Understanding the Marketing Method: Digital Marketing

DIGITAL MARKETING
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Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u INTRODUCTION PAGEREF _Toc67373848 \h 3FOUR SEASONS HOTEL PAGEREF _Toc67373849 \h 4ANALYSIS AND OBJECTIVES PAGEREF _Toc67373850 \h 5OBJECTIVES PAGEREF _Toc67373851 \h 7TARGET AUDIENCE PAGEREF _Toc67373852 \h 8CHANNEL SELECTION AND CONTENT PLAN PAGEREF _Toc67373853 \h 9SAMPLE CREATIVE CONTENT PAGEREF _Toc67373854 \h 12MEASUREMENT AND DATA PAGEREF _Toc67373855 \h 14CONCLUSION PAGEREF _Toc67373856 \h 15REFERENCES PAGEREF _Toc67373857 \h 16
INTRODUCTION
The contemporary business world is full of competition in various arenas and hence, the use of adequate business analytics is implied for achieving a sustained market performance in a competitive business environment. The UK’s hospitality industry is full of strong competition which means that the businesses must use the adequate use of marketing and sale units to develop a successful marketing campaign that has the audacity to attract more number of customers through the electronic content. The authors propose that the use of adequate marketing and sales planning can help the business to not just sustain in the competitive business environment but also enhance the productivity of a marketing campaign. Conventionally, these marketing and sales strategies were based on a careful analysis of the existing or potential customer groups by observing their purchase journeys in response to a marketing campaign which included heavy financial investments on each marketing endeavour such as physical bill boards, publication of adds in the newspapers, running street campaigns for a product or any service. However, those campaigns were not just limited in its audience reach but also demanded heavy financial investments.
With the advent of technological revolution and the emergence of globalisation, the nature of business workings and marketing strategies have also re-shaped drastically giving birth to the most penetrative marketing method, “Digital Marketing”. According to a recent statistic, almost 70% of the total world’s population use smart phones and hence, are the targeted viewers of any online posted content. This implies the proof that digital marketing as a mode of marketing carries drastic reach. Other than the reach, digital marketing is also far cheaper as compared to the physical marketing campaigns and this is also one of the prominent cause of why the contemporary business firms prefer digital marketing campaigns over physical campaigns. However, noticing the effectiveness and significance of digital marketing for promoting the business performance, it is suggested by many authors and business experts to perform an effective and well-planned marketing activity that promotes the organizational performance (Chang et al., 2010). For this, the use of appropriate planning tools should be done to ensure that the marketing plan satisfies its pre-determined objective. The present activity is the written evidence of a digital marketing campaign for a renowned residence, tourism, land and air travel, and restaurant service provider, “Four Seasons Hotel.”
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
Four Seasons Hotel is a renowned hospitality service provider that is established in 1960. However, with the use of effective business planning and strategy development, the company has currently expanded in more than 47 countries owning 117 properties in various regions of those countries including UK. UK’s hospitality industry is pretty rich contributing more than 5% of the total economy. Four Seasons have always remained among the top dominators of the industry with an annual revenue of $4.2B globally. However, shedding a close eye on the in-depth business performance of the hotel in the respective regional contexts such as UK, North America, France, and so on, it is important to look at the unique branches of company in specific contexts. The socio-economic and demographic conditions of each country is unique and therefore, it is important that when a business strategy is proposed, it carries objectives and goals that are assigned specifically for that public context precisely. Therefore, every business plan, for instance marketing, it is important that the companies indulge in adequate audience analysis for the company before proposing any plan. The present essay will discuss a proposed six-month digital marketing plan for the Four Seasons Hotel UK.
ANALYSIS AND OBJECTIVES
Four Seasons as a company is also a PLC that provides shares to the general public. The company offers services in different sections of hospitality such as lounging, restaurants, accommodation, land and air travelling, tourism, and so on. However, out of all of this, one of the most renowned service offered by the company is their accommodation service aka hotels. For analysing the information related to the service offered by the Four Seasons Hotels, the use of extensive marketing performance analysis has been performed. The use of SWOT analysis has been done to identify the existing performance of the Four Seasons in the present times. The strengths and weaknesses are part of internal organizational analysis while the Opportunities and Threats are part of external context analysis of the environment in which the company operates. Consider the table below:
STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

The staple to the organization for providing quality customer experience and luxury hospitality.

The rates are very high and vulnerable for countries in which it operate specifically for accommodation services. It gives an image of a brand that only belongs to elites.

Value-based working systems.

The rooms for accommodation are very limited especially considering the population and annual tourism flow at UK.

Awarded with 53rd ranking from 100 best companies to work for.

