Company Summary The hotel Crowne Plaza Canberra

The hotel Crowne Plaza Canberra is owned by SB&G Hotel Group (Canberra). Such a group owns a portfolio of hotels in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra. SB&G Hotel Group Pty Ltd. was founded in the year 2015 and are currently based in Melbourne and also have an additional office which is situated in Sydney. Therefore such a hotel offers 296 rooms, Free Wi-Fi, Fitness Centre, outdoor pool, foreign currency exchange, restaurant, in room dining, parking etc.

Perceptual Mapping and Competitor Analysis

Positioning - is a marketing organisation's attempt to create and maintain a favourable strong and unique brand position in the minds of prospective or existing customers.

Positioning a brand means emphasizing unique or distinctive characteristics that differentiate the brand from its competitors. (Reed, P, 2015, p. 151) The positioning of Crowne Plaza is its prime location and luxury living. The unique selling proposition (USP) of Crowne is its location as it is very convenient, it is a 4.5 star hotel.

Recent Marketing Communications at Crowne Plaza Canberra:

Online Campaigns (Crowne Plaza Portal) -The main source of hotels campaign is through the digital marketing which takes place on the hotel's official website as it is considered to be the backbone of the hotel's successful marketing strategy which allows the hotel to convey its core brand values and also targets the market with a marketing message in it which therefore helps in generating online sales.

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There are many different websites from where customers can review the feedback written by existing guests who have stayed at the hotel and make their decision of staying at the hotel of their choice.

Some of the examples of the trip advisor customer reviews are rooms being super clean, comfortable as well as big.

The development of the Internet has created multiple possibilities for marketers because every fourth user of social networking sites is following companies and their products on these sites.

Crowne Plaza

The current campaign at Crowne Plaza offers a Love and Desire package which includes 2 tickets to the Love and Desire Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia Full buffet breakfast for 2 at RedSalt Restaurant and a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate love from arrival to the hotel.

The message is clear to understand for the users and the tone presented in the campaign is to encourage couples to book the package to have a luxury, relaxing day out. The drawback of the campaign is there are no images published which can attract the visitors who are travelling to the place for the first time and therefore does not give a good sense and understanding of the place.

Also, as compared to other hotels there is a language tab which can help international travellers to understand special deals offered.

Hyatt Hotel

The current campaign at Hyatt hotel offers Love and Desire Package which includes overnight accommodation, full buffet breakfast, an untimed exhibition ticket per person per stay and a bottle of red wine as an in-room amenity on arrival. Hyatt Hotel Canberra brings you to enter a world of Love & Desire as the Tate lends exclusive masterpieces from its unsurpassed collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Love & Desire features 40 of the Tate's most famous and best-loved works, alongside 40 loans from other British and Australian collections.

The message published in Hyatt website is more detailed as compared to Crowne Plaza's website and gives an option of checking the availability of the package. The package detailed also includes terms and conditions if any which is missing in Crowne Plaza's website. On the website visitors have choice to select the language which helps international travellers in understanding the package. It also has an image published which makes the campaign/ package more attractive.

Burbury Hotel

The current campaign at Burbury Hotel offers Love and Desire Package which includes two general admission tickets to the love and desire exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, overnight accommodation, dessert platter on arrival, bottle of moet and chandon brut imperial mini moet, full buffet breakfast, unlimited Wi-Fi, free on demand movies, late check out until 12:00 and complimentary parking.

The message published here is more in depth similar to Hyatt. It does not include an option of checking the availability. The only tab which is available here is book now and once the booking has been processed it will then show the terms and conditions. The website is visible in different languages for international visitors/ tourists. For such a package there is a painting of the love and desire exhibition on the website which makes it look quite attractive. They are offering variety of services in a single package such as a dessert platter, free movies, buffet breakfast, complimentary parking and a bottle of moet and chandon brut imperial mini moet whereas hotels such as Hyatt and Crowne are only offering a bottle of wine, overnight accommodation, and full buffet breakfast.

