Marketing 12th Edition by Charles Lamb,Charles Lamb,Joe Hair

Exercise 6

After booking over $2 million in gross revenue between August 2008 and the end of the year, the initial success of Marriott Mobile, the version of Marriott International's Web site for mobile devices, made clear to the firm the benefits of tapping into the m-commerce space. Although the mobile site had existed since 2005, it had up to that point functioned only as a directory for Marriott's 13 chains and over 3,000 hotel properties. Prior to these upgrades, mobile users would have to go to the main Marriott Web site or call the actual hotel to book new reservations or change existing ones and manage their Marriott Rewards accounts. The upgrades rolled out with the August relaunch had been designed to increase functionality, and based on the response, the hotel chain, a long-time favorite destination of business travelers, was looking for new ways to improve its mobile services.

Choosing to launch a mobile site, as opposed to a smartphone app, was an important strategic decision in itself. For starters, a general mobile site would not be limited to use on just one type of handset, which in turn would also make it more accessible to owners of handsets more popular in global markets. The site approach over the app approach allowed Marriott to gather a broader data set on who was using the site on what mobile devices. Over time, Marriott was better able to direct its app strategy, as it eventually chose to create a booking app for the BlackBerry, a smartphone often more popular with business executives, before creating one for Apple's iPhone.
While Marriott had access to other substantial resources for research, the company felt that specifically creating a mobile-based feedback system would provide some important advantages. "One of the benefits of [the mobile survey approach]," says Gina Villavicencio, a senior manager in Marriott's eCommerce division, "is immediacy." For example, mobile-based feedback would allow Marriott to connect with customers right as they were using the mobile platform, as opposed to receiving feedback about their mobile experiences days or even weeks after the fact. Although certain disadvantages might exist, such as the need to keep answers short, the immediacy of the data more than made up for it.
Marriott designed the survey with speed in mind. Says Villavicencio, "We wanted a quick way to determine what our mobile customers are looking for, which is precisely what the [mobile survey] allowed us to do." For customers, the survey and the questions were kept purposefully short, a feature that would make users who might be on the go more likely to respond. Questions focused on site functionality, usage patterns, and feedback on a new city guide function. Only one question offered the option of an extended response. For the hotel chain, researchers were able to collect feedback from over 700 respondents in only about 30 days.
Overall, survey feedback helped Marriott better respond to customer needs and create and implement a more functional mobile service. Survey feedback clearly indicated that users found the new city guide feature a plus. As Villavicencio commented, "The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, we also benefitted from a halo effect where those who clicked on the city guide link rated the mobile experience higher." Surveys helped Marriott get a clearer picture of customers' usage patterns as well. Surprisingly, one-third of respondents took the survey while at home-not while on the road-which underscored the increasing penetration of mobile usage and the importance of the mobile platform in reaching consumers.
As Marriott has continued to develop its mobile platform, ultimately the numbers really tell the story. In its first full year, following the August upgrade, Marriott Mobile booked a total of $34.6 million in gross annual revenue and is expected to see doubledigit growth in the future. And new site features are clearly drawing in potential customers. In February 2010, Marriot Mobile ranked 14th for unique visitors to mobile travel sites-591,000 according to Nielson Online-and it ranked 1st among mobile hotel sites. One of the most important gains for Marriott though was establishing a basis on which to build initiatives for gaining mobile customer feedback in the future.
Look at the characteristics of survey research outlined in Exhibit 9.3, and analyze Marriott Mobiles mobile feedback system with respect to these characteristics.