Impact of pricing and marketing of food and beverages A case study of selected hotels in Kumasi Metropolis

Abstract

Pricing has had a great deal of effect on the selling of beverages, mostly in a developing economy. Pricing products for consumers is a mind boggling task, mainly because a high price may cause negative feelings about products, and also a low price can be misleading on other products features such as quality. The study was carried out to examine the impact of pricing and marketing of food and beverages in hotels in Kumasi Metropolis. The research employed the quantitative research design and the hotel managers were the respondents. The study used the random sampling and systemic sampling in soliciting information from the respondents. A total of 150 hotel managers were purposively sampled. The data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and the data was analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequency and percentages with the statistical software Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 26.0. The respondents were educated and the major education obtained by the respondents was College degree and Bachelor’s degree, with only few with Master’s degree. Majority of the respondents are involved in research on the value based price, do market based price and customer preference. The factors that influences the price and marketing of food and beverages in hotels in the Kumasi Metropolis includes the branding of the product, cost of production, raw materials, competitors, margin, value and the environment of the hotel facilities. Also, the pricing and marketing strategy has resulted in moderate growth in the hotel industry in Kumasi metropolis. The results from the study revealed that the growth of the hotel is influenced by the sales account and the number of loyal customers. It can be concluded that there is a moderate growth in the hotel industry in Kumasi and several factors influences the prices and marketing of food and beverages in the hotels. Further studies should be considered in other parts of the country to compare and contrast the impact of pricing and marketing on the hotel industry