Experimental Marketing in Hotel Operations

Abstract

Throughout 21'st century, marketing managers, brand managers, marketing academics have adopted the classic marketing discipline. This approach has defined consumers as rational decision-making, benefit-focused individuals. Today's consumer, however, has become more emotional decision-making individuals than rational decision-making individuals. Consumers are not only concerned with the functional value of the product or service they provide to them, but they also deal with the pleasant feelings they have created and the additional value they create in their memory. In modern marketing, businesses are trying to establish this additional value by creating "experience" for their customers. Due to the humanity-based nature of the tourism industry, consumer behavior has an important place in tourism marketing. The analysis of consumer behavior in tourism is only possible with the meaning of the product or service carried by the tourists and by determining the factors that are effective in making the holiday purchase decision. Along with the change of economic presentation, the process from consumer to service, from service towards experiment, has revealed the concept of experiential marketing. Tourism products and services, personalization and experience to have the quality of experience in terms of experience in the economy is are ahead in the race. This will provide an important advantage in creating customer loyalty if it is guided and managed by hotel and accommodation operators correctly.

Sensehacking the guest’s multisensory hotel experience

“…4 The guests in this venue are exposed to very different styles of music in each of the hotel’s public rooms/spaces. In this case, the sonic approach is deliberately designed to accommodate the hotel guests’ varied cultural backgrounds ( Vardarı and Arapı, 2017 ; cf. Park et al, 2010 ).…”

“…While originally available at just three locations (Glasgow, Newcastle, and Croydon), the suggestion was that this would be rolled out across the network of hotels. 14 Meanwhile, the Point Hotel Barbaros in Istanbul has put several measures in place to try and help guests sleep, including special mattresses and pillow menus, as well as books to promote sleep by beds, and a lullabies soundtrack ( Vardarı and Arapı, 2017 ), thus offering a multisensory approach to this perennial guest complaint.…”

“…The Peninsula Beverly Hills offer personalized room cents to guests in their room ( Vardarı and Arapı, 2017 ), inspired by the locale. In particular, their new signature bathroom amenities, launched in January 2021, are created with the aim of reflecting the location of each of the group’s ten different properties around the world.…”

“…The Adam & Eve Hotel 16 has The Blind Restaurant (serving up to 16 people) adopting the dine-in-the-dark concept in its Antalya Belek resort (as but one of the multiple dining options on offer; Vardarı and Arapı, 2017 ). Although it is difficult to find anyone who says that the food tastes especially good in such restaurants (e.g., see Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, 2012 ; Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, 2014 ), this nevertheless clearly fits in as experiential dining, and by eliminating light provides another means of changing the atmosphere for guests.…”

“…Hotels also fail to attract much of Pine and Gilmore’s (1998 , 1999) attention in their influential discussion of the importance of the ‘experience economy’, though there has been a growth in experiential marketing in the high-end hotel sector (see also Gilmore and Pine, 2002a , pp. 88–89; Gilmore and Pine, 2002b ), as hoteliers try to ensure that their guests leave having had an unforgettable experience ( Schmitt, 1999 ; see also Nurminen, 2003 ; Thomson, 2010 ; Vardarı and Arapı, 2017 ). As we will see later, part of the way in which this can be delivered is by offering extraordinary dining and drinking experiences (e.g., Hanefors and Mossberg, 2003 ; Spence, 2017 ; Kiatkawsin and Han, 2019 ).…”