Introduction on "Mobile Marketing in Hotels"

Introduction 5 pages (1662 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Mobile Marketing in Hotels

In the research information presented in this chapter, the author will map out issues with regard to mobile networks and their use in marketing in hotels. A literature review, research objectives, the research problem and research questions are listed as well as the research methodology and the directions for more research in application development are mapped out in detail.

Chapter Two-Literature Review

The Importance of Mobile Media in the Hospitality Industry

Multiple mobile networks and mobile channels are becoming a way of life, wherever people go, including while they are on the move and staying in hotels. This is clearly a responsibility that is under the administrative purview of e-managers in hotels. In such a case, unclear strategies for channel usage, lack of expertise and technical challenges can hinder the effective deployment of this technology. In this vein, in a recent survey in the online magazine Gleanster found that 94% of their interviewed top performers view an "increase return on marketing investment" as the top reason to deploy mobile marketing ("How top performers," 2011).

So, what is driving this reliance upon the technology? As usual, it is the consumer in an industry and the hotel industry is no different in this respect. Hoteliers are therefore required to respond to it since the mobile has become an important travel planning and booking channel for 67% percent of travelers and 77% of frequent business travelers who use their devices locally. This is important because hotel consumers demand instant, real time access where ever they are in order to further refine the trip. Further, the trend is to more connectivity with more hoteliers fitting mobile sites into their budget planning (37.5% in 2011 vs. 25.9% in 2010) and mobile booking engines (37.5% in 2011 vs. 22.4% in 2010) (Starkov, 2011) . Certainly, hospitality marketers have a major issue in connectivity of their channels with these phone applications, regardless of technology upgrades in terms of the hotel applications and the phone software.

New technology is of course the key. This is particularly the case with smartphones which will cover 50% of the U.S. adult population by 2012 (ibid.). Applications on cell phones are becoming very important in this mix. Of the smartphones that Americans have, the largest market is Android OS with 36%, followed by Apple iOS 26% and RIM Blackberry OS 23% (Getting started --, 2011, 3).

All of the technology is wonderful, however, the key questions that marketers in the hospitality industry need to know how to apply mobile marketing, what the benefits of mobile marketing are for hotels and what the issues are that need to be considered in the application of mobile marketing in hotels. As mentioned above, connectivity with the customer's phone application is critical. So as not to be caught up too much in specific technological niches in this short essay. However, it is critical to also retain some kind of access point, especially for hoteliers with small budgets who are being priced out of the mobile marketing market. Indeed, as we see in the Starkov piece, 38.4% of hoteliers in 2011 vs. 32.8% in 2010 planned no mobile marketing at all. Starkov even went so far as to suggest that hotels do not require a mobile application if they are single-property, independent hotel (Starkov, 2011, 2).

However, while the new gadgets causing a hospitality revolution, the bits of interacting everything together competently is central to the equation, regardless of hotel size. This is where social media comes to play and customer tweets fly around the world in order to gauge the direction of our research study. According to travel blogger Clay Shirky who maintains that media is now digital and is moving to the Internet, instantly becoming a universally available, interactive environment where everyone is a participant, creating their own channels, media, messages and processes that deliver the travel information ("The future of," 2012). Social media has been extensively studied of late at the early stages and a recent study published in January 2011 examined Facebook and Twitter in a study of Italian tourism websites. The relationship of the social media was analyzed with regard to total visits and the performance of those online social networks as referrals were also studied. The study showed a clear correlation between social media and travel websites visits (Milano, Baggio & Piattelli, 2011).

Much of the above applications will be increasingly powered by extensive web analytics such as Google Analytics to make sure that the hotel is being found and how to track. This would also help in tracking which hotel websites are being visited and when (Measuring the success, 2011, 1).

Briefly also, we should consider the phenomenon of Google Maps and Google Earth which are empowering tourists to interactively exchange information about each regarding travel. Of course, the beauty of these applications are that they are completely compatible with the Google Android Smartphone ("Android market:, " 2011).

Chapter Three-Research Methodology

Problem Statement

The main objective or purpose of the research is to find applications, benefits and issues to be considered during the implementation process of the mobile marketing in hotels. Central to this effort is how to make mobile marketing work in hotels, particularly small ones, which were the focus of this studies research methodology. As emphasized above, many small hotels have neglected mobile marketing altogether. For this reason, there is a pressing need for research into the ways that small hotels can effectively use mobile marketing in their promotion efforts and how to increase customer connectivity and the ability to find the hotel on the web and to interact with the sales and marketing staff dynamically in order to capture customer brand name loyalty and to leverage more market share. In the past development, mobile phone applications were based simply upon search on a map on the mobile terminal device display.

Application technology development methodology allowed simple adaptation and implementation with via cooperation with the operators of mobile phone systems. Customers are demanding additional functionality users regarding tourist resources, information to the users about other local objects and activities, including the ability to completely personalize the applications by users (Perakovic, Jovovic & Forenbacher, 2010, 66). It is safe to say that hotels use mobile marketing as a communication tool in order to inform customers about new events and specials and to increase traffic to their Internet website through booking functions inside the application. An interesting area where there is room for further research is tied in with social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook that seem at least at first glance are more effective. Social media seems to be a leveler of the marketing playing field for small hospitals. This is potentially has exciting potential in combination with Google Maps and Google earth because it is directly compatible with the Android smartphone. They could provide the extra, dynamic and customizable features that customers would want and would attract them to stay at small hotels. As mentioned above, there is a direct social media cbetween social media use by hotel guests and the travel websites they visited (Milano, Baggio & Piattelli, 2011).

Research Questions

How do hotels apply mobile marketing?

What are the benefits of mobile marketing for hotels?

What are the issues to be considered the in application of mobile marketing in hotels?

Foundational Issues

In the explanation of these research objectives, it needs to be stated that the objective is to explore the ways hotels apply and benefit from mobile marketing from the various applications and also to find out the issues that need to be considered during implementation the implementation of mobile marketing. The author has chosen case study methods as the research methodology to do this job. For this purpose, data collection was performed in 6 small hotels (5 of… READ MORE

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