Digital Marketing Strategies in Hotel Chains
MKTG 4037 - Digital Marketing Strategy
University of Cincinnati
March 12, 2024
Introduction
Hotels have a variety of guests and they specialize in
offering services and amenities to multiple market
segments such as individual, group and corporate
customers, with an aim to meet the service expectations
of their guests. A hotel derives its biggest competitive
advantage from the reputation of its brand, and so
concentrates on developing a suitable brand image.
Since guests must have a good first impression for them
to develop a liking for a hotel or brand, the quality of
service at a 5-star hotel is usually very high.
The underlying assumption for hotel operations is that
travellers and hotel guests will exercise an independent
opinion every time they use the services of a particular
hotel. This is contrary to suggestions by some studies
that travellers may either be swayed by marketing and
prior interaction with a brand and not use their present
experience for judging. On the other hand, travellers
may also be independent and offer an unbiased opinion
that helps a hotel to improve its offerings, and the
quality of its service delivery. Irrespective of what
motivates customers, hotels must ensure that they are
using their resources to do their best to capture the
greatest share of their target market.
The internet continues to act as a communication and
marketing tool. It provides travellers with ways of
planning their journeys and gives them the ability to
virtually sample different hotel offerings at bargain
prices for premium services. On the other hand, the
internet provides hotels with an avenue to reach their
target customers across the world. Hotels can
understand traveller preferences and domestic clientele
preferences then package their calendar offerings
according to the market demand (Jobber 1995).
Hotels build guest loyalty so that they can keep earning
revenue from frequent guests. Although occasional high
profile visits increase the revenue of hotels, it is the loyal
customer that contributes a significant amount to the
bottom line. And studies show that hotels have been
aggressive in implementing methods to increase their
customer loyalty. For example, their use of loyalty
points for frequent guests is no longer a differentiating
factor in their services. All hotels are implementing a
form of loyalty program and major hotel chains are
already partnering with major credit card issuers to give
customers additional benefits. Hotels expect that
cardholders will have an additional reason to choose
their hotels when they are travelling (Johnson,
Whittington & Scholes 1993).
The challenge for hotels is to come up with loyalty
programs that are unique and appealing to customers.
They have to offer more reasons for customers to choose
their establishment over the other offerings in the
market, including the provision of services that
customers already expect (Jayawardena et al. 2013).
Given that many target customers are already
conversant with digital technologies and use various
forms of these technologies to work and communicate,
it is apparent that hotels cannot ignore this frontier in
their marketing efforts. In fact, for hotels in Singapore,
digital marketing is a compulsive competitive strategy.
However, this area of marketing is dynamic and still in
its infancy (Wai et al. 2005). Most hotels do not have
their own digital marketing agency and therefore have
to collaborate with various marketing service providers
(Doole & Lowe 2008; Kant 2015).
Objective
The objective of the study is to review digital marketing
strategies and how they have performed in the three big
hotel chains in Singapore. There are seven hotels in this
study – Hilton Singapore, The Conrad Singapore,
Marriott Tang Plaza, The St. Regis hotel, The W, The
Westin and Sheraton Towers hotel Singapore.
Aim of study
The overall aim of this study is to understand how hotels
in the hospitality industry in Singapore can utilize digital
marketing strategies effectively.
Problem statement
Few studies have explored the strategic view of social
media and other digital networks as part of marketing
strategy in organizations. There is a need to fill the
existing gap in literature with research on actual
strategies in the sector. Such information will be
instrumental for comparison by practitioners in the
industry. It will also assist future researchers to evaluate
marketing theories and their applicability.
The study focuses on seven hotels that belong to three
major hotel chains in the hospitality industry in
Singapore. They are internationally renowned brands in
the industry and have significant investments in the
country. This study evaluates their digital
communication platforms and strategies for building
communities and therefore achieving their marketing
objectives. These hotels are also multinational
companies with global strategies for their local
subsidiaries to implement. It would also be insightful to
find specific strategies that local subsidiaries formulate
and offer the parent company for global
implementation.
Like other companies targeting digital platform users,
many hotels have a community of users that they target.
These communities are identified by their basic
characteristics, for example they can consist of members
who are current guests and of potential guests. Hotels
have an interest in targeting this community because it
offers the highest number of their repeat customers.
On digital platforms, social media users share
experiences in the same way as word-of-mouth in the
real world. However, on this platform, companies are
able to participate in this sharing and can immediately
monitor what is being shared. Facebook itself is a major
social media platform and has the largest online
communities in the world. Major hotels in Singapore
have a presence on Facebook to develop niche
communities. The same applies to all other major social
networks in the country, including Twitter. Besides that,
there are specialized online platforms that allow specific
people to join and participate. The overall nature of Web
2.0 helps to identify other opportunities for community
engagement.
However, with all the potential for community
engagement, there is always a question of priority and a
return on investment as well as the issue of community
control and marketing objective guidelines. It is
important to understand the relationship between
participation, trust and commitment to community and
the way a strategy employed by a firm leads to success.
Studies show that there are different outcomes for
various aspects listed above. According to Wu and
Chang (2005), there is a correlation between the trust
that members of a community develop for the moderator
of the community and member interactions. When a
community has a rich interaction, then it is likely to have
a high level of trust among its members and is therefore
more likely to be based on loyalty in terms of its future
engagements.
At the same time, a study by Casalo, Flavian and
Guinaliu (2007) indicated that trust is important,
without it, member participation in an online
community is almost impossible. In the service industry,
the product is intangible and the industry favours
feedback from consumers as a way to evaluate the
quality of service offered. Therefore, it is not surprising
to see that the hotel industry is rapidly developing
communities online and using these communities as a
marketing channel. On the other hand, consumers of
hotel services that exist as small groups or individuals,
have a high likelihood of sourcing information from an
established community that already has information
about the nature of offers available and comments about
those offers. Therefore, communities serve both
producers of services and users of those services
(Purnawan 2011).
Members of a community gain trust in their online
community when the information obtained from the
online community matches their expectations and
‘appears’ to be honest. Therefore, a member of an online
community visiting Singapore will rely more on
information provided by the community, when the
member has in the past found that his personal
experience and the experience described in the online
community is similar. On the other hand, hotels will
seek to be the subject of discussion in communities that
have a vibrant participation from members. Hotels
understand that active membership is also an indication
of more travel and hotel stay. Therefore, targeting
vibrant communities is also a way to target potential
clients. However, there is little known about strategies
and efforts by hotels in Singapore to engage their
relevant online communities.
Hotel companies with a significant presence in
Singapore include Hilton, Marriott and Starwood, and
this study is looking at their overall agenda when
engaging online communities and the role that plays in
their overall marketing strategy.
Rationale of study
Marketers around the world in all industries have to
come up with creative ways of developing
communication techniques that will present the right
product message to a target audience. On the other hand,
consumerism has grown to dominate all aspects of life
in a globalized world (Bernoff, Pflaum & Bowen 2008).
Research Questions
R1. What are the most popular digital marketing
avenues used by Singapore hotels in this study?
R2. How are these hotels measuring their digital
marketing performance?
R3. How does the digital marketing strategy perform in
terms of the indicators used?
R4. What are the challenges and opportunities presented
by each method used to measure digital marketing
strategy formulation and execution by management?
Research method
The research method is twofold in that it first builds on
previous research and academic discussions by other
researchers and market reports on digital marketing. The
literature review covers digital media, digital marketing,
social media and strategic marketing. The second part of
the study is an empirical exploration to engage the
management teams at the chosen hotels with interviews
and a research framework to provide answers. This
helps to provide a direction on the best way for hotels in
Singapore to utilize digital marketing strategies.
Findings
The findings of the study bring out the importance of
utilizing digital marketing. They link the performance of
hotels in Singapore as they embrace strategic marketing
using various tools within the digital marketing
framework. The findings also highlight important
information for practitioners including strategy
development, implementation process of the strategy,
the process of coming up with value in a co-creation
environment and performance assessment of the various
activities and strategies utilized in the case studies.
Scope and Limitations
An accepted definition of digital marketing covers a
large scale of online tools. The number of tools and their
uses or reach is too large for this research to cover them
all. As a remedy, this research seeks to explore as deeply
as possible the popular digital marketing tools in use.
The tools analysed in this study are common to all the
hotels, and deemed popular by their application and
discussion within the digital marketing arena. The study
focuses on brand and sales implications caused by the
digital marketing aspects of the overall marketing
strategies of the participating hotels.
Data collected in the study will be limited to what is
available from published literature and any information
that is provided by management in the hotels selected.
Therefore, any limitations encountered in the quest to
assess marketing data and sales data or strategy
information from management will serve as a limitation
for the overall study.
The study also focuses on a large target population as
recipients of various marketing communication. All the
hotels picked for the study target a global customer base.
To follow the reactions of all customers and potential
customers from around the world will not be possible so
the study has to rely on common and easily available
measurement metrics in terms of customer reach and
reaction.
The final limitation of this study is that it may appear
inconclusive or narrow due to the considerations made
above. However, the depth of the study and its validity
depend on specific factors affecting the results and only
pertain to the seven hotels in Singapore. While the study
is an example that could be used in other hotels and
sectors, its validity testing only relies on the chosen case
studies. In addition to that, there may be factors
affecting the seven hotels uniquely such that they are not
readily applicable to other conditions or environments
of digital marketing.
