Marketing and Communications

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Overview

Marketing mix strategic planning is important for the organisations to manage their operations in the market and promote the products and available services in order to secure future sustainable development (Morgan et al., 2019). The study is about exploring the market condition for the organisation and apply the SOSATC model for develop further marketing mix strategic planning in order to promote the organisation in the market. The project focuses on analysing the market condition for Travelodge and develops marketing strategic planning for achieving the future success. The aim of the company is to gain high competitive advantage by promoting their hospitality services during the Valentine’s Day and thus this marketing planning will be effective to propose the tactic of promoting the products and services of Travelodge and fulfil its objective.

2.0 Travelodge Hotel

2.1 Brief summary

Travelodge opened its first hotel in Barton under Needwood, which becomes Britain’s first value hotel brand. Travelodge is operating in the hospitality industry and it is successful to expand their business throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain. It is efficient to acquire more than 570 hotels and 40,000 guest bedrooms, right across the UK as well as in Spain and Ireland. It is now the UK’s leading self-governing hotel brand (Travelodge, 2020). Travelodge hotels are situated in the heart of major cities, including London, in most of Britain’s larger towns, as well as in the traditional seaside locations and dynamic roadside shops and continue to expand (Travelodge, 2020).

3.0 Marketing

The marketing mix strategic planning is a systematic approach to manage the marketing activities and promote the organisational products and services efficiently. It helps to create value for consumers and society as a whole, which leads to a solid patron relationship that captures value from the buyer in return (Key and Czaplewski, 2017). Marketing is hereby a method of finding new customers and maintaining existing customers in the market by improving production and performance, evaluating product sales and managing repeat process (Damnjanović, Lončarić and Dlačić, 2020).

3.1 Planning

Marketing planning is essential to understand the market trend and identify the contributing factors in achieving the brand success (Damnjanović, Lončarić and Dlačić, 2020). In this regard, analysing the market condition and identifying capability of Travelodge hotel is important for the business leader to strategise their marketing activities and fulfil the organisational aim in long run (Zaitseva et al., 2018).

3.2 Marketing plan

The marketing planning is important for the corporate firms to outline the marketing goals of a company and develop further strategies and tactics to triumph them (Kingsnorth, 2019). The marketing plan is reliant upon marketing research to support the analysis of the situation and this includes research related to consumers that validates the targeting decision and competitive environment and customer satisfaction (Key and Czaplewski, 2017).

3.3 Marketing process

The marketing process can be described through the figure below, where the first step is to identify the customer needs and preferences and secondly it is necessary to design the marketing strategy (Damnjanović, Lončarić and Dlačić, 2020). Constructing the marketing plan and deliver superior values are important (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2016). It is also the role of the business firm to develop profitable solution for fulfilling the economic responsibility of the business (Bowie et al., 2017). Lastly, it is necessary to create values for the customers by delivering high quality products and services (Key and Czaplewski, 2017).

4.0 PROMOTIONAL PLAN

The promotional planning is important for the organisation to analyse the market condition and utilise the firm’s capabilities to develop marketing planning in order to meet the strategic objective of the firm. SOSTAC model in this regard is important to follow suitable steps for strategic planning development (Mothersbaugh, Hawkin and Kleiser, 2019). The model is beneficial for Travelodge hotel to analyse the market condition and develop further promotional planning to fulfil its aim (Evans, 2015).

4.1 SOSTAC Model

Mission of the organisation Travelodge hotel is to maximise the sales volume and profitability of the firm in long run, where it would be possible for the organisation to gain high competitive advantage (Kotler et al., 2014).

SOSTAC is an acronym for the six core components to be considered when generating a marketing plan: situation (S), objectives (O), strategy (S), tactics (T), action (A) and control (C) (Reic, 2016).

(S) Situation

Travelodge hotel is well-known for aiming its services towards individuals, travellers, families, and business workers looking for short stays (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). The organisation wants to launch a seasonal campaign targeting the couples, seeking a romantic getaway for the upcoming Valentine’s Day. This campaign will offer deals and packages such as offering them a business sized room, different menu for meals which they can privately enjoy in their room and other packages such as candle light dinners. The aim of this campaign is to increase the sales from existing and new customers to continue improving the reputation of Travelodge in the hospitality industry of the UK. As per the situational analysis, there is intense competition in the hospitality industry as well as the increasing numbers if hotels in the market, availability of substitute hospitality services further raise difficulties for Travelodge hotel to operate in the market. Additionally, as per the recent market trend, the customers prefer to choose package system in order to enjoy the services of the hotel and create places and events in the hotels (Morgan et al., 2019).

(O) Objectives

The objective of the firm is to maximise sales volume in 2021 in order to sustain in the hospitality industry and gain high competitive advantage. The firm mainly tries to enhance their brand reputation and strengthen their consumer’s base for maximising the profitability of the business.

