Marketing in the Hospitality Industry - Literature review Example

Literature Review Name Institution Professor Course Date Literature Review In the hospitality industry the success of a business partly depends on the number of guests visiting a given hospitality outlet at a time. Even if a hotel, restaurant, or a pub offers a state of the art service, an entrepreneur will only benefit if guests avail themselves for such services (Barrows & Powers, 2008). This has prompted many investors in the hospitality industry to embark on advertising as a way of informing potential clients on the types of service or products they offer in their outlets. This literature review aims to find out in details the effects of advertising in the hospitality industry. In order to address this issue exhaustively this paper will target to accomplish specific objectives that include to find out the effects of various types of advertising on sales, guests turnover, staff morale, and to find out the effects of running a hospitality business without advertising. There are various authors who have addressed the issue of advertising in the hospitality industry through intensive research. This literature review purposes to discuss their findings and the conclusions they came up with. It will also be vital to compare the various research methodologies they used in relation to the subject of research. Collection of data is necessary for an effective research. Some of the authors adopted qualitative method while others opted to utilize quantitative methods. The mixed method was also used by those authors who wanted their researches to have a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Taylor (2010) adopted the qualitative method where questionnaires were designed and distributed to the sampling population. In order to have a reliable study the authors sought their sampling population from people working in the hospitality industry with more attention being given to hospitality management. Questionnaires were also distributed to customers who are direct consumers of hospitality products and services. The questionnaires were designed in such a way that they could address all the objectives relating to the effects of advertising in the hospitality industry Ottenbacher (2005), who adopted the quantitative method conducted field surveys formulated to evaluate the impact of advertising in various hospitality outlets. Data collected from the quantitative method was presented through tables, charts, and graphs. One advantage with the quantitative method is that data is collected from a specified number of respondents and hence making this type of research to be accurate and reliable. The disadvantage with this kind of data collection method is that the respondents answer guided questions which limit them from giving information that is not in the questionnaires. In order to enable respondents to provide more information, Nykiel (2010) adopted the qualitative method for conducting the study. In this method face to face interviews were arranged where selected respondents were interviewed and their views recorded. Interview sheets were designed and the interviews were scheduled depending on the availability of the respondents. The interviewees were able to get more detailed information because they were accorded an opportunity to give their personal views which were also recorded by the interviewees. This method was particularly useful while collecting information from management staff in selected hospitality outlets. The mixed method which was adopted by Kumar (2010) combined personal interviews and questionnaires. A certain percentage of the respondents were subjected to interviews while others were given questionnaires to fill. It is also in this method that some field officers were stationed in some hospitality outlets where they used observation skills to gather the necessary data. According Barrows & Powers (2008) advertising in the hospitality industry contributed immensely to the growth of sales. Hotels that invested heavily in advertising experienced high turnover in guests leading to high occupancy rates. The main reason that made guests prefer hotels that advertised their services is because awareness was created and hence guests could make informed decisions on the type of destinations that ware favorable. The increase in guests’ turnover also led to the increase in the sales of food and beverages especially in hotels that had various accommodation packages such as full board, half board, or bed and breakfast. Through advertising, hospitality outlets differentiate their products from their competitors’ a situation that influences guests to visit such outlets instead of others. Hospitality institutions that did not take advertising seriously recorded low occupancy rates because clients were not aware of the types of services offered in such hotels. This was reported to be the case even in high class hotels where good products were offered. Some respondents were asked the reason why they would fail to visit classic hospitality outlets that did not advertise their products and instead visit outlets of lower quality that embraced advertising. They cited ignorance and lack of necessary information regarding the best outlets as the main reasons for their actions. Solomon & Cornell (2009) noted that customers felt recognized by hospitality outlets that advertised their products. To reciprocate the good gesture, they visited such outlets where they spent money to acquire products and services. This was contrary to what potential guests felt about hotels that never advertised their products. To them it was a sign of neglect and a ‘don’t care attitude’ and hence visiting such outlets would be a sign of desperation. Advertising