The effectiveness and efficiency of Psychology of marketing: Is the understanding psychology of consumer behaviour useful in hotel industry?

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to sincerely thank my friends, family, colleagues and mentor for the endless understanding, guidance and patience, and most importantly, the support and friendship during my studies. The mentorship of these people has been paramount in facilitating me a well-formed experience which has always provided unswerving guide in achieving my goals. They encouraged me to go further with all my projects and helped me groom into an independent thinker and a good student.

DECLARATION

I [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

Signed __________________ Date _________________

ABSTRACT

The study at hand deals with the concept of assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the psychology of marketing at the hotel industry. Through at thorough research on the idea of consumer behaviour, the current thesis studies the types of consumer behaviours, the decision-making, and consumption patterns of the hotel services by the consumer. In the digital generation, consumer is recently getting smart and a company is affected by psychology of consumer and behaviour. Thus, business culture is changing such as Prosumer from just consumer. Many companies have been doing marketing research till now. Within the field of consumer decision making, a relatively small number of studies have been conducted on the socially conscious consumer. Significantly more research has been conducted on consumer choice and general decision making behaviour. Many valuable contributions from that stream of research are directly applicable to the questions this research asks about environmentally conscious consumers. The main aim of marketing research is to suggest information of consumer and support business decision-making. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of Psychology of marketing in hotel industry by understanding the consumer behaviour. In order to do so, the case of Intercontinental, Hilton, and Marriott hotel are discussed and studied so that an effective conclusion on the subject of the application of psychology of marketing can be reached.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Introduction1

Problem Statement2

Aims and Objectives3

Purpose of Study3

Research Question3

Learning Process4

Electronic Database Searches5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW6

Marketing6

Psychology of Marketing7

Consumer behaviour8

Factors influencing consumer behaviour10

Family and Reference Group influences11

Individual Differences11

Atmospheric Effects11

Consumer Decision-making12

Hotel Industry and consumer behaviour14

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY18

Mixed Research Method Approach18

Selection of Participants18

Instrument19

Data preparation and statistical procedures19

Data Analysis19

Data Collection20

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION21

Introduction21

Selected UK Hotels21

Hilton hotel21

Marriott hotel21

InterContinental Hotels22

Descriptive Analysis of Questionnaire23

Interview Questions26

Descriptive analysis of literature review29

Consumer behaviour and hotel industry29

Hotel Marketing and consumers' decision of making purchases (Four p's)31

Consumers Expectation from Hotels33

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS35

Recommendations40

REFERENCES42

APPENDIX46

Survey Questions46

Interview Questions48

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The study at hand explores the mush researched and modified concept of the field of psychology of marketing. This field is related to studying the behaviour of consumers in the markets for goods and services. This dissertation deals with investigating the effectiveness and efficiency of the ...