ANNEXURE B

Programme Code: BTS

Course Code: PTS6

Enrolment No.: 2006025587

Study Centre code: 709

Regional Centre: Nareina Vihar, Block-C, New Delhi-3

“Title of the study”

Project report submitted to the INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY in

the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Diploma in Tourism
Studies/ Bachelor’s Degree in tourism studies. I hereby declare that this in my
original work and has not been submitted elsewhere.

Signature of the Candidate

Name of the Candidate PANKAJ KUMAR CHANDRAVANSHI

Ranganathan Bhawan, C Block, Near CGHS Dispensary,
Institutional Address, if any Block-C

Naraina Vihar, New Delhi-110028

Year 2022
 ANNEXURE C

CERTIFICATE

Certified that the project report entitle “STUDY ON ITC GROUP OF HOTEL WITH
REFERENCE TO MARKETING STRAYTEGY” Submitted by PANKAJ KUMAR
CHANDRAVANSHI in his own work and has been under my supervision.
It is recommended that this project he placed before the examiner for evaluation.

(Signature of the supervisor)

Name: Tilakdeb Mukherjee

Address: 3rd Fl, 1770/7, Govindpuri Ext

Kalkaji, New Delhi - 110019

Study Centre:

Regional Centre:

Date:
 Programme Code :- BTS
Course Code :- PTS-6
Enrollment No :- 2006025587

PROJECT REPORT TITLE

STUDY ON ITC GROUP OF HOTEL WITH REFERENCE TO MARKETING

STRATEGY.
Project Report Submitted to the Indira Gandhi National Open University impartial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Diploma in Tourism
studies/Bachelors in Tourism Studies. I hereby declare that this is my original work
and has not been submitted elsewhere.

Signature of the Candidate

Name of the Candidate PANKAJ KUMAR CHANDRAVANSHI

Institutional Address : Ranganathan Bhawan, C Block
Near CGHS Despensary, Block C,
Naraina Vihar,
New Delhi, Delhi-110028
Year :2022

CERTIFICATE

Certified that the Project Report entitled ” STUDY ON ITC GROUP OF HOTEL
WITH REFERENCE TO MARKETING STRATEGY..” submitted by PANKAJ
KUMAR CHANDRAVANSHI is his/her own work and has been done under my supervision.
It is recommended that this Project be placed before the examiner for evaluation.

(Signature of the Supervisor)

Name………………………………………………..
Address……………………………………………..
Study Centre…………………………………………
Regional Centre……………………………………
Date…………………………………………………
 PROJECT REPORT

STUDY ON ITC GROUP OF

HOTEL WITH REFERENCE TO

MARKETING STRATEGY
SUBMITTED BY:

PANKAJ KUMAR CHANDRAVANSHI

2006025587

SUBMITTED TO:

PROGRAMME COORDINATOR (TOURISM

STUDIES), SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES,

IGNOU NEW DELHI, 2020-21

1
CHAPTER TITLES

NO.

I INTRODUCTION

II MARKETING STRATEGY: A THEORETICAL

OVERVIEW

II THE ITC HOTELS

II STRATEGIC ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OF ITC

LIMITED

III SWOT ANALYSIS OF ITC LIMITED

IV ITC AIMS FOR THE TOP SLOT IN HOTELS

BUSINESS

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

2
 CHAPTER:-1

INTRODUCTION

3
INTRODCUTION

Launched in 1975, ITC Hotels, India's premier chain of luxury hotels has become

synonymous with Indian hospitality. ITC Hotels pioneered the concept of

'Responsible Luxury' in the hospitality industry, drawing on the strengths of the ITC

group’s exemplary sustainability practices. Responsible Luxur personifies an ethos

that integrates world-class green practices with contemporary design elements to

deliver the best of luxury in the greenest possible manner.

The Responsible Luxury commitment of ITC Hotels blends elements of nature to

deliver a unique value proposition to guests, conscious of their responsibility to be

planet positive. Today, these unique interventions have made ITC Hotels the greenest

luxury hotel chain in the world with all its ten premium luxury hotels LEED

(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certified.

With over 90 hotels in 67 destinations, ITC Hotels has set new standards of

excellence in the hotel industry in Accommodation, Cuisine, Environment and Guest

Safety.

ITC Hotels properties are classified under four distinct brands:

ITC Hotels has an exclusive tie-up with Starwood Hotels & Resorts in bringing its

premium brand, the 'Luxury Collection', to India. ITC Hotels - Luxury Collection are

super deluxe and premium hotels located at strategic business and leisure locations.

The ten hotels which are part of this collection are: ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, ITC

Maurya in Delhi, ITC Maratha in Mumbai, ITC Sonar in Kolkata, ITC Grand Central

in Mumbai, ITC Windsor & ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru, ITC Kakatiya in Hyderabad

and ITC Mughal in Agra and ITC Rajputana in Jaipur.

4
WelcomHotels offer five-star hospitality for the discerning business and leisure

traveller. Currently there are three hotels under this brand namely, WelcomHotel

Rama International Aurangabad, WelcomHotel Vadodara and WelcomHotel Grand

Bay Vishakhapatnam. Two other WelcomHotel Sheratons - Sheraton Park Hotel and

Towers, Chennai and Sheraton New Delhi offer warm, comforting services to the

global traveller and a chance to connect.

Fortune Hotels operates mid-market to upscale properties in the first-class, full-

service business hotel segment all over India, in major metros, mini metros, state

capitals and business towns, promising business and leisure travelers a wide choice of

destinations and accommodation.

WelcomHeritage brings together a chain of palaces, forts, havelis and resorts that

offer a unique experience. WelcomHeritage endeavours to preserve ancient royal

homes and the historical Indian grandeur and opulence for the future Indian

generations. WelcomHeritage provides a fine range of hotel services inside these

architectural legacies present across India.

SCOPE OF STUDY

Marketing Strategies of hospitality

India has lots of luxurious as well as business five star hotels which are facing very

tuff competitions in today’s world. To face this competition, the hotels are using

innovative marketing strategies to improve their revenue and to face Market

competition.

 Basically marketing strategy provides the direction and guidance to

achieve marketing objectives of the firm.

5
 The analysis of marketing strategy can identify major competitors such

identification of major competitors would enable the firm to offer its

appropriately designed marketing mix in order to attained the objectives of the

firm.

 Marketing strategy also has functions of market segmentation. The

marketing strategies are helps to identify the market segmentations a well

defined marketing strategy clearly describes whom (customers and markets) to

serve and whom to exclude. Also what to serve (product and services)

and what to serve (which products or services to avoid or stop serving, if

such a products or a service does not bring the expected returns to the firm).

 Marketing strategies helps to minimize risk due to changes in

competitor’s strategies, changes in technology, changes in product and

services changes in consumers like and dislikes. If risk or contingencies take

place, the alternative strategies are put into action to minimize the risks.

 Marketing Strategies may have various sales promotional strategies to put into

action in order to face the challenges of the competitors strategies.

 Marketing strategy helps a firm to identify the competitive advantage. With

the competitive advantage. With the help of marketing strategy a firm can

identify the competitive differences on whose strength the firm can compete

effectively at the market place. A firm can enjoy competitive differences on

whose strength the firm can enjoy competitive differences in several areas

such as:-

 Corporate / Brand Image

 Product Superiority

6
  Services Superiority

 Distribution Network etc.

 Marketing Strategy also facilitates Organising, Directing, Controlling and

Short term planning of the Organising activities.

 Well defined marketing strategies can generate corporate image of the firm.

 Dedicated shows, channels, magazines, events, radios and celebrity

associations have created an aspirations attribute for wellness offerings.

 The basic function of marketing, sales, advertising and promotion is to find

and retain enough guests to maintain a profitable level of business. In large

hotels there is usually a full time marketing and sales division or department

regardless of the hospitality firms size, a continuous sales effort is required to

fill guestroom, dining rooms, lounges, and meeting space. Sales must never be

considered the sole responsibility of single individual, sales is an important

part of every employee’s job. In this age of new contribution and investment,

modernization, consolidation and merger, automation and growing

competitions the name of the game in the hospitality industry is to be “wearing

out the carpet” that is, bring in the business. Hospitality marketing strategy

include new material on a number of topics, services to customers and clients,

increase in market shares, product and services innovation and development,

enhancement of corporate image, promotional strategies, relationship

marketing, advertisement policy and public relation, customers satisfaction

and relationship, food and safety.

