E-marketing Plan For Hilton Worldwide Holding Inc

E-MARKETING PLAN FOR HILTON WORLDWIDE HOLDING INC.

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Course

Date

E-Marketing Plan for Hilton Worldwide Holding Inc.

Introduction

Hilton Worldwide Holding Inc. is a leading and fast-growing hospitality company across

the globe. Hilton Worldwide Holding Inc. was founded in 1919 by Conrad Hilton has remained

competitive and viable in the hospitality market ever since through the innovativeness in its

products, services, and amenities of offers

. At the closure of the 2017 fiscal year, the company

had more than 5,200 resorts, hotels, and timeshare properties located in 105 countries worldwide

and it has 14 primary brands

. The company offers a wide array of hospitality services stemming

from restaurants, fitness and health, relaxing SPA, food and beverages, shopping facilities,

meeting facilities and conference rooms, comprehensive service rooms to concierge services

among others.

According to Oshins, the global hospitality and hotel industry has significantly changed

due to the paradigm shifts resulting from disruptive innovations such as the advancements in the

information communication technology (ICT), the internet, big data analytics, and mobile

technology as well as climate change among others

. It is postulated that internet has a coherent

capacity to increase the market shares of hospitality companies through online reservation

systems and e-marketing. The growth of the internet is a dependable reservation channel,

payment system, and a marketing platform through websites and social media sites

. In the 2017

FY report, the company noted that inability to develop coherent and alternative marketing

strategies can affect its ability to sustainably maintain relations with the current customers as

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Ibid

Oshins, Mike. "Changes in the Hospitality Industry: New Paradigms, Frames, and Perspectives." Boston Hospitality Review

5, no. 2 (20167): 1-13.

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

well as the acquisition of new ones

. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to develop

an e-marketing strategy and plan for the Hilton Hotels.

Situational Analysis

One of the key priorities of Hilton Hotel management is tapping into the potential of

technological advancement by ensuring their clients have an exceptional experience

. The global

hospitality market shifted its traditional booking systems to use of the internet. The hotel noted to

incur significant risks due to interruptions of the ICT systems, websites, and failure to effectively

update the e-commerce based software. According to Grzywaczewski, Iqbal, Shah, & James

search engines marketing (SEM) can significantly expose a company’s website to prospective

visitors by escalating the company’s traffic online

. SEM is believed to be a crucial marketing

tool that can help companies reach their marketing potential. SEM programs such as pay per

click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) are cited to be the most effective as they

substantially enhance return on investment (ROI) generation

. SEO can optimize the visibility

and access of website by improving its performance capacity within the organic listing on a

search engine based on the keyword relevance as opposed to paid adverts. The PPC can

companies decide the keywords or phrases in which their advertisements shall appear in the

advertised links, the program is charged per click by the search engine users and lasts as long as

the company pays

. SEO generates more than 75% of the website traffic while PPC 25%,

Ibid

Grzywaczewski, Adam, Rahat Iqbal, Nazaraf Shah, and Anne James. "E-Marketing Strategy for Businesses." e-Business

Engineering (ICEBE), IEEE 7th International Conference. IEEE, 2010. 428-434.

Ibid

Grzywaczewski, Adam, Rahat Iqbal, Nazaraf Shah, and Anne James. "E-Marketing Strategy for Businesses." e-Business

Engineering (ICEBE), IEEE 7th International Conference. IEEE, 2010. 428-434

companies can tap into to enhance their internet marketing capacity. The traffic created by a

website increases the ROI by attracting more clients

Social media is a key marketing tool for hospitality and tourism companies such as Hilton

Hotels

. Kang notes that online communities are a coherent marketing tool that companies can

use to build their relationships with online customers

1213

. This can be effected through creating

social networking sites accounts such as Facebook fan pages; for instance, the Hilton Facebook

community can be used to share and discuss their experiences with the hotel hence increase its

marketability. In addition, hospitality and tourism companies can use online influencers such as

renowned celebrities in the entertainments sectors to promote marketing of the business

Recently, there has been an increased discussion on the potential of big data analytics in

promoting business decision making, operations, and profitability. Shabani, Munir, and Bose

record that due to a large number of customers in tourism and hospitality sectors and their ever-

changing preferences, huge volumes of data at a high velocity can be collected in real time from

social media

. Big data analytics can be used to analyze the data into meaningful information

that can help in customized marketing, website optimization, forecasting, customer profiling,

Ibid

Yazdanifard, Rashad, and Lim Tzen Yee. "Impact of social networking sites on hospitality and tourism industries." Global

Journal of Human-Social Science: E Economics 14, no. 8 (2014): 1-5.

