CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

Brand management is an interesting topic for both industry and academia. Building and

management of brands is a critical task for brand managers of hospitality industry. This activity

entails a wide variety of marketing functions that ensures greater profitability for businesses if

executed in a proper manner (Oh and Pizam 2008).

The hospitality industry accounts for a wide variety of services that include food service, tourism

and hotels which can be further divided into two parts; accommodation as serviced apartments,

hostels, motels, hotels, inns, resorts, campgrounds and public houses. It also includes tourism

support commercial activities as travelling services (Economy Watch). This industry is

considered an important sector of the economy which affects a country’s economic growth to a

great deal.

The hospitality industry has been becoming highly competitive and the marketing strategies to

promote the firms into this business are meagre. The professionals are required to develop

competitive marketing strategies in order to reap high profits from the market. This requires a

careful study of different segments of the market regarding their buying behaviour in particular

along with the various related elements. The professionals can plan and execute effective

marketing strategies through a clear understanding of the market segmentation.

Hospitality industry has succeeded to develop much and has been striving to meet their

consumers’ demand in the best possible way. Many hospitality firms are restructuring their

operations to develop brands rather than sticking to product orientation (Oh and Pizam 2008).
Many firms in the hospitality industry have added brands to their portfolio to cater UK

consumers’ needs. With much innovation the brands have further extended into segments in

order to strengthen the relationship with customers by offering them choices to select the one

that suits them the best. This extension in branding is called brand segmentation which refers to

offering distinct brands to consumers (Patel). Brand managers have been working on more of

such strategies to offer top notch services to their consumers in the UK hospitality industry.

Branding is one of the top issues and challenges for the hospitality industry that requires

attention from practitioners and academics in order to reap considerable profits from this

approach.

The research is aiming at finding out the response of consumers to branding strategies of firms in

order to know that how consumers view these efforts and what is expected from the firms in

future. The study would also explain the various factors that have some impact on the branding

strategies of hospitality firms.

References

Economy Watch. Hospitality Industry. Stanley St Labs. [Online]. Available at:

http://www.economywatch.com/world-industries/hospitality/. [Accessed 3 Nov 2010].

Oh, Haemoon, pizam, Abraham, 2008. Handbook of Hospitality marketing Management.

Oxford, Bulington: Butterworth- Heinamann. Print.

Patel Anand. A Hotel Brand that Fits. Brand channel. [ Online] (2010). Available at:

http://brandchannel.net/papers_review.asp?sp_id=1259. [Accessed 3 Nov 2010].