Marriott International Inc Marketing Analysis - Case Study Example

Marriott Market Research Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Executive Summary Marriott International Inc. is a leading worldwide lodging industry. The company is in the hospitality industry and it has more than 3,000 facilities in over 68 countries where it operates. The company boasts itself for quality customer services facilitated by its popular brand across the globe. It has received several achievement awards due to its successful operations and management of its subsidiaries in many countries. Although the hotel has made great achievements in the recent past, the 2007/08 financial crisis impacted negatively on its operations and the entire lodging industry since there was a sharp decline in leisure travel. However, despite the sharp decline, the company’s profitability increased steadily in 2010 as a result of launching two of its new brands. In 2015, Marriott International Inc. Intends to double its profits especially on Europe and forecast an increase in its net revenue through cutting on its costs in relation to its properties. The Company boasts for its flagship Marriott brand that is their full-service hotels and resorts. The company has its brand over 500 locations across the globe and they pride themselves due to Marriott quality and name. The company has its majority of its market share in the United States of America. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 2. Marketing Research 4 3. Management-Decision Problem 5 4. Marketing Research Problem 5 5. Research Design 6 6. Market Shares 6 7. Internal Secondary Data 7 8. Syndicated Data 7 9. Qualitative Research 7 10. Method of surveying 8 11. Experimental Design 8 12. Primary Scales 9 13. Likert, semantic differential, and Stapel scales 10 13.1. Likert scale: 10 13.2. Sematic differential scale: 10 13.3. Staple Scales 11 14. Questionnaire 12 15. Sampling plan 14 16. Determination of sample size 15 17. Conclusion 15 1. Introduction Marriott International Inc. is a renowned worldwide lodging industry. It operates various types of brands that serve business travellers, as well as middle class leisure travellers. One of its most popular and reputable brand is Courtyard brand with more than 800 global locations. Also the Springhill Suites, the Ritz-Carlton, the Fairfield Inn and the Residence Inn, that is designed to have affordable rates for extended stays. The middle-level brands are well equipped with facilities such as access to internet and mouth watering breakfast in the morning that is highly appreciated by mid-level travellers. Although TownPlace Suites has been considered as a mid-level facility, it is purposively intended for longer-stay visitors. Similarly, it has many brands meant to capture the luxury market segment. For instance, brand termed as J.W. Marriott takes controls of more than 37 properties with an effort to compete favourably with other companies in the same business dealing with high-end segment. Similarly, the Renaissance hotel brand established in 1997 serves the same customer segment (Malhotra, 2012). In 2009, the company introduced two new luxury brands; the Edition and the Autograph that seeks for quality and fashionable hotel experience, to capture a greater market share for the company products and beat off competition in the hospitality industry. 2. Marketing Research Marketing research can play a significant role in the formulation of better marketing strategies for Marriott. Through the marketing research, the Marriott International can respond adequately to demographics, as well other changes occurring in the market. For example, the ever increasing number of the older population that may have difficulties in travelling may opt to book Marriott’s facilities on “Senior Living Services” that serve the retirees who might require special types of care. Similarly, through the marketing research, Marriott can formulate a multi-segment marketing strategy that can allow customers choose its products and brands according to their needs, tastes and preferences. This strategy can also help the company in dealing with issues related to the development of product life cycle. Also, marketing research has indicated other important attributes that would help Marriott in its strategies. For example, it needs to budget for business or family traveller searching for convenient and affordable location. Therefore, convenient location becomes another strategy that helps in building its brand name (Feinstein & Stefanelli, 2008). 3. Management-Decision Problem In its effort to penetrate the United States’ non-business travellers segment, Marriott may be faced with management-decision problem on diversification of its brands to meet the ever growing and complicated customer needs, tastes and preferences. The management will be supposed to develop a brand that not only targets travellers but also non-travellers in the US. Since the company mostly caters for travellers, there would be a need for increasing its facilities to capture a greater market share (Rutherford & O'Fallon, 2006). 4. Marketing Research Problem In its effort to diversify its brands to cater for non-travellers in the United States, Marriott has to conduct a market survey in US to determine how effective its brand strategy would be for non-travellers’ segment. The company should diversify its brands to serve different market segments, as opposed to creating competition for each brand thus increasing its clientele base for both travellers and non-travellers. Each brand would perform better if aligned with a particular market segment in order to enhance consumer loyalty. That However, the problem in the market study would arise in ensuring that each market is independent of the other and forms part of the group in brand portfolio (Malhotra, 2012). 