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holiday inn Marketing communication strategy
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PLAN
1. Introduction
A brief introduction of the Integrated Marketing communication strategy
A briefing about the Holiday Inn
A thesis statement that gives a skeleton or rather a sketchy detail about the whole essay
2- Body
A theoretical argument of the various strategies integrated together to form a single more comprehensive marketing strategy
A practical example of each of the theoretical strategy drawn from the Holiday inn
3- Conclusion
A wrap up statement about the body, now summing up the whole essay
Integrated marketing communication strategy
Integrated marketing communication strategy is a comprehensive strategy that involves the well-coordinated use of different product promotional methods to achieve the firms marketing objectives. The comprehensive combination of the varying product promotional methods is seen as more viable as each of them reinforces the other. Various communication disciplines which include; advertising, public relations and sales promotions are coordinated together in a bid to articulate the firm’s marketing strategy in the most ample and best way (Holm, 2006, 22). This creates a greater impact than that which would have been created if each of the strategies were use in a segregated manner.
Most businesses in the contemporary world have adapted this new marketing strategy with an aim of boosting their total sales volume, maintaining a large customer base and attracting new customers. Holiday Inn is a transnational chain of hotels and forms part of the famous British based Intercontinental Hotel Group (Stuart, 2012, 13). The chain of hotels is one of the globe’s leading with over three thousand five hundred outlets which are scattered all over the world. The creation of this chain of hotels is a brain child of Emmons Wilson after he encountered a disappointment with the level of service that was being offered by road motels during one of his road trips.
Wilson’s chief aim was to leave a legacy in the hospitality industry by modifying and improving on the quality of service offered in the industry. True to his expectations, he walked the talk and his efforts bore fruits. Years down the line what started as a single hotel had now sprouted into a chain with plentiful outlets and had been branded as the Nations Inn keeper. The chain set a standard for its competitors like Quality and Ramada Inns (Stuart, 2012, 13). The company later intruded into other form of services. This includes medical and nursing homes, a media company, clubs and resorts. The success of the company was not received on a silver platter. It has been as a result of application of sound strategies and policies in each and every activity of the company.
The Holiday Inn’s accomplishments have been as a result of a wide market research which has enabled them to keep abreast with the numerous changes in the marketing strategies. The ultimate goal of production is sale and in large volumes. The Holiday Inn being a producer of both goods and services has been incorporating uprising strategies into their marketing strategies aim a bid to maintain the competitive advantage they already have at hand. They have amalgamated the use of various strategies in promoting their products which includes advertising, modifying the organization’s culture, public relations and pricing (Stuart, 2012, 14). The combination of these strategies has absolutely resulted in great prosperity of the company. The combination of various marketing strategies which is technically referred to as integrated marketing communication has been cultivated in the Holiday Inn as illuminated below.
One of the most integral parts of marketing in a firm is the internal organization of the company in question (Kelvin and Philip, 2005, 23). The sustained practices in a company are referred to as the organization’s culture. The culture of an organization comprises of the values, the vision, the systems, the symbols, the beliefs, the norms, the working language and the habits of the human resources who are part of the organization. As the saying goes, charity begins at home. A desirable and a virtuous organization culture are very vital in promoting their products. It is the foundation of all the other marketing strategies that are applied by the organization.
Each firm is partitioned into a number of departments whereby each is tasked with a varying chore to the other. Coordination of the various departments is extremely important to the achievement of the company’s mission and vision and specifically in marketing. The most imperative aspects of the organization’s culture are; the organizations vision and mission, the attitude and behavior of the workforce as well as the owners and the communication network within the organization. The mission and the vision in an organization act as a mirror that enables all the stakeholders of the organization to reflect their performances (Shaw, 2011, 124). It acts as a streamliner of all undertakings in the organization towards the same direction of achieving a given objective. The attitude and the behavior of the workforce as well as the owners are also very important in creating a good working environment in the business. The flow of information in the firm is also very imperative.
When it comes to marketing, the company should set an impressive mission statement which is achievable and attractive to the customers. The core objective of this mission statement would be to rationalize the actions of each staff and the owners towards achievement of what it stipulates. Coining of the mission statement should be done in the most creative way considering the market requirements and prospective customer’s preferences and needs (Kwoka, 2007, 56). Achievement of the mission would absolutely result in the realization of the set marketing goals. The workers attitude as well as that of the owners is also very importance. A friendly and a warm relationship between the organizations staff as well as the owners should be cultivated to ensure a smooth running of the organization. Smooth running of the organization would in turn result in attainment of the marketing objectives that have been set by the organization. A proper communication within the organization should also be fostered. This would hence allow free interaction of the different departments. The free flow of information would hence facilitate formulation of sound marketing decisions as well as their implementation.
