Background of Marriott Hotel and Its Competitors

The aim of the report critically analyses the current organisation application of the extended marketing mix and the recommendations for the identifiable service gaps with the help of the SERVQUAL model. The analysis is based on the Marriott hotel that falls under the hospitality industry and believes in the customer delight. The reason behind the selection of the service organisation from the hospitality industry is the boom in the industry. The motive of the company is to lead in the market with the help of its extreme delight services. Though, some of the gaps are still present in the organisations which are essential to be improved by the company.

Marriott International is an American multinational diversified hospitality company which was founded by the J. Willard Marriott in the year 1927 (Marriott Hotel, 2018). Australia is home to a different and wide variety of attractions and activities that mainly include the top nature destinations, excellent cultural and vibrant cities which make the hotel to manage their business operations. The company is also known in the market because of its innovative services which include the heavenly bed and keyless entry in the room. Marriott hotel monitors its services and facilities in the great manner for which they maintain the premium quality of the products. This has been found that Marriott follows the partnership approach which is must to create the different franchisee with the several benefits and incentives that help the partner in accomplishing the goals and objectives.

Service marketing is a broad category of the strategies related to the marketing that mainly focuses on selling anything that is not a physical product. In the current era of the competition, different companies make different strategies with the help of which they are able to survive in the market. Marriott hotel major competitors include Hilton Hotel and Hyatt Group of Hotel (Bhasin, 2018). The analysis of the service marketing is done which include 7p’s for the Marriott hotel in the Australian market: –

(Source: Bhasin, 2018)

Marriott Australia is one of the best- known and prominent luxury hotel chains. The major products of the hotel are divided into the three categories which include core, actual and augmented which include the different services that are offered by the company that include hotels, hospitability management, resorts, lodgings and many others. The product is divided into a dimension which means: –

• Core: – It includes the major products and services that are offered by the company to customers.
• Actual: – The actual product includes the services that are offered to the customers along with the core products.
• Augment: – This product includes the value add-on services which are offered to the customers to complement the actual product.

The core product includes the availability of the luxury room for the stay in day or night which means lodging services. Marriott in Australia not only maintain the hotel but they also deal in resorts, lodging, management and others. The actual product includes the services which are offered by the Marriott to their customers in the Australian market which mainly include reservation service, baggage service, reception, bar, restaurant, pool, spa and many others which are offered by the Marriott to their customers (Bhasin, 2017). In addition, the augmented services which are offered by the hotel mainly includes the employee’s way of talking, their support to customers, personalised services, helping attitude of personnel and many other factors. In addition to this, the customers of the hotel can easily and conveniently access the services which are offered them to their guest.

Application of the Extended Marketing Mix

The service distribution channel is the channel which is followed by the company through which they can make the products and services available to the final customers in the market of Australia. The company has adopted for the mix channel of distribution for their product and services which include direct channel and third-party channel. In the direct channel, they directly offer their products and services to the customers and the third party channel include the intermediate that can help the company in getting the potential customer but these intermediate charge some commission from Hotel (Investopedia, 2018). The examples of the third party which is used by Marriott Company include trip advisor, trivago and many other websites or investors. The reasons behind the selection of this channel of distribution are: –

• Increasing the speed in maintaining the inventory across the different infrastructure to reduce the overall costs.
• One of the reasons behind the selection is to maximize the profit which is essential for the consistent growth and offering the adequate services to the customers at the rising price which remains worth for the company.

Moreover, the company is operating numerous hotels in the Australia market with the name of Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay, Melbourne Marriott Hotel Courtyard by Marriott Sydney-North Ryde and many others. This shows that they are managing their business operations in Australia but at different places. These locations help the Hotel in attracting the customers the most which include the business people and travellers.

Marriott hotel prices are different from the other competitive hotels in terms of the hotels, customers and the location of the hotel. The motive of the Marriott is to deliver the right price for the right product. This shows that they make use of the value-based pricing strategy in which they keep the prices of the product according to the value with the quality framework. Marriott hotel in Australia keep the prices according to the customer demand for the product. This strategy of the company is respected and liked by the customers which become the reason due to which they visit the place when they want. Most of the price conscious customers find that the prices of the Marriott hotel are affordable considering their luxury services.

In addition, this has been found in the analysis that the Marriott product price strategy change with the change in the situation and competitive behaviour as they can keep the competitive strategy for pricing of products. This has been found that the major competitors of the Marriott hotel include Hyatt Hotel Corporation and Hilton hotel. Hyatt hotel makes use of the premium pricing strategy which is very different from the Marriott hotel in Australia market. In this pricing strategy, they ask for the high prices of the customers (MBA Skool, 2018). Similar to this, the Hilton hotel also follows the premium pricing strategy due to which they target the high status and people with the high-income group (Dudovskiy, 2016). This proves that the Marriott pricing strategy is very different than their competitors.

