INTRODUCTION

The practice of marketing is deeply rooted in human civilization. The word market dates back to
ancient times to define a space where people gathered for the exchange of goods. But today the
marketplace has evolved to a space (not restricted by physical limits as well), where an exchange
of goods, commodities, equity, services, et cetera occurs. Marketing in its current avatar is a result
of years of fine tuning. Its perpetual existence is still a point of argument though. The use of tools
like persuasion and rhetoric to aid in selling a product or propagating an ideology has been
described by Greek philosophers like Aristotle which confirms pre-eminent schools of thought that
advocated marketing in one way or the other.

A major enabler for marketing, more modernized than the ancient counterpart though, was the
invention of the first movable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg of Germany which lead
to the circulation of flyers, newspapers, magazines et cetera, where the first advertisements
appeared. Only in the early 20th Century, is where marketing started to develop as a precedent to
what it is today. The very first marketers were economists. The word marketing came into
existence in this period during the early and mid-20th Century. When marketing started developing
independently as a subject, the first marketers and marketing textbooks appeared. Then companies
soon realized the value of marketing and that is when marketing departments started to pop up in
most companies, whether they were manufacturing or service sector.

(Kotler, 2012)

A consolidation of what marketing focused on from the industrial revolution onwards has been
depicted in the table (Table 1: Marketing through the years) given below.

Era Time Period

Simple Trade Era Pre Industrial Revolution
Production Era 1860s-1920s
Sales Era 1920s-1940s
Marketing Department Era 1940s-1960s
Marketing Company Era 1960s-1990s
Relationship Marketing Era 1990s-2000s
Social/Mobile Marketing Era 2010 Onwards

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 PREVALANCE OF MARKETING IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY- Practices
& Trends

In the hotel industry, operational excellence and customer satisfaction are key goals for any
organization which plans to succeed. Intrinsically, marketing as a separate function is controlled
by the Sales & Marketing Department of a hotel. Marketing is the channel of communication
between the customer and the hotel.

Marketing in hotels took off as a business function in the 1960s. Since then the priority enjoyed
by marketing has only increased in magnitude, and today is a philosophy on which the roots of a
hotel company are built. Hospitality firms have over the years increased the annual expenditure on
marketing with a peak in the 1980s due to the rise of hotel chain companies (PKF Hospitality
Research, 2009). Today hotels view marketing as an investment avenue rather than an expense as
there is a significant ROI. Table 2 exhibits the marketing themes in hospitality over time.

(Dev, Bowen, & Buschman, 2010)

Table 2:

Time Period Marketing Theme/Trend

1960s Promotion
1970s Market Research and Product Development
1980s Brand Development/Revenue Management
1990s Loyalty Programs and Customer Satisfaction
2000s Internet Marketing
(Dev, Bowen, & Buschman, 2010)

Marketing an experience is what hospitality pitches to their customer (Scott et al, 2009).
Marketing as a concept is practiced through a universally applicable process known as the
marketing process, an elaborate 5 step process which revolves around and propagates the one
principal marketing is based on, Customer Centricity.

The marketing mix is a combination of elements of marketing which help objectively in a

comprehensive targeting structure to define a market and create a customized marketing program
for the same. The traditional 4Ps Product, Place , Price and Promotion are the elementary

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constituents of the marketing mix, but as the market evolves, more and more variables are added
to the pool to meet the ever increasing demands.

(Reid & Bojanic, 2010)

But for the hospitality industry, marketing is limited by the characteristics of service like its
perishability and inseparability, and the consequences of these aspects must be woven into the
marketing practices of the said venture. So the degree of customization for hospitality marketing
is at a high mark. Marketers have created a tailor-made approach to the hospitality marketing mix
which has led to Extended 9P and 7P approaches to the hospitality marketing mix by
(Kaufman,2009) and (Jovievi,2012) respectively.

The marketing sphere of influence is affected by internal and external factors, the latter often being
uncontrollable. The external factors can be characterized and isolated by a popular acronym viz.
CREST- Competition, Regulations and laws, Economic, Social environmental and
demographic & Technological . Most formative forces and trends for framing marketing
strategies and models are covered by this acronym.