Ibid

Kang, Juhee. Social media marketing in the hospitality industry: The role of benefits in increasing brand community

participation and the impact of participation on consumer trust and commitment toward hotel and restaurant

brands. Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Iowa State University, 2011.

Ibid

Shabani, Neda, Arslan Munir, and Avishek Bose. "Analysis of Big Data Maturity Stage in Hospitality Industry." arXiv

preprint arXiv:1709.07387, 2017.

Ting, Pei-Ju Lucy, Szu-Ling Chen, Hsiang Chen, and Wen-Chang Fang. "Using Big Data and Text Analytics to

Understand How Customer Experiences Posted on Yelp.com Impact the Hospitality Industry." Contemporary

Management Research 13, no. 2 (2017): 107-130.

customer segmentation and customer relationship management that shall improve the general

marketing strategies of the company

In the legal environment, Hilton noted that’s is business is subject to a myriad of U.S.

federal and state laws as well as foreign laws within the areas of jurisdictions their businesses are

installed. The laws regulate the activities and properties the hospitality firms engage in

. The

hotel must ensure it adheres to the laws and regulation governing the operations of the hospitality

and tourism markets within the areas of operation which vary significantly per nation or region.

Due to increased concerns on climate change and the contribution of hospitality sector on

climate change and environmental degradation, there has been an increased persuasion for the

companies to cut their carbon footprint and embrace e-green and environmentally sustainable

approaches

. The environmental responsibility nowadays is an integral component of all the

management decision and strategies deployed by any company. The tourism and travel industry

contributes about 20% of the total greenhouse emissions, hence Hilton has a vital role in

ensuring it goes green and adopts e-friendly strategies of which e-marketing can help achieve the

objective. Through its ISO 14001 certification denoting environmental management issues and

ISO 50001 certification concerned about energy management standards, the company is bound to

convince the customers through its e-marketing strategies it complies with the objective

In reference to the market environment, Hilton experiences very active and robust

competition. The attractiveness of the hotel's facilities, the quality, and comfortableness of the

amenities, food, guest services, accommodation, conference facilities, pricing, websites and other

Shabani, Neda, Arslan Munir, and Avishek Bose. "Analysis of Big Data Maturity Stage in Hospitality Industry." arXiv

preprint arXiv:1709.07387, 2017.

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Oshins, Mike. "Changes in the Hospitality Industry: New Paradigms, Frames, and Perspectives." Boston Hospitality

Review 5, no. 2 (20167): 1-13.

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

e-marking attributes stir up the competition

. Some of the Hilton’s prime competitors include

the Carlson Rezidor Group, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, Accor S.A., Hyatt Hotels

Corporation, Marriott International, Hongkong, and Shanghai Hotel, Intercontinental Hotel

Group, and the Choice Hotels International

. The e-marketing strategies of the company can be

a crucial competitive advantage factor following a large component of the hospitality marketing

strategies are based on internet and ICT.

SWOT Analysis

Strength

Weakness

Opportunity

Threats

Considered to be one of the leading

and fast growing hospitality

company worldwide.

Failure to be well-informed of

developments and

advancements in the e-

marketing technology

The growth of internet and

ICT tools in business

marketing

Increased competition in

the global hospitality

industry

A long-standing history of providing

quality accommodation, hotel and

hospitality services

Inefficient use of social media

networking sites.

Increased digital and internet

use reliance on clients

Cyber-security issues

Already established relations with

communication networking third-

party companies and other travel

intermediaries.

