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International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net
Volume 8, Issue 9, 2019
304
Impact of Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMCs) on Hotels’
Marketing Performance
Marzouq Ayed Al-Qeedaa, aProfessor College of Communication and Media
Al Ain University Abu Dhabi, UAE, Email: adr_marzouq@yahoo.com
Objective. This research aims to provide insights of IMCs by
empirically examining the concept in a new context, which is the hotel
industry, and its impact on marketing performance.
Design/methodology/approach. The research uses survey
methodology to assess the impact of some IMCs tools on marketing
performance, from the point view of managers and guests in high-
quality hotels in Abu-Dhabi city/UAE. Findings. Public relations,
advertising, and social media marketing as integrated marketing tools
are positively correlated, and significantly impact on hotels' marketing
performance. Moreover from managers' point of view, Abu Dhabi
hotels show a high level of IMCs implementation and significant
differences regarding some communication tools. From the guests’
point of view, significant differences are obtained between hotels.
Research limitations/implications. This research is limited to the
UAE hotels context - Abu Dhabi city. Future studies should approach
a greater number of hotels to obtain more representative results.
Practical implications. Managers need to adopt a holistic vision of
marketing communications and regularly analyse customers' opinions
and feedback to understand if their marketing campaign works.
Originality/value. This paper presents several original contributions,
thus filling the gap in the literature. First, IMCs are analysed in a new
environment, which are high-quality (five star) hotels. Second, the
study was conducted in UAE. Research on IMCs is rather neglected in
the Arab region generally. Third, in addition to managers’ opinions,
guests’ perceptions and opinion are assessed, thus, highlighting that
customers need to be considered as real “co-managers” in any
successful integrated marketing communications strategy.
Key words: Integrated marketing communications, public relations, advertising,
social media marketing, and hotels' marketing performance.
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Introduction
In today's increasingly competitive marketing atmosphere, there has been a turn from
traditional marketing and advertising techniques, towards extra varied methods, to marketing
things–to-do and communication resources. However, the quick changes in industry products
lead to big possibilities and challenges, equally in advertising and communications. For
marketing routines, the use of only one communication tool is not adequate and cannot be
very efficient, thus, an integrated marketing and sales communications (IMCs) strategy is
launched as a far more profitable conversation tool that can quickly react to these
improvements in market surroundings (Kim et al., 2004).
The concept of IMCs has been a key factor in the marketing literature; boosted by
advancements in information and communication technology, IMCs have received
considerable attention during the past decade (Kitchen, 2011; O. Holm, 2006). Despite the
reality that the conception of collaboration and integration has a long history, what is new
about this area is that great progress in technology has enabled business organizations, and
forced them to adopt and implement this idea in operating procedures (Klaychkhv, 2005).
Indeed, the advances in information and communications technology (ICT) are considered as
one of the critical factors in IMCs (Grano, 2008; Klaychkhv, 2009). The unique capabilities
of ICT provide two-way communication programs, personalized, one-to-one, and are
database-driven to enable organizations to move towards IMC models (Kim et al., 2004).
The “communication time” hospitality and travel and leisure industry is still challenged by
eternal considerations related to effective connection. For the hospitality field, marketing
communications have fun with a considerable part in gaining buyers, and building romantic
relationships. Thus, an effective marketing communication is much more than placing
advertising and marketing, or perhaps producing a brochure. The hospitality field requires
strategic organization which a nicely thought-through marketing communications plan brings
with each other, correct resources, techniques, and press to create a far better advantage
(Guide). In accordance with Home (2010), effective marketing and sales communications
requires an apparent understanding of goals, careful setting-up, coordination of the proper
communications resources, and advancement of the information, a tactical and tactical
solution and dimension of results.
Because of the rapid growth within the execution and adoption of IMCs tactics (Kychn and
Chaltz, 2009), earlier research suggested that further analysis must strengthen this idea (MAC
Gross, 2005). Specifically, study on IMCs continues to be somewhat neglected within
hospitality, additionally it also looks that buyer perceptions and viewpoints of marketing and
sales communications in your community of IMCs tend to be disregarded (Serik and Gil
Seurat, 2012a, 2012b).
