Stowe Shoemaker

Customer loyalty: the future of hospitality marketing

Abstract For many years hospitality firms have believed that the goal of marketing is to create as many new customers as possible. While hoteliers believed it was important to satisfy the guests while they were on the property, the real goal was to continue to find new customers. This constant search for new customers is called conquest marketing. In the future, conquest marketing will not be sufficient. Instead firms need to practice loyalty marketing or retention marketing. The authors believe that this will be the successful wave of the future in hospitality. The goal of this paper is to present a framework for understanding customer loyalty. We do this first by examining the economics of loyalty. We then define loyalty and explain the difference between frequency programs and loyalty programs. We also show why satisfaction does not equal loyalty. We then introduce the Loyalty Triangle©, which provides a framework for building customer loyalty. Each leg of the Loyalty Triangle© is then examined in-depth, including examples of how hotel companies use the Loyalty Triangle© to develop strategy. Next we present ways to measure the success of loyalty programs. Finally, we present future research issues.

Segmentation Of The Senior Pleasure Travel Market

The reasons members of the senior market travel forpleasure are used to segment that market into smaller homogenous groups. Findings suggest that the senior market is not one large homogenous group but many submarkets, each with its own needs.

Segmenting the U.S. Travel Market According to Benefits Realized

This research studied the differences between what consumers say they want and what they will actually buy. A segmentation study was conducted based on the benefits derived from travel using a sampling methodology that was not destination-specific. The sampling methodology employed also allows for the findings to be generalizable to the U.S. traveling public. Four market segments are identified — three that are big enough to war rant different marketing strategies — and discussed in detail. Where appropriate, they are compared to the segments identified by previous researchers.

Segmenting the Mature Market: 10 Years Later

A review of the literature on senior travelers revealed no studies that investigated how the senior market has changed over time. Nor did the search reveal any replications of previous studies. While this is not surprising, it is somewhat disappointing, especially given that measuring how attitudes change over time can be very enlightening. The study presented in this article adds to the prior literature on the mature market by examining how the mature market has changed over a 10-year period. While the study does not track the same people over a 10-year period (obviously, this would have been the ideal situation), it does replicate a study that was undertaken in 1986 (published in 1989).

Prediction of Senior Travelers’ Motorcoach Use from Demographic, Psychological, and Psychographic Characteristics

Senior travelers (those 55 or older) are a substantial and accessible market for motorcoach operators because they represent a major portion of the motorcoach market. This study examined Pennsylvania senior travelers’ motorcoach use and their important considerations in selecting a motorcoach tour. It was found that senior travelers’ taking motorcoach tours could be predicted from their demographic, psychological, and psychographic characteristics. The study provides practical implications that could be helpful for tourist destinations and motorcoach companies to target senior travelers and to build a sound marketing planning strategy.

Scripts: Precursor of consumer expectations

One foundation of customer satisfaction is customer expectations. Those expectations can be regarded as ingredients in a script, or a series of actions that a customer regards as necessary or appro...

A Sociable Atmosphere Ambient Scent's Effect on Social Interaction

This exploratory study examines how introducing an ambient scent affects the interactions between people within a meeting room. The study demonstrates behavioral mapping, a procedure for testing peoples responses to ambient factors. The study found that introducing an ambient scent into a meeting room significantly increased the number of social interactions between the studys participants. However, the significance of the effect of the scent was moderate. The role of scent in the hospitality industry seems promising, although the small number of observations, along with certain other factors, limits the possibility for generalizing the results of this study.

How to increase menu prices without alienating your customers.

Purpose – This paper analyzes the impact of menu descriptions on the selection of menu items. Furthermore, this paper examines the relationship between menu descriptions and the perceived value of the item.Design/methodology/approach – This study uses the different components of prospect theory (e.g. anchoring effects and framing effects). An experimental research design using mock menus was used to investigate the impact of item presentation, item selections, and menu descriptions on consumer judgments of consumer choice and price value.Findings – The results found that detailed menu descriptions negated the impact of the price increases on the menu items.Practical implications – The implications of this study are valuable to restaurateurs because it shows that menu descriptions have the potential to increase revenue while also increasing the value perception. The study can also be applied to similar competing restaurants. Restaurants can be successful when magnifying the differences with detailed descri...

Activity-Based Costing: a more accurate way to estimate the costs for a restaurant menu.

ABSTRACT Activity-Based Costing (ABC) has been successfully applied in the manufacturing industry for the last two decades. In this study, a workable ABC model for restaurants was created and tested in a restaurant operation in a western urban area of the United States. The study identified that the actual cost of the dinner entrees was higher than the restaurants prices, when analyzed using ABC methods. The results revealed that ABC appears to be a very feasible method for establishing accurate menu costs in restaurants.

Menu Engineering Using Activity-Based Costing: an Exploratory Study Using a Profit Factor Comparison Approach

Traditional cost accounting systems have been replaced in the manufacturing sector by activity-based costing (ABC) systems. Now in wide use by manufacturing firms, ABC has made few inroads in the services and hospitality sector, including the restaurant industry. Several recent studies have begun to reverse this trend by applying ABC to restaurants. This study extends those works by creating an ABC menu engineering (ME) analysis, and comparing the results with traditional ME results. Four hypotheses were constructed that tested the relationships between the restaurant manager’s perceptions, traditional ME methods, and ABC-based ME. The results suggest that ABC-based ME may be a feasible alternative for examining menu profitability.