Rapid Growth Of Word Of Mouth Essay

Word-of-mouth is the major factor to help people make decisions on buying high-involvement products (Gu, Park, & Konana 2012, p. 182).

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.

| Enterprise has chosen a powerful tool for advertising, a referral source (word of mouth). By building personal connections with mechanics (who then advised their own customers to rent a car from Enterprise), the company was able to build a strong network in the industry. It earned a strong market position for the company. It has also created loyal customers, and partners. Furthermore, it resulted in lower costs and larger profits for Enterprise

Word of mouth can help build a successful client base because it expands the chance of being recommended to new clients without costing money.

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,

Marriott is renowned for its elegant and comfortable hotels and resorts. The company caters to a targeted customer base, ranging from the frequent corporate business traveler to the family enjoying their occasional weekend get-away. Marriott has continued its rise in the lodging, contract services, and restaurant industries. The company continuously strives to meet the needs and wants of its customers while strategically maneuvering the rigors of today’s competitive and ever-evolving market of glamorous destinations and convenient services. In order to remain relevant in a highly-competitive environment, Marriott must strike that successful balance of minimizing costs, and gaining and effectively

Customers are the backbone of every business which is why building a solid relationship is essential to the success of every business. In order to remain competitive companies must be able to meet the needs and wants of their customers. With new hotels and casinos on the rise in the Caribbean, the hotels and casinos operated under Diamond Cluster Entertainment are struggling to remain competitive. Their competitors are making themselves known via social media and other online marketing strategies. This company is ignoring the importance of social media which is why they are struggling to remain competitive and build a solid relationship with their loyal customers. Their competitors are also investing in loyalty programs that offer customers free rooms, room upgrades, casino credits, and other perks.

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

TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site, it enables potential customers to see other opinions before they part with their cash. TripAdvisor has over 60 million visitors per month looking through over 75 million reviews of hotels and restaurants. The site operates in 30 countries worldwide making it a powerful and unstoppable force. Tripadvisor.co.uk (2013) The next review site that even comes close to TripAdvisor is booking.com with a mere 14 million reviews per month compared to the review giant of TripAdvisor.

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.

In order to deal with ways to sustain Wyndham’s competitive advantage built by the ByRequest initiative, we first need to get acquainted with its business values; Wyndham’s ByRequest program created a comfortable and memorable upscale guest experience and shaped recognition in the industry from a customer service standpoint. Being still a relatively new program, the company was limiting its focus on analysis and thus conducted limited historical study and no collection of a typical demographic data like age, income etc. But while its impact on revenues was still small, it was a success in defining Wyndham’s brand. In order to keep and even extend this current competitive advantage over time, the company needs to leverage its growing

Hospitality Management is a difficult and competitive market, and any lack in customer service can result in defecting customers or the termination of a relationship between a customer and a service provider. In this paper we will look at Hilton a company that has continually ranked amongst the top ranking hotels and continues to improve. Hilton’s customer service ranks as one of the top hospitality providers in the United States. We will look at the history of how Hilton came to be the name brand it is today and some of their process the used to narrow the customer service gaps such as Hilton Honors, the Hiltons Reservation Customer Care, and RESMAX. We will look at how they look at how Hilton manages the customer expectations through the use of employee training and their decreased the customer service gap through employee retention. We will also look as how Hilton co-partnered with Citibank in order to offer its Hilton Honors member additional benefits in order to keep in line with the customer service that the customers have come to expect.

Marriott is a multi brand company with a Global Portfolio that providing lodging that fit within many market segments. This report will discuss briefly Marriott’s Portfolio of hotels, what they do, briefly examine a number of their key marketing strategies and examine how they are implemented, measured and ask the question does this make them market leaders?

As a primary worldwide provider of travel-related services such as rentals, lodging, conference facilities, and timeshare exchange, Wyndham Worldwide has overcome inconsistent branding strategy, unstable mergers, and acquisitions, as well as the 2008 economic recession to retain its top position in the industry. An internal and external analysis of the company, opportunities, and threats faced by the firm, its competitive advantage, and a strategic focus reveal the issues that need to be addressed henceforth for it to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive global market. The paper provides a problem statement, alternatives, and recommendations that Wyndham Worldwide can engage.

The important role of e-WOM has and has been acknowledged as the most important communication source between consumers .At its core, WOM is a process of personal influence, in which interpersonal communications between a sender and a receiver can change the receiver's behavior or attitudes . The role that interpersonal communication plays in influencing opinions has also long been acknowledged by sociologists, who identified the importance of “opinion leaders” in this process. The ability of individuals to influence other people's opinions is of particular interest to organizations seeking to market