International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net
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In this respect, consumer perceptions of IMCs ought to be very well considered, since that is
perhaps one of the most important impacts on investment effectiveness on IMCs as Schultz
(1994) observed. Actually, substantial adjustments along the way of communicating indicate
that current buyers have handled it, and determine when to give messages and suggestions
(Expert, 2008, Klyuchko, 2009; Keller, 2009; Kychn and Kaltz, 2009).
Lately much attention has focused on the potency of IMCs as an integral advantage in
boosting marketing effectiveness (Keller, 2009). Consequently, recent studies place
importance on IMCs resources such as, for example, public relations, social media, and
marketing, as indicating the outcomes of marketing interaction routines (Keller, 2009), and as
integral motivators for company results and marketing functionality (Prasad, 2000).
Nevertheless, Keller (2009) said that these pursuits and tools are in line with marketing and
sales communications, to be able to send exactly the same message and loan consolidation
strategic positioning with their integration. Thence, numerous experts and activists in
advertising and marketing field the idea of IMCs, which takes on a critical position in making
and conditioning connections with stakeholders, to rate these associations to create a
consumer-centric brand name (Ker and Drnan, 2010; Delgado-Balstr et al., 2012, Serik and
Gil-Seurat, b2012).
Problem Statement & Research Question
As mentioned above, there have been several important researches on IMCs. Yet there has
been little interest about the impact of IMCs strategy on marketing performance, from
customers’ point of view. Most research was conducted from the point of view of employers
or managers only. For that reason, in this study the impact of some IMCs tools (i.e. public
relations (PRs), social media marketing (SMM), and advertising (ads) on marketing
performance (HMP) has been tested in the hospitality industry. In line with this, the research
question is: How do these tools impact on hotels' marketing performance (HMP) from the
point view of both managers and guests?
Literature Review
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMCs)
IMCs has been an important idea for academics and businesses alike, right from the start of
the 1990s (O. Holm, 2006). In accordance with D. E. Schultz and H. Schultz (2004; Home,
2011), IMCs are definitely “an activity through which enterprise businesses' quicken
dividends by aligning company's conversation and goals”. As well, Duncan identified it
simply because: “a thought that primary and coordinate the procedure of planning, applying
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and supervising company messages where brand-customer relationship is certainly made
(T.Duncan & Ouwersloot, 2008), and have been recognized as the element in the marketing
books”.
As well, IMCs have obtained a significant focus in the past decade (Kitchen area, 2011),
marketed by improvements in ICTs. Just lately, scholars asserted the necessity for tourism
internet marketers to organize the wide variety communication things to do and types via the
adoption of IMCs (House, 2010). Consequently (Kitchen, 2011) identified it as “the
coordination and integration of most marketing communication instruments, avenues and
options within an organization into a seamless course that boosts the effect on customer along
with other end users at the very least cost”. “This integration affects all group business-to-
business, marketing stations, customer-focused, and internally guided communications”
(Amir Ekhlassi et al. 2012).
Thus, IMCs are definitely “a management strategy that is made to make all areas of
marketing connection as advertising, product sales promotion, pr, personal selling, social
media , and direct marketing and advertising work together to be a unified force, instead of
permitting each to operate in isolation” (Amir Ekhlassi et al. 2012). Besides, it functions as a
dynamic marketing plan, because it regulates and uses online marketing strategy that captures
and employs an extensive quantity of consumers’ information (O.Holm, 2006). It also means
that all types of communications and text messages are carefully associated, to attain specific
objectives. Thus, IMC tools ought to be designed to help the entire company's objectives, to
avoid the generation of separate emails for each method regardless of what is open through
other interaction programs (Amir Ekhlassi et al; 2012). In this study, making use of this idea,
the effects of three IMCs equipment on marketing effectiveness, desk 1 illustrates their
significant requirements and applications.
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Table 1: IMCs tools: Main Specification and applications
MCs tool
Main specifications
Main application
Advertising (Ads)
(Aronsson &
Tengling, 1995;
Smith et al; 1998; Kim, 2007;
Amir Ekhlassi et al. 2012).
Non-personal; One-way; Paid
Brand awareness; Brand image
Encourage a response
Public relations(PRs)
(Duncan, 2002; 2008;
Robinson, 2006; Lawrence &
Weber, 2014; Kitchen, 2011).
Create and control brand news;
no media spending; the most
credible Marketing
communication. C.
Formal channel of
communication with society
specially in crisis management;
reinforcement and modify brand
image
Social Media marketing
(SMM)
(Evans &Bratton, 2012; Lanz et
al., 2010; Amir Ekhlassi et al.
