Marketing Audit

Part 1– Business Report

Student-ID number
Module name
Tutor name
Academic year/group.
Contents

Executive summary....................................................................................................................3

Company background................................................................................................................4

External analysis........................................................................................................................4

Internal analysis.........................................................................................................................6

Business ethics...........................................................................................................................7

Future development....................................................................................................................8

References..................................................................................................................................9
Executive summary

According to Gerry Draper, the manager at British Airways, marketing is the correct
information about the needs of the customers, the ability to motivate the product or services
to correspond as much as possible to the needs of the customers, to convince the customers
that they need the satisfaction of specific needs and not in lastly, the ability to make sure that
the product or service offered is easy to access when the client needs it and wants to compare
it.
Also, the concept of marketing is also defined by Anderson and Lembke - the directors of a
well-known Swedish advertising agency, where they stated that the meaning of marketing is
to identify market demand and to be able to directly satisfy these needs in order to obtain
profit. They also stated that in marketing, especially in tourism marketing, superiority comes
when the company is more attentive to market changes than the competition. (Yao, B.; Qiu,
R.T.; Fan, D.; Liu, A.; Buhalis, D. 2019)

In this business report, five important topics will be debated regarding the concept of
Tourism Marketing. In the first part of the report, the chosen company will be analyzed,
where the antecedents of the company will be presented, but also the presentation of the
company and the products and/or services it offers. Also, the macro environment and the
micro environment will be identified, where the subject related to clients and consumers and
what are their needs will be detailed. The competitive situation of the organization chosen for
the report will also be analyzed using an analysis method. (Khalil, S.; Ismail, A.; Ghalwash,
S. 2021)

In the third part of the report, an internal analysis of the company will be carried out, where it
will be discussed how the company wants to satisfy the needs of the customers and if the
adopted strategies manage to satisfy the customers completely. Therefore, in this report,
ethics in business will be discussed, where the managerial line will bring to the fore,
especially what it wants to create an ethical and professional atmosphere. Last but not least,
future developments will be discussed at the end of the report. (Asdecker, B. 2022)

The purpose of the report is to analyze the concept of Tourism Marketing for the hotel
company Premier Inn Hotel, covering several related topics.
Company background

Premier Inn Hotel is one of the largest hotel chains in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Premier Inn is a British limited service hotel chain that currently accounts for 72,000 rooms
and 800 hotels. At its debut, the company was initially called Travel Inn in 1978. In 2004 it
was recognized as Travelodge, at the end of the same year it was called Premier Travel Inn,
and from 2007 it remained with the name Premier Inn.

This hotel chain has very well defined balls and is based on the comfort of the customers,
comparing the beds as "bed of dreams", highlighting the tasty food served in the hotel
restaurants, existing to the extraordinary team that is in continuous training and that focuses
on satisfying the requirements and needs of the customers. Premier Inn hotel offers its clients
either rooms for accommodation, comfortable, clean, relaxing, more convenience rooms
specially designed according to the number of people and the different needs of the clients.
There is also a restaurant that offers the best quality food and drinks, where the smell of
delicious food can be felt from the hotel hallways. Satisfying customers means finding their
needs and needs/problems in order to come up with a solution, and this is what the Premier
Inn Hotel did as they created rooms of different sizes. Special, larger rooms are created for
families with children, rooms suitable for couples or rooms suitable for business people
traveling for business purposes. (H.; Kim, B.-Y.; Shin, J.-H.. 2004)

External analysis

Analysis regarding the identification of potential customers, analysis of existing customers,

analysis of customer needs are some of the tasks of the Premier Inn Hotel Marketing
department. They have an extremely important task, as they always have to come up with
new and creative ideas for customer loyalty, but also for attracting new customers. But for
this to happen, the marketing specialists and the company's strategies assume, first of all, to
identify what the customers' needs are and what is the reason why a tourist chooses the
Premier Inn hotel or another competing hotel. Documentation is vital in the hotel chain
because it helps to form an overall idea about the current situation and the image of the hotel
chain as it wants to be in a certain time. Strategies, documentation and identification of
customer needs help the company to understand current market trends, future strategies can
be formulated and especially due to the fact that they will create services that meet customer
requirements. (Yoo, M.; Lee, S.; Bai, B. 2011)

The customers of the Premier Inn Hotel company are primarily individuals, tourists who
travel for various reasons. Hotel customers are also legal entities. Tourists choose one tourist
destination over another due to their needs. The more and better a tourist destination satisfies
the needs of customers, the more it is sought after. Premier Inn Hotel knows very well that
the needs of customers are different depending on the reason for the trip. Some clients travel
for vacations, others for business purposes, others travel for medical purposes, others travel
because their work requires this or for religious purposes. Depending on each reason, the
destinations are different, but for the same customer category, the needs are the same. Thus,
the hotel chain has located its headquarters in the most populated and sought-after tourist
destinations, where customers come regardless of the reason. (Chatterjee, S.; Chaudhuri,
R.; Sakka, G.; Grandhi, B.; Galati, A.; Siachou, E.; Vrontis, D. 2021)

