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The importance of Marketing in the Hospitality industry

Marketing will become increasingly important for hospitality businesses that are looking to grow. Learn 3 hospitality marketing strategies that you can use.

The hospitality and tourism industry is bouncing back in a big way after the pandemic, so it’s the perfect time to get the message out with some marketing strategies to boost bookings.

In 2023, creative content marketing will be more important than ever as image and video content continues to generate leads. Hotels that have a significant number of high-quality photos on their websites see a 15% increase in conversion rates, while websites with video content are 53 times more likely to come up in a Google search.

Data and Artificial Intelligence also continue to shape marketing strategy in the hospitality industry this year, while mobile bookings continue to grow in popularity and multichannel marketing expands to embrace TikTok and other trending forms of social media.

Marketing has always been essential in Hospitality with so much competition among operators.

Now as the industry reopens, it’s even more critical for hospitality businesses to invest in marketing and win back customers.

Hospitality marketing plays a crucial role in:

• Finding customers to grow a new hospitality business
• Building a loyal customer base for established brands,
• Engaging in social media conversation.

Hospitality marketing strategies for 2023

Let’s take a closer look at hospitality marketing strategies for each of these three important outcomes in 2023.

1. Use of hospitality  m arketing to grow a new business

A marketing strategy is an essential component of the business plan for any new hospitality business, no matter how big or small. Once the bricks and mortar are all in place, you need to make sure that the world knows your business exists and that it’s better than the local competition.

A typical hospitality marketing plan for a new business to expand its reach and find new customers will address key areas such as:

• Unique Selling Points (USPs) and location in the market
• Target audiences and market research on how to reach them
• Design of an excellent website with a direct booking platform
• Mobile compatibility of all your booking channels
• Social media marketing strategy
• A reputation management strategy, including policies on dealing with complaints
• Advertising strategy and budget
• Strategic Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and display ads
• Email marketing plan

For any new hospitality business, it’s essential to get your first customers through the door and find ways to encourage them to share their positive experiences online. Research shows that 52% of individuals would never book a hotel that had zero reviews.

There are many different effective marketing strategies that new hospitality businesses can adopt to try and get their important first customers through the door. For example:

• Offering rewards programs and discounts for new customers and for customers who write reviews is another way to grow your customer base and enhance online credibility.
• Marketing towards locals and engaging with local communities is an essential way to generate interest, find return customers, and encourage word-of-mouth business.

For new hospitality businesses, social media content marketing offers a low-cost, high Return on Investment (ROI) opportunity to reach much-needed audiences. Roughly 6 in 10 customers make their booking choices based on information they find online: by putting attractive content on your website, blog and social media channels, you can use SEO, hashtags and links to draw traffic to your website.

Read on for more information on social media strategies and content marketing.

2. Hospitality marketing to build a loyal customer base

Repeat customers are the backbone of the hospitality industry, keeping many hotels, restaurants and bars going no matter what’s trending. They are a steady source of regular income regardless of market fluctuations, providing on average about 40% of the revenue of a typical hospitality business. On top of that, gaining a new customer is 7 to 8 times more costly than keeping an existing one.

Loyal customers also provide an important and completely free-of-charge service; word-of-mouth advertising to their friends and family. The importance of this can’t be understated; research shows that word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing, resulting in five times more sales than paid advertising.

There’s no substitute for offering really great service, food or overall experience when it comes to building and maintaining a loyal customer base. However, marketing also plays an essential role in helping even established hospitality brands to keep customers coming back.

Some key strategies in hospitality marketing to build a loyal customer base include:

Personalisation

Personalisation across all communications channels and interactions is an important marketing strategy for building customer loyalty. In an era when booking systems are impersonal and anonymous, it’s no surprise that people want personalised service and human interaction; a full 86% of consumers surveyed report that personalisation plays a role in their purchase decisions.

Effective strategies for personalisation in hospitality can take the form of:

• Branded apps that allow for saved individual preferences and continuous communication across all channels
• Tailored experience packages and personalised advice for hotel guests
• Add-ons and options for personal choice
• Building customer profiles
• Empathetic social media engagement

Frequency and loyalty rewards programs

Programs that reward frequency and loyalty are common marketing strategies for hospitality businesses to engender customer loyalty. From a simple ‘buy ten get one free’ coffee card at a local cafe, to frequent flyer points and high-end luxury hotel rewards programs, these strategies are effective tools for customer retention. In fact, studies show that 69% of customers allow the presence of rewards or loyalty programs to influence their shopping decisions.

According to one marketing agency specialising in loyalty programs, they serve multiple functions for a hospitality brand including:

• Protect market share from competitors,
• Steal high-value customers from competitors,
• Create an opportunity cost for using a competitor.

