Impact of Media and Social Networking in the marketing of Hotel chains.

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...............................................................................................1
CHAPTER-1..................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................3
Aims...........................................................................................................................4
Objectives..................................................................................................................5
Summary....................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER-2..................................................................................................................6
REVIEW OF LITERATURE...........................................................................................6
Introduction................................................................................................................6
Overview of Hotel Parkwood......................................................................................7
Traditional promotional strategy................................................................................7
Integrated Marketing Communication........................................................................9
New Communication Paradigm...............................................................................10
Modern promotional strategies................................................................................11
Push Strategy................................................................................................................................11
Pull Strategy..................................................................................................................................12
Online promotional Tools.........................................................................................12
Search Engine Marketing..............................................................................................................12
Online personal relation building..................................................................................................13
Online partnership........................................................................................................................13
Interactive Advertisement............................................................................................................13
Viral marketing.............................................................................................................................14
Social Media.............................................................................................................14
Social partnership....................................................................................................15
Summary..................................................................................................................15
CHAPTER-3................................................................................................................17
RESEARCH METHODOLGY......................................................................................17
Introduction..............................................................................................................17
 Aim of the research..................................................................................................17
Objectives of the research.......................................................................................17
Research Paradigm.................................................................................................18
Research Strategies................................................................................................19
Methodology of research used................................................................................20
Scope of the Study...................................................................................................21
Data Collection Methods..........................................................................................21
Survey...........................................................................................................................................22
Semi structured interviews...........................................................................................................22
Limitations................................................................................................................23
Summary..................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER-4................................................................................................................24
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS...................................................................24
Introduction..............................................................................................................24
Content Analysis......................................................................................................24
Quantitative analysis................................................................................................25
Sample Profile...............................................................................................................................25
Classification based on Gender.....................................................................................................25
Classification of the sample based on age of the respondents.....................................................26
Qualitative Analysis..................................................................................................30
CHAPTER 5.................................................................................................................33
DISCUSSION..............................................................................................................33
Summary..................................................................................................................38
CHAPTER 6.................................................................................................................39
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS...............................................................................39
Introduction..............................................................................................................39
Conclusion of the Research Outcomes...................................................................39
Recommendations...................................................................................................40
Use of Social Network carefully....................................................................................................40
Summary..................................................................................................................41
REFERENCES............................................................................................................42
APPENDIX...................................................................................................................45
Survey questionnaire...............................................................................................45
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report is on the influence of social network and media on promotional and
marketing strategy of the hospitality industry with special reference to Hotel
Parkwood (http://www.parkwoodhotel.com/). In this report primary goal to achieve
was to study the ways in which online modern technology is used in the present
promotional strategy by the decision makers in the organisation for the future
competitive advantage. In the present scenario the use and spread of social network
media is on the blast as compared to another traditional tools for the promotional
tools. The report is divided into four sections: Introduction, the review of literature,
methodology, data analysis, conclusion and recommendations. The literature review
begins with an introduction of various promotional tools both traditional as well as
modern tools, then the type of strategies used along with description of the social
network. In this section we further discusses the advantages of the social media and
the different social network which are prevalent in present scenario.
The analysis section takes a look at qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse
the perception of customers and the managers for finding the outlook of both the
company’s aspect and the buyers. This analysis helps to find the perception
difference among the spread of the population along the stakeholders and the firms.
The results that are find out in the analysis section is further discussed in the light to
attain the further insight which gave an idea that although the social media is
expanding but the firms are still reluctant to take it as the primary tool as for the
reason for measuring effectiveness and to look that is the burst is a fad character of
market that can recede in long run.
The report is concluded by the researcher by listing down the points from the analysis
and discussion and further tries to give recommendations for the firms about how to
increase the advantage of the social media and curb the disadvantages for the
gaining the competitive advantage in the present hypercompetitive scenario of
economy.
 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

