Introduction
The chosen subject is a website launch for a famous ocean liner that plans to transform a ship into a luxury hotel in Dubai. The ship is called Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) and observers have been waiting for its associated hotel opening for more than a decade (Dennehy, 2018). The website launch is intended to symbolize the introduction of the new establishment of the Dubai hospitality industry. The business is expected to be different from all others in the market because its owners claim it will provide a new take on luxury hospitality in Dubai through the provision of royal experience for guests who visit it (Dennehy, 2018).
The chosen subject is about how the QE2 will attract new clients to buy real estate on the floating ship and encourage them to patron the five-star hotel that will be opened on it. Emphasis will be made to understand what the QE2 will bring in an industry that is believed to be saturated with similar hotels. The purpose of this report is to examine how the hotel will implement various marketing principles in its operational plans.
Four marketing concepts are instrumental in understanding the chosen subject. They appear below.
- Target Marketing – Target marketing involves the customization of a marketing strategy to appeal to a specific group of customers. The customer groups may be defined by demographic variables, such as income, age, education levels, and religion (among others).
- Branding Strategies – This concept is focused on promoting a company’s position in the market. It may involve specific aspects of an organization’s brand appeal, including (but not limited to) its logo, name, or slogan. Generally, the branding strategy conveys what a company stands for.
- Product marketing – involves the process of promoting or selling a product to a specific group of people. It is an outbound concept that does not focus on an organization’s ability to produce a product, but its prowess in communicating its value to selected markets.
- Online Marketing – involves the use of virtual platforms to convey promotional materials to target markets.
Environment
Different environmental factors affect company operations. The most common ones include demographics, economic conditions, natural factors, technological innovation, politics/legal issues, and social influences. Three of the aforementioned factors are relevant to the operations of QE2. They include economic performance, natural factors, and political/legal issues. Economic performance is a critical environmental factor in the operations of the proposed hotel because it may affect the uptake of the products and services offered (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2015).
For example, in 2007, it delayed the launch of the luxury hotel because stakeholders did not feel it was a good time to introduce a luxury hotel when the world was experiencing a global economic meltdown (Dennehy, 2018). Similarly, when economic conditions are bad, it is difficult for QE2 to compete with other hotels in Dubai.
Natural factors are also relevant to QE2’s operations because the business is located on the sea. Therefore, the occurrence of an earthquake or tsunami (among other natural disasters) may significantly affect the hotel’s operations. Lastly, political and legal factors also affect the business’s operations because they may influence QE2’s operating model or competitive positioning (Mutum, Roy, & Kipnis, 2013). For example, such environmental influences may affect the ownership structure of the onboard apartments open for sale to the public. Similarly, they may affect the competitive landscape of the business by determining what fair or unfair competitive practices are.
Marketing Mix Variables
Two strategy elements – target market and marketing mix – are essential to the operations of QE2. The target market is instrumental in the operations of the hotel because it will define who the marketing strategy should be focused on (Ferrell, 2013). This is the only sure way of developing a strong marketing strategy for QE2. Similarly, by defining the target market, it would be easy to understand how to reach the desired customers cost-effectively. Indeed, as Vimi (2013) points out, it will be easy to get greater returns on investments by understanding the target market.
Having an effective marketing mix plan is also a sure way of building a sound marketing mix strategy for QE2. The marketing mix plan should include an understanding of how the hotel’s marketing plan would deploy the 4Ps of marketing, which include product, place, price, and promotion (Fisk, Grove, & John, 2013). This marketing mix plan is essential to the operations of DP World, which runs QE2 because it will help it to convey what products it is offering to its customers and why they are superior to all others in the market (Dennehy, 2018).
The marketing mix plan would also be a tool for defining the right target market for QE2 because the product and price strategies will help management to understand the kind of people the company should be targeting. Generally, the marketing mix plan could help DP World to build and convey the value of QE2 to potential customers. This approach would also help customers to make better decisions regarding what they purchase because most of them buy goods and services that they deem valuable to their lives.
References
Dennehy, J. (2018). QE2 website launch suggests famous ocean liner will soon reopen as a Dubai hotel. Web.
Emerald Group Publishing Limited. (2015). New perspectives in hospitality management. London, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Ferrell, W. (2013). Marketing 2014 (17th ed.). London, UK: Cengage Learning.
Fisk, R., Grove, S., & John, J. (2013). Services marketing interactive approach. London, UK: Cengage Learning.
Mutum, D., Roy, S., & Kipnis, E. (2013). Marketing cases from emerging markets. New York, NY: Springer Science & Business Media.
Vimi, J. (2013). Cases on consumer-centric marketing management. New York, NY: IGI Global.