Tourism and Hospitality Industry - Assignment Example

? Service Marketing Contents Service Marketing 3 Hospitality Industry 4 Marketing Mix 5 Reference 9 Bibliography 9 Service Marketing Service industries or the providers need to increase the competitive differentiation, productivity and the service quality. It is necessary to maintain a link between the desired service and the profit. Organization delivering services needs to make profit for the growth of the organization in the future and to maintain a stable market share (Kumar, 2010). In the service industry, the perception of quality is much more important and dependent on the expectation of the customer rather than in the marketing strategies of goods. Lower expectation can however make for the greatest satisfaction and with it word of mouth is an important and vital in the journey towards the purchase of the service. It is important to determine the target market and set an objective which would help the firm to determine the area which is of interest to the marketer (Greechie, 2008). The marketing objectives for a brand in the hospitality industry often includes customer satisfaction and gaining the trust of the customer which would increase the customer loyalty towards the brand and make the customers come back to the same brand again and again. The service sector chosen is hotel industry, hospitality services as it has been defined to be the friendliest sector and it is important to take care of the needs of the customers. The service providers in the hospitality sector need to set an optimum level of services for the customers as a high level of expectation might result in negative outflow. As per Bitner and Tetrealt (1990) customer tends to look at the basic needs such as in a hotel customer would look for clean room, a secure room and treat the customers as guest (Kumar, 2010). Hospitality Industry The hotel to be dealt in with is a unique kind of hotel which aims to provide customer satisfaction to the highest level. Hospitality industry comprises of various hotels where most of the hotels have a different image and description of the hotels. It is important to have a unique features or identity as it tends to gives the customer a memorable stay in the hotel. Thus experience creates a memorable stay which ensures that guests would spend more of their time in hotels and more often would visit the same hotel. According to Brown (2002) hotels should develop strong brand in order to create loyal customers because it is the brand that wins are preferred by the customers. Unique concepts of hotel which are very much famous and attractive to the customers are the themed hotels, design hotels, boutique hotels lifestyle hotels, co-branded hotels and service quality hotels. Thus the type of unique hotel taken into account is lifestyle hotels. As per the Overlook Hospitality Management (2002) lifestyle hotels are mainly designed to fill the emotional needs of guests. To take an example, the largest hotel in the globe with about 3500 hotels, the Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) which launched a new brand named Hotel Indigo a lifestyle brand, lodging alternatives for travelers who are seeking a hotel and not just merely a room. According to PWC, (2003) lifestyle hotel is small yet fashionable and stylish and at the same time offers excellent value for money. Porter argues that for organization to produce better result it is important to adapt the differentiation strategies. The company can differentiate through charging a high price, a premium price and also to chose attributes which are different from the competitors. Therefore the unique hotels tend to differentiate themselves from the normal or the traditional hotels as they pose few unique features. The hospitality industry is a competitive industry and thus it is essential to differentiate the products. As per Kotler (1997) new products can easily convert undifferentiated products and offerings. The hotels with unique concepts can position itself through differentiation. The unique concept hotels offers almost the same kind of product which a normal hotel does but the product offered is unique and exceptional from the products offered by the industry (Forsgren & Franchetti , 2004, p. 34-37). Marketing Mix The marketing mix will take into account the unique hotels into the category of lifestyle hotels as discussed above. Service marketing constitute of 7Ps which comprises of product, price, place, promotion, physical evidence, process and people. The marketing mix are implemented in order to achieve the objective of customer satisfaction and to deliver quality service to the customer visiting the hotels so that they are back to the same hotel each time they visit the city or the place. Product: The product offered to the target customers, the families and the business people visiting the city either for family trip or any official work, is a hotel with the desired kind of room along with memorable moments spent with the hotels. The ‘lifestyle hotels’ provides the customer with a lifetime experience fashionable and stylish rooms along with reasonable price. The product here can be defined as the services which are provided by lifestyle hotels to its customers. Lifestyle hotel, ABC limited has differentiated its features as such the hotel includes cafe and restaurant, the bar and the lounge is made open for drinks for the guests. The hotel provides recreational facility along with wireless facility even in public areas. The hotel also offer airport shuttle for the customers travelling. In addition the hotel aims to provide an experience of not just a hotel but a room where one can relax