Thus, the hotel company's question is "what are the expectations and needs of the
customers?" One of the main needs of tourists when they choose to go on vacation, for
example, is the need for packages offered to them. These packages must include
accommodation, food, transport, different activities and even a tourist guide. Therefore, the
clients' needs mainly consist in ensuring both hotel accommodation and related services
without which the accommodation would be useless. Customers also need constant
information, they need the hotel to have kind and responsible employees who will offer them
an unforgettable experience. Besides these, the services offered by the hotel, the comfort and
the accommodation conditions are very important. The hotel rooms must be clean, arranged
in a way that inspires trust, relaxation, space, comfort and there must always be a means of
communication with the hotel employees. (Nave, M.; Rita, P.; Guerreiro, J. A 2018)

The opportunities are numerous for the premier Inn Hotel company if it manages to
understand more deeply the needs of its customers and be one step ahead of the competition.
The opportunities consist first of all in the development on a national level, by identifying the
big cities where the tourist potential is high. But also an international development by
identifying the most sought after countries by tourists. Opportunities also consist of
modernizing the hotel, using technology and new software to make work more efficient,
training employees and offering them training courses.

The threats are first of all the direct competition, the hotels rated better on the market or even
below this company, because they can develop and the Premier Inn Hotel can fall into the
market. Another threat, as it was also current, is the possibility of pandemics that would limit
the economic activity, the laws in force or the laws that could put the company in a difficult
situation.

Internal analysis

Ever since the inauguration of the first Premier Inn Hotel, the owner has thought first of all
about the needs of the customers. Currently, this concept of customer needs and the analysis
of customer needs is much clearer and more analyzed than decades ago. Premier Inn Hotel
uses the strategy according to which for the hotel chain to be successful it must identify a
number of factors, such as the right location of the hotels, the popularity of the destination
and the cities where they are located, existing facilities that can be made available to both
clients and employees. Thus, the strategy adopted by the hotel chain consists in finding new
methods to exceed customer expectations and to take advantage of events that can make their
activity more efficient. (Bowen, J.; Sparks, B.A. 1998)

According to the Strengths and Weaknesses model, Premier Inn Hotel focuses on 5 most
useful and effective strategies to propel the hotel chain among the most sought after and
successful businesses. The first strategy that also represents the strengths of the company
consists in using technology to maximize the efficiency of the economic activity. It uses
software made especially for the hotel industry, with the help of which all the information
related to the activity of each hotel is efficiently stored.(Svensson, G.; Svaeri, S.; Einarsen,
K. 2009)

Technology helps the company to work quickly, efficiently, but above all by the fact that it
meets the customers with useful things and exactly what they want. With the help of a
professional software, the hotel manages to monitor reservations (including reservations from
different locations), to memorize a history for each customer, to have a record of invoices, a
record of employees and their shifts. The main goal is to reduce the large volume of work and
to make the work of both employees and management more efficient, but also, tourists prefer
and have the opportunity to book directly from the hotel website, not through travel agencies.
tourism. (Lou, C.; Yuan, S. 2019)

Another strong point of the hotel chain is delegating the tasks of the employees and correctly
replanting the work of the employees. Since the company is internationally recognized, the
rules are very well established that must be respected. Delegating tasks is a method by which
employees are motivated, as they receive tasks only suited to their competences. Paying
attention to the feedback received from the hotel's tourists is another strong point that the
company has, because it analyzes quarterly the recommendations or counter-complaints
received from the client regarding the hotel services, and these are used in order to improve
the company's services. Ensuring that customers have a unique experience in the hotel is
another strong point of the company, since the training of the employees is aimed at ensuring
that the customers' stay in the hotel is a successful one and that they will be satisfied enough
to return in the future. (Tanveer, M.; Ahmad, A.-R.; Mahmood, H.; Haq, I. 2021)

Regarding the other weak points of the hotel, since this is an international company, and
every hotel has at least 50 employees, a first weak point consists in finding employees
suitable for the field of activity and training them so that the rules and policies of the
company be fully respected. Another weak point, identified by many clients, is related to
their website and the method of promotion through the website. According to customers, the
site is not very well structured and easy to navigate, where information can be easily found
and structured according to certain categories. Thus, the promotion method is not so efficient
in the eyes of customers and this represents a weak point for the company. (Dev, C.S.;
Buschman, J.D.; Bowen, J.T.. 2010)

