Question

1. How do IHG’s multiple brands enable the company to address the needs of specific consumer and business markets?

2. In which stage(s) of the consumer buying decision process would IHG’s digital marketing and social media activities likely have a significant influence? Explain your answer.

3. Why would IHG create a separate hotel brand specifically for China?

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each IHG brand having its own social network accounts?

Answer 1

One of the main objectives of any organization is to address the needs of the market as well as the consumer. IHG consists of several brands and each brand meets the need and demands of the customer in a different manner. For example, IHG offers a room with a full kitchen which can save customer's dining expenses. The management team of the organization focuses on targeting customers for each different brand. Once, the attributes of that customer or segment are being identified the organization focus on creating customized experience aligning with the attributes of the customer. This is how each and every brand caters to the needs of the customer differently.

There are several stages that include the consumer buying process. Among all the stages the second stage which includes searching for information will have an influence on the social media activities of IHG. In this stage, consumers focus on searching relevant information regarding the service. Consumers focus on finding information that can cater to their demands. Social media activities of IHG include posting service details of the organization along with images of their hotels. Customers can get all the information from these posts and the social media manager of the organization can also provide necessary information to the customer if they have any queries regarding the service.

If the recent analysis of the Chinese market is done it can be seen that Chinese customers are currently focusing on products as well as services which has an international link. This is the reason IHG can create a separate hotel brand for the customers which will focus on meeting the needs and the tastes of the Chinese customers.

The advantage of having its own network accounts is it can help the organization to engage more and more customers. Since each brand of IHG caters to the needs of the customer very differently. Therefore, social media accounts should be separate for each brand because then the organization can promote the features of its services differently through the digital platform.

The cost of maintaining a separate social media account is high. This is one of the major disadvantages of IHG.