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Student ID: 21420583

Module Code: TH6AH350


“Critically appraise the relationship between advertising, branding
and customer loyalty of global hospitality oganisation.”
The industry's Global market management calls for global focus on consumers, prices,
economic and financial policies, social trends and causes (Hollensen, 2017). A structured
marketing strategy in a global organization allows for the structure, philosophy, policy and
engagement with employees and reward, creativity and innovation to be standardized and
reconsidering. However, branding, marketing, and advertising are all tools you use to help
promote the business globally. For example, the global market evaluation of the Shangri La
hotel is done by using the PESTLE model (Myassignmenthelp.com, 2020). Advertising can
increase brand recognition when branding continues to drive advertising campaigns ' style and
direction. Branding, in addition to promoting advertising campaigns, can manage brand
accountability and strengthen the brand reputation (Chioveanu, 2008) noted that advertising
affects the purchase of peculiar brands by consumers. And this leads to customer loyalty.
Therefore, advertising and branding in a marketing environment have a certain impact on
brand loyalty and brand equity. Now, for some brands or market segments this effect can be
low to moderate or even high. It is important to study these factors for a better understanding
of the market. This essay gives a detailed evaluation of the relationship between advertising,
branding and customer loyalty of global hospitality administration.

Shangri La is a property based in Hong Kong which spreads across Asia, Africa, North America,
Middle East and Australia. The hotel has now become a 5-star luxury hotel with its iconic Asian
hospitality. The architecture of the hotel was built to satisfy the customer and enjoy its
landscape gardens, CHI Spa, The waterfall as well as the view over the city. However,
advertising here is a prime example of the structural representation and interaction of this
property, such as the possibility of examining the significance of things, effects and
communication and establishing general concepts (Petley, 2004). The hotel has built up its
strong brand identity on the Asian market with its excellent facilities and special customer
experience. Advertising offers an unlimited supply for producing realistic and fictitious
communication theories both internally and externally within or outside the organization.
Advertisements may be available in multiple ways and in all media. It can be noticed in a
broadcast program or magazine or a newspaper that mainly contains direct and brief messages.
(Dyer, 2009). Shangri La Hotels and Resorts, Hong Kong's worldwide chain of hotels, conducted
a comprehensive advertising campaign, "It's Within Our Nature," expressing the unique
hospitality ideology of the hotel which has existed over 40 years. "There is no greater act of
hospitality than to embrace a stranger one's own." The 'In our Nature' ad campaign takes the
viewer to classic locations in order to connect a simpler, universal truth. Further, PESTEL
analysis, consisting of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors,
is carried out for the evaluation of the effects of external environmental factors of Shangri La.

Political factors
Hong Kong is a constitutionally stable country with strong government structure and expertise.
The country has promoted a positive and open approach towards tourists and foreigners
(Wong, 2017). It allows travelers from all over the world to be drawn and promotes hotel
revenue development. Another political factor is global relations with other nations. Hong Kong
has maintained good cooperation with its neighboring countries, the USA and the Philippines
among others (China-embassy.org, 2020). However, maintaining good relations with decent
revenue generating countries could help Shangri La to boost up its revenue charts in coming
years.
Social Factors
There have been social factors that have expanded the hotel industry by 13% of international
travelers in Asia. In 2019 about 15.5 million visitors visited Hong Kong, leading to a 4.9% growth
in hotel revenue (Manosuthi and Lee, 2020). The demand for packaged tours and magnificence
resorts to which the hotel industry also benefited has increased through worldwide changes in
culture. International tourists often get attracted to culture of the country they are visiting
which also gets carry forward by word of mouth and attracts more international tourists.
Technological Factors
Hotel business has been boosted by emerging technology. With online payment services,
consumers can book their hotel rooms beforehand at Shangri La. By providing consumers with
global access to hotel information, this service has increased the hotel industry's revenue
(Sammons, 2000). Not only the technology has helped in achieving better services but has also
helped the market with advanced social media, its modern versions and swift adaptability of
technology.

Branding is a marketing practice in which a company creates a title, symbol or layout, which is
easily recognizable as a company affiliation. (Keller and Swaminathan, 2013). This helps to
categorize and differentiate between a product and other goods and services. Branding is
important because it makes an imprint on customers not only, but also enables its customers
and employees to know what their business is supposed to expect. The brand is designed to
represent what it is as an organization and how it should be perceived (Dev, 2012). Several
areas are included in branding like customer services, promotional goods, reputation and logo,
which are used to build up a brand. All these elements work together to create a unique
professional profile which will ideally capture attention. The company has launched a new
global brand campaign that shows why Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is the leading luxury hotel
group in Asia-Pacific. The focus of the campaign is on the essence of Shangri-La culture "to
embrace and treat people from the heart as families." According to Greg Dogan (President and
CEO of Shangri La Hotels and Resorts) “It's more important to us than to talk about mansions or
beautiful places, so we've chosen that dramatically different and powerful campaign style. It
communicates the value of true kindness, which is very significant in society today”
(Eyefortravel.com, 2020). Shangri La has revealed one of its unique branding technology
initiatives yet and announced the development in its global sales efforts of a virtual reality
experience. Samsung Gear VR headsets were developed in all global sales offices and over one
quarter of its hotels and resorts produced immersive 360-degree videos.