3. Essential Hospitality Social Media Marketing

Hospitality, tourism and social media form an interdependent triad for many hospitality businesses and customers in 2023: 74% of travellers use social media while on vacation, 89% of millennials post to social media while travelling, and 85% of travellers book their trips on mobile devices.

Customers like to share their experiences, businesses like to be tagged, and potential new customers like to browse social media for tips and recommendations. It’s a win-win for everyone.

No matter what kind of hospitality business you are operating, a social media marketing strategy is compulsory. Hospitality consumers use social media to share their experiences, publish reviews, find recommendations, and express feedback directly to hospitality brands. Your business will be seen or discussed on social media, so it’s essential to engage in that conversation. An effective social media presence in hospitality leads to:

• Increased reach to new audiences
• More conversations about your brand
• Higher engagement with customers
• Better authority with ratings and review systems

There are several components to effective social media marketing for hospitality.

Content marketing across different channels : TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blog posts are all common channels for marketing content that’s engaging, personal and on-brand. It’s effective for enhancing SEO, brand visibility and recognition, generating customer loyalty and 67% of marketers report that content marketing generates leads.

Regular engagement across channels: Engaging directly with customers in conversations on social media is an essential strategy for reaching new audiences and raising brand awareness through use of hashtags, links to other users and comments. It’s also important for engaging directly with negative publicity on social media from dissatisfied customers.

Influencer marketing: With word of mouth playing a significant role in booking recommendations, influencer marketing offers hospitality businesses a high Return on Investment (ROI) marketing opportunity. For the price of a meal or a room, your business could reach hundreds of thousands of new potential customers.

Responding to feedback and reviews from customers: In 2023, every single customer is a potential critic online. According to data from ReviewTracker, over 40% of hotel guests will leave a review if they have a positive experience and 48% of guests will leave a review after a bad experience.

These reviews do have a big impact on hospitality businesses. According to one survey by TripAdvisor, 81% of people frequently or always read reviews before booking a hotel. It’s important for hospitality businesses to take a productive and proactive role when it comes to customer reviews and feedback. The best strategies for responding are: listen to feedback, apologise and respond empathetically, provide refunds in a timely manner and offer rewards for a ‘second chance’.

Are you a hospitality or tourism professional and you want to learn more about marketing for the hospitality industry? Marketing forms a core subject of many hospitality courses and degrees on offer at Torrens University.

See here for more information about studying a Bachelor of Business (Hospitality Management ).

Michelin Dapo

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117 Hospitality Management Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Hospitality management is a thriving industry that encompasses a wide range of topics and areas of study. Whether you are a student looking for inspiration for your next essay or a professional looking to delve deeper into the field, we have compiled a list of 117 hospitality management essay topic ideas and examples to help you get started.

• The role of customer service in the hospitality industry
• The impact of technology on hospitality management
• Sustainable practices in the hospitality industry
• The importance of employee training in the hospitality industry
• Trends in hotel design and architecture
• The rise of Airbnb and its impact on traditional hospitality businesses
• Food safety and hygiene in the hospitality industry
• The psychology of hospitality: understanding guest behavior
• The role of social media in marketing hospitality businesses
• The future of hospitality management: trends and predictions
• The impact of globalization on the hospitality industry
• Crisis management in the hospitality industry
• The rise of experiential hospitality: creating memorable guest experiences
• Diversity and inclusion in the hospitality industry
• The role of ethics in hospitality management
• The impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry
• The importance of branding in the hospitality industry
• The role of revenue management in the hospitality industry
• The impact of online reviews on hospitality businesses
• The psychology of pricing in the hospitality industry
• The role of food and beverage in the hospitality industry
• The rise of sustainable tourism and its impact on hospitality businesses
• The importance of strategic planning in the hospitality industry
• The role of leadership in successful hospitality management
• The impact of cultural differences on hospitality management
• The role of innovation in the hospitality industry
• The importance of customer loyalty in the hospitality industry
• The impact of changing consumer preferences on hospitality businesses
• The role of human resources in the hospitality industry
• The impact of artificial intelligence on hospitality management
• The rise of food tourism and its impact on hospitality businesses
• The importance of crisis communication in the hospitality industry
• The role of design thinking in hospitality management
• The impact of climate change on the hospitality industry
• The rise of wellness tourism and its impact on hospitality businesses
• The importance of emotional intelligence in hospitality management
• The role of storytelling in hospitality marketing
• The impact of social responsibility on hospitality businesses
• The rise of virtual reality in the hospitality industry
• The importance of customer feedback in the hospitality industry
• The role of data analytics in hospitality management
• The impact of mobile technology on the hospitality industry
• The rise of food delivery services and their impact on traditional hospitality businesses
• The importance of customer engagement in the hospitality industry
• The role of community engagement in hospitality management
• The impact of celebrity endorsements on hospitality businesses
• The rise of pop-up hospitality experiences and their impact on the industry
• The importance of risk management in the hospitality industry
• The role of innovation in hotel design and architecture
• The impact of cultural events on hospitality businesses
• The importance of networking in the hospitality industry
• The role of storytelling in hospitality management
• The impact of artificial intelligence on guest experiences
• The rise of virtual reality in hospitality marketing
• The importance of user-generated content in hospitality businesses
• The role of branding in the success of hospitality businesses
• The impact of influencers on the hospitality industry
• The rise of food tourism and its impact on local economies
• The importance of cultural sensitivity in hospitality management
• The role of sustainability in the success of hospitality businesses
• The impact of technology on guest experiences
• The rise of experiential marketing in the hospitality industry
• The importance of personalization in hospitality management
• The role of data privacy in the hospitality industry
• The impact of food trends on hospitality businesses
• The importance of social media marketing in the hospitality industry
• The role of customer feedback in improving guest experiences
• The rise of eco-friendly practices in the hospitality industry
• The importance of employee engagement in hospitality management
• The role of artificial intelligence in revenue management
• The rise of food festivals and their impact on local economies
• The importance of community engagement in hospitality management
• The role of mobile technology in enhancing guest experiences
• The impact of virtual reality on hospitality marketing
• The rise of personalized experiences in the hospitality industry
• The role of design