Irrespective of limitations highlighted above, the
findings of this study will contribute significantly to
digital media marketing strategies. Various
organizations will be able use the findings to enhance
their brand positioning and other marketing strategies.
Hotel chains in Singapore
All the hotels selected for this study are part of global
chains. There is a question of whether the hotels are able
to provide brand growth as individual hotel units or they
must rely on support of the global brand. Marriott and
Hilton are major global brands while Starwood is a
smaller chain globally. These hotels rely on their name
to convince guests to book with them, and they have to
compete against independents that may use their
independence to convince guests of their bespoke
service as a reason for booking with them.
Target customers already use a number of third party
booking aids online to select and make their hotel
reservations. Big brands in the hotel business own a
large number of hotels and maximise economies of
scale. They therefore have the biggest benefit that scale
can bring in order to get the customers attention.
However, on the digital platform, any hotel has an
almost equal chance to market its services and gain
sufficient customer attention to better its performance.
Hilton and Marriott hotels operate as ‘independent’
units throughout their chain, meaning that all hotels
under the chain have names that are a combination of
the parent name and their location, for e.g. Hilton
Singapore. On the other hand, Starwood has hotels that
belong to smaller chains organised into 9 brands. These
include the Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, Four Points by
Sheraton and the W etc. In Singapore, they have four
brands in operation- the St Regis, the Westin, the W and
the Sheraton.
The following table presents a summary of featured
hotels in terms of their size and affiliation.
Table 1: Seven hotels in Singapore featured in this
study.
Hotel
Guestrooms
Affiliation
Hilton
421
Hilton
Conrad Centennial
507
Hilton
Sheraton
420
Starwood
St. Regis
299
Starwood
W Singapore
240
Starwood
Westin
305
Starwood
Marriott Tang Plaza
393
Marriott
Hilton Hotel
Hilton Hotels Worldwide has been embracing various
forms of digital marketing opportunities that enable
them to increase their reach to potential customers. They
also formulate strategies to improve quality of service
delivery by meeting customer expectations. As a
renowned global brand, guests count on Hilton to
deliver exceptional service. The Hilton Singapore sits in
the shopping district of the country. Located on Orchard
Road, the hotel offers guests a spectacular address in
Singapore and a wide range of room types. Its rooms
also come with all the associated amenities of luxury
packages including culinary options and recreational
facilities. There are 421 guest rooms in the hotel, many
work areas and contemporary amenities. The hotel also
has 12 versatile meeting rooms that can be used for
banquets. The rooms come with teleconferencing
facilities, Wi-Fi, and they connect to a standard business
centre (Hilton Singapore 2015). The hotel also offers a
fitness centre and a rooftop swimming pool as a major
attraction. It has a shopping gallery that offers a
boutique retail experience.
Conrad Centennial Singapore
The hotel sits near Marina Bay and provides excellent
business facilities, personalized services and quality
luxury experiences. The hotel won the TripAdvisor
travellers choice award 2014. It is a part of Hilton Hotels
Worldwide, has 507 guest rooms and 2 restaurants.
There is a business centre and other five-star facilities
and the location allows easy access for Chinatown,
Raffles city, and Haji Lane, which are key attractions in
Singapore.
Starwood Hotels
Starwood Hotels include Sheraton Towers Singapore,
The Westin Singapore, St. Regis Singapore and the W
Singapore –Sentosa Cove. Each hotel has a specific
attraction in addition to luxury rooms and amenities
offered to guests.
Sheraton Towers Hotel
Sheraton Towers Hotel in Singapore is located close to
Newton Circus, a popular outdoor food court. The hotel
has 420 rooms and 3 restaurants. Other attractions
include free shopping centre shuttle and outdoor pool.
Its location allows guests to easily reach the National
Orchid garden and the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
The St. Regis Hotel Singapore
This hotel has 299 smoke-free guest rooms and 3
restaurants. It also includes facilities such as an outdoor
pool and fitness centre. The hotel has a 5-star rating and
it sits at the heart of the Singapore shopping district.
W Singapore – Sentosa Cove
The W Singapore Sentosa Cove has 240 guest rooms
and 2 restaurants; it also has easy access to the marina
and a full-service spa. It is located on Sentosa Island
which give it access to numerous water-based
attractions like Tanjong beach and the Marine Life Park.
It offers rooms from $507 for per night.
The Westin Singapore
The Westin Singapore offers rooms from $743;
however, it also runs promotions for rooms with reduced
prices starting from $424 per night. It has 305 smoke-
free guestrooms, a rooftop terrace, four restaurants and
a full-service spa. Visitors also enjoy an outdoor pool
and they have easy access to Marina Bay and Thian
Hock Keng Temple. The main building of the hotel has
17 floors.
Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel
The Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel has 393
smoke free guest rooms and a main restaurant together
with two additional restaurants. Guests also get a full
service spa, an outdoor pool, breakfast, accessible Wi-
Fi on the lobby, an airport shuttle, 24-hour front desk
and health club. It is located on Orchard Road.
Background of the study
People across the world are spending a significant
amount of time on the internet. They are working,
socializing and meeting other life obligations for a
number of official and personal reasons. In fact, the
online world makes the demarcation of private and
public life very thin and sometimes invisible. It provides
businesses with an opportunity to interact with their
customers both as private entities doing business and
also as personal references capable of enjoying and
taking part in life activities. It also includes suggestions
and provisions of conversational interactions for users
and visitors, who are primary target customers,
(Wertime 2008).
Human beings are inherently social by nature, and they
feel a need for acceptance and fitting in as a key driver
to their social interactions. As a result, many of our
opinions are heavily influenced by the people around us.
People are influenced most by the people who they
spend time with. As a result of the advent of the internet,
influencers are not limited by their physical location.
Their words online are read often by their followers.
In addition to the indirect influencers online, other
factors to consider are family relationships, friends,
colleagues, business associates, sales persons or
business representatives. These relationships merge in a
complex matrix to become the overall network of
influence for individual online users.
The group of people that affect a person’s likes is called
a reference group, with Solomon et al. (2010)
elaborating that a reference group may be actual or
imaginary. It is a group created or emerging from a
significant relevance to a person’s evaluations. It can
also arise due to a person’s aspirations and behaviour
(Solomon et al. 2010).
Marketing definitions
Communication has always been a key driver of
evolution and technological advancement, and
continues to shape the way people communicate. At the
same time, it is changing the way people interact with
corporate entities. In fact, it is almost impossible for
marketers to keep up with frequent changes in
technology and emergence of new marketing channels.
Marketing – an action, a process and an idea that relates
to creation, contribution, communication, delivery and
exchange of offers that provide value to customers.
Some entities may replace customers with partners or
the society at large. Many practitioners go with another
definition of marketing- an art of informing a target
community in story-like form. Therefore, it would be all
the things, which a business does to fulfil its purpose,
but the activities and strategies that go directly to inform
customers of available values are at the core of
marketing (Edmiston 2015).
Digital marketing – this refers to all marketing activity
and ideas in the digital platform and covers everything
about the internet used for marketing purposes. It
includes internet/online advertising and campaigns as
well as content marketing and social media marketing
(Edmiston 2015).
The space of online marketing has developed so rapidly
in recent times because of the infinite information
potential of the internet. Just like in the real world, many
people need help to find what they are looking for, in the
form of suggestions that will help them achieve their
objectives. One of the goals of digital marketing is to
allow companies to serve as guides for their target
customers so that the overall experience of fulfilling
their needs is convenient (Aichner & Coletti 2013). The
internet continues to overtake TV, print and radio as a
preferred way of communication and access to
information. Many traditional media establishments
also have a comprehensive presence on the internet to
provide similar albeit digital services to their target
customers (Smith 2011).
Previously, marketing was a one-way channel where
customers did not have a way to talk back to marketers.
The task of targeting customers was easy, and many
people still believed in advertisements. However,
everything changed when the internet became popular
and easily accessible in many countries such as
Singapore. A new era of marketing began.
One of the most discussed challenges with digital
marketing is that despite its reach, the availability of
two-way communication and the reduction in entry
costs, it is still difficult to estimate and calculate actual
return on investment. Part of that has to do with
marketing efforts taking longer than a conventional
financial calendar of a company. For example, justifying
investment in having staff work on social media
channels may be impossible within a year, as effects of
the channels continue showing beyond a year in terms
of referrals and brand building (Li 2014).
Literature review
The next section presents key findings and theoretical or
empirical information that helps to provide a research
background necessary for answering the research
questions for this study. The section presents peer
reviewed articles that were found on various online
databases using Google Scholar’s search function. In
addition to the use of databases, the topic of the
respective peer reviewed articles was an important
selection for the section. Some prior thesis reports also
provided key insights about the topic of study and they
are presented as part of the literature review’s sub topics.
Marketing theory
Marketing endeavours can be distributed through a wide
range of tools these days. Many of these tools aid the
customer in gathering information to help in decision
making. Lilien et al. (2002) described the concept of
marketing engineering as bringing new knowledge to
the current literature on marketing theory. Their
research was instrumental in shaping and highlighting
the link of marketing data and social engineering. Part
of the study explains that computers and user-friendly
software have been major factors in enhancing the
abilities of marketers to achieve their objectives.