The Holiday Inn chain of hotel’s mission statement is: “We are committed in providing our guests with the best experience”. Their vision is to offer a world class service to their clientele (Stuart, 2012, 13). These two statements are appealing to the customers and each person anticipates getting the exemplary experience. On the other hand, the statements act as motivating factors to the staff of the chain of hotels. Each worker strives hard to ensure that the two are achieved. The mother company’s management has also strived hard to improve on the attitude of their workers. They have been motivating them through forums as well as rewards which have resulted in more hard work among the workers. This has been a boost to the promotion strategies employed by the company. The company has also developed a system which allows free movement of important information in the company. This has also been efficient in facilitating the making of complex and comprehensive decisions in marketing as well as other scopes.
The other important aspect of marketing that is being amalgamated to others to make marketing more comprehensive is advertising. In the present day, advertisement techniques have advanced by a great deal due to progressions in technology (Donald and Kenneth, 2012, 156). Copious platforms that are yielding advertisement opportunities have cropped up. Most of the platforms are Information Communication technology based. These platforms include the internet and marketing software and applications. Currently in the world a better part of the total world’s population is having access to internet through gadgets such as mobile devices and handheld gadgets such as tablets. These advancements have opened up abundant fronts of reaching current as well as prospective customers. Internet marketing has not only enabled dissipation of information on a company’s products but also has also opened doors for the customer’s feedback. Behavioral advertising has facilitated most companies to evaluate the market requirements by tracking their behavior over the internet.
To ensure an all-round marketing other advertisement forums like print and tele-advertising are also essential (Stephen and Robert, 2004 12). They seal any loopholes that might have been left by the technological advertisements. This comprises the use of newspapers, pamphlets, journals, magazines, periodicals and leaflets to promote the products offered by an organization. Readers in most cases are influenced by appealing advertisements on the print media and are predisposed to give a trial.
The Holiday Inn has effectively used the advertisement platforms to seduce more customers. They have even sought the services of a marketing media research company to assist them create the best advertisement portfolio. The company has created their own smartphone application that is bringing their services closer to their clientele. The application has an inbuilt global positioning system that enables their customers to trace their premises wherever they are. In advertising the hotel is outstanding in that it unites all the means conceivable. Besides using the ICT based advertisements, this chain of hotels also uses the print media to create awareness of their quality services to unaware people. This includes magazines and pamphlet which they spread all over the world. The usage of innumerable media platforms has enabled it to build brand loyalty among its customers (Stuart, 2012, 14)
Other important aspects of marketing that are important in making it more all-inclusive are pricing, product value and the public relations. For efficient marketing to be achieved the product prices must be friendly and the products should be of the best quality. Giving the customers value for their service is very important in enticing more purchases (Deepak and Singh, 2002, 7). The way the organization relates to the public is also essential in construction of the marketing image of an organization.
The Holiday Inn has been a mid-priced hotel despite its international ratings. They have been offering their clients the best service since time immemorial. The company has also taken a very friendly approach in its dealings with the public. It has also been involved in charitable activities hence creating a good public image. The company has also been involved in other promotional activities including provision of gifts, offers and hampers to their loyal customers (Stuart, 2012, 14). This integration of numerous approaches in marketing has truly enabled it to be miles ahead of other inns.
The consideration of the combination of the above stated factors including the organization culture, the advertisement techniques, the pricing techniques, the product quality, promotional techniques and public relations is a nutshell, the integrated marketing communication strategy (IMCS). Integration of all these techniques, just as the Holiday Inn chain of Hotels has done is referred to as Integrated Marketing communication strategy.
Donald, B and Kenneth, E., 2012. Cases in management. Monroe: Sage Publishers.
Deepak, S and Singh, J. (2002). Consumer trust, value and loyalty in relational changes. Journal of Marketing: American Marketing Association. Volume 66, issue 1.
Elliot, S. (August 7, 2012). Integrated strategizing: The Holiday Inn. The New York Times. Pages 13 and 14
Holm, O. (2006). Integrated marketing communication: From tactics to strategy. Corporate communication, An International journal. Volume 11, issue 1. Pages 22-33.
Kelvin, K, Philip, K. (2005) Marketing management. (14th ED). New Jersey
Prentice Hall Pearson.
Kwoka, J., 2007. Large firm dominance and the price cost margins. Southern economic journal. Volume 78. Issue 17. Pages 12-35.
Michael, H., 2009. An introduction to marketing. London: Routledge.
