Brand Awareness in the Hospitality Industry

Tourism and Hospitality industry today

The growth of tourism in all parts of the world is growing rapidly. Increased tourism can not be separated from the human workload of productive age is higher. Especially in developed countries stress levels are increasing. Entertainment is the answer to reduce fatigue in working. There are many things that can be done to relieve fatigue work, ranging from sleep, massage, culinary tours, streets and even out of the area. The condition mentioned above is a market demand, as well as an opportunity for the growth of tourism.

No wonder the development of tourist attraction is a lucrative investment land. The attractions of nature, and man-made continue to be developed to answer the needs and desires of tourists. Formerly, the attraction of tourism for example in Bali is only based on nature and culture (Kintamani, Bedugul, Tanah Lot, Balinese Dance). Nowadays, there have been developing man-made tourism attraction, such as Three Dimensional Museum of Bajra Sandhi Denpasar, Water Boom Kuta, Citraland Denpasar Water Park, Bali Bird Park Gianyar, Tabanan Butterfly Garden. Needs accommodation facilities. The growing variety of tourist attraction is a tourist attraction factor to come visit this beloved island of Bali.

The increasing number of tourists coming to Bali Island also increases the need for accommodation facilities. Various forms of accommodation facilities grow in Bali, ranging from inns, jasmine hotels, villas, to star hotels. Bali is a very fertile land for accommodation investment, not off because Bali is safe, peaceful and very friendly.

Unfortunately, investment growth is only centered on South Bali (Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Pesisir Tabanan). Ngurah Rai International Airport is one of the considerations of investors, and the Government is still oriented to the concept of mass tourism. No one to blame. Development has two sides: good and bad. Everyone wants to build and enjoy tourism. As a result of these tremendous investments, hotels have difficulty in reaching room occupancy rates to meet their operational costs. Apparently the number of tourists who come is not comparable with the number of hotel room growth is getting higher.

Therefore, in this very tight competition situation, the hotel manager must strive to survive and at the same time win the competition. Efforts that can be done, among others, by increasing brand awareness (Brand Awareness) of tourists against the hotel brand. Brand awareness is the first stage of the customer to make a decision to book a hotel room.

Brand Awareness Concept

Brand awareness is the ability of travelers to remember and recognize a hotel brand when receiving stimuli from all marketing activities and when it comes to accommodation facilities where travelers are on vacation. For example: when a tourist wants a vacation to Bali, requires a means of accommodation, then in the minds of customers will emerge the brands of hotels he knows. The stronger the brand image of the hotel, the marketing efforts (advertising, publicity, sales promotion, personal sales), and past experience, the stronger the brand awareness of the customer.

Brand awareness is important and should be sought by the hotel manager through the resources within the hotel (controlable resources). Stay decisions will not appear without customer awareness of the brand. On the basis that the hotel manager should not stop to continuously perform communication activities with customers and in various ways. Not enough just with communication, but managers must continuously improve brand image, service quality and customer satisfaction. Especially to customers who are staying, should be given services according to standards that have been set, so that no complain. If the customer complains, it should be followed up immediately.

Brand awareness can be measured by:

1. Assess customer's knowledge of the hotel brand.
2. Assess the customer's ability to be able to recognize the hotel brand among various alternatives of competing hotel brands.
3. Assess the customer's ability to remember brands with their unique characteristics and uniqueness.
4. Assess the speed of the customer in calling information about the hotel brand on the customer's memory.

Instruments that can be used is a list of interviews and questionnaires with Likert scale. Interview techniques are conducted to better understand customer awareness of the brand. The results of the interview will support the findings of the results of the questionnaire aimed at generalizing brand awareness.

The Importance of Brand Awareness

It is not easy to realize brand awareness for tourists. Moreover, tourists who have high brand awareness is not necessarily make a room reservation. Why not easy? This is related to the characteristics of services, namely: (i) intangible-intangible; not easy to realize the concept of hotel services. For example a hotel has the concept: "hospitality in the uniqueness". This concept requires all employees to be friendly and uniqueness is in the product offered. It is not easy to make employees friendly, let alone inadequate financial motivation, plus the character of each employee is different. It is not easy to realize the uniqueness, because there must be something of value and different in every product offered; (ii) inseparable-between production and consumption occurs simultaneously, (iii) perishable-easily damaged, and (iv) varies widely.

However, customer brand awareness remains a concern, as customer purchasing decisions are always initiated by brand awareness. How could a customer decide to stay overnight without being aware of a hotel brand in their mind ?

Conclusion

The condition of competition between the accommodation business requires the hotel manager to be more creative in order to go concern. Customer brand awareness is a very important thing to be managed by hotel managers. In this case, communication, service quality improvement, brand image and customer satisfaction are key to the realization of high brand awareness from customers. Without brand awareness, it is impossible for travelers to decide to book a room at the hotel.