Media and Social networking and the promotional strategies using these methods are
the new collaboration of technology and strategy. It is necessary in the present world,
where online consumers are growing at a very fast pace, for companies to try to
explore this new means of marketing strategies to find the influence in the field of
promotion of the services, in particular hospitality industry where the intangibility has
more problems than normal goods.
The organizations in hospitality industry want to provide services in a way so that
maximum customer satisfaction is achieved. The emergence of the social networking
and associated media has changed the scenario of the present marketing style of the
companies, as the organizations can have a larger customer base and reduced cost
for the promotion of the services to that base. In case of service industry especially
hospitality, the consumer behaviour is very complicated and the segmentation of the
market is diverse, hence hard to satisfy due to different attitude of the consumers.
Social media plays an important role in present scenario but still it is a dice situation
for the managers to decide on the wide use of social network over traditional
promotional methods. The developing world especially Europe has seen a
phenomenal rise in the number of internet users to about 52% of the population,
which has created the large customer base. In the modern era 88% marketers are
using the social media network along with the traditional method as the audience of
the television and newspaper has fallen drastically to 28% and 17% respectively. One
of the companies which used the social network to great effect is Victoria’s secret
(http://www.victoriassecret.com/) because it has follower strength of about two million
followers in Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/victoriassecret). This dissertation
report is a look in to how and whether the magic of social and media networking be
extended to the hotel industry where the customer more believes in feeling than the
existence of the product.
As the number of customers using internet increased more and more companies
started paying attention to social network marketing which are forcing the
organizations to redesign their marketing and promotional strategies to accommodate
the changed scenario in the market and hence forth companies started investing on
the social media networking. In this type of marketing companies started to segment
market on the bases of the interest groups of the social network and introduce blogs,
web pages and websites etc according to these interest group. This type of marketing
has provided a significant increase in the sharing of the information over larger
population through viral marketing strategies. But some time these strategies can
cause the dissatisfaction in the minds of the customer as through blogs and websites
the expectation of the customer towards the service provide is increased so high that
it can not be fulfilled so this leads to the unsatisfied customers which is more a drastic
situation for the organization. The unsatisfied customer can produce negative
marketing through word of mouth which causes the loss of the corporate identity of
the companies or the organization. This study is conducted for the attaining certain
research questions to be resolved
Research Question 1. To find out the growth in the social networking and its influence
on the strategies adopted by the organization for attaining the competitive advantage
in hospitality industry.
Research Question 2. To analyze the pros and cons for the organization in using
social networking as the major promotional tool.
With the above research question the following aims and objectives for the research
are established.
Aims
The aim of the research is to evaluate the development of marketing and promotional
strategies that are based in the new social media technologies as they are becoming
increasingly important for hospitality operators looking to expand their market share.
The project will examine marketing aspects through social media and the risks and
opportunities associated with the strategy.
Objectives
1. To evaluate the growth of social networking sites in the marketing and
promotional strategies of the hospitality sector.
2. To analyse the various strategies adopted by the hotel industry in utilizing the
social networking sites to be competitive
3. To critically analyse the advantages and threats from the usage of social
networking sites.
4. To recommend marketing and promotional strategies based on social
networking tools for the hotel.

Summary
In the chapter researcher explains about the background of the research problem
which is primarily focusing on the network media and its influence on the strategy
generation and the planning of the management of the companies. Further
researcher wants to explain the importance of the social media and its influence on
the not only on the people of United Kingdom but also all over the world. On the basis
of the introduction and rationale of the study researcher frames certain research
questions. In the coming chapter researcher will be further dealing with the Review of
the literature to make further insights about the research problem.
 CHAPTER-2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter gives a detailed literature review covering different aspects of social
media and promotional strategies. This section also explains the previous studies
which are conducted on promotional strategies adopted by the different companies.
The review further analyses the promotional and marketing strategies which are
prevalent in the hospitality sector. Section surveys the previous studies about the
linking of social media networking and promotional and marketing strategies of the
company. Section further explains about the advantages about the social media
network provides to the customer by precisely finding out the factors influencing the
customer choices and the decision making behaviour. The summary is provided in
last section of the chapter.
Introduction
Globalization and the internationalization of the organization across the world have
created a new horizon on the global market and organizations are now proactive to
the consumer need and want to provide higher satisfaction to the consumer. The
market is converting into global village type of scenario where distance has lost the
meaning and no service, product or market is inaccessible. According to Palmer and
Koeing (2009, Pg.no. 165) social media is explained as the collection of the media,
online application and the platform which tries to facilitates interaction among the
buyer and seller, collaboration among the users, and sharing of the content. The
British customers are now fond of social media networking as this provides the
opportunity for the customers to mingle with among themselves and had a more
rational decision making process. Social media is important for the hospitality sector
because it is considered as the efficient way to resolve the problems of customers
and provide a better service than the competitors. Now a days organization are using
the social network for mainly obtaining the two objective in hotel industry