Marketing managers have to consider prices,
distribution options, sales among others things affecting
the performance of their strategies. The combination,
monitoring and execution of these factors affect the end-
results that marketing managers achieve (Li 2014).
Managers choose to have a mental model or to build an
alternative method that uses a number of decision-aiding
tools (Montagna 2011). These tools include
spreadsheets that correspond to a decision making
model. Here, managers can determine the suitability of
different options based on reach and expenditure. In
addition, many instances of software already have a
design that only requires basic data input. The software
offers managers comprehensive reports about the
uncertainty of factors and combination strategies and
marketing opportunities. According to Lilien et al.
(2012), marketing engineering simply refers to the
combination of data, information, insight, decisions, and
implementation. There are different processes for each
state. Data management happens in the first stage,
followed by a decision model or a mental model that is
dependent on the needs of the marketer. Additional
stages have judgement under uncertainty occurring
through models, interception and communication.
Lastly, there is the consideration and implementation of
decisions with regards to financial, human and other
organizational resources (Tabor & Pawłowska 2010).
With the automation of tasks, it is possible to
disseminate marketing solutions to all practitioners. In
addition, the volume of data continues to increase at an
immense rate. Marketers must work together with other
professionals who are experts in data management
(Heimbach, Kostyra & Hinz 2015). At the same time,
available software solutions make it easy for team
members other than marketing professionals to handle
duties.
As advancements in the practice of digital marketing
continue, hotels have greater expectations of their
marketing departments. Companies want marketing
expenditures justified just as any other expenditure. This
implies that marketers have to keep on matching their
decisions and their investments to appropriate returns on
investment (Lilien et al. 2002).
Strategic marketing
As marketers seek and implement marketing strategies
on social media and other digital tools, they also
contribute to the development of strategic marketing as
a field. Marketing continues to shift into a strategic role
that is important in the growth of the whole
organization. The relationship between marketing and
operations keeps improving as a result of which the
business evaluates its success partly on the outcomes of
marketing strategy (Li et al. 2011).
The last few decades have been significant in terms of
evolution for marketing. Businesses globally have had
to deal with fragmented markets and brand competitors.
They also face product commoditization and short
product life cycles. The ‘power’ of consumers is only on
the rise as they embrace new technology. Initially
marketing performance would be easy to identify, but
now the benefits seem to have become vague. Overall,
the meaning and the view of marketing continues to
change. Without a strategic outlook, a marketer for any
brand or product will find it hard to achieve objectives
(Leo 2013). Consequently, definitions for marketing
have also evolved to comply with changes highlighted
above. Today, marketing techniques used by any
organization have to work in the context of customer
and stakeholder relationship management. Previously,
marketing was the conducting of business activities that
direct the flow of products to the consumers but the
definition has become more elaborate. It now considers
marketing as the activity, the institutions and the
processes that create, communicate, deliver, and
exchange offerings to offer value to end users. Here,
customers, clients or partners are the end users
(Holliman & Rowley 2014).
Therefore, in a modern context, marketing will include
activities aimed at achieving a common goal, which is
to provide superior value to users. Product development
creates solutions for customers while supply chain
management combines the use of physical and
informational inputs efficiently to transform them to
customer solutions. In addition, customer relationship
management identifies customers, creates knowledge,
builds relationships and manages perceptions of an
organization and its products as held by its target
consumers. (David & Sagun 2012)
Based on the roles mentioned above, strategic marketing
is a broader view of marketing that allows marketers to
go beyond the 4Ps of product, place, price and
promotion. Efforts by marketers are transformational to
the whole business, they require cross-functional teams
and they should remain result oriented (Kumar 2004).
Hotels have to fully implement their marketing strategy
as part of the broader strategy. Following this approach
will ensure that the plan of action when using digital
platforms works according to overall business
objectives and expectations. After identifying and
setting target groups, companies have to find the best
way of reaching the group through digital tools. The
implementation of these tools needs focus on all
activities that are possible. This effort needs active
involvement and observation such as when assessing the
performance of strategic marketing, key performance
indicators come in handy. These are pre-defined targets
that marketers and general managers use to determine
the scale of success of individual marketing strategies.
A business will look at the type of shareholder value that
comes from utilization of digital platforms to realize
their marketing strategy. For example, when a customer
expresses dissatisfaction on social media causing
negative publicity, a business may think of ways to
derive value by utilizing the same digital platform as
part of its marketing strategy. In this case, a business can
go on to address the issue or report on ways that it has
addressed the issue so that other customers see it as
responsible and caring for customer needs (Baird &
Parasnis 2011). This is how the business utilizes the
digital platform to increase customer satisfaction and
improve its shareholder value.
Marketing strategies by hotels in Asia
According to a case study by Tse (2013) about ICON
hotel in Hong Kong, digital marketing played a major
role in making the hotel immediately visible in a
crowded hotel market place. After opening in April
2011, the hotel became a major hit even becoming
number one on popular traveller website
TripAdvisor.com. The opening of a hotel is a mammoth
assignment, more so when it is an independent hotel.
The hotel has to make itself known to the world as soon
as possible. It must also immediately offer services of
the same or better quality compared to what is available
from the competition.
An exploration of the role that digital marketing played
in making the ICON hotel successful showed that the
hotel relied on its website, search engine optimization
strategies, online travel agencies, banner advertising,
and social media for advertisement. The overall digital
media campaign led to the huge initial success. Through
the tools listed above the hotel was able to quickly build
an online reputation and gain a large web presence. The
internet allowed it to leapfrog the brand building process
to match the offering and competitive advantages of its
rivals, some who had a rich history of success. Use of
the internet considerably reduced the marketing costs of
entry; the hotel did not purchase expensive
advertisements on global news channels or invest in
expensive print advertisements on major global
publications like its established peers did (Tse 2013).
The case study highlights the use of search engine
optimization as a part of the total marketing effort. This
required sustained innovation to match advances in
technology. The case study also illustrated that the use
of social media could be a powerful way to spread word-
of-mouth. For a hotel that was building its brand from
scratch, banner advertising on the internet also played a
major role in directing traffic to the website. According
to Ranganathan and Gunapathy (2002), key dimensions
of business-to-business websites is their content and
design. Any information that appears on a website is the
content of the website, and the manner of its
presentation is the design. In addition, the security and
privacy of the websites also affects consumer interaction
with it. For a study done with 1800 prospective air travel
customers and nine leading hotel agencies globally, the
best website for customer experience according to the
study was hotels.com. On the other hand, Marriott.com
was the website that had the best overall technical
quality. Many respondents said that hotels.com was
convenient, friendly, and helpful and these are words
highlighting the user friendliness of the website
(Ranganathan & Gunapathy 2002).
Overall, researchers are predicting that online sales and
marketing will be the dominant frontier on the internet.
Kim, Ma and Kim (2006) focused their study on Chinese
users and discovered that convenience, technological
inclination, and safety influenced user satisfaction and
intention to purchase.
Digital marketing and social engagement
Digital media has evolved for generations and many
authors define it in various ways. There are different
takes on the definition of digital media by marketers and
researchers and sometimes, following one definition and
approach appears to depart from the opinion and
approach by the other group. The best argument for the
growth of digital media is that it grew from interpersonal
communication, which started out as email.
Nevertheless, the available literature on the origins of
digital media remains scarce. Much of the research
findings available are on the use of digital media and
various applications such as marketing.
Today, the emphasis on digital media rests in social
media and the general blogosphere. Many studies first
explore the subject from a qualitative design approach.
The nature of the information sought in the field requires
that researchers first capture as much detail about the
phenomenon before proceeding to analyse and even
measure with quantitative methodologies. Therefore,
hotel specific studies may embrace quantitative
approaches to determine the extent of a particular effect
being investigated and to determine the cause. Overall,
studies show that consumers and management generally
understand and appreciate the impact that digital media
tools have on brand perceptions. The biggest challenge
facing managers seems to be the execution of digital
marketing activities. There are distinct roles of
marketing communication that various digital marketing
tools play (Kilgour, Sasser & Larke 2015). Though these
tools play distinctive roles, sometimes their roles may
overlap. As an example, internet ads act as reference
tools yet they also increase publicity of a hotel. In
addition, they can be interactive when matched with
particular elements in a hotel’s website such as customer
information collection. Understanding the purpose and
applicability of a particular tool to an organization needs
is a task that only successful managers execute in the
right way (Scott 2007).
Characteristics of online communities
An online community in the realm of digital marketing
is important because of its relevance to the reputation of
a hotel. Therefore, it acts as a brand community. This is
a group of people with similar interests in a brand or a
product. They may be unknown to a firm or a marketer
but the group plays a significant role in its consumption
efforts (Muniz & Schau 2007). According to studies
done by Casalo, Flavian and Guinaliu (2008) positive
participation in a brand community is directly
proportional to loyalty expressed towards the
community. In any online community, new interactions
continue to take place, with change to mingle with
others being a main way for new consumer experience.
Social networking sites and other digital media tools
have been major channels for consumers to interact with
one another and with vendors (Georgi & Mink 2012).
Something for any business to consider is the quality of
its digital marketing presence even when consumers are
creating marketing activities. The quality of digital
marketing influences the way consumers shop and that
influence keeps increasing. In this regard, companies
must come to terms with the range of factors that affect
their ability to use digital marketing and to develop a
social identity online (Hall 2011).
