Executive summary
The main topic of the given assignment is the new Virtual Reality service provided by the Marriott Hotels. It was broken down into several stages in order to develop a sufficient marketing research. The group has elaborated on such topics as establishing the need for marketing research, the design of the research and has considered the possible problems that may arise during the research. For the challenges were established the wide range of companies across the hospitality industry. In the section entitled, research design determined the type of the investigation was made. The given marketing analysis is conducted by exploratory design. Additionally, the group has designed efficient data collection forms, such as online surveys with well thought-through questions. As for the research objectives, the main goal was to accommodate various hospitality industries by a provision of well-thought-out travels for guests, visitors, and clients. In the aim to create a pleasant guest experience throughout their stay in Marriott Hotels. Regarding the description of the research, it must be mentioned that the clarity and methods of data collection illustrated in the examples and appendix. By the end, the research introduces the analysis plan and techniques that were used to accomplish the assignment.
Introduction
Technology is advancing in a faster pace than ever before, and this is changing the expectations of guest as well as the way the hospitality industry controls it business. However, some of the major development in the industry has been a great improvement for various hotels and every other business related to hospitality industry, while some are changing the way hotel developers design their buildings, structures and management. For decades, the hospitality industry has been stable without the market being affected, there have been so many progresses with steady revenue pouring in consistently throughout the years. Technology has also been discovered to be heading in a direction that will facilitate more dramatic changes than ever before. And these expected changes are to turn the industry from age of labour to the age of wireless which simply means as equipment becomes more efficient, less labour will be required.
During the recent years hospitality industry has moved towards technological and digital advancement which has become more connected and responsive to guest experience. In the next few years from now the way guest perceive and spend their time in a hotel would be clearly different in terms of guest booking their accommodation. Checking in and out of the hotel would definitely change, and the way guest access various sectors in a hotel would also change in the coming years of 2025 with the aid of technological advancement. This will also enhance swift change in the framework and structure of a hotel and it will take a whole new design completely.
However, it has been clearly predicted that all hotels will undergo various technological development with the use artificial intelligence, infrared sensors, robotic receptionist, 3D food imaging and processing as well as virtual reality products which will also reduce the amount of human interactions in prominent roles.
Establish the need for marketing research
A strengthening global economy lies at the heart of industry growth. Each year, the global traveller pool is flooded with millions of new consumers from both emerging and developed markets, many with rising disposable incomes and a newfound ability to experience the world. A sleeping giant has truly awakened the impact of which cannot be underestimated (www2.deloitte.com, 2018).
One of the vital key factors for guest in hotel industries has to do with guest experience or memories which had to do with the experience the guest have while staying in the hotel or accommodation provided. other factors considered is the services and products render in the hotel, during the research a conclusion was made that guest aren’t happy about the experience or service delivered to them in the hotel which was used to come to an actual solution to cub this guest problems and complains. During the research it was discovered that with the use of VR (virtual reality) it could be presented to the guest staying at the hotels which gives them some good experience and memories of their actual locations and countries they visited. You could be in Chicago and imagine how the life in Taiwan and how much tourist attractions they have in that countries.
In the hospitality industry, virtual reality has been of great importance, base on the amount of quality information the average and normal guest needs before they could book a room in a hotel, which is preferable than reading through the descriptions in a booklet or the hotel magazine which may or may not be trustworthy. It also allows the guest to experience themselves. However, this product allows guest to experience a virtual recreation of a room within a hotel or any tourist attraction buildings or structures as well as looking at one of the nearby attractions. This also gives room for the hotel industry to benefit from the type of “try before you buy” marketing that has been common place within the food industry for decades (www.revfine.com,2018). However, the practical uses for virtual reality technology do not stop when the customer has booked a hotel room. People inside the hospitality industry can continue to use the VR to deliver information and allow guest to experience nearby attractions once they have arrived, adding to the hotel experience itself.
Problems
The clear focus of the research is to help the client find suitable contents for hotel travels and as the digital consumer and travelers evolves, it was discovered that the guest is looking for more rich content and it is also believed that providing rich, great content to consumers will help them with their travel making process, and it would help with the conversion process. This had to do with the problem various hospitality industries had which prevent them from generating profit and increasing their market base, a certain ground must be created to facilitate the process of changing the hotel travels in the hospitality industry. So, a research was carried out to establish a unique VR travel experience using Oculus that shows what the future of travel could be. However, this also need to feel real. What came out of the research was the Teleporter, the Phone both. It was also discovered that the teleporter however would go beyond virtual reality. It would also combine 3D visual and audio elements with a physical experience something which later came to be wildly known as 4D (www.digitaltrends.com,2018).
