How Marriott International Target Their Market and Audience

A target market is a group of individuals or subsegments from a broader market which a company has identified as its primary customer base (Shoemaker & Shaw).  There are numerous ways to target certain customers within a market.  For example, a company may want to target certain customer base on geographic location and within the geographic location there are cities, parts of the cities, media market and even neighborhoods.  Demographic segmentations is also another common way of segmenting a market based on cultural, education, age, race, income and much more.  Each target market is designed with products and services in a way that the needs and wants of its primary customers are met successfully. 

The Marriott International has successfully built up different target market within its industry by specifically targeting the needs for their customers.  The JW Marriott, created by the Marriott international as a luxury brand, is designed to target mainly on customers who are seeking for a quiet and luxurious atmosphere during their accommodation.  These customers are mostly around the age of 30ths, who earns an average high income and usually travels for business purposes.  Therefore, their customers are mostly the individualistic, sophisticated, and self-defined travelers who are willing to spend more money on their accommodations while traveling on a business trip.  The purpose for the JW Marriott is to provide their guests with a simple elegant atmosphere that allow the customers to feel as leisured and comfortable as possible without any distraction or disruption.

The JW Marriott Kuwait which recently awarded Best Business Hotel indicates that they provided “simple elegance” and outstanding “intuitive service” ideally designed for business travelers who look for a quiet and undistracted accommodation.  According to the JW Marriott Kuwait City – Experience our hotel commercial, the hotel states that they provide large deluxe guest rooms and suites featuring luxury bedding, spacious work areas, high-speed internet, beautiful executive lounge, and outstanding spa and massage service.  Meanwhile, the hotel is located in the heart of the Kuwait city so it is also very convenient for them to travel around the city.  Opposite to the W hotels – known for their unique atmosphere, funky style and vibrant music, JW Marriott hotels strive for an inviting atmosphere and simple elegance.  According to the JW Marriott Kuwait City News, it clearly states that the brand is trying to provide their guests with a “quiet” and “luxurious” experience in the hotel because they believe being a luxury hotel does not need to consist with excess formality.  Instead, there will be no loud music, no exaggerated environment, and fancy decoration.  What is left will be a simple, elegance sense of sight so that their guests can enjoy staying in the beautiful hotel without distraction or disruption.  The hotel also promises to handle their guest’s request and needs in a very careful and precise manner, which means that guest can expect their needs and experiences to be highly satisfied. For example, a guest arrived at the Kuwait airport who is looking for a taxi to the JW Marriott Kuwait surprisingly found out that the hotel has actually already reserved a Mercedes to pick him up from the airport to the hotel (tripadvisor).  By doing this, the JW Marriott Kuwait will be able to attract and to maintain valuable customers who are more preferred to stay in a simple, quite, and luxurious place.  

Besides rooms and services, the JW Marriott also desired to target customers who are looking for high standard catering and cuisine in the hotel.  According to the official JW Marriott website, each hotel under this luxury brand offers authentic cuisine with fresh picked local ingredients and traditional local culinary skills.  Each fine dining restaurants in the hotel hired expert chefs and professional servers in order to provide the best dining experience for their customers.  The atmosphere, architecture, and the serving culture are also very genuine and varied as each city the JW Marriott hotel is locating.  And no doubt, the prices are expected to be high in value.  The PRIMO, one of the fine dining restaurants in the JW Marriott Orland, Grande Lakes, will be a demonstrating example showing the target market the hotel is trying to attract.  The PRIMO is a modern Italian restaurant under the JW Marriott hotel which they hired the James Beard Foundation’s Award-Winning Chef, Melissa Kelly, as the executive chef of the restaurant.  The restaurant is known for its “homegrown” concept where the chef guarantee to use only the finest ingredients for each dishes, which they stock up directly from PRIMO’s organic garden and local farms.  Consequently, people who choose to dine in this restaurant would expect to seek for a high standard of fine dining experience.  The hotel, on the other hand, would also expect to earn higher revenue from providing higher quality service and environment for their customers.