Marketing and Sales

28 April 2006

Getting to Know the Market

Geographic
Where do your customers come from
How far do they travel

Demographic
What are their characteristics
Gender, age, education, occupation, income etc.

Psychographic
Self-image and lifestyle
What do they value Allocentric v. Psychocentric

Behavioristic
For business, special occasion, loyalty

The Marketing Process

What to offer?
Product category

To whom to offer?
Target Market

At what price?
What is the strategy for distribution?

Creating awareness
Through what channels?

Retaining Customers.
3

Marriott Strategy
A change from focusing on Accounts
to a focus on Industry
Deciding on Intermediary Strategies
Key Segments
Airlines, Associations, Entertainment,
Government, Intermediary, Multicultural, SMERF, Sports, Business Travel,
Catering
4

3 Key Strategies
Segment Analysis and Strategy
Development
Sales Support of Account
Management
Segment specific value added that
drive incremental sales

Segment Analysis and

Strategy Development
Marriotts position w/in segment
Competitive analysis
Segment Marketing Plans
Business model strategies
Data collection and integrity
Data and trend analysis

Sales Support
Leveraging brand initiatives
Supporting the market direct sales
effort
Account management in key
industries
Facilitate coordination of field efforts
Company representation at industry
and trade shows.
7

Segment Specific
Value Added
Segment leaders
Web-based support for direct sales
effort
Corporate and franchise support

Industry value adds through targeted

promotions and marketing

Targeted Segments
Airlines
Business partners and revenue source -$185
billion industry

Business Travel
Refers to individuals that travel separate from
associations. This market travel for a variety of
reasons and lodging needs will change

Entertainment
Movies, theaters, production crews

Government
$20 billion a year segment with fixed stipends

Targeted Segments
Intermediary
Secondary sources which sell your
property

Sports
Most think of professional sport teams
but a large and growing market is the
weekend youth sport leagues

10

Sales & Marketing Activities:

Websites

Marketing plan development: format of marketing plan

A review of market competition

Occupancy trends /ADR trends /
performance of own hotel

Competitive analysis of your

competitor
Strengths / weaknesses / price structure

Competitive analysis of your own

hotel
Strengths / weaknesses / price structure
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Sales & Marketing Activities: Sales Efforts

Marketing plan development: format of marketing plan

Forecast of future market conditions

Estimated market growth or contraction /
performance goals and objectives for own
hotel / timeline for achieving these goals and
objectives

Determination of specific marketing

strategies & activities
Advertising / public relations / promotions

Preparation of a marketing budget

Development of measurement &
evaluation tools
12

Development of measurement &

evaluation tools
Special packaging of products
or services
Promotion
Promoted and disseminated by
advertising and publicity
Information about hotel, mediadistributed
free
of
charge
Publicity
Costs the hotel nothing
May be either good or bad
13

Development of measurement &

evaluation tools
Activities ensuring hotel has a
positive public image (good citizen of
Public
the community)
Relations
Hosting charity events, contributing
(PR)
cash or in-kind services, donation of
hotel staff time for worthy cause

14

Sales & Marketing Activities:

Websites
Effective hotel websites should:
be easy to navigate.
have some level of interactivity.
be linked to appropriate companion sites (demand
generator).
allow for online booking.
balance guest privacy needs with hotels desire to
build a customer base.
update and revise room rates easily on the website.
include a virtual tour of the property.
complement other marketing efforts.
be in language(s) of potential clients.
have website address easy to remember.

15

Evaluating Sales & Marketing

Department: Pace Report
Is a document summarizing confirmed (group)
sales made by Sales and Marketing dept.
Can be prepared based on number of rooms sold,
value (in dollars) of sales made, or both
Can also include any period of time in the future
Tells hotels owner and management the potential
sales volume generated by Sales and Marketing
department
However, does not indicate what actual sales
volume should be (STAR report does!)

16

Evaluating Sales & Marketing

Department: Sample Pace Report
Waldo Hotel Group Rooms Pace Report for January, 200x
Sold this
month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr

25
450
550
650

May

Total sold YTD

Sold same
Total sold last
month last year
YTD

750
1,550
1,550

150
250
330
550

550
1,250
1,350

875

1,175

650

1,050

June

1,100

1,400

800

1,700

July

1,350

2,250

1,100

2,150

Aug

1,700

2,900

1,500

1,900

Sept
Oct
Nov

500
300
850

700
800
1,150

750
550
300

1,750
1,050
600

Dec

200

550

125

225

8,550

14,775

7,055

13,575

Total

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Evaluating Sales & Marketing Department: The

Smith Travel Accommodations Report (STAR)
STAR working process and preparation

Hotel voluntarily submits financial data to Smith

Smith maintains confidentiality of all individual hotel data
Combine operating data submitted by selected competitors
An individual hotels operating performance is compared to
that of its competitive set (understanding the competitive
set is key component of understanding STAR!)

Who are the STAR interest groups?

Hotel owners, management companies, property
management, franchisers, appraisers, financial community

18

Evaluating Sales & Marketing Department: The

Smith Travel Accommodations Report (STAR)

Operating
comparison
criteria

Goals

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Occupancy, ADR, RevPar,

market share, historical trends,
to-date performance, state or
region
Assess performance of Sales &
Marketing department as well as
the entire property
Know the strength of hotel and
Sales and Marketing staffs sales
results, in comparison with
selected competitors.