7
Today’s Hospitality Trend

Successful hospitality management requires innovative and strong marketing

strategies to face today’s competitive business market. The study trend is often

referred to as environmental scanning in marketing circles and is an integral part of

hospitality sales. Trends affecting the hospitality industry include the following:

Relationship Marketing

Partnership marketing and Strategic alliances

Technology

Guest Preferences

Media Planning

Globalization

Product segmentation and branding

Consolidation

Environmental awareness

Hotel industry

Any hotel groups are committed to display through their behavior and actions the

following conduct, which applies to all aspects of Hotels business:

The hotel groups promote corporate citizenship through their strategic public-private

partnerships. The causes Hotel groups are promote which include reducing

malnutrition, promoting indigenous artisans and craftsmen and enhancing

employability of identified target groups by sharing their core competencies as a

leading hospitality company. The hotel groups have unique scope and opportunity to

8
develop raw potential into a skilled workforce that is immediately employable by

various players in the hotel industry. A majority of their community projects are

focused around extending their key strengths in food production, kitchen

management, housekeeping, customer service and spas to promote economic

empowerment of candidates from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds. The hotel

groups are fully committed to the cause of building a sustainable environment by

reducing the impact of their daily operations on the environment and improving

operational efficiencies, resource conservation, reuse and recycling of key resources.

Normally hotel group’s use the highest ethical standards - intellectual, financial and

moral and reflects the highest levels of courtesy and consideration for others. The

hotel group are committed to meeting and exceeding the expectations of their guests

through there unremitting dedication to every aspect of service. Hospitality basically

puts the customers first, the company second and the self last. Also the hotels groups

are built to maintain teamwork, with mutual trust as the basis of all working

relationship. The hospitality industries main aims at leadership in the hospitality

industry by understanding its guests, and designing and delivering products and

services which enable it to exceed their expectations and always demonstrate care for

customers through anticipation of their needs, attention to detail, distinctive

excellence, warmth and concern.

Every organisation which is related to hotel industry they are more multinational

workforce which has been exposed to different cultures, problems and situations and

can use its experiences to enrich the local employees whether in India or overseas.

Basically hotel, responsive organizations encouraging decision making at each

level and which accept change an organisation which is conscious of its role in the

9
community, supporting social needs and ensuring employment from within the local

community.

In today’s competitive hospitality market it is especially important for properties to

increase their market share and profit. No business can afford to rest on its laurels, yet

many hotels and restaurant owners fail to recognize the benefit of having a good

marketing strategy plan. Having a great idea is not enough, sales advertising and

promotional and public relation strategies must be formalized in to a marketing

strategy plan but that can be communicated throughout the organization.

Marketing Strategies are necessary if a property hopes to effectively compete in

today’s market place. Marketing is the foundation upon which sales is built.

Marketing seeks out demand, identifies the products and services that will satisfy

demand and then employs strategic sales and advertising techniques to reach

customers.

If you try to sell without first utilizing marketing, we could easily sell to the wrong

markets. Without well define marketing strategy plan that is based on though research

sales affords may be waste. Since the marketing strategy plan is based on through

research sales efforts may be wasted. Since the marketing strategy plan is a guide for

the two primary means of selling hospitality properties, direct sales and advertising, it

is necessary to understand the marketing plans role in sales before delving into sales

and advertising methods.

Forces managers to think ahead and make better use of property resources

Services marketing like Quality, price and speed will be future mantras for survival

of companies.

10
 Considering the problems prevalent in hotel industry, each stakeholder needs to

have clear focus on issues corresponding to their area of operation.

Focus and media facilitator are undertake regular and appropriate communication

with the users.

Focus on building a business model which can be sustained from a financial point

of view.

Focus on providing support to enhance quality of the institutes and human

resources being trained by several institutions

Proliferation of media (print, television, event and radio) has contributed in

enhancing customer knowledge and increasing awareness about providers and their

offerings.

creates an awareness of problems and obstacles

Identifies opportunities to increase market share in some market segments and open

new opportunities to increase market share in some market segments and open new

opportunities in previously ignored area.

Sales responsibilities and coordinates and unifies efforts to reach the property’s.

Ensure that marketing and sales promotions and advertising are not wasted because

of misdirect efforts.

Helps evaluate the results of marketing and sales efforts.

11
OBJECTIVES OF MY STUDY

To study about ITC hotels.

To study about strategic analysis techniques of ITC hotels.

To study about SWOT analysis of ITC hotels.

After all that to prepare a chapter of bibliography & references because with

the help of all that references.

12
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, it is essential to articulate the

manner in which it is to be conducted, i.e., the research process is to be carried-out in

a certain framework. The Research Methodology, which follows, is the backbone of

the study.

Sources of data

The study utilized both primary and secondary sources of data.

Primary data

Data was collected specifically for the research need at hand. This includes:-

 Primary data collected by me;

 Interview with people know by me and friends and peoples;

 The subjects photography collected by me.

Secondary data

Already published data formed the launch pad for the study. This includes: -

i) Information from Books

ii) Information from Newspapers

iii) Information from Magazines

iv) Information from Website of the company

v) Any other data like collected by Internet.

13
 CHAPTER 2

MARKETING

STRATEGY: A

THEORETICAL

OVERVIEW

14
THE CONCEPT OF MARKETING

The ultimate purpose of production is the satisfaction of human needs and wants.

Production of goods and services become meaningless, unless they are distributed to

ultimate consumers. The goods and services should be transferred to consumers at a

time when they need them. Consumers can satisfy their needs and wants only when

goods or services reach in their hands at the time of their demand. Marketing helps in

doing so. Thus marketing makes goods and services more useful to the society by

getting them where they are wanted and by supplying them to those people who

want them. It is in this sense that marketing means all activities involved in the

creation of place, time and possession utilities. Place utility is created by transferring

the goods and services from the place of production to the place where they are

needed. Time utility is created by making goods and services available to consumers

at a time when they are needed. And the possession utility is created by transferring

the ownership and possession of goods and services from the manufacturer to the

consumer. Marketing, therefore, is concerned with all activities which are involved

in the process of transferring goods from the point of production to the point of

consumption.

In the modern market, customer is the king and he is the centre of all marketing

activities. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer and his needs

and wants. Hence, marketing is the process of formulating and implementing

strategies and policies to satisfy the needs and wants of customers to maximise profit.

According to Kotler, marketing is a social and managerial process by which

individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and

exchanging products of value with others. Thus, marketing is a human activity

directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange process. It is concerned with

15
exchange relationships in which the parties to the exchange are seeking to maximise

their personal satisfaction.

Marketing is practically a blueprint on how to operate the business successfully. This

is how a management policy that concentrates on the customer to ascertain his needs,

even influence these needs, and to satisfy them in a profitable way.

The concept of marketing has been growing multi-dimensionally and multi-

disciplinary. Moreover, marketing has permeated into each and every functional

aspects of the business. All these have contributed to the confusion that is

prevailing now on precisely defining the term marketing. Therefore, in order to have

better understanding of the concept marking, the following definitions deserve

attention.

The American marketing Association defines marketing as “the process of planning

and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and

services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organisational objectives”.

16
The British Institute of Marketing defines “marketing is the management

function which organises and directs all those business activities involved in assessing

and converting customer purchasing power into effective demand for a specific

product or service and in moving the product or service to the final customer or

user so as to achieve the profit target or other objectives set by the company”

The Institute of marketing has defined marketing as “the creative management

function which promotes trade and employment by assessing consumer needs and

initiating research and development to meet them. It coordinates the resources of

production and distribution of goods and services; determines and directs the nature

and scale of the total effort required to sell profitably the maximum production to the

ultimate user.”

