4.

2 Assessment - JW MARRIOTT CASE STUDY

1) As a marketeer, after understanding this incident, what do you make out of the different
strategies / activities a Marriott property should have done?
 They should have used Defense Strategy to Protect their market share.
 They should have come up with an idea like giving a free fruit basket to their customer after
they book a room, using its weak fronts for a counter attack (Flank Defense Strategy).
 Or they could have Defend their market share by entering new market and create
diversification (Flank Defense Strategy).
2) Were they in a defensive or an attacking position?
 They were in Defensive position, Using Counter Offensive Defense Strategy As they got
Assess damage from a competitive attack and now, they have to respond with a stronger
impact (Counter Offensive Defense Strategy)
 As every competitor was attacking Marriott aggressively, they had no choice but to Defend
themselves
 Or it could be a position defence as being a market leader they now have to come up with
more innovations to maintain their position in market.
3) Assuming the role of a Competitor of Marriott or in other words a Market Challenger, you
know that the Market Leader Marriott is in a vulnerable/weak position after this incident.
What attack/offensive strategies would you implement against the brand Marriott to take an
advantage of the situation? Justify
 flank attack: JW Marriott mistakenly amounted 442/- for just 2 bananas and now it’s their
weak point, as JW Marriott is a market leader it’s the best time for competitors to attack on
JW Marriott at their weak point as OYO did by tweeting “When you can get a room for 449/-
you chose to buy 2 bananas, are you bananas?”. If This strategy goes the right way, can
result in increasing the rank in the marketplace and bring outstanding results for
Competitors.
 Guerrilla Warfare: Competitors will attack JW Marriott with small intermittent attacks with
an intention to harass or demoralize JW Marriott like Taj Hotels used Social Networking Sites
for publicity and to attack JW Marriott by tweeting “We serve all our guests with
complimentary fruits on the house”.