Business and Commercial Awareness: Implementation Plan for Inside/Out Hotels, Coursework Example

Part A

Investment Idea

The Inside Out hotels faces challenges due to innovation that brings competition to the industry. The disruption brought by Airbnb and the Covid-19 pandemic forces hotels to find new plans for survival. The business has experienced significant growth since opening, but the recent changes in the industry put it in a challenging position. They present a dire need for growth and evolution. From three possible investment decisions, the group chose the second one. It was short term and most viable of the three. It involves refurbishing the hotel and making it a staycation resort. Staycations have been a growing trend in the past few years, and the Covid-19 pandemic presents a greater need to pay more attention to its demands. The investment plan will help the business rise after the pandemic and competitively perform alongside the Airbnbs. It also targets the trends among a majority of travelers, thus preparing the business for success.

Business Model Canvas and Impact on Function

A business model canvas is used o generate a model for this business using the nine building blocks that describe the essential aspects (Dudin et al., 2015: 889). The following analysis identifies the impact of the model on the sales and marketing function. The first one is the customer segment, which helps the business group its potential customers and discovers the most profitable customers.  Segmentation helps the marketing function satisfy the group needs while focusing on the most profitable ones (Camilleri, 2018: 1). The business targets local tourists and urban populations, including families and young people in a B2C structure. The second building block is value propositions, which is everything the business can do better than competitors to satisfy customer needs (Qasharin, 2015: 3). Inside Out Hotel’s value proposition includes high-quality experience and food, and digital technology, making payment and bookings easier. Value proposition helps the sales and marketing function by assuring customers that they get value for their money.

The third building block is channels, which helps in the delivery of the value proposition to customers. The hotel will mainly use the website and social media. The latter is becoming more popular in advertisement and marketing (Seogot and Utomo, 2019: 1). It will make marketing more affordable and reach out to a bigger audience while selling authentic experiences. The fourth building block is customer relationships, where several can be created in the different segments. Peppers and Rodgers (2017: 73) propose the IDIC 4-step that build value in customer relationships. It begins with identification, differentiation, interaction, and then customization. The business will learn loyal and repeated customer, who cut the marketing cost of acquisition. The fifth building block is revenue streams, primarily the service, experience, and food sold to the customers. Rentals, boarding, and lodging revenues will help the marketing function design the best adverts for the business.

Key resources are another building block as it represents all the assets that enable operations. They include human resources, raw materials, utilities, capital, and infrastructure. They affect the marketing function by determining the approach used based on available capital. The seventh building block is the key activities, which refer to the primary steps from creation to execution of a business. The key activities in the hotel will be lodging, boarding, and culinary. They affect the marketing function by determining what is popular amongst customers and promoting it. The eighth resource is key partnerships where the company networks between providers, stakeholders, and other partners for strategic alliances or joint ventures. Key partners for the business include travel agencies, suppliers, auditors, investors, legal partners, and logistic partners. Partners offer competitive intelligence to the sales and marketing team as they attempt to discover and provide what customers want.

The cost structure is the ninth building block, and it describes all the costs of the business operations. All parts of the business model involve a cost structure, so the right planning, key activities, and partner choice determine success. The cost structure affects the pricing of business products in the marketing scene. The costs of the business will present it as a luxury brand. It will still be affordable for middle-class individuals. Generally, all these building blocks affect the sales and marketing approach of the business independently, as demonstrated above.

Resource Requirements

The sales and marketing function needs to attract new customers, win their loyalty, and drive more sales. All these need to be accomplished during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The business has a clear purpose for the marketing function and the resources required to achieve the set goals and objectives. The primary resources needed to carry out the marketing function are personnel, budget, training, consultation, research, space, and equipment. Marketing will mainly depend on the website and social media, so the resources are also tailored for the same purpose. Personnel is an essential marketing resource. They sell the experiences of the customer and are more convincing. Inside Out Hotel seeks to use the experience as a crucial selling point, making the personnel very effective.

