What exactly are hotel marketing strategies ? ?

Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered around the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal. It is a method of focusing an organization's energies and resources on a course of action which can lead to increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A marketing strategy combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship management and other elements; identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved, ideally within a stated timeframe. Marketing strategy determines the choice of target market segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most effective when it is an integral component of overall firm strategy, defining how the organization will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena.

Markteing strategies in hospitality are the same as in any other industry. They also aim at improving the product ,establishing target markets, positioning , identifing the apt marketing mix and also allocating the resourses for the organisation . As every other marketing strategy is revised even hotel marketing strategies are revised.  After the research was carried out the authors found out that different hotels have different intervals in revising the marketing strategies. Since marketing strategies are long term strategies each of them will be used for a longer period of time.Revising the marketing startegies is not as simple as it looks .It is only carried out after braning storming sessions with the heads of both marketing and sales in a corporate level. A new strategy can be updated or added to all the other old strategies or those strategies which are not contributing to the profit should be revised or changed.

Certain companies follow those strategies that is decided by the corporates of the organisation where as other companies have marketing strategies set for individual units . The statistics on when the marketing strategies are revised hence changes from company to company. Out of the 10 heads of sales and marketing department interviewed, the authors found out that 56% of luxury hotels in mumbai  revise their strategies yearly, 22% revise their strategies half yearly and for the remaining 22% of hotels, the marketing strategy is established and revised by the corporates of the organisation. Some companies revise their marketing strategies as and when required and there is no exact interval in which it has to be revised.

and the research continues..

Well i must tell you people that the managers in Trident and Oberoi hotels are damn smart and damn helpful. Finally the research i am working on has gained some pace. Thanks to the Asst Sales Manager of Trident BKC. Well he helped us understand how the marketing plan and strategy works . How he himself get new clients and how his organisation keep the old. Pretty impressive i must say. anyways so the pace i was talking about is because "sid" thats what he asked us to call him, the Asst Sales Manager of Trident BKC just fixed 3 more appointments with the Sales Managers of  The Leela and Hyatt as well. I m pretty happy that the project or the research  finally has some credible information that we can use in our thesis . credible i must tell you because all the information came from the horses mouth.. The Sales Managers or Marketing Managers.
The only thing that i should work on now is  a detailed pattern and revamp the questionnaire in the most suitable manner so as to improve the information i can get from it..

The Research i am on

A Critical Review And Analysis of Marketing Management in the Luxury Hotels of Mumbai


Well i know it is kind of an interesting topic that we can be working on.I took this up,since i was very passionate about the dept Sales and Marketing . well and on the due course time i found out that its not an easy sail. My intension were pretty simple.All i wanted to find out was that how the marketing is done and how the department work as the most important revenue generating department in a hotel. 
As i mentioned earlier its not an easy sail as none of the organisation want to give out the details which they find is good enough to run marketing successfully . 
Except for some properties like  four seasons and Taj who willing supported us to go ahead with our project i was left with no option and no filled questionnaires . Well we just got an appointment with two more luxury brands namely ITC Grant Central and Trident Bkc to interview their managers and sales and marketing executives. May be its all the magic of IHM Mumbai as an Institute and now i really do understand why it is called the best institute of the country .Lets wait and see what today is going to unfold into......

Taj Management Training Program

Campus placement made me see the tru quality that i have in me.. and i am sure that one day i will be a successful hotelier . for starters i am a Taj Management trainee and i am honored to be one. . and this is like a head start to my career. and i am going to make use of it the best possible way.