DIGITAL MARKETING FOR HOSPITALITY - 2021/2

Module Overview

This module provides students with an understanding of the importance and the application of digital marketing. It involves a critical reflection on contemporary strategies, concepts and ideas that currently shape marketing practices from a demand as well as a supply side perspective. The module deals with the impact of digital media on consumer behaviour and how firms can exploit digital means and platforms for marketing efforts. The module also deals with factors that facilitate, or on the contrary, inhibit the usage of various digital marketing channels in the hospitality industry. Students will engage in critical reflection from discussions grounded in research findings and global industry examples from hospitality organisations and related sectors.

Module provider

Hospitality, Tourism & Events Management

Module Leader

LIU Daisy (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Digital marketing fundamentals: digital micro- and macro-environments


• Digital marketing strategy


• Digital media and the marketing mix


• Relationship marketing using digital platforms
  
  
  
  • CRM technologies
  
  
  • Big data and artificial intelligence for marketing
  
  
  
  


• Delivering the digital customer experience
  
  
  
  • Website and Mobile App
  
  
  • IoT, VR, AR, and MR for marketing
  
  
  
  


• Campaign planning for digital media
  
  
  
  • Goal setting
  
  
  • Segmentation and targeting
  
  
  • Offer and message development
  
  
  • Media selection and planning
  
  
  
  


• Marketing communications using digital media channels
  
  
  
  • Search engine optimisation
  
  
  • Online public relations and influencer marketing
  
  
  • Online partnership and affiliate marketing
  
  
  • Digital advertising
  
  
  • Email and mobile messaging
  
  
  • Social media marketing
  
  
  • Recommender systems, conversational agents, chatbots
  
  
  • Loyalty programmes
  
  
  • Online distribution channels
  
  
  
  


• Evaluation of digital marketing performance
  
  
  
  • Performance management
  
  
  • Content management
  
  
  
  


• Ethics of data usage in marketing

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to enable students to demonstrate that they gradually build up their knowledge and understanding of digital marketing, and gain hands-on experience in evaluating, developing and running digital marketing campaigns in a hospitality context. Students will be required to demonstrate that they have relevant theoretical knowledge, analytical and diagnostic tools, and practical skills to critically evaluate existing digital marketing initiatives, design a new digital marketing campaign from scratch, implement it and assess the performance.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

Individual digital marketing critique blog posts - 20%

Students will be required to select two existing digital marketing examples in hospitality industry (can be a campaign or any forms of digital marketing initiatives), and critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the selected examples using theoretical knowledge learnt from class. Students will be asked to submit a critique (500 words) in a blog entry. Students will be requested to select two different types of digital marketing examples (e.g. CRM activity, video advertisement, social media campaign, or email marketing), and carefully consider the unique characteristics of the selected type of digital marketing and digital channel used. Creative critique methods such as benchmarking with competitors, text mining and content analysis on customer comments, are encouraged in this assignment.

Individual digital marketing campaign - 80%

Students will be required to produce a report on a detailed plan of developing a new digital marketing campaign for a selected hospitality organization. Students will need to draw on the latest academic research and industry trends to demonstrate the relevance of their proposed plan. Students will submit a 2,500-word written report (64%) and a video presentation (16%).

Formative assessment and feedback

• During the first online activity, the assignments and the feedback process is explained.


• Feedback is also provided during and after online discussions/guided activities. Students will be required to contribute to moderated discussion forums and seminars to demonstrate the development of their knowledge and mastery of the academic research as well as demonstrate awareness of current industry trends.


• As the online activities are built around topic-specific exercises in a group setting, students will not only benefit from lecturer feedback but also receive peer evaluations.


• Once marking is completed, students are provided with feedback, which contains detailed generic feedback as well as a breakdown of marks. This enables students to assess their own performance compared to their peers.

Module aims

• This module aims to introduce, discuss, and analyse various topics important to digital marketing. This module will help students to develop a critical understanding of the role and importance of digital marketing in creating value propositions for customers and competitive advantages for hospitality businesses, as well as the influence of digital marketing on consumer behavior. It will enable students to critically evaluate hospitality businesses' existing digital marketing strategies, and equip students with skills to develop relevant and effective digital marketing strategies in hospitality industry, and to reflect on key issues related to digital transformation in a rapidly changing world.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to provide students with an overview of the theories covering the key areas of digital marketing in the hospitality industry. This theoretical overview will be supplemented with providing students with practical project, and continuous improvement methods so that they can critically evaluate, develop, implement and assess the performance of various digital marketing initiatives.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• theoretical lectures with supporting materials from a range of perspectives within digital marketing in hospitality to provide students with a holistic framework of knowledge


• online exercises, practical examples, and topical case studies to critically discuss and apply theoretical knowledge to contemporary industry practices


• an assignment in which students select and critically evaluate three existing hospitality businesses¿ digital marketing initiatives


• a project in which students select a hospitality organization and develop a digital marketing campaign for it, and a plan on how to evaluate the digital marketing performance


• supporting guest lecture sessions


• formative feedback sessions

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM499

Other information

None

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.