Market Research - The Hotel Industry

Learning Outcomes:

Students should gain familiarity with the following elements of business information literacy and specific information resources.

Information Literacy:

• Find market and industry information
• Understand the following concepts: Market Share, Market Size, Market Segmentation, Secondary and Primary Market Research
• How to apply indirectly relevant reports.
• Identify and understand internal and external market trends.
• Availability, currency, coverage, and cost of pre-packaged market research reports.
• Present industry/market information in a visual manner.
• Make a well-supported recommendation based off of their provided information.

Resources:

• A source for market research reports.
• A source for industry overview reports.
• An infographic development tool.

Premise:

The hotel industry is extremely competitive. A multitude of chains and independent hotels compete for a wide variety of travelers. As a consulting team hired by Blue Soda Investments, you have been tasked with analyzing the current state of the hotel industry. Your client, Blue Soda Investments, is considering investing significant money in the hotel industry. It is crucial for you to be aware of major trends that are influencing the industry and competitors. You need to succinctly and visually present your information to the head of the Strategic Directions division in the form of an infographic.

Deliverable:

Your team will compile the necessary information into an infographic (https://piktochart.com or https://infogr.am)

• Market
  • Market size
    • what is the size of the market?
    • Do the different market reports agree?
      • Show this data from multiple reports if possible.

• • Market segmentation
    • what are the primary segments of the hotel industry?
    • What are different ways of displaying market segmentation?
      • List the key segments and corresponding numbers or percentages.
      • Show 2+ market segmentations.

• • Analysis: Which segment looks to grow the best in the near future?

• • Market share
    • who are the major companies/brands in the hotel industry?
      • List at least the top 3 companies/brands with their market share percent.

• • Trends
    • Identify 4-6 internal or external trends (positive or negative) influencing travelers.
      • External = outside the hotel industry. Internal = inside the hotel industry

• • Analysis: which trend do you think currently has the strongest influence on travelers?

Preliminary Discussion:

This is an activity that can stretch across 2-3 class periods with the first being lecture and the 2 subsequent classes for collecting information and collating the content within the team. During the lecture/activity class period students should work in groups to answer the following questions for 5 minutes after reviewing the case:

Based on the case presented and my own knowledge, what do I know about the case?

What do I want or need to know in order to make the recommendation to the company?

In order for students to understand how to give a concrete recommendation about the state of the industry, several terms must be explained by the librarians/instructors. These include Market Segmentation, Market Share, Market Size, Primary Market Research, and Secondary Market Research. To see some ways to introduce these concepts, please review our Prezi on Market Research [5] http://prezi.com/_2ljao4l_ee7/introduction-to-market-research/ and on Industry Analysis [6] http://prezi.com/uzsnjgog7fup/introduction-to-industry-analysis/.