Beating the Competition and Sustaining in the Modern Hotel Industry

A brand is a powerful tool, especially in the hotel industry where services are intangible. Many hotels of the 21st century have made branding one of their top most priority with the realisation that hotel branding helps to set them apart from their competitors and create a firm customer base. Branding creates brand recognition, brand preference, increase customer satisfaction and most importantly, customer loyalty.

For instance, in the hospitality industry, the Hilton brand symbolises high-end properties, elevated quality of service and a unique guest experience. Brand name and brand image are essentially two factors that differentiate companies which operate in the same industry and market. Therefore, the brand name must be unique. Hotel companies like the Hilton have established strong national brands and seek to use them globally with an intention of increasing profits. Once its established as a global brand, the company has successfully created an international image that can lead to increased efficiency through branded marketing efforts and cost savings on a much larger scale. Nowadays with an increase in international travel, the competition among international hotel corporations is becoming a lot more competetive. Those tourists that travel to foreign countries tend to stay in one of the known hotel brands and their standardised quality of service. Hotel chains are motivated to maintain a high rate of global expansion as a key marketing strategy of creating brand loyalty (King,

In the research presentation on Brand management by Jennifer Zeigler, it is presented to us that they are accumulating properties at a very fast pace.

Some of the luxurious hotels with strong brand name and popularity start their business in another country. They take away the employees by offering higher salary and opportunities. Besides, they are more attractive that people would not choose the small, local hotels anymore. Therefore, small hotels are being extinct and can no longer compete in the industry. Furthermore, hotels in some countries that cannot keep up with the advancement in technology failed to survive as well. Those countries do not have the infrastructure or technology to serve such a large amount of foreigners. This would greatly affect the hotels in that industry.

Nations Hotel Corporation is one of the reputed USA based hotel company, with an international presence in 15 countries worldwide. Hospitality industries are quiet competitive in nature and today’s success rule of hospitality includes knowledge, customer satisfaction and operational efficiency which provides pleasure of stay and departure to their guests. Any addition or subtraction in these components can increase or decrease the rating of any organization. Nations Hotel with 98% brand awareness and 72% as customer satisfaction ratio were still far from the race of preferred choice amongst the customers. Hence there, arose a need to

Delicate consideration of factors pertaining to the internal and external environment, are a necessity in executing Hyatt’s ultimate goal of “being the preferred brand”. Internal and external environments are factors that may be within or beyond the control of the firm. Theses factors influence the direction, action, structure, and internal process of an organization. The operating, industry, and remote environments are sub-environments that are associated to a firm’s environment (Pearce and Robinson, 2013). Its associates, guests, and owners through its presence in each community it is located in impact Hyatt’s environments.

The hospitality industry or the lodging industry is one of the most major service oriented industries in the world, inhabiting a noteworthy stand in the global economy. This self-sustaining industry has been successful in creating more than 258 million jobs across the world and contributing to around 9.1% of the world GDP. The figure would touch 296 million in 2019 according to the expectations of UNWTO. Presently, the industry has gained a worldwide economic segment having a direct and indirect impacts on the world economy. The rapid growth of this industry is being experienced by various countries including India. The hospitality sector of India is growing at a fast rate and referred as one of the most beneficial enterprise in terms of profit and contribution to the economy through foreign exchange. Hotels are a critical part of the industry and play their part in providing services and

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

“To become the lodging brand of choice for business and leisure travelers in the upscale and high-upscale segments of the market?” pg. 1

In society today, everything has a name for it. If the product doesn’t have a well-known name, it goes by name that a well-known product that is similar goes by. Branding has made its impact on society and it’s never going to go away. In this situation, all we can do from here is analyze more and more until we fully understand its presence in society and its effects. Branding has its biggest effects on consumerism, which makes us question consumerisms power in society. Has our society become one big, replicated consumer or can a consumer or even a person still be unique and individual? Branding creates competition amongst companies throughout the world and creates a competition for the consumers. Not only, it also creates issues, creates

IHG keeps improving its brands by giving the best experience for the guest and meeting each of their needs. The Vision of the Intercontinental Hotels Group Company is to become “Great”. The way they can convert themselves one of the world’s great companies is by having great brands, delivered by great people who share great values with great ways of working. The vision is made in order to achieve love of the

As customers are becoming increasingly educated and are now able to purchase luxury goods in more ways and at different price levels than ever (Kapferer, 2012) looking at digital media and omnichannel retail, Egan (2011) argues that brands cannot simply rely on unconditional brand loyalty anymore as the rise of wealth of consumers has driven them to seek more and more personalised products.

Unlike many hotel companies, our sales managers are trained to sell the experience, not simply the rate. By branding the “experience,” we showcase the kind of creativity that happens inside our hotels and prove that our guests come to us for much more than just a room or a bed. Our objective is to create differentiation by selling an “experience” and brand.

In recent times, branding has played a pivotal role in some brands’ success. This has been made possible through the ability of some marketers to capture the essence and minds of people (consumers), and put the trends and characteristics into the personality of a brand. Customers have always found ways to identify themselves with certain products, and on several occasions, branding campaigns

The organization has explicitly kept this advantageous environment over other organizations by improving its service capacity. Additionally, the organization ensures that it stays ahead of its rivals by engaging in research and development that focuses on luxury products and markets analysis. The Ritz-Carlton hotel uses data from its research to predict the future of the industry; therefore able to dictate what and how the market will trend in the foreseeable future. Another factor that keeps the organization’s advantage over its rivals is that while rivals tend to become a hotel brand in the industry, Ritz-Carlton has rather position itself to be a leader and lifestyle brand that constantly develop new properties and ensure that customers live the culture of the hotel. The final factor that has kept the advantage of the organization intact is the culture of trust that exists between the management and employees. The leadership of the hotel lives and communicates the organization’s value to its employees who in turn satisfy customers in a way that they often anticipate a return visit. These are some of the reasons that the Ritz-Carlton hotel continued advantageous environment over its rivals has persisted in the hotel and resort industry (Reiss,