Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts Service Marketing - Case Study Example

Running header: Service marketing Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts Executive summary In the contemporary world, most economies are anchored on provision of services. However, marketing of services is a bit tricky for the marketer due to its inherent characteristics. These characteristics include their intangibility, lack of ownership, perishability, heterogeneity and inseparability. This paper uses The Banyan Tree Hotel and Resorts in analyzing the aspects of the service element while evaluating the strengths, weaknesses as well as areas of improvement s that service marketing should incorporate. Started in the 1990s, BTHR is now a leading player in the luxury resorts market not only in Asia but also globally. Its growth strategy has included launching of new brands as well as brand extensions including spas, resorts, galleries and museums. As such, brand portfolio management is important for BTHR so as to preserve its distinctive identity and the strong brand image while expanding its market. This paper will therefore illustrate how BTHR has built a strong brand despite its little advertising using its environmental and social responsibility practices. The paper will then suggest how BTHR and indeed other service businesses can remain relevant in the market despite expanding to new markets and the ever increasing competition. 1. The success factors for Banyan The industry in which Banyan operates is a service industry despite being a very competitive one. Succeeding in a service industry calls for a lot of effort since a service is not tangible unlike a good. As such, service quality and brand differentiation are key to succeeding in a competitive service industry. There are many factors that have led to the success of Banyan resorts; Banyan’s Choice of target segment is a key factor for its success. Banyan recognized the price gap that existed in the luxurious resort market and hence was developed to feel this gap. As such, Banyan initially faced no competition since it was in a segment of its own. Serving the middle upper class consumers initially without having to compete was a critical factor for its success (Lovelock, etal. 2011). This coupled with constant innovation has made BTHR into what it is today. It should be noted that since its inception when it coined its original concept of villas for individual guests, Banyan Tree Hotel and Resorts limited has continued to be innovative in a bid to improve its offering. As such, Banyan offers superior feel and superior service quality to the guests and ensures that its unique traditional spa treatments remain part of the menu. These innovations provide the guests with unique experiences not to be found anywhere else. This is a key factor for its success. Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts limited undertakes aggressive internal marketing hence ensuring the brand is felt far and wide. Initially, the company hired an international marketing agency to market itself. The agency helped it develop its logo as well as developing its marketing tagline of “sanctuary for senses”. After the company acquired considerable recognition in the industry, the company changed its focus to internal marketing. This has seen everyone in the company own the brand which motivates them to offer high service quality. In addition, the company undertakes external marketing but any external marketing undertaken has to be strategic. This has been a key factor in Banyan’s success. Banyan’s positioning and branding strategy has also been instrumental in its success. Banyan positions itself as a “sanctuary for senses” while designing itself to provide feeling of romance of travel and the beauty of discovering the world. This is instrumental in ensuring BTHR’s success bearing in mind that most guests travel to be away from the modern day hectic normal lives. Banyan Tree Hotel’s and Resorts limited’s success has partly resulted from its adopting a pro-environment business strategy which not only conserves the environment but also makes use of the locally available materials in its construction works. This creates acceptance of the brand not only among the guests but also among the locals. In addition, the Banyan Tree gallery has been instrumental in marketing the Banyan brand given that the gallery is found in all of its facilities. Environmental responsibility coupled with corporate social responsibility has been key to BTHR’s success. Banyan has been involved in building schools, environmental conservation activities, job creation activities and construction of a library. All these activities serve in helping Banyan win support of the local communities, public interest groups and tourists and hence have been a key factor in its success. 2. Banyan Tree’s brand positioning and communication strategy Brand positioning refers to how BHTR presents its offering or how it is perceived in the minds of consumers in relation to the other brands in the market. In this regard, BTHR has positioned itself in two ways. First, the banyan brand has been positioned as a “sanctuary of senses” which provides a feeling of romance of travel and the beauty of discovering the world. The brand is promoted as providing romantic and intimate “smallish” hotel experience. This is a unique positioning since its competitor’s position themselves as providing luxurious accommodation. As such, its products and services are designed with the desired customer experience in mind. For instance, unlike other resorts, BTHR comprises of individual villas with private pool or spa treatment room designed to offer guest exclusivity and utmost privacy. Another unique offering by BTHR is the “intimate moments” package designed for couples and the banyan tree spas relying on human touch as opposed to energy consuming high-tech equipments. Furthermore, BTHR designs all its hotels and resorts with an aim of providing a sense of place to reflect and enhance culture and heritage of the destination (Chiu, 2013). This is depicted in their architecture, landscape, furnishings, vegetation and service offers. All this are aimed at enhancing the positioning the Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts uniquely as a “sanctuary for senses” providing a feeling of romance of travel and the beauty of discovering the world. Furthermore, BTHR’s product portfolio of beach resorts and city hotels, galleries, spas and museum shops as well as its brand portfolio of Banyan Tree and Angsana all serve to enhance its brand positioning. Secondly, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts limited has positioned itself as an environmentally sensitive and socially responsible brand/ resort. Its environmental and social responsibility is evident in its efforts to create brand ownership among the employees, its various environmental conservation initiatives as well as its initiatives targeting the local communities. These initiatives guarantee Banyan a good operating environment while ensuring that the guests get memorable experiences at all Banyan facilities. Being in the service industry, a memorable service experience would be vital in its success. . Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts brand communication strategy Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts use a very economical brand communication strategy. Part of the strategy is about using internal marketing through ensuring that the staff own the brand and hence they can offer high quality services to the guests hence enhancing the “sanctuary for senses” feeling among the guests. This enhances the memorable service experience to the guests which is vital for any service offering to succeed. Its environmental conservation and social responsibility practices all create a good public image and hence serve in marketing the brand especially among the local communities. Any external marketing is strategic and minimal mainly in high end travel magazines in key markets and mainly highlights it as the award winning Banyan Tree Spa. In addition, BTHR brand awareness is mainly achieved through public relations and global marketing programs. This kind of unique strategic marketing by BTHR has been instrumental to its success for its being economical yet highly effective. Banyan Tree can maintain its unique positioning in an increasingly overcrowded resorts market As stated above, one of the key success factors for BTHR is the fact that the entrepreneurs recognized a pricing gap that existed in the industry and hence sought to fill it. It should be noted that the brand provides memorable experiences for the guests especially in today’s world that is full of activities. BTHR’s brand positioning is therefore timely and appropriate in the present hectic and stressful lifestyles of the world. However, since its inception, many resorts have realised that such a brand positioning is highly effective and adopted it hence making the environment highly competitive for BTHR. This does not mean that Banyan Tree can not maintain its unique positioning in an increasingly overcrowded resorts market. However, BTHR has to continue providing highly innovative products to its customers. This is because innovation is key for the success of any service offering since services are highly dynamic. This will ensure that guests continue to get unique service experience at Banyan that appeal to the senses. 3. Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts central theme has been that of provision of the romance of travel and beauty of discovering the world. In line with this, BTHR has established a complex brand portfolio comprising of Banyan Tree, Angsana and colours of angsana (Palmer, 2005). To complement this, BTHR has a unique brand portfolio of beach resorts and city hotels, spas, galleries and museum shops. This portfolio fit as a family and work together in providing a “sanctuary for senses” providing romance of travel and discovering the world. In this vein, the Banyan Tree Hotels and resorts brand is targeted at providing services to the high end market of luxury resorts. This is the high end market and is in the same level with high class resorts like the Aman Resorts. On the other hand, the Angsana brand is more mainstream and contemporary and is targeted at the wider market or the middle level market. On the other hand, the colours of Angsana are a range of boutique hotels that are specifically targeted at catering for the soft adventure tourism segment. This is in the same leagues with the less expensive hotels like the Hilton hotels. On the other hand, the BTHR product portfolio is equally unique and complex and is found in each of BTHR’s brand. The beach resorts and city hotels provide services in different locations as the name suggests. The spas provide unique spa experience different from the traditional spa experiences while the galleries are part of BTHR’s environmental and social responsibility while serving to enrich the travelers’ romantic experience with a cultural experience (Kasper, etal 2006). As such, BTHR’s brand and product portfolio fit as a family and are vital in helping BTHR promote its Banyan Tree Experience- that is romantic and intimate. In addition, the portfolio not only allows BTHR to increase brand awareness in new markets and hence gain international momentum but also create a strong portfolio platform of sub brands which could serve as a source of long-term revenue generation. Recommendations for managing the brands and products in future; So far the above brand and product portfolio has been successful in making BTHR what it is today. However, BTHR’s future strategy is that of establishing a ‘string of necklace of resorts’ around the world. As such, I would recommend the following; i) Banyan Tree Hotels and resorts needs to adopt a management by brand strategy. This means that different brands should be managed separately. The management should analyze each of the company’s brands in terms of its strengths and hence market each brand where it is most likely to succeed. For instance, the Banyan Tree Hotels and resorts is known for promoting the Asian culture and hence these cultural offering is unique to the customer. However, not everyone may be well versed with the Asian culture. This suggests that if the company is to succeed in its future expansion plans, it would be advisable to retain the Banyan brand in Asia while the Angsana brand is marketed and established outside Asia. This is because the Angsana brand is more contemporary and although it retains some of the Banyan features, culture is not a strong part of the brand and hence it would be readily acceptable outside Asia. ii) Consider points of parity (POP) and point of difference (POD) - the banyan brand is known for its unique offering which includes such elements as the gallery, the traditional spas among other offerings (Neeru and Patterson, 1999). As it expands, BTHR should continue marketing itself using these unique points as its strengths while offering competitive prices to its customers as an added advantage. This way, it will be easy to market BTHR as the customers will easily identify with these points of differences as things they can not get elsewhere despite the pricing being competitive. iii) Refining brand positioning –the company’s original brand is the Banyan brand which has been marketed as a “sanctuary for senses” providing romantic experiences and the true taste of discovering the world. This has been largely based on the Asian culture. While this brand positioning has largely succeeded in Asia with Banyan brand, it may be difficult for it to succeed in markets outside Asia. As such, it would be prudent for the company to continue marketing the Banyan brand in Asia while the Angsana brand is modified to be marketed outside Asia as it will be easily accepted. References: Lovelock, C, Patterson, P&, Walker, R2011, Services marketing, An Asia Pacific perspective (5thEd.), NSW: Pearson Prentice-Hall. 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