Independent University, Bangladesh

Service Marketing (MKT 350)

Group: Creative Concepts
Section 02
Submitted to: Suman Saha

Neshat Jahan Nishu 1630721

Saiful Islam Chowdhury 1711038
Kazi Naim Uddin 1531142
Md Azmir Afridi Khan 1821854
Fahad Abu Saeed 1822079
1) Write down the Summary of the case. [Md Azmir Afridi Khan ID-1630721]
Every company has to take a lot of challenges to survive in the competitive market. The
company has to take unique approaches to become more successful as the same goes for
Banyan tree hotels and resorts. BTHR was founded by Ho Kwon Ping and his wife Claire
Chang. Both of them are working in social related things which are a key to their success.
Ho Kwon Ping was involved in his family business for 15 years. As he involved in
sociology and social issues, he finds out that a low-cost strategy wasn’t only difficult to
follow but would also lead nowhere. Later on, he deiced to creating a brand. He researched
various resort rate. Based on his research he finds out a potential offer which is an
innovative niche product that could also bridge the price gap in the market. He and his wife
travel the world to get more ideas where they get the idea of individual villas, the local-
inspired architectural design which isn’t offered by resort and hotel companies.
Banyan tree hotel and resort found in 1994 in Phuket. They first started their journey with
one resort situated in a former mining site. After that, they invested $250 million to restore
it and successfully launched it in. They have faced many challenges. They cope up with
every challenge and never looked back. Banyan tree name comes from the story of Ho and
his wife. Banyan Tree bay was a fishing village in a place called Lamma Island. They live
there for three years and in the memory of romance and intimacy, they named their resort
as Banyan tree. Banyan Tree hotels and resorts are designed around the concept of
providing a sense of place to reflect and enhance the culture and heritage of the destination.
Besides, the company designed the resort to keep in mind that customer privacy and natural
environment. The overall design reflected as the rich flavor and luxurious feel. Banyan tree
hotels and resorts are built an environmentally friendly business model. They have done
lots of initiative such as avoid cutting down trees, provide nontoxic toiletries, recycled
wastewater. Besides, they planted trees and create awareness of climate change among the
local communities, associates and their guests.
Banyan tree hotels and resorts become successful by creating customers values, unique
offering and fulfill customer needs. They are offering private villas, tropical garden spas,
wedding, honeymoon, anniversary packages and retail galleries promoting traditional craft
which are considered a unique offer than their competitors. By early 2009, the company
start doing more operations by owned 25 resorts and hotels, 68 spas, 65 retail galleries, and
 two golf courses in 55 locations in 23 counties to give more services to the customers. By
doing these business operations company achieved many awards in many categories.
They don't much focus on advertising rather they create a high level of brand awareness
through the company’s public relation and global marketing programs. In terms of socially
responsible business values, they offer natural environments to their customers. In 2000,
the company become more successful by launching a contemporary brand called Angsana.
Later on, the company expands their business and divided the market segmentation into
various global scales. They represent Asian hospitality in the global market which is a
challenge for them. The company followed up a unique marketing approach which is travel
editors and writers were encouraged to visit the resort. This helped to increase editorial
coverage on Banyan tree. Besides, Company advertises in a high-end travel magazine and
highlighted itself as an award-winning Banyan Tree Spa.
In terms of creating brand ownership among employees, the company has done several
types of things. They trained employees on basic standards of five star services; provide
them with air-conditioned buses, high-quality canteens, medical services, and child care
facilities. They are following corporate social responsibility in a very good way. They are
involved in different kind of objects. Not only they are making a profit but also, they are
surrounding local communities are making a profit too. They purchase traditional arts and
handicraft from local artisans and sells to their customers. Based on the summary we’ve
found out that Banyan tree hotel and resort more than a service-oriented firm.

2) What are the main factors behind Banyan Tree’s enormous success? [Saiful Islam
Chowdhury ID- 1711038]

Banyan Tree are a few which were credited by the information on Ho and Chang
encounters on hotels that they had visited during their various travel. The principle factor
is the situating of this retreat. They made an unbelievable revelation that there was market
specialty that was not abused by the mega extravagant retreats, for example, Hilton and
Shangri-La and this become their point of convergence in building up Banyan Tree. The
market in this way required a private and cozy convenience which is separated from the
conventional assumptions for marvelous chain lodgings. Another factor is the manner by
 which their marking and situating system. Banyan Tree assembled their retreats and
lodgings utilizing the neighborhood motivated engineering configuration to enhance the
encompassing of the climate. The retreats and inns were configuration to impersonate their
area which carried the magnificence of nature to the visitors exactly at their entryway step.
It was situated as a heartfelt and cozy caper which drew visitors from the world given that
the couples who visited their retreats and inns will consistently have a heartfelt occasion to
recollect. The item and administrations plan and conveyance is another factor that drove
their prosperity. For instance the outfitting of the Banyan Tree manors was purposely made
to draw out the oddity of the neighborhood appearance and rich feel. Also, spa structures
in
• Strong brand,
• Focus in niche customers by offering high degree of luxury and comfort physical amenities
in the Resorts, Hotels and Spa.
• Employees who feel that they are the owner of Banyan tree and the caring and services
them take in addition to the free innovated environment they work in which help them to
add and develop from their services.
• The promise of intimate romance moments that they succeed in one of the most success
factors.
• Their social responsibility and being eco friendly give their brand power and loyalty