5. Research Design Marriott should adopt qualitative research design in order to assess its brand for different markets so as to develop appropriate market strategies for the service of its customers. Qualitative research design should include focus groups, interviews and surveys to determine the quality of its products and brands to its different marker segments. The research design should target both the travellers and non-travellers to increase its market share in the hospitality industry. Similarly, it would be helpful in capturing a greater market share through responding to customers’ feedback and offering them with high quality products, brands and services (Acobucci & Churchill, 2010). Additionally, appropriate research design will ensure its profitability as it will be able to respond adequately to numerous customer needs, tastes and preferences. 6. Market Shares Brand Number of Rooms Number of properties 30th June 2013 15th June 2012 Vs. 15th June 2012 30th June 2013 15th June 2012 Vs. 15th June 2012 Marriott Hotels 63,922 62,033 1,889 208 202 6 Renaissance Hotels 25,090 24,231 859 77 75 2 Autograph Collection 1,693 676 1,017 13 6 7 Courtyard 22,119 21,191 928 113 108 5 Fairfield Inn & Suites 1,716 1,568 148 14 13 1 Spring Hill Suites 229 229 _ 2 2 _ Residence Inn 3,229 3,028 210 23 22 1 TownePlace Suites 278 105 173 2 1 1 Marriott Executive Apartments 4,295 3,846 449 27 24 4 The Ritz-Carlton 12,655 12,093 562 42 40 2 7. Internal Secondary Data There is a need for the collection, interpretation, as well as the analysis of internal secondary data in order to make meaningful business decisions. Marriott should refer to already conducted surveys and focus groups in order to investigate various needs, tastes and preferences for extended-stay travellers. The secondary data refers to the already collected information that aids the management in making appropriate decisions. For instance, some of the needs that can be identified through the use of internal secondary is to cater for the needs of extended- stay travellers (Malhotra, 2012). 8. Syndicated Data Syndicate data is collected by the service provider and consists of a database of single scanned transactions that have been made across multiple purchase locations. Once the data is obtained, the marketing managers manipulate it using statistical packages. The syndicated data is then made available to marketing managers through modem dial-up connection or via direct network connection. Therefore, Marriott hotel may make use of scanners once the travellers book their facilities or check-in in their hotels. Hence, Marriott will be able to collect relevant market data for its potential customers (Acobucci & Churchill, 2010). 9. Qualitative Research Techniques of qualitative research design that will be employed by the company will involve surveys, market interviews and focus groups to penetrate the United States’ non-travellers marketing segments. Through the use of these methods of data collection, the management will be able to identify the needs for no-travellers in the US and develop suitable strategies that will address identified needs. After identification of the needs for non-travellers through surveys and interviews, the management may opt to develop facilities that would accommodate non-travellers. Most of the hotel’s strategy targets the needs for travellers as compared to those of non-travellers hence there is a need to strike a balance between the two types of customers. In the US the hotel should seek to diversify its brands to meet the ever demands for non-travellers (Brace, 2008). 10. Method of surveying The questionnaire method should be conducted to determine consumer preferences. Questionnaires are important in gathering responses in a more standardized way more than other survey methods such as interviews. For example, with information obtained from questionnaires Marriott found that his customers desired a luxury-class apartment with higher value. Marriott was able to respond to the findings and added higher-class apartments with amenities of high value. Therefore, Marriott was able to respond to consumer tastes and preferences, for those who needed luxurious wants. Indeed, questionnaires are certainly objective. In general, questionnaires are used to collect information in a relatively quick way. Additionally, information can be gathered from a wider portion of the group. For example, Marriott was able to gather information from wider varieties of consumer such need of more space to conduct meeting, residence Inn line for extended stay and TownePlace Suites for expensive extended stay (Malhotra, 2012). 11. Experimental Design Marriott makes of use of experimentation by manipulating the causal variables such as price and quality in a controlled environment (interstates and highways) while carrying out market research. Marriott began segmentation of the hospitality industry by targeting travellers who are price-sensitive. For example, a traveller on a budget not only considered affordability (price), but also the quality (conveniences) of the service location. Therefore, experimentation helped Marriott to know that differentiation depended on two causative variables, price and quality of the service. Marriott used experimentation to penetrate in market and competitor activity (Acobucci & Churchill, 2010). I would recommend price experimentation design because most of the consumer’s first factor to consider is affordability of the services being offered. When prices are affordable, other factors such as conveniences and quality are brought into consideration. Prices of services are influenced by quality of the services. Therefore, price experimentation is the most appropriate experimentation design. 