2012)
Significantly low-cost
promotional methods; provide
businesses large numbers of
links and huge amount of
traffic.
Promoting business or websites
through social media channels.
Public Relations (PRs)
Duncan (2002) identifies PRs as “courses that concentrate on the ideas of common, and
manage commercial communication and status, also, employed to handle romantic
relationships with company's varied publics to generate and retain goodwill, also to observe
public thoughts and opinions and advise best management”. In accordance with Kotler
(1997), Wells et al. (2000), and Middleton and Clarke (2001), PRs tend to be seen as
merchandise publicities, press relationships, internal communications, product or service
placements, open residences and information plans. PRs try to create and command the brand
information, announcements and reminders that publish by open public media without
payment. Marketing managers acquire benefits of this marketing interaction to create and
strengthen their brand name and enhance marketing and advertising functionality (Robinson,
2006).
The foundation of PRs within the values guides the firms and helps them be more attentive to
the requirements and ambition of the crowd (Moyer, 2011). The firms who do management,
which affects the views of its target audience, may be the PRs, in accordance with Lawrence
& Weber (2014). In addition, PRs are usually reasoned as an important function of this
administration’s demands, which evaluate the behaviour of the general public (Miller, 2013).
To advertise PRs, product promotion, on-paid out stories or manufacturer mentions inside the
mass media may be used, to build trustworthiness and make media announcements in
addition to talk to challenging-to-achieve-followers (House, 2010). There's a trend towards a
rise in PR expenses relative to advertising and marketing expenditure as corporations notice
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merits of official PRs software (Kitchen area, 2011). All advertising exposure realized as
editorial makes a difference, as do other types of influence obtained over target categories -
buyers and stakeholders.
According to Duncan (2002), internal marketing, which is a form of PRs is of major
importance when selling marketing programs to the employees whose support is needed in
order to make the program successful. According to Kotler (1994), several tools are used in
today's PRs as product publicity, press relations, corporate communications, lobbying and
counselling (Wells et al. 2000) include news conferences, company – sponsored events, open
houses, plant tours and donations as well.
The tourism client is the essential judge of flourishing advertising and marketing and PRs
pursuits. The switch from transactional to relationship control in marketing within the last
fifty years have been marked by advancements in clients' pleasure and their suggestions
(Weed, 2011). Nowadays, organizations build manufacturers through successful PR
campaigns which are maintained by way of a mix of marketing and advertising and PR
techniques (Robinson, 2006). The Web is having effects upon PRs, and advertising practices
that allow PR professionals to carry out two way marketing communications are able to
maintain and boost customer associations (Miller, 2013). PRs try to create and command the
brand reports, announcements and reminders that publish by open public media without
investing (Lawrence & Weber, 2014).
Advertising (Ads)
In accordance with Dwyer and Tanner (2002), advertising is ”linked and being with function
in creating knowledge, and building up a company's posture or picture”, it really is
advertising which makes the firms famed. The next role would be to generate a proper
environment for item and service internet marketers. In some instances, customers will buy
directly from marketing, so the best final reason for ads would be to acquire further
consumers. Dwyer and Tanner (2002) define media advertising and marketing as “non-
personal, paid out announcements by an determined sponsor to attain large audiences,
produce brand awareness, aid position manufacturers, and build company images”. In
accordance with Aronsson & Tengling (1995), the decision of media route depends on the
kind of products offered, marketplace, and the spending plan. Middleton and Clarke (2001)
define advertising within the tourism market as “one typical communication tool utilized by
marketing managers as part of marketing campaigns to build up awareness, understanding,
interest and determination amongst a targeted audiences”.
Furthermore, ads comes with TV, press, stereo, outdoors in addition to tourist board along
with other travel instructions and brochures (Clow & Baack, 2001). Additionally, tourism
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organizations happen to be constantly connecting, whether globally or not, through each
personalized and non-personalized interaction with the general public (Wood, 2004).
Furthermore, ads enable companies to reach persons in their properties or other areas from
the locations of manufacturing and delivery, to communicate messages designed to influence
their purchasing behaviour.