The Product Mix of Marriott Hotel

Promotion is one of the effective tools which is used by most of the service organisation in the market through which the can generate the awareness for the products and service (Grant, 2016). Marriott makes use of different promotional aspects which helps in promoting the products which include: –

• Advertisement: – Marriott in Australia make use of advertisement which includes the videos and campaigns on different social media sites. One of the current and new advertisement campaigns that are brought by the Marriott hotel is related to the “Travel Brilliantly”. In this campaign, the brand shows that it stands out in the market by displaying the unique and design effective services that are offered by the company (Marketing Art Gallery, 2018). This will reflect the customer the reason due to which they should select the Marriott. (Refer Appendix 1)

  

(Source: Marketing Art Gallery, 2018)

• Online website: – The online website of the hotel is very attractive as this helps in showcasing the entire range of products in a detailed manner. This helps the potential and new customers to make the pre-booking for rooms in the easiest way.
• Promotion schemes: – Marriott way of conducting the business is different than other hotels due to which they come up with the attractive schemes and offers which is one of the ways through which they can promote the products easily. These schemes take place according to the season, occasion and other consumer buying behaviour.

All these promotional aspects reflect that in the digital world, the hotels are depended on the digital technology for promoting their products in the market. The use of digital media in an effective manner is one of the ways in which they can attract the maximum customers that are present in the market.

The company knows the importance of serving its customers the best which is only people strategy of the company. In the current era, delivering any kind of services the staff or personnel find that they need to gain the trust of the guest or customers due to which the company provide the training to their staff consistently (Jyoti, Kour & Sharma, 2017). Along with this, the managers motivate the staff to deliver the outstanding services which meet the expectations of the customers. The employees of Marriott are skilled and trained due to which they are able to deliver the effective services to their guest in Hotels. This links the service-profit chain as effective services lead to the growth of business and to the customer satisfaction. This satisfaction is created by the employees who are possible when the employees are satisfied with the company and become loyal. In the end, the satisfied customer leads to the growth and success.

(Source: Hogreve, Iseke, Derfuss & Eller, 2017)

Hotel is proving the employment opportunities to different customers in the market. Moreover, the numbers of employees at the Marriott hotel are increasing in number. According to the data, in the year 2017, the company provided the employment to more than 177,000 people across the world which is less than 2016 because they employed to 226,000 people (Statista, 2018). This shows that employees join the company because they are aware of the benefits and rewards that the company offer to their employees. 

Marriott hotel resorts and lodging buildings reflect the physical evidence of the hotel in Australia. The services which are offered by the Marriott hotel are intangible but the hotel offers the great ambience which attracts the customers or guest and makes their experience memorable. The layout of the hotel is important physical evidence, the hotels of Marriott are designed in such a way that no one gets confused and effect due to its layout as it becomes easy for every customer who visits the place (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).

The Service Distribution Channel

The website of the company is the physical evidence on the online platform that helps the customers in understanding the services which are offered by the company. The website reflects the physical appearance of the company and with the help of a website, guest can identify the prices, services, booking availability, easy accessibility at places and many others (Hollensen, 2015).

Marriott follows the several business processes through which they can ensure the quality of the customer service, booking the hotel rooms, comfortable stay for customers. The company ensure that they effectively meet the needs by following the transparent process through which they can easily see, judge, operate and it is very user-friendly which is appropriate for the online registration of the rooms (Wilson and Gilligan, 2012). The blueprint of the Marriott hotel in the Australian market reflects the working of the company and the set procedure that they follow. The below given is the service blueprint which shows the ways through which the hotel offer the services to their customers. The major elements include: –

• Physical evidence: – Physical evidence includes the elements that actually exist in the hotel and are visible such as parking area, bags, reception, menu, bill counter and many others (Hudson and Hudson, 2017). The process takes place on the daily basis when the customer or guest arrives at the hotel.
• Customer: – The customer plays a vital role in the blueprint as they are the one for whom the company is operating these processes in the hotel. In the hotel, the customer performs numerous activities which include the entry in the hotel and confirm the reservation then proceeding to the room after reaching to the room the ordering of the food and other services is availed by the customers (Chernev, 2018).
• Contact employees: – The contact employees include the people to whom the guest contact when they any service or confirmation. The contact employees include the front stage and backstage within the hotel. The staff members who work as the frontline in the hotel are a front stage but there are many staff members who perform the working which is not visible to guest easily and these staff member work as backstage. 
• Supporting processes: – The supporting process includes the process that is undertaken to support the employees who are performing the operations within the company.

This section of the report includes the service quality model that is SERVQUAL. The model is also known as gap method which is used by the company to measure the gaps in the quality of the services offered by them. This tool is generally used by the manager who manages the service or product in the organisation. The model is the multi-dimensional research instrument that is designed to garn the consumer expectation and perceptions of the service with the five dimensions that are believed to represent the service quality. The service gap model is the most popular model in which the customer satisfaction level is measured by the company in the Hotel industry (Madar, 2014). The major advantage of the model is that it actually allows the management to determine the gaps in service quality on a different level as well as on its external orientation. The model is essential because it evaluated the 5 gaps in the service quality. These gaps include knowledge gap, standards gap, delivery gap, communication gap, satisfaction and delivery gap.

