hotel management

Chapter 22 Hotel Marketing Management (2)
To analyze and compare the hotel competition, we can start from two aspects. First, start from analyzing the product-service combination of each hotel to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the hotel's competitors in terms of facilities and services.The competitive advantages and disadvantages of hotels can be reflected from the hotel's location, facilities, services, prices, atmosphere, parking lot, architectural style, surrounding environment, etc.; secondly, analyze and understand the marketing activities and sales of the respective hotels.Only by carefully analyzing the above situations can marketers know which marketing activities are carried out by the hotel and competitors and the effects of various activities, so as to grasp the competition situation.

[-]. Determine the competitive advantages and disadvantages of the hotel
From the above competition situation analysis, marketing personnel can easily analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the hotel in the competition, and then know yourself and the enemy.

[-]. Determine hotel competition strategy

The ultimate goal of hotel competition analysis is to plan the hotel's effective competitive strategy and competitive position through analysis.Usually, hotels competing in the same target market are in different competitive positions due to their different marketing purposes, resources and strengths, and each hotel has to adopt different competitive strategies due to their different competitive positions.

In hotel competition, there may usually be four kinds of hotels with different competitive positions, which are respectively market leaders, market challengers, market followers and market niche players.These four competitive positions can be aimed not only at a hotel, but also at a certain operating project of the hotel such as catering and guest rooms.Products of the same hotel may be in different competitive positions and adopt different strategies for different situations.

1. Market leaders and strategies
A market leader refers to a hotel that occupies a leading position in the market competition for related products, and is generally recognized by its peers.to maintain its competitive advantage.To maintain its dominant position, three measures are often adopted: first, to expand market demand, including specific measures such as building new guest rooms, opening up new uses for products, and increasing customer usage of products; Make unremitting efforts in product innovation and service improvement, and at the same time seize the opponent's weakness and take the initiative to attack; third, seize the market, the market leader strives to increase the market share level through the adjustment of the hotel's marketing mix strategy.

2. Market challengers and their strategies

A hotel in a subordinate position in the market challenges its competitors in order to seize a dominant position in the market, that is, a market challenger.The strategic goal of challengers is often to increase market share, and they adopt various offensive strategies to attack market leaders or those with their own strength.Usually the challenger should design a set of strategies, a set of overall strategies, so as to improve their market position.However, not all of the next-best hotels are worthy challengers.If you are not fully sure, you should not rush to attack the market leader, and it is not a bad idea to act as a follower.

3. Market followers and their strategies

Hotels that are content with their secondary status in the market and seek as much profit as possible under the coexistence state are market followers.Unlike market challengers, it does not launch an attack on the dominant player, but follows the dominant player and consciously maintains a coexistence situation.The strategies commonly used by followers include close following, distance following and selective following.

4. Market Niche Players and Their Strategies

In the hotel industry, pay attention to the small parts of the market, and obtain maximum benefits through professional management in these small markets, that is, hotels that survive and develop in the cracks of large companies are market niche players.This favorable market position is called "niche" in Western marketing.The so-called market niche is to choose the most favorable position and get the most benefit in this position.In fact, this market position makes sense not only for small businesses, but also for smaller divisions within certain larger hotels.They often try to find one or several safe and favorable market positions.Under normal circumstances, it can be regarded as the most advantageous market position if it has sufficient market potential and purchasing power, and has the ability to continue to grow, but is not attractive to major competitors. The company has the ability to occupy and rely on its own reputation to fight against major competitors. .

Seventh (Section) How to conduct hotel market analysis

[-]. Hotel Market Segmentation

Hotel market segmentation refers to subdividing the entire market into several sub-markets with the same needs according to the differences in consumer demand for hotels, so that hotels can effectively allocate and use hotel resources and carry out various marketing activities.

Through market segmentation, hotels can distinguish and determine those guest groups with similar consumption needs and consumption characteristics.As we all know, it is impossible for a hotel to meet the needs of all tourists at the same time.Therefore, hotel managers must carefully determine which part of the market the company needs to attract.