In addition, advertising enables businesses to address people within their homes or other
areas, from manufacturing and delivery areas, to also communicate messages designed to
influence their purchasing behaviour. In accordance with Shimp (1997) and Smith (1998),
cooperative advertising used among businesses are a great edge because of the ads support,
cost benefits and the usage of local/national/international media. Advertising is a paid out,
non-personal give of products by way of an organization (P. Kotler & Keller, 2006) via
numerous kinds of print, out-of-doors, broadcasting and interactive advertising to be able to
create brand understanding and brand photograph and persuade buyer to react (L. E. Boone
and Kurtz, 2007).
Ads have four characteristics: they are persuasive in nature; non-personal; paid for by an
identified sponsor; and disseminated through mass channels of communication. Advertising
messages may promote the adoption of goods, services, persons, or ideas (Clow & Baack,
2001). Because the sales message is disseminated through the mass media—as opposed to
personal selling—it is a much cheaper way to reach consumers, however, its non-personal
nature means it lacks the ability to tailor the sales message to the message recipient and, more
importantly, actually get the sale (McManus, 2000). Therefore, ad effects are best measured
in terms of increasing awareness and changing attitudes and opinions, not creating sales
(Blech & Blech, 2004).
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media can be extremely useful for firms to get their information, product or service
descriptions, or marketing promotions, all ingrained within the string of networking earth.
Taking into consideration the newness of the marketing method, corporations are discovering
innovative methods to develop their advertising and marketing plans. New websites are
intended to approach clients. A lot of business organizations will be allocating cover online
business enhancement using SMM. This is a booming sector that is likely to redefine just
how marketing strategies are increasingly created and promoted.
Since social media is so available to anyone with an internet connection, it should be a
platform that can be recommended to the hotel industry to increase their brand awareness and
facilitate direct feedback from their customers (Evans & Bratton, 2012; Cai & Hobson,
2004). A business that understands the advantage of social media is well aware that social
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media is essential in developing new business in the current competitive and online-driven
marketplace.
The concept of SMM basically refers to “the process of promoting business or websites
through social media channels” (Alhaddad, 2015). It is a powerful marketing medium that is
defining the way people are communicating (Evans & Bratton, 2012). It is one of the
significantly low-cost promotional methods that provide businesses large numbers of links
and huge amounts of traffic (Cai & Hobson, 2004). Companies manage to get massive
attention and that really works in favour of their business (Evans & Bratton, 2012). SMM is
a potent method applied by progressive companies for selling their products/services, or for
just publishing content for advertisement revenue (Cai & Hobson, 2004; Weed, 2011).
Hotels' Marketing Concept
Hotels all around the globe are contending for marketplace share and build new ways to leave
opponents behind (Weed, 2011). To be able to improve the picture of the motel, and
accordingly raise its benefits, resorts should put additional efforts to looking into the
requirements and expectations of these target customer organizations. Only the profound
knowledge of the desires of these customers might help the hotels please them and retain
their faith (Page, 2007).
According to (Medlik, 1994) a “hotel is an institution of commercial hospitality” which sells
its services in various combinations. Hospitality is a product, depicted from the main factors
that affect the way this product is constructed, represented and sold to customers (Page,
2007). To determine and preserve the market segments, hotels develop some attributes, which
Medlik calls the elements of the hotel total market concept, and includes five elements (hotel
location, facilities, services, image and price) (Medlik, 1994). Page adds to this list the ability
to differentiate the product to different customers (Page, 2007). In the hotels industry, a
strategy of IMCs requires a comprehensive approach. Hospitality organizations benefit from
the effective implementation of IMCs. IMCs positively relate to sales-related performance.
IMCs impact positively on a hotel's brand advantage, and integrated marketing
communication enhances satisfaction hotel's guests and loyalty (Weed, 2011). Nowadays, the
hotels industry is considered one of the most growing industries in the world. Hotels play a
huge role in developing and improving national economies.
At the same time, it is essential to increase the source of income, provide job opportunities
and enhance the resources in most of countries. Many countries make the hotels industry the
first priority, to increase and promote foreign exchange and economic ability within a
country. On the other hand, leaders and decision makers use the profits from tourism and the
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hotels industry, to develop and improve infrastructure, provide the best services, and boost
the living conditions for individuals (Onyango, Edwin, Ouma & Lucas, 2012).