Based on the technology acceptance model3 (TAM3)
used by Pookulangara and Koesler (2011) factors
determining perceived usefulness do not end up
affecting perceived ease of use. The reverse relationship
is also true, as factors affecting the perceived ease of use
have no influence over the perceived usefulness. This
can help in behaviour prediction. Pookulangara and
Koesler (2011) used the TAM3 to estimate behavioural
intention to social media for individuals whose cultural
background was known to affect perceived ease. The
model would allow the researchers estimate the way an
individual would perceive a particular message. They
also point out that digital media tools evolve in ways that
eliminate the limits of individual values and ideologies
as the only determinants of a person’s culture and
rituals. At the same time, they have created a range of
communication tools within the space of Web 2.0
(Pookulangara & Koesler 2011). The point here calls for
marketers to be mindful about culture when they are
utilizing digital marketing strategies because
technologies and related possibilities help to create new
online cultures. These cultures have the same potential
as traditional culture in shaping perception towards a
brand or a product (Ots 2009).
Consumer attitude
A study by Chu (2011) shows that users who are group
members in Facebook have the highest potential of
disclosing personal data to the group compared to non-
members. This confirms the claim that participation
depends on the level of loyalty placed on an online
group. On the other hand, group participation and
engagement with advertisements online needs a high
level of personal information. Users reveal their
connection with different groups or profiles on separate
social media channels and they can promote
advertisements when they use the products as part of
their self-status seeking behaviour. Here, companies
make their brands and products appear as status
symbols. In return, they gain publicity when users or
target customers highlight their association with
products of the company. Companies achieve this
objective by having celebrities endorse their products
and brands. Many users pass viral content about brands
to their social contacts and therefore indirectly perform
a marketer’s job (Chu 2011).
For a study done only on Facebook, college-aged users
were the most receptive to social media marketing and
this segment also had the largest growth rate. This
implies that social media is a rich area for online
advertising. It would serve companies whose target
marketing includes college-aged consumers (Chu
2011). In support of the above findings, Cox (2010)
reported on the investigation to find the relationship
between age and attitude towards online advertising
formats. The study concentrated on advertising formats
like blogs, video and brand channels or pages on social
media networks. It concluded that there were differing
attitudes across age groups. Users aged 18 to 28 are open
to blogs, video and brand channel ad formats with their
key motivation being the eye-catchiness, educational
and amusing abilities of the formats. The 35 to 54 age
group in the study had similar attitudes but also
considered the placement of the format within the online
page layout. The study shows that as long as online
advertising formats were positive in their attributes,
users would welcome them. Intrusiveness and
interference with online activities in social media
networks spiked the most dislike from users in the study
by Cox (2010).
According to Di Pietro and Pantano (2012), enjoyment
is a significant factor affecting consumers’ use of social
networks when these platforms play a role in consumer
buying decisions. The scholars used the TAM concept
narrated earlier in this review. Their findings stated that
Facebook and the opportunity it offers for suggestions
appear in a way that causes individuals to pay more
attention to product promotion that appears as
suggestions. The social media approach is a consumer-
to-consumer interaction. The marketer’s role is to
influence these interactions to ensure that their products
stand out. At the same time, managers and marketers
have the opportunity to bring in a business to consumer
approach as long as they ensure that the business end
mimics the consumer end (Pietro, Loredana & Pantano
2012).
The main features that businesses have used to ensure
that their Facebook pages are appealing include
contests, games, interactive application and
information. An increase in education about consumer
attitudes increases the understanding of the way
marketing strategies will work with social media
(Pietro, Loredana & Pantano 2012). Individuals are no
longer mere consumers. They are also active producers
of business value. They do this by user generated
content, which cannibalizes the opportunities for
traditional marketing techniques (Heinonen 2011). An
awareness of the consumer motives helps marketers
create content that will influence users to take particular
action about a store or a brand.
User generated content
Individuals serve as influencers in any digital marketing
undertaking and technology is only a channel for
exerting this influence. User generated content is a
currency for marketers as it allows them to define a
brand. It is a combination of all the digital tools that
people make use of. In many cases, it describes forms of
media content. These are accessible online and created
by users. It becomes social currency as individuals share
brand information and brands (Zinnbauer & Honer
2011).
Social networking allows an individual’s connections to
play a role in developing brands so that they become part
of a customer’s social interactions in the form of social
currency. This currency is available to a brand based on
its appearance on digital networks. Overall, social
currency covers affiliation, utility, advocacy,
conversation, indemnity and information that serve as
its main components. A firm cannot have direct control
over social currency because it is dependent on user
activities that arise from different influences. A brand
does not have to depend on all six components to create
loyalty among consumers. Any component that allows a
brand to integrate with a consumer’s life allowing the
consumer to connect, interact or gain from likeminded
users succeeds in having consumer generated
advertising (Zinnbauer & Honer 2011).
According to Pehlivan, Sarican and Berthon (2011),
vigilante marketing is an appropriate term for consumer
generated advertising. This is unpaid advertising and
marketing efforts with different options for the source
and the target. Brand loyalists undertake vigilante
marketing and they do it alongside traditional
marketing. Businesses have to be conversant with user-
generated content to understand its influence.
Consumers continue to pick a range of activities that
contribute to other consumer activities and therefore
play a major role in advancing marketer’s intentions
online.
Overall, social media users seek self-enhancement and
brands and various marketing messages must allow
them to achieve this objective. This is the only criteria
that users all over the internet are likely to follow
indiscriminately. When advertisers consider the
symbolic and self-expression properties of their
marketing campaigns and their target approaches, they
will be able to deliver the right message. The marketing
of a company requires the same interests as the target
market and this implies that marketers must first study
their target market online before launching any
campaign (Taylor, Strutton & Thompson 2012).
According to recommendations by Zhang, Jensen and
Chowdhury (2011), all businesses using digital
marketing strategies must have brand presence on the
most popular social media sites. The presence increases
their consumer audience. Electronic word of mouth
messages are capable of generating interest in a product
beyond what exposure to information from marketers
does. Consumers have developed an inherent urge to
become knowledgeable about the product they
consume. They use various tools on the internet to find
more information and take part in online conversations
about the products they consume. Consequently, they
become co-producers of value. They can help
campaigns achieve a high return on investment due to
the additional brand awareness that consumers generate
(Zhang, Jansen & Chowdhury 2011).
As more consumers look to online networks and
affiliations as trusted sources of information, new ways
for building consumer-brand relationships and viral
advertising platform emerge.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is a special capability only available
with digital marketing channels and it allows marketers
to communicate to a brand’s intended consumer. The
concept offers marketers sufficient freedom to exercise
creativity. The opportunities are in message delivery
medium, which can be personalized, intuitive and
intimate. These options increase the likelihood of
marketing messages reaching target audiences without
distortion. As an unpaid peer-to-peer communication of
content, viral market serves as vigilante marketing at an
accelerated pace (Pehlivan, Sarican & Berthon 2011).
Unlike user-generated content, viral marketing has a
sponsor for its ad message. It has an origin and a creator,
while the rest of the users interacting with it only
amplify the message by sharing without manipulation.
The critical elements for the success of viral marketing
message lie in humour, sexuality, stealth, positive
experiences together with relevant factors for different
target audiences. Marketers concentrate mainly on
humour and sexuality to gain from viral ads. When
consumers are entertained by an ad, they will likely
share it because the tools available online make it very
easy to share, and consumers are seeking self-status
(Golan & Zaidner 2008).
Ad placement at the right sites offers word of mouth
triggers that can last years. Nevertheless, viral
marketing may not always succeed (Chu 2011). Over
use of the same strategy by different marketers targeting
the same audience causes the audience to tune out. The
main reasons for ad avoidance are perceived clutter,
negative experience and interruption. At the same time,
many marketers fail to specify an exact target group
when running advertising campaign. Therefore, their
ads are not relevant to activities, expectations and
behaviours of their target consumers. Consumers remain
indifferent to ads after long-term exposure. The only ads
that are noticed are the unique ones. Uniqueness appears
in the ad being annoying or entertaining when consumed
through social media.
In response, marketers are developing new strategies
that allow them to fly below the consumer’s radar.
Marketers ‘fool’ consumers by using brand pushers who
act as consumers. This strategy ensures the social
currency of a brand remains high. Strategies used in this
manner seek to inspire consumer-to-consumer activities
based on a brand or product. The understanding is that
consumer-to-consumer communication is the lead force
for circulation of advertiser-created messages (Ots
2009).
Outcomes of online community participation
When consumers are evaluating information regarding
their preferred brands, they use different cognitive
processes. Once they value a given brand highly, they
will evaluate other brands less favourably in
comparison. The behaviour of consumers online on
information searching takes a defensive approach for
strengthening the value of a brand that consumers have
already identified. A possibility exists for consumers to
accept an alternative when competing brands are similar
to the valued brand.
Certain demographic characteristics can influence
behaviour of online consumers. Young consumers will
use the internet mostly for socializing and playing
games while older consumers, beyond age 54, will likely
use the internet to seek information and communicate
formally. There, the outcomes of approaches targeting
young users will be unique to those of older users.
Gender can also play a role in the outcomes of online
engagement. The genders have distinct patterns of
communicating. Female members are likely to favour
and gain more from participation compared to male
members (Heinonen 2011).
