Brand Position

Marriot International chain that is based in the United States is among the largest transnational corporations across the globe. By spreading across the world rapidly, Marriot has a goal that aims at winning and retaining the first position when it comes to the hotel market. Additionally, it seeks to show special concern to its customers, shareholders, staff, and the society in general. The corporation’s business is founded on the basic ideas of the service offered to the guests, staff, and the society. The report will seek to explore Marriot International’s target markets, ownership structure, and the brand characteristics.

Marriott corporate style’s components are the corporation’s website, accessories, fonts, logo, brand perfumes, letterhead, and colors. The company’s logo is a rectangle that contains a sphere’s image with the inscription “Marriott”. The logo is designed in two primary colors which are white and cherry, as well as golden (Alon, Ni and Wang, 2012, pp.381). A recognizable and well-established corporate style is the factor that determines the company’s brand promotion in the world market.

Brand Photos & Logos – Marriott News Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://news.marriott.com/media/brand-photos-logos/

For instance, when the company was developing a program that focused on promoting a network of hotels in Moscow, the corporation made use of its logo and the brand image (“Brand Photos & Logos – Marriott News Center,” n.d.). The brand image is the Faberge Easter eggs famous image that embodies prestige, high consumer value, and luxury which can be compared to the most expensive and the most fashionable jeweller.    

The 19 Most Beautiful Fabergé Eggs for a Dream Easter Basket. (2016, March 24). Retrieved from https://www.vogue.com/article/easter-basket-beautiful-faberge-eggs 

Such kind of approach in creating the corporate style can be regarded as being competent and thoughtful (“19 Most Beautiful Fabergé Eggs for a Dream Easter Basket,” 2016). By making use of the common historical and cultural brands including the country’s national colors, the corporation definitely improves the hotel marketing brand image, combining services’ best high international standards using the country’s national peculiarities not forgetting its traditional hospitality.

Nonetheless, all Marriott’s hotel chain’s rooms contain branded pens and branded forms for letters containing the company’s name. All these rooms make use of Marriott hotels’ brand linens and brand aromatic policy. Additionally, as a result of the current advancements in internet and the e-mail correspondences, corporate style’s issue regarding electronic documents has become of concern (Park, Jeong and McCleary, 2014, pp.102). The first thing that a potential guest sees in the present world is a company’s website. The website assists by creating an impression about the hotel’s level, make estimations on locations, services offered, restaurants, room estimates, and make bookings.

Star Ranking

Hotels & Resorts | Book your Hotel directly with Marriott. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/default.mi 

Marriott International is regarded to be an AAA Four and Five Diamond award-winning corporations having an array of 5-star accommodations around the world. All of its hotels and resorts surpass the expectations as well as offering unmatched services.

Target market or audience are described by use of various socio-demographic indicators. This calls for an understanding of the target audience’s lifestyle, hobbies, and habits. Marriott International Company uses the socio-economic technique for segmentation (Wang, Chen and Chen, 2012, pp.120). The criteria entail selecting the consumers’ segments based on common trips’ motivations and purposes, income level, status and the social affiliation, and the spending level. Based on trips’ objectives, there are several groups that exist which are travelers: tourists going for vacations and trips, business travelers, and event organizers among others. Thus, the first target market for the company is differentiated into business travelers as well as non-business travelers (Niewiadomski, 2015, pp.175). Thus, it is true to say that Marriott International Company has its target markets based on geographic location, demographic characteristics, and personal characteristics.

The company’s present and potential guests are distributed into two primary groups. The first group consists of the local community who are in need of services such as business weddings, business meetings, baptisms and other events (Huang and Cai, 2015, pp.437). The other group is identified depending on the geographic establishment that consists of the tourists and the travelers, both international and national. The primary services that are sought by this group are accommodation. According to the personal features, the guests are further subdivided depending on their income, age, and lifestyle.