Theodore Levitt defines “marketing focuses on the need of the buyer, selling focuses

on the need of the seller. Selling is preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert his

product into cash; marketing with the idea of satisfying the need of the customer by

means of the product and a whole cluster of things associated with creating delivering

and finally consuming it”.

William H Kaven defines “marketing is the business process by which the existing

and potential demand for goods and services is determined, cultivated, and then

supplied by the seller. The process includes the efforts of all functional areas of the

seller working in concert to produce at the right, tome and place the service or product

that meets the market’s demand and the marketers profit goals”.

David Weaver and Laura Lawton defined “marketing involves the interaction and

interrelationships among consumers and producers of goods and services, through

17
which ideas, products, services and values are created and exchanged for the mutual

benefit of both groups”

Salah Wahab defines “Marketing is continuous process which shapes and conditions

all enterprises activities to achieve the established objectives through consumer

satisfaction”.

Michael J. Baker defines “marketing is an enigma. At the same time it is both simple

and complex, straightforward and intricate a philosophy or state of mind and a

dynamic business function; it is new and it is as old as time itself”

Xavier M. J. says “Marketing simply means that a company should understand the

needs and wants of people and satisfy them. One need not be an expert in marking to

understand this simple and powerful concept”.

William H. Kaven defines marketing as “the business process by which the

existing and potential demand for goods and services is determined, cultivated and

then supplied by the seller. The process includes the efforts of all the functional areas

of the seller working in concert to produce at the right price, time and place the

service or product that meets the market’s demand and the marketer’s profit goal”.

Kotler defines as “the marketing concept holds that the key to achieving

organisational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of target markets and

delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors”

Kotler further defines Marketing Management as the analysis, planning,

implementation and control of programs designed to create, build and maintain

beneficial exchanges with target buyers for the purpose of achieving organisational

objectives.

18
An analytical view of the above definitions reveals that marketing is basically

associated with: exploration, identification and analysis of consumer needs and wants,

prediction of customer behaviour, converting customer needs and wants into effective

demand consumer satisfaction is preponderant as it is the gate to the profit goal,

creation or modification of the product or service to match such needs and wants,

development of a strategy that satisfies both customer needs and business objectives

and thereby widens the scope for reciprocal interaction, as a result a strong

relationship between the customer and seller can be developed, and Moving the

products to the final consumer or user so as to achieve the objectives set by the

organisation.

Therefore, the essence of the marketing concept is that organisations achieve

objectives by satisfying customers. With competition a fundamental aspect of market-

driven economies, the marketing perspective asserts that the key to achieving

organisational goals is for organisations to determine the needs and wants of target

markets and to deliver the desired satisfaction more efficiently and effectively than

competitors. In its simplest form marketing is a philosophy of doing business which

puts the potential customers at the centre of organisational strategy by saying that “if

we don’t have any customers then we don’t have any business. So it is the best

interests to build up good relationship with them that helps to know the customer and

to understand needs, wants, desires, preferences and demands.

19
SERVICES MARKETING

Marketing is often defined in terms of both products and services. Due to two reasons

marketing executives and academicians generally focus their attention on products;

first, in the industrial society products have determined the standard of living and

secondly, the services can be marketed in much the same way as products.

Therefore, in marketing concept focus has been on marketing of products rather than

services. However, the situation has been changed a great deal and in the post

industrial society, the service sector has grown rapidly and services are deciding

quality of life. Products can satisfy mainly physiological needs but to satisfy the social

and psychological needs services are required. Hence, it has been forced to design and

formulate strategies for marketing services.

A service is defined as any ‘activity that one party can offer to another which is

essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its

production may or may not be tied to a physical product’. Although the theory of

marketing has been argued to have universal value, in the sense that the same core

concerns and principles apply whatever the nature of business, it is widely accepted

that there exist certain differences in marketing approaches for products and services.

According to Rathwell Marketing is not concerned solely with tangible goods, it also

plays a similar role in connection with the distribution of services.

The service marketing activities are fundamentally different from the marketing of

goods. This holds true even though the service sector interfaces with goods such as

debit cards, ATMs, duty free merchandise etc., and notwithstanding the fact that many

important marketing principles are equally applicable to both goods and services. In

general, the key marketing characteristics that distinguish services from goods are;

intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability.

20
a) Intangibility: In contrast to physical products and goods, services have

intangibility, they cannot be directly seen, tasted, felt or heard prior to their purchase

and consumption. Furthermore, customers usually have only a receipt, a souvenir

or other memorabilia such as photographs in evidence that they actually had that

experience.

b) Inseparability: services are characterised by inseparability, meaning that production

and consumption take place simultaneously and in the same place. This is

demonstrated by the flight of a passenger abroad an aeroplane or by a guest’s

occupation of a hotel room. Because the consumers and producers of these products

are in frequent contact, the nature of these interactions has a major important on

customer satisfaction levels.

c) Variability: Tourism services have a high level of variability, meaning that each

producer –consumer interaction is a unique experience that is influenced by a large

number of often unpredictable human element factors. These include the mood and

expectations of each participant at the particular time during which the service

encounter takes place.

d) Perishability: Services cannot be produced and stored in advance for consumption

in the future. Because production and consumption are simultaneous process. Empty

air-car seats, for example, are a permanent loss for ever as that cannot be recouped in

the next time.

21
TOURISM MARKETING

Tourism is a very complex industry because of its multi-faceted activities which

together produce the tourist product. It is also because of various sub-sectors such as,

lodging, transporting, entertaining, etc. that are in themselves complete industries, if

considered independently. Its complexity furthermore, lies in the fact that tourism

promotion in its various forms has to be directed at large numbers of people in various

lands of different socio-economic structures, having different needs, tastes, attitudes,

expectations and behaviour patterns. It is only efficient marketing strategy that will

help to understand people’s taste and preference for travel and, hence the need for

tourism marketing.

As tourism is a mere service, no serious difference is there from any other service

belonging to the tertiary sector. Tourism marketing can follow the same principles of

general and services marketing because they are customer oriented. Thus, the

important decisions in the marketing concept are customer oriented where the

tourist organisations think and plan in terms of the benefits sold rather than the

product. When it aligns the concept of marketing in the tourism business, it is known

as tourism marketing.

22
Defining Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing is defined in a number of ways a few among them are given below

as they seem to be important.

According to Krippendorf, marketing in tourism means “systematic and coordinated

execution of business policy by tourist undertaking whether private or state owned at

local, regional, national or international level to achieve the optimal satisfaction of the

needs of identifiable consumer groups, and in doing so to achieve an appropriate

return.”

Salah Wahab and others defined tourism marketing as “the management process

through which the National Tourist Organisations and/or tourist enterprises identify

their selected tourists, actual and potential, communicate with them to ascertain and

influence their wishes, needs, motivations, likes and dislikes, on local, regional

national and international levels, and to formulate and adapt their tourist products

23
accordingly in the view of achieving optimal tourist satisfaction thereby fulfilling

their objectives.”

In the view of Burkart and Medlik “tourism marketing activities are systematic and

co-ordinated efforts extended by National Tour Organisation and/or tourist enterprises

or international, national and local levels to optimise the satisfaction of tourist groups

and individuals in view of sustained tourism growth.”

Lumsdon suggests that “tourism marketing is the managerial process of

anticipating and satisfying existing and potential visitor wants more effectively than

competitive suppliers or destinations. The management of exchange is driven by

profit, community again, or both; either way long-term success depends on a

satisfactory interaction between consumer and supplier. It also means securing

environmental and societal needs as well as core consumer satisfaction. They can no

longer be regarded as mutually exclusive.

In the WTO seminar, held at Ottawa in 1975, defined tourism marketing as a

management philosophy, which in light of tourist demand makes it possible through

research, forecasting and selection to place tourism products on the market most in

line with the organisations purpose for the greatest benefit.

Bhatia, A.K. defines tourism marketing through his book International Tourism

Management as “systematic and coordinated efforts exerted by the national tourist

organisations and/ or the tourist enterprises at international, national and local levels

to optimise the satisfaction of tourists, groups and individuals, in view of the

sustained tourism growth.”