Perceptual Map - The competition is seen here offering the same thing but how the way they are offering it is different. If anyone who wants to stay at Crowne Plaza on a love and desire package they have to pay $360 for one night whereas if they want to book the same package at Hyatt and Burbury Hotel then they have to pay $385 and $299. The standards set by the hotels here are different in the same package. All the three hotels charge a specific surcharge fee on all the credit cards. For example Crowne Plaza charges 1.5% on visa and master and 3% on American express whereas hotels such as Hyatt and Burbury charges a 1.3% fee on all credit cards and 1.25%.

Attribute High Price

On the perceptual map all three hotels are seen on the attribute high price and in return all of them are offering fast as well as high quality products and services which have been mentioned above. The reason consumers are willing to spend on such packages is because of the location of such hotel's which is just within walking distance to all the major attractions, shops, caf?'s, restaurants from a family's perspective and within walking distance to the conference centres, major offices, convention centres from a business traveller's perspective. After spending a certain amount in a hotel all the consumers are entitled for luxury, high class status within the society.

Segmentation

Segmentation - Segmentation is defined as identifying distinctive groups on consumers that have similar needs, wants, and preferences for a product or a service. (Reed, Peter, 2015, p. 144). Segmentation is a process of dividing a market in meaningful, relatively similar and identifiable segments or groups. (Kramar, R., Bartram, T., De Cieri, H., & Noe, R, 2017, p. 81).

The purpose of the term segmentation is to help marketers in order to define the customer needs and wants more precisely, help decision makers to define marketing objectives more accurately and to better allocate resources and performance can be better evaluated when objectives are more precise. (Book, 2017, p. 82)

Key Segmentation Variables:

• A) Demographic Segmentation - It is described as segmentation of markets by age, gender, income, ethnic background and family life cycle. It can be seen that marketers often segment markets based on demographic information as it is widely available and is often related to consumers buying and consuming behaviour. (Book, 2017, p. 84) Crowne Plaza targets middle and senior aged professionals who have a higher level of income. Such a brand targets business/ corporate as well as individuals who pursue luxury lifestyle such as VIP's or VVIP'S.
• B) Psychographic Segmentation - A segmentation of markets on the basis of personality, motives, lifestyles and geo-demographics. (Book, 2017, p. 87) Crowne Plaza targets people who have high motives/ desires, high status in the society and such individuals love staying in 5 star or 7 start hotels.
• C) Geographic Segmentation - A segmentation of markets by geographic characteristics such as region, country, market size, market density or climate. (Book, 2017, p. 84) Crowne Plaza's geographic segmentation focuses on building hotels in different places with target customer segment. Examples are Crowne Plaza in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, London and other places where mostly business/ corporate clients stay.
• D) Benefit Base - The process of grouping customers into market segments according to the benefits they seek from the product. (Book, 2017, p. 87) Such segmentation is different as it groups potential customers based on their needs and wants rather on some particular characteristic such as age or gender. (Book, 2017, p. 87) Crowne Plaza therefore offers benefits in return such as offering high class status within the society and luxury.
• E) Usage Rate Base - Dividing the market by the amount of product bought or consumed. Segmenting by usage rate enables marketers to focus their efforts on heavy users, or to develop multiple marketing mixes aimed at different segments. (Book, 2017, p. 88)
• Geography Demographics Psychographics Benefits Usage rate
• Region Age Personality Benefits sought Former
• Market Size Gender Motives Potential
• Market Density Income Lifestyle First Time
• Climate Ethnicity Geo-Demographics Light or irregular
• Family Life Cycle (yuppies, muppies, dinks) Medium and Heavy

Therefore, the segmentation variable which is the most useful for Crowne Plaza is the demographic segmentation because the most important attribute of demographics in marketing is to increase sales therefore by understanding the needs and wants of consumers. It therefore, helps in building long lasting relationships with the buyers as it is based on personalised marketing which eventually enables loyalty within the customer towards a particular brand. It eventually leads to customer retention. This leads to when a firm is willing to spend time on the needs and wants of their customers and they will certainly be back. If the clients are satisfied by the products and services offered by the hotel such as rooms, breakfast, airport transfer services they will definitely come back and the chances are very high that they will recommend the same to their friends and families.

