MARKETING STRATEGY OF TAJ

HOTEL AND RESORTS

2018-20

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Prof.Prakash Pandit Ashwini Harne
18BSP0208
 TAJ HOTEL AND RESORTS
Taj Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and a subsidiary of THE
INDIAN HOTELS COMPANY LIMITEDheadquartered at Express
Towers, Nariman Point in Mumbai, Incorporated by the founder of
the Tata Group, Jamsetji Tata in 1903,the company is a part of the
Tata Group, one of India's largest business conglomerates. The
company employed over 13,000 people in the year 2010.

As of 2018, the company operates a total of 100 hotels and hotel-

resorts, with 84 across India and 16 in other countries.

Vision Statement:
Be the best-in-class, one-stop, technology-driven, forward-thinking
Professional Conference Organizer, Educational tour specialist and
Destination service provider.

As a niche player, we must stand true to the CHIME values, be

innovative and offer a service mix at global delivery benchmarks.

Mission Statement:
To consistently deliver high value service offerings leading to strong
brand equity for CHIME and firm business relationships.
To create an environment of trust amongst our clients & CHIME
employees and encourage an ecology of creative, innovative,
technologically advanced, out-of-the-box-thinking.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths :
 Catering to multiple segments: The Taj Group of Hotels has
something that caters to all segment. While the TajVivanta
caters to the upper upscale segment, Taj the luxury segment,
Gateway the upscale and Ginger the economy segment. This
ensures that irrespective of income status all customers choose a
Taj Hotel for their stay.
 Business Philosophy: The business philosophy of the Taj has
primarily based on the premise that not everyone is the same.
Thus through clearly segmenting the market the hotel has been
able to clearly differentiate their offering not just to cater to
different income segments but also to different cultures.
 Amenities: The Taj Group of Hotels has a host of facilities in
all their hotels. Their hotels have a host of facilities for guests
like rooms, spas, jacuzzi, multi-cuisine restaurants, swimming
pools, pubs, resto cafes, fitness centers and banquet hall. Some
of their hotels also have mega convention centers with facilities
to host conferences for a huge gathering.
 Customer Loyalty programs: Quite unlike other hotel chains
who look at loyalty programs in the Taj Group the customer is
given a chance to earn points from all stays in all properties of
the group. The key feature of their loyalty program is the
automatic upgrade to a higher class hotel within the group. For
example, a customer who has been frequently staying in a
Ginger Hotel may get an upgrade to the TajVivanta or Taj if
they have sufficient loyalty points.
 Service Differentiation: The Tajresearch team has identified
around 155 touch points in customer service from the moment a
customer enters into their property till the time they leave from
there where there is a face to face interaction. The hotel chain
 has ensured that in each of these points there is a clear service
difference.
 Focus on the business class: The hotel chain realized the scope
for growth in business class travel and thus opened Taj
Residency a business class hotel. The hotel chain also moved
out to smaller towns and cities and this expansion has helped to
increase customer base of the business.

WEAKNESS :

 Customer Relationships: Hotels today need to be on their toes

in terms of customer relationship management. The key to
success today is a compilation of information of customers
which enables them to understand them better and give
personalized services. This is proving to be extremely costly for
Taj.
 Unequal growth across segments: While the economy and
upper upscale segment were registering good growth, the luxury
segment was still lagging. However, the maintenance and
upkeep costs of the luxury hotels are relatively higher and the
returns low. The hotel has been pumping money from their
medium segments for the upkeep of their luxury hotels.
 The high cost of maintenance: The maintenance costs of hotels
are growing and with a network of almost 100 hotels across
India and other properties in countries like Bhutan, Malaysia,
Maldives, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UAE, UK, USA, and
Zambia the cost of maintenance is becoming unaffordable.

OPPORTUNITIES :
  Growth in smaller towns: The Taj Group of Hotels is an
established player in the Indian market and the hotel chain
is expanding into smaller towns and cities a task which is
impossible for the multinational hoteliers.

THREATS :
Competition: The main competitors of Taj Group of Hotels are 
Oberoi, Sheraton, Radisson, Hilton, Wyndham Worldwide, and
Intercontinental Hotels.

MARKETING STRATEGY
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MGT(CRM)
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to
practices,strategies and technologies that companies used to manage
and analyse customer interaction and data throughout the customer
lifecycle,with the goal of improving business relationships with
customers,assisting in retention and driving sales growth.

CRM Tools used in TAJ

1.Guest preference sheet:
 At the time of the reservation a preference sheet is sent across to
the guest along with the reservations conformation mail
 This is primarily to capture the various preferences of the
customer such as food habits(diabeties/low fat etc.),special
needs etc. It also asks if the customer is coming on a special
occasion or not and arrangements are made accordingly made
on the visit
 e.g. If the guest is coming on a honeymoon or anniversary the
room is decorated accordingly,cake is placed in the room etc.

2. CRM Software :
 This is another important tool in improving the service of the
hotel and to capture guest complaints.If a complaint is
registered by a customer it is updated on the software.
 Gradually as the time lapses the status displayed turn from
green to yellow and ultimately red.This status can be seen by
any of the managers as the software is connected to the
central server. A daily Action Taken Report is generated
which is signed by the operational head.

3, Fidelio :
 Fidelio is the property management system used by Indian
Hotels Company Limited. Although it is used by for various
functions but it also plays an important role in the CRM
processes of the hotel.
 It is used for saving the profile preferences and special
information (Anniversary,Birthday,Allergies etc.)related to the
guest on the central server.
 This information is accessible to all the Taj properties;
therefore, whenever there is a repeat customer the hotel staff
already has all the necessary information enabling them to
delight the customer by personalized service.

4. Wow card:
  This is a special instrument used by personal butlers for
recording guest preferences other important information related
to the guest.
 This is a small booklet which is carried by the staff at all times
and whenever they get any information which can be useful in
the future to please the customer, they simple record it here.
 This information is further uploaded on the PMS making it
accessible to all.
5.GRE courtesy call :
 Once the guest is in hotel and stayed for sometime (a day or 2) a
courtesy call is made by the guest relationship executive during
the evening hours.
 This is just to know about the guest’s experience and how can it
be improved in case there is some difficulty being faced by
him/her.
 In case there is a complaint it is uploaded on the CRM software
and further processes are followed as mentioned above.

6.Room Feedback form :

 During the evening service/Turn-down service a feedback form
is placed on the bed to know aboy the customer experiences.

FUTURE PLANS
The Taj roup of hotels plans to expand its chain of hotels
internationally by adopting an asset light strategy which would see it
running hotels on long-term management contracts. The group plans
to raise Rs 50 crore in 03-04 by selling idle assets including small
non-performing hotels in its chain. It plans to use the proceedsfor
international expansion especially for taking up small stakes in at
least three to four hotels. Taj world-wide has eight hotels in the UK,
Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Oman and Dubai.