(Tuckwell & Jaffey, 2014)

Currently in the industry, a lot of hot trends are taking off, led understandably by technological
innovations inevitably. These trends are the driving forces for change in existing marketing
practices. Listed below are a few key trends/factors:

Technology related: Meta-Search; OTAs (Online Travel Agents); Search Engine

Marketing (SEM) viz. SEO-CRO (Search Engine Optimization-Conversion Rate
Optimization); Social Media; O/L Reviews; Big Data surge; Mobile Marketing.
Social, Environmental & Demographic: Non-Profit Marketing (Support XYZ Cause);
Greenify everything; Generational Divide-Differentiated Approaches.
Competition Related Dynamic Pricing Strategies; Loyalty Programs; Brand
Differentiation & Diversification.

Further along, the combination of technology related trends and themes are discussed in detail
in the essay. Most Components of digital marketing are covered in the discussion.

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 TECHNOLOGY- FULL SPEED AHEAD

At the turn of the century, the new millennium ushered a widespread boom of the shared
universe-The Internet, which came to be the greatest tool a marketer could imagine.
Technology is a revolution and will lead marketing into the future. Its incorporation holistically
is essential for marketing.

(Beldona, 2008)

Major digital and online marketing trends and themes are briefly explained below:

Online Reviews: On an average, review sites like TripAdvisor offer 238 reviews on
each hotel. 43% of customers take O/L reviews into consideration before making a final
decision whilst 46% of guests post a review online about their stay. 71% of the
demographic that uses O/L reviews look for a management response to a review as a
tool to reassure them and forms a positive predisposition about the impending service
encounter.
(Google Inc., 2014)
In the Indian context, 66% of consumers looked up O/L reviews before deciding and
76% women specifically trusted O/L reviews before judging their choice.
(Octane Research, 2015)
Online reviews have created a divide in one opinion as a lot of guests differ on what
service standards they are entitled to.
Yelp and TripAdvisor are the leading review aggregator sites.

Social Media: 83% of Travelers are inspired to travel by some stimulus from search
engines/social networking sites/ video sharing sites, 26% of which is represented by
Social Media (Google Inc., 2014) . About one quadrant of the worlds population is
registered on a social network and nearly half of them post an online registry of their
travel/ service experience. Word of mouth is spread this way and is known as e-WoM
(electronic-Word of Mouth) and is one of the strongest determinants of purchase
intentions. (Bataineh, 2015)

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 Social Media is now turning into a service-scape as more and more hotels are
introducing social media controlled concierge services & generating service recovery
opportunities.

(Begwani & Pal, 2015)

Recently developed, a new job-opening at most marketing departments is for a Social

Media Manager. Solely dedicated to managing the footprint of the company online be
it on social networks or review aggregators, the social media/community manager will
maintain the reputation of the hotel outpost on the web, engage the community and
target market and keeps the hotel In the loop.

(Lanz, 2010)

Online Travel Agents (OTAs): OTAs are distribution channel partners for hotels, be it
hotel chains or standalone hotels and inns. They help hotels distribute their primary income,
i.e. accommodation. OTAs have been at the fore of a heated debate on their functionality
in the recent past.
Traditionally hotels have been selling rooms via Global Distribution Systems (GDS) since
the 70s. OTAs are a rather new concept for hospitality and has very quickly taken up a big
chunk of their market, which earlier was entirely sold by them exclusively.
(Barthet & Perret, 2015)
The lions share of the room nights sold through OTAs is smaller scale and non-franchisee
affiliated hotels.
The expense for a hotel to make a reservation through its GDS costs about $8 to $10.5
whilst an OTA will charge a $40 to $120 premium.
(Starkov, 2015)
OTAs in a simple way act like wholesalers for room nights and thus offer customers better
rates.
(Myung, li, & Bai, 2009)

