I
dentify major nonprofit organizations in feeder markets and work with them in their major fund-raising events. This will help in- crease weekend business and act as a rein- forcer to advertising placed in those markets.The impact of regional organizations can be just as strong as your local organizations. If your property has a strong regional weekend market, this program can be an effective way to increase room business.
Identify corporations that have branches in feeder cities with ties to major nonprofit organizations. Any time your property can get its name across to the public in a major feeder market, you reinforce advertising dollars or actually save them. Remember, the return on investment, if carefully monitored, can be significant.
CONCLUSION
T
he more times your hotel property is written and talked about, the more people automati- cally identify it with positive community ac- tivity. It is eventually in the best interest of a community to ensure the business success of your hotel when it knows you will help its fa- vorite charities or organizations. In order to work with the community, you must educate the community to work for and with you. The best recommendation is that made by the public, and only when public relations truly works with the public can the property bene- fit. By putting the public in public relations, the public speaks for you and your property and results in profits through public relations.7.8 M I N I C A S E : R E VA M P I N G T H E
M A R K E T I N G R E S E A R C H D E PA R T M E N T
You’re the new director of marketing re- search for the Mississippi Region Affiliated Resorts (MRAS), located along the length of the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to Memphis. This branded distribution company
of 38 independently owned and operated ho- tels has become a major player in its regional competitive marketplace. As part of the com- pany’s strategic plan, however, it has been de- termined that the structure of the market is
changing, and the general future direction of the hotels will be toward more sales and ser- vice to the conventions and meetings market that has become increasingly important be- cause of the central location of the chain.
To become more competitive in this bur- geoning market, the company has undertaken and encouraged an ambitious remodeling program among its members that has up- graded the furnishings, fixtures, and equip- ment of the hotels. The hotels are also committing to a minimum of the following capital investments:
• 60,000-square-foot ballroom
• 30,000 square feet of meeting and break- out rooms
• 15,000-square-foot registration and pre- function areas
With these upgraded facilities, the com- pany feels it can compete effectively for the
Section 7.8 Mini Case: Revamping the Marketing Research Department
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lucrative conventions and meetings market with the hard-flagged chains.
This strategy and capital investment re- quires a consequential change in research paradigms. As the director of marketing re- search, you’ve been requested by the com- pany president to propose a completely revamped research department that will re- flect this new strategy and be designed to help the independent member hotels market their new facilities most effectively.
Propose a model marketing research de- partment for your firm that will produce the sorts of data that hotels in the chain can use to help compete with the national chains. In- clude in your proposal what new sorts of data would be most useful, where those may be found, and how they might be specifically use- ful to reflect the new mission.
R E F E R E N C E S
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Fishbein, Martin, and Icek Ajzen. 1975.Belief, Atti- tude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research.Reading, MA: Addi- son-Wesley.
Hanson, Bjorn. 1995. “The $1 per $1,000 Rule.”
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S U G G E S T E D R E A D I N G S
Articles
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“Strategic Marketing: A Lodging ‘End Run.’ ” Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly33(4):36–43.
Jarvis, Lance P., and Edward J. Mayo. 1986. “Win- ning the Market Share Game.”Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 27(3):73–79.
Levitt, Theodore. 1981. “Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles.” Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quar- terly(August):37–44.
Lieberman, Warren H. 1993. “Debunking the Myths of Yield Management.”Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 34(1):34–41.
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In VNR’s Encyclopedia of Hospitality and Tourism,Mahmood Kahn, Michael Olsen, and Turgut Var (eds.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
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1992. “Building a Market Segment Model to Improve Profits.”Cornell Hotel and Restau- rant Administration Quarterly33(3):29–36.
Books
Astroff, Milton T. and James R. Abbey. 1998.Con- vention Sales and Service, 5th ed. Cranbury, NJ: Waterbury.
Ismail, Ahmed. 1999a.Catering Sales and Conven- tion Services.Albany, NY: Delmar.
———. 1999b.Hotel Sales and Operations.Albany, NY: Delmar.
Kotler, Phillip, John T. Bowen, and James C. Mak- ens. 1996. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice- Hall.
Kudrie, Albert E., and Melvin Sandler. 1995.Pub- lic Relations for Hospitality Managers: Com- municating for Greater Profits. New York:
John Wiley and Sons.
Lewis, Robert C. 1989.Cases in Hospitality Mar- keting and Management.New York: John Wi- ley and Sons.
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Lovelock, Christopher. 2001. Services Marketing:
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Shaw, Margaret, and Susan V. Morris. 2000.Hospi- tality Sales: A Marketing Approach.New York:
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S O U R C E N O T E S
Chapter 7.2, “Building Market Leadership: Mar- keting as Process,” by Fletch Waller.
Chapter 7.3, “Consumer Decision Rules and Im- plications for Hotel Choice,” by Bianca Grohmann and Eric Spangenberg.
Chapter 7.4, “Hotel Pricing,” by Marta Sinclair and Carl R. Sinclair.
Chapter 7.5, “A Day in the Life of a Regional Rev- enue Manager,” by Paul Chappelle.
Chapter 7.6, “Hotel Sales Organization and Oper-
ations,” by Margaret Shaw and Susan V. Mor- ris, adapted from Hospitality Sales: A Market- ing Approach,by Margaret Shaw and Susan V.
Morris, Copyright © 2000 by John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Chapter 7.7, “Putting the Public in Public Rela- tions: The Case of the Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers,” by Louis B. Richmond.