Service Marketing of UAE - Research Paper Example

Contents Introduction 2 Part 1: Tangible and intangible 3 Part 2: Challenges 6 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction UAE is one of the developed countries of the world. It has a high income level which contributes a lot in the development of this country. Different industries have established in this country which enhances its economic development. UAE has diversified economic condition. Its large population supports the growth of different industry. Political and social stability of this country has a strong impact on its industrial development. The country has experienced a high growth in its services industry segment. Different types of service industry are present in this country. UAE has a large number of labor forces who performs different activities of service industry for enhancing its growth. Major Service industries of this country are airline, hospitality, telecommunication, banking and financial services. Many companies have established their business in service industry segment. UAE has different types of telecommunication service. The country has various types of rules and regulations which controls this service industry. Internet and telephone plays a major role in this industry segment. In banking and financial industry the country provides corporate and retail financial service to its customers. This industrial sector of the country is highly developed. Many famous airline companies are present in UAE. It is one of the important service industries of this country. Excellent quality of service is provided by companies in airlines industry. UAE has many big hotels and hospitals are present in UAE which contributes a lot in the industrial development of this country. Part 1: Tangible and intangible Emirates Airlines (Airlines Industry) Emirates airline is based in Dubai. It is the largest airline company in Middle East. This airline is a subsidiary company of The Emirates Group. The company is owned by Dubai’s government. The Emirates was founded in 1985. Its main hub is Dubai International Airport. The company operates around 3500 flights in a week in approximately 78 countries of the world. This airline company is among top ten flight companies in the world in terms of kilometers and passengers (Goel, 2009). The company earns a huge amount of revenue for providing excellent quality of services to customers. Emirates also operate its flight service in four longest route of the world. It provides nonstop commercial flight services to those destinations. The company provides world class flight service to its customers with many modern facilities and benefits. The tangible element of this company is its flights. The flights of Emirates are divided into many classes which gives different types of services to its customers. The company has received many rewards for provides excellent quality of airlines service. Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (Telecommunication Industry) Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) is a major player in the Telecommunication Industry of UAE. The company was founded in 2005. It has its headquarters in Dubai. The company deals with different types of telecom products like mobile, fixed lines, telephone, digital television etc. Tangible elements of this telecom company are mobile, telephone and its digital products. By providing these varieties of services the company earns revenue around $2.77 billion. EITC has around 4.5 million of subscribers. The company is majorly owned by Emirates Investment Authority. Other owners of this company are Mubadala Development Company, Emirates Communications & Technology Company LLC and public shareholders. EITC also provides satellite and carrier service for different business. It is the second telecom company of UAE. The company has recently made partnership with Vodafone for enhancing its business operation. Dubai bank (Banking and financial Industry) It as an Islamic Bank based in Dubai. The bank was launched in 2002. The slogan of this bank is putting the first into banking. This company deals with many kinds of financial services and products. With the passage of time this firm became a financial institution which focuses on the country’s Islamic financial and banking sector. This Bank is a part of Dubai Group. With its different types of financial products and services the company has made a significant increase in its capital and revenue. Dubai bank has expanded its business in different parts of the country. Different plans and strategies are implemented by the company for improving its service and to acquire more number of customers. On November 2012 Dubai bank was acquired by Emirates Islamic Bank. Ruler of Dubai gave the order of this acquisition. The bank has approximately 10 branches across the country. In the present time Dubai Bank is known has Emirates Islamic Bank. Universal Hospital (Hospitality Industry) It is the largest private hospital in UAE. Universal Hospital has a huge contribution in developing the hospitality industry of the country. This hospitality company provides a high quality of services to the patients. The organization mainly provides intangible services. Different modern technologies are present in the hospital which helps to improve its different processes. It is multispecialty hospital having different sophisticated equipments and advanced infrastructure in its various departments. The hospital has modular operation theatres. It also provides the facility of robotic surgeries. This big hospital has different departments which helps it to deliver special treatments to its patients. Universal Hospital provides the service of dealing with patients for 24hours every day. The hospital has many talented and experiences medical professionals and different other types of employees who contribute a lot in providing excellent quality of treatment to patients. Universal Hospital believes in providing support and care to patients for building a healthy UAE. Le Méridien Abu Dhabi (Hotel industry) In the hotel industry of UAE, Le Méridien Abu Dhabi is very famous. This hotel was inaugurated 35 years ago by Queen Elizabeth and Sheikh Zayad. From that time the hotel has become a landmark in the country. This hotel is located in a very good and attractive location. It is an authentic Arabian Hotel which provides extra ordinary services to its guests. Le Méridien Abu Dhabi provides both tangible and intangible services. This hotel gives a high quality of food to its guests which are considered as tangible service. The design of this hotel is made in Arabian style. This hospitality company offers different types of facilities to its customers. Its resorts have long beach and attached garden. Its rooms are very spacious and have various modern facilities which provide memorable experience and high level of comfort to its guests. Part 2: Challenges Airlines industry faces many challenges in delivering its service to its targeted customers. Emirates Airlines of UAE is a major player of this industry. As a part of airlines industry this company also faces various challenges. The company mainly provides intangible service to its customers. The services and products which Emirates Company deals with are totally based on customer demand. The company needs to provide its flight services to those routes where passengers travel more. If the frequency of passenger travels fall in those route then company will incur a huge loss. According to gap model of service quality Emirates