Marriott International's Detailed Marketing Strategy: A Case Study | IIDE (2023)

As we all know, Marriott International has been at the forefront of the hospitality industry for a long time. However, there is little doubt as to how his marketing strategy has contributed the most to the success he has achieved over the years.

This case study focuses on Marriott International's target market, its marketing strategy and advertising campaigns, along with its digital presence. So let's start by understanding Marriott International as a company.

Acerca de Marriott International

Marriott International, Inc. is an American international hotel company that operates a broad portfolio of hotels and related accommodation facilities.

Founded by J. Willard Marriott, the company was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Speaking of its presence, Marriott International has established itself in 131 countries with more than 7,000 properties offering around 1.4 million rooms.

It is one of the most respected organizations in the hotel sector and has 30 different brands according to convenience and comfort.

Marriott International Brand Portfolio

Marriott International is a public company listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in the United States.

Now that we have a brief understanding of the company, let's drill down into the Marriott International customer profile by examining its target market.

Marriott International's target market

A target market refers to a group of people identified as potential customers of a business. The target market usually includes customers who share similar demographics.

This is how Mariott International segments its target market:

JW Marriot, created by Marriott International as a luxury brand, is aimed at guests looking for a peaceful and opulent environment during their stay.

Marriott International has successfully created different target markets within its industry, specifically targeting its customers' requirements.

Therefore, its customers are mainly individualistic, sophisticated and self-defined travelers who are willing to spend extra money on their accommodation, as well as business travelers.

Now, let's learn more about the company by looking at the 4Ps of Marriott's marketing mix in the next section.

Mezcla de marketing da Marriott International

The marketing mix is ​​commonly used to describe the set of techniques a company uses to get its message across to its target market. Even more, a marketing mix can also be used to understand what a company is doing from a marketing point of view. It includes the 4Ps that comprise a company in terms of Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

Here's how Marriott's marketing mix works:

Marriott's International Product Strategy

Marriott is one of the most recognized luxury hotel chains. It has a unique product strategy that focuses on luxury travelers.

For Marriott, the core product in its marketing mix is ​​in the hospitality services modality. Its product strategy encompasses everything related to hotel operations. They have over 30 brands, including popular hotels like the Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, Renaissance and many others.

The company has categorized its brands under the following labels: Luxury, Premium, Select and Longer Stays. This helps customers choose hotels based on their travel plans and convenience.

Marriott International strives to deliver exceptional guest experiences that are consistent across all of its branded hotels and resorts in all locations and across all channels. He also works extensively on launching new brands based on different themes catering to new and existing customers.

Marriott International Pricing Strategy

Marriott International is one of the few organizations that has managed to maintain pricing power despite significant discounts from competitive pricing, reduced volume and increased room supply.

In terms of pricing, Marriott International prices vary between different hotels, customers and locations. The company's main motive is to provide a top-notch experience that exceeds customer satisfaction for the price you pay.

It has been successful in large part because different hotel brands have managed to maintain differentiated value propositions in terms of brand promise and appeal.

Marriott International Place Strategy

Marriott International is recognized and is one of the largest hotel chains in the world in number of hotels that it manages and operates both in different parts of the world and in the United States.

Choosing the ideal location and distribution strategy has played a vital role for Marriott on its journey over the years. Since its founding, it has established itself in over 131 countries and its hotel locations are mainly focused on major cities and towns in and around a country.

Marriott's International Presence

Mariott's International Promotion Strategy

Marriott International has been in the hospitality industry for nearly a decade now that the name "Marriott" speaks for itself. It is one of the positive beneficiaries of word of mouth promotion.

Other than that, Marriott focuses primarily on promoting itself and its brands through digital media.

• It has a very well-designed website that shows all its brands in detail, which attracts users to book the room immediately.
• He also worked on user-generated content strategy and also collaborated with several influencers.
• It also runs a loyalty program called Bonvoy, which offers its customers a variety of benefits.

Now that we understand the hotel giant's marketing mix, let's review Marriott's marketing strategies in the next section.

Mariott International Marketing Strategy

In recent years, Marriott International's marketing strategy has shifted from offline to online. You've shifted your focus to marketing yourself more digitally than using the traditional marketing approach.

As Arne Sorensen, president of Marriott International, aptly put it on his blog: "What social media allows us to do is not draw attention to ourselves, but to see our guests in their own spotlight."

So let's understand the strategies and campaigns you put in place to provide a better customer connection and service in general.

M Live de Marriott International

M Live by Marriott International has been shaping the future of the hospitality industry with its communities at Marriott hotels.

M Live is a platform where the M Live team tracks a variety of popular topics around the world and organizes its content around these topics. Furthermore, it also targets people on an individual level.

For example, a traveler recently tweeted a question about hotels in Nashville, USA and received relevant suggestions from M Live. The M Live team not only suggested hotels, but also provided relevant content on how Nashville's nightlife further enhances the travel experience.

M Live Studios by Marriott International

Marriott International Marketing and Advertising Campaigns

Marriott's marketing campaign revolves around showcasing the comfort, care and wealth of the Marriott luxury hotel chain. The advertisements focus on the hotel chain's luxurious room services and hospitality, as well as a relaxed atmosphere.

With memorable marketing campaigns that drew people's attention to the company, Marriott's marketing campaign strategy has so far managed to positively impact its viewers and thus resulted in steady growth in customer engagement.

#GoldenRule: A marketing campaign by Marriott International

Marriott International launched a campaign called "Rule of Thumb", a premium brand campaign showcasing four of its brands - Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Four Points by Sheraton and SpringHill Suites - together for the first time.

The idea behind the Golden Rule campaign is to showcase Marriott's collective strength stemming from its "classic curated" brands, which together comprise a third of its 30-brand portfolio. It shows a connection between the four brands and how the service is rooted in human connections.

Marriott ran several commercials for this campaign, including 60 and 30 second commercials. This campaign launched in 2017 and is one of Marriott's most appreciated campaigns.

Marriott Bonvoy: An International Marketing Campaign by Mariott

Bonvoy: Marriott International's global campaign promoting its travel program under the theme "Reinvented Rewards".

Bonvoy is a new loyalty program that offers its customers a variety of benefits, such as exclusive bonuses and discounts. It also allows customers to earn points that can be later redeemed. It also gives members access to a host of sporting and entertainment events.

It launched the Bonvoy app for Android and iOS to enhance the experience for loyal customers.

It has also launched several global advertising campaigns highlighting the benefits of Bonvoy membership. In India, it joined Mumbai Indians as loyalty partners and thus promoted Bonvoy during Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

These were one of the popular campaigns that Marriott International incorporated to promote itself and maintain its presence in the minds of customers.

With that, our case study comes to an end, we'll go over the final points in the next section.

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Conclusion

Marriott International may be one of the most famous hotels in the world that is constantly in the news for its new hotel development deals. Needless to say, the Marriott International chain is also world-class, with over 7,000 properties in over 100 countries and territories.

However, over the past three years, Marriott International has also been at the forefront of online travel marketing. From its extensive global network to its proprietary technology platform, Marriott International has worked well to integrate digital marketing into a well-organized strategy to make its brand the preferred choice for people seeking luxury travel.

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