12. Primary Scales There several three primary measuring scales which can be used to determine consumer preferences and related behaviour for hotel chains. Firstly, a nominal scale is the lowest statistical measurement scale that can be used to categorize data without any structure or order. Hotel chains can use nominal scale to quality research data which possess YES-NO status (Brace, 2008). Statistically, nominal scales are carried out using mode and cross-tabulation incorporated into chi-square method. The second primary scale is an ordinal scale that involve ranking of data. Ordinal scale may use non-parametric statistical methods to come up with an ordinal scale of consumer preferences for hotel chains. These non-parametric statistics include mode, median, correlation of rank order and non-parametric analysis of standard deviation and variances. The third primary scale is an interval scale which is the standard survey for rating consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This scale uses parametric statistics such as mean, standard deviation, regression, factor analysis, and variance analysis (Acobucci & Churchill, 2010). 13. Likert, semantic differential, and Stapel scales 13.1. Likert scale: In Likert scale, respondents tick either the level of agreement or disagreement about the stimulus of products or services as indicated in the model Likert scale below: agree (strong) agree neither agree nor disagree disagree disagree(strong) 1 high quality vacation services 5 4 3 2X 1 2 poor quality vacation services 5 4 3 2X 1 3 I do like to use hotel chains 5 4 3X 2 1 The analysis is done by taking item one by one and summation of total calculated and presented on the above profile based analysis. The categories are assigned their totals based on their level of agreement or disagreement (Brace, 2008). 13.2. Sematic differential scale: It is based on rating scale from 1 to 7 with 7 indicating the strongest indicator of bipolar sides with semantic meaning as shown. Quality services --:--:-X-:--:--:--:--: Weak Unreliable services --:--:--:-X-:--:--:--: Reliable Modern services --:--:--:--:--:-X-:--: Old-fashioned The negative indication may be on the left or at the right side. The scale controls the tendency of respondents with either very negativity or very positivity. The scores on the scale can be represented as either -5 to +5 or from 2 to 6 scales (Brace, 2008). 13.3. Staple Scales This is a rating scale with twelve categories from -6 to +6, without a zero as neutral point. This rating scale is usually displayed in a vertical way (Acobucci & Churchill, 2010). MORRIOT HOTEL CHAINS   +6 +6 +5 +5 +4 +4 +3 +3 +2 +2X +1 +1 HIGH QUALITY SERVICE POOR SERVICE -1 -1 -2 -2 -3 -3 -4X -4 -5 -5 -6 -6 The data is analyzed in the same way as sematic rating scale. 14. Questionnaire Dear Customers, Marriott Hotel Chains wish to investigate consumer preferences for hotel services when on vacation to help us serve you better. Please help us with relevant information by taking your valuable time to answer the following forms where appropriate. Section A: General Information (Please tick as appropriate: Note; the section named “code” should be left blank for the purpose of data analysis) Concept Response Code 1. Gender a) Male [ ] b) Female [ ] 2. Age (years) a) 18-30 [ ] b) 31-40 [ ] c) 41-50 [ ] d) 50 Years and above [ ] 3. Marital Status a) Married [ ] b) Single [ ] c) Divorced [ ] d) Widowed [ ] 4. Educational Level a) Primary Level [ ] b) Secondary Level ‘[ ] c) Tertiary Level [ ] d) Any Other [ ] e) None [ ] 5. What is your profession? ________________ 6. How often do you travel outside your country?­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________________ SECTION B (This section contains statement on what you think about hotel vacation services) Statements Response Code 1. Services a). Do you think our hotels are offering services that fit your needs? b). Do think that services hotel is offering are of high quality? c). Do you think that you are being over-changed for services we are offering? d). Do you feel like you can use our Hotel services again? 2. Feedback a). Have you ever raised complaints about our hotels? b). Do you think your complains are well taken care of? Yes [ ] No [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] 3. employees a) Do hotel employees serve you well? b). Do you think our employee have necessary skills and knowledge to serve you better? Yes [ ] No [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] 15. Sampling plan The sampling plan that should be adopted for the survey is the concentration-based sampling. This sampling plan will decrease the chances of rejection of certain lots without necessarily reducing the accuracy of the findings. The rejection of a sample finding is restricted to a limited range of demarcation (Brace, 2008). 16. Determination of sample size The sample size can be calculated by first determining the four variables: population size, confidence level, marginal error, and standard deviation. The variable values determined are inserted in the equation below. Where population score= confidence level- z sore (Acobucci & Churchill, 2010). 17. Conclusion In conclusion, Marriott International Inc. is a global lodging industry, with a strong reputation all over the world. For every business, customers are the most important resources that ensure the company’s prosperity. Therefore, Marriott must carry out a comprehensive market research to identify the needs of its clients. Through the use of qualitative research design, the company will be able to address and respond quickly to ever changing and complicated needs, tastes and preferences of the customers. Similarly, it must diversify its brands to target a large number of customers especially the United State’s non-business-travellers market segment. References Acobucci, D., & Churchill, G. A. (2010). Marketing research: Methodological foundations. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Brace, I. (2008). Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research. London: Kogan Page. Feinstein, A. H., & Stefanelli, J. M. (2008). Purchasing: Selection and procurement for the hospitality industry. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Malhotra, N. K. (2012). Basic Marketing Research: Integration of Social Media. Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Rutherford, D. G., & O'Fallon, M. J. (2006). Hotel Management and Operations. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Read More