Marriott International Company is among the leading global lodging corporations having more than 6,500 properties which are located across 127 nations and territories. All these properties reported a revenue that is above $22 billion in the 2017 fiscal year. The company’s general directorate is located in Washington, D.C in Maryland. The corporation has continued acquiring new hotel chains. The company owns a 49% share of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, including the brand Renaissance Group (Andreani, Sumargo and Lie, 2012, pp.161). The company has over 16 distinct brands that cover the almost all the niches within the hotel market, thus offering accommodation that is affordable both to the business travelers and the tourists and to the discerning public, they are offered luxury hotels’ services. Marriott’ continued success and reputation as a result of its standards of delivering services and the company’s moral values, including the fact that it avails high level of standards which are given to the guests. The company is found in North America, Asia, Pacific, Australia, the Caribbean, Latin America, United Kingdom, Ireland, Middle East, Africa, Continental Europe, Central Germany, Western and Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe.

Target Market

Marriott: hotels worldwide 2017| Statistic. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/247285/number-of-marriott-international-hotels-worldwide/

The company manages and avails franchiser of hotels which are grouped under brands such as Marriot, Residence Inn, Renaissance, JW Marriot, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, Ritz-Carlton, Springhill Suites, Ramada International, and TownePlace Suites.

About Marriott Hotels | Marriott Corporate Business Information. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi

The primary products and services that are offered by the Marriott Company are hotels, resorts, boutique hotels, and Hospitality Management Company (Wong and Wickham, 2015, pp.447). Marriott hotel’s main products are leisure services, accommodation, and F&B. the primary brands which Marriot International offers are extended-stay lodging, timeshare, full-service lodging, Great America’s Park, and select-service lodging. The form of service is the company’s primary product which is offered in all of its properties. The lodging element which consists of reception, room, restaurant, valet, and auxiliary services is Marriott’s core service.

The company’s primary service is remaining in the market through provision of lodging services. For the primary services which are needed by the guests, they as well require additional services. These supporting services consist of facilitating services and check-in services. These supporting services assist the guests to effectively use and consume the primary product.

Marriott Hotel Brands | Marriott International. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/marriott-brands.mi

Executive Leadership – Marriott News Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://news.marriott.com/p/executive-leadership/

Marriott’s International management structure is as shown above. It is headed by Marriot Jr. as the Chairman and the CEO. William Shaw is the Vice President and the General Manager. James Sullivan is the EVP in lodging development (“Executive Leadership – Marriott News Center,” n.d.). Arne Sorenson is the EVP Chief Financial Officer. John Marriot is the Vice Chairman, Joel Eisemann the EVP Owner and Franchise Services, Bradley Wood is the SVP Risk Management and the management structure continues. Down to the first line employees.

The company’s history is an embodiment of the American dream. John Marriott from Utah, at the age of 26 years opened the eatery that consisted of nine seats in Washington in May 1927. John’s business including his lucky fortune assisted him in surviving the U.S. economy during the great depression. At the age of 30, he owned The Shoppe Inc. which was a regional restaurant chain.

Marriott History | History of the Marriott Family. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/culture-and-values/marriott-family-history.mi

This eponymous firm specialized in delivering hot meals to passengers in the local airlines. In 1957, John acquired his first hotel called Twin Bridge Marriott Motor Hotel. The hotel was located in Arlington (Virginia). John’s intention was to create a family business, which he eventually handed to his son the company’s management. The son, Marriot Jr. carried out the business as good as his father.

Number and Location of Properties

The company was later renamed to Marriott Corporation in 1964. This corporation expressed its interest in everything which was associated with the hotel business and the restaurant. In 1977, all the enterprises that had been franchised by the corporation crossed a sales revenue of $1 billion and Marriott Jr. recognized that property management did not bring fewer benefits than it is owning. By the end of the 80’s the company had established its own hotel network’s concept. In the U.S., it operated in three hotel market’s sector: Marriott Suites, Residence Inn, and Fairfield Inn.

History. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriottranch.com/history

By the early 90’s the company had a few dozen hotels that were located outside the U.S.A. In 1992, the company was split into two firms which are: Marriot International that dealt with real estate and hotel management. The second company was Host Marriot that dealt with delivering food and real estate business (“History,” n.d.). This was the moment that laid the beginning of the Marriot International in the global market. The split was among the key changes that the company underwent. After the split, the company was to focus more on management contracts, including franchise agreements. To date, most of the company revenue is generated from the franchisees and management services (Quintana, Park and Cabrera, 2015, pp.473). This has helped the company to reduce risks that are associated with owning hotels. The split also resulted in major changes in the company’s management structure. For example, every division was to have its own administrative system and the board of directors.

