Essays

GIMENE-CORETTA PIETERS Curacao
CHTAEF General Scholar – Professional Development

Program/Course:
• Strategic Marketing for Hotels and restaurants Level A
• Direct marketing Level A
Institution: Cornell University Ithaca, New York
Date of course: June 29, 2009 – July 8, 2009

I’m very thankful for the opportunity given by the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association Education Foundation to attend the courses at the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

I have been working at the Avila Hotel since November 2002 and have been in different job positions. Currently I’m in the function of Sales & Marketing Coordinator for over 1 year already.

In the companies I have worked for previously I have also worked in the Sales & Marketing field, but I never have the opportunity and means to follow studies in this specific field.

Having heard from CHTAEF and having learned from other colleagues who have applied and received a scholarship in previous years from CHTAEF and being encouraged by the Management of the Avila Hotel I decided to apply for this scholarship to develop myself further and obtain more knowledge in the field I’m working in.

I have a lot of passion for my job and I enjoy the challenges this function brings with it, but I felt the need to learn more and to perfection myself more in order to work more independent and contribute to keep on delivering quality at the Avila Hotel.
I felt honored to have been granted the scholarship to attend courses at the Cornell University, which I considered a fantastic opportunity.

The Cornell University is to my conception and experience a very professional institution, which is noticed throughout the complete organization, starting with the communication when applying, the pre-course training till the conclusion of the courses.

It was fascinating to meet students from all over the world in each course and to experience the view of each culture on this subject. This brought lively discussions during the class hours and made everyone aware of the different customs and approaches to customers and guests in each country. This gave me food for thoughts, alternatives and options to apply in the situation in my current job and function.

Having realized a lot of tasks, home studies and presentations together with other student gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas and opinion with them and establish a network of people working in almost the same field but in different countries and situation of which I hope to keep on exchanging relevant information with.

It is still a pleasure to send and receive mails with this group who had the marvelous opportunity to receive lessons and obtain knowledge from the professors at the Cornell University and apply this to your daily activities at work.

In the course “Strategic Marketing for Hotels and Restaurants” given by Professor Kwortnik we were given an overall view of the most important tools to market your property. To market your product it is important to update yourself constantly and be aware of the latest trends in the marketing environment by practicing trend spotting. Get to know your customer, listening to the customer needs and wants and thereafter establish the approach to the customer in the most appealing way. I have learned how to practice trend spotting in the most effective way and received a lot of information on how to influence the customer behavior. The promise of the brand is something that has to stay stable, in order to gain the customers confidence and maintain the relationship with the customer. It is important when selling a brand promise to able to deliver this promise to the customer, and not sell a promise that the customer will not experience.

Direct Marketing given by Professor Lisa Pearo was an eye opener in the aspect of the newest technologies used when marketing. With these newest tools it allows you to increase measurement of return on investment, in a more effective way. You will understand and respond better to the customers changing expectations. The goals of Direct Marketing are direct sale, lead generation and traffic generation. We learned what the factors are that can affect price sensitivity and also how to define, redefine the product and then to position this product as an offer. It is imperative to know how to calculate the lifetime value of the customer and how to use the RFM analysis to categorize customers in the absence of other more customized information. The property has to establish credibility among its customers and also among new existing customers. Using tricks and techniques to capture the customers and guests attention and interest is essential. Before this all, one has to perform market research to get to know the approach and determine and execute the presentation of the offer. There are a lot of media to be used to reach the customer, for example, newspaper, magazines, internet, television and telephone. Each media has its positive aspects and this has to be used to the maximum in order to reach your goal which is to market your product.

All the knowledge I received during these courses made me aware that there is more to marketing then the way one is accustomed of working and promoting your product.

The strategies to be used when marketing the property is very essential to me. I will apply what I have learned so far, to my daily routine to get to know and listen to the needs and wants of the customers better and thereafter to be able to make a more targeted offer and reach specific customers, important to us as target group.

It will also be part of my duties now to be more aware of the amount to be spending on a specific marketing campaign and to make sure we receive return on investment for the campaigns and promotions we usually offer.

Furthermore I will use the newest technologies to reach our target market with campaigns and promotions, in order to spend less from the budget, while receiving more on return.

This opportunity made me much more knowledgeable in the field I’m working in, I feel that I’m working more independent then I used to and I’m getting compliments for the new ideas and promotional offers using my skills to make flyers, presentations and advertisements for the Avila Hotel.

A special thanks to the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association Education Foundation to have given me this grand opportunity to develop myself further. I’m still very enthusiastic about all I have learned and I’m planning to keep on developing myself in this field by attending the Cornell University again in order to receive a certification in Hospitality.


Written by
Gimene Pieters

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