Technology Has Evolved a Great Deal, Thus

¶ … technology has evolved a great deal, thus resulting in an increase in media freedom and globalization. Moreover, human life in the post information technology has become much faster paced than ever before. Ever since the human civilizations had established, man is looking for ways to relax oneself physically and mentally. Over a period of time the market for leisure and tourism had gain much strength due to increasing demand of travel and tourism. The primary reason for this increasing trend of travelling, both international and domestic, originates to the increase in globalization. People are now becoming more and more interested in exploring new places. For this reason the market for services pertaining to travel and tourism has become extremely competitive. The tourism market covers an extensive array of services including restaurants and eateries, tour guides, theme parks, shopping malls and museums.

Researches have shown an interesting trend that while some tourists prefer exploring newer places, many prefer visiting the same destination over and over again. Hall & Page (2002) claim that many tourists prefer visiting destinations they have already visited due to a psychological association that they develop with a certain destination. This is usually true in cases of islands or hill resorts where tourists feel, especially those coming from urban centres, that they find mental peace and tranquility in that remote and natural environment. Marketing has therefore an important role to play in the tourist and travel related businesses in order to identify and target the relevant marketing segments. Hotels are one business that are directly related to travel and tourism category. For this paper we evaluate the marketing strategy of Accor Hospitality.

Accor Hospitality

The market for hotels is a very competitive one (Kapferer 2008). Accor Hospitality aspires to become the world's most valued company to customers, colleagues, investors, business partners, and the communities where they work and live. Accor Hospitality believes in continuous endeavors that aim at making human lives, better and easier, and work practices more efficient and secured. The company believes in adhering to sustainable and ethical business practices such that it is competitive in the international markets around the world.

Accor Hospitality adheres to the most sustainable business practices in the hotel and Leisure industry. If the company becomes more flexible in terms of management and more innovative in terms of its marketing strategies and brand management, it is inevitable that it captures and maintains the greatest market share in the hotel and leisure industry.

Role of Accor's Marketing Strategy

Product

Accor Hospitality is a very aggressive hotel and leisure company. Their strong Research & Development department focusing the need of the hotel and Leisure industry and creating up-to-date loyalty programs for today's market. Every top level entrepreneur and frequent traveler is willing to use Accor Hospitality's services as it represents they are the leader in the hotel and leisure industry but on the other hand, the price is quite expensive (Grant, 2005).

Placement

Accor also has its presence in some of the world's leading urban centers such as London, Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore and Hong Kong. The wide range of services offered by the hotel includes tour desks, swimming pool, gymnasium, casinos, bistros and restaurants, discotheques, shopping plazas, water sports, business centers, banquet halls etc. Accor however has not focused much on resorts and its presence at beaches, islands and hill stations is virtually negligible.

Promotion

Compared to Accor, Hilton, Marriott and Intercontinental offer much more strong brand liaisons and promote closer customer relationships. Marriott offers redemption offers and stays at more than 3000 hotels and resorts around the world. Unlike the other 2, Accor does not have a market for resorts and therefore mainly operates in urban hotel sector. This automatically allows other competitors a greater and easier access to their markets as their loyalty schemes can also be redeemed at their resorts. A good example is Marriott, who besides offering service pertaining to hotel stays and air miles, also provides free cruise trips and stays at various Marriot Beach resorts. This beyond doubt attracts customers more towards hotels such as Marriott's as customers find such incentives useful for holidays, honeymoons and vacations. Accor's loyalty programs on the other hand only appeal more to the corporate sector.

Accor Hospitality's competitors have an aggressive marketing strategy which is pursued parallel to the diversification strategy. Although Accor Hospitality is known for its innovative loyalty schemes, its name is still alien to many consumers that consume its major services. For example many guests of pull-man in various parts of the world do not know about Accor's loyalty programs (Gummesson, 2002). On the other hand, Accor Hospitality's major competitors have a very high innovation portfolio and at the same time have managed to keep an aggressive marketing strategy, which has resulted in getting them a strong well differentiated brand image. The current state of awareness that comes from electronic and print media and the internet calls for an aggressive marketing strategy regardless of how progressive the company's research and development is (Copley, 2004). If Accor Hospitality fails to do so, in future it might face difficulties especially when either launching new services or when entering newer markets (Solomon, 2003).

What pushes Accor loyalty schemes on the weaker side is the fact that it might be appealing to some frequent corporate travelers in urban center, leisure tourists prefer other hotels such as Marriott. This is because the hotels lack of existence in regions that attract leisure tourists. Unfortunately, almost all loyalty partners of Accor, the most primary being pull man, are also focused in urban centers and have little presence in areas that attract leisure tourists.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Essential market share in hotel and Leisure business.

High quality comfort level at airport lounges

Liaisons with other hotel and ability to earn points trigger brand loyalty.

Redeemable point system trigger purchase decisions despite of economic turmoil.

Top hotel in terms of number of rooms

Strongest player in the European market

Weaknesses

Only useful for frequent travelers

Expensive for guests who are not conventional travelers

A limited marketing budget to develop brand awareness.

Condition of staying at an Accor hotel at least once in a year. This means that the loyalty program is of little use to anyone who does not travel in a certain year.

Relatively lesser brand awareness among international travelers in many countries as compared to brand awareness of loyalty programs of other hotels such as Marriott, Hilton and Intercontinental.