Typically, the aim of improving accommodation in virtually any country would be to develop
and enhance the tourism sector and offer top quality hospitality providers. When the hotels
industry is activated in the most convenient way, this helps to boost the accommodation
industry, foodstuff and beverage-serving firms, transport firms, and travel companies. It also
boosts household profits and tourism earnings considerably. Hence, the hotels market plays a
crucial role of building GDP, and offers high cash flow and foreign exchange to the United
States. (Erbasi & Unuvar, 2013). The amount of achievements and finished jobs of the
average person reflects how personally achieving and fulfilling the requirements of work for
a confirmed time frame, provide the product quality and variety for business (Olaniyi, 2013).
Conceptual Model of Research & Hypotheses
The main objective of this research is to investigate the influence of some IMC tools on
hotels’ marketing. Therefore, the variable of primary interest is the “hotels marketing
performance (HMP)”, which is the dependent variable, and IMC tools (public relations
(PRs), social media marketing (SMM), and advertising (ads)) are the independent variables
used to explain the variance in the dependent variable. The Research Model is represented in
Figure 1.
Figure 1. Conceptual Research Model
Based on the research model, the following null hypothesis was formulated and tested.
Hypothesis One (H1): “PRs as an integrated marketing tool does not influence HMP”.
Hypothesis Two: (H2): “SMM as an integrated marketing tool does not influence the HMP”.
Hypothesis Three: (H3): “Ads as an integrated marketing tool does not influence HMP”.
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Methodology
To evaluate how PRs, SMM, and ads as IMCs tools affect the HMP, quantitative research
will be conducted. Data will be gathered through a questionnaire. It will attempt to assist
industry hotels in gaining a better understanding about how these three IMCs tools affect the
effective adoption and deployment of marketing communication. The population of the study
consisted of (20) five – star hotels that operate in the UAE hospitality sector. (300)
questionnaires were distributed to the managers and guests in hotels located in the Abu Dhabi
city. The hotels were selected randomly based on Sekaran and Bougie (2013) sampling
method, guests being chosen from each of our randomly selected hotels to represent the
sample used in this study (Sekaran and Bougie, 2013).
The impact of IMCs on the HMP will be measured through 3 variables; PRs which includes 7
items; SMM includes 6 items, and, Ads includes 6 items; while HMP was measured through
3 items. In order to test the hypotheses, gathered data will help investigate the relationship
between variables of study interest. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 17. A measure of multiple regression analysis will be conducted, in
addition to reliability and multicollinearity tests. The results will provide the foundation for
accepting or rejecting the hypotheses and answering the research question.
Data Analysis and Results
In order to examine the effect of some IMCs tools research model on the HMP a five point
Likert scale systems was used. The scale varies between strongly disagree = 1 and strongly
agree = 5. Reliability and validity analyses were conducted, in addition to multi co-linearity
testing. Multiple regression analysis was also conducted to test the research hypothesis.
Validity and Reliability
Validity and dependability are two significant steps that determine product quality and the
effectiveness of the information collected. Validity is approximately accuracy and if the
instrument steps what it really is intended to assess. Reliability is approximately precision; it
checks the steadiness and stability of this questionnaire. The researcher of the existing review
depended on scales and items previously designed and utilized by other analysts with similar
pursuits. Furthermore, a draft of the questionnaire was researched by five educational
lecturers who have sufficient expertise and experience within this scope to make certain that
each item is certainly measuring what is expected to be assessed, and to keep away from any
ambiguity or complexity inside the phrasing on the questions.
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The reliability on the instrument was assessed with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In
accordance with Scalp et al (1998), the ideals of all signals or dimensional scales ought to be
above the advised benefit of (0.60). Table 1 represents the outcomes of Cranach's alpha to the
independent and cantered parameters. Cronbach's alpha coefficients acquired a lot more than
(0.70 percentage 70 %) which implies the consistency of the study instrument could be
trusted.
Table 2:The study variables’ Cronbach’s alpha.
Variable
No. of Items
Cornbrash’s Alpha
PR
7
0.801
SMM
5
0.958
Ads
6
0.822
HMP
3
0.724
Hypotheses Testing Results
The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of some IMCs tools on the
performance of hotels in the UAE. Consequently, to test the hypotheses developed for this
study, multiple regression technique was used. Further, the level of significance (α-level) was
chosen to be 0.05 and the probability value (p-value) obtained from the statistical hypo theses
test is considered to be the decision rule for rejecting the null hypotheses (Cresswell, 2009).