a. For promotion of the organization’s services to the outside of customer market.
b. For maintain the relationship with the present client and at the same time
targeting the new customers.
Overview of Hotel Parkwood
The hotel Parkwood has a great traditional existence with a long history of becoming
a host for many famous personalities from the field of politics, drama, cinema, sports,
royal heads of the state and also the famous celebrities. This hotel was established in
the 1940 and was designed by the famous Alexandria Galgoas. The founder of the
firm was Alexandria Galgoas who was the owner of the steel plant which was famous
at that time by buying the land in 1930. The growth of the hotel was very thick and
fast from a restaurant to the three star hotel in the span of 34 years in 1975 it was
converted in the threes star now.
It is considered as the finest of the restaurant in the area with a scope to jump to next
level. They are planning for the upgradation of the hotel for the next generation so the
transformation process is going and taking place both on the structure and the
system. They are now adapting the modern technology for the expansion of the hotel
to one of the best in the London where service of highest quality is taken priority
rather than being a mere observer of the globalisation and internationalisation of the
economy. After 2007 when the economic recession hit the market of the western
countries the hotel decided to move from existing traditional strategy to attain the
sustainable growth in the country and across the world in the new decade.
The services provided to the customers are of high quality and they have excellent
decision making and strategy forming persons. The main emphasis is on the high
quality of the services with worlds top most personal care given to the customer at
affordable prices and for giving the customer, altogether a never before experience
which makes it a best place.
Traditional promotional strategy
Promotion can de explained as the component of the marketing program conducted
by the companies in order to facilitate exchange of the information and persuade the
target customers to try the product or the services (Brunett, 1993, Pg. no. 73).
Promotional activities are considered as one of the key factor in the marketing mix of
any organisation which helps it to be successful in the market through ensuring that
the correct information is provided to the customers at the right time so it makes a
significant influence on the marketing of the products and services offered by the
company (Rowley, 1998, pg. no 81). There are different types of the promotional
activities which are carried out with in the marketing strategy; these are
advertisement, direct marketing, sales promotion, public relations and publicity,
personal selling, sponsorship; all these strategies together are considered as the
promotional mix (Wilmshurst, 1993, pg no 66).
Promotional strategies can be defined as promotional layout or the path or plan for
achieving desired results from the current position of the organisation in the set
duration of time. Promotional mix is a unique mixture of all the available promotional
methods for communicating the customers about the products and services of the
organisation (Mintzberg et al 1998, pg no 72). According to Rowley (1998, pg. no 86)
the various tools for the promotional nix of the companies are
a. Advertisement - It is a type of promotional activity where paid non personal
presentation of the information regarding ideas, attributes of the services or the
product are provided to the customers on the interest of the organisation. It is useful
when the organisation wants to reach for the large population of the customers at a
nominal cost, then this is the best way for the promoting the product or service.
b. Direct Marketing - It is type of promotional activity where the personal contact
tools are used like telephone, mobile, mail to communicate to the specific target
customers and the future customers of the organisation.
c. Sales promotion - This type of promotional activities are used during the
introduction or the decline phase of the products where short term incentives like
discounts coupons rebates lottery are provided to the customers for increases the
sales of the company. This type of promotional activity provides a large access to the
customers.
d. Public relation and publicity - This is a type of promotional activity used to
promote the brand image of the organisation and also protect and promote the brand
image of the product or the services produced by the company. The main tools of the
public relations are features in the magazines and news paper, sponsorship of the
events which helps to make customers feels a bond of attachment to the product or
the services provided by the firm.
e. Personal selling - This type of promotional activity where a more personal
interaction is happening between the company representative and the potential buyer
of the product or services of the organisation.
f. Sponsorship - It is a type of promotional activity where an organisation with a
completely unrelated organisation support financially to the event conducted from
other organization or the same company itself it is called as the sponsorship. It is
basically done to increase the brand image of the organisation and the product
related to the organisation.
Integrated Marketing Communication
Integrated marketing communication is the basic methods to communicate with the
target customers and the market group. It is done through organizing and controlling
the different elements of the marketing mix and promotional mix so that it helps to
attain the company’s objectives through the total targeting of the customer with
focused ideas and messages to the target market (Solomon, 2009). In the traditional
communication model explained by Solomon (2009) the basic element is the source
which initiates the process of the communication by sending the messages to the
other element. Next medium is the message which is transmitted by source through
different source like magazines, internet, mail, television, radio etc. the final element
of the communication link is the receiver which receives the message and decode it
into meaningful information according to their own experiences and beliefs.
Social media provides a new aspect for the communication method and the influence
of the company’s integrated marketing communication and promotional strategy in
the long run. Due to the proliferation of the internet and its increase in the customer’s
day to day life, with the social media starting to influence the customer purchase
behaviour in different ways like awareness about the product and the services
provided by the organisation, information search for the attributes of the product and
services. Social media due to its high interactive nature is influencing the opinion
sharing of the customers among themselves and the purchase decision making to a
great extent through the introduction and usage of the social network and last but not
least has changed the post purchase behaviour as customers are coming with
reviews and feedback which can influence the image of the organisation to great
extent (Mangold and Faulds, 2009.).