A research was conducted in such a way that all this necessary equipment would serve their purpose for the development of the new product that would be introduced into the hospitality industry. During the research it was discovered that the booth which would have a user step into the booth (after signing a waiver, naturally), put on the headset and headphones, and transported into a virtual lobby. Within that lobby, the user is transported again to two locations, Hawaii and London, where they can experience what it feels like to be in those two different environments (www.princeton.edu, 2018).
Research objectives
The objective of the research is to assist different hospitality industries in providing an easy way to improve hotel travels for guests and to help them create a valid guest experience during their stay in the hotel environment. During the research some certain information was discovered that the guest is looking for more rich content and it was also believed that providing rich, great content to consumers will help them with their travel making process, and it would help with the conversion process.
So, there was a focus on how to create a unique VR travel experience using Oculus that explores what the future of travel could be, and importantly it needed to feel realistic.
Research Design
As the research has been analysed, the design is identified. The exploratory research is used. Exploratory research is a marketing research conducted to collect preliminary information necessary to better identify problems and proposed assumptions (hypotheses) within which marketing activities are expected to be carried out, as well as to clarify terminology and prioritize research objectives (Jupp, 2006). For example, it was suggested that the low level of implementation was due to poor advertising, but exploration showed that the main reason for the lack of sales was the poor work of the distribution system, which should be studied in more detail at subsequent stages of the marketing research process. Exploration research revealed such components as loan size, reliability, staff friendliness, etc., and also determined how to measure these components. For an exploratory survey, it may be sufficient to only read published secondary data or to conduct a selective survey of a number of specialists on this issue. On the other hand, if the exploration is aimed at testing hypotheses or measuring the interrelationships between variables, then it should be based on the use of special methods. This choice was made because the focus of the exploratory research is on the finding of concepts and visions as opposed to collecting statistically precise data (Team, 2014) .
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Information type
In this case both primary and secondary information types are used. Primary data - information collected by the researcher specifically to solve a specific problem. Most often, the conduct of marketing research is understood as the collection of primary information. Methods for collecting primary data are divided into methods for collecting qualitative data, methods for collecting quantitative data and so-called mix-methods. Secondary data is a collection of data previously collected from internal and external sources for purposes other than marketing purposes. In other words, secondary data are not the result of special marketing research. Secondary data is divided into external and internal. External sources are laws, decrees, decisions of state bodies, official statistics, data of international organizations, etc. Syndicated data are also obtained from external sources. Internal sources include financial and accounting reports, mission reports, complaints reviews, interviews with employees and managers of the company's structural units, etc. These types of information have been chosen because all the information that is used in the research was gained from the available published sources and also from the surveys that were made by people who have done the research, so the information was gained for the exact purpose. There is a consistence between the research objectives and the information types. As the research objectives are to promote the product and to convince it, the information is collected in order to make the investigation be interesting for the target group and to help the product to be in-demand.
Methods of accessing the data
One of the key factors for the company's success in the market is the timely receipt of reliable and complete information about changes in the external environment, as well as its effective analysis and correct interpretation. The information was obtained by screening the information available online and observation of consumers (online surveys were used). There are two ways of collecting information when performing advertising activities: quantitative and qualitative marketing researches. During the qualitative research it is possible to collect detailed information about the concept, opinions, beliefs, needs of customers and consumers, and then you can study the impact of these parameters on the behavioural criteria of clients. Qualitative research provides an opportunity to receive direct feedback, information from consumers themselves. Thanks to this type of marketing research, researchers can find out how customers express their own thoughts and opinions in words. This analysis provides an opportunity to get more information about why buyers have exactly this behaviour and not any other. While quantitative analysis is a way to understand customer associations and the characteristics of an already existing position thanks to numbers. Obtained as a result of this type of research voluminous numerical information is completely reliable and can be extended to complete integration. During the obtaining all the necessary data some difficulties occurred. All the surveys took a lot of time to observe the information. In order to observe the material, there was used one of the observation types which is “the structured observation”. The structured observation is the one that uses a number of pre-distributed categories, according to which certain reactions of individuals are recorded. Used as the primary method of collecting primary information.
