Methodology

Discuss about the Marketing Research Essentials for Hyatt Corporation.

Hyatt Corporation is one of the hospitality industry players in the American market that started in the year 1957. The company is multinational, and it operates in many other countries outside America. The company has its headquarters in Chicago. Other than the common hospitality services, Hyatt Corporation also deals in Franchising hotels and restaurants. It has managed to the extent its services to over fifty-six countries in different parts of the world.Hyatt Corporation is currently researching its business that is likely to help it improve its performance. The study aims to establish the optimal marketing strategies that the company can embrace in its marketing. The research targets to get information from customers and other stakeholders from America and other parts of the world.

The study will employ two primary methods which will work together to deliver the best results from the exercise. It will use both the qualitative and qualitative methods. Combining the methods is important to unveil the hidden information both regarding the numbers and the customer’s opinions on various aspects (Ivankova, 2015).Thus, the combination is essential for delivering the useful results reliable information.

A qualitative method is a research approach that is used to get the views, opinions and the general thoughts about various phenomena in the research exercise (Johnson, Onwuegbuzie and Turner, 2007, pp. 112-113). Therefore, the qualitative methods will be essential in getting the people’s comments and opinions which are relevant in establishing the optimal marketing strategies for Hyatt Corporation for its success.

The quantitative research focuses on establishing the numbers associated with a given phenomenon. The approach helps to reveal figures. Thus, one can be better positioned to make sound decisions depending on the resulting figures (Donnell, Lutfey, Marceau, and McKinlay, 2007, pp. 971-981). Thus, the approach will avail figure information that regards the optimal marketing strategies for Hyatt Corporation. This is achieved by presenting the management with a chance to observe the trends and patterns and therefore, choose the optimal marketing strategies that the company can use

Sampling refers to the process of determining the portion of a bigger population to act as a representative of the whole. The process is important because it helps to ensure that the results obtained are the real representative of the entire population (Vogt, Gardner and Haeffele, 2012). Efficient sampling helps to reduce biases in the results that will be obtained. The sampling size and the sampling method employed are critical in the research process and thus, must be conducted carefully.

Qualitative Method

The sample population refers to the specific portion of the population that will be under study. It is out of this whole community that the expected sample population is established.Hyatt Corporation will put various types of population and study in this research. Firstly, the company will focus on researching about the guest population who come to the hotel. The research will also reach an online community to establish their opinions on the services of the organization. This category of people will be made up of both the people who have ever used the organization’s services and those that have never used them (Denzin and Lincoln, 2008). Besides, the research will reach out to the general public in the cities and those from other parts. This population is important because it forms a large potential market population to this company.

The sampling methods that will be employed in this research can be broadly divided into probabilistic and non-probabilistic approaches. Some of the probabilistic methods that will be used in this research include random sampling and systematic sampling. In random sampling, the research will arrive at the sample by a random move. Thus, every item in the population has the potential of being chosen for sampling with a probability of one. This approach will mostly be applied to the general public population to get unbiased information which will represent the population outside. Random sampling is easier to use, cheap and also fast, however, the approach is usually associated with many sampling errors. The systematic sampling will be applied by selecting a first random start point then adopting a systematic way to reach other respondents within the population.

The non-probabilistic methods in this research will help the researcher to have control on the particular sample that will be under examination. The approach will allow the interviewer to be better positioned and focus on a given group of people who have relevant information in the endeavor (Reid and Bojanic, 2009, pp. 139). Hyatt Corporation will employ the convenience and Quota sampling methods in the non-probabilistic approach.

Hyatt Corporation will survey the research exercise. The survey will be administered in many different ways to increase the effectiveness and reliability of the research. Some of the ways include the use telephones, where the questions will be read to the respondents and then their opinions recorded. The survey will also be administered through emails and internet (Shalowitz and Miller, 2008, pp. 34). Whereby, the questionnaires will be sent to the possible respondents though their emails for them to fill the web form and submit their responses. This will be achieved through creating the soft questionnaires with Survey Monkey tool.Besides, the survey will be conducted through face to face approach, where the interviewer will have an opportunity to meet physically with the respondent (Sandra, 2008, pp. 26).

Quantitative Methods

The research will employ various tools for its success. These tools will be those that suit both the online population and those who are not online. The primary data collection tool in this exercise will be the questionnaires (See Appendix 1).It will contain both the open-ended and closed questions to get the appropriate responses from the samples. These different types of question structures are important in revealing the information which will be useful for the success of Hyatt Corporation. The use of questionnaires have many advantages, because they are practical, provide large amounts of information, easy in quantitative research and also, its data can be easily analyzed scientifically (Berinsky, 2008). However, questionnaires also have shortcomings such as no way to establish the truthfulness of the information, a high level of researcher imposition and also lacks validity.