Shaw, S., 2011. 2011. Strategic marketing. Farnham: Ashgate
Saxena, R., 2010. Marketing management and principles. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Stephen, R and Robert, F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing: American marketing Association. Volume 68, issue 1. Pages 2-8.
Holden and Brazil
Holden and BrazilIntroduction
Foreign direct investment can be termed as an investment made by an institution based in a country, into an institution based in another country. Direct foreign investments significantly differ from indirect investments on matters such as portfolio flows in which overseas companies invest in equities listed on the stock exchange of a nation. Units making direct investment have significant degree of control and influence over the institution into which investment is made. Open economies that have good growth prospects and skilled workforces tend to endear larger amount of foreign direct investment than countries with many limitations. Brazil is one such country that has prospects of openness in economy due to the democratic nature of the country. Companies from neighboring countries are drifting towards Brazil through direct foreign investments. An automotive industry in Holden has a choice to make between two countries for the reason of investing directly in one or both countries. Before a choice is made, the industry has to examine both countries so as to come up with a sound decision on foreign direct investment in those countries. The main investment that the Holden industry intends to invest in is a car manufacturing industry. The purpose of the industry is to spread its wings of market share within the South America. The analysis will be based on political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental aspects. This paper looks at each and every point with reference to the two nations.
Environmental analysis of the potential overseas market
Democracy in Brazil is the biggest driver for many economies which have chosen to directly invest in it. Its constitutional rules and recent reforms endear institutions into country. Moreover, it is ranked among the world’s biggest economies due to its market stability. The current state of Brazil is owed to the progressive liberalization of its market that began in 1991. The county is opened to foreign investors and its business laws treat both local and foreign firms with equal measure.
The current growth in foreign investments in Brazil has subjected the country to develop in its industrial sector. The country has industries that range from automobile manufacturing to textile to transport equipment to chemical products, as we as footwear, automobile parts, iron ore, general electronics, coffee, soya beans, and much more. The rate of industrialization in the country coupled with good government policies has attracted many foreign investors and encouraged local people to invest.
Based on the above analysis, Holden, which is an automotive industry, is better placed to invest in Brazil. The equal treatment of industries as well as developing, transport equipment and automobile manufacturing, sectors highly favors Holden. According to a report by the World Bank it takes an industry 150 to 411 days to get a construction permit in Brazil. This is after passing through eighteen rigorous procedures. However, the country offers strong financial and fiscal incentives for Greenfield Investment, cover tax-holiday, site preparation and infrastructure. The country also suffers from skilled labor shortage and its investments go hugely to education sector so as to increase the skilled personnel. The above factors put into consideration; Brazil is one of the best places to directly invest in.
Economic and financial
Holden needs to be very critical when taking economic and financial implications of their investment into consideration. Business expansion entails financial utilization for the industry to begin investing in Brazil. It means a work plan has to be tabled. The work plan is usually accompanied by a budget to support it. Economic factors have to be considered too. All of these considerations are aimed at reducing the risk of direct foreign investment in Brazil. If the business is too risky, then investment ceases.
Brazil has benefitted from effective macroeconomic framework that began around 1990. Its performance after the Global financial Crisis is remarkable. The current statistics, 2010, of Brazil indicate that the GDP growth for the country lies at 7.5 %. This is the highest ever in the past 20 years. The value dropped to 3.5% in 2012. The reason for the current economic growth is owed to the cuts in taxes levied on small cars and light commercial vehicles. Moreover, low interest rates have on the automobile industry has led to the growth of the sector. Research show that between 1995 and 2001, the amount of Australian organizations increased from five to twenty-five. This showcases the growth of Brazilian economy in that period. Oil production in the country has also increased in the recent past and this placed Brazil within the top ten countries of the world in oil reserves. Holden will benefit greatly from the growing oil industry.
Cultural and social
Culture can be termed as a set of practices and beliefs that people living or staying in a particular place profess. Some scholars put it as a mixture of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and much more. Moreover, culture has been defined as a system of ideas that define and give meaning to the way of living (Jaeger, 1964). Culture in this case is seen as a system of norms and values that that is consistent and occurring within a group or society.
For any form of business, culture of its customers, employees, competitors, suppliers and other stakeholders must be considered. Customer preferences must be prioritized. Holden will be greatly affected if it does not place culture among important things before embarking on the investment in Brazil. The main reason is because culture varies in the South American region and in order to maximize on the business market, culture must be carefully studied.
