Strategies and Leadership of Marriott International - Case Study Example

Report on Marketing Research Name Course Lecturer Institution City, State Date of submission Executive Summary Marriot international is a company that dominates the hospitality industry in provision of lodging facilities and hotel management operations. It has been recognized as a top employer for its top-notch customer services and superior operations, which are conducted, on five core values: embrace change, act with integrity, pursue excellence, serve our world, and putting people first. The senior leaders of the company, brands, business models and deeply –ingrained servicing culture have all established Marriott to be a leading performer in the prevailing market conditions. The success of Marriott Inc can be attributed to detailed marketing research strategies that instigate customer segregation. Different customers with varying needs are targeted and captured by being offered the hotel lodging packages that suits desires. Marketing research is essential as part of marketing and assists companies to always stay competitive and avoid the exorbitant cost of any poor decisions made because of unsound information. Marriott has plans to integrate social media strategies for all its brands (which are unique) and properties in the portal in order to amplify the buzz surrounding its customers who continue flocking in lodging options, research destinations and making travel plans. The company is also implementing capabilities in Brand work that will report on promotional programs as well as automation of analysis, which identify which offers, marketing campaigns and programs that are most successful. Table of Contents Executive Summary………………………………………………..2 Introduction………………………………………………………. 4 Question 1………………………………………………………….4 Question 2…………………………………………………………..4 Question 3…………………………………………………………..5 Question 4…………………………………………………………..5 Question 5…………………………………………………….…….5 Question 6…………………………………………….…….……5-6 Question 7………………………………………………………….6 Question 8………………………………………………………….6 Question 9………………………………………………………….6 Question 10…………………………………………….…………6-7 Question 11……………………………………………………..…...7 Question 12…………………………………………………….……7 Question 13 ………………………………………………...……..7-8 Question 14……………………………………………….…………8 Question 15…………………………………………………...……..8 Conclusion………………………………………….………,,…….8-9 Reference List…………………………………….………..…….… 10 Introduction Leadership of Marriott International has utilized adequate marketing research in the development of an effective portfolio. As the department of marketing research grows, the company tends to specialize in either strategic business units or the additional services such as high-speed internet in the quest to capture the attention of a particular client base. Most large organizations have managers and directors that ensure provision of quality products and services as well as satisfaction of customers (Nykiel 2007). For instance, Marriott International has a marketing research director for each units including the Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield inn and Marriott hotels and resort. The research director for every unit reports regularly to the vice president of the corporate marketing services. The marketing research director for Marriott controls executes and plans all the marketing research functions of the company The director is also required to formulate marketing strategies and serve in executive company committees that identify competitive opportunities. Due to the application of efficient marketing research and strategies, Marriott Inc has had various well performing brands such as the courtyard brand which was originally optimized and developed and was among the early purchasers in the company’s well positioned timeshare product. Marriott Hotel is the single brand leader but with inclusion of other brands such as Courtyard, Residence Inn and Springhill Suites. Question 1 Marketing research encompasses collection and gathering of data that pertains to customers, business climates, and demographics. On the other hand, marketing strategies put the information that has been obtained from marketing research into practice or application (Zikmund & Babin 2013). Marketing research involving conducting surveys and requesting feedback from existing customers on their perceptions towards the lodging services and facilities that the company offers can play a great role in helping Marriot Hotels establish sound marketing strategies. Analysis of feedback from customers would form a benchmark upon which the Company can gauge its services and act upon any resulting variances. Marketing research through participation of trade shows, reading of websites and magazines to gather informationon the changing needs and expectations of the dynamic customer market can provide critical information for future business decisions (Malhotra 2011). Question 2 The management decision problem in regards to the business-travelers segment is whether the market would be profitable, ability to bring in more subsequent customers and the price that would guarantee good value for money. As opposed to the business travelers, the non business traveler is after leisure. In addition, to the necessities that a business traveler cannot do without such as ample working space, there will also be additional leisure facilities to be offered such as suite space which will break the monotony of always seeing the four walls around their bed and a kitchenette where they can dine occasionally (Stevens 2005). In addition, convenience of the location is also an important factor because lodging facilities that target this customer base should either be located in highways or along interstates because the targeted group is most likely to travel by car Question 3 Marketing research problems tend to explain a predicament whereby the company intends to sell a particular product or service to fill an intended gap (Zikmund & Babin 2013). Marketing research problems can be used to manage the risks that are associated with offering of new products or services. The management of Marriott Hotel