have to deliver customer driven service. The main challenge in this field is the company cannot invent its service products. For this reason Emirates has to understand customer expectations and design its service according to that. Figure 1: Gap Model (Gelder and Woodcock, 2003) The Airlines service provided by Emirates is intangible. Many big airlines companies provide same kind of High quality services to the passengers. As a result many strong competitors of Emirates have developed who provides same process of value creation. Emirates face different problems in distinguishing its service value from its competitors. The company has to deal with different issues which will improve its service quality within a specific cost and it will help them to differentiate its service from other airlines companies. As per the gap Model Company cannot communicate properly with customers regarding high quality of services which are intangible. It faces problem in show casting the quality of its service. The customer only can know about its service in details when they have practically experienced the service of Emirates. For this reason their always prevails a gap between external communication to the customer and actual service delivery of Emirates (Halpern and Graham, 2013). Service cannot be visualized easily. Emirates sometimes face challenges in making its customer understand about the company’s service. According to the customers need the company provides service which helps to satisfy customer’s needs and expectations. But creating positive consumer perception about its service becomes difficult for the company (Gelder and Woodcock, (2003). In this case the customers evaluate the service of Emirates on the basis of money the company have charged from them and develop an expectation according to that. All the customers do not have same expectations from the company. If the expectations of customers are fulfilled by Emirates then they become loyal customer to the company. They contribute a lot in its business growth. But if the company is unable to fulfill the expectation its customer then it becomes a big problem for Emirates. It faces the challenge of losing its customer base. This will lead to increase uncertainly in holding its business position. In Gap Model the gap between expected service and perceived service by the customer is related with this challenge. Customers’ perception can create a strong challenge for Emirates. Time plays a vital role in Airlines industry. In many situations the large airline company Emirates faces big challenges for managing time. Customers take the service of Airline Company for saving time and reaching their specific destinations at a short time. They pay money for getting the flight service on time. But in some incidents Emirates has experienced the problem of not delivery their service on time. Many factors are responsible for this problem. Some of the major factors are weather problem, security issues, technical problem in flights etc. All these factors delay the schedule time of flight arrival and departure. Passengers often do not try to understand these issues and want to get the service on time. This creates a gap between the customers and Emirates. As a result the company faces challenges in dealing with the service delivery and consumer’s expectations regarding the service. For customer time is money. When Emirates cannot provide its flight service to its customers at their convenient time it increases the service gap. Business and operation process of Emirates is conducted by nonphysical channels. Telecommunication and electronic channel plays a vital role in the business activities of the company. Emirates experiences different problems related to this business process. For major technical problem sometime the company is unable to deliver message to its passengers or provide them service (Proctor, 2014). As a result the customers don’t get proper service or information from the company on time. These factor influences them to form negative feelings about the company and its services. Overcoming this negative feeling of the customer regarding this issue is one of the vital challenges for Emirates. Here the service of the company is not bad but the technical process which the company is using for delivering the service is not appropriate in some cases. Figure 2: Overcoming challenges (Proctor, 2014) Emirates need to overcome these challenges for offering more effective service to its customers. The tangible service which the company is providing must be more accessible to people. This process will help the company to establish a clear picture of its service in the mind of its targeted customer. Emirates should maintain a high level of communication process with its customers for avoiding delay of delivering message and information. It will help the company to convert its passenger as loyal customer. The company has to implement different strategies like for understanding the mindset of customer. This will facilitate the Emirates to provide expected and reliable service. If the passengers are highly responsive to these strategies then Emirates can reduce its service gap efficiently. It will help the company to lead the competition. Figure 3: Promotional Tools (Gelder and Woodcock, 2003) It is also recommended to the company to use different tools of pricing and promotion for increasing the demand of its service because the business of Emirates is highly based on its customer demand. This strategy will help the company to acquire more customers. For overcoming the challenge of intangible service Emirates will have to focus more on the physical things associated with its business and advertise those things in details so that the company can differentiate itself from others. Emirates need to educate its customers about their service and its quality which will help them to choose right service. It has to find various effective ways for delivering its service quickly and on time. The company can use advanced technologies for this purpose. To deal with its technical problem Emirates needs to implement user friendly software or website. This will facilitate its customers for using it service proper which will help to reduce service quality gap. Conclusion UAE is one of the most developed countries of the world. Industrial growth of this country has contributed a lot in its development. Different types of industries are present in this country. High standard of living and high per capita income have influences the growth of UAE. This paper mainly deals with the service industry of UAE. This industry is divided in five parts like telecommunication, hospitality, airlines, hotel and financial services. These are the five major segments in service industry of UAE. A brief overview of companies like Emirates, Dubai Bank, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, Universal Hospital, and Le Méridien Abu Dhabi is given in this paper. All of these companies are very popular in different segments of service industry of this country. An analysis of Emirates airlines and its challenges are described in details. The company faces five major challenges for offering its intangible service to its customers. References Gelder, D. and Woodcock, P. (2003). Marketing and promotional strategy. UK: Nelson Thornes Goel, S. (2009). Airline Service Marketing. New Delhi: Pentagon Press Halpern, N. and Graham, A. (2013). Airport Marketing. New York: Routledge. Proctor, T. (2014). Strategic marketing: an introduction. New York: Routledge. Read More