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Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Principles

• First Online: 09 May 2021

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• Richard George 2  

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This chapter explores some of the key issues and principles of tourism and hospitality marketing. The terms “tourism” and “hospitality” are defined and then the concepts of marketing and tourism marketing are examined. The chapter discusses how marketing applies to the field of tourism and hospitality. It also described the core principles of marketing. These include information gathering, the marketing mix, marketing planning, and customer relationship management. Further, this chapter presents some of the reasons for studying tourism and hospitality marketing. Finally, the chapter’s in-depth case study examines the concept of marketing orientation and its application to Warner Bros Studio Tour, London: The Making of Harry Pot ter .

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Baines, P., Fill, C., Rosengren, S., & Antonetti, P. (2019). Marketing (5th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

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George, R. (2021). Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Principles. In: Marketing Tourism and Hospitality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64111-5_1

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4th Edition

Hospitality Marketing Principles and Practices

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Description

Hospitality Marketing is an introductory textbook which shows readers how to apply the principles of marketing within the hospitality industry. The fourth edition contains examples and case studies exemplifying how ideas and concepts discussed within its chapters can be successfully applied to a real-life work situation, with an emphasis throughout on topical issues such as sustainable marketing, corporate social responsibility and relationship marketing. It also describes the impact that the Internet has had on both marketing and hospitality, using a variety of tools including a wide range of Internet learning activities. This fourth edition has been updated to include: New content on social media marketing, user-generated content, group-buying behaviour, franchising, internationalization, non-predictable factors affecting sales and marketing such as COVID-19, the role of marketing in creating a competitive advantage and the role of events and experiences in marketing New extensive exploration of the role of technology in marketing including the use of artificial intelligence, service robots and the metaverse to develop and deliver service and/or to measure customer experience Updated online resources including a PowerPoint deck, a test bank of questions and added links to YouTube and Instagram content New/updated international case studies including many more from Asian and African destinations This book is written specifically for students taking marketing modules within hospitality courses and is a valuable resource to promote learning.

Table of Contents

Dogan Gursoy is the Taco Bell Distinguished Professor in Hospitality Business Management at Washington State University in the School of Hospitality Business Management and the editor of Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management. He is also the recipient of the 2021 ICHRIE Lifetime Research Achievement Award and the 2019 University of Delaware's Michael D. Olsen Research Achievement Award. Dr. Gursoy is recognized as one of the leading researchers in the hospitality and tourism area. He is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 hospitality and tourism researchers in the world based on the publications in top hospitality and tourism journals. Dr. Gursoy’s research has high impact and is widely cited. Dr. Gursoy also receives frequent invitations to give keynote speeches at international hospitality and tourism conferences. He is also an active member of several industry and academia associations. Francis Buttle taught marketing to hospitality management students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the University of Surrey. He became a full professor of marketing, relationship marketing and customer relationship management in graduate schools of management in the UK and Australia. He has published 14 books and over 150 peer-reviewed articles. He continues to mentor academic colleagues, consult for businesses and not-for-profits and serve as an expert witness in legal cases. David Bowie , MBA, worked in the hospitality and tourism industry for over 30 years as a manager, a director and then as a marketing consultant. He taught undergraduate and postgraduate marketing at the School of Hospitality Management, Oxford Brookes University for 21 years. His research interests include hotel branding and destination marketing.