If the p-value is < or = to the (α-level, 0.05), then the null hypothesis will be rejected and the
alternative hypothesis will be supported. However, if the p-value is > or = to the (α-level,
0.05) then the null hypothesis cannot be rejected and the alternative hypothesis will not be
supported (Cresswell, 2009); Sekaran, 2003).
Moreover, normality of the independent variables and the absence of multi co-linearity
problem (i.e.; the case of multiple regression in which independent variables are themselves
highly correlated) were examined. Most values should be inside the adequate ranges for
normality as proposed by (Pallant, 2005). For this purpose, Variance Inflation Factor (VIF)
and tolerance were investigated; a VIF value of 5 or 10 and up and a tolerance of less than
0.20 indicate that variables have multicollinearity (Sekaran, 2003). Table 2 shows the results.
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Table 2: Tolerance and VIF for independent Variables
Variable
Tolerance
VIF
PR
0.701
1.406
SMM
0.636
1.654
Ads
0.697
1.431
From the above table, it can be seen that VIF ranges between 1.406 and 1.654 which are well
below 5. In addition, the tolerance values range between 0.636 and 0.701 which are above
0.20. These factors indicate no evidence of a multicollinearity problem in the regression
model. In addition to the VIF and tolerance values, Pearson Correlation Matrix was computed
for the independent variable dimensions to check correlation between them as illustrated in
Table 3.
Table 3: Pearson correlation matrix
Variable
Pearson Correlation
PR
SMM
Ads
PR
0.521
0.445
SMM
0.507
Ads
According to (Sekaran, 2003), the value of 0.70 and above suggests high correlation between
the variables. The results in the above table are all below 0.70 and thus do not suggest a high
correlation between the variables. Therefore, these findings also show that there is no
evidence of a multicollinearity problem. The results of testing the three hypotheses regarding
the effect of IMCs tools on the HMP are presented in Table 4.
Table 4:Result for the study model (b)
Variable
R
R2
t
Sig.(t)
F
Sig.(f)
PR
0.441a
0.194
2.913
0.003a
0.217
16.631
0.000a
SMM
1.478
0.139
0.152
Ads
2.837
0.005
0.205
a Predictors: (Constant), PR, SMM, Ads; b Dependent variable: HMP
As indicated in Table 4, there is a positive correlation between IMCs tools and HMP since
the multiple correlation coefficient R = 0.441. The adjusted R2 relates to the generalizability
of the model. It allows us to generalize the results taken from the respondents to the whole
population. In this case it equals 0.149. The results showed that F-ratio for these data is equal
to 16.631, which is statistically significant at p < 0.05. Therefore, we conclude that there is a
statistically significant effect of IMCs tools on HMP.
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The β indicates to the individual contribution of each predictor (independent variable) to the
model, if other predictors are held constant. Table 4 shows the standardized coefficients for
each IMCs tools. The values of β for PRs, Ads and SMM, are: 0.217, 0.205, and 0.152,
respectively, which are all positive. The level of effect of these variables depends on the β
value, the higher β value the higher the effect on the dependent variable (Sekaran, 2003). It
can be concluded from the values of β that the variable that has the highest contribution in the
model is PRs, followed by SMM and finally Ads.
Discussion and Conclusion
The primary aim of conducting this research was to determine whether the tools proposed by
the IMCs framework influenced the hotels’ marketing performance when adopting a new
innovation like IMCs strategy, particularly in the UAE where the tourism and hotel sectors
flourish. The results indicated that the three IMCs tools proposed by the conceptual
framework (Figure1) have a significant impact on HMP. This is because the strategy of
IMCs requires a comprehensive approach, so businesses organizations benefit from the
effective implementation of IMCs (Reference). IMCs positively relates to sales-related
performance (Reference). IMCs impacts positively on organization's brand advantage, and
IMCs enhances satisfaction of customer satisfaction and loyalty (Maryam Besharati and
Tayyebeh, 2015; Amir et al. 2012).
The first hypothesis (H1) states that "public relations as an integrated marketing tool does
not have influence hotels' marketing performance”. This hypothesis was rejected; it was
found that the PR had a positive significant impact on HMP. Over and above, it was found
that this tool had the biggest impact on the HMP. This result is supported by the findings of
other researchers such (A.F.AL-Amaireh, 2014; Lawrence& Weber, 2014; Miller, 2013).