In view of the aforementioned definitions, tourism marketing emerges the

following points:

24
It consists of identifying potential and actual consumers (tourists) and to know their

needs, wants, desires, preferences, and demands to satisfy them in a decent way.

Achieving the objectives through tourists’ optimum satisfaction.

An integrated effort to satisfy tourists by making available to them the best possible

and desired services.

A strategy to transform the potential tourists to actual tourists. It helps to generate

demand and expand market.

Ensures the coordination of all stakeholders with each other in order to achieve

maximum benefits and the optimum utilisation of the best resources available.

Makes possible efforts to harmony between the social interest and the

interaction of tourist organisations.

It involves in promoting business and feeing the organisation necessary information

for framing and revamping the marketing decisions.

Tourism Marketing Process

The tourism marketing process involves several steps that can describe briefly as

follows.

The first step in the tourism marketing process is to carry out a Corporate

Environmental Analysis, which implies that a company should decide its vision,

mission, goals and objectives. The goals are determined after conducting an objective

study of the current economic and market environment, whereby, the company

examines its strength and weaknesses in relation to the existing competition. It must

also study the threats as well the opportunities of the business to be carried out.

25
The second step will be to identify the customers, who will buy the products, where

they live, what they want, what are their needs, etc. These can be identified by

conducting a Market Research, which implies that it is the systematic collection of

information about the customers, competitor and product by the organisation to

formulate important decisions about its policies and objectives. A tourist product

cannot be used by everyone, and many people cannot afford it. Therefore, marketer

must understand very well about his product, its customers and the competitor’s

products through a market research.

The third step is to look for the type of customers to be focussed. Are the customers in

a particular age group? Are they professionals? Are they interested in adventure

tourism or looking for cultural experience? And, who can be afforded the product?

This is called Market Segmentation. It is the process of through which an organisation

is able to identify the group/groups of customers to whom the product will appeal.

There are a number of ways to segment the tourist market, on the basis of age,

profession, interests, sex, etc. The organisation, therefore, will focus its promotional

efforts on the segment identified.

The fourth step is the Development of Product. The organisation develops the product

to suit each segment of the customers. The product must meet the needs and wants of

the customer in the targeted segment.

Pricing is the fifth step. The organisation must price the product attractively to interest

the customers. The price should be affordable to customers we seek.

Next step is Distribution. Where does the organisation sell the product, in which area

and through what kind of sales network? The product should be easily accessible to

enable potential customers to buy it.

26
The last but most important part of the marketing process is to make sure that

potential customers know about the product. It is called Promotion, which includes

every aspect –mass-media, advertising, public relations, press releases, direct mail,

etc., to draw the attention of customers to the product.

Objectives of Tourism Marketing

No organisation or human activity can be imagined without well defined objectives.

Marketing, therefore, as a management policy, has to be guided by well formulated

objectives. But setting up these objectives is not an easy task as they differ from one

field to another. Likewise, marketing objectives will differ depending on the stage of

tourist development of a country, its tourist products, its tourist organisations and

management.

According to Barker and Anshen the noted marketing experts, the end of all

marketing activities is the satisfaction of human wants. From this statement it can be

interpreted that the main objective of tourism marketing is the satisfaction of tourists.

If an organisation succeeds in satisfying the tourist, the established objective of

that organisation can be realised without much efforts and the expansion of

market becomes natural. Following may be the multi-faceted objectives of

tourism marketing.

a. To satisfy the customers or tourists, as it is the basic philosophy of tourism

marketing and it is the heart of tourism industry.

b. To make optimal utilisation of the available resources resulting operational

efficiency.

c. To maximise profit in the long run as it is the core strategy of the

organisation.

27
d. Balanced tourist growth and reinforcement of the economic impact of

tourism by correlating the supply position with that of the demand position.

e. To have competitive advantage and attaining market leadership.

f. Security and balance in the social and economic development plan.

g. As tourism inflow has a direct relationship with the image of destination, another

important objective of tourism marketing is projection of fair tourist image.

Rules for Successful Tourism Marketing

Tourism is an important economic activity because it brings foreign exchange. It

continues to be a fast growing sector and is typically included among the top three

industries in India. In addition, tourism provides a “front-door” to non-tourism

economic development efforts such as business recruitment. Roger Brooks,

recognized expert in tourism marketing spoke about rules for success at the 2004

Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Green Bay. Below is presented a

summary of his keynote address titled 15 Immutable Rules of Successful

Tourism.

a. Success Begins With a Good Plan: Creating a Tourism Development and

Marketing Plan is the first rule for successful tourism. The plan should include several

details like product development, upgrades and improvements, repositioning and/or

branding, attractions and events, visitor amenities and services, marketing and public

relations, public/private partnerships, recruitment, funding and budgets, and

organizational responsibilities. The plan should integrate existing comprehensive

plans and economic development and Main Street efforts.

b. Importance of Front-line Sales: The front-line employees can be the most valuable

sales team. This is because they establish the first contact with the customer. The

28
front-line employees should be knowledgeable about the community and should

promote other stores, attractions and amenities to visitors to keep them in the area

longer.

c. Critical Mass: In order to attract and keep visitors in the community, there must

be several retail and dining establishments within walking distance. Shopping and

dining in a pedestrian setting is one of the top activities for visitors. An average rule

of thumb for rural communities is to have nine retail stores and four dining/treats

establishments within two or three blocks.

d. Turn Negatives Into Positives: Almost every community and attraction has its

challenges. Think creatively on how to convert these negatives into positives. That

can then attract people to the area using clever promotional tactics.

e. Be Unique: In order to be successful, it must be worth the trip. A visitor must be

able to differentiate the firm from the competition and it must strive to be creative and

set itself apart from others. Being unique will make a visitor travel the extra distance.

f. Telling Stories: Museums and interpretive centres should always tell stories, not

just display artefacts. Stories can keep visitors in the area longer, which means

additional spending. Visitors also remember stories, and captivating stories are told

and passed on to others. More people pick destinations by word of mouth than any

other method.

g. Four-Time Rule: People are willing to travel a distance if anybody offers

something that appeal to them. There should be enough for visitors to see and do in

the area. In general, it should be able to keep visitors busy four times longer than it

took them to get there.

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h. Marketing vs. Product Development: Before market the community, make sure it

is appealing to customers. If the product is not of great quality, then the marketing

efforts are wasted. Product development should always be a top priority, and it never

ends. Having a good mix of product development and marketing is also important.

i. Selling the Experience: Always sell the experience associated with an activity and

not the place. If it is using pictures in the marketing campaign, avoid using scenic

images. Scenery lasts in the mind for only a few moments. Instead, use images of

people laughing and having fun. Viewers are more likely to remember images

that include people’s emotions.

j. Branding: Even at the community level, branding is critical for success in tourism.

Branding is much more than just a logo; it is what sets apart from the competition, it

is the image and the value. Do not try to be “all things to all people.”

k. Wow Photography: Nothing sells tourism like great photography.

Photographs used for tourism purposes should have a “wow” appeal in the viewer and

should make the viewer want to go to the place depicted. As mentioned earlier, it is

trying to sell an experience and the photos should evoke emotion in the viewer.

Photography should be the key element in brochures, public relation efforts, and

especially on the web.

l. Close the Sale: Most communities and attractions spend a significant amount of

money on advertising. The primary “call to action” in advertising is to get the

potential customer to call and get a brochure, or for them to visit the web site. If this is

the case, the brochure and web site should be good enough to close the sale.

Otherwise, the advertising effort is largely wasted. Pay attention to certain small

details while advertising.

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m. Public Relations: Even though it needs both, publicity is much more important

than advertising. Implementing a professional public relations campaign can have

several benefits: it will build brand, improve the image, increase credibility and

will provide a greater return on investment than advertising alone. Public relation is

how to build the brand and advertising is how to maintain the position. Studies show

that for every Re.1 invested into a public relations campaign, you get Rs.3 in return.

n. Effective Web Sites: The Internet is by far the number one resource for

planning travel and vacations. If there is a tourism related web site, can the potential

customers find it easily on the Web? How does the web site compare with the

competition? Make the online experience interactive for the customer and remember

to promote attractions, not just the place or the organization.

o. Frequency in Advertising: Frequency is more important than variety in

placing advertising. People viewing the advertisement should develop Top of Mind

Awareness (TOMA).

