KTP with Elliott Marketing & PR
Summary
Since March 2010 the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management has been engaged in a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Buckinghamshire-based marketing agency, Elliott Marketing & PR. KTPs enable a relationship to be formed between a company and an academic institution (the Knowledge Base partner), which facilitates the transfer of knowledge, technology and skills to which the company partner currently has no access.
Elliott Marketing & PR is already well established in the UK leisure and hospitality sector and has worked with a diverse range of well-known food and beverage operators including:
• Carluccio’s
• Fuller’s
• Krispy Kreme
• The Landmark Hotel
• Tiger Tiger
With the assistance of the Knowledge Base partner and the Market Analyst employed, Elliott Marketing & PR hopes to develop the knowledge, advanced business processes and skills required to enter the tourism market and establish this market as a strong income stream. In the longer term, the project will provide the company with the capabilities needed to develop more strategically and systematically, maintaining its competitiveness in existing markets and gaining this in new markets.
The University’s academic team on the project comprises Dr Angela Roper (Academic Lead), Dr Hesham Al-Sabbaby and Dr Graham Miller. Surrey tourism marketing post graduate, Ian Lacey, was appointed as the Market Analyst to manage the project and conduct research. Ian works with colleagues at Elliott Marketing & PR and their clients, as well as with the academic team.
Qualitative research has been carried out into the UK hotel and visitor attraction sectors via a series of interviews with senior marketers and managers in order to gain a deeper understanding of current opportunities and challenges for tourism businesses in the UK. Research is on-going into the exciting opportunities presented by the London 2012 Olympics.
For further information about the KTP please contact:
Dr Angela Roper
Ian Lacey
Funding
KTP
Details
UK Hotels and Visitor Attractions
An important part of the University’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with marketing agency Elliott Marketing & PR (http://www.elliottmarketingpr.com/) was to find out more about the current marketing issues and challenges for tourism and hospitality businesses in the UK. Only once these were clarified could a range of appropriate marketing services be created for the agency to offer to new clients.
The project team conducted new research in the UK hotel and visitor attraction sectors. These sectors are a good fit with Elliott Marketing & PR’s existing client and knowledge base and are potentially strong areas for growth.
The hotel research examined a number of dynamic areas for the sector including the rise of branded hotels, the role of marketing consortia, the impact of third party booking sites and the ability of individual hotels to create relationships with customers, and the shift away from corporate marketing messages towards consumer influence and word-of-mouth recommendations through social media.
The visitor attraction research focused on the relationship between the sector’s publicly and commercially-funded attractions, the impact of public sector funding cuts, uncertain economic conditions, and the fierce competition for customers’ leisure time and spending from other sectors, in particular retail. Attractions have tended to embrace social media as a marketing tool and a means of communicating their wealth of stories, but traditional marketing techniques still have an important role to play.
The Olympics and London 2012
A major focus of the University’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with marketing agency Elliott Marketing & PR (http://www.elliottmarketingpr.com/) is to examine the business opportunities arising for tourism and hospitality businesses from London 2012. One of the main project objectives is to create a range of marketing services that the agency can deliver to new and existing clients to enable them to make the most of the Olympics period.
The operating environment during an Olympics is a unique one where potential business opportunities are huge but success is not guaranteed and requires careful planning. Since mid-2010 the project team has been building an extensive database of information and network of contacts that will provide a competitive advantage to Elliott Marketing & PR and their clients.
The project team drew upon business experience and academic research from previous Olympics and other mega events. However, there was a surprising gap in knowledge about the strategies and practical tactics that tourism and hospitality businesses could take in order to gain the most from the opportunities presented by mega-events such as the Olympics.
In order to bridge this gap the project’s Market Analyst, Ian Lacey, spent a week in Vancouver conducting interviews with senior hospitality and tourism professionals about their experiences during the 2010 Winter Olympics. This knowledge is now being applied to UK businesses. A summary of some of the research findings was recently published on the trade website Big Hospitality http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Business/How-to-ensure-you-don-t-miss-out-on-business-opportunities-presented-by-the-2012-Olympics and Ian was extensively quoted in another article http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Business/Planning-for-the-2012-Olympics-Staff-and-training.