This may be attributed to the dimensions of PRs main specifications and applications as
create and control hotel brand news; no media spending, the most credible MCs tool; formal
channel of communication with audience especially in crisis management; reinforcement and
modify hotel's brand image (A.F.AL-Amaireh, 2014; Kitchen, 2011).
The second hypothesis (H2) stated that “Social media marketing as an integrated marketing
tool does not have influence hotels' marketing performance ". Results showed that the SMM
did influence the HMP, but not as strongly as the other two tools (PR & Ads). This is
attributed to significantly low-cost promotional methods, provide the hospitality industry
with large numbers of links and a huge amount of traffic, and promoting business or websites
through social media channels (Evans &Bratton, 2012; Lanz et al., 2010; Amir Ekhlassi et al.
2012).
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SMM is an innovative tool by which hotel brands can take a proactive approach to manage
brand relationships with their consumers (Samaan &Abdullah, 2016). Hotel marketers can
identify the most important attributes of their brands (e.g., rooms, front desk, breakfast, room
rates, and cleanliness) by analysing the consumer's posts on the brand pages (Treadaway &
Smith, 2010; Wang & Fesenmaier, 2004a; Alhaddad, 2015). Following this analysis,
marketers can take immediate actions based on both complimentary reviews and complaints
about service. Particularly for uncomplimentary reviews, marketers can mitigate their
potential harmful effects by effectively responding to consumers’ comments. All of these
efforts can assist hotel brands in creating favourable brand images and building strong
relationships with their members.
The third hypothesis (H3), "advertising as an integrated marketing tool does not have
influence hotels' marketing performance" is also rejected as this tool was found to have a
positive impact on the HMP. This is due to the main specification and applications of
advertising as a marketing tool, such as non-personal, one-way, paid awareness of hotel's
brand, hotel's brand image; services offered, facilities, and encourage a response (Aronsson &
Tengling, 1995; Smith et al; 1998; Kim, 2007; Amir Ekhlassi et al. 2012). Others (Kim 2007;
Amir Ekhlassi et al; 2012; P. Kotler &Keller, 2006) agree with the findings of this study.
These stated that “advertising within the tourism industry is one classic communication tool
used by marketing managers as a part of marketing campaigns to promote awareness,
understanding, interest and motivation between targeted audiences" (Middleton and
Clarke,2001). Hotel industries encounter strong competition, so it tends to implement
changes more aggressively and respond more quickly in a competitive environment, forcing
hotel to move towards IMCs’ strategy.
To work in the best way and enhance hotels’ marketing performance, IMCs require the whole
cooperation of all business partners and customers. This occurs through implementing
effective IMCs in which customers can participate through providing opinions and feedback.
Hotels can improve their marketing performance as well as meeting the needs of guests’
requirements and their satisfaction. This current research study attempts to test the proposed
conceptual model shown in Figure 1. Results of this research revealed that the three IMCs
tools of this framework (PR, SMM, and Ads) correlate to each other and significantly impact
the HMP. The most influenced tool on HMP was the PR followed by the Ads, and finally
SMM.
The findings of this study are crucial to marketing managers as well as different marketing
activities and customers. Its results can assist in developing plans for implementing an
efficient integrated marketing communication strategy. From a manager’s point of view; Abu
Dhabi five stars hotels show a high level of IMCs implementation and significant differences
regarding some communication tools. From the guest’s point of view, significant differences
International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net
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are obtained between hotels. IMCs are a new concept and little research has been conducted
within the area of research. As a consequence, little evidence exists of the occurrence of
IMCs in different marketing environments. Furthermore this study has only investigated the
effect of some IMCs tools in this area of research. Therefore the researcher proposes issues
for further research.
Future research can use this study as a base to build on, in an effort to adopt and implement
IMCs strategy in other sectors with other communication tools like sales promotion, direct
marketing, and internet marketing as well. In this study a structured questionnaire was
utilized to gather data regarding the impact of some IMCs tools on the HMP, despite this
approach being beneficial in comprehending the IMCs strategy. It is business-related, but it
may not be able to reflect the correct reason behind marketing performance in the hotel
industry, so further quantitative research is required. Moreover, the research was conducted
on five-stars hotels. Three and four star hotels were not included. Thus, further studies are
needed to generalize the results from this study.
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