TOURISM MARKETING PLANNING

The marketing planning undoubtedly provides a sense of direction, organisational

leadership and an agreed framework for the conduct of tourism business in the ever

changing and competitive market environment. Although, in recent decades tourism

has become an industry and has been on a continued growth trajectory, the growing

uncertainties in the world of tourism industry such as unpredictable market

behaviours, greater regionalisation, market shifts and changing consumer priorities,

and economic slowdowns requires a greater need for tourism marketing planning.

Tourism industry is experiencing pressures of consolidation, concentration and

31
integration which necessitate the need for a greater scrutiny of market environments

and to have a detailed marketing planning.

According to Cooper et al (1998) the most important activity of marketing

management is planning that provides a common structure and focus for all of the

organisations in marketing activities such as:

Provides clear directions to the marketing operations based on a systematic,

written approach to planning and action.

Co-ordinates the resources of the organisation.

Sets targets against which progress can be measured.

Minimises risk through analysis of the internal and external environment.

Examines the various ways of targeting different market segments.

Provides a record of the organisation’s marketing policies and plans Thinks about the

long-term business objectives so that the organisation plans to be in the best position

to achieve its future aims.

In addition to the above said contributions, Drummod and Ensor (1999) state that

marketing planning requires consistency, integration, communication, motivation and

control. Consistency is important because it provides a common base to work from;

the overall decision-making process should be enhanced. Likewise,

integration should engender co-ordination of the marketing mix elements of the plan

and ideally serve as a catalyst for synergy among the individual components of the

mix. The plan should also be communicated to both external and internal stakeholder

groups in generating a sense of ownership among the stakeholders, and finally, some

form of control is the criteria by which success is to be determined and defined. These

32
points are also emphasised by Cooper et al, and who argue that the marketing plan

requires control over the changes that have to be made.

TOURISM MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS

The tourism marketing planning process can be subdivided into three key sections

such as corporate strategic or situational analysis, development of the marketing

strategic options, and the implementation, evaluation and control of strategic

choices established. The first section of the marketing planning process involves the

situational or corporate environmental analysis, which discusses the corporate vision,

mission and goals; make a detailed analysis of the external and internal environment

of the market through market audit; conduct the business situation analysis through

the SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threat) analysis and PEST

(political, economical, social and technological) analysis to create the objectives;

development of marketing mix strategies, its implementation, evaluation and control.

Then the second section purely talks about the marketing strategies- what are the

different approaches to formulate marketing strategies, what are the different

marketing strategies suited for tourism organisations etc.

33
TOURISM MARKETING STRATEGY

Strategy: As a Concept

The word strategy is a term related to warfare. The appropriate application of

‘strategy’ is a plan to win a war. But in the business world, it refers to plans relating to

marketing, financing, and manufacturing operations and their efforts to win the

biggest possible share of the targeted market. The field of strategic planning is much

wider. It deals with the adjustment of controllable factors like production, physical

distribution, promotion and pricing within the environment of uncontrollable factors

such as competition, economic situation, legal barriers, interference of different

behaviors and scientific and technological differentiation.

The term strategy is derived from the Greek word “strategos” which means

generalship i.e. the actual direction of military force, as distinct from the policy

governing its deployment. Therefore, the word strategy means the act of the general

i.e. how to make a plan for most effective action. However, in business parlance there

is no definite meaning assigned to strategy. It is often used to mean a number of

things. The concept of strategy has been defined differently by many experts,

important among them are given below.

Alfred D. Chandler (1962) defines strategy as “The determination of the basic long

term goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of the course of action and

allocation of the resources necessary for carrying out their goal”

This definition by chandler refers to three main aspects:- Determination of long term

goals and objectives. Adoption of course of actions to achieve these objectives.

Allocation of necessary recourses for the adoption of these courses.

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In the words of Kenneth Andrews, strategy means “The pattern of objectives,

purposes, goals, and the major policies and plans for achieving these goals, stated in

such a way so as to define what business the company is in or is to be and kind of

company it is or is to be”

Andrews defined strategy in business context, which states the current and desired

future position of the company and the objectives purposes, goals, major policies and

plans required for taking the company from the present position to the position where

its aim is.

Igor Anosaff (1965), a contemporary of Andrews explained the concept of strategy as

“the common thread between the organizational activities and product markets as

above that defines the essential nature of business that organization was planned to be

in future” The definition according to Anosaff, laid emphasis again on current and

future of business, with an addition that this definition has included diverse

organizational activities including products and markets.

William F. Glueck (1972) gives a brief definition for strategy that “A unified

compression is given and integrated plan designed to assure that the basic

objectives of the enterprise are achieved” This statement lays down emphasis on the

following points:

Unified plan: this refers to all parts of organization joined together to achieve

one aim.

Comprehensive Plan: this means every aspect of the enterprise is covered while laying

out plan.

Integrated Plan: i.e. all parts of the plan are compatible with each other.

35
Arthur Sharplin (1965) Sharplin defines strategy as “a plan or course of action which

is of vital, pervasive or continuing importance to the organization as a whole”.

It is observed that there are as many definitions of strategy as there are experts.

However, the approaches of different authors have changed from time to time. Thus

there is no single definition, which can be compiled by combining the definitions

given by different authors. However, there are some elements, which are important

for studying the concept of strategy. In the light of the above definitions the concept

of strategy can be analysed as:

It is a plan or course of action or set of decision rules for making a pattern or creating

a common thread. This pattern should be related to organizations activities

whichever derived from policies, objectives, and goals.

Concerned with pursuing those activities which move an organization from its current

position to a desired future state.

Concentrate with the recourses necessary for implementing a plan or following a

course of action.

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its

limited resources for the greatest opportunities available to increase sales and

achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be

centred on the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal of marketing. A

marketing strategy can serve as the foundation of a marketing plan which

contains a set of specific actions required to successfully implement a marketing

strategy.

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A strategy consists of a well thought out series of tactics to make a marketing plan

more effective. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of

marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives which

have measurable results. It is possible to write a tactical marketing plan without a

sound and well-considered marketing strategy, but without a sound marketing

strategy a marketing plan has no foundation. A marketing strategy often integrates an

organization's marketing goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive

whole. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially

planned and partially unplanned.

Tourism Marketing Strategy

The most important objective of any tourist enterprise is to achieve maximum return

to stakeholders. This will depend on a properly conceived marketing plan and

strategy. In tourism marketing planning process it has been vividly described.

Through the market segmentation process appropriate targets are identified and

analysed. The marketing strategies attempt to penetrate and persuade the target

markets through the marketing mix element namely promotion. Similarly the

buying decisions of customers will be greatly influenced by certain elements of

marketing mix which include product, price, place and promotion.

Tourism Marketing Mix

Marketing strategies consists of a mixture of ingredients that has been called the

marketing mix. Marketing strategies for tourism products can be formulated by

analysing the elements in the marketing mix, which includes product, price, place and

promotion. But various researchers commented that this 4 Ps concept of marketing

mix developed by McCarthy in 1978 is insufficient for tourism marketing. As a

37
result in 1981 Boomi and Bitner adopted a 7 Ps concept for marketing tourism. They

added three more variables namely physical evidence, people and process. The

particular combination of the tourism marketing mix used by any organisation needs

to offer it a competitive edge or differential advantage in the target market segment.

This means that the marketer is creating something unique that the potential customer

will recognise and value, and something that is distinguishable from competition. The

edge or advantage may be created mainly through one element of the mix, or through

a combination of them. Each of the 7 Ps in tourism marketing mix are discussed

below.

Product

In marketing or consumer centric-perspective, the product is an amalgam of

benefits, utilities, and satisfaction. This is particularly sensitive in the tourism

marketing context; where the consumer is buying into seem-less experience in which

no boundaries are obvious to them between their accommodation, transportation and

overall holiday experience. Hence, the formulation of a sound product strategy is, of

course, a challenging task before the tourist organisations. The product strategy

involves quite a range of things that have a bearing effect on the buying decisions of

the tourist, which includes products range, product mix, quality of product, product

level, brand name, new product design and development and launching of the new

product.