The budget is an essential marketing resource without which the business may not execute the specific function appropriately. The marketing plan requires a budget that completes it, and it must be realistic for success. The marketing plan is meant for an existing business that wants to re-establish itself and be relevant to the current times. The marketing cost of the new venture is estimated from experience. The hotel will market itself digitally following two primary parts. The first part is the initial cost involving system setup, research and development, content creating, and web design. The second part is maintenance, including tracking and analytics, development and website maintenance, consulting fees, search visibility improvement, e-mail marketing, and pay per click advertising. The business will conduct efficient market research to target the right potential clients during the marketing campaigns.

While the business will partner with other agencies to market the products, it will also strive to acquire direct sales, especially during the high seasons when many people are planning to go on staycations. The business will create a good website that is reliable to the target consumers to accomplish this objective. The hotel will also use promotional marketing. It involves flyers and brochures offered to the partners, especially locally, making it part of the budget. The marketing staff will attend online training, seminars, and workshops, which should take at least thirty percent of the total marketing budget. A suitable and adequately staff will promote the business appropriately and ensure it meets the set marketing objectives and goals.

Time Plan and Milestones

The business plans to begin the implementation of the new investment in the second quarter of 2021. It means marketing should commence in the first quarter. The goal of promoting early is to give customers time to understand the new model and collect their views. Through that, necessary changes and adjustments can be made. The marketing team will also continuously study the market to identify their immediate and long-term needs. It is crucial information because the industry is competitive, and while the business plans to bring a new experience, it must stay at par or positively ahead of the competitors. Sales and marketing is a continuous process and a crucial function of the business. It will continue throughout the lifespan of the hotel. The figure below summarizes the marketing of the business and key milestones, between January and June 2021.

Figure 1: Gantt chart showing milestones of the marketing process

Links to Other Departments

Apart from marketing and sales, other hotel functions include management, purchasing and receiving, front office, human resources, engineering, safety and emergency, accounting, housekeeping, and security (Texas Education Agency, 2012). Marketing relies on the front office for data on guests and making a good impression of what was promoted to the customers, as well as overall communication. One of management’s branches is marketing as it uses it to create a relationship with customers.  Management also allocates resources to the marketing department to enable it to perform its roles. The purchasing and receiving department connect with suppliers and customers, respectively. Marketing studies customers, and that determines which supplier is more relevant to the department depending on the needs.

The human resource department recruits staff into the marketing department and groups them depending on their role. Marketing indirectly affects staff recruitment in other departments by presenting changes in customer behavior. The engineering department mainly deals with the maintenance of utility services in the hotel. They also maintain marketing systems such as data centers and other equipment. Safety and emergency is an essential department because it could either build or destroy a business. The marketing department benefits when the hotel has ample security. Customers may help in promoting it from that point. The accounting department helps in determining the cost-effectiveness of the marketing function. For example, it can calculate whether sales achieved from a marketing campaign are equivalent to the campaign cost. Lastly, the housekeeping department ensures the overall satisfaction of guests during their stay. They supply promotional items to the clients, thus supporting the marketing function.

Risk Analysis

The Ansoff matrix is an essential risk evaluation tool that offers judgment to a firm through product and market extension (Koks and Kilika, 2016: 90). The framework provides four strategies for market expansion including diversification, product development, market development, and penetration (Hussain et al., 2013: 197). The elements define areas that the marketing team can explore to identify a need, and understand the risks. Market penetration relates to expansion within an existing market and its resource intensity. The business Loyalty schemes are the best approach as many hotels have suffered a downturn during the pandemic, and they need to revive themselves. The only risk is that the business may not recover the production cost of such schemes.

The second item in the Ansoff matrix is marketing development which seeks to expand in a new market. The Inside Out hotel is not entering a new market, but re-establishing itself within the existing one. The risks of a new business are not present in this case, but the business must create the need for the new establishment in the market. The third item is product development where the business needs to sell a new product to the current customers. It is a relevant risk in this case because the business has to invest in the new development. Proper market research helps in understanding the customer and it can minimize the effects of this risk. The last item is diversification, where the business attempts to enter a new market with a new product. It is highly risky but does not apply to the Inside Out hotel because it is re-establishing itself in the same market.

