employee assuming a new role but in the same company. It could be very good in terms of promoting service (Robert, 2003). This is because, the human resource manager, does the reshuffle with an aim of taking each employee where he or she can best offer services. In addition, this helps since the morale of the employees is increased. High turnover of skilled and unskilled employees causes different impacts. If the turn over involves the skilled or professional employees then a great danger will be posed in the industry. This is because if many are leaving it means, trained, skilled and most knowledgeable employees are leaving hence a decline in the quality of service production while they get employed in the same industry by a competitor company. In case the turn over involves the employees joining the company, the quality of service production will be highly promoted. Therefore, it is very evident that the implications in terms of service promotion in an industry with a high turnover could be negative or positive. Therefore, every management in the any industry should critically analyse the rate of turnover of the staff in the industry and the relevant impacts. Then necessary measures to be taken since, service promotion should be the key objective as far as any industry in concerned and that should never be interfered with. Future situation There will be growth in terms of profitability due to high number of customer checking in the hotel. This is due to the aspect of heritage (Melanie, 2009). Heritage tourism refers to the act of travelling to a certain place so as to learn the cultural heritage of that place. It has been for a long time been the objective of trips taken by my tourist. The cultural attractions of a site act as the tourist’s attraction. However, in the modern world, the availability of authentic sites has been a problem. This is because a lot of changes have been done. Irrespective of that, tourist still travel for heritage tourism. Many of them claim that the issue of authenticity is no longer a concern. Despite the fact that, there has been a lot of issues raised concerning the authenticity of our heritage, culture and all historic resources available today that are being used for tourism, many, have concluded that the issue is not important anymore. This is because a lot of changes have been done which are focused to creating fun for the tourist hence influencing change on the heritage in terms of services, experiences created and products provided (Melanie, 2009). There has been need to provide or even where need be create an interesting, entertaining and engaging experience for the tourists. Such needs have led to the creation of very an unauthentic experiences, products, stories and context at the heritage sites. At times, the need for language interpretation has also led to the evolvement of unauthentic but more engaging experiences. In addition, there has been introduction of things like food from other places to cater for the needs of the tourists from diverse places. All this was done with an aim of making the stay more enjoyable and comfortable for the tourist during their stay. Such improvements were also made with reference to some earlier deadly incidences like in 1920, when 20,000 pilgrimages died of cholera in the country (Melanie, 2009). The incident whereby a number of pilgrimages were held hostage in the mosque, is another example. With such happens, some changes and innovations had to be done. This was aimed at ensuring security of people as well as securing their health. The changes occurring in the modern world in terms of technology and governance have also contributed to the unauthentic heritage. As the economy of the world, has grown, new demands have come. This is because since man is not an island he needs others to survive. Hence, trade emerged. In the city of Mecca, not only Muslims are found there. This means that people from other religions are there and most important to offer their services like in hotels and even airport. Due to that, much of the culture has changed but that does not mean Muslims do not perform their heritage tour in Mecca. Growth strategies (Ansoff’s matrix) This Ansoff matrix I used for the business to decide the market growth and product strategy. The growth of any market depends on if the products are new or existing in the market. It uses the market penetration to ensure that it sells the eisting products in the markets athat are existing. This enables it to increse its market share. Mostly the company practises this through the sale of drinks throught a competitve price, advertising and sales promotion. The hotel also practises market development through the sale of its pproducts new market. This is whereby it has come up with new branches for te hotel all over the country.development of products in the hotel has been done by the iontroduction of new products and services like new types sof foods and the gyming services. Competitive strategies Every industry is dominated by competition which as fuel to its growth. This is because without competition there can never be growth in any industry. The porter’s generic strategies refer to the dimensions that are taken by any strategic scope as well as strength. This is whereby strategic scope refers to the penetration of the market while the strength of the strategy refers to the competitive advantage of the company. As far as generic strategy is concerned, differentiation and the low cost leadership are very important. The hotel had a great advantage in the sense that there is product differentiation and market segmentation. This is whereby the hotel has started giving a diversity of foods as well as services to ensure there is a great deal of customer satisfaction. It offers wide range of foods with different cultural background ensuring that the customers are well catered for no matter their cultural background. In