Today, the hotel industry is known by customers and producers around the world as a global
industry. Whereas, brands are identified as the company's most precious intangible asset that
contributes to the customer assets and the overall profit of the company (Keller and Lehmann,
2006). In general, organizations adjust marketing costs according to consumers ' preferences
and past performance. Countries vary in cultural and economic factors that affect customers '
tastes and preferences that can influence consumer choices, attitudes and behavior (Kumar and
Pansari, 2016). Consequently, customer experience has been implemented and found to impact
brand loyalty unequally more than brand awareness. Research has found that advertising and
branding leads to increased sales, improved image, expanded reputation, confidence and more,
a beneficial stock market reaction, and increased financial performance (Nguyen and Leblanc,
2001; Srivastava et al., 2001). Advertising and branding of an organization help in achieving
considerate level of customer loyalty through their strategies and policies. Shangri La offers an
exclusive benefit and privilege of becoming a member of Golden Circle, which is its own original
loyalty program designed for its valued guests. Here, advertising and branding comes into
action on how the guests were attracted during the initial stage of knowing the brand and how
far they have come.
To, sum up the essay states that globalisation will keep on progressing with new marketing strategies
and it is going to get bigger day by day. With the coming era, new initiatives, policies, tools and
techniques are going to be introduced to understand the global market. New innovations in advertising
and branding being brought to the table to increase customer loyalty. With the help of this essay, it was
easy to understand the tools and techniques to assess global marketing issues. Not only it was easy but
also very knowledgeable to evaluate the importance of national and international environmental factors
in strategies of global market. This module gives a brief idea of critically analysing the global market
policies to appraise the competitiveness of strategies globally for supportable advantage. Finally, it was
easy to evaluate and investigate the impact of culture and customer loyalty on global market via
communication strategies.

Reference List:

Bakator, M., Boric, S. and Paunovic, M. (2017). Influence of advertising on consumer-based brand
loyalty. Journal of Engineering Management and Competitiveness, 7(2), pp.75-83.

China-embassy.org. (2020). Overview of China-U.S. Relations — Embassy of the People's Republic of


China in the United States of America. [online] Available at: http://www.china-
embassy.org/eng/zmgxs/ocusr/ [Accessed 20 Feb. 2020].

Chioveanu, I. (2008). Advertising, brand loyalty and pricing. Games and Economic Behavior, 64(1), 68-
80.

Davis, M. (2009). The Fundamentals of Branding. 5th ed. AVA Publishing.

Dev, C. (2012). Hospitality branding. 7th ed. New York: Cornell University.


Dyer, G. (2009). Advertising as communication. 2nd Routledge: Taylor and Francis.

Eyefortravel.com. (2020). Shangri-La unveils new global brand campaign | Travel Industry News &
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 Hollensen, S. (2017). Global Marketing. 7th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

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Keller, K. and Swaminathan, V. (2013). Strategic brand management. Pearson Education Limited.

Keller, K.L. and Lehmann, D.R. (2006), “Brands and branding: research findings and future priorities”,
Marketing Science, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 740-759.

Kumar, V. and Pansari, A. (2016). National Culture, Economy, and Customer Lifetime Value: Assessing
the Relative Impact of the Drivers of Customer Lifetime Value for a Global Retailer. Journal of
International Marketing, 24(1), pp.1-21.

Laszlo, S. and Henning, K. (2015). Image, brand relationships and customer value. Journal of Service
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Lee, K. and Carter, S. (2012). Global marketing management. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Manosuthi, N. and Lee, J. (2020). Impact of distance on the arrivals, behaviors and attitudes of
international tourists in Hong Kong: A longitudinal approach. 78th ed.

Myassignmenthelp.com. (2020). Strategic Analysis Of Shangri-La Hotel Case Study. [online] Available at:
https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/strategic-analysis-of-shangri-la-hotel
[Accessed 20 Feb. 2020].

Nguyen, N. and Leblanc, G. (2001), “Corporate image and corporate reputation in customers’ retention
decisions in services”, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 227-236.
Petley, J. (2004). Advertising. North Mankato, Minn.: Smart Apple Media.

Srivastava, R.K., Fahey, L. and Christensen, H.K. (2001), “The resource-based view and marketing: the
role of market-based assets in gaining competitive advantage”, Journal of Management, Vol. 27 No. 6,
pp. 777-802.

Wong, M. (2017). Hong Kong Politics: An Overview. Palgrave, pp.35-50.

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