Commercial co-creation strategies in high-end hospitality: the  Portuguese case study

Amaral, Miguel José Torres

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/50331

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Authors

Amaral, Miguel José Torres

Advisor(s)

Gustavo, Nuno Silva

Abstract(s)

Marketing across all sectors has significantly developed throughout the years, becoming increasingly relevant in many industries. With the increase in consumer data and business online presense, companies are progressively becoming more aware of the importance of targeted marketing, as a business competence, to adapt to the everchanging challenges faced by companies in their attempt to respond to customer demands. As a result, firms need to keep themselves competitive and continously adapt their business strategies, in order to keep up with the fast paced market trends that are continuously evolving due to new technology and increasing online presence. Focusing on the hospitality sector, marketing 4.0 has became the new trend representing the constant development and evolution within this sector. In the 60s, marketing campaigns were highly focused on the product and sales pitches were mostly build around the concrete aspects of the products firms were offering, while currently, marketing is more focused on customer experience, especially in regards to the lodging industry. To keep up with such market trends, it is, therefore, imperative for service providers to understand the scope of the customer experience factor and imbed it in their offerings to increase client engagement and ultimately diferenciate themselves from competitors. Within the hospitality sector, the concept of Co-creation developed an active customer involvement in order to create a valueable experience. After some research, is possible to conclude that Co-creation focuses on the customer experience, allowing the customer to both create and develop the perfect product as well as tailoring it according to his/her preferences and needs. However, this is only possible if the hotel has the necessary tools and platforms. Therefore, Co-creation is a teamwork system, where hotels provide the tools and services, while the customers share information about their special and unique preferences and needs. The main goal of this study is to understand how hotels in Portugal are aligned with this new concept, hence the need to conduct a case study, based on the analysis of the collected data from Portuguese hotels. The present study is composed by two distinctive parts: a theoretical investigation, which aims to better understand the concept of Co-creation, and an empirical investigation, based on the participation of hotels managers who answered ix a questionnaire about Co-creation policies and strategies. The achievements of this case study provide the validation of many propositions. For instance, considering that 77.8% of the hotels in Portugal implement Co-creation strategies, this strategy is considered to be at a medium level of implementation (33.8%). In the future, hotels must improve these Co creation strategies, to satisfy the customers’ needs, maintain their knowledge, increase their profitability and enhance their growth, thereby, making them more competitive within the tourism segment.