Ever changing ICT and

interment software

Well maintained, updated and user-

friendly website.

Familiarity syndrome

where clients must

confirm the reservations

Ibid

Strength

Weakness

Opportunity

Threats

with the traditional

booking agents

E-Marketing Strategic Planning

Target Market and Market Segmentation

In operation segmentation, the company has two segments namely the management and

franchise and the ownership segment each having very distinct economic characteristics. The

management and franchise constitute of all the hotels managed under Hilton brand name

stemming from those the company manages on behalf of third-party owners and those managed

by other parties on the behalf of the company

. The ownership segment comprised of the all the

hotels and property owned wholly or leased by the company as well as the consolidated non-

wholly owned entities

. The operation segmentation is key is determining the e-marketing

strategies in that every strategy each segment uses directly affect the market outcome

because

all the hotels have the same brand name.

In reference to geographic segmentation, Hilton Hotels Company categorized its market

into three groups: Americas segment, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) segment and the

Asia Pacific Segment. The America segment is the largest (74%) with over 675,000 rooms,

followed by EMEA with a supply of 105,000 rooms and the Asia Pacific with 68,000 rooms

Kaakinen, Heidi, and Eshita Purkatastha. Online Marketing Of Hospitality Services: Tourist satisfaction with online

accommodation booking. Thesis, Centria University of Applied Sciences, 2011.

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Ibid

Karppinen, Maarit. Strategic marketing plan for a hotel. Thesis, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences, 2011

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Using this information, the hotel can priorities its marketing strategies based on the geographic

differences as well as wants and needs of the market

Regarding the demographic segment, the company receives and attends to an

approximate of 16 million clients across all the age brackets and from all walk of life and race.

Hilton Hotels ever since its establishment it has a reputation of target class and high-end

populations across the globe such as business people, celebrities, high ranking politicians and

professional among others who often seek hospitality at the hotel

. Being a global company it

also targets foreign dignitaries and tourists.

In reference to the psychographic segmentation, which infers to market categorization

based on the lifestyle demand and personal activities, the company has several premises on the

coastal regimes over the globe being the most dominant destination for leisure. It equally has

several inland hotels hence able to meet both the inland and coastal customers. In regard to

behavioral segmentation, Hilton hotels developed 14 brands which customers are able to choose

from based on their knowledge and perceptions about them hence creating a niche for every

client

Positioning

Hilton Hotels have positioned themselves as a leading and fast-growing hospitality

company across the globe in providing an exceptional experience to its clients through its luxury

and lifestyle brands and outstanding online reservation experience

. The position is drawn from

Conrad Hilton vision of “filling the inverse with light and warmth of hospitality” (Hilton Hotels,

Karppinen, Maarit. Strategic marketing plan for a hotel. Thesis, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences, 2011.

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Ibid

Kaakinen, Heidi, and Eshita Purkatastha. Online Marketing Of Hospitality Services: Tourist satisfaction with online

accommodation booking. Thesis, Centria University of Applied Sciences, 2011.

p. 1)

. The position amplified by the company’s mission to make all its clients feel like a family

and enrich their lives with memorable hospitality experience.

Differentiation

The Hilton Hotel company acknowledges the importance of providing the clients with an

experience that meets matches their expectation. Using the e-marketing plan it can increase the

quality of experiences of the guests by promoting the visibility of the 14 brands. The company

has different e-marking options which include its mobile applications, websites and social media

platform linked to the website.

E-Marketing Objective

The general e-marketing objective of Hilton Hotels is to promote the reservation, travel

and hospitality experience on its guests as well as improve its ability to favorably compete for

clients. It also aims at using the e-marketing strategies and tools to ensure the target clients

effectively find services offered by the company to be attractive

. They aim at using online

marketing to proliferate the drive of customers visiting its website and enhance customer loyalty.