Figure 2.1 Traditional model of communication by Mangold and Faulds, (2009, page
42)
New Communication Paradigm
In the new era of dynamic information generation where information is generated in
the market about the products and the services of the companies and the decision
makers are loosing control on both the content of the information because of the
diversity of the available data and also the spread period of the information due to the
advancement of the internet media at a furious pace which causes almost impossible
to control the marketing mix in the present scenarios which provides a need for the
companies to come up with new promotional strategies for the future (Mangold and
Faulds,2009). The new communication is thronging light on the importance of the
social media in the internet aware customers and the number of users of this media is
increasing day by day as it causes social media as one of the important tool in the
present context and also for future. The two main roles which are played by the
media in the companies through the social network are that; these media helps to
connect interconnection of large group of persons which can be the potential
customer of the organisation and secondly these media has given the power for the
customer to make a rational decision for the purchase of the product or the services
on the basis of the large information on the internet media which makes it a major
influencer in the decision making of the customer on any products. Based on the
element and the paradigm used by the promotional mix we can understand the
promotional strategies adopted through the companies for achieving the goals of the
organisation.

Figure 2.2 New paradigm of communication model by Solomon, (2008, page 34)
Modern promotional strategies
Promotional strategies are the plan which are made for the desired state of the
organisation based on the analyses of the present environment and other factors or
the present scenario of the organisation for achieving the goals of the organisation
through the information provided to the customers from the organisation about the
products and the services (Rowley, 2006). Based on the different tools which are
prevalent in the promotional mix, the companies can adopt primarily two types of
strategies; push strategy and the pull strategy.
Push Strategy
It is the strategy were companies are aggressive in there approach towards the
communication of the information to the customers. In this type, companies use the
large sales promotion strategies which give heavy rebates, discounts, offers to the
company to the retailers, dealers and the customers. In this strategy trade discounts
are also given at a much higher rate and the retailers are motivated to create higher
demand for the companies. These types of strategies are used by the companies
where the competition is very higher and the market growth of particular product is
stagnated. This type of strategy is very costly for the companies but it can be done
through the online advertising and social media at a more reasonable cost.
Pull Strategy
It is the promotional strategy used by the companies in which customers are attracted
for the product and hence demand is created at the retailers for the product to be at
the point of selling. The major tool used for the pull strategy is advertisement of the
product to the customers through all viable media so they have awareness as well as
the information regarding the attribute and benefits of the product or the services to
the customer which well influence the decision making of the customers and
enhances the demand at the point of sales.
Both the strategies are complimentary than supplementary in nature because the pull
strategy which influences the customers for making the demand for a particular
product also enhances the importance of the retailers for providing the product for the
customers. So the push strategy through trade promotion can increase the retailer’s
interest for increasing the sales of the product and display of the product which will
also affects the sales of the product and the services. So the strategies for the
promotional mix are very carefully planned due to the interesting intersection of the
objectives of the different levels of cycle in the whole process of business.
Online promotional Tools
In present era of technological boom there is a large advancement in the science and
technology, so there are vast tools of online promotional mix which is described
below
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is now one of the most in demand, technology of
promotional strategy but still it is in its nascent stage. It is of two types search engine
optimization and paid search marketing. This strategy works on the principle of pay
per click in this if a customer click the ad window or search for the specific information
in website the companies has to pay money for the click so this is done to promote
the website of the company and increase the number of visits so that companies
information can be accessed by the large group of the people in the market with out
boundaries of the geographical market.
The four major steps for explaining the search engine optimization are crawling,
Indexing, ranking or soaring, query request and results serving. Companies get a
better rating so the position of the particular product or the website is on top which
helps for the increase viewership of the product and awareness of the product and
services of the company.
Online personal relation building
This is just as traditional personal relationship building, except this is done on the
virtual space which causes the image, brand or the product upgradation by providing
the positive influence on the website, social networks and the blogs so that the
potential customers are attracted to the attributes of the services provided by the
company and hence they start to buy the product or the service.
Online partnership
This is the tool of online promotional activity where promotions are done by tie up to
different websites and links so that the spread of the information to different
customers across the target markets can be done through this type of promotional
tool. This can further be explained as the affiliated marketing tool and online
sponsorship
Affiliated marketing is the promotional marketing activity based on the partnership of
the manufacturing company and the advertising company in this the product
attributes are advertised by the affiliate organisation on basis of the commission in
the deal is calculated on basis of different techniques like pay per click, percentage of
online sales made by the online advertisement, these counting methods are effective
but very complex nature. Online partnership is also a method included in this where
the companies enlarge the base of the sponsorship on the cyberspace by making
partnership along with the partners who are solely working for the online marketing
and advertisement of the services provided by the firm.
Interactive Advertisement
This type of the promotional and marketing strategy activates the interactive
advertisement in the WebPages managed by the company so it can provide a large
customer base through the innovative ideas and the processes. These works exactly
as the banners and the point of a sale display boards which is used in offline
promotional tool so the customer can see the advertisement of the product or the
facilities provided by the organisation and the benefit related to that service.
Viral marketing
This is called as the online word of mouth, this is the most uncontrolled tool used by
the company as the companies it self initiates the information flow to the websites
which mainly contains the information regarding the important attributes of the service
and the product. Some time it also explains the benefits associated for using that
service compared to other viable options which helps to ignite a rational decision
making process and helps in the choosing decision of the various product or the
services.
Social Media
Social media is now fastest means for meeting and getting information since it was
introduced in 2004. It has gone through a lot of changes and innovative technological
applications. This application’s primary function is to facilitate the communication
between the people using online technological tools to make easy, the transfer of
information and discussion on the topic of common interest. According to Zarella
(2010) the traditional media tools are more or less static in nature which also causes
high cost for the organisation and getting less feedback as compared to the new
paradigm of communication formed by the new tools of online communication.
Traditional media is considered as static because as a condition for advertising an
advertisement companies has to buy space in the newspaper or buy space for the
time slot for television or radio. An instant reaction of the customer cannot be made
available for the organisation to deal and analyze the real perception of customer
towards that product or services but in case of the online tool it is more dynamic as it
gives options for the customer to directly send the feedback to the company or the
advertising organisation so that organisation gets a better view of the customer and
also that on time.
The major difference between the traditional tools and modern tools of social media is
the way of communication as the traditional media is more of a one way
communication where the contents and information are only given to the customer
but no feedback is taken into consideration. But in case of the online tools for the
technological supported promotional tools there is a two way communication where
the customer’s views and thoughts are taken at the same time as the information is
passed to the particular customer through this media (Weber 2009, pg. no.158).
There are different forms of the social media as described by Zarrella (2010) some of
these are blogs, social networks, media sharing sites, micro blogs, social
bookmarking and voting sites, review sites, forums, virtual worlds etc. Out of the
above the most important and the most widespread internet activity are the blogs.
Blogs
It is a personal online journal along with hyperlinks, comment section and the
reflection of the thought initiated by the author of the blog. Micro blogging is the form
of limiting of words or the size of the post like Twitter ( http://twitter.com/). This type of
social network had a boom in the 2008 where the sudden increase of the users using
this websites has increased many folds.
Social partnership
Social partnership is the promotional marketing activity based on the partnership of
the manufacturing company and the advertising company. In this the product
attributes are advertised by the affiliate organisation on basis of the commission. The
commission in the deal is calculated on basis of different techniques like pay per
click, percentage of online sales made by the online advertisement; these counting
methods are effective but very complex nature. Online partnership is also a method
included in this where the companies enlarge the base of the sponsorship on the
cyberspace by making partnership along with the partners who are solely working for
the online marketing and advertisement of the services provided by the firm. Based
on the survey of the literature the aims and the objectives of the study were deducted
and framed on the theoretical support present and evaluated from the literature
knowledge base will help further focus on the research problem and set the ways for
the further study are given below.
Summary
This chapter explained in depth the theoretical framework linking the promotional
strategies and the social network. Literature in the field of promotional mix,
promotional tools used, promotional strategy, online promotional techniques, social
network has been reviewed ion the chapter. Traditional communication Model and
new communication paradigm models have been explained towards the ending part
of the chapter. Further in the study chapter will deal with the methodology which can
be adopted for the study to obtain the aims and the objectives laid down in this
chapter.
 CHAPTER-3