should ensure that survey design has been used to find out what exactly the non-business travelers expect from the Hotel’s services, their thoughts, perceptions, and needs. The survey design would be an appropriate methodology of marketing research because it would allow collection of qualitative, quantitative and numerical information. However, it’s worthy noting that a survey design might also include sources of bias where marketers might be inclined to believe that they have instigated an online survey that appeals to respondents from all ethnic backgrounds even though the questions and survey images could offend or favor a certain ethnic group (Malhotra 2011). Question 4 The research design refers to the general strategy chosen to integrate different components of a particular predicament in a logical and coherent way to address the research problem. (Widd & Diggines 2009). It constitutes a blue print for the measurement, collection, and analysis of data. The research design that Marriott Inc should adopt is the case study design, which is an in-depth study, which focus on the research problem as opposed to sweeping through statistical survey. The design narrows down to a wide research field into few researchable examples and is used to check whether a certain theory or model is applicable to the real world or it is just hypothetical. The overriding advantage of this method is that the design can provide a more detailed description of some specific and rare cases while allowing application of different methodologies and reliance on various sources to scrutinize the research problems (Zikmund & Babin 2013). Question 5 Market share is that percentage of a market that has been accounted for by a specific entity in terms of either units or revenue (Nykiel 2007). The Carlson Rezidor Hotel group for instance is the biggest and most dynamic accommodation Company globally with a portfolio of more than 1100 hotels. It controls powerful brands such as Park Inn by Radison, Hotel Mission, and Park Plaza. The group has it’s headquarter in Minnesota, Belgium, Brussels, and Minneapolis. Another hotel chain is Home Inns, which is among the best-known economic brands in China. Based on the hotel rooms and the number of hotels, the group offers only those products that focus on the fast growing population of those travelers that are value conscious. Home Inns and Hotels have recently added 295 locations to its portfolio. Question 6 Secondary data is data that already exists and was collected for purposes different from the current research project (Stevens 2005). Internal secondary data that will be most useful to Marriott is the sales activity report, which contains data on any changes in the market place, territory activities, sales trends, and competition. With this data, Marriott will be in a position to forecast the trends in future sales as well as revenues for its hospitality business. This will enable the Company to appropriately formulate its marketing strategies or translate that data for other expenses such as price promotions, which would significantly boost the sales volume as well as generate increased profits. Question 7 Syndicated data is an apt example of external secondary data that has been supplied in a standardized format and provided in a common database for a fee (service fee) that is charged to subscribers (Widd & Diggines 2009). The most useful syndicated data for Marriott is the internet because marketing and financial information has been easily availed in the internet due to the increasing technological advancements. In addition, most companies have websites containing wealth of information regarding product markets and current services. The internet can be used to monitor competitors through press releases. Marriott can for example obtain relevant and useful information to discover and know more about the eating habits of a particular country. Question 8 Qualitative research is concerned with statistical inquiry methods and analysis of social phenomena. Marriott can embrace the proponents of quantitative research to penetrate the non-business travelers segments by thematising. Thematising answers the questions of what precisely ought to be studied, why it is studied and how the study will take place (Widd & Diggines 2009). Background to these questions will hence become the background for reporting, analysis, and carrying on the fieldwork. On the other hand, qualitative research looks at the subsisting relationships between variables and may instigate cause and effect in those circumstances that are highly controlled. It differs from quantitative research in that large samples, deductive approach, standardized measures, and interview instruments to obtain data for hypothesis testing often characterize the latter (Malhotra 2011). Question 9 The survey method, which is best applicable, is questionnaires, which entails a paper and pencil instrument administered to the respondents. A questionnaire will be considered because the usual questions found therein close-ended followed by a response option. However, there are those questionnaires that tend to ask open-ended questions with the aim of just exploring the answers given by the respondents to have expounded information. In today’s context, questionnaires are applicable in different survey methods according to how the questions are given. The methods may include group administered, self-administered and the household drop off. Questionnaires are ideal for asking those questions that are effective for the purposes of consumer or market research. Question 10 Marriott could make use of experimentation as the best approach to test its hypothesis whereby the participants would be divided in distinct groups such as the control group and the experimental group (Widd & Diggines 2009). The best experimental design will be Independent measures which involves two different groups of participants; one in every condition. The implication of this is that each experiment condition will include different participants thus supplying the researcher with well vast knowledge and inferences. Additionally, this