3) Discuss the Human Resource strategies used by the resort to make Provider Gap 3
smaller? [Kazi Naim Uddin ID- 1531142]

The Banyan Tree as a hospitality brand successfully minimized Provider Gaps. This is
evident insofar they did not advertise the brand aggressively, but still managed to gain
global recognition and success. Some of the Human Resource strategies for customer-
oriented service delivery used by them to make Provider Gap 3 smaller:

1. Developing People to Deliver Service Quality:

a) Training Employees for Technical and Interactive skills - They trained employees in the
 basic standards of 5-star establishments; starting from greeting people and remembering
their names to anticipating their needs. This sort of training is geared to make the service
more personal, and quite important in establishing The Banyan Tree in how it positions
itself as “intimate” over “luxurious”. They also recognized the difference in service
standard between developed countries and developing countries, due to the lack of
familiarity in service culture in developing countries. Thereby focusing on ingraining a
sense of hospitality in the employees over exact standards. Simply providing a standard
manual would have created a gap in service delivery and service standards.
b) Empowering Employees: One of the key aspects of their strategy was to establish
employee brand ownership, as employee empowerment increases the employee’s sense of
responsibility. They did this not in the financial sense but in cultivating care within
employees for the establishment and the property. One of the ways they did this was by
allowing employees to exercise creativity and sensitivity. An example of which was rather
than a strict standard bed decoration they were given room for experimentation while
keeping general guidelines of a premium resort in mind.

2. Hire the Right People:

a) Be the Preferred Employee: The Banyan Tree’s choice of brand values was adopted
carefully. Their decision to care for the natural environment, human environment and local
communities resonated across both consumers and employees. In turn creating pride and
respect within the employees. This is the sort of value that makes a company preferred to
the employee, while the employee is considering similar financial incentives from
competitors of the company. The fact that no employee was retrenched even during major
economic crises such as the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the dot.com
crisis, and the SARS crisis, helps them be a preferred employee in terms of job safety.

3. Provide Needed Support Systems:

a) Developing Service Oriented Internal Process - One of the things they do is to provide
some of the employees with the “Banyan Tree Experience” while training them. This
improved their understanding of creating the special experience for guests to increase
customer value and satisfaction.
4. Retaining the Best People:

a) Treat Employees as Customers: The staff welfare policies also helped create a sense of
brand ownership for the employees. The policies consist of things like air-conditioned
commute, high-quality canteens, medical services and child care facilities. Part of
enhancing the employee experience also includes the staff dormitories which are equipped
with televisions, telephones, refrigerators, and attached bathrooms.
b) Include Employees in Company’s Vision: Be it providing the employees with the
“Banyan Experience” during training or holistically communicating the hospitality Banyan
Tree stands for; they include the employees in the company’s vision. The CSR activities
which uplifts local communities also better aligns employees with the company’s vision as
many employees are likely to be sourced from said local communities. Not only do they
gain pride via this, but also likely to feel they are directly helping their community improve.
Aligning the employees in the company’s vision allows for them to create a culture of
hospitality where the guests are viewed as honored individuals who sustain the business.

4) Draw a blueprint for the resort and explain the steps and processes. [Fahad Abu
Saeed ID- 1822079]

