Corporate hospitality: executive indulgence or vital corporate communications weapon?

Heads of marketing in 189 UK companies known to engage in corporate hospitality (CH) completed questionnaires regarding their attitudes and approaches towards the practice. A cluster analysis of the replies revealed four distinct groups of enterprise: CH “warriors”, “pragmatists”, “reactors”, and “strategic hopefuls”. Corporate hospitality warriors displayed strategic CH orientations and carefully measured the outcomes. Pragmatists also evaluated the impacts of CH, but adopted essentially ad hoc approaches. Strategic hopefuls used CH strategically, yet without bothering to assess its consequences. Reactors undertook CH only because their competitors did so. Additionally the research examined the extents to which the sample businesses applied conventional marketing management methods to the CH function, and the respondents’ perceptions of the benefits and problems of CH. A regression analysis identified some major sources of satisfaction with CH activities. These included the employment of formal market research to match CH events with clients, the location of responsibility for CH in a marketing or public relations department, the adoption of strategic approaches to CH, and the formal evaluation of outcomes.