Essay on Marketing Strategy and Management for the Hotel

Bundle Pricing Program

Pure bundling is the pricing strategy to implement for the hotel. Notably, this is a pricing system that exists when consumers can only buy the goods or services together (Armstrong, Adam, Denize & Kotler, 2014). For the hotels bundle pricing model, the professional massage, the spa package, and the aerobics classes are the amenities customers can purchase together. The final bundle price the hotel can offer is $149 for 30 minutes of the three amenities. I determined this amount by calculating the cost prices for each amenity from the given prices and profit margins. Notably, the sum of these cost prices ($111.55) equals the selling price (final bundle price) less the 25% profit margin in the sales price. Therefore, assuming that the price of sale is x, I divided $111.55 by 0.75 to get $149 (final bundle price). Note that, the total amount of the amenities taken separately would equal to $190 ($60 +$95+ $35). Therefore, if the price elasticity is 1.3, the packaging and pricing would increase the number of customers with the decrease in bundle price. Notably, this will just reaffirm the decision to use $149 as the package price. Furthermore, it is cheaper than the $190.

When the profit margin for this package is approximately 40%, the most appropriate target market to use for this project is the young professionals. I would offer the same package, namely the professional massage, the spa package, and the aerobics classes. Moreover, this group experience enormous stress from life in general, which makes them seek relaxation ways such as professional massages. I would use the bundle pricing approach and offer the package at the price of $186. Despite the group having a high level of price sensitivity, the pricing scenario would still attract them because it is less that the total cost of the three amenities taken separately, which is $190 ($60 +$95+ $35).

Integrated Marketing Communication Program for non-hotel Guests

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a technique that connects messages and all modes of communication. There are various levels of integration of the marking communication, namely, vertical, horizontal, external, internal, and data integration (Baker, 2014). Notably, all the integration types work distinctly in strengthening integrated communications. Developing an Integrated Marketing Communication program is beneficial in that it will nurture a competitive advantage, save money and time, and boosts sales and profits (Armstrong et al., 2014) on behalf of the hotel. Furthermore, by ensuring the integration of all marketing communication, the non-hotel guests will move through all the stages of accessing the hotel amenities while consolidating the hotels image and improving consumer relations.

The primary objective of this plan is to raise awareness of the hotels facilities and attract the non-hotel guests to join the activities and register for the hotel programs. The integrated marketing communication program will include advertising and direct marketing communication strategies. According to Winer and Dhar (2011), an advertisement is a non-personal communication about products and services on behalf of another company. An aggressive publicity is crucial to the hotels brand promotion and is the most useful technique in popularizing the amenities to the non-hotel guests. One way of using advertisement in IMC for the hotel brand is by incorporating themes and ideas that help when especially using the electronic media, for example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and digital screen ads, media platforms that the young professionals identify with the most (Winer & Dhar, 2011). Notably, the non-hotel guests will use these themes and concepts as an identity, which will then aid in creating awareness about the amenities. Another way the hotel will use the advertisement technique is through using celebrities, especially in the entertainment industry. Moreover, the millennial generation non-hotel guests tend to identify with these figures.

Apart from advertisement, the hotel will use direct marketing strategy (Baker, 2014), which will be done through developing partnerships with the surrounding restaurants and professional services that will carry the amenities on behalf of the hotel. Mainly, this strategy will reach the baby boomers. Additionally, the hotel will market directly by sponsoring entertainment events such as paddle boating. Particularly, by incorporating direct marketing, the non-hotel guests will have no other options but the hotels amenities, which will help to eliminate possible competition.

Management Concerns

Regarding the hotels image and its equity, the management should worry about the content of the message being communicated and the way it is being transmitted to the non-hotel guests. Moreover, the target consumers differ in interests and tastes. Therefore, the management should ensure that the ads balance these preferences efficiently. Additionally, the management should be concerned about the advertising budget, especially the amount of money to be invested in promoting the sales and the budgetary allocation to the marketing techniques employed. Notably, spending too much on the promotion can be a form of extravagance and a source for direct loss for the hotel. Nevertheless, spending too little may lead to lost sales and diminished visibility. Therefore, the management should compare the cost of the promotion to its desired results.

Hotels Slogan

Look good. Feel better. Live Longer.

The logic for this slogan is to incorporate the fitness amenities that the hotel offers, namely, massage, spa, aerobics packages, and paddle boating that makes consumers look good, feel better, and live long lives. The hotel incorporates this slogan in the brand image by making it the ideal representation of what the client will experience after using the service. Similarly, the hotel can include the slogan in the integrated marketing communication program by including it in all advertisement and direct marketing tools.

References

Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.Winer, R. S. & Dhar, R. (2011). Marketing management (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN# 978-0-13-607489-2

Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.