Stakeholder Analysis

The hotel has both external and internal stakeholders. Employees and owners are the internal ones, while suppliers, local communities, customers, the media, government agencies, competitors, unions, financial intermediaries, and activist groups are the external ones (Harrison and Enz, 2005: 120; Benn et al., 2016: 1). The most crucial internal stakeholders are the employees, while the external ones are the customers. Employees seek safety and income while customers want value and quality. The two are then followed by the communities, and suppliers and vendors. The community’s economic development, safety, and health are at stake while the suppliers and vendors seek safety and revenues. Owners and financial institutions take third place, followed by the rest. The stakeholders will be contacted through emails, phones, workshops, brochures, and social media at least once every day.

Part B

Reflection

Reflection is a practice that supports learning and helps in analysis and evaluation for deeper understanding. Gibbs model is a reflective cycle for systematic thinking through different activity stages (Wain, 2017: 662). Elements include action plan, description, conclusion, feelings, analysis, and evaluation (Wain, 2017: 663).

Description

The group name is Mighty Three, whose members worked collectively during the start of the project, to identify an investment idea. It began with individual research where each group member was assigned an area to investigate and gather the information that would help peace out the questions. Each member documented their section and prepared a report for the group meetings. Working as a team is not easy because each member tables valid points and the group has to decide which was more essential. However, through research and further study, the group identified the most viable answers.

Feelings

The author knew very little about investment decisions as demonstrated by the amount of new information emerging from the project. There was little confidence that the work would be done appropriately and have everyone contribute to the highest standard. However, it is a different experience when one gets to work and be part of the team. Driven by a common purpose, everyone was excited to provide their input and play a significant role in the outcome. It is an eye-opening experience and quite informative. There was a lot to learn about how the business environment operates in the real world.

Evaluation

Generally, there were good and bad elements that increased the understanding of the author’s role in the business world. As a researcher who also helped in documenting the report, it was evident that the field requires different players to accomplish goals and that the failure of one member could lead to collapse. For example, the author was a bit slow in typing during the discussion because they find it hard to multitask. The good element was that each member was actively willing to give their best effort to the project. Generally, the different personalities benefitted the group.

Analysis

Research shows that the personality traits of each member, affect the success of groups (Kucukozer-Cavdar and Taskaya-Temizel, 2016: 388). The team members had different personalities that made every member competitive as they try to take part in the team. Therefore, the personality traits helped in the successful completion of the set targets.

Conclusion

The most important lesson is that teamwork cannot succeed without the input of the team. Therefore, each member must willingly give their best effort and learn from the rest during the process. It is best to understand one another and let every contribution cunt because that is the essence of a group. In the future, the author will try to perfect the weak areas such as multitasking because it is an essential skill when working in a team.

Action Plan

The author learned a lot from the team members and will use these ideas in future studies. One of the skills is curiosity as the members were not easily satisfied with one answer. They were ready to gather information from different sources and use it to improve the final work. The only thing that does not tickle curiosity is a fact, proven experimentally.

Bibliography

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Dudin, M.N., Lyasnikov, N.V.E., Leont’eva, L.S., Reshetov, K.J.E. and Sidorenko, V.N., 2015. Business model canvas as a basis for the competitive advantage of enterprise structures in the industrial agriculture. Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia, 12(1), pp.887-894.

Harrison, J.S. and Enz, C.A., 2005. Hospitality strategic management: Concepts and cases. Wiley.

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Koks, S.C. and Kilika, J.M., 2016. Towards a Theoretical Model Relating Product Development Strategy, Market Adoption and Firm Performance: A Research Agenda. Journal of Management and Strategy, 7(1), p.90.

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Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2005. Managing customer relationships: A strategic framework. John Wiley & Sons.

Qastharin, A.R., 2016. Business model canvas for social enterprise. Journal of Business and Economiscs, 7(4), pp.627-637.

Soegoto, E.S. and Utomo, A.T., 2019, November. Marketing Strategy Through Social Media. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 662, No. 3, p. 032040). IOP Publishing.

Texas Education Agency. 2012. Working Together: Hotel departments. Retrieved from https://cte.sfasu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Presentation-Notes-Working-Together-Hotel-Departments.pdf  [Accessed December 12, 2020]

Wain, A., 2017. Learning through reflection. British Journal of Midwifery, 25(10), pp.662-666.