Critics' Reviews

"… a must have introductory hospitality marketing textbook for anyone who is new to hospitality marketing. Book clearly explains various hospitality marketing terms, concepts and strategies with clear examples, marketing insights and cases. It is full of important and relevant information for those who are new to hospitality marketing." -Professor Fevzi Okumus , CFHLA Preeminent Chair Professor, Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida. "...a well-structured and easy to understand hospitality marketing textbook full of important information for those of us who are new to the topic. The fourth edition of this introductory textbook explains you how to successfully apply the principles of marketing to a real-life work situation within the hospitality industry with examples and case studies " -Professor Dimitrios Buhalis , Bournemouth University Business School. "This book with the addition of social media marketing, user-generated content and the role of technology makes it a must-have for hospitality students and a valuable reference for academics in the relevant field." -Catherine Prentice , Professor of Marketing, University of Southern Queensland, Australia. "Dogan Gursoy, Francis Buttle and David Bowie have delivered a hospitality marketing book that satisfies my 3Cs: it is complete, current, and comprehensive. The book has everything you need to know about the subject, has lots of current examples and data, and covers each topic very thoroughly. The book is well organized, contains several great case studies, and offers its readers many thoughtful and useful insights." –Dr. Chekitan S. Dev , Singapore Tourism Distinguished Professor at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration and author of 'Hospitality Branding'. "The fourth edition is current and easy to read, a great resource for hospitality students. The theory is applicable globally, and the case studies illustrate well the points made. Each chapter is laid out clearly and lends itself to guide a weekly learning programme. Formatting the book following the customer lifecycle gives the book a clear progressive flow." -Xavier Font , Professor of Sustainability Marketing, University of Surrey, UK. "A well-established as ‘essential reading’ hospitality marketing book with completely refreshed and updated content, stronger emphasis on social media and online marketing and much wider geographic reach of destination case studies. The logical pre-encounter, encounter and post-encounter marketing structure it offers as well as the exploration of new roles of technology, artificial intelligence, service robots and the metaverse in marketing should appeal to academics, students and hospitality practitioners alike." -Alexandros Paraskevas , Chair in Hospitality Management, London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, University of West London. "This is an outstanding marketing book dedicated to the hospitality sector – full of thought-provoking insights and practical examples. The logical and accessible way it covers the whole planning, implementation and evaluation process makes this an essential text for students, instructors and practitioners seeking a comprehensive overview of hospitality marketing." -Peter Lugosi , Professor of Culture and Organisation, Oxford Brookes University.  

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Social Media Marketing in Hospitality Industry

The kraft heinz company, canada.

The Kraft Heinz Company is known for its production and distribution of delicious and nutritious food materials in Canada and other parts of the world. It is a global company, thus serving a broad customer base. The company provides high quality, great taste, and nutrition for all eating occasions, whether at home, in restaurants, or on the go. The company resulted in a merger between Kraft Foods and the Heinz branches in early 2015 (Heinz, 2015). The company’s headquarters are in Chicago at the Aon Centre and in Pittsburgh at PPG Place. Its large size and contribution to the industry make it the third-largest food and beverages company in North America and the world’s fifth-largest food and beverages company. Different factors have influenced its business success. Among them is the strategic social media marketing strategy that the company has been employing (Heinz, 2015).

Social media platforms are very effective in marketing a business. It can reach many people within seconds of posting a message. It is cost-effective, as one message cuts across to all members without incurring the unnecessary cost of producing printouts and flares. The business opportunity grows with social media marketing as customers spend a large chunk of their time online all day and night. This makes them receive notifications instantly upon being sent, they make their orders online, and delivery is initiated immediately. Quick sales are meted as a result. These platforms also help business people target the best customers for the business, pass across the correct information to these clients and help them showcase their product and brand to potential customers at the right time (Minazzi & Lagrosen, 2013).

Social media platforms have been found to help businesses grow their clientele with a small budget, as it calls for liking and subscribing to the different handles for updates. It also helps the business learn about its competitors, ensuring they apply the best strategies to stay on par. Businesses can build custom audiences, learn the buying and consumption patterns of the customers, and increase the overall return on investment as the cost of advertisement on social media platforms is less than the return, giving the business more revenue. Social media is an effective tool for building relationships with target customers, increasing awareness, and ensuring the motion of products and services (Leung et al., 2015).