(1) Geographic segmentation.That is, the hotel market is divided according to geographical factors. This is a traditional method that is still commonly used today, such as the US market, Japanese market, and Korean market.

(2) Population breakdown.That is, it is divided by demographic factors such as age, gender, marital status, family size, income, occupation, education, belief, race, and nationality.

(3) Subdivision of psychological behavior.That is, market segmentation is carried out according to psychological and behavioral factors such as customer life attitude, consumption habits and personality, purchase timing, benefit seeking, usage status, usage frequency, and loyalty.

(4) Segmentation of hotel users.That is, the market is divided according to factors such as tourism purpose, group size and tourist destination.

(5) Segmentation of hotel buyers.That is, it is divided by the type of intermediary who only buys but does not use hotel products.

[-]. Select the target market of the hotel
The determination of the hotel's target market The determination of the hotel's target market is generally.Analyzing and evaluating the hotel segment market is the key to selecting the target market. Generally, the following aspects are analyzed:
(1) Analyze and measure the sales volume and increase and decrease trends of various market segments of the hotel;
(2) Assess the profitability of market segments;
(3) Assess the changing pattern of market segment demand;

(4) Analyze the hospitality capability of the hotel for market segments;

(5) Analyze the hospitality capabilities of competitors for market segments.

The evaluation market segment includes qualitative evaluation and quantitative evaluation.The former refers to the analysis of the nature of each market segment, such as the consumption attitude and value concept of consumers in the market segment, the development trend and growth situation of the market segment, and the evaluation of experts.After qualitative analysis, hotel marketers can roughly determine the nature of each market segment, but quantitative evaluation of each market segment is still required.The latter refers to the use of specific quantitative standards to measure and predict the actual number of customers and potential customers of each market segment.At this time, the statistical graphic method is generally used, and the average analysis method, cross-influence analysis method, square root analysis method and regression analysis method can also be used to conduct quantitative analysis on each market segment.The measurement indicators that can be used for market quantitative analysis include market demand, sales volume, market share, turnover, market growth rate, etc.

After evaluating each market segment of the hotel, hotel marketers can basically identify the target market they should operate.However, when finalizing the target market, hotel marketers must also use the following five principles to measure the market segments that may become the hotel's target market, so as to finally determine the target market.The five principles are Testability, Accessibility, Massiveness, Persistence, and Preventability.

(1) Measurability, which means that the target market determined by the hotel can be measured by various quantitative indicators and units.

(2) Accessibility, which means that the hotel's marketing methods can effectively reach the target market determined by the hotel.

(3) Massiveness, which means that the target market determined by the hotel must have sufficient potential capabilities.

(4) Persistence, which means that the target market determined by the hotel can be maintained for a long time.

(5) Defensibility means that the hotel can guarantee sufficient competitiveness in the determined target market and be in an invincible position in the competition.

Eighth (Section) How to Make a Hotel Marketing Plan
Hotel marketing plan refers to a written document used to guide various marketing activities of the hotel within a certain period of time.Marketing plans can be divided into long-term, medium-term and short-term plans according to the length of the planning period.A formal and effective hotel marketing plan has the following aspects.

[-]. Hotel Marketing Mission
The hotel marketing mission refers to the guiding outline of the marketing decision made by the hotel or hotel group, which is concise and highly generalized.Based on the analysis of the marketing situation, make a high-level summary and conclusion on the past, present and future of the hotel's market, products, competition, consumer behavior, etc.Because of this characteristic of the marketing mission, it can also be called an "expert summary".