Brazil is a very populous country with approximately 205 million people. The population is comprised of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. These people are of European, African, and Asian origins among others. Portuguese culture is much present in the country as the country was colonized by Portuguese. Germans followed Portuguese and settled in the Southern part of the country. Italians are mostly found in the South Eastern part of the country. The above few scenarios expose the diverse cultures that are present in Brazil. Cultural diversity has always been thought as a positive thing in terms of economic growth. Brazil, however, has developed a very strong caste system based on skin color. Darker skins colored people are associated with inferior caste systems. Despite all these, Portuguese remains the official language with businesses conducted mainly through Portuguese. The social culture of Brazil is based on the family concept. There is high unemployment in Brazil which has resulted in many cases of urban crime and corruption.
Holden has to consider all the cultural and social practices that are present in Brazil so as to augur well with its market dynamics.
Hofstedes Culture Dimensions
Hofstede’s Culture Dimensions
Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory tries to describe some effects of cultures in the society on values of the members, as well as how the stated values are related to the behavior of its members by using structures that have been derived from the factor analysis. The main purpose of the Hofstede’s theories on the cultural dimensions is that, the theory helps researchers in collection of data for a particular study and it has also been widely used in various fields for the researches, more so in the cross-cultural psychology and cross-cultural communication.
The original model of Hofstede’s was developed as a result of using a factor analysis for examining the world-wide survey results of the employees, making the theory to be one of the first theory to be quantified, and could be sometimes used for explaining the observed differences flanked by cultures. In his work, Hofstede has managed to establish research traditions in the psychology in cross-cultural along with being drawn upon by different researchers in various fields related to the international business and communication. This has continued to be the major resources in the cross cultural fields. His work has also inspired other cross-cultural studies of different values and researches on the aspects of social beliefs entailing culture.
The method used by Hofstede for data collection included two different types of multivariate statistical analysis. These included the discriminant data analysis for the Ng et al.‘s and the factor analysis for the Hofstede data. However there were some problem issues that came up from the factor analysis. For instance, take a case where someone uses data analysis for the Ng et al.‘s, in this case, a full matrix of 10 cultural groups and value items can be still performed using a factor analysis by getting the mean scores of all the value items for each cultural group. However one problematic issue of using a factor analysis is that, there is a great concern to the number of the factors that is to be extracted.
The analysis and findings of this research has been derived from the primary research such as collecting data from Ng et al.‘s and Hofstede . The analyzed data findings are then compared to the findings sampled from the literature review so as to help the researchers to understand the differences as well as the similarities brought about Hofstede’s study in his work. In summary, Hofstede’s work, the cultural dimension is about some of the effects of the cultures in different societies and how the culture itself relates to ones behavior using structures derived from factor analysis.
Relevance of the paper
There are many cross cultural studies that are being done by many researchers. The paper is relevant since it is important to validate a particular study against another .the validation that is presented in the paper is therefore very important for cross cultural researchers. The paper is relevant since it takes into account the comparison between two cross cultural research studies that have been done by different researchers. Significant correlations exist even in results that had been obtained using different methods of analysis hence an indication that there is a relationship between the results (Hofstede & Bond 1984). The paper clearly shows the cultural dimensions that exist evidenced by the existing correlation between the results obtained by the different researchers. It is important for one to be aware of the cultural differences; this is because culture can be a potential conflict source rather than synergy. The paper is therefore relevant since it gives an insight on how to apply the theory that has been put forward. The practical applications include the understanding of international business. This is in aspects such as international communication, international negotiation and management.
Theoretical framework
The theoretical framework of the paper is Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The cultural dimensions that were to be used as variables include power distance, uncertainty, individualism versus collectivism and masculinity versus femininity. This dimensions were thus to form the theoretical framework to be used in the research. The findings would them be compared to those of Hofstede and a correlation determined.
Methodological choice
The methodology chosen was debatable since putting into use an instrument that had been designed and tested for use within a country into another country and further comparing the results is an issue that can be debated upon. A comparison between the two methods of analysis used by Ng et al and Hofstede showed that the one used by Ng et al was problematic however the results that were got still showed correlation between the findings from the two different methods used (Hofstede & Bond 1984).
Data against findings
When a comparison is made between Ng et al finding and that of Hofstede there can be an association that is established which an example of synergy that exists between cross-cultural studies. The synergy content however is limited due to the fact that the researchers used different research instruments. In spite of the existing limitations of the methods used there are still four dimensions that are significantly correlated. This significant correlation between the dimensions is added knowledge by the paper. The information is presented in an organized way with headings and tables clearly indicated and hence easy understanding.
Reference
Hofstede G and Bond M. (1984). Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology: An Independent Validation Using Rokeach’s Value Survey Hofstede’s Culture Dimensions.