The Kraft Heinz Company has applied Instagram, Facebook pages, Twitter handles, and YouTube channels to stay ahead of the marketing game to beat their competitors. The primary use of the company’s social media platforms in marketing has been to facilitate purchases, raise awareness and create loyalty among clients all over the globe. The brand broke its engagement benchmark when it called on its Twitter audience to vote for its new product ‘Mayochup’ a combination of mayonnaise and ketchup. This is evident in how the company has been loading its Instagram and Facebook pages with many fun recipes to watch and learn from (Choi et al., 2016).

When the company produces new recipes or intends to introduce a new product, these handles become the best tools to reach the clients. The step-by-step steps outlined for the recipes and the new products launched to increase awareness of the products. When there is regular communication and recipe updates, the clients feel appreciated and therefore get to stick to the company. Due to its’ higher customer service ratio, the company has to keep up with its marketing to ensure they satisfy all its clients and are at par with its competitors (Choi et al., 2016).

Even though these platforms have been used to serve the company’s growing numbers and product promotion and awareness, they have limitations. These limitations include decreased face-to-face communication skills, security, and privacy-related issues, conveying inauthentic messages, being vulnerable to exposing the company’s secrets and invading the company’s privacy, and causing face-to-face interactions to feel disconnected (Lepkowska-White, 2017). The negative energy drawn from social media platforms can tarnish the brand and cause customer disloyalty. Regarding security and privacy-related issues, the business needs to surrender its crucial and personal information online, where everyone accesses it. Competitors and hackers utilize such an opportunity to beat the business or blackmail them, thereby leading to losses. The company has many clients; thus, face-to-face communication needs to be improved. This may harm the loyalty between the company and the customers (Lepkowska-White, 2017).

As a consultant consulted to assist the business’s future social media plan, the first point is to recommend the business for its application of social media platforms as a marketing strategy. It uses clear non-repetitive language and does not copy from other companies. However, to boost information security, the business should ensure that all the handles they use are adequately protected and cannot be hacked. For customer loyalty and face-to-face communication, the company should hire and train more people to run the platforms and ensure they get the personal touch with the clients as much as possible.

Choi, E. K., Fowler, D., Goh, B., & Yuan, J. (2016). Social media marketing: applying the uses and gratifications theory in the hotel industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 25(7), 771–796.

H.J. Heinz, Kraft Foods to merge”. Institute of Food Technologists. March 25, 2015. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015

Lepkowska-White, E. (2017). Exploring the challenges of incorporating social media marketing strategies in the restaurant business. Journal of Internet Commerce, 16(3), 323-342.

Leung, X. Y., Bai, B., & Stahura, K. A. (2015). The marketing effectiveness of social media in the hotel industry: A comparison of Facebook and Twitter. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 39(2), 147-169.

Minazzi, R., & Lagrosen, S. (2013). Investigating social media marketing in the hospitality industry: Facebook and European hotels. Information and communication technologies in tourism 2014 (pp. 145-157). Springer, Cham.

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Principles of Marketing Hospitality Industry

Introduction

The hospitality industry, marketing mix, consumer behavior, competition, marketing segmentation.

Marketing is one particular field that requires players with professionalism, skill and creativity. This is because the picture and image that marketers creates about a product will by far determine the perception that targeted, potential and actual customers will hold towards it. For this reason, marketing will require the best marketers there is to push the products.

By definition, marketing is the process and activity of creating products, communicating about them, networking and delivering of products to customers. Marketing is important to both the producer and the customers because it builds and cements relationships between the two. It also helps the company to realize its organizational goals and objectives, which include serving the market and providing it with the products it needs, and at the same time, making profit. Every business-minded company seeks to make a profit as much as it seeks to satisfy its customers with the products they require (Kotler & Armstrong, 2011).

It seeks to identify the customers, satisfy them and keep them. This is achieved through advertising the products to win a customer base, satisfying them by providing them with the products they need, and keeping them through good customer relations.

Before marketing any product, research should always be carried out about the market. It is important to note that research is the backbone to the success to every marketing success. This research is based on two levels; the market research and marketing research. The market research is research based on the market that the producers seek to conquer. This includes looking into aspects such as the market size, demand levels, the market’s preferences and what kind of a product they expect to satisfy their need etc. marketing research on the other hand looks into the strategies that the marketers hope to use to sell their products, the amount of finances they need for effective marketing etc. In this marketing review, I will assess the issues affecting the Hospitality industry.