[-]. Hotel Marketing Objectives
Hotel marketing goal refers to a kind of ideal state that the hotel wants to achieve within a certain period of time.This ideal state can be expressed in qualitative and quantitative ways, so hotel marketing objectives can be divided into two categories: qualitative objectives and quantitative objectives.Qualitative goals usually include goals such as market image, service quality, and market competitive position; while quantitative goals usually include hotel market share, profit, operating income, return on investment, room occupancy rate, sales volume, average room price, etc.For example, a five-star hotel once set several goals for itself in 1992: "Become the No. The average occupancy rate reaches 60%, the number of rooms for rent reaches 10000, and the annual average room rate reaches 120 US dollars."Obviously, the hotel's marketing goals include both qualitative goals (market image) and quantitative goals (such as sales, etc.).

[-]. Development process of hotel marketing plan

The formulation of the hotel marketing plan is a complete and systematic process, which requires the hotel decision-makers and various departments to invest a lot of time, manpower and expenses to make a deliberate analysis and deliberation on the past, present and future conditions of the hotel. In this way, the marketing plan formulated has real guiding significance.The establishment of a hotel marketing plan often has the following four steps.

1. Determination of hotel marketing mission

The marketing plan must first have a content summary, that is, a concise and general description of the main marketing objectives and measures, that is, a summary of the hotel's marketing mission.

2. Confirmation of hotel marketing opportunities and threats

The second main content of the marketing plan is the analysis of the main threats and opportunities faced in marketing.Marketing threat refers to the unfavorable factors existing in the marketing environment for hotel marketing; "opportunity" refers to the favorable factors in the marketing environment for hotel marketing.In addition to understanding the marketing opportunities and threats faced by the hotel, hotel management must also evaluate them. The marketing threat can be evaluated from two aspects: one is the potential severity, that is, how much the hotel will suffer when the threat becomes a reality. ; The second is whether it is possible to happen, that is, the possibility of it becoming a fact.Marketing opportunities can also be evaluated from two aspects: one is potential attractiveness, that is, whether this opportunity can bring profits to the hotel; the other is the possibility of success.Whether a marketing opportunity can become a real profit opportunity for the hotel depends on whether it meets the hotel's goals and resource conditions.

3. Formulation of hotel marketing goals

The core of the marketing plan is the marketing target, which is formulated on the basis of analyzing the current situation of hotel marketing and speculating on possible opportunities and threats in the future.Marketing objectives allow hotel operators to understand the general direction of the hotel's struggle, facilitate the division of labor within the organization, and facilitate the measurement of the results of marketing plan execution.Therefore, without marketing objectives, the subsequent work in the planning process is impossible to talk about.

4. Conception of hotel marketing strategy

According to the above-mentioned several steps of planning work, operators can conceive various assumptions to achieve the goal around the marketing mix factors such as product, price and promotion.This work is actually a discussion of various hypothetical marketing situations.Therefore, the middle and high-level managers of the hotel who participate in the formulation of the marketing plan have the responsibility to put forward their own opinions based on various assumed situations and try to brainstorm as much as possible.

[-]. Screening and evaluation of marketing strategies

The evaluation of various possible marketing strategies is to select the best strategy, which can be easily included in the marketing plan, and it is also conducive to ensuring the realization of the hotel's marketing goals as scheduled.Marketing planners should list several more objective strategy measurement standards in advance, such as the funds, time, energy, or difficulty of strategy implementation required by the strategy, and then evaluate and measure various possible strategies one by one.

[-]. Specific arrangements for the marketing action plan

The process of transforming marketing strategies into specific marketing activities is the main task of this step.When arranging a marketing action plan, each specific content of the action plan should be listed in a detailed program table for easy execution and inspection.

[-]. Marketing budget
When preparing a hotel marketing budget, the revenue side should state the expected sales volume (such as the average number of days a room is rented out per year) and the average price (such as the average room price or per capita consumption of restaurants, etc.).On the side of the budget expenditure, it is necessary to explain the costs and expenses that should be invested in carrying out various marketing activities.The difference between income and expenditure is the estimated profit or loss.The marketing budget should be approved by the hotel's decision makers. Once the budget is approved, it becomes an important basis for the hotel's marketing activities.