Methodology
In this chapter, the choice of research design is
described. It is useful for answering the objective of the
study and research questions. This section will also
present the study approach together with data collection
methods and sampling used. Additional sections offer
the study approach used for the dissertation and the path
that led to the collection of primary and secondary data.
According to the basic structure of qualitative research,
data obtained is usually in descriptive form, and can be
in words or pictures. Qualitative studies serve a
researcher well when there is abundant knowledge about
a problem that will be the subject of examination. With
the qualitative research approach, a study goes for a
holistic view of the context of phenomenon being
studied. In this case, qualitative data would consist of
the descriptions of situations being studied or
influencing participants being studied. It will also
include events, people, and interactions. Moreover,
observed behaviours and direct quotes from people are
likely to feature as an entire section of the data collected.
Overall, the data seeks to provide an elaborate case
description and it can even be presented in the form of a
case description.
The collected data acts as raw content that will serve as
the basis of informing an empirical reality. Information
often runs deep and remains qualitative throughout, with
aspects that are readily measurable in units being of
secondary importance. The qualitative aspect identifies,
names, describes, and helps understand. A study can
then move to a quantitative approach that quantifies the
data collected.
Usually, a qualitative research design will include a
theoretical framework that would help to understand the
data being collected and the study design. In this study,
the empirical aspect involves interviewing hotel
managers from the seven selected hotels that serve as
case studies. This study will retain the qualitative design
approach throughout the inquiry and analysis of data
both from primary and secondary sources. This move is
informed by the need to establish a holistic view of
digital marketing among hotels in Singapore and its
overall performance. While the nature of the data
collected may be descriptive and yet include
quantifiable information, the study will retain a focus on
the qualitative aspects such as the motivations and
decisions made regarding particular digital marketing
channels available to the hotels being studied.
Study approach
A deductive approach begins with the development of a
theory or a hypothesis and then designing a research
strategy that works towards testing the created
hypotheses. With a deductive approach, it is essential to
follow a general rule that ensures that all the work
remains with the context of one interest. For studies with
limited time, and resources, it is a good and economical
approach (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2009).
On the other hand, an inductive approach works when a
researcher is collecting data and developing a theory
because of the data collected and analysed in the study.
With this approach, the researcher begins the inquiry
without a theory and ends up formulating a theory based
on studied phenomena (Kim, Morrison & Mills 2004).
An inductive approach works well with a variety of
individual cases that could be having a link and the study
seeks to establish the link and validate it.
Although the inductive and deductive approaches are
the only methods available, many studies still use other
approaches that may not fall into specific inductive or
deductive categories. This study will mainly rely on the
deductive approach that will interpret results based on a
hypothetical overall pattern. The research will explain
the interpretation in the context of new observations or
cases. The original hypothetical situation comes from
the secondary literature that this study has consulted to
influence its opinion on the use of digital media
strategies by the hotels in this study and their
performance regarding marketing activities. The study
then relies on primary data collected during interviews
and correspondence with management at the seven
hotels. Based on this arrangement, the study will use an
abduction approach.
Abduction approach includes both deductive and
inductive approaches in various bits and then introduces
new elements that help to present a clear conclusion to
a study. With abduction, the research will rely on
empirical facts. However, it will not ignore induction or
theoretical concepts that make it move towards a
deduction approach. Based on its structure, it is possible
to analyse empirical data and then combine it with a
study of earlier theory that may have been introduced as
part of the literature review. In this case, the theory will
not apply to individual cases but to the overall study and
it offers the inspiration that will allow us to understand
findings (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2009).
In light of the above discussion, the study will use an
abductive approach that concludes after reviewing
theoretical information and empirical data that are both
interpreted in light of each other. The study goes on to
argue that the findings are not the absolute truth, and
additional research can be undertaken in an inductive
approach to determine its validity or shortcomings.
Therefore, the approach of this study is crucial as it
provides a basis for conducting additional studies when
resources are available to offer an improved
understanding and come up with specific applications of
this study’s findings.
Descriptive attributes in the study
For the sake of clarifying the understanding of the
problem explored in this study, the use of exploration is
important. Data that seems appropriate is collected
throughout the discovery process. The main motivation
in this approach is the answering of the “what” question.
On the other hand, a descriptive approach also comes in
handy, from the earlier discussion on qualitative studies,
as it presents answers to the question of “how”. From
the nature of this approach and the objective of this
study, it is best that the approach is a combination of
both, as they will lead to a richer study experience and
an elaborate set of findings. This will add meaning to
both researchers and practitioners in the hotel and
marketing industries in Singapore.
This study aims to describe how different hotels are
using digital media marketing strategies and the
performance of their approaches. It considers the effect
of the strategies used on the future of digital media
marketing in the hospitality industry. The study also
seeks to reveal the key questions and motivations that
affect a hotel’s use of digital media marketing tools in
the Singapore context.
Case study as a strategy of research
This sub section explains the benefits of a case study and
points out why this research picked the format as part of
the qualitative research inquiry. A research strategy
dictates the kind of investigation that will be performed.
It also determines the kind of data that a researcher
would obtain (Christesen et al. 2001). Four strategies are
available for study; they include cross-sectional,
longitudinal, case study and experimental approach. In
marketing research, a common method used is a cross-
sectional study because the approach offers a wide base
for sampling within a specified period for doing
research. A longitudinal approach will provide a study
outcome that is quantitative, with data presented in the
form of statistics. Meanwhile, a case study is ideal for
qualitative studies. It is appropriate for studying small
sample populations. The aim of a study using a case
study should be to offer descriptive data that helps to
explain a concept or finding without need for further
interpretation. In this case, there is no need for statistical
representation. Lastly, an experimental approach is ideal
when the researcher already has an ideal
conceptualization of the object of examination. The
approach helps to find a causal relationship (Evans
2010; Christesen et al. 2001). With a case study, there is
no need for use of dependent and independent variables
that help to define a causal relationship in experimental
studies.
This study picked the seven hotels in Singapore because
they are the biggest in terms of reach and status. They
enjoy a considerable reputation in business and leisure
hospitality services to their clients. They also serve a
global clientele. These hotels were picked for their use
of digital marketing strategies to drive growth in visitor
numbers and brand reputation. The hotels are early
adopters to digital media marketing because of their
global outlook, and it would be interesting to find out
whether their early adoption status has paid back. The
study hopes to provide ordinate answers to the research
questions. It is also going to rely heavily on the
qualitative research method. There will be only one
interview conducted in every hotel. Therefore, there will
be adequate preparation and background search to
ensure that during the interview, as much information as
possible will be gathered.
Sampling
The expectation is that time and resources available to
collect all available data will be a limiting factor for
comprehensive data collection. Sampling will offer a
quick and non-biased way of reducing the data needed
for analysis. It will consider data from a subgroup
instead of focusing on all possible cases. Sampling as a
research tool can be in form of probability or non-
probability. In the first case, each unit appears out of
random selection and therefore has an equal chance of
being in the study. In the non-probability option, the unit
or the respondent in the study is included in the sample,
but in a non-predictable way. In this option, when a
random sample is being studied, it does not answer
questions about statistical features of the population
studied because researchers have no prior knowledge of
the structure of the population to inform their answers to
the question.
Data collection
The common data collection methods for research are
interviews, observations, and experiments in addition to
questionnaires that are prevalent in quantitative studies.
With interviews, a researcher has the option of going
with a structured or an unstructured form. The
advantage of interviews is that they give the interviewer
an opportunity to bring up new issues that become
relevant in the course of the interview. The likelihood of
gathering a variety of information makes interviews
ideal for qualitative studies. Observational studies are
only about behaviour at the time of observation.
Therefore, they have little to do with the respondents’
ability to know or explain the observed behaviour.
Experiments on the other hand establish a reliable
correlation between different variables; however, they
are not suitable in this study because of its design. The
study does not make use of causal relationships as the
basis of exploration. In conclusion, interviews remain
the most reliable and appropriate data collection tool for
this study. They help to analyse the results accurately.
These interviews can offer detailed information and
clear answers from the chosen respondents.
Interviews
The exchange in an interview is in dialogue format. The
task of the questioner is to come up with good questions
that suitably probe the respondents and at the same time
remain easy to comprehend. They should be respectful
of the position and personality of the respondent and the
respondent’s role in the research. Interviews offer a
chance for researchers to listen to respondents in their
own words as they explain or answer queries. The
researcher serving as a questioner can even query the
respondent about observed behaviour during the
interview, such as answering questions in a particular
way (Christesen et al. 2001).
An open interview doesn’t require the respondent to be
tied to a particular structure in answering. Any
information and format of delivery is encouraged as
long as it yields more information for the research. On
the other hand, a structured interview will contain
specific information that helps the questioner to obtain
accurate answers. Accuracy here will depend on the
structure of the questions and the approach used to ask
them. In this study, the interviews use both structured
and unstructured questions. Structured questions help
the interviewer to determine the context of bringing in
the unstructured questions and help in the interpretation
of answers.
Primary and secondary data
As with any other scholarly research, this study includes
the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation
of data. There is a primary data section and a secondary
data section with the difference being the when, how and
where data was obtained. As the names suggest,
secondary data was obtained from existing publications
and the role of this data is to help lay the foundation for
interpreting primary data. The data collected in
interviews with management will be the primary data.