E-Marketing mix strategies

a. Product

Hilton Hotel offers a wide array of accommodation, travel, and hospitality services to

both individuals and corporations. The services are offered are subject to their availability; the

reservation is primarily done via online method; however, supplemented by the traditional

booking systems

. Hilton Hotels aimed and is committed to improving its online reservation

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Kaakinen, Heidi, and Eshita Purkatastha. Online Marketing Of Hospitality Services: Tourist satisfaction with online

accommodation booking. Thesis, Centria University of Applied Sciences, 2011

system at all times by enhancing the online reservation system

. The company is cited to ensure

it updates its system and keeps abreast with the development and advancements in the ICT.

b. Pricing

Pricing is an integral component of marketing and customer consumption behavior in that

customers value their money based on the experience they have or anticipate. The hotel has

deployed various price rates basing on the brand and the needs of the customers. E-marketing

pricing strategies can use the seasonal pricing strategies that vary according to the seasons, for

instance, during peak travel seasons the prices can be relatively increased as compared to low

seasons. Price discrimination can also be used where the local residents pay relatively lower rates

compared to foreign tourist. Promotional pricing can be used as well where the quests are

provided with discounted prices during certain periods such as holidays.

c. Place

Place infers to the location. Strategic location and the facilities of a hotel influence the

inflow of guests

. In the e-marketing strategies, the Hotel must ensure it provides a vivid

description of the location of the hotels from vital landmarks such as airports and rail stations

among others as well as sceneries.

d. Promotion

Promotion is the epicenter of the marketing strategies for it denotes the advertisement

strategies. Hilton Hotel can opt to optimize its websites through the search engine optimization

as well as pay-per check programs that shall enable it to increase its online traffic thus exposing

the company to more prospective guests. The company can as well promote its online

community by creating engaging and interesting discussions, sharing attractive content about the

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Karppinen, Maarit. Strategic marketing plan for a hotel. Thesis, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences, 2011.

hotel, encouraging testimonies and use of social media influencers to promote it. For instance,

media personalities are often followed by many people and if they post and share positive

insights about the hotel, it can potentially incentivize some of the followers to visit the hotel and

whom will share the experiences reaching out to more clients. The company should also create

an active and captivating blog that would help selling the services offered by the company as

well as travel advice and motivation to why one should visit the hotels.

Implementation Plan

Strategy

Description

Responsibility

Product

Improving its online reservation system at all

times.

Funds shall be provided by the finance department.

Company ICT expertise along other communication third

parties shall be conducted to improve the reservation

system.

The booking team shall ensure the system works well and

report discrepancies

Frequently updating the website and other

online system and platforms

Finance to allocate funds

The ICT team and other third parties to acquire relevant

software and upgrade the system

The marketing team should ensure the website and social

media sites have an updated website with interesting and

captivating content and discussion about the company.

Pricing

Use seasonal pricing strategy where prices are

varied based on peak and low vacation

seasons

The Marketing team to advertise to the guess the

anticipated price reduction and time frames.

The ICT team to update the prices all the online

platforms.

Strategy

Description

Responsibility

Use the promotional marketing strategy

The Marketing team in conjunction with accounting team

to set the prices and advertise to the guest the anticipated

price reduction and time frames

The ICT team to update the prices all the online platforms

Place

Provide a vivid description of the location of

the hotels from vital landmarks

The marketing team to ensure the location is vividly

denoted on the websites alongside the facilities and

services offered and experiences anticipated.

Promotion

Use of search engine optimization and program

The ICT team to liaise with relevant search engines such

as Google, Yahoo, and Bing among others to make

agreements on how to implement the SEO and PPC

programs

The finance department to pay the search engine

providers for their services

Creation and promotion of online community

through social media platforms such as

Facebook and Instagram Fan pages

The ICT team to ensure the online social media platform

are running well and updated.

The marketing team to ensure the sites have relevant and

captivating content.

Use of social media influencers

The marketing team to identify relevant influencers and

make agreements on how they can help promote the

company

The Finance to pay in case any charges were agreed upon

Create an active and captivating blog

The ICT team to create a blog with interesting features,

colors, and user-friendly.

The marketing team to update the blog or identify and

contract a blogger.

The finance team to pay the blogger as per the contract

agreements.