Another reason why such a segmentation is useful for Crowne Plaza is because it is renowned for higher income consumers because they are willing to spend on majority of the products and services offered by the hotel. Such type of segmentation is useful for Crowne as it gives an opportunity to them to improve its products and services. Another reason as to why it is useful to Crowne is as it helps in identifying new opportunities, creating unique selling points. Therefore at Crowne Plaza demographic segmentation is very useful as all the information is readily available as such an organisation can pull out the census data to determine who, where and how they want to market their product. An example of such would be where hotel can market their most expensive rooms and less expensive rooms to different age groups, income levels and based on genders.

Consumer Profile (Crowne Plaza Canberra)

Primary Target Market - Primary Target is business or corporate clients as they are always on the move. They are considered to be the primary target market because of their eagerness to or their company's willingness to pay higher room tariffs. Such a primary target market is looking for fast internet speed, access to the club lounge or the hotel lounge. Such clients are entitled for an express check-in, express check-out, airport transfers and video review billing which means all the arrival and departure formalities take place through hotel's mobile application. 48% of the guests in the hotel industry are considered to be Generation X (born between 1960 and 1981), Generation Y or Millennials (born in early 1980's - mid 1990's) - 2000. Lifestyle segmentation of the primary target market here varies from jugglers (working women who juggle work and family commitments) and muppies (middle aged urban professionals). (Reed, P., 2015, p. 145)

Secondary Target Market - Couples, Families

Couples, Families have specific needs as well as wants from the hotel as they are mostly after kid-friendly places, inexpensive restaurants. Most of the families stay in the hotel when it comes to dining options, majority of the families dine outside the hotel just in order to avoid expensive restaurant costs within the hotel. They often stay in a hotel for entertainment purposes where the kids can have an additional room, they have needs for example they are after nearby/ interconnecting rooms. Hotels are seen offering discounts to families with kids as promotional basis by offering them packages at a reduced price, sometimes the package include tickets to an amusement park or to a kid-friendly attraction.

Targeting Strategies

• 1) Undifferentiated Targeting Strategy - A marketing approach that views the market as one uniform group with no individual segments and thus requires a single marketing mix. (Book, 2017, p. 91) An advantage of such a targeting strategy is the potential for saving on production and marketing. Unimaginative product offerings, company more susceptible to competition is considered as a disadvantage. Also described as mass marketing
• 2) Multi - Segment Targeting Strategy - Also called differentiated marketing strategy. A strategy that chooses two or more well defined market segments and develops a distinct marketing mix for each of them. Such type of strategy benefits an organisation as it leads to greater sales volume, higher profits, large market share and economies of scale in marketing. It therefore also involves production, promotion, inventory, market, research and management costs. (Book, 2017, p.92)
• 3) Niche Targeting Strategy - For organisations pursuing a focus competitive strategy, marketing effort is directed towards one segment of the entire market. It is also described as concentrated marketing strategy. The main purpose of the niche strategy is to acquire high penetration among narrowly defined target segments. (Reed, P, 2015, p. 144)

Most appropriate strategy - It can be said that Crowne Plaza targets its market mostly towards business/ corporate travellers and therefore the most appropriate strategy here is the differentiated strategy/ multi-segment. Crowne Plaza as a brand separates the segments in small parts and therefore a unique product or service is offered to each segment. For example for a VIP, airport transfers, access to the lounge, video billing review services are offered.

Crowne Plaza as a brand stands for full service where they offer services such as restaurants, meeting rooms, accommodation, gymnasium and pool etc. Such type of services are designed for families and couples also who have average expenditures. Therefore Crowne Plaza does not cater to one segment as it caters for more exclusive clientele. Crowne Plaza is an upscale version, followed by Holiday Inn and InterContinental. Such brands are designed where business travellers are willing to go and spend extra in order to obtain the services of all three hotels.