Brand Audit of Marriott

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Customers and external partners
Brand extensions
Brand Management
Customer service
Marriott- Personality
Image metrics
Impact metrics
Works Cited

Introduction

Brand auditing is a critical outlook of a brand from different dimensions or perspectives to ensure that it is still relevant in the market, to ensure that the brand is competitive in the market and that it corresponds with emerging technological advancements (Aaker, 350).

According to Interbrand (11) when a company changes its strategy in order to be relevant in the current market, it also changes its brand in order to portray a new image or beginning, therefore, brand auditing is carried out. Brand audit gives an organization or company an opportunity to examine their brand from different perspectives. For this case, we are going to examine different perspectives of an audit of Marriott.

Customers and external partners

Marriott International Inc., is one of the biggest companies providing hotel and lodging services around the globe with more than three thousand hotels and lodgings in sixty eight countries. Its headquarters is in Bethesda, Maryland and currently employs close to one hundred and fifty thousand people. It is a preferred hotel for providing services to corporate clients, tourist and leisure travelers.

The company operates several brands of hotels worldwide that include Marriott Hotels and resort, Edition hotels, Marriott executive apartments and others. The rooms of Marriott hotels are well designed to meet the demands of all customers which include presidential, deluxe and junior suites.

The rooms are fitted with modern day facilities that include direct dialing phones for local and international calls. Other services offered by Marriott hotels are conference facilities, room services, health and recreation facilities, banquet services for small and big meetings, swimming pools, and business centers (Randall, 352).

Brand extensions

Owing to the demands of the market and strategic growth of the company, Marriott has set up several hotels and resorts all over the world to become a predominant player in the hospitality industry. It has offered its guests warm hospitality, quality services and availed the best facilities that give memorable experiences. The hotels and resorts are strategically located in prime locations to cater for tourist and business needs.

The responsibility of managing the interests of the group led to the formation of several brands of the company all over the world that include: Marriott conference centers, AC Hotels, Renaissance Hotels, Grand Residences and others (Ogilvy, 22.

Marriott stands out as a provider of unique brand because of its capability to provide cultural foods that include Mexican, Italian, Egyptian, Arabian, Chinese, Mediterranean and other foods. Special offers on room rates and discounts are given on special occasions like anniversaries, Christmas holiday, Easter holiday, New Year and weddings (Reinolds, 99).

Brand Management

Management of the company falls under several departments within the company that comprise finance, sales, engineering, human resources, housekeeping, food and beverages and front office departments. Sales department has a direct responsibility of bringing business to the organization and therefore it is linked with booking of the rooms.

It is responsible for organizing meetings with corporate clients and other clientele and convincing them to hold their meetings in their hotels. The marketing department of the company organizes promotional activities that range from advertising campaigns in print and electronic media and other campaigns that use handouts and billboards.

Finance department is concerned with keeping record of finance, making provisions and payments. Engineering department has the responsibility of maintaining buildings, water and power supply. The company has a house keeping department that is concerned with making sure that cleanliness and hosting are done well and that supplies are acquired.

There also exists the human resources department that ensures there is enough manpower, in the organization through recruitment, training and promotion of workers. The backbone of the hotel is the foods and beverages department which has the responsibility of making sure that foods are of good quality and delicious (Kassarjian, 418).

Customer service

Marriott has the largest chain of hotels and resorts in the world and maintains high standards of excellence of which it is known globally. The kind of hospitality offered in the hotels is of high standards to make sure guests get luxurious and a variety of services.

At Marriott, there is a policy that the customer is always on the right and the best customer services are provided. Customer service facilities that are used include follow up calls, emails and newsletters (Hart, 122).

Marriott- Personality

The brand ‘Marriott’ represents an executive and dynamic name in hospitality that is characterized with excellence in provision of customer services and social gatherings. Their brand name is has been designed in such a way that it will always remind the customers that they are attached to their hotels (Dolan, 111).

Efforts are made to retain customers through promotions, discount packages, reward programs and support of charity organizations.

Image metrics

The image of the company is positively portrayed to its customers especially recognition through its provision of luxurious services, regional foods and services that include Japanese, Chinese, Mexican and Mediterranean foods. Keller (77) argues out that there exists a lot of competition in the market and the attempt to recognize a brand is an issue.

According to Malhotra (87), Marriott has come out to provide a variety of services to ensure that its brand remain vibrant in the market that include provision of luxury living rooms, delicious foods, and prestigious banquet halls.

Association of these characteristics with the hotel makes the customers recognize the brand name (Agarwal, 237). Customers of Marriott give preference to Marriott hotels because of the manner in which they are being treated as loyal customers and that their status is taken care of.

Impact metrics

In terms of market share, Marriott is one of the biggest hotels in the world and comes. Other major competitors are Holiday Inn and Hilton hotels which are placed 1^st and 2^nd globally according to Smith travel research (Lury. 55).

The brand of the company has been placed at a better level due to constant profitability of the company. The company is also involved in life cycle of its products to ensure that the brand remains the most reputable brand in hotel industry and makes sure that its facilities remain the most preferable in the market (Kapferer, 126).

Works Cited

Aaker, Jennifer. Dimensions of Brand Personality. Boston: Pearson, 1997.

Agarwal, Manoj. “An Empirical Comparison of Consumer based Measures of Brand Equity,” Marketing Letters, New York: Oxford University Press,1996.

Dolan, Robert. Conjoint Analysis: A Managers Guide. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School, 1990.

Hart, Gareth. The Future for Brands. Basingtoke,UK: MacMillan Business, 1998.

“The Top 100 Brands,” Interbrand (2003). Web.

Kapferer, Jean. Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining Brand Equity (2^nd Edition). London: Kogan, 1997.

Kassarjian, Hypp. Personality and Consumer Behavior. New York: Knopf, 1971.

Keller, Kevin. “Building Customer based Brand Equity,” Marketing Management. Lexinton: Lexinton Books, 2001.

Keller, Kevin. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity (2^nd Edition). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2003.

Lury. Cahhil. Brands: The Logos of the Global Economy. Routledge: London. Malhotra, Naresh. Marketing Research. (2^nd Edition). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996.

Ogilvy, Danven. Ogilvy on Advertising. New Yolk: Orbis, 1983.

Randall, Genn. Branding. London: Norman Hart, 1997.

Randall, Taylor. Brand Equity and Vertical Product Line Extent: Marketing Research. London: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Reinolds, Thomas. “Laddering Theory, Method, Analysis and Interpretation.” New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.

Click Here To Order Now!