The secondary data consists also of the observations
made during the study about the digital marketing
strategies that are in place. Since the outcomes of the
digital marketing activities are visible on the internet
and have been discussed by other observers, it is
possible to consider it secondary data. Nevertheless, the
research questions work as guidelines to narrow down
on the available data for the study.
Qualitative analysis
Given that the study will rely on qualitative design, in
the analysis, emphasis will be on the deeper meaning of
words used by interviewing. The context of the
information provided will also play a major role in the
interpretation and discussion of findings. In this study,
three processes combine to form the qualitative analysis.
These processes are reduction, structure and
visualization. The overall analysis involves the
separation of data into meaningful chunks by reducing
it from its raw format into usable bits that are dependent
on the informational demand of the study. The
structuring formulates the narrowed down data into the
meaning derived from interpretation. Lastly,
visualization is clarification of data to describe a
research problem.
The processes are important because not everything
provided by interviewees will be readily usable as
interpretation for the study. The keywords for the
processes of breaking down information come from
literature and study objectives and questions. This data
relates to digital marketing strategies and the main hotel
chains in Singapore. Aspects dealing with performance,
branding, motivation for marketing strategies and
challenges encountered in marketing strategy
implementation serve as guidelines for interpreting the
key information obtained from the keywords.
Validity of the study
There are always challenges with validity of research
and this study is not an exception. However, based on
the acceptable threshold for validity, this study seeks to
meet every criterion. Anyone else performing this study
should be able to get the exact results as long as the
study parameters are the same. However, given that it is
a qualitative study, it will be almost impossible for other
scholars to get the exact responses from the interviewees
used in this study. Based on that fact, reliability is
irrelevant as its instruments of a measuring unit are not
static. On the other hand, the credibility of this research
reports provides its validity. This report includes
inquiries into the marketing activities of seven hotels in
Singapore that belong to the three major hotel
companies globally. It also includes theoretical
underpinnings and literature from other studies
concerning performance of digital marketing.
The formula used for picking respondents, the case
studies and other parts of the study, as well as the
elaborate discussion of the study’s method, findings and
conclusions makes this study report reliable and
credible. Reliability in this case refers to the ability of
other scholars to use the same approach to study a
similar problem. The persons interviewed in the study
are professionals whose work exposes them to the nature
of digital marketing in Singapore, with their hotels being
their current source of information. The interviewees
hold significant positions in the hotels that allow them
to access relevant data and have appropriate information
necessary for understanding and explaining the data
during interviews with questioners for this research
purpose. Overall, the study relies on the interpretation of
validity as an assessment of the researcher’s experience
in the study.
Validity of sources
The study only covers reliable sources of primary data,
as everyone interviewed is a member of staff who holds
a management position. In addition, the secondary data
used assists in verifying the primary data to validate this
research, as it comes from reliable sources. These
sources are current publications in every aspect chosen.
Findings/Results
The functionalities offered to customers and visitors of
various digital avenues used for marketing by the seven
hotels in Singapore, namely Hilton Singapore, The
Conrad Singapore, Marriott Tang Plaza, The St. Regis
hotel, The W, The Westin and Sheraton hotel Singapore
are discussed in the following sub-sections. This is a
summary of information, engagement framework and
outlook on various digital marketing tools used by the
hotels. The tools and their engagement characteristics
are available publicly on the internet.
Hilton Singapore
Hilton Singapore is rated as number 62 out of 300 hotels
in Singapore and has 1,608 reviews on TripAdvisor. The
hotel’s website is descriptive at first glance. It includes
information about its location and its options for loyal
Hilton worldwide guests enrolled in the Hilton Honours
program. It also highlights TripAdvisor ratings with a
link for reading more.
The website has no link or icon to any social media site
on its home page. A search on Google brings the
Facebook page of the hotel. At the time of this study, it
has 3629 likes and 54,081 visits. It includes the
following tabs- Welcome, Timeline, About, Photos,
Reviews, Videos, Events and Likes. The timeline has
posts about events, celebration, insights and offerings at
the hotel. It also has various likes and photos as well as
videos on its sidebars with reviews bring highlighted
with an option to review without going to the reviews
tab of the Facebook page. The About tab includes a map
showing the location of the hotel and its contact details.
The Photos tab has a grid of photos appearing elsewhere
on the page while the Reviews tab has a summary of the
ratings left by visitors to the page, graphically
represented. The average rating is 4.2 stars out of 5 stars
and comes from 698 reviews. It is possible to navigate
the reviews by most recent or most useful categories.
The Videos tab brings up a blank page.
The Conrad Centennial Singapore
The Conrad hotel website provides information about its
services and key attractions. The design uses various
graphical impressions on the rooms, the facilities for
entertainment, business and restaurants. The site also
highlights a comment about its excellent services left by
a user on TripAdvisor. In addition, the website provides
a footer area showing its affiliation with other Hilton
hotels globally.
There are links to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and
Instagram. The Facebook page has 7241 likes and
34,739 visits. It includes the basic tabs of timeline,
about, photos, reviews and more. On the reviews tab, the
page offers the main Facebook review functionality
where visitors to the page can leave a rating out of five
and write a comment about the hotel or the page. There
are 614 5-star reviews, 195 4-star reviews, 85 3-star
reviews, 21 2-star reviews and 28 1-star reviews. Within
the comments left by visitors to the page, some visitors
have advice for others who are new or yet to visit the
hotel.
The photos tab on the Facebook page include images
relating to activities carried out in the hotel, there are
menus, notes, guest highlights, posters, recipes, food
and drinks. Some images ask visitors to take action such
as liking them or leaving a comment about their
experience at the hotel. A text overlay on the image
delivers the call-to-action message.
The about tab on Facebook page has the map of the
location of the hotel and its contact details. The timeline
is populated by images and descriptions of events and
offers at the hotel. Visitors like and comment on specific
posts, but on the first page of the tab, there are no
comments.
The Conrad advises its customers to install the Hilton
Honours app on their devices as it allows them to easily
check in and select their rooms whenever they are at a
Hilton hotel. The app makes guests manage their room
choices and offers an effective way for the hotel to
collect front-office relevant information about its guests.
The hotel has 2725 reviews on TripAdvisor and a rating
of 4.5 out of 5, with 92 percent of reviewers leaving a
positive review. On the SG50 celebrations, the hotel has
a post on Facebook with a chance to win two nights for
visitors who use its Instagram page to post photos. The
strategy helps increase the popularity of its social media
pages and improve overall outlook of the hotel’s
offerings and its brand.
Marriott Tang Plaza
The Marriott Tang Plaza hotel enjoys a rating of 4.4 out
of 5 on the user-generated rating and review website
tripadvisor.com. The Marriott Tang Plaza hotel website
provides links to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and
Pinterest. The Pinterest page of the hotel has several
categories with pictures that provide target users with
the expected engagement that they would seek on the
social network. However, the links to images provided
by the hotel on Pinterest are not from the hotel website.
The page is a collage of interesting picture stories that
are relevant to the hotels services; however, there is no
direct marketing of the hotel or its offers to the visitors
on its Pinterest page.
At the time of the study, the link to the Google+ page
was not working.
The Twitter page of Marriott Tang Plaza has 295
follows and 935 tweets. Many of the tweets engage
readers about topics that could be relevant to them, and
provide links to the hotel’s website that provide more
information about various topics or services. The
Twitter profile also includes many alerts to hotel offers
offered by the hotel. Other tweets are about stories that
are generally popular with the target audience. These
tweets help to personify the hotel’s brand on Twitter.
The Facebook page of Marriott Tang Plaza has 16,415
likes and 143,232 visits. The tabs available on the page
are the timeline, an about tab, Instagram, TripAdvisor
reviews while the rest such as photos are hidden in the
‘More’ tab. The Instagram tab includes pictures of staff,
advertisements, guests and delicacies offered at the
hotel. The TripAdvisor tab on Facebook highlights the
hotel’s rank at 26 out of 300 hotels in Singapore. A
graphical summary of reviews for location, sleep
quality, rooms, service, value, cleanliness are offered.
The tab also has two award statements. It shows that the
hotel won the travellers choice award 2013 luxury and
got a certificate of excellence 2015. The rest of the tab
has a sample of user reviews mostly written in first
person narration. There are links to read more, which
take the Facebook page visitor to the TripAdvisor
website on the page about the hotel.
The about tab has a map showing the location of the
hotel and address, opening hours and website. The
timeline highlights posts about the services and staff at
the hotel, indulging visitors to find out more and even
take part in various activities that the hotel undertakes
as it delivers luxury services to its target customers.
There are queries and comments left by Facebook users
on the page about issues related to the page and others
related to the overall business.
The St. Regis Hotel
The St. Regis hotel website has information about
services offered, prices, affiliations and other relevant
information for guests. It also includes pictures of
various attractions. The website appears similar to the
one of Sheraton Towers hotel in terms of colour scheme
and layout. It includes a panel of reviews from guests,
which shows a score of 4.2 out of 5 from reviews left by
565 guests. In addition, there is a figure of 82 percent
highlighted as the percentage of guests who have
recommended the hotel to others.
The website includes a link to various social media sites
and a smartphone app download link. The sites are
Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Instagram, Pinterest,
TripAdvisor, Twitter and YouTube. The Facebook page
has the following tabs. About, Timeline, Photos,
Reviews, Locations, Reserve a Table, Share Your
Experience, YouTube, Instagram, Pins, Likes, Events
and Videos.