RESEARCH METHODOLGY

This chapter purports to introduce and explain in detail the terms and variables,
which go into the formulation of the basic theoretical framework of this study. The
hypothesized relationship between social media effectiveness and the promotional
strategies is portrayed in this chapter based on the literature.
Introduction
In the preceding chapter, several extant literatures related to social networking,
media, marketing and promotional strategies were reviewed extensively. This chapter
explains the research methodology framework that has been chosen to conduct this
research to achieve the aims and objectives laid down for the study. In initial part of
this chapter the philosophical basis of the study has been explained so that the way
research sees the problem can be viewed and determined and in later part of the
chapter different research approaches are explained along with the data collection
technique used by the researcher. The reasons that lead to selection of strategy are
also explained along with the strength and weakness of the strategy used by the
researcher.
Aim of the research
The aim of the research is to evaluate the development of marketing and promotional
strategies that are based in the new social media technologies as they are becoming
increasingly important for hospitality operators looking to expand their market share.
The project will examine marketing aspects through social media and the risks and
opportunities associated with the strategy.
Objectives of the research
1.To evaluate the growth of social networking sites in the marketing and
promotional strategies of the hospitality sector.
 2.To analyse the various strategies adopted by the hotel industry in utilizing the
social networking sites to be competitive
3.To critically analyse the advantages and threats from the usage of social
networking sites.
4.To recommend marketing and promotional strategies based on social
networking tools for the hotel.

