Contemporary Hospitality Branding

Question: Discuss about the Contemporary Hospitality Branding. Answer: Introduction: The present essay is going to make an analytic discussion on the marketing campaign focusing on the reward program conducted through the joint attempt of Marriott and Starwood. Hence, the key focus of the assignment would be to identify the challenge the campaign is facing and how exactly two of the leading enterprises of the hospitality industry is responding against them. In this particular context, it is essential to jot down that Marriotts worldwide reward program has adopted a new marketing initiative in global portfolio type. The key purpose behind the launch of the new marketing initiative is to provide more customer benefits regarding customer privacy (Dev, 2013). Under the new tagline you are here, the international company is planning to overwhelm their customers. However, there is a point of confusion that whether the new marketing idea will maintain customer confidentiality or not. However, it should not be ignored in this case that Marriott possesses a strong privacy statement for their members. The most interesting thing to denote in this respect that the award winning loyalty program of Marriott provides joining opportunities free of cost and the enterprise is well aware about to provide customer privacy to the first time users also. However, it is a fact worth to appreciable that the company use the third party vendors for collecting inf ormation of their members of the reward program though several times it has been considered as an inconvenient strategy of the company. The chief goals related to the loyalty programs are to increase the volume of membership and to grab booking from the providers of the third party level. The decision regarding the joint venture is standing on the prediction that indicates that the entire membership would be near about 75 million (fortune.com, 2016). However, it should be acclaimed in this respect that Starwoods program of preferred guest has been recognized with the best program for frequent traveler in the world, whereas the reward program of Marriott International is celebrated for being a program that strengthens the aspect of customer loyalty. However, it is probably unfortunate that while Marriott is experiencing over 54 million memberships with near about 10% increase in share acquisition; Starwood is having only 21 million (Gustavo, 2013). Most interesting to record that whereas Marriott Internationals point valuation is about $8.92 for 1000 points, Starwoods are worth of $22.68 that is supposedly the highest redemption rate. Therefore, it can be deducted that Marriotts reward program has the potentiality to run more smoothly and successfully to retain customers than Starwood (Rogers Davidson, 2015). That is why it can be presumed that value points of Starwood could decrease at a disappointing level. Therefore, the reason behind the merger between of these two leading companies is understandable. However, at the same time it has to be said that in the current scenario, there are chances for rapid decrease in the redemption volume. Thus, predicting this certain issue, both of the organizations have to make an efficient evaluation to decide which potential properties will act favorable for the agreed program of these two enterprises in future. Nonetheless, one fact is definite that the agreement is proving fruitful for Marriott as the new Marriott has officially announced to have more than 30 brands with less than 5,700 hotels in total 110 countries (Leung, 2012). In case of talking about the merger, it should be noted that instead being merged u, two of the enterprises individual customer loyalty program is going to be conducted separately. It is probably little unfortunate that after the official announcement of the merger, discouraging number of attempts have been made. It is probably because of the fact that two of the loyalty programs still suffering with some serious flaws (Khairallah et al., 2016). For example, the individual reward program of Marriott has several gaps related to the benefits for their elite members, communication, promotion, brands and theirs corporate culture. On the other hand, Starwoods biggest problem is their high cost for membership (Vinnie, 2013). According to Chris Holdren, the senior of SPG, in order to combat with the loyalty hurdle both of the enterprises are working out to make a link between the different structures and organizational values. Moreover, it should be praised that for making the agreement successful, Marriott is comparatively making a pivotal contribution through their new campaign of global rewards for the young travelers. Additionally, considering their weakness on the premise of promotion, Marriott is introducing a new advertisement program. Therefore, it is understandable that to mitigate the certain challenges the joint company of Marriott and Starwood is not staying reluctant by folding their hands. After considering these varied facets, it should be remarked that the joint organization should consider keeping the guests for individual loyalty programs separate. Alongside the collaboration should give significance to improvise the individual facility program for the elite class of Marriott. References Dev, C. S. (2013). Challenges in Contemporary Hospitality Branding. Gustavo, N. (2013). Marketing management trends in tourism and hospitality industry: Facing the 21st century environment.International Journal of Marketing Studies,5(3), 13. Khairallah, J., Foster, A., Adamson, A., Dev, C. S., Hudson, B., Tucker, E., Muller, C. (2016). Boston Hospitality Review: Fall 2016. Leung, X. Y. (2012).Doctor of Philosophy in Hospitality Administration(Doctoral dissertation, University of Nevada, Las Vegas). Vinnie, J. (2013) Building employability in hospitality industry: Insights from IIMT Gurgaon?Oxford Brookes University collaborative effort,Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 5 (3), pp.268 - 276 Rogers, T., Davidson, R. (2015).Marketing destinations and venues for conferences, conventions and business events(Vol. 14). Routledge. Tkaczyk, C. (2016).Marriott Reveals How the Starwood Merger Will Affect Loyalty Programs.Fortune. Retrieved 21 November 2016, from https://fortune.com/2016/09/23/marriott-starwood-loyalty-programs/