The objective of the study was to observe the various touch points for a customer while
they check into Banyan Tree Resort, and study the service delivery process of the Check-In
services and all the other services provided by the resort to the guests. We collected our
data about the wide range of services currently offered by the resort through various
websites, magazines, YouTube-videos and reviews on many resort booking websites. Next,
we collated all the data and categorized it under different heads to be able to map out the
blue print. As we know, Banyan Tree have wide range of facilities like dining, swimming
pool, private beach, ayurvedic massage and spa, bar and other forms of cultural programs
to attract their targeted customers. They are making efforts to provide all necessary
information to their customer at the check in counter such as information about the
exchange rate, internet access, maps, laundry, etc. They have a well maintained and
properly functioning website for their customer with attractive service cape.
It all starts with the Banners &Road Sign (physical evidence) which indicates the presence
of the resort, after that they see the crucial physical evidence ( the Resort itself ) and also
the employees outside waving, greeting & saluting the customers; this far the action of the
customer is they physically arrived at the resort and the on-stage employee (valet) takes
the car key from the customer meanwhile the off stage work is in progress because the
valet parks the car in the parking without the customer watching. Support process is also in
play because they have to maintain the parking lot at all the times. Now comes the major
physical evidence, by this I mean now the customers gets to the Lobby (as it creates the
utmost impression created by the resort in the customers mind) then they complete the
check-in formalities hence the customer action is completed, the employee (on-stage) at the
reception desk process the registration support process is also in play as they access/verify
the booking from the reservation system. After that the customers are taken to their
rooms/private-villa escorted by employees here, the elevator, hallways, stairways are the
physical evidence in addition the room itself, and additional utilities inside the room are
also considered as physical evidence. The customer action in play is proceeding towards
the room and also looking into the room. The On-Stage employee action is the bell boy
who carries the luggage into the room and keeps them into the room. There is additional
 physical evidence such as various amusements, pool, spa, cafeteria, etc. The action taken
by the customer is they decide and order the food, they want pool time (many banyan resort
comes with private pool there no limited time is allocated), maybe the customers want SPA,
etc.
The On-stage employee takes the order, instructions according to needs; the Off-Stage
employee then passes the order to the kitchen, pool- time, SPA management body, etc.
The Support process then helps with preparing the food, time sequence of pool & SPA;
Again the Off-Stage employee takes the food from the chef and also the allocated time
from management body then the On-Stage employee interacts with the customers and
servers the food and also notifies about the pool-time / SPA or any other amusements. The
action taken by customers here is they enjoy the food, spa, pool, etc. The physical evidence
is the food they eat, the pool they jump into, etc. Next, the customer action is to let know
that they want to check-out, the On-stage scene is the bell boy carry the luggage & bags
then support process checks all essential procedures & make sure everything is in order.
Next in physical evidence we have the Billing, reception, lobby, etc. The customer action
here is they make the payment and most of the time they give tips to the employees if they
are genuinely happy with the service. The employee on stage helps with the checkout
procedures. In the end, the physical evidence is the hotel exterior, parking & salutations
again the On-stage employee action is they return the car to the customer. The customer
action here is getting on the car sometimes wait a while if the parking lot is very busy ( this
usually never happens as the car is parked outside in advance so that the customer don’t
have to wait ) then the customer gets into the car and leaves the hotel. Point to be noted
here is only the On-Stage employees interact with the customers. Meanwhile, the Off-Stage
employees interact with the support process and the employee On-stage to make the service
more smooth & streamlined.

5) What service marketing strategies you think the resort should execute to solidify their
position in the industry and fend off competitions? [ Neshat Jahan Nishu ID- 1630721]

The right kind of strategy will help a resort rise above the competition and solidify their
position in the industry. Three types of marketing strategies will help them achieve it.
 i. External Marketing: External Marketing is a way of promoting the business and service
and reaching as many people as possible who may be interested in the services that are
being provided. This type of marketing is most commonly generated through TV & radio
ads, flyers & brochures, social media and search engine advertising. An effective external
marketing can generate greater demand and increase revenue and profits. It can be used
to increase awareness of the service, or to highlight the benefits of the resorts offerings
over competitors. External marketing materials needs to be attention grabbing as it is
performed to capture the attention of the market and interest of the customer towards the
company’s services.

ii. Internal Marketing: Internal marketing is the promotion of a company’s objectives,

products and services to employees within the organization. Here the employees are treated
as internal customers who need to know the company’s vision and communicate that to the
outside world. The idea behind internal marketing is to earn employees enthusiasm by
creating an emotional connection to the brand. Employees that believe in the brand are
more likely to be more motivated, increase their productivity, and communicate their
enthusiasm to the clients. It has a huge impact on employee engagement and retention. In
turn, they provide their customers with a consistent and valuable experience. If everyone
within the company is motivated to sell/market/develop the product they work with,
business will likewise be positively impacted. Common internal marketing efforts include:
Ensuring that all employees know that their contributions are essential to the company’s
success, Providing adequate salaries and benefits, plus a pleasant work environment,
Acting on employee suggestions, Providing opportunities for advancement,
professional development and promotion and ensuring that the corporate culture is
consistent with work-life balance.

iii. Interactive Marketing: Interactive marketing is a one to one marketing process that reacts
and changes based on the actions of individual customers and prospects. It directs
exchanges between employees and guests. Interactive marketing is a big part of modern
day communications. It focuses on building relationships and having meaningful
interactions that go beyond the often cold and impersonal approach of traditional
marketing. It’s a very efficient way to enhance consumer engagement. The idea is to put
the customer at the center of the processes and enabling a feeling of inclusion and
collaboration. Interactive marketing is the most important part of the service marketing
triangle because it establishes a long term or short term relations with customers.