The first page of the timeline has various posts about
offers, events and attractions in relation to holidays and
other celebrations. It includes likes on each post and
comments on some of the posts. There are also messages
left by visitors that are mainly compliments and queries.
The page also mentions other St. Regis hotels around the
world. The ‘Register Now’ and ‘Reserve a Table’ tabs
offer a registration form and an intuitive tool for
selecting your table respectively.
The Instagram tab and the YouTube tab present a
summary of the content uploaded by the hotel on the
respective sites; there are photos and videos
respectively. There is a link to the respective sites
provided as a button on the tabs. Pins, a word used to
describe Pinterest posts exists as a tab on the Facebook
page and includes a sample of the pins made by the
hotel. The pins relate to food and drinks as well as other
activities that guests generally expect. There is a button
allowing users to follow the hotel on Pinterest without
leaving the Facebook page.
The ‘Share your Experience’ tab on the Facebook page
has the TripAdvisor page of the hotel, which shows its
ranking as number 28 out of 300 hotels in Singapore. It
also shows sample reviews from 1,408 users of the site
who left a review of the St. Regis. The tab also
highlights the hotel’s awards as the Traveller’s Choice
2014 Luxury and Certificate of Excellence 2015.
Concerning sg50 golden jubilee celebrations, St Regis
Hotel did not have posts on Facebook, but it used the
#sg50 hashtag on twitter to benefit from the popularity
of the celebrations. Using the hashtag would make its
tweets about different attractions visible to many twitter
users who were interacting with the hashtag.
The W Singapore
The W Singapore has a primary website for the hotel,
which includes links to three social network sites
namely Facebook, Twitter and Webio. The Twitter page
of the hotel has updates about new offerings in its
restaurants, room service and events. The Facebook
page has various tabs including About, Photos,
Reviews, Locations, Videos, and Twitter, Reserve a
table, Join SPG, YouTube, Instagram, TripAdvisor
Reviews, Events and Likes. On the TripAdvisor tab
within the Facebook page, the hotel highlights its
number four position out of 13 hotels in Sentonsa Island.
There are photos of the hotel and reviews left by users
of the TripAdvisor rating website. The tab also shows
the hotel as a recipient of Certificate of Excellence 2015.
The Join SPG tab has a form that allows guests to
register and become part of Starwood Preferred Guests.
The YouTube tab has various videos of the hotel
‘pulled’ from its YouTube channels and these are
mainly highlights of events hosted on the hotel. On the
Facebook timeline, the page has 24,257 likes and 95,170
visits. It also has several comments and likes on the first
page of the timeline. On TripAdvisor, the W Singapore
has a rating of 4 out of 5 obtained from 1,507 reviews.
On a recent campaign for the SG50 golden jubilee, W
Singapore put a post of Facebook urging users to book
two nights to get an additional night free. The post has a
link that directs visitors to the hotel’s website for
additional details, as illustrated in the appendices.
The Westin
The Westin Singapore has 580 reviews on TripAdvisor
and it has 13786 likes on Facebook with 25,405 visits
on Facebook. Its Facebook page has About, Instagram,
Twitter while the ‘More’ tab has SPG, TripAdvisor
Reviews, Photos, Videos, Reviews, Likes Events,
Notes. The timeline has updates about new offers and
current offers, it also includes posts about reports and
updates from visitors. The posts on the timeline have
several likes and many of them have comments. The
SPG tab includes a form for visitors to join the Starwood
preferred guest program. On the TripAdvisor tab, the
hotel highlights its number 41 out of 300 hotels in
Singapore and presents various ratings for its services.
It also mentions the Certificate of Excellence 2015 has
a summary of reviews from visitors to the hotel.
The Twitter tab on Facebook profile only presents a text
version of tweets and hyperlinks with only options for
users being retweet or favourite, otherwise clicking on
the tweets leads one to the Twitter page of the hotel.
The Westin website has offers, booking forms and
descriptions of the hotel and its services with links to
partners under Starwood. It also includes Facebook as
the only social media link provided.
Sheraton hotel Singapore
The hotel enjoys a rating of 4.0 on TripAdvisor and has
1127 reviews. It occupies number 94 out of 300 hotels
in Singapore. The hotel’s website has links to its
smartphone app, Facebook page, foursquare, Instagram,
TripAdvisor and YouTube. On the website there is a
review panel showing 3.6 rating out of 5 received from
418 guests. The mobile app connects users to Facebook,
YouTube and other social channels. It also links users to
any hotel in the world affiliated to Sheraton Tower and
it lets users book their stay. Moreover, it allows the users
to discover destinations and brand experiences as it
shows other Sheraton hotel attractions. It also gives
users suggestions on what they can do on their next visit
to the hotel.
The hotel’s Facebook page has 4638 likes and 19018
visits. The page has a timeline, about, photos, weddings
at STS and more tabs. The timeline tab includes photos
and descriptions of offers, promotions and messages. It
also includes messages left by visitors to the page who
include both guest and potential guests of the hotel. The
first page of the timeline tab includes many likes to
posts. Some of the shared photos on the timeline come
from the hotels Instagram page.
The about tab has a map showing the location of the
hotel and it also includes contact details. On the photos
tab, the photos used in the timeline posts are presented
in grid format. The wedding tab has a catalogue of
exclusive offers for organising a wedding with details
for lunch, dinner, reception and promotional price
packages. On the more tab, there is a TripAdvisor tab
that brings out the ratings, photos and main reviews of
the hotel as left by users on the TripAdvisor website.
The Facebook page also includes a ‘register now’ tab
that provides visitors with a contacts form that allows
them to keep in touch with the hotel by being on its
mailing list. There is an Events tab highlighting in
chronological order the dates, names and times of
various events held or planned at Sheraton Towers. A
videos tab includes various videos that appear on the
timeline of the Facebook page. There is also an
Instagram feed tab that presents several photos under
different hashtags with a link to view the photos on
Instagram. There is a tab for Google+ but it is not in use.
The YouTube channel for the hotel has tutorial videos
with recipes. It also includes videos interviews of guests
at the hotel. Other videos are about events at the hotel.
The latest video on the channel is 7 months old and
videos are from less than a minute to six minutes long.
Findings from the interviews
There were seven interviews through phone and
physically. The shortest interview was an hour and the
longest lasted two hours. Respondents of the interviews
were managers, all hotels preferred that their operations
managers be interviewed, and there were cases where
the managers hinted that they need to get more
information from the online marketing personnel. This
was an issue for Starwood hotels, the managers did not
have complete information of the digital marketing
strategies used by the parent company. Managers in
other hotels could report fully about the digital
marketing efforts presented in this report.
The hotels outsource their search engine optimization to
service providers who offer both targeting and analytics.
They also rely on third party service providers to
maintain their websites, but have staff involved in the
updating of the content on their website and reviewing
performance. The marketing department is also
responsible for managing a hotel’s approach to use of
social media. Each hotel seeks to have updates on at
least one of its primary social media site’s profile. From
the results, the main site was Facebook for all the seven
hotels reviewed.
Hotels do not link their social media pages with their
websites as in the case of Westin, this is because of the
sheer number of social media. The hotel wants to
communicate with its audience in different ways on
different channels. For example, the users on a website
mainly look for comprehensive information while those
on social media are mainly seeking interaction. In
addition, the social media pages are accessible quite
easily through a basic search.
The marketing budget comes from the overall budget for
marketing specified by respective hotels. Digital
marketing efforts only rely on the marketing budget and
do not get funding from other sources within their
establishment. The choice to hire external help for
managing various platforms is made by the marketing
department without inclusion of other departments or
senior management. However, the departments rely on
their deliverables to senior management as guidelines on
the services to procure for digital marketing. While the
efforts to use digital marketing are recognized as
marketing activities, all hotel managers hinted that they
prefer to see the efforts as a public relations attempt and
were concerned more about the brand benefits of their
hotels when using digital tools. The need for brand
reputation surpassed the need for financial returns.
However, the expectation by the managers is that a
growth in the brand will automatically lead to more
visitors for the hotels and more customers to their
services for guests and events.
The interviews were conducted after the data on various
online engagements of the hotels and their brands had
already been gathered. It was possible to ask the
respective managers their take on the lack of comments
on their Facebook page. Many agreed that there was
room to improve, however they did not have an
immediate answer on how best to improve.
Analysis/Discussion of Findings
All the hotels reviewed in the study have a Facebook
profile, a Twitter profile and a TripAdvisor profile.
However, the TripAdvisor profile of a hotel is truly
independent of its marketing efforts. Nevertheless, it
aids in their efforts to ensure that their digital marketing
strategy succeeds. In addition to that, the findings show
that users have a great role to play in ensuring the
success of a digital marketing strategy. One observation
on the TripAdvisor profiles for all the hotels is that the
more the people contribute to a discussion, the greater
the chances of online success. The honesty of reviews
cannot be readily established although TripAdvisor
have controls in place to weed out inappropriate content.
They also conduct an audit of all the postings before the
post goes online. One of the controls is the lag time
between a user posting a review or comment and this
text appearing on the website. For example, they do not
let derogatory remarks appear on their site. However, if
such comments have somehow managed to appear
online, they are deleted from the site once their profanity
checker and review manager identifies text as being
unsuitable. TripAdvisor are also quick to respond to any
customer complaints in this regard. A hotel or guest can
complain directly to TripAdvisor and they get back with
a response in 24 hours.