Budget and Evaluation

Strategy

Description

Evaluation

Budget

Product

Improving its online

reservation system at all times.

Duration taken by guests to make reservations

 Within 5 minutes – excellent

 Between 5-10 minutes – average

 Between 10-15 minutes – fair

 Above 20 minutes - poor

Fixed subscription of

$250 per month

Frequently updating the

website and other online

system and platforms

Number of visiting on the website and joining of the

social networking sites

 Increase by 25% - good performance

 Increase by 15% - fair performance

 Increase by 5% - fair performance

 No increase – poor performance

Firing a web designer

@ $6,760 per year

Pricing

Use seasonal pricing strategy

where prices are varied based

on peak and low vacation

seasons

Increase in sales

 Above 50% - excellent performance

 Between 25-49 % - average performance

 Between 15-24% - fair performance

 Below 14% poor performance

Use the promotional marketing

strategy

Increase in sales

 Above 50% - excellent performance

 Between 25-49 % - average performance

 Between 15-24% - fair performance

 Below 14% poor performance

Place

Provide a vivid description of

the location of the hotels from

vital landmarks

Performed by the web

designer

Strategy

Description

Evaluation

Budget

Promotion

Use of search engine

optimization and pay per check

program

Number of visiting on the website and joining of

the social networking sites

 Increase by 25% - good performance

 Increase by 15% - fair performance

 Increase by 5% - fair performance

 No increase – poor performance

$1,500 – $3,000 per

month for SEO

$9,000 and $10,000 per

month for PPC

Creation and promotion of

online community through

social media platforms such as

Facebook and Instagram Fan

pages

Number joining of the social networking sites

 Increase by 25% - good performance

 Increase by 15% - fair performance

 Increase by 5% - fair performance

 No increase – poor performance

performed by the web

designer

Use of social media influencers

Number of visiting on the website and joining of the

social networking sites

 Increase by 25% - good performance

 Increase by 15% - fair performance

 Increase by 5% - fair performance

 No increase – poor performance

$175 to $5,000 per post

Create an active and

captivating blog

Numbers of comments and reviews and quest

visiting the website

 Increase by 25% - good performance

 Increase by 15% - fair performance

 Increase by 5% - fair performance

 No increase – poor performance

$285 per month

Bibliography

Grzywaczewski, Adam, Rahat Iqbal, Nazaraf Shah, and Anne James. "E-Marketing Strategy for

Businesses." e-Business Engineering (ICEBE), IEEE 7th International Conference. IEEE,

2010. 428-434.

Hilton Hotels. 2017 Annual Report. Fiscal Year Report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, 2017.

Kaakinen, Heidi, and Eshita Purkatastha. Online Marketing Of Hospitality Services: Tourist

satisfaction with online accommodation booking. Thesis, Centria University of Applied

Sciences, 2011.

Kang, Juhee. Social media marketing in the hospitality industry: The role of benefits in

increasing brand community participation and the impact of participation on consumer

trust and commitment toward hotel and restaurant brands. Graduate Theses and

Dissertations, Iowa State University, 2011.

Karppinen, Maarit. Strategic marketing plan for a hotel. Thesis, Vaasa University of Applied

Sciences, 2011.

Oshins, Mike. "Changes in the Hospitality Industry: New Paradigms, Frames, and Perspectives."

Boston Hospitality Review 5, no. 2 (2016): 1-13.

Shabani, Neda, Arslan Munir, and Avishek Bose. "Analysis of Big Data Maturity Stage in

Hospitality Industry." arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.07387, 2017.

Ting, Pei-Ju Lucy, Szu-Ling Chen, Hsiang Chen, and Wen-Chang Fang. "Using Big Data and

Text Analytics to Understand How Customer Experiences Posted on Yelp. com Impact

the Hospitality Industry." Contemporary Management Research 13, no. 2 (2017): 107-

130.

Yazdanifard, Rashad, and Lim Tzen Yee. "Impact of social networking sites on hospitality and

tourism industries." Global Journal of Human-Social Science: E Economics 14, no. 8

(2014): 1-5.

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