Price

As far as the tourism products are concerned, the pricing decision strategy

becoming more critical due to the increasing complexity of tourist markets and the

high degree of product intangibility often reduces the number of alternatives basis for

38
comparison by customers. The pricing of tourism products also have to take into

account the complexity created by seasonality of demand and the inherent

perishability of the product. Therefore, when it comes to determining the pricing

strategy to be adopted, a number of options exist. The key approaches to pricing in the

tourism industry are:

a. Cost-plus pricing b. Marginal pricing

c. Demand based (differential) pricing d. Price skimming

e. Penetration pricing

f. Product line (port-folio) pricing

g. Business to business (supplier) pricing

Place (Distribution)

In the tourism context the place or distribution element of marketing mix means the

routes of exchange through which a tourist accesses, books, confirms, and pays for a

product or package. The two most common form of intermediary in the tourism

industry are the tour operator and the travel agent. The tour operators bring together

the essential components of a holiday and make those holiday products available

through various out lets of distribution like traditional retail travel agents. In

determining the most suitable strategy with respect to distribution, certain factors

need to be considered. These include:

a. The nature and particular characteristics of the market.

b. The commitment of resources necessary to implement the strategy.

c. The nature and intensity of competitor activity.

d. The balance to be achieved between cost and control

39
e. The overall portfolio of distribution channels used by the organisation with regard

to number, type, cost and potential.

In tourism marketing, the two main strategic choices exist. The former is to adopt an

intensive, selective or exclusive distribution strategy regarding outlet types and

numbers, while the latter is to adopt a push or pull strategy which is fundamental to

all tourism related organisations. A push strategy focuses on distribution outlets,

urging them to sell to the tourist, while a pull strategy is directed at generating tourism

demand and then sucked through the appropriate distribution outlets.

Promotion

Among the elements of the marketing mix, it is the role played by promotion that has

been instrumental to the growth of modern mass tourism. As with all elements of the

marketing mix, however, integration with these elements is imperative for success.

The same will be in the case of marketing communications, which represents the

promotional elements of the marketing mix. Therefore, when it comes to selecting

the most appropriate strategy or techniques to convey the desired massage and induce

a response from target markets, a variety of choices are at the disposal of tourism

marketers, which include

Advertising Personal selling Public relations Sales promotions Direct marketing

Database marketing

People

The people element of marketing mix is significant because it contributes most to the

variability of the tourism products from a service encounter context. This applies

to interaction and relationships between tourists, employees of tourism organisations,

and the host community at destination level. The interactions and relationships

40
between these three key people group will impact significantly on the level of product

satisfaction experienced by the visitor. So the marketing mix needs a through

behavioural analysis with impetus on training, commitments, discretion and

appearance of these three groups of people.

Process

In addition to people, the process element is frequently instrumental in the final

delivery of the service encounter. Other essential components of the value chain such

as booking system, payment system, queue management and visitor-flow techniques

and the area of interpretation are examples for the process component of marketing

mix in tourism context. In most instances of the tourism marketing the process

element of the marketing mix is involved. Instrumental to the effective delivery of the

tourism product encounter, marketers required to make strategies to identify these

incidents critical in engendering a positive experience outcome for tourists.

Physical Evidence

The final element of the extended marketing mix advocated by Boom and Binter is

represented by physical evidence. In many aspects of tourism, the physical

environment is a core component of the tourism product. Due to the intangible nature

of tourism products, the physical evidence aspect of the marketing mix is more

important to influence purchasing. The physical evidence is significant because

of the under lying principle of simultaneous provision and consumption.

41
 CHAPTER:-3

THE ITC HOTELS

42
BACKGROUND

In 1975, the ITC, a largely tobacco company, launched its Hotels business with the

acquisition of a hotel in Chennai which was rechristened 'ITC-Welcomgroup Hotel

Chola' (now renamed My Fortune, Chennai). The hotel chain was previously called

Welcomgroup Hotels with the advertising line, ‘Nobody Gives you India like we do’

but was subsequently changed to ITC Hotels, as part of the organization’s corporate

strategy.

The objective of ITC's entry into the hotels business was rooted in the concept of

creating value for the nation. ITC diversified to the Hotels business for its potential to

earn high levels of foreign exchange, create tourism infrastructure and generate large

scale direct and indirect employment. The ITC Hotels business continues to be rated

amongst the fastest growing hospitality chains with 93 properties at 64 locations in

India operating under 4 brands:

1. ‘Luxury Collection’: ITC Hotels has an exclusive tie-up with Starwood Hotels &

Resorts in bringing its premium brand, the 'Luxury Collection', to India. ITC

Hotels - Luxury Collection are super deluxe and premium hotels located at

strategic business and leisure locations. The ten hotels which are part of this

collection are: ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, ITC Maurya in Delhi, ITC Maratha

in Mumbai, ITC Sonar in Kolkata, ITC Grand Central in Mumbai, ITC Windsor &

ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru, ITC Kakatiya in Hyderabad and ITC Mughal in Agra

and ITC Rajputana in Jaipur.

43
2. Fortune Hotels: operates mid-market to upscale properties in the first-class, full-

service business hotel segment all over India, in major metros, mini metros, state

capitals and business towns, promising business and leisure travelers a wide

choice of destinations and accommodation.

Mr Y C Deveshwar, Chairman of the group, as part of a corporate proposition of

‘Enduring Value’ has said,” A country's brands are a reflection of its competitive

strengths and a manifestation of its innovation and intellectual capacity. I strongly

believe that a country's economic capacity is significantly enriched when its

institutions build and own internationally competitive brands. Winning brands serve

as market anchors to support the competitiveness of the entire value chains of which

they are a part.” ITC Hotels has been positioned with the line, ‘Responsible Luxury’

and is an exclusive franchisee of The Luxury Collection brand of Starwood Hotels

and Resorts in India.

Since the last fiscal, ITC's hotels segment has been impacted by the weak global and

domestic economic environment and significant additions to room supply in key

Indian cities. Its hotel segment's revenues have grown at a compounded annual

growth rate of 0.4% over the last five years. The segment's revenue growth has been

the slowest among the company's various unrelated business segments - in most of

which the company is a market leader.

Against this, the revenues of its peers in this segment like Indian Hotels and EIH have

grown at a CAGR of 6.5% and 6.7%, respectively. ITC has been better in protecting

its bottom line and profit margins though. Its hotel segment's profit before interest and

tax (PBIT) has decreased at a CAGR of 4.5% in the last five years. However, the

PBIT for both of its peers has decreased at a CAGR of 12.6% and 8.6%, respectively.

ITC has also been in a position to capture growth of its hospitality peers through

44
holding 15.9% stake in EIH and 12.8% in Hotel Leela Ventures. This shareholding

also enables it to be the leading contender in case of any consolidation among its

peers.

Mr. Nakul Anand, Executive Director of ITC, and head of the cigarettes to

paperboard, hospitality and travel businesses wondered how ITC Hotels could build

on its competitive strength and counter the highly competitive market. The current

challenging business environment adversely impacted business performance leading

to a muted growth in Segment Revenues during the year. While the Hotels business

maintained its leadership position in terms of operating margins, Segment Results

were adversely impacted largely by the relatively weak pricing scenario and the

gestation costs relating to ITC Grand Chola, which commenced operations in

September 2012. ITC Grand Chola, Chennai is in the super premium segment and

has 522 plush hotel rooms and suites and 78 service apartments, 60,000 sq. ft of

conference and banqueting facilities, 10 Food and Beverage outlets and the award

winning spa, ‘Kaya Kalp’. The hotel has achieved the distinction of being the world’s

largest ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ (LEED) Platinum rated

hotel under the New Construction category and India’s first 5 Star ‘Green Rating for

Integrated Habitat Assessment’ (GRIHA) rated luxury hotel by the Ministry of New

and Renewable Energy, thereby bolstering the unique positioning of ‘ITC Hotels’ as

the greenest luxury hotel chain in the world.