Research Paradigm
The assumption which gives the view of the world which is confined around the
research philosophy is taken in consideration as the paradigm of the research. There
are of two types of research philosophy; the interpretivist and positivist. (Saunders et
al, 2007, Pg. No. 47). According to Remeneyi (1998, Pg. No. 33) in positivist
approach the researcher will never influence and being influenced by the research
subject and hence there will be no significant recognition for the social and human
bias. The objective of this type of research is to find any specific trends in the human
nature which can help us to forecast the future behaviour of the humans (Fisher,
2007). This philosophy will increase the confidence on the result generated through
this approach but experimental research involved in this approach is highly limited for
this kind of the approach. The data which is classified and generalised are the
measurable data because the outline for the quantification of the data is practically
laid down to get the outcomes. In case of experimental and pragmatic research there
is a chance of duplication and misrepresentation of the data in using this approach
(Harris, 2000).
Researcher going for the positivistic approach usually gives emphasis for the
reliability and uniformity of the data through distribution of the questionnaires that
takes responses in conventional form of questions but the complex questions dealing
with multifaceted area is not suitable for this type of approach (Harris, 2000).
According to Taylor and Edgar (1999) the positivistic approach oriented researchers
gives more attention to deductive type of research that helps to understand the
rationality required for the analysis and evaluation of association among the variable.
Jankowicz (2005) argues that when the theoretical aspect is applied for practice
information are not gathered but various hypotheses about various variables as the
regular process for the analysis is carried out this type of philosophy emphasis on the
identification of the individual subjectivity. The majority of the theories prominent for
the understanding of the managers’ emphasis on the qualitative nature of the study
and the subjectivity of the explanation for the approaches, ideas, observations which
are important for the study for the valuable information cannot be fundamentally
perceived (Godfrey and Hill, 1995). The subjectivity of the interpretivistic approach is
due to the rational outlook of the people toward it as the opinion and approach as
status quo. This approach is used for investigation of the valuable data collected and
also in making suggestions for the betterment along with conclusions that is mostly
according to the results of the research hence this interpretivist approach facilitates
the subjectivity which is required for this specific view. The phenomenological
approach other name for interpretivist approach is used to form many open ended
questions and scenario for simplifying the complex perception of the researcher
regarding the exploratory, qualitative and inductive methods used in research
(Harrigan, 1983).
Robson (2002) argues that the research philosophy has to be followed by the nature
of required information, under what conditions and from whom it is gathered. It is
primarily centred on qualitative data and interpretive data. Researcher explains that
data is collected qualitatively are more valuable and helps for the diagnosis of the
problem in more factual manner. The research focuses on the emotional state and
approach of respondents for the state of social networking and media plays in the
decision of the customers. According to Maylor and Blackmon (2005) qualitative data
is collected based on the fact that similar research shows that a similar reading,
questionnaire are going around while all the described factors are taken into
consideration in a particular order for the study to be completed.
Research Strategies
Robson (2002) explain case study as a strategy which involves an empirical
investigation of a phenomenon which is contemporary in nature in the present real life
in context of many evidences for the existence. The researcher chooses this strategy
when he has enough understanding to the background of the topic researched. Yin
(2003) differentiated the case studies in two different types these are holistic and
embedded among the two this research adopted the holistic type of case study in
which the researcher is related about the organisation as a whole instead of
analysing the subunits of the organisation. Some of the critics about the case study
type of research is case study contains huge information from the respondents which
are sometime very difficult to analyse in complete sense which will arise a problem of
selectiveness that leads to biasness in the research (Collins and Hussey, 2003).
Apart from case study there are other strategies which can be used for conducting
research. Saunders et al (2007) explains about other strategies like identified survey,
experimental, grounded theory, action research, archival research and ethnography
as the other main strategies. Survey is considered as a positivist technique because
samples are collected among the population to generalize the findings for the
population (Collis and Hussey, 2003). Survey is also considered as a deductive
approach because it can be used both in the exploratory and descriptive research
design. The collection of the data will be limited and the amount of responses should
be less if it is taken as a primary strategy it is same for archive research but the data
collection in archive is from administrative documents and records (Saunders et
al.2007) this is considered as a drawback for the survey as well as archive because
of the limitation in the range of the data and scope of collection of data is limited.
One of the other strategies is experiment strategy but it is not used in research as it is
more a qualitative type of study where the theoretical background used in the study is
not matching to the requirement of the study. This strategy mainly for the closed
system where there is no contact with there environment so this type of methodology
is used for systematic qualitative studies of high performance and stringent condition
and more suitable for positivist type of research approach. Ethnography strategy is
one of the methods where researcher is to be more involved with the respondent and
it is totally interactive based study where researcher needs to implement new ideas
during the research which asks for the increased flexibility of the process of research
to be followed by the researcher.
Methodology of research used.
Case study method has been used in this research as it is descriptive in nature. It is
described as when a phenomenon is complex and existing depth of knowledge is not
sufficient which poses a problem that study cannot be conducted outside the context
of the real time occurring then the case study method is most useful to be used by
the researcher (Bonoma 1985).  The interview which is conducted through the help of
open ended questions are comprehensive in nature thus helps the researcher for the
consistent and reliable analysis of the data this further helps to know the insiders
perspective of the research subjects because it helps for the multiple view of the
problem (Bryman and Burgess, 2004). The fact that the collected data from the case
study will be less so researcher has tried to fulfil the gap from the semi structured
questionnaire to the respondent to find their response hence gives the study more
vastness in the scope for the research thus the choice of this methodology offers a
systematic and precise approach.
The limited sample size is the primary drawback as it cannot be considered as the full
representation of the sample and it cannot be generalized based on such a small
population. The use of other quantitative data can helped the researcher for the large
sample size which would help for the more precise representation of the data so that
results can be representative and generalized for the population from where it
belongs. Bryman (2001) argues that “due to the intimacy of participant - observer
relationship within the setting there is no doubt that the mere presence will have
profound reactive effects on the subjects of the study”.
Scope of the Study
Researcher has done a quantitative research to find out the relationship between the
social network and the promotional strategies of hotel Parkwood. The study is
confined to the customers using hotel Parkwood in London. Further the scope is
limited to examining the relationship of effectiveness of social media network on the
promotional and marketing strategies of the hotel Parkwood. Methodologically it is
limited to an empirical analysis of sample firm level data collected through a better
way of survey questionnaires and also case study based on the Parkwood hotel
managers.
Data Collection Methods
There are basically two methods through which collection of the data is done these
are Survey among the customers using the services of the hotel and the semi
structured interviews that are conducted among the manager of the hotel.
Survey
This type of data collection is included in the study because this is the technique
which is used very commonly among the researchers because it helps for the
analysis of the actual characteristic of the respondents which are chosen for the
study. According to Saunders et al (2007), this method of data collection helps for
the selection of samples appropriately which thus helps to generate the results and
outcomes which helps the researcher for making certain conclusion and suggestions
which can be easily generalized over the larger population across the environment.
The tool for collection of data is primarily questionnaire which can be of two types
these are closed ended questionnaires and open ended questionnaire the selection
of the questionnaire is primarily based on the characteristic of the sample and the
communication level used by the researcher along with the knowledge of
respondents towards that particular problem. Closed ended questionnaires contains
the questions with several options to be ticked from the options which are provided
along with the closed ended questionnaire where as in case of open ended
questionnaire there are only questions are provided where respondents can answer
any kind of the responses to the given space along with each questions in the
questionnaire.
Semi structured interviews
To find out the perspective of the managers of the firms we are also taking the semi
structured interviews this method for the collection of the data are used as to find the
real in depth of the overview of different managers of the company toward the
influence of the social media network on the promotional and marketing strategies
adopted by the companies and this also helps to study the major factors which the
companies take into consideration when they look for the adoption of the certain
promotional mix strategy of the company.
The population of the study constitutes the managers of the hotel Parkwood for about
five years and part of the decision making unit at the different levels and department
along with the customers who were visiting to avail the facilities provided by the
organisation in the past one year time.
Limitations
The results of the current research must be interpreted cautiously. First, it should
noted that the biasing of the respondents regarding the managers and customers can
influence along with the characteristics which are not included in the study can
produce a biased response due to the halo effect or the one factor influence rest to
form a perception which is not the cause of real factor under consideration. The bias
may have resulted in over or under estimation of the responses which can cause due
to the certain influence of the particular moment.
Summary
The framework discussed in the research methodology is discussed in the present
chapter which explains for the philosophical outlook of the researcher through
research approach which is chosen by the researcher and research strategy which is
implemented by the researcher for the completion of the research and attaining the
objectives and hypothesis stated in the research methodology. The selection of the
particular research approach is given due condition why that particular approach is
selected and the research strategy is selected on other research strategies explained
by the researcher. Further researcher also gives deep insights on the ethical view of
the research approach, research strategy and research philosophy along with the
strength and weakness of using the appropriate strategy is explained in detail at the
last section of the research methodology.
 CHAPTER-4