(S) Strategy

The main strategy of the firm is to diversify their hospitality product and services during Valentine’s Day, where the business leader aims at creating a good package system for the couples to enjoy the valentine day with good environment, quality food items and other facilities at Travelodge. Hence, the product diversification strategy is the major tactic of the business to fulfil the above mentioned plan, where the Valentine’s Day special package would be beneficial to retain more new customers as well as maintain the old consumer base during Valentine’s Day (Katsikeas, Leonidou and Zeriti, 2019). Maintaining food quality, interior decoration of the room and business halls, welcome drink and other snacks items as well as the lunch and candle light dinner are the major strategy of Travelodge to meet the organisational aim (Hudson and Hudson, 2017).

(T) Tactics

The promotional tactics must be developed to fulfil the above mentioned objective and the strategies are such as,

Product or services:

The product diversification strategy is mandatory for the organisation Travelodge to run their business activities and secure future sustainable development. Travelodge must focus on maintaining the quality of their services as well as standard of the food delivered to the customers. The environment of the hotel must be friendly and suitable for the customers so that they can feel comfortable to spend quality time in the hotel. Continuous cooperation and room services must be there to satisfy the clients and fulfil their requirements.

Price:

Pricing strategy is another major tactic to develop promotional activities and in this regard, the organisation Travelodge must select price penetration, which is mainly the tactic of retaining the customers with new product and service range at lower price (Katsikeas, Leonidou and Zeriti, 2019). The firm must set effective price for their newly launched packages for Valentine’s Day to attract the audiences in the market.

Place:

Placing is important and in this regard Travelodge must strengthen their supply chain and distribution network in the UK and other countries so that the suppliers and distributors can handle the consumers and provide them quality services successfully. The warehouse and storage of the raw materials must also be maintained efficiently in order to manage product stock and serve the customers with high quality food items, and other services including room, business hall etc.

Promotion:

Promotional activities are crucial for Travelodge to promote their services and newly launched packages for attracting the customers. This newly launched campaign must be promotion through social media, and in this regard the company Travelodge must utilise Facebook to promote their services and package system for Valentine’s Day mainly for the couples. Developing creative content with attractive pictures about their package system, available products and services would be beneficial for Travelodge to share the information about the newly launched package and retain the customers in the UK.

(A) Action

The organisation must hire more experienced staff members, waiters and chef to deliver the quality services during Valentine’s Day. The organisational key performance indicators are the internal infrastructure of the hotel, efficient staff member and availability of the quality chef who is responsible to maintain the food standard of the hotel. The company also must invest in marketing planning to promote their Valentine’s Day special package.

(C) Control

In order to achieve the goals and implement the above mentioned strategic planning, the company must arrange financial capital and hire the efficient employees in the organisation. Through continuous monitoring and performance management, Travelodge would be able to control the whole process and achieve the strategic objective.

5.0 Conclusion

Travelodge has the capability of investing capital and retaining the experienced staff members to promote their newly launched packages mainly for the Valentine’s Day, through enhancing their performance and creating good environment for the customers, Travelodge would be able to maximise their sales volume in long run. The company would also be efficient to achieve the strategic objective by promoting their new hospitality service through social media campaign where it is possible to strengthen their customer’s base and maximise their sales volume.

6.0 Reference List

Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M. and Mariussen, A., 2017. Hospitality marketing: principles and practice. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.

Chaffey, D and Smith, P., 2017. Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing and integrating online marketing. London: Routledge.

Damnjanović, V., Lončarić, D. and Dlačić, J., 2020. TEACHING CASE STUDY: Digital marketing strategy of Accor Hotels: shaping the future of hospitality. Tourism and hospitality management, 26(1), pp.233-244.

Evans, N., 2015. Strategic Management for Tourism, Hospitality and Events. London: Routledge.

Hudson, S. and Hudson, L., 2017. Marketing for Tourism, Hospitality and Events. London: Sage Publications.

Katsikeas, C., Leonidou, L. and Zeriti, A., 2019. Revisiting international marketing strategy in a digital era. International Marketing Review.

Key, T.M. and Czaplewski, A.J., 2017. Upstream social marketing strategy: An integrated marketing communications approach. Business Horizons, 60(3), pp.325-333.

Kingsnorth, S., 2019. Digital marketing strategy: an integrated approach to online marketing. London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Kotler et al., 2014. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A., Feng, H. and Chari, S., 2019. Research in marketing strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), pp.4-29.

Mothersbaugh, D.L., Hawkin, D.I. and Kleiser, S.B., 2019. Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy. London: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Reic, I., 2016. Events Marketing Management: A consumer perspective. London: Routledge.

Swarbrooke, J. and Horner, S., 2016. Consumer Behaviour in Tourism. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Travelodge, 2020. Our company. [online] Available at: https://www.travelodge.co.uk/about/our-company/ [Accessed on 14 December 2020].

Zaitseva, N.A., Larionova, A.A., Eliseeva, O.V., Katerynich, O.A., Vikhrova, N.O., Takhumova, O.V. and Zhukova, M.A., 2018. The features of the marketing strategies formulation and their application in hotels (by the example of business-hotels). Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods, 8(10), pp.642-651.

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