The Short and Long-Term Effectiveness of Online Sales Promotion Type and Fit in Hotels

Sales promotion is an important component of the marketing mix and is used by marketers to communicate the company brand and products with their target consumers. Hospitality marketers adopt different sales promotion techniques for satisfying different organizational and customer needs including managing room inventory, boosting sales, differentiating the company brands, and making the consumer decision making process easier. The main focus of this research is to understand the effectiveness of different online hotel sales promotions. The specific purpose of this study is to investigate the short and long-term effects of online hotel sales promotion type (SP type) and sales promotion fit (SP fit) with the hotel room on travelers and explore the magnitude of these effects based on consumers’ need for cognition (NFC), deal proneness (DP), intention to travel (TI), and promotional attractiveness (PA). So, this dissertation study tends to explore the effectiveness of different hotel sales promotion strategies on consumer behavior within the foundations of resource matching theory (RMT). The outcome variables are intent to purchase (PI) and intent to spread word-of-mouth (WOM) indicating the short-term effects and brand image perceptions (BI), attitude toward the brand (Ab), and attitude toward the hotel (Ahot) of travelers as long-term effects of sales promotions. In Study 1, one-factor (SP type: monetary vs. non-monetary) experimental design was utilized to test the differences in the effects of different sales promotion types on traveler behaviors. Also, these effects were investigated across the levels of travelers’ NFC, DP, TI, and PA. To provide more insights into the promotional framing effects, the differences in the effects within each promotion type were examined (Monetary: Dollar vs. Percentage discount and Non-monetary: Free room night vs. Free room upgrade). In Study 2, one factor (SP: Fit presence for monetary and non-monetary vs. Fit absence for monetary and non-monetary) experimental design was employed. In both studies, the participants’ PI, WOM, BI, Ab, Ahot, NFC, DP, TI, and PA were measured. Data were collected through an online consumer marketing panel. The total sample size was 609. The findings of this study have both high theoretical and practical value. Theoretical implications are the deeper insights into consumer behavior in terms of responses to different marketing stimuli and the extension of resource matching theory (RMT). Specifically, this research attempts to extend resource matching theory by testing the matching effects of sales promotion type and fit with consumer motivations and traits of information processing. Practical implications are useful suggestions to marketers in terms of the effectiveness of different marketing communication designs and their usage to develop favorable brand-related attitudes