Business ethics

Ethics in the Premier Inn Hotel company is extremely important and for this to work in the
organization, some principles and rules are imposed that must be respected. First of all, ethics
must exist at the individual level. (Barry, Vincent 1983)
 Ethics presupposes respect for principles, such as the principle of truth according to
Aristotle, the principle of love in the Judeo-Christian vision, and these involve maintaining
integrity, and existing on a path dictated by conscience. (Shaw, William H. 1999)
Premier Inn Hotel adopts a series of ethical rules through the management of the company so
that ethics is naturally present in the company. Thus, the rules of ethics in the hotel company
consist of:
- Be correct
- Do not use information that contains false statements that could mislead tourists or other
employees
- Be polite, don't lie and respect those around you
- To accept the mistake and try not to repeat it intentionally
- To ask for help when you need it and to offer help when someone asks for it

For ethics to work in business, employees are told the company's principles and ethical rules
right from the interview. During the training, the importance of ethics in the hotel is
discussed in detail and how the employees should treat these rules so that they do not appear
to be rules, but a correct lifestyle. And a very efficient thing is the fact that in the staff room
there is a board with the ethical rules written by the employees, ethical rules that they would
like to be respected by their colleagues and that would lead to an improvement in team work
and performance. Beauchamp, Tom, ed. Case Studies in Business, Society and Ethics.
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J 1983)

Future development

One of the main problems of Premier Inn Hotel in terms of marketing activity is the lack of
effective evaluation and follow-up. As stated in the weak points of the analyzed company, the
lack of evaluation or low importance of customer feedback represents a marketing action that
the hotel company should take into account more in the future. The marketing specialists who
work in the Premier Inn Hotel fail to optimize the activity at maximum capacity, as they
occupy all their time with tasks that can be replaced by software or other time reduction
methods.
Also, a lack of effective planning is a marketing problem in the hotel company that can be
improved in the future. Not recognizing the importance and contribution of the marketing
 function as it should be in the hotel company is another problem that Premier Inn Hotel must
work on more in the future.

Regarding ethics in the hotel company, if things remain the same, then ethics will continue to
be an important factor in the company. What can be improved, however, is an accurate
analysis of ethics from the employees' point of view, because it is possible that some
employees are confused about the concept of ethics and believe that the ethical rules are
internal rules of the company and must respect them only out of obligation and not out of
pleasure and with their agreement so that the team is more united and the activity runs more
harmoniously.

References

1. Asdecker, B. Travel-Related Influencer Content on Instagram: How Social Media Fuels

Wanderlust and How to Mitigate the Effect. Sustainability 2022, 14, 855.
2. Bowen, J.; Sparks, B.A. Hospitality marketing research: A content analysis and implications
for future research. Int. J. Hosp.Manag. 1998, 17, 125–144.
3. Barry, Vincent. Moral Issues in Business. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1983.
4. Beauchamp, Tom, ed. Case Studies in Business, Society and Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1983
5. Chatterjee, S.; Chaudhuri, R.; Sakka, G.; Grandhi, B.; Galati, A.; Siachou, E.; Vrontis, D.
Adoption of Social Media Marketing for Sustainable Business Growth of SMEs in Emerging
Economies: The Moderating Role of Leadership Support. Sustainability 2021,
6. Dev, C.S.; Buschman, J.D.; Bowen, J.T. Hospitality Marketing: A Retrospective Analysis
(1960–2010) and Predictions (2010–2020).Cornell Hosp. Q. 2010, 51, 459–469.
7. H.; Kim, B.-Y.; Shin, J.-H. Hospitality and tourism marketing: Recent developments in
research and future directions. Int. J.Hosp. Manag. 2004, 23, 425–447.
8. Khalil, S.; Ismail, A.; Ghalwash, S. The Rise of Sustainable Consumerism: Evidence from
the Egyptian Generation Z. Sustainability2021, 13, 13804
9. Lou, C.; Yuan, S. Influencer Marketing: How Message Value and Credibility Affect
Consumer Trust of Branded Content on Social Media. J. Interact. Advert. 2019, 19, 58
10. Nave, M.; Rita, P.; Guerreiro, J. A decision support system framework to track consumer
sentiments in social media. J. Hosp.Mark. Manag. 2018, 27, 693–710.
11. Svensson, G.; Svaeri, S.; Einarsen, K. ‘Empirical characteristics’ of scholarly journals in
hospitality and tourism research: Anassessment. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 2009, 28, 479–483.
12. Shaw, William H. Business Ethics, Third Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1999
13. Tanveer, M.; Ahmad, A.-R.; Mahmood, H.; Haq, I. Role of Ethical Marketing in Driving
Consumer Brand Relationships and Brand Loyalty: A Sustainable Marketing Approach.
Sustainability 2021, 13, 6839.
14. Yoo, M.; Lee, S.; Bai, B. Hospitality marketing research from 2000 to 2009: Topics,
methods, and trends. Int. J. Contemp. Hosp.Manag. 2011, 23, 517–532.
15. Yao, B.; Qiu, R.T.; Fan, D.; Liu, A.; Buhalis, D. Standing out from the crowd—An
exploration of signal attributes of Airbnb listings.Int. J. Contemp. Hosp. Manag. 2019, 31,
4520–4542.
16. https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/why.html