addition, there are a wide range of drinks that are offered. The hotel has also installed gym facilities and a warm swimming pool. This has added to its competitive advantage compared to the other hotels around the region. The prices of its services and products are also cheaper compared to the competitors. Portfolio strategy This is a strategy for the company to achieve a lasting and deep change in the organization’s performance though the process of focusing on all the factors that drive the shareholder return in the future and in the present hence putting the company in the best position to create greater value. The company will balance all the risks diversification, its short-term earnings as well as the value of the long-term shareholder. It will achieve this by optimising the choices of resources allocation to product lines, business units as well as all the initiatives. This will help in the reduction of total overhead, the cost of the capital units and it will aid in the synergies of the technology markets and manufacturing. Through the asset portfolio, the company will improve productivity and especially of the investors through the optimization of resource allocation across the company’s portfolio. Product lifecycle (PLC) This is the period that the products take from the manufacture to the expiry date. There are four stages of a product life cycle namely market introduction, growth stage, the maturity stage and the saturation stage, which marks the saturation period. The hotel makes proper use of each of the stage ensuring the customers enjoy the products and services as well as maximizing its profits. Warfare strategies Every firm must prepare some unique abilities and strengths. These strategies must be its defensive factors, which are also its defence mechanism in case some potential threats arrive. There has been continuous attempt from many competitive hotels, which have tried to beat the firm. The firm has always tried to resist this by the introduction of a much superior products through branding. This refers to the process of applying marketing techniques with reference to specific product, brand and product line. The process not only entails the issue of the brand but also the management of the particular company to ensure the company gets to achieve all of its objectives and goals. There is a need for any particular company to get to understand what brand means for them before getting engaged in integrated brand management. Therefore, the owner or the manager of the company is expected to explain what the brand means for the company. This means that the managers in conjunction with the other employees especially the marketing department should be involved in the process of branding after getting to know the needs of the customers that are out to satisfy. The exercise should be led by the company’s CEO. It should be noted that for a particular brand to be effective to the customers then it means that there must be a brand promise, which stands for the real implications of the brand. Public relations activities The goal to develop quality services within international tourism and hospitality organizations should be the most important or the uttermost priority as far as public relations in any company in the tourism and hospitality industry is concerned. This is because the measure of the success of such organization is the number of customers enjoying its services, while the number of those customers depends on the quality of services offered Baker. This is where the aspect of human resource management comes in. It has been noted that apparently a very well human resource managed organization has an excellent performance in terms high quality service delivery. In addition to that, a tourism organization employee must be greatly committed to offer high quality services. Edward Deming, a man who wore so many hats, greatly contributed towards the development of quality service within international tourism and hospitality organisations. In his work, he is remembered for greatly contributing in the increase in production. He has contributed in showing people how to improve quality of the products, product testing and how to sell the product. His teachings and philosophical words have been widely adopted in so many industries, tourism and Hospitality included, hence improving the production. He is respected for believing teaching that quality improvement reduces expenses, hence improving market share and productivity. His work solved a lot of problems in the mark including the issue of overcoming competitors. Much of his contribution came through lectures, philosophical quotes and books that he wrote. He taught that by adopting the necessary principles in as far as management is concerned, there can be a tremendous increase in the quality and on top of that reduction of the cost of production due to waste. This principle after it was adopted in the hospitality industry, there was reduction in waste products, attrition of staff and many customers who were impressed with the services offered became more loyal to those organizations (Weaver & Lawton, 2010). Most of those organizations then focused more on the quality of their services. After a little while, it was discovered as employees focused more on the quality, the cost of production went down as the quality increased. This was opposite to what happened earlier when they focused more on the cost and the quality of their services went down. Rajendra (2006) argued that for every manager to experience good results must have profound knowledge. Meaning the must be all round knowledgeable to be able o deal with everyone involved in the chain of production. This led to an intense training of all managers in hospi6tality industry. This equipped them to be able to handle, employees and customers hence the improvement of service delivery. Another very important