For the past two decades, the hospitality and tourism industry has been doing exceptionally well in the world market and in some of the developed and developing countries, it has been a major source of revenue that contribute to the countries’ Gross Domestic Product. A number of countries have invested majorly in the industry because the industry is their only stable source of revenue. This is common in the underdeveloped countries especially in Africa, who emphasize on tourism. The hospitality industry offers products which include foods and beverages; and services, which include products’ delivery, service, etc. This makes it a complicated industry, diverse as both service delivery and the products must be of quality and utmost professionalism. They are both important aspects for the customer’s complete satisfaction.

The hospitality industry emphasizes a lot on services, and services have the following characteristics in the hospitality industry;

• Highly perishable- services are highly perishable since they perish the moment they are utilized. For example, once a customer is served with a meal at a restaurant, the relevance of the services diminishes as soon as the waiter finishes serving the meal.
• Intangibility- services are not tangible like products. They can only be experienced and not touched.
• Heterogeneity-Services are diverse, and they cannot be repeated the same way they were offered to a client.

In the hospitality industry however, services and products have one common characteristic; they are inseparable. This is because delivering the product effectively will involve service delivery of the same.

However, as much as there has been a tremendous improvement in the hospitality and tourism industry, numerous challenges have also locked it, and this may lead to severe challenges in the future performance of the industry. I have critically addressed some of the areas covered in class worth looking at, to determine the nature and fate of the industry.

Marketing mix can be described as the ingredients or requirements necessary for marketing to take place. Traditionally, marketing has four p’s, whereby each p represents a component necessary in marketing. These p’s represent the following;

• Product-this is the manufactured commodity that the manufacturer seeks to satisfy the market with. In the hospitality and tourism industry, the product may either be tangible or intangible. The tangible ones include foods and beverages while the intangible ones include the services and experience. The product should of good quality, and capable to satisfy the market(Kotler & Armstrong, 2011).
• Price-this is the amount of money or currency that a customer has to exchange for the product. There are different pricing methods and strategies applied in the hospitality industry and all the other industries at large, depending with the value of the product. Different products will have different prices, due to quality and demand.
• Place-this is the strategic location where products are sold and purchased by the customers. In the hospitality and tourism industry, these include the hotels, lodges, guesthouses, national parks etc. this is where customers get their products and services.
• Promotion- promotion constitutes of four main aspects which are sales promotion, advertising, public relations and personal selling. Unlike the other three elements, promotion involves one-on-one interactions with targeted, potential and actual customers, and it therefore calls for sales’ personnel should have effective and impressive communication skills.

These four components of a marketing mix are important not only to the hospitality industry, but also to all other profit-bound organizations or companies. They are the basic elements to successful marketing (Kotler & Armstrong, 2011). Some hospitality organization fail to fully address all the marketing mix elements, and this has led to poor performance or failure to achieve their set goals and objectives. It is therefore important for marketers in the industry to fully address these elements, as it will form a basis for good performance and realization of set goals and objectives.

Consumer behavior is the way clients behave when buying a service or a product, due to the opinions, perceptions and views they hold concerning a given product. Fortunately, consumer behavior can be well managed, influenced and changed through marketing, for example through advertising, sales promotion and one-on-one interaction with the marketers. It takes high levels of psychological marketing to change a customer’s view about a given product, especially if there is a negative misconception about the product or if the product is new in the market (Kreitner, 2008).

Consumer buying behavior is affected by factors such as perceptions, attitudes and views. A customer behavior is defined by a number of factors which include the following;

• Prejudice-this is a negative view that a person holds towards someone or a given aspect. Prejudice brings about discrimination and it may lead to a negative view of a product by a potential customer.

The hallo effect is another customer behavior that affects clients and potential customers. By definition, this is the perception that one holds towards something based on his /her first encounter with it. It may be a positive or a negative hallo effect (Kreitner, 2008). Stereotype is another effect on customers that they hold towards products and services. This by definition is the tendency to associate one thing / aspect with another even before it happens, judging from past experiences. Stereotype in many cases has been to cause more harm than good to both the client and the company itself (Kotler & Armstrong, 2011).

Pessimism and optimism are other common aspects that customers hold. Pessimism is the negative believe and attitude to a given goal/desire, and the belief that it is not achievable. Optimism is the opposite of this. This is where an individual holds a positive attitude towards a given product.

The hospitality industry is one sensitive industry, and minimal changes in the political, social or economical scene can lead to adverse changes in the industry. Remarketing the products and services therefore is essential in such a case, and it’s one of the greatest challenges that marketers face during their career. Remarketing a product is not an easy task, and that has been one of the greatest challenges facing the industry. It is very important that a hospitality industry maintain a good reputation in its services and standards, because a client’s simple change of mind may have adverse effects on the hotel’s performance.