produced positive results when certain cuisines were advertised to the public. When people were made aware of what such hotels offered, they turned in large numbers to have the new experience (Taylor, 2010). When restaurants produced new menus, it was of great importance to inform the public of such developments failure to which they would not achieve their sales targets. Advertising was found out to have positive impact in boosting the morale of the employees working in hospitality organizations that advertised their products. In a way it was an indication that their employers were putting effort to increase the guests’ turnover and hence enforcing job security. The study conducted by Boccard (2006) found out different types of advertising yielded different results in the hospitality industry. The choice of where to place an advertisement relied on the amount of resources that an organization was willing to spend on advertising. Another factor was the target market for specific products and services. For instance, if an entertainment outlet wished to advertise its products, the target market would be the youth. It will therefore be appropriate to use social media and magazines to advertise such services. Televisions and radios could be used to advertise to the middle-age market audience. Newspapers were considered to attract the older generation and hence ads that are directed to such people should be posted in newspapers. According to Reid & Bojanic (2009) advertising is used to inform and educate consumers about the benefits of using hotel products. Products and services in the hospitality industry are promoted as symbols of status and accomplishment since most of them do not fall under the category of basic needs. It is for this reason that celebrities and other people of reputation are used in many advertisements prompting consumers to admire their lifestyles. Another common gesture in hospitality advertising is to place product advertisements in popular movies that mostly target the youth. For instance the boy in Home Alone 2 spent some time at the Plaza Hotel in New York, sampling all the amenities and products offered at the hotel. At times cruises are also used for advertising hotel products since most of the passengers in cruise ships are tourists. The ads placed in cruise ships only target the passengers in such ships who are in most instances the wealthy type. Another form of advertising that was used in the hospitality industry was the word of mouth. When guests visit a hotel, the management or other employees may make an effort to inform the guests of all the available products for the guests to make informed choices. The advantage of this type of advertising is that it is not costly and the guests are given an opportunity to ask for clarifications. For instance when guests are having their meals, a manager may use that opportunity to inform them that there are other facilities such as conference halls and health spas that are available. The aim of advertising is to persuade consumers to purchase specific goods and services from the advertiser. There are however many critics who argue that advertisements persuades people to purchase products that they do not need (Taylor, 2010). Some could extend this argument to say that dining in a luxury hotel is not necessary especially when there other cheaper options. It is important to emphasize that hospitality services are acquired tastes that need to be satisfied as other needs. Consumers make the final decisions on the products or services they want to purchase depending on their financial status. Advertising only informs the consumers about the available choices while at the same encouraging patronage. Most of hospitality outlets advertise their products and services as away of differentiating them from their competitors. Although consumers make a choice on where to buy their products lager organizations that invest in advertising experience certain advantages. The resources spent in advertising are covered up through the gains such as increased guests’ turnover which subsequently lead to increased revenue collection. In conclusion the authors who have engaged in studies on the effects of advertising in the hospitality industry found out that advertising increased guests’ turnover which eventually led to the increase in sales of F&B products. Advertising also plays a major role in boosting the staff morale by increasing their confidence while selling products to guests. In addition, hospitality outlets that did not engage in active advertising of their products recorded low occupancy rates and sales turnover especially when such outlets were new in the market. Different types of advertisements were found out to have varying effects depending on the type of target market. It is therefore of great significance for the players in the hospitality industry to study their target market before deciding where to place their ads. References Barrows, C., & Powers, T. (2008). Introduction to Management in the Hospitality Industry. Boston: John Wiley and Sons. Boccard, N. (2006). Industrial organization: a contract based approach. California: Nicholas Boccard. Kumar, M. (2010). Marketing of Hospitality & Tourism Service. New York: Routledge. Nykiel, R. (2010). Marketing in the Hospitality Industry. London: Cambridge. Ottenbacher, M. (2005). How to develop successful hospitality innovation. New York:Sage. Reid, R., & Bojanic , D. (2009). Hospitality Marketing Management. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Solomon, M., & Cornell, L. (2009). Launch advertising and promotion in real time. London: Butterworth-Heinemann. Taylor, W. (2010). How hotel guests perceive the fairness if differential room pricing. Hawaii: Routledge. Read More