should always be done by means of random allocation to ensure that all participants have equal chances of being assigned to a certain group. The advantage of independent measures experimental design method is that all participants will participate only in one condition hence will not be bored or become wise to the experiment’s requirement. Question 11 The measurement of consumer preference has been an area of interest for both the practicing and academic researchers. By application of the primary scales to accurately measure preferences will allow the marketer to have a deeper understanding of the wishes, likes, dislikes, and desires of the end consumers thus permitting a better implementation of the marketer’s tools (Iacobucci & Churchill 2010). After measuring preferences, the next common activity is segmentation, which authorizes a focused execution of the marketing mix. The scaling method allows for inter item and intra comparison of levels through measuring level utilities with the same attribute level on a similar or common interval scale. Question 12 A likert scale is also known as the summated instrument scale and means that all items making up the Liken scale are added up to produce a total score (Zikmund & Babin 2013). A likert scale is pure composite of any itemized scales. Normally, each item in the scale will have five categories whose scale values range from-2 to +2 with zero as the neutral response. Semantic scales make extensive use of words as opposed to numbers. Respondents describe their feelings towards the brands or product on scales embedded on semantic labels. Whenever bipolar adjectives are used at the ending points of these scales then they become termed as semantic differential scales. Staple scale is the easiest to understand and construct as you are given a set of values to describe a particular item. For instance, in values that range from -5 to +5 where +5 describes completely and _5 does not describe anything at all. Question 13 Sample questionnaire 1. Please circle whether or not you prefer residing in hotels when on vacation a. Yes b. No 2. With regard to your selection above, which time of the year are you most likely to go on vacation a. Summer b. Winter c. Autumn d. Other; . . . 3. Please indicate your preferred vacation a. Family vacation b. business vacation c. couples vacation d other; . . 4. What is your preferred Hotel lodging brand? a. Fairfield Inn and Suites’ b. Residence Inn Line c. Towne Place Suites d. Other; . .. . Question 14 The sampling plan that should be adopted in the survey of question number 9 is the concentration based sampling plan. In this sampling plan, the threshold concentration of concern is represented or denoted by “m” while the rejection follows if and only if the number of samples happens to have a higher concentration that exceeds the pre-set limit for all acceptable positives, known as “c”. However, the only requirement for rejection is the number of samples whose concentration is higher than “m” and greater than “c” (Zikmund & Babin 2013). Question 15 Sample size may be determined using expediences, which encompass all those items that are readily available and most convenient to allocate. A choice of small sample sizes, though necessary sometimes may result to wide confidence intervals or risks of miscalculations and errors in the testing of statistical hypothesis. Additionally, a target variance may be used for an estimate, which is to be derived from the sample that has been eventually obtained and the target for statistical test power to be applied after the samples have been collected (Iacobucci & Churchill 2010). Conclusion The success of Marriott Inc can be attributed to detailed marketing research strategies that instigate customer segregation. Different customers with varying needs are targeted and captured by being offered the hotel lodging packages that suits desires. Marketing research is essential as part of marketing and assists companies to always stay competitive and avoid the exorbitant cost of any poor decisions made because of unsound information. Marriott has plans to integrate social media strategies for all its brands (which are unique) and properties in the portal in order to amplify the buzz surrounding its customers who continue flocking in lodging options, research destinations and making travel plans. The company is also implementing capabilities in Brandtwork that will report on promotional programs as well as automation of analysis, which identify which offers, marketing campaigns and programs that are most successful (Zikmund & Babin 2013). Moreover, the measurement scales used in marketing research can be split into comparative and non-comparative scales. Comparative scales consider the respondent in signaling where a difference may arise between two or more producers, brands, services or other stimuli. An example is dollar metric and paired comparisons. Non-comparative scales are continuous rating scales, semantic differential scales, Likert scales and itemized rating scales (Iacobucci & Churchill 2010). References Iacobucci, D & Churchill, G. A 2010, Marketing research: methodological foundations. Cengage Learning Mason, OH. Jakubiak, C, Mudge, R & Hurd, 1990, Using market research to improve management of transportation systems, Transportation Research Board, and National Research Board, Washington, D.C. Malhotra, N. K, 2011, Review of marketing research. Volume 8, Volume 8, Emerald, Bingley. Mohr, J. J, Sengupta, S & Slater, S. F 2010, Marketing of high-technology products and innovations, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Nykiel, R. A 2007, Handbook of marketing research methodologies for hospitality and tourism, Haworth Hospitality & Tourism Press, New York. Patzer, G. L 1996, Experiment-research methodology in marketing: types and applications. Quorum, Westport. Stevens, R. E 2005, The Marketing Research Guide, Haworth Press Inc., New York. Wiid, J, & Diggines, C 2009, Marketing research, Lansdowne, Cape Town, Juta. Zikmund, W. G, & Babin, B. J 2013, Essentials of marketing research, Cengage Learning, Disney. Read More