Besides, the research will employ the observation and focus groups approaches. Application of observation will entail a physical look and scrutiny of various aspects that have effects on the marketing or can result in the optimal marketing strategies for the organization (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2008).On the other hand, the focus group approach will provide a chance for people to sit down and brainstorm on how Hyatt can attain optimal marketing strategies.  Thus, combining these approaches is likely to help increase the reliability of the research.

The results of the survey will undergo certain stages before arriving at the required information. These post data collection steps will provide a way to present data to the senior management staff in an easy to consume way (Sanders, 2010). After collecting data in the survey, it will undergo data cleaning. This will involve removing errors that can be seen physically and ensuring that some little inconsistencies and mistakes can be seen physically. After cleaning, the research will employ the data analysis software as a tool to analyze data. The specific software that will be used is SPSS, which is a powerful software that is fit for this job especially in handling quantitative data (Grbich, 2013).Regarding the qualitative data, the research will use discussion groups to analyze the opinions, views and other feedback that will be collected from the respondents.

The analyzed data will be presented in a way that will be easy for both the experts and novices to understand the results. This will entail presenting data in self-explanatory ways such as the graphs and charts (Vogt, Gardner and Haeffele, 2012). The methods are easy for people to understand regardless of their data analysis experience. Besides, graphs and charts will help in unveiling the trends that exist in data, and thus, the management will get a clear picture of the patterns of certain scenarios in the research. This is important and will help to come up with the optimal marketing strategies for the organization

Sampling

The analysis will entail coming up with the ranks of research information, the frequency distribution of various scenarios in the research and their correlation. Also, the study will help discover the geographical locations of different people with individual opinions on the marketing strategies for Hyatt. It is expected that number distribution of the different scenarios of the research will help the management make sound decisions on the optimal marketing strategies to embrace (Seidman, 2013). Besides, the qualitative data will be critical to providing information and analyzed opinions on various aspects in the current market. It will give the people’s likes and dislikes thus, helping to come up with appropriate customer requirements in the market.

Conclusion

In conclusion, researching an effective way is important to help Hyatt Corporation design the best optimal marketing strategies for its use. The research methods that will be utilized are both quantitative and qualitative. Combining these methods is important to reveal the figures and then collect opinions. Also, sampling will help come up with unbiased results in the exercise. Both the probabilistic and the non-probabilistic methods are important. The various tools will be used in the research to collect information, with the questionnaire being the instrument at the center of them all. Besides, the data analysis is necessary because it will help in presenting the data in a way which can be easily understood by both the experts and the novices, and in unveiling the trends in the research. Therefore, when the research is conducted efficiently, Hyatt will be better positioned to get the optimal marketing strategies for its adoption.

References

Berinsky, A. (2008). Survey non-response. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

Bloomberg, L. and Volpe, M. (2012). Completing your qualitative dissertation: The roadmap from beginning to the end. Thousand Oaks.

Denzin, N., and Lincoln, Y. (2008).  Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. Los Angeles.

Donnell, A., Lutfey, K., Marceau, L., and McKinlay, J. (2007). Using focus groups to improve the validity of cross-national survey research: a study of physician decision-making. Qual Health Res, pp. 971-981.

Grbich, C. (2013). Qualitative data analysis: An introduction. London, England: Sage. 

Ivankova, N. (2015). Mixed methods applications in the action research: From methods to community action.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Johnson, R., Onwuegbuzie, A. and Turner, L. (2007). Toward the definition of mixed methods research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, pp. 112-13

Reid, D. and Bojanic, C. (2009). Hospitality Marketing Management (5 Ed.). John Wiley and Sons. pp. 139.

Sanders, L. (2010). Discovering the research methods in the psychology: A student’s guide. Malden, MA: British Psychological Society/Blackwell.

Sanders, L. (2010). Discovering research methods in the psychology: A student’s guide. Malden, MA: British Psychological Society/Blackwell.

Sandra B. (2008). International Brand Management of the Chinese Companies: Case Studies on Chinese Household Appliances and Consumer Electronics Industry Entering US and Western European Markets. pp. 26

Seidman, I. (2013). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for the researchers in the education and the social sciences. New York, NY: Teachers College.

Shalowitz, D. and Miller, F. (2008). The Search for Clarity in the Communicating Research Results to the Study Participants. Journal of Medical Ethics, pp. 34

Teddlie, C. and Tashakkori, A. (2008). Foundations of the mixed methods research: Integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Vogt, W., Gardner, D. and Haeffele, L. (2012). When to use what research design. New York, NY: Guilford Press.