engleski

Insights on Integrated Marketing Communications: Implementation and impact in hotel companies

This paper provides insights on Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) by empirically examining the concept in a new context, i.e. hotel companies, and comparing its implementation and impact in Italian and Croatian hotels. The study uses survey methodology to assess IMC, approaching managers and guests in high- quality hotels. From the manager point of view, both Italian and Croatian hotels show a high level of IMC implementation and significant differences regarding some items. From the guest point of view, significant differences are obtained between the two hotel groups. In addition, IMC is found to influence positively and significantly customer satisfaction. Our research is limited to the Italian and Croatian hotel context. Future studies should approach a greater number of hotels to obtain more representative results. Managers need to adopt a holistic vision of marketing communications and regularly analyze consumers’ opinions to understand if their campaign works. This paper makes several original contributions, thus filling the existing gap in the literature. First, IMC is analyzed in a new environment, i.e. high- quality hotels. Second, the study is conducted in Italy and Croatia, where research on IMC is rather neglected. Third, besides managers’ opinions, guests’ perceptions are also assessed, highlighting that consumers need to be considered as true “comanagers” of business strategies.

integrated marketing communications; satisfaction; culture; hotels; Italy; Croatia

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