What is marketing?

Most marketing is common sense. All you have to do to make money is sell the right product at the right price to the right people in the right way. Of course, getting this combination right is not always easy. Probably the two most important aspects of marketing are targeting and making the best use of appropriate promotional tools. Spending just a short time thinking about what you are selling will help you to get this right.

For many years, we have talked about marketing as being about the four ‘Ps’:

Product:  what you are selling, including ways in which your product or service is better than competitors’;

Price:  what you charge for your service, varying according to demand and other factors;

Place:  this does not mean where you are, but the marketplace or the way your guests make a booking or find out about you;

Promotion:  how you sell your product, including the message and tools you will use to promote your product, such as brochures, letters and advertisements.   This is usually the most interesting and practical aspect of marketing!

Most people would add a fifth ‘P’: people. Your staff and the way you interact with guests is an essential addition and could make as much difference to the way your accommodation is perceived as the price or your promotional activities.

Why bother to plan?

Marketing is essentially a process, rather than a series of scattered and isolated activities. Planning focuses your attention and gives you the opportunity to set targets. It means you will be able to develop better methods of evaluating results so you do not spend money unnecessarily.   Scheduling and co-ordinating all marketing activities will make them more effective and save you money. For example, if you are placing any advertising, it makes sense to increase your PR activities at the same time in order to maximise that investment.

Once you have developed your marketing action plan, you may need to undertake a little internal organisation to get staff to help you, or at least to communicate to other staff what you plan to do so that you are all ‘pulling in the same direction’.

This is an extract taken from the book, How to market your accommodation business effectively 

ISBN 9-780709 583905 – R.R.P - £9.99

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