Bill Marriott, the company’s longest CEO stepped down in 2011 and Arne Sorenson took over. This resulted in a critical change in the management style. Historically, Bill has been termed to be a hands-on manager, a style which was predominantly inspired by his father, the company’s founder (JW Marriott Grand Rapids, 2018). Bill’s management style was mainly characterized by mainly leading from the front, a micromanagement’s significant degree, and an inclusive as well as a participatory decision-making. His style was employee oriented which generated positive staff outcomes. On the other hand, Sorenson, the first non-family to become the company’s CEO was a hands-off manager. His style is mostly characterized by autonomy and delegation and he believes that the corporation needs to be decentralized.

  The company’s tremendous success is a good evidence of its effective management. This success is an indication of sound decision-making and appropriate strategizing. The hostel sector is faced with several challenges such as changing consumer taste and preferences as well as terrorism (Taylan, Varinli and Kitapci, 2014, pp.481). However, Marriott International has successfully weathered these problems over the years and has grown from a small family company to an international hotel chain. Hence, this may an indication of proper management within the organization.

Category of Properties

Conclusion

Marriott International successfully dominates the hotel market since it is successful in managing hotels globally. Hotels that are managed by the company develop to become large hotels that contain shops and business centers, in-line and butlers, restaurants, and room service. The hotels within its chain are characterized by having the same service. This is founded on a clear interaction between all of the company’s structures and tight control which is maintained by the head office. Over the recent years, the company has shown development’s positive dynamics and is rapidly spreading its chain across the world based on franchise contracts. This practice inclusive of an innovative approach to guest recognition technologies, a constant increase in service levels, global hotel marketing personnel training, and Marriott’s Reward program, has assisted the company to remain among the top five hotel chains globally.

About Marriott Hotels | Marriott Corporate Business Information. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi

Alon, I., Ni, L. and Wang, Y., 2012. Examining the determinants of hotel chain expansion through international franchising. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(2), pp.379-386.

Andreani, F., Sumargo, Y. and Lie, C., 2012. The influence of customer relationship management (CRM) on customer loyalty in JW Marriott hotel surabaya. Jurnal manajemen dan kewirausahaan, 14(2), pp.156-163.

Brand Photos & Logos – Marriott News Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://news.marriott.com/media/brand-photos-logos/

Executive Leadership – Marriott News Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://news.marriott.com/p/executive-leadership/

History. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriottranch.com/history

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Hotels & Resorts | Book your Hotel directly with Marriott. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/default.mi

Huang, Z.J. and Cai, L.A., 2015. Modeling consumer-based brand equity for multinational hotel brands–When hosts become guests. Tourism Management, 46, pp.431-443.

JW Marriott Grand Rapids. (2018). History | JW Marriott Grand Rapids. [online] Available at: https://ilovethejw.com/about/history [Accessed 15 Aug. 2018].

Marriott History | History of the Marriott Family. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/culture-and-values/marriott-family-history.mi

Marriott Hotel Brands | Marriott International. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/marriott-brands.mi

Marriott: hotels worldwide 2017| Statistic. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/247285/number-of-marriott-international-hotels-worldwide/

Niewiadomski, P., 2015. International hotel groups and regional development in Central and Eastern Europe. Tourism Geographies, 17(2), pp.173-191.

Park, J., Jeong Kim, H. and McCleary, K.W., 2014. The impact of top management’s environmental attitudes on hotel companies’ environmental management. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 38(1), pp.95-115.

Quintana, T.A., Park, S. and Cabrera, Y.A., 2015. Assessing the effects of leadership styles on employees’ outcomes in international luxury hotels. Journal of Business ethics, 129(2), pp.469-489.

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Taylan Dortyol, I., Varinli, I. and Kitapci, O., 2014. How do international tourists perceive hotel quality? An exploratory study of service quality in Antalya tourism region. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(3), pp.470-495.

The 19 Most Beautiful Fabergé Eggs for a Dream Easter Basket. (2016, March 24). Retrieved from https://www.vogue.com/article/easter-basket-beautiful-faberge-eggs

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Wong, T. and Wickham, M., 2015. An examination of Marriott’s entry into the Chinese hospitality industry: A Brand Equity perspective. Tourism Management, 48, pp.439-454.