The brand image of a luxury brand that seeks value only demotivates a large number of consumers to prefer more price-effective alternatives.

An organizational culture that fosters employee-centric environment.

The online representation of the brand is very systematic and detailed causing majority of the viewers to shift their attention to other more organised websites.

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

There are some great locations in the most prime locations of the UK which can be occupied.

There is intensive rivalry in the hospitality industry of UK making the survival too difficult.

An opportunity to develop a brand new digital marketing campaign that will reach out to attract more customers and sell the services offered by the hotel to the masses.

In the off seasons, the occupancy rates of the hotel are often low, which can disturb the corporate image of the hotel.

An opportunity to offer expansion of purchasing in new locations in UK by electronic selling of tickets.

The electronic interactions of some of the key competitors of Four Seasons such as “The Ritz London and Fairmount Hotels and Resorts.

On the basis of the findings of the SWOT analysis of the Four Seasons Hotels, It has been notedit is notable that the biggest problem of the Four Seasons Hotel is its market depiction. This finding follows the fact that the hotel is as a luxury brand and the lack of adequate use of business analytics for the maintenance and expansion of the committed customer base who religiously preferwould adversely affect the brand above any other brand.operations of the business. Shaughnessy (2018) quoted that the value- seeking as a marketing campaign strategy comes with a disadvantage that the provisions of the brand cannot be generalised or extended to wide spectrum of population. Therefore, it is crucial that when the use of value-seeking or as Weinstein (2012) called it value-led marketing campaign, it is important that the company explicitly establishes the brand’s identity as the optimum quality provider that surpasses all its fellow rivals and enjoys the utmost position of a prime brand. Moreover, it has been observed that the already established customer interaction inter-face, i.e. customer website, involves some features of an interactive electronic website such as Gamification of content, presence of unit bars, etc. However, the website when compared with the electronic portals of the other competitors, appeared to be little bland with the distorted content making it difficult for the viewers to stay on the website.
The primary aims of establishing effective marketing campaigns include attracting more sales, creating positive public image, choice of the appropriate strategy, and building the hotel’s knowledge base. Four Seasons hotel will largely benefit from its marketing campaigns, especially because it increases its knowledge base concerning the market and the opportunities that would boost its sales output as it reduces the cost of production. The ultimate result of such opportunities attaching to the business is that the hotel will realize more profits, which will stabilize the hotel better. Additionally, from the marketing campaigns, the hotel will have an opportunity to sell its competitive ideologies and reasons why it delivers better services to the customers. This move creates a close relationship with the market, which establishes a positive reputation for the hotel because it will be viewed as a customer-based and quality-oriented entity.
OBJECTIVES
De Chernatony, L. (2010) noted that the development of an effective marketing strategy and planning tool can facilitate the business operations by enhancing the positives of the business offerings and generate a brand as response to marketing planning and strategy development that holds a USP (Unique selling point) that appeals some targeted audience. Hence, considering the issues in the current marketing positionThe essence of group of the Four Seasons, it has been suggestedhaving objectives ranks as ensuring that the new digital marketing campaign of the management stick to the operational script that guides the hotel in attaining economic stability and delivering services to the customers. For purposes of reaching to the customers, Four Seasons Hotel must be developed that not just posit the audience perception of a brandaims at employing advanced advertisement mechanism. One of the mechanisms is having a website that stands for luxury and high-quality that is supreme from alldisplays its competitorsservices against their prices and ensure that the existing resources of the company are fully utilised.quality of their foods. The precise SMART objectives of the proposed digital marketing campaign are as follows:
1 1. To developachieve a highly-interactive digital marketing campaign for Four Seasons for the upcoming 6net profit of 15% of the invested capital within the first three months.
2. To extend the customer base of the Hotel.
3. To maximise the occupancy rates of the Hotel in all seasons.
2 4. To double the intimal three months’ net profit to 30% in the next six months and maintain a constant or progressive profit rate thereafter
3 To establish new USP as a brand for Four Seasonsdigital marketing strategies that provides competitive advantage to reach out to a massive population in a short period
4 To develop a professional website that displays services of the hotel, its charges, and methods through which customers can reach out for service delivery
5 Establish a complaint mechanism that allows customers to lodge any complains they may have against the company in staff or mode of service delivery associated with the UKhotel
6 Adopt after-sale services and promotional offers every last week of December to increase the hotel’s clientele
7 To establish an effective Unique Selling Point that assures the hotel’s stability against competing hotels within the United Kingdom’s hospitality industry.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Following the Aaker’s marketing and Strategy planning framework, it has been developed that before designing any marketing strategy, it is crucial that the key stakeholder analysis of the business must be done. The stakeholders area all the individuals or institutions who either hold interest in the company’s working or have s...