The hospitality industry is highly competitive, with the introduction of new technology, methods and forms of production, service and product quality, marketing etc. This competitive nature results to setting of high standards of entry into the market and this at times can be quite difficult for the new investors. This competition in the industry is further increased by the fact that consumer perceptions in the hospitality industry change very fast. This is mainly because there is an increased sharing of information in the industry not only between consumers but amongst other stakeholders such as investors. This is why most organizations in this industry strive to ensure that they always have a competitive advantage over their rivals.

It is important to note that competition in this industry varies depending on the type of clientele an establishment targets. For example, establishments targeting high income earners normally compete in terms of facilities and quality rather than price. On the other hand, those targeting low level income earners usually compete based on price. The reason given for this is that the demand for the hospitality product varies with different groups of people. The rich rarely buy food, drinks, and accommodation just to satisfy their physical needs, they buy these things also to fulfill what is expected of them as per their social status. That is why it is more important to this group of people that they get quality at a higher price as a lower price would make the product look cheap. This is one of the few factors that marketers in the hospitality industry consider in ensuring that they stay ahead of their competitors (Mondy, 2009).

The aspect of competitiveness is an advantage to clients within the industry, and this is because there is improvement in the quality of service and products.

Market segmentation involves selection of a specific target group by an organization to which the latter aims to sell its products to (Kotler & Armstrong, 2011). Segmentation in the hospitality industry is normally done using various tools of classifications such as income levels, types of tourists, and religion.

As discussed in the previous section, some hospitality industries target high income earners while others target middle level income earners. There are still those establishments that target the low level earners. This segmentation is important as it also determines the sophistication of service an establishment offers, how well defined its décor is, and even the type of facilities found at the establishment.

Segmentation based on types of tourists is mainly done by determining the reason why a person has decided to eat out. For example some people may go to a hotel for a honeymoon while others may go to a hotel for business. It is important to note that the expectations of these categories of tourists are different in terms of what they expect to get out of their transaction with the establishment. Establishments in this industry are hence supposed to identify which type of tourists they wish to target.

Religion is a major part of human life and it is in accordance to this common knowledge that some hospitality establishments decide to target specific religions in their marketing ventures. For example a hotel may target Hindus as its main clientele as they have special food which is different from other religions. This is advantageous since some religions have some food they don’t eat based on the argument that it would make them unclean. Hence targeting a specific religion gives it reassurance that the food and services offered at the establishment are in accordance to the religion’s beliefs and values (Mondy, 2009).

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2011). Principles of Marketing . 14 th Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Print.

Kreitner, R. (2008). Organiational Behavior: key concepts, skills and best practices . New York: McGraw-Hill. Print.

Mondy, R. (2009). Human Resource Management . 11 th edition. New Jersey: Prentice hall. Print.

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Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Strategies Essay

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The two sites www.claritas.com and www.census.gov give important information which can help us in forming a marketing strategy customized to a particular geography. The Claritas site gives important information about the economic levels of the people of a particular area and their preferences in regards to the newspapers and magazines they read, TV channels they watch, and cars they drive. All these are important information that can help us in forming a targeted marketed strategy. The census site gives demography-related information which can help us further understand the information we get from the Claritas site. This information includes social, economic, and housing characteristics of particular geography and gives exact numbers. This information is useful in deciding how important a particular area is for marketing a particular product or service.

In general, there were no surprises on either of the sites regarding the demography of my zip code, 55408. According to the Claritas site, this is an ethnically diverse neighborhood with a high concentration of African Americans and Hispanics. These people come from lower to lower-middle-income households and most of them have not gone to college. The Claritas site has three different segmentation systems for profiling different demography. These systems are Prizm NE, Psycle NE and Connexions NE. According to the Prizm NE segmentation system, this geography has people belonging to the “Big City Blues”, “Bohemian Mix”, “Low rise living”, “Urban Achievers” and “young Digerati”. The “big city blues” and “low rise living” segments come from low-income families and consist mainly of singles and single parents looking for affordable housing, who prefer both ethnic and mainstream media products, prefer watching TV news and daytime programming, listen to African-American and Spanish radio and shop at high-end department stores. The “urban achievers” come from lower-middle-income groups, and are young below 35 years of age. These people are often foreign-born speak a language other than English. The “Bohemian Mix” segment is an upper-middle-income group and includes a wide range of people from singles to couples to families and from students to professionals. The “Young Digerati” segment has an upscale income with high income-producing assets. People in this segment are ethnically mixed and highly educated. Thus, according to the “Prizm NE” segment system, this zip code is highly diverse and includes people from all walks of life, from the poorest to the richest.