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Introduction
Previous chapter explains the methodology which is used in the research for attaining
the objectives and aim of the study laid down by the researcher. In this chapter we
are primarily focusing on the data collected by the researcher on the basis of the
research methodology and analyses of the data is based on the qualitative and
quantitative methods for gathering and forming information from data provided by the
respondents. The later part of the study brings an influence on the selection of the
analytical methods used by the researcher and the reasons for the selection of the
particular techniques are provided in this chapter. Further in this chapter the analysed
data is discussed and explained both the survey questionnaire from the customers
and the semi structured questionnaire from the managers were duly analysed and
results were discussed in the light of the influence of the social network media on the
promotional and marketing strategies adopted by the organisation. At last the
summary of the chapter is provided along with the brief explanation of the last
chapter in the research is provided.
Content Analysis
The replication of the compressed words using a systematic technique into the
content categories of fewer in number through using stringent criterions are used for
the coding is defined for the content analysis in this study. Holsti (1969, p.14) defined
the content analysis as a technique were the precise information is gathered on the
subjective analyses of the explained data provided by the respondents which is
specific towards the research problem under examination. Content analysis is used
by the researcher for changing through the data collection in a systematic method
which provides an ease for collecting data (GAO, 1996). For identifying the focus of
the individual group for describing the institutional and social attention of the
respondents which helps to better inference of results along with other ways for the
data collection and analyses (Weber, 1990). This type of analysis is propelled by the
inference of the data represented by the symbolic representation of the data is now
not possible in the present context as the content analysis f done at the large
population will hamper from the constrains of cost and time of the study which is very
essential for the success of the content analysis technique in this study we are
working on the smaller population so it can give us immense information at the lowest
cost and less time will be consumed (Krippendorff, 1980. p.51).
The qualitative analysis is based on the qualitative part of the questionnaire which is
asked from the managers of different department in the hotel. The interview
conducted across the department of the hotel among different managers has already
gave an important insights in the linking between the relationship of social media
network and the promotional and marketing strategies adopted by the organisation.
Quantitative analysis
The quantitative part of the survey is conducted along with the customers using the
services and facilities provided by the organisation revealed the perception of the
customers towards the association of the promotional strategy and media of
communication with reference to social media has found the overview of the
customers. The further sections shows the analyses of the closed questionnaire
which were respondent by the customers.
Sample Profile
The questionnaire which contained closed ended questionnaire was distributed
among the 65 customers who have used the services of the hotel. Out of the total
circulated questionnaire only 62 questionnaires were returned by the customers to
the researcher of which 2 were found invalid as they does not contained the whole
data required and were incomplete. The final valid questionnaire was found to be 60
only.
Classification based on Gender

Researcher tries to find out the composition of the sample on the bases of the
gender in this out of the 60 valid responses got by the researcher 36 responses were
from males and rest 24 were given by women. The detail of the classification is
explained in the table below.

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 36 60.
Female 24 40

Figure 4.1: showing classification of the sample on bases of gender

Classification of the sample based on age of the respondents
The respondents are categorized in mainly two categories of above 30 years of age
and below 30 years of the age this classification is primarily based on the factor of
spending capacity of the respondents and decision makers’ age. The classification of
the samples on bases of age group categories shows that there is almost equal
number of male and female representation which is shown in the table below
Age Number Percentage (%)

Below 30 28 46.4

Above 30 32 53.6

Total 60 100.0

Table 4.2: showing classification of the sample based on age of the respondents
The researcher was obtained from the survey shows that the customers have
following perception regarding the influence of the social network on the promotional
strategies adopted by the Parkwood hotel. The perception shown by the customer
during the survey towards the influence of social network for promotional mix has
been mentioned below in the figure.
 Categories

greatly influences
somewhat influences
slightly influences
not influence

Figure 4.1: categories based on the respondents perception of the influence of social
media
In the survey conducted 60 customers responded out of those about fifty percent of
the respondent considered social media is influencing greatly the promotional mix in
the present scenario where they mention about the influence of the Facebook and the
twitter to the great extend among the customers of the who are availing the services
of the hotel. 35% which is equal to 21 customers stated that the social media
somewhat influences the promotional strategy adopted by the hotel. Out of the lot
only six of the respondents accounting mentioned social media only slightly
influences the promotional activities or promotional mix adopted by the hotel. The rest
of the respondents mentioned there is no influence of the social media or network on
the [promotional strategy adopted by the hotel.
14

12

10

8
Men
6 Women
4

0
below 30 above 30
Figure 4.2: showing responses of the customers on the influence of social media
In this study age group is divided mainly in two group based on the purchasing power
of the member and the decision making freedom the age group is divided as above
and below the 30 years age groups. Also while carrying out the survey both male
and female were included the survey. The actual age group sample is provided in the
figure above. Twenty males and eighty females are included in the age group below
30 years. Sixteen males and sixteen females are included in the age group above 30.
During the analysis it showed the people above the age 30 perceive that the social
network and media influences the promotional strategy of the hotel.