[-]. Adjustment and information feedback during the implementation of the marketing plan

This is the last part of the marketing plan and is the control over the execution of the marketing plan.The most common situation is that each department of the hotel decomposes the goals and budgets stipulated in the marketing plan by month or quarter, so that the upper management of the hotel can conduct effective supervision and inspection, and urge the departments that have not completed their tasks to improve their work, so that the hotel marketing plan can be successfully completed. ensure.

Ninth (Section) How to formulate hotel marketing mix
Marketing mix refers to the comprehensive use of various marketing methods that the hotel company can control.Hotels must effectively carry out marketing campaigns for different environmental factors.The best combination of various marketing methods that can be controlled by the enterprise, namely products, pricing, sales channels and promotions, so that they cooperate with each other and play a comprehensive role.

Marketing mix has the characteristics of controllability, dynamics and complexity.

The controllability of the hotel's marketing mix means that the above-mentioned market mix factors are factors that the hotel can control.That is to say, hotels can determine their hotel product structure, decide and select marketing channels and sales prices, and choose various promotional methods according to market segmentation, market competition conditions, etc., as well as consumer needs and desires.However, in addition to controllable factors, the market environment, that is, society, population, economy, politics, law, ideology, culture, competition conditions, etc., also affects the hotel's marketing activities.

The dynamic nature of the marketing mix means that the marketing mix is ​​not a fixed static combination, but a dynamic and erratic combination.Each factor in the marketing mix contains many factors. Therefore, when the hotel makes a marketing mix according to the internal and external environment, as long as one of the factors changes, a new combination will appear.

The complexity of the marketing mix refers to the complexity of many sub-combinations in the marketing mix.As mentioned earlier, the marketing mix is ​​a large combination of four factors, and each factor includes many factors to form a sub-combination of each factor.For example, hotel market promotion is a factor of marketing, but the promotion factor itself can form a combination force, because promotion includes sub-combination factors such as advertising, personal selling, product promotion, public relations, etc., and this sub-combination factor can also be combined. Subdividing the combination again, such as in the combination of advertising factors, only the means include newspapers, magazines, radio and television and other media.Therefore, when the hotel uses marketing methods as a whole, it must not only use the four factors comprehensively, but also pay attention to the combined power of each factor itself.

The role of marketing mix cannot be ignored. It is not only an important basis for formulating hotel marketing strategies, but also a powerful means to deal with competition and a key link for coordination.For hotels, the marketing mix strategy is the organic combination and collocation of product strategy, price strategy, marketing channel strategy and promotion strategy.

Tenth (Section) Highlights of Hotel Marketing Strategies
[-]. Hotel Product Strategy

Hotel companies rely on marketable products to obtain capital for survival and development.If the product quality is poor, backward, and the product has a single effect, it will be ruthlessly "turned away" by the guests.Therefore, the product strategy is related to the life and death of the hotel, and it is the most basic strategy in the hotel marketing mix strategy.

([-]) Product mix

The hotel service products consumed by guests cannot be provided by a single department or individual of the hotel.On the one hand, what guests need is not just a single service product, but a combination of multiple service products; on the other hand, the needs of guests vary widely, requiring hotels to provide different combinations of products for selection.Therefore, the hotel should develop different product combinations for different guests.The hotel can carry out product combination from four aspects of product breadth, length, depth and density to form different series of products.

1. Breadth of product portfolio

Refers to the number of product lines owned by the hotel, that is, the number of classified products owned by the hotel, such as room service, catering service, entertainment service, etc.The more product lines, the wider the breadth of the product portfolio.

2. Length of Product Portfolio

Refers to the number of different service items included in each category product of the hotel.For example, whether entertainment services include KTV boxes, discotheques, billiard rooms, bowling alleys, sauna centers, gyms, tennis courts and other entertainment services.

3. Depth of Product Portfolio

Refers to how many related service contents a service contains.For example, how many MTV works can be provided in the KTV box, whether there is tea service, supper service, etc.

4. Density of product groups
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