45
THE MARKET

The domestic tourism industry remained sluggish during the year in the backdrop of a

weak global and domestic economic environment. Industry performance was also

affected due to the significant increase in room inventory in some of the key domestic

markets.

To compete with global brands and the well established Taj chain of hotels, ITC

Hotels has undertaken many initiatives in terms of marketing strategy. Their strategy

of branded accommodation set standards for excellence in the hotel industry. The

chain has developed three brands of accommodation ITC One', 'Towers' and the

'Executive Club' to differentiate between the needs of various travellers and provide

the highest levels of service.

Another strategy is in terms of cuisine. “We don’t just create restaurants, we create

brands.” ITC Hotels is one of the first to introduce branded cuisine WelcomCuisine -

in India. The Bukhara and Peshawri restaurants give epicures the rugged, outdoor

cuisine of the Northwest Frontier Province. Dakshin has brought together the highly

evolved cuisines of the four southern states- Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu

and Kerala. Dum Pukht is a unique restaurant dedicated to a 200-year old culinary

tradition of slow cooking food, in sealed deghs. Other signature F&B brands viz.

‘West View’, ‘Kebabs & Kurries’, ‘Edo’ and ‘Pan Asian’ have firmly established

themselves and continue to sustain leadership position in their respective cities.

During the year, the business launched 2 new signature F&B offerings – ‘Ottimo’ and

‘Royal Vega’ – focusing on exquisite Italian cuisine and delectable vegetarian food

from the magnificent royal kitchens of India, respectively.

46
Rated high by food connoisseurs all over the world, ITC Hotels takes exceptional

pride in showcasing its internationally renowned cuisine. West View brings a careful

selection of western cuisine s from the remote France chateaux, grill houses on the

East and West coasts of America, rosy kitchens of English manors, leisurely

Mediterranean villas and bustling German marketplaces. The Pan Asian serves

specialties from China, Thailand, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Kaya Kalp (meaning rejuvenation of mind, body and soul in Sanskrit) spas are class

apart for those who seek to combine luxury with an exclusive and enriching

experience that uplifts the mind, body and soul. Kaya Kalp Spas offer indigenous and

well-known therapies from across the world, to deliver a memorable spa experience.

The Kaya Kalp Spa experience is available at all the ITC Luxury Collection Hotels.

During the year, the business leveraged the recently launched pan-ITC consumer

loyalty programme – ‘Club ITC’ to enhance revenues. The business seeks to position

‘Club ITC’ - targeted at the premium clientele of ‘Wills Lifestyle’ and ‘ITC Hotels’ -

as the greenest and most admired customer loyalty programme over the next few

years.

The ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon, the headquarters of ITC's Hotels Business is the

physical expression of this commitment to sustainability - Ecological, Social and

Economic. This building is one of the world's largest green buildings with space of

over 170,000 square feet. The ITC Green Centre which was earlier declared the

largest LEED Platinum rated office space in the world in 2004 was re-certified in

2012 as the worlds highest rated green building with Platinum certification by the US

Green Building Council.

47
BRAND POSITIONING

“The primary product that we sell is sleep,” declared Nakul Anand. ITC has invested

in a full fledged research centre on sleep that is in touch with sleep institutes and

doctors. They study rapid eye movements, the peak times to induce sleep and the best

sleep inducers – like chocolates to right fabric to temperatures to maximize comfort.

The company claims that on 5 of the 7 counts it earns higher than competition –

innovativeness, quality of product, people, practices, quality of top management and

global competitiveness.

Three trends have been noticed by ITC about the consumer:

1. People are sleeping two to threehours less on average.

2. Travellers are hard pressed for time.

3. Consumers want to be in total control and require services in the room.

According to Anand, the key factor responsible for the luxury positioning of ITC has

been its focus on environmental sustainability and sleep. Over 50% of power at all

ITC hotels come from renewable sources and this will be moving to 75%. Not but

least, the differentiation comes for ITC from its people. Attrition rates at ITC is as low

as 7% compared to the industry average of 20%.

ITC, in view of the positive long-term outlook for the Indian Hotel industry has

sustained an investment-led growth strategy with the construction activity of two new

luxury properities at Kolkata and at Classic Golf Resort near Gurgaon. During 2013,

ITC also invested in a newly formed wholly-owned subsidiary incorporated in Sri

Lanka which acquired a prime plot of land in Colombo on a 99-year lease from the

Government of Sri Lanka, for developing a mixed-use project including a 5-star

luxury hotel. Further, several new projects, including joint ventures and management

48
contracts, are on the anvil to rapidly scale up the business across all brands. The aim

is to take capacity up from 95 hotels (8000 rooms) to 150 hotels (13,000 rooms).

The ‘Fortune’ brand which caters to the ‘mid-market to upscale’ segment continued

its expansion by forging new alliances, taking the total number of hotels in its fold to

69 with an aggregate inventory of over 5,000 rooms. Of these, 30 properties are under

various stages of development with 3 hotels slated for commissioning in the coming

year. The ‘WelcomHeritage’ brand continues to be the country’s most successful and

largest chain of heritage hotels with 39 operating properties, spread across 13 States in

India. The ITC Hotels business with its globally benchmarked levels of product and

service excellence and customer centricity is positioned to emerge as the largest hotel

chain the country over the next few years.

TC is expecting to add 5,000 rooms over the next five years to its current capacity of

8,000 rooms. Even after this, its capacity will still be lower than the current capacity

of over 13,600 rooms of Indian Hotels Mr. Deveshwar said ITC group planned to

invest Rs.25,000 crore in the next 5 years. Most of it would be funded through

internal accruals. The entire investment of ITC Grand Chola was also done through

internal accruals. “Whichever business is smarter, and able to execute will get more

[investment]. Nothing is given … if you execute projects faster, the funds can come to

you … if you don’t, the funds will be taken away,” he said. “Actually, we would like

to grow even faster, so that we can get more debt, but we are not growing fast enough.

We have 40 projects going all over India, but this is not fast enough, we can grow

faster,” he said.

Stating that there was no dearth of funds as “we can also borrow”, he said: “Quite

contrary to what you might hear that India is not attracting investments, my refrain is

different. My refrain is we are not getting permissions enough everywhere … things

49
are not moving fast enough … give us clearances so that we can make more

investments.”

On the investment required for the 5,000 rooms, Mr. Anand said the average cost of

establishment of a room in the premium segment was from Rs.1.5-1.8 crore, while it

was Rs.1 crore per room in the luxury segment. In full serviced, four-star category

hotel, it worked out to Rs.60-70 lakh a room. “More than strategy, we are driven by

opportunity” says Anand. Occupancy may have fallen at five-star hotels even as four-

stars hold steady, but ITC will chase expansion in both high-end as well as mid-

market (Fortune) segments equally.

50
 CHAPTER:-4

STRATEGIC

ANALYSIS

TECHNIQUES OF

ITC LIMITED

51
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OF ITC LIMITED

Individual application of strategic analysis techniques of ITC LIMITED

Definition of strategy:

It is a fact that there is no proper constant definition for strategy. Every authority

gives their own version. This range from rhetorical strategy is about winning to

exhaustive:

A strategy is the pattern or plan that integrates organizations major goals, policies and

action sequences into a cohesive world. A well-formulated strategy helps to marshal

and allocate organizations resources into a unique and viable posture based on its

relative internal competencies and shortcomings, anticipated changes in the

environment and contingent moves by intelligent opponents. And another simple

definition of strategy by, strategy is a pattern in the stream of actions.

Introduction about ITC LIMITED:

ITC LIMITED (the international trade center) is one of the India’s major private

sector companies which hold a powerful place in the market with a huge capital of US

$ 19 billion and a turnover of over US $ 5 billion. It owns many awards like Asia’s

fab 50’ and world’s most reputable companies’ given by Forbes magazine and

Business world.

ITC LIMITED enters into the hotel industry as ITC welcomgroup in the year of 1975

with the aim to promote India’s rich tourism heritage. ITC hotels have unique value

and fine art of hospitality which emerged as one of the India’s premier hospitality

sector. It has over 100 hotels in more than 80 destinations with good standard

services.