However, according to the “Psycle NE” segmentation system, this zipcode mainly consists of people from the poorest income groups. According to this system, the most affluent people living in this zip code have mid-scale incomes and are financially unsophisticated. This can be explained to a certain extent by the census.gov site. The site gives the exact number of people in each income group according to the 2000 census. According to this site, in 2000, most people in this zip code had incomes below $50,000 and the median income was $34,216. However, the geography also had a handful of rich people with about 195 households having incomes above $200,000. This is quite surprising since the same geography had 744 families living below the poverty level.

The two sites generally give completely different information about the people of a particular geography. While the Claritas site gives an idea about the trends and preferences of the people by diving them into various economic groups, the census site gives the exact number of people in different economic groups and does not give any information about their preferences. The one thing which both the sites have in common is that they both give an idea about the median income and the demography of a particular zip code.

The information derived from the two sites can help a company come up with the right marketing mix. Of the two sites, the Claritas site is particularly helpful because it does not only tell us about the income levels of the people but also their preferences with regards to TV channels, newspapers, and magazines. The site also gives an idea about how various people prefer to spend their money. This information is particularly useful for coming up with a targeted marketing mix. The exact numbers and percentages given on the census site can help a company decide which particular demography to target in different geographies. While the census site does not tell us anything about the consumer behavior social, economic and housing characteristics are important indicators that can help a company make an educated guess about the preferences of people in a particular zip code. In this regard, the Claritas site is much more helpful since it gives details about various preferences of people belonging to different segments. This information can be extremely useful when deciding whether to market a particular product in an area, what promotional strategy to use, how to price it, and even whether to sell a particular product in a given area. For example, no amount of promotion would help sell Mercedes in a low-income area. Thus the information is useful in helping companies make informed decisions regarding the marketing mix.

As far as the reliability and usefulness of the two sites are concerned, the census site is highly reliable since these figures are based on an actual census of the people. However, it has limited usefulness. The Claritas site is not as reliable but it gives a lot more information about consumer behavior and hence is much more useful. One limitation of the Claritas site is that it generalizes the behavior of people in each segment and this can be sometimes misleading for a company.

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IvyPanda. (2021, December 14). Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Strategies. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tourism-and-hospitality-marketing-strategies/

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IvyPanda . "Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Strategies." December 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tourism-and-hospitality-marketing-strategies/.

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Black Art Week in San Francisco Bay Area Is in the Works for the Fall

The executive director of the Museum of the African Diaspora says the goal is to “celebrate the rich Black art landscape” of the region.

By Jori Finkel

When Monetta White was a co-owner of the San Francisco restaurant 1300 on Fillmore a decade ago, she participated in the city’s restaurant week, promoting the local food scene. Now, as the executive director of the Museum of the African Diaspora downtown, she is organizing a celebration of Black visual culture, called “Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week,” to run Oct. 1 through Oct. 6.

“For me personally, as a native San Franciscan, the one thing I always look back on is the importance of the Black community in the city’s art, music and hospitality,” said White, who became the museum’s director in 2019 after a brief period on the board, and who brings her marketing savvy to the job.

The week is “a way to create energy and celebrate the rich Black art landscape in the Bay Area,” she added, explaining that the initiative extends beyond San Francisco to recognize “Oakland’s longstanding influence as a center of Black arts and culture.”

“It’s more important than ever to build a unified Bay Area art scene,” she said, to counter what she calls the “doom and gloom” headlines that have plagued the region of late.

White said she had the idea of starting a local Black arts week, which is rare in the United States, after noticing how much was already happening around the time of the Museum of the African Diaspora’s fund-raiser, the Afropolitan Ball, on Oct. 5. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, for example, has a Kara Walker commission , “Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine),” on display. And in late September, the San Francisco Arts Commission will unveil the Berkeley-based artist Lava Thomas’s long-awaited public sculpture of the poet Maya Angelou . (The work had originally been rejected by city officials in what was widely seen as a political blunder.)

White is now reaching out to other museums, artists and their galleries to see if Nexus can highlight their activities or encourage them to organize events. She has already lined up a few artists to host open studios that week: In Oakland, there is Rashaad Newsome , an interdisciplinary artist who has used A.I. technology in his futuristic performances and art making; and in San Francisco, Ramekon O’Arwisters , known for combining materials like jagged ceramic shards, fabric and zip ties into lush, spiky sculpture , will participate.

The Museum of the African Diaspora will also be opening a new show of contemporary art and design, “Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors & Radical Black Joy,” on Oct. 2.

Jori Finkel is a reporter who covers art from Los Angeles. She is also the West Coast contributing editor for The Art Newspaper and author of “It Speaks to Me: Art that Inspires Artists.” More about Jori Finkel