Description of the research
Design data collections forms
In a process of gathering data, it is important to develop and maintain a certain style of data collection form in order to obtain needed information from the chosen target audience. It is required to make sure that the structured questions, which consumer can understand, are estimating the satisfaction from a customer perspective in the desired way. The questions must be asked by using the coveted level of measurement. Accordingly, only after that, the gathered data can be appropriately analysed and diagnosed. Nevertheless, any marketing researcher must be able to measure the gathered data. In fact, measurement is another important aspect in the process of gathering the information.
In order to build the accurate measurements, the researcher must go through a series of considerations while creating the survey questions to respondents. Marriott Hotels before launching the “VRoom Service” has designed a special type of the questionnaires. By developing this questionnaire, a list of researches was made, furthermore were considered various question formats and numbers of factors. Question development process was made by considering the focused topic and stayed brief, with no use of redundant words. The researchers made sure that the research objectives will be met through the appropriate structured questions.
The developed survey has the several stages in asking different types of questions. By the first page come the classification and demographic questions, which are gathering the personal information, such us age, gender and nationality. The second stage are warm-ups questions. They are easy to answer; however, they provide fundamental sources to the researchers. The third stage are the transitions, which are consist of statements and questions. In the last stage are complicated and difficult to-answer questions, where a respondent has to commit himself or herself to completing the questionnaire.
Sample plan and size
As understood from the information giving above, the chosen design collection form by Marriott International was questionnaires posted on the Web, which can be also called surveys. The Marriot International has 500 hotels in more than 50 countries across the globe, in fact, it is worldly known for its best-delivered services and gained the trust of its customers. Those factors helped to distribute the questions to the broad audience of the future customers.
The new service product of the Marriott International dedicated to the specific target group of their customers. The desired group are the often travellers. In order to distinguish the audience of the oriented product from all the customers need to find a specific way to reach them. The researchers target group for questionnaires were tourists travelling all around the world. Evidently, the first step was to define the desired target group from the all customers and find a specific way to reach them. This process was done online through the cooperation with the popular travel booking site Booking.com. Additionally, it was done through the social media monitoring, such as Facebook and Instagram.
Data selection
The researchers have done that by smart developed questions and well-chosen respondents. Primary data was taken from researches of international respondents. The questions had both quantitative and qualitative characters. Secondary data was taken from the researches of traveling public developed by the Department of Tourism (Tapoi & Matauraka Tapoi, No date).
Data analysis plan
The process of analysing the data was made in several stages. Firstly, by analysing with statistic tools. The statistic tools are implemented with the help of the specialized software “SPSS Statistics”. “SPSS” is the “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” computer software that allows to statistically analyse data, do the marketing researches and analyse those researches. The software is one of the market leaders in the field of commercial statistical products (ibm.com, No date). The second stage contained the process of researchers’ analysis of the derivation done by SPSS. Based on the final data conviction is made.
Conclusion
With the quick evolve of the hospitality and tourism industries the advanced technologies start to take a major part of making it more suitable. With the growing competition in hands of the industries comes advanced technologies, which make the industry more attractive for the new generation.
By the help of the research was established how wide the certain product would be demanded and what the challenges was faced in order to bring to life the service of VR in hotel industry of Marriott Hotels. Nevertheless, the ways of making the product to work as effective as it does consist of features as approach, design methods, sample plan and size, and the selecting process.
The assignment described all the details of how this successful marketing research was developed. The process of developing the research was challenging for all the group members, however, it brought a lot of insights on this research and has taught the team how virtual reality would play an important role in the hotel travel industry and create a good guest experience during their stay in the hotel. It would also assist the guest to have more insight about the country they plan to visit and more knowledge about the culture and tourist attractions in the country.
References:
- Bethesda, M., 2015. Marriott Hotels Introduces The First Ever In-Room Virtual Reality Travel Experience. [Online] Available at: http://news.marriott.com/2015/09/marriott-hotels-introduces-the-first-ever-in-room-virtual-reality-travel-experience/
- ibm.com, No date. IBM SPSS software. [Online] Available at: https://www.ibm.com/analytics/spss-statistics-software
- Jupp, V., 2006. Exploratory research. [Online] Available at: http://methods.sagepub.com/reference/the-sage-dictionary-of-social-research-methods/n75.xml
- Kazantzakis, N. 1946. Zorba the Greek. Jaber & Faber
- Tapoi, T. M. & Matauraka Tapoi, T., No date. Department of Tourism. [Online] Available at: https://www.otago.ac.nz/tourism/research/projects/index.html
- Team, F., 2014. 3 Types of Surveys Research. [Online] Available at: http://fluidsurveys.com/university/3-types-survey-research-use-can-benefit-organization/ [Accessed 20 09 2018].
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