(Source: Manhas and Tukamushaba, 2015)

The above-given diagram is the service gaps model diagram which reflects that 5 major gaps that might take place in the organisation. One of the major gaps that are required to be analysed by every organisation includes the gap between the customer perceived value and customer expected value (Manhas and Tukamushaba, 2015). This gap can be explained considering the gap in the product service and quality of the hotel and the value that they are getting from the employees or personnel of the company.

Pricing Strategy of Marriott Hotel

This model is suitable for the project because this helps the Marriott hotel in Australia to analyse the facts related to the gap due to which the customers of the Hotel are not getting satisfied. Dissatisfied customers can exploit the brand value or reputation of the hotel in the market. This analysis will help the hotel in bringing the improvement in their services which will help them in offering the delight services (Lee, et al 2016). Along with this, the improvement in the services will enhance the reputation in the market. In addition, the model will help in analysing the two important parameters that affect the experience of customers. The company is obliged to analyse the product or service and people that can affect the experience. 

Product/services for analysing gaps

Product and services are one of the essential elements which are required to be considered by the Marriott Australia for analysing gaps because the company is willing to offer the effective services to their customers (Laudon and Laudon, 2016). This analysis will help in deciding the gaps on which the hotel is lacking.

• Guest of hotels has registered many issues related to the product and service that is offered to them. The customer expects that they get the effective and personalised service and the company stay on the promises which are made by them. In the analysis, this has been found, that most of the customers have registered the complaints about not getting the personalised services. These customers were unable to get the attention of the hotel staff which affected their experience in the hotel.
• In addition, customer complaints about the promises which were made by the company while taking the registration (Complaints Board, 2018). Most of the time, the hotel staff make the promises for the refund but they don’t process the same which is one of the negative factors. Manager of the hotels say the customers to wait and they don’t get back till the customer calls them. This issue is increasing due to which the customers think before entering the Marriott hotel.

The analysis reflects that hotel lack in their service of the prompt response to the guest. Along with this, the staffs don’t pay attention to the guest which makes them that they are not valuable. It is the duty of the member to respond on time for which the hotel management need to take the strict steps. The management of the hotel can bound the manager to resolve the complaints in the 3 days which will make the manager take the steps actively. In addition, it is suggested that the Hotel in the Australia market should include some services which make the customer feels that they are valuable and getting the personalised services. It is suggested to offer the daily newspaper with the list of the tourist places where the customer can visit.

People is one of the P among the 7 P’s which has been selected for the analysis of the gaps within the organisation. The reason behind the selection of people for analyses is that they are one who interacts with the customers. Moreover, it is observed Marriott face complaints from the customer for their employees due to which it is essential to analyse the gaps that can affect the working of the Marriott hotel in Australia (Myrden & Kelloway, 2015). Some of the gaps are discussed below: –

• The guest of Hotel expects that the employees will listen and obey all the set instructions but they are unable to do so which has affected their experience many times. This takes place because the employees of the company are not satisfied with the working condition and environment of the Hotel.
• This has been encountered that employees complain about the inappropriate working conditions due to which they feel that they are bounded for making the right decisions.
• In the analysis, this is found that there are an unsuitable evolution and compensation system due to which the employees lack in taking the benefit of same which leads to the dissatisfaction.
• The lack of empowerment and perceived control over teamwork also affects the working of employees within the organisation.
• The staff of Marriott Australia also witnessed that guest doesn’t behave with the personnel nicely. Hotel employees reported that managers of the company need to take the step to protect the inappropriate behaviour from guests (Stone & Matousek, 2018).
• The employees find the guest from different areas due to which they face the language barrier. This makes difficulty for employees as they are not able to understand the proper needs of customers which ultimately affect the experience of guest within the organisation. This reflects the gaps in the customer and employees within the Marriott Australia.

Promotion of Marriott Hotel

Considering the analysis of gaps that are present in the Marriott hotel Australia it is suggested to the company to understand the employees effectively and according to that bring the changes in the structure of the working environment. Marriott hotel needs to set some of the normal standards of working environment that keep employees safe. This will help the Marriott to keep the employees happy and this will increase customer satisfaction. In addition, the company need to redesign the human resource policies and they should provide employment to diverse people who know the different language which helps them in understanding the needs of the customers who belongs to different regions. Moreover, the company should train the employees effectively in case they find those guests are not behaving with them properly. Managers of the company should also know the ways in which they can handle the employees and such customer behaviour effectively.

Conclusion

In the end, it can be concluded that the service organisation Marriott is operating their business activities across the world including Australia. The report includes the analysis of the 7p’s of the Marriott Australia which includes product, price, place, promotion, people, physical evidence and processes. the analysis of the 7p’s of the company reflects that they are able to meet the expectations of the customers or guests in terms of the quality but this it is true that there are some cases where the expectations of the customers don’t meet. This leads to dissatisfaction among the customers towards company which ultimately affect the brand value of the company. Considering this, the use of the service gaps model has been done which on the 2 most important ps due to which the Marriott Australia faces numerous issues or complaints. These 2 P’s include product/services and people as both these elements are considered as most important. Marriott Australia needs to work on these issues or complaints which are essential for enhancing the customer satisfaction which ultimately leads to the rise in the goodwill of hotel in the market.

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