Therefore, we can assume that most of the reviews are
honest. Hotels also appear resigned to the rating they
receive on the TripAdvisor platform. They report the
results verbatim of their respective digital marketing
tools such as their websites and their Facebook pages.
Hotels such as those in this study are informed by their
corporate policies to initiate local strategies for
marketing. For example, Hilton affiliate hotels have to
include the Hilton Honours program as part of their
marketing programs, and they highlight this offering in
the rest of their digital marketing channels, especially
Facebook and Twitter.
Starwood hotels rely on the support of its global
marketing team to review the performance of its hotels
in Singapore. The hotels under Starwood Hotels &
Resorts Worldwide, Inc. report results to the global
headquarters and then receive analysis, which
influences their individual and regional marketing
strategies.
Inter-linking various social network sites and the
TripAdvisor review site as part of the tabs on Facebook
is a common practice for all hotels reviewed. These
hotels are using the strategy as compliance with best
practices in the industry, and they are using it to promote
engagement. However, Facebook timelines of the hotels
are the most visible pages of their Facebook profiles and
they inform a visitor the level of customer engagement.
Although the use of digital media tools and the overall
internet strategy for building brands is remarkable, the
hotels need to understand that they also have to promote
their digital presence actively. Their efforts only met the
basic threshold of competitiveness, but very little, other
than the specialized apps and explicit calls on their
websites to leave a review, effort was exerted for an
outright promotion of the digital strategy as a brand
building campaign. Use of the Facebook and Twitter
timelines to keep customers and followers updates on
latest events about the hotel was satisfactory as a form
of publicity, but without elaborate advertisement or
other promotional strategies for these channels, the
hotels might be missing out on additional ways of
increasing their audience.
Answering of research questions
For this study, there are four main research questions.
Below are the questions with answers that are based on
findings and the other information reviewed as part of
the exploration. Given that this was a qualitative study
into the performance of the digital marketing strategy in
the three big hotel chains in Singapore, the questions
also receive a descriptive answer based on a clear
interpretation of the question’s intention and the
available information.
R1. What are the most popular digital marketing
avenues used by Singapore hotels in this study?
The most common digital marketing avenues used by
the three hotels chains in the case study were Facebook,
Twitter and recommendations on TripAdvisor.
Secondly, most hotels also relied on their websites as the
number one recipients of visitors directed to the hotel
from social media, search engine optimization
campaigns and other independent websites such as
hotels.com. Such websites are companies with an
interest in promoting hotels in return for a fee. Among
the five social networks presented in the Appendix
section, Google+ was the least visible tool for marketing
used by the hotels, followed by Pinterest. Only Conrad
Centennial had a specific campaign targeting Facebook
users, which was different from simplistic
implementation of various features of the digital
platforms available and used by the other hotels.
The following graph gives a glimpse of the popularity
of various digital media tools as reviewed in this study.
However, the graph leaves out websites by hotels and
other companies due to lack of data.
Figure 1: Cumulative number of followers on various
digital media channels for 3 hotel chains in Singapore.
R2. How does the digital marketing strategy perform
in terms of the indicators used?
The hotels involved in digital marketing are doing it out
of the necessity to match their competition. It was
impossible, given the scope of this study to determine
what hotel chain was the first to initiate the activities for
others to imitate. It was also not possible to determine
explicitly a campaign leader in terms of using the digital
marketing platform as part of the strategy to improve
overall performance of the hotels. However, there was a
preliminary assessment of the performance of the
various tools used to push the marketing agenda of
respective hotels. This was collected based on the
activity of the Facebook pages, seen as a common
denominator of digital marketing for the seven hotels
involved in this study. Interviews with management also
helped to reveal any outcomes of the strategy. Overall,
managers of all the hotels agreed that their hotel’s
strategy to go with digital marketing initiatives had a
positive impact. They cited this as the best low-cost way
to gain recognition. With adequate coverage of their
business by Facebook and the independent website
TripAdvisor, the managers mentioned that they are
getting mostly positive feedback.
R3. How are these hotels measuring their digital
marketing performance?
The hotels under Starwood have an analytic product
provided by a third-party service provide that helps in
the analysis of visitor information and customer data to
influence additional decisions made about the digital
marketing strategy. Hilton hotels as a chain also have an
overall marketing program that looks at the numbers
from respective social media sites. However,
engagement was not as deep as that of Starwood hotels.
In both cases, the hotels found it easier to measure their
numbers when their customers and potential customers
used their specific apps to review or even book rooms
and events. For the rest of the social media channels, the
reports helped to determine the performance of a
particular media channel, but they were not tightly
integrated to the rest of the marketing strategy. As a
result, managers of all the hotels only provided
descriptive reports of their progress with various
internet tools for marketing. They mentioned the ability
to get numbers and other metrics that various platforms
provided. However, connection of the numbers and
immediate action or reaction decisions was vague.
R4. What are the challenges and opportunities
presented by each method used to measure digital
marketing strategy formulation and execution by
management?
The most prominent challenge presented by using
multiple platforms is that not all the results are
combined into an aggregate result or report. In this
regard, the various hotels would have to include a
separate analytical resource to track and report their
findings then help to alter their decisions regarding their
marketing strategies on each platform. Nevertheless, the
Hilton Group and the Starwood group appear to have
solved part of the problem of having a centralized
information capture centres through their mobile apps
and use of third-party analytics services. Information
regarding the same for Marriott was not forthcoming
during the interview. In addition, there are many
independent websites tracking performance of various
social media engagement activities by different hotels
and they present their findings. They include
TripAdvisor.com, Hotels.com and Expedia.com, which
have a rating system based on feedback left on the
websites about different aspects of hotels such as
guestrooms quality and service quality.
They also show ratings from other websites and give
social media links to the hotels’ social pages. They also
highlight popularity of the hotels on social media by
displaying the number of likes for the particular hotel
pages on those websites. These findings are not similar
to the findings by the hotels through monitoring and
evaluation of their own activities. For example, ratings
on TripAdvisor differ with the ratings on the website of
Sheraton hotel Singapore. While reports on trip advisor
can show that a hotel is ranked low among its peers,
management of the hotel give an optimistic report about
their performance, which surpasses the rating as in the
case of the W Singapore. Therefore, there was need to
reconcile the criteria used by the various measurement
tools used. Unfortunately, many hotels only reveal part
of their strategy for measuring performance. This leaves
much of their results to be inscrutable and not very
useful for making decisions about the overall
presentation of various tools to best enhance the hotel’s
image to potential customers.
Conclusions/Recommendations
Based on the challenges faced by hotels in online
marketing, it is difficult to say if they are getting
significant returns from their digital endeavours. Even if
they were, it is difficult to find a ‘tangible’ success story.
However, hotels are implementing most of the digital
marketing strategies revealed in literature as a way to
sustain their reputation and publicity with the limited
feedback they get from the market. In this regard, the
study concludes that the objective of the hotels is to
conform to industry practices and seek efficiencies in
their manner of conforming.
Adequate room exists for additional investment in
targeted digital marketing for all these hotels. Online
marketing is increasingly becoming targeted. Many
people are embracing enhanced digital experiences in
Web 2.0 through cloud computing, uses of software-as-
a-service, and as a result, they are finding it easier to
align their efforts with available online solutions.
Digital marketing must therefore move beyond the use
of social media to increase the presence and capabilities
of their mobile applications. They should also seek more
integration with other business tools that reach the same
target customers even though they may not be hotel-
business centred. For example, collaborating with
educational institutions to have their services and
packages featured would ensure that they gain
prominence in niche audience like researchers and
student travellers; this could be part of the strategy for
‘low season’ as these groups would not generally be big
spenders.
The following table shows the most notable tools for use
in digital media, according to their performance
capabilities in the big hotel chains in Singapore. The
appendix page titled Social media profiles for the seven
hotels helps to justify the following conclusion on the
most important digital media tools for hotels to use.
Digital
media tool
Remarks
Rank
Facebook
Facebook has high number of users. It offers multiple forms of
engagement allowing one to embed other digital media tools on
its page. Offers numerous engagement options.
1
Twitter
Allows hotels to ride on popular topics to build their image. Helps
to highlight attractions without requiring much involvement from
twitter followers. Offers a quick feedback option for hotel and
customers
3
Official
website
Allows hotel to highlight offers and products in detail.
2
YouTube
Offers video and comment options to increase virtual guest
experiences.
5
Pinterest
Picture sharing platform for word-of-mouth marketing
6
Instagram
Picture sharing platform for word-of-mouth marketing
4
With sustained implementation of digital marketing
strategies, the next frontier is data analysis to support
marketing efforts. Building capacity for better analysis,
perhaps through an increased headcount in this area, will
play a major role in boosting the competitiveness of
hotels. According to the resource based view theory,
firm’s competitiveness will come from resources that
are rare, organisable, valuable, and not easily imitable.
An elaborate analytical capacity of market trends and
results from digital marketing strategies will ensure that
the business retains a top performing position or grows
to achieve it. The industry is still young in Singapore, as
seen from the analysis of the hotels in this study.
Therefore, there should be more investment in better
integration of the data obtained from the various digital
marketing tools.
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