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 SEO & CRO-Search Engine Marketing- The market today is getting more and more
digitized by the day. Without a strategic internet reputation management program no
company can hope to maximize its market and thus its success. SEO or Search Engine
Optimization is one way to assure a higher footfall to your website/ online business portal.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is another SEM tool which directly contributes to
your revenue.
(Paraskevas, Katsogridakis, Law, & Buhalis, 2011)
SEO is a way to leverage Search Engine technology to your advantage. When a search
engine like Google works, it employs a search algorithm to look for the keywords
mentioned in your search. SEO is a way to build your website/webpage in a way that your
HTML code is in congruency with the most commonly searched keywords. (Fazzini &
Lanz, 2015)
Pay Per Click (PPC) - This is the way most search engines make a lot of revenue. If you
agree to pay them a set amount per click you receive on your website, they will give your
site priority in search results when the keyword of your choice is entered.
(Starkov & Safer, The Smart Hoteliers Guide to 2014 Digital Marketing, 2014)
CRO- Conversion Rate Optimization- CRO is a sure-fire way to increase online revenue.
To understand that first the conversion rate must be understood. The conversion rate is a
representation of the percentage of people who transform into buyers from the total footfall
of your site.
(King, 2008)
Meta Search- Convenience to the customer is key today. Meta search just reinforces that
fact. Meta search sites provide customers with comprehensive comparisons of various
packages and offers from around the web from OTAs and hotel websites.
TripAdvisor, Trivago, Momondo, Kayak and Google hotel finder are a few examples of
Meta search websites. They are unbiased in their portrayal of competitors and are against
common consensus, not distribution channels. They earn through Cost per Click (CPC)
figures instead.

(Reals, 2015)

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 Big Data- Big data, a 21st century phenomenon, is the collection of all the data that we
transmit today through technology and how the body of information, organized or not,
could be useful for knowing your customers and offer the element of surprise to enhance
the experience of hospitality. It uses online data to give us a true view of a guest.
(Leposa, 2013)
Hotel companies, specifically international chains have showed vested interests in big data
and have realized the future potential it carries as it is still untapped for the hospitality
horizon.
Big data hasnt yet been capitalized on by any major hospitality firms but is under
development and companies like Invigor group are offering big data solutions like Invigor
Insight Visitor customized to the hospitality industry.

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 CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Online reviews are a passive approach to marketing as the stimulus is not controlled by the
marketer. Online reviews are king when it comes to their efficacy in influencing purchase
intentions are evaluated. The upside is that they usually provide vast insight into the
marketing mix, describing the product, price (Scarcely monetary value but often value for
money), people (staff) and lastly process at times (When they describe experiences).
Social Media has factored in a big way about the engagement customers have with hotels.
Social media marketing encompasses the guests experience with the hotel both pre and
post departure. Its interaction with the marketing mix is at a much higher level as the hotel
is involved at a higher degree of interaction. Discourse of promotional material, an official
point of contact with hotel personnel, post stay service recoveries, and real time marketing
can be practiced via this highly effective medium of marketing.
OTAs, the men of the hour are increasingly getting a higher market share of reservations
from the internet. They have a monopoly for reservations in relatively small establishments
and standalone hotels. Big players in hospitality are still routing most reservations online
traffic to their own site. Giving lesser known hotels their fair share of the market is one
salient feature of the infamous OTAs. Also at times the price parity between hotel sites and
OTAs leads to a higher expense lost by the hotel in the form of the OTAs commission.
(Demirciftci, Cobanoglu, Beldona, & R., 2010)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), the marketing enabler, is the glue which holds digital
marketing together. SEM turns potential business into customers. SEO and CRO sustain
the online marketing of a company by increasing their footprint and incidence rate online
and can aptly be called the catalyst. SEO takes the marketing mix and incorporates it into
the HTML framework of a site. The process of distribution using in-house sites is highly
dependent on SEM and is a technical aspect which cannot be given a miss.
Meta Search: Meta search sites help hotel companies to showcase their product and their
exclusive promotions to evasive customers who miss out on the hotel owned web domains.
Comprehensive price comparisons is what compels consumers to use these convenient
sites.
Big Data for marketing is useful when it comes to modifying the marketing mix to tailor
made specifications for every customer using data which is otherwise rendered useless.

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 CONCLUSION

The digital age is now in, and here to stay. Marketing is also here for as long as we thrive on
consumerism as a way of life. Amalgamated these two entities define the future direction for
marketing. The hospitality industrys ultimate goal of customer satisfaction is achievable, not in
absolution but in realistic terms. Digital marketing is the enabler which takes hospitality closer to
this goal. Digital marketing has provided new perspective by letting real time marketing be a
possibility, metrically analyzing the effectiveness and outreach of marketing with figures available
at the snap of your fingers. Also today marketing managers can realistically calculate the return on
investment (ROI) on the total expenditure which in turn helps form a more focused marketing
strategy as well as budget. Digital Marketing practices are mutually synergetic and their interaction
will ultimately lead to progress in the future of marketing.

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