contribution was the fourteen principles of management that he came up with. Through them the tourism industry that adopted them was able to focus on improving the product and service delivery hence enabling it to keep top even in the midst tog great competition. Through building quality in the services Melanie (2009), noted that regular inspections were minimized hence improving production. In addition, many, organizations stopped focusing on the cost or prices of the services they were offering, to the quality of the services a factor that enabled them to be trusted by their customers who later became loyal to their services. In addition, many of the organization adopted the culture of training their employees on the job. Irrespective of their training on recruitment, they were trained on what was expected of them hence, an improvement in high quality service production. As many managers aimed at breaking down the chain of fear in their employees, there was freedom to work and offer suggestion which improved service production. In short, Edward Deming work, was greatly adopted by international tourism and hospitality organizations, which then achieved great improvement in their service production. CSR Projects Corporate social responsibility is a very important for any business and company. The organization has one two main projects as a way for it to practice corporate social responsibility. These two projects includes environmental protection and caring for the less fortunate in the society. It has an environmental department, which ensures the wastes produced in the hotel are well segregated and disposed. The hotel has designated specific places for its waste disposal and also some strategies like putting bins all over the compound. There is also a compost pit for putting all the composting waste. The hotel also ensures all the containers that can be recycled are recycled to avoid contaminating the environment. The hotel is also involved in helping the less fortunate in the society. The most beneficiaries are the orphans who get sponsorship in terms of school fees and food from the hotel management. In addition, the management organizes for their fundraisings. Stakeholder relationships/involvement There are a number of stakeholders who are involved in tourism. A stakeholder refers to a group, person and organization with the only indirect or direct stake in a certain organization simply because it is affecting or being affected by some of the actions, policies and objectives and from where the business acquires some of the resources from (Weaver & Lawton, 2010). This is because as part of the tourism sector it seeks to contribute and expertise some wide range of organism and individuals. Another reason for having partners and stakeholders is to ensure that the goals and objectives of tourism are met appropriately, effectively and efficiently. Even though the issue of stake-holding is self-legitimizing in the sense that they judges for themselves to be stakeholders , all the stakeholders will never be the same no matter what and that is why different stakeholders are entitled to different type of considerations. An example is a royal customer who is entitled to fair trading kind of practices but still they are not entitled to the same consideration like the company or business. In this particular business of Kangaroo Island Hotel, some of the stakeholders who are involved in the tourism as follow. The government of Australia is one of the main stakeholders of the development and sustainability of tourism in the kangaroo island. The community is another very important stakeholder for the Kangaroo Island, the employees, the directors, the customers, the creditors, unions, owners and finally many tourism related business are stakeholders. Press releases, editorials, advertorials Advertisement is an important factor in the process of promoting a business. The hotel has many ways that it does its products and services promotion. It has an affective website, which contains a list of services, and products sit offers (Bruce, 2006). Advertisements are done via three mains forms of media namely the business newspaper, the radio stations and the television. It targets people in the country as well as all over the world for the purposes of attracting many customers. They are very effective due to the fact that in most of the questionnaires issued to the customers, they admit to the fact that they learn about the hotel via the press releaser, advertisements and editorial. Conclusion Strategic planning is a very important component of the success of any business. It is the process that provides the business or the organization with a direction to which it should go in terms of the vision, mission, objectives, goals, budget, management of the resources ( finances and human resource management). It also the process that enables the business to understand its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities as far as its market share and the issue of competition is concerned. It important for business owners to know that there are pitfalls of strategic planning like the fact that a business will not easily change from the kind of business it deals with easily. Whether the organization uses the Porter’s Five Forces Model or the Snows and mile strategy what matters is the achievements of the organization. Reference Bruce, P. 2006. Managing tourism and hospitality services. Oxford: University of Oxford Press. Eric, L. 2004. Improving tourism and hospitality. England: Garendon Melanie S. 2009. Issues in cultural tourism studies. Oxford: University of Oxford Press. Rajendra, G. 2006.Total quality management, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Robert, A. 2003. Hospitality and tourism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Weaver, D. & Lawton, L. 2010. Tourism management. Queensland: John Wiley & Sons. Read More