60

50

40

30

percentage
20

10

0
Strongly
Agree Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree

Figure 4.3: percentage mentioning about the effectiveness of social media

While analysing the question is effectiveness of social media network, sixty percent of
the respondents including men and women had strongly agreed to the effectiveness
of the social media in the present context. Another thirty five percent of respondents
including men and women supported the statement that social media effects the
customer decision making process. The rest five percent of the respondents were in
a neutral stage neither agrees nor disagree.
 100%

90%

80%

70%

60%
low effectiveness of the
promotional startegy
50%
high effectiveness of the
promotional startegy
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Figure 4.4: effectiveness of the promotional strategy

The analyses of the responses of the customers also shows that customers
perceived that the promotional strategies adapted by the companies in the present
context is highly influenced by the social media network which are highly effective in
strategy development of the organisation for future. The sixty respondents surveyed
all feels that the effectiveness of the social media as the next generation promotional
tool is present but some of them used the organisations should develop it cautiously
to their benefit.
Almost 85% of the respondents agree that the social network affects the awareness
towards hotel. One of the reasons which the customers gave is the ease for looking
for the best tour arrangement at the minimal and affordable cost which is provided by
the companies along with the seasonal offer information and high class of service
information provided which helps for the information and decision making of the
customers. Further the customer added that the social network also builds the brand
name and enhances the perception regarding the standard of the services provided
by hotel. Large extend of the respondents feels that there should be a strategic
alliances between the traditional promotional tool and online promotional tool is
effective in nature. 30% of the respondents perceived that promotion strategy is not
an important factor the making a selection decision of the hotel that is even though
they will continue visiting with Hotel because of the standard of the services provided
by the company.
Thus in light of all the data analysed it is clear that the social media is effective in the
promotional mix and it has significant impact on the customer purchase decision. So
the organisation is providing more information through new promotional tool to
increases the perception of the customer about the company.
Qualitative Analysis
Researcher conducted a survey among the managers of the hotel of different
department based on the three open ended question which were asked to these
respondents who are working as managers for more than five years about the
relationship of promotional mix and the social media network.
To the question ‘Is the promotional mix an integral part your hotels and Why?’ was
answered by one of the managers as,
“Promotional strategy is integral for our hotel due to reason that the first impression
of the hotel on the perception of the customers who are visiting helps for the increase
the awareness of the customer about the services and the facilities which are
provided for the customer in the hotel. Awareness about the facilities is blood to the
our organisation because it can ensure spread of the information about the new
facilities to the larger customer share which then spread to other potential customers
through positive word of mouth. When customer is well informed about the services
provided by the organisation they can compare and make a rational decision on the
purchase and spread of information of the service and facilities of the organisation to
the customer is high then there is an expectation that they will tell others about these
and awareness spreads along with organisation name.”
It is clearly evident that without promotional activities the awareness among the
visitors cannot be spread at a large scale to the target market which helps to increase
the market growth; Hotel cannot survive without these technological excellent and
innovated ways of advertisement within a cut throat competitive scenario.
The same question was answered by the second manager, whom I interviewed as,
“Promotional activities are the key to success for the hotel Parkwood in the present
context. As soon as a company has a branded logo or name, an image is created in
the consumer’s mind through the social network where a large group of people
interact with same interest this causes a positive word of mouth which can easily
transferred to business in the service based industries like hotel and hospitality.
Therefore it is essential to build a strong advertisement regime through marketing
and word of mouth in the social network sites.”
Managers believe that by producing services of the high quality along with class
services and facilities, if promoted through modern technique will always be on the
high on the customer purchase list of the services and facilities. One of the possible
ways how hotel will be able to maintain their customers is through customer
relationship through the social media which will increase the satisfaction of the
customers which influencing their buying behaviour of the customers and the loyalty
of the customers can be sustained through providing information regarding services
and offers that its competitors are not providing.
The second question for the interview was ‘Do you think that social media network is
influencing the promotional strategies of the organisation,
The response of the manager on this was as follows
“Definitely. people will be attracted to our hotel by seeing the advertisements
showing the services, facilities and offers which are both seasonal and regular are
provided to customers in various seasons throughout these social network. So if the
content of the advertisement is strong than it will influence the customer then
customer curiosity will be high about the product and if the customer is already
availed the services than he can be a loyal customer . Social network influences the
promotional strategy as the companies are spending more and more on the online
tools than on traditional as the internet using customers are increasing.”
The most important idea generated by the interview with respect to this question is
that the social network not only increases the awareness of the customer it also
influences the buying decision of the customer through a customer network
interaction so companies are providing more interest by spending more on these type
of promotional tools so it can be considered that social media is considerably
influencing the promotional strategies of companies
The second question was targeted to found the effectiveness of investment on social
media made by the companies. ‘Is it important to spent large investment for
promotional activities through social media instead of concentrating on traditional
method?’ the response of the manager were positive towards the investing the
amount but there were certain case of caution by the managers. As one of the
manager insisted that
‘it is necessary to invest on social network as it is a strategic advertising and
marketing technique in the present scenario where competition is higher and to reach
the maximum customer is important so along with traditional method now companies
are more emphasizing on the social network and online promotional tools.