and feel at home. Price: The price charged by the hotel is reasonable but as compare to normal hotels, the rates will be high and this is because of the unique features provided by the hotels to the guest. The price charged for the ample amount of service provided by ABC limited would range from $250 for deluxe single room and for double room the price would be anywhere depending upon the facilities provided will be from $300 to $350 per night excluding taxes. Place: Location plays an important role especially in the hospitality industry. Customer prefers locations which are well situated in the heart of the city with good communication facility and other needs. In short location adds value to the hotels and its business. The hotel is located in New York, USA attracting many customers to its hotels as it is one of the tourist hubs. Promotion: In service industry communication often plays a very vital role in attracting the customers and generating a brand value. Word of mouth is one such tool which tends to have a huge influence for the future of hotel and hotel industry. The hotel, ABC Ltd promotes its services through online advertisement, word of mouth, displaying hoardings and also to attract customer introduce special offers during any festive seasons or during the peak time. A brand name is most of the time used in the hospitality industry and it tends to send messages to the public and also market where it runs its business. The ABC Ltd lifestyle hotels send out a message saying ‘experience a memorable stay’ differentiating itself from the competitors. The hotel has tied up with tourist centers which help it to promote its features and attract more customers. However promotional activity or the advertisement campaign alone cannot build upon the brand image and brand name, it has to be atop down approach and mainly from the front line staffs of the hotel (Gilmore, 2003, p. 75). Physical evidence: the hotel aims to provide the customer with clean and friendly atmosphere along with some added unique features so that the customers can experience a memorable stay. Physical evidence is one of the essential ingredients of the service mix. Physical evidence usually relates to the environment where the service gets delivered along with the tangibles which help it to perform the desired service. Physical evidence for ABC hotel includes the business card, the internet connectivity, equipment, the design of the room, furniture, layout the decoration of the hotel and so on. Process: In service marketing process refers to the system that assists the organization to deliver the service. The hotel needs to make use of the latest technology as well as effective ground staff so that service gets delivered at the right time and whiten the stipulated time allocated to the customers. It is necessary to customize the service because the consumers are often involved in the ongoing process (Andrews, 2007, p. 207). In ABC Ltd the objective is to satisfy the customer and when a customer gets more than expected, satisfaction tends to occur. Therefore making the process easy and comfortable helps the brand to gain customer loyalty such as formalities like check in, check out, room service and other essential features which are looked upon a serious matter of concern by the customers. People: People refer to the employees and the consumers who are indirectly or directly related to the service offered by the hotel. Consumer often makes judgment and also delivers a perception of services based on the behavior of the employees with whom they interact. ABC Ltd has trained its staff so that they are able to handle any kind of issue and have appropriate skills service knowledge and aptitude in delivering the service for which the customers are paying. Therefore it can be concluded that understanding the importance of customer relationship while dealing with the hospitality industry as it is not tangible products offered to the customers but an intangible services through which hotels try to satisfy the customer and maintain a healthy customer relationship along with an effective brand image. As quoted by Tim Ambler from London Business School, Brands have formed an integral part of social existence and relationships with the brands are different from that of people but the metaphor is useful. Brands reinforce the self-image and how other perceives it (Bollen & Emes, 2008). Reference Andrews, S. (2007). Introduction To Tourism And Hospitality Industry. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Bollen, A. and Emes, C. (2008). Understanding Customer Relationships. Retrieved from < http://www.ipsos.com/loyalty/sites/ipsos.com.loyalty/files/IpsosLoyalty_UnderstandingCustomerRelationships.pdf> Forsgren, S. & Franchetti, C. (2004). The Marketing Role Of Unique Concepts For Hotels In Sweden. Retrieved from < https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/2261/1/gbs_thesis_53.pdf> Gilmore, A. (2003). Services Marketing and Management. SAGE. Greechie, S. (2008). Customer Relationship Management in Services Marketing. Retrieved from < http://www.vendorguru.com/crm/article/Customer-Relationship-Management-in-Services-Marketing.jsp> Kumar, P. (2010). Mktg Of Hospitality & Tourism Serv. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Bibliography Drummond, G. and Ensor, J. (2005). Introduction To Marketing Concepts. Routledge. Lovelock, C. et al. (2010). Services Marketing, 6/E. South Asia: Pearson Education India. Reid, R. D. and Bojanic, D. C. (2009). Hospitality Marketing Management. USA: John Wiley and Sons. Singh, L. K. (2008). Marketing in Service Industry: Airline, Travel, Tours and Hotel. Gyan Publishing House. Read More