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Beyond hotel industry, it involves in some other business too. The following are some

of the business of ITC LIMITED,

• Cigarettes

• Foods

• Lifestyle retailing

• Personal care

• Education and stationary

• Safety matches

• Agricultural business

• Information technology.

Vision:

Sustain ITC’s position as one of the India’s most valuable corporations through the

world class performance, creating growing value for the Indian economy and the

companies’ stakeholders.

Mission:

To enhance the wealth generating capability of the enterprise with the globalizing

environment, delivering superior and sustainable stakeholder value.

Values:

ITC is a demand-driven organization responsive to national development objectives

and programmes. It endeavors to deliver relevant and cost-effective services for

sustainable development ends. Its staff is committed to providing information and

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advice according to criteria implicit in the United Nations Charter: the highest

standards of efficiency, competence, integrity and neutrality.

Objectives:

• Enterprises: Strengthen the international competitiveness of enterprises

• Trade support institutions: Develop the capacity of trade service providers to support

businesses.

• Policymakers: support policy makers in integrating the business sector into the

global economy.

Stakeholders:

The following table shows us the stakeholders of ITC limited,

It shows us that the company has strong stake holders; hence it is also a key point to

survive in the market.

Market position:

ITC hotels can be broadly classified in four major sectors such as,

• The luxury collection,

• WelcomHotels,

• Fortune Hotels,

• WelcomHeritage.

With some of its unique techniques and design of the hotel, ITC welcomegroups is

now one of the best five star hotels with the true essence of Indian hospitality. And it

started its special gateways to its new destinations. ITC welcomes groups are also

54
getting a good reputation for its fortune hotels which show the well done survival in

the market.

The following points shows the strong position of ITC welcomgroup in the market,

• Rated among the world’s leading companies by Forbes magazine.

• Has won the national award for excellence in corporate governance in 2006 from the

institute of company secretaries of India.

It is clear that ITC is a leading one in almost all of its business in the market.

Although ITC has a reputation in the market, it does actually have some competitors.

The major competitors for the ITC welcomgroup is TAJ GROUP OF HOTELS and

OBEROI GROUP OF HOTELS which is also a powerful hotel industry in the current

market. The service provided by both the hotels is very similar to the ITC

welcomgroup hotels which are a threat for losing the customers of ITC.

It is important to note that the competitors are not only the problem for ITC. There are

some general problems which affects both the market as well as the specific hotels or

industries which are as follows,

• The first and the major threat for the entire market is the bad economy which have

the both direct and indirect affect on all kinds of industries which are all in the

market. The bad economy is what the current market is suffering from where some of

the major industrial sectors are facing a huge problem in making a normal profit.

• The second fact is the new comers’ in the market. According to ITOPC (Indian Tour

Operators Promotion Council), there are upcoming hotels in the near future such as,

• Uppal Group plans to develop seven luxury hotels by 2010

• Marriott to add 24 hotels by 2011

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• Panoramic Universal to launch new hotels in India

• Accorr Group has plans to set up 200 hotels in India.

All these upcoming hotels could be new competitors for the ITC welcomgroup.

• Another fact is that the cheap hotels. Due to the recession period, people choose

cheap hotels in order to save their money. And it is surprising that there are lots of

cheap hotels are in the market which gives a good quality and services which are

similar to ITC hotels.

Tools and techniques of strategic analysis:

The following are the tools and techniques of strategic analysis of ITC,

• Investment map: It helps the investment agencies identity such as priority sector

for foreign investments, competing countries and potential foreign investors.

• Market asses’ map: It helps to find out the national tariff level of different

countries.

• Product map: It is an online product context which includes the overall study of the

market, price indications and product information of different organizations which

helps to comparison of the services.

• Trade map: It is also an online data base which helps to find the flow of goods and

services and the barriers in the international market.

Internal analysis:

According to, though ITC has a good strategic approach in all ways, it has four major

challenges such as,

• Leveraging more unear marked resources: ITC has been trying to develop a

capacity to manage their large portfolio which will result in a need of huge funds.

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• Upgrading financial management: As ITC is being received funds from various

different sources; it needs to maintain a proper flow of cash and proper project budget

control. As flow of cash is important for every organization, the decisions taken by

the management must be very accurate and flexible according to the fluctuations.

• Investing in people: ITC consider their staff as their heart of the organization in

order to achieve the business goals and objectives which need a good personal

management.

• Improving communications and information system: ITC is expanding its level

in the market; it should maintain a proper communication level in order to maintain a

smooth flow of business.

Financial performance:

The financial performance of the ITC limited is excellent when compared to the

market situation. The balance sheet as on 31st march 2009 shows that the total value

of source of funds which includes share holders funs, loan funds and deferred tax is

14779.82 (Rs. in crores) where the 31st march 2008th value is 12817.17 (Rs in

crores). It is clear that the funds seem to be increasing.

On the other hand the net current assets which includes inventories, debtors, cash in

hand and bank is 3456.10 (Rs in crores) where the previous year was 2586.97 (Rs in

crores) which seems to be increasing too.

According to Profit and loss as on 31st march 2009 shows that the net income of the

year was 15923.04 (Rs in crores) where the previous year was 14558.43 (Rs in

crores). The expenses made was 11097.30 (Rs in crores) where the previous year was

9986.66 (Rs in crores) and finally the profit made by the account year was 3988.04

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(Rs in crores) where the previous year was 3767.63 (Rs in crores). This shows that

there is an increase in the profit which is a boon for the organization.

However the percentage of profit is reduced from 2006 to 2009, it is notable that the

organization is still in profit even in the recession period which is a hope for the

survival in the market.

As per the cash flow statement of accounting year ended on 31st march 2009, the cash

and the bank balance was 1032.39 (Rs in crores) where the previous year was 570.25

(Rs in crores) which shows the huge amount of cash inflow in the business which is

also a boon for the organization. The following chart shows the operating cash flow of

recent five years,

The chart explains that even though there is a hazard in the market, ITC’s market

capitalization in the market on the accounting year ended as on 31st march 2009 was

rs.69751 Crores. It is clear that the ITC has a strong power in the market.

The table explains that there was a steady growth of the financial position of the

organization for the past ten years which clearly points out the growth of the

organization in the market. The same statement could be very clearly explained in the

following graph,

It is clear that the profit of the organization is continuously increased overall in these

years. There was a slight decrease in the percentage of the profit occurred but the

profit seems to be remain in the increasing state which is very important to all

organizations in this competitive market.

Stars:

ITC Ltd has a very strong market position in the sectors such as Hotels,

Paperboard/packaging and agricultural business. They are very famous for Hotels and

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Agri business. ITC is very strong in these positions as these sectors are considered as

stars in BCG matrix which means these sectors generates a huge amount of profit

because of the market shares.

Question marks:

ITC Ltd’s FMCG sectors such as automotive companies, furniture companies,

financial companies, tobacco companies, food companies are in the stage of question

mark in the BCG matrix which means these sectors growing rapidly fast and

consumes a large sum of cash because of low market shares. But there is a chance that

these sectors may become stars.

Dogs:

ITC InfoTech are now the Dogs in the BCG matrix as they have very low market

share and doesn’t produce lot sum amount of cash which indicates the weakest sector

of ITC Ltd.

Cash cows:

ITC Ltd’s FMCG-Cigarettes are now in the position of Cash Cows in the market as

they produce a stable cash flow which makes a good growth rate in the market shares.

As there is a good profit, it is a hope that this sector may move to the position of Stars

or Question marks in the near future.

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 CHAPTER:-5

SWOT ANALYSIS

OF ITC LIMITED

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ITC Ltd. is one of the India’s largest multinational corporate enterprises. It was

registered in ‘Calcutta’ with a small office in Radhabazar Lane, with one expatriate

manager and one acquired cigarette manufacturing facility in Munger, in 1910. Now,

ITC is one of India's biggest and best-known private sector companies. In fact it is one

of the World's most high profile consumer operations organizations.

This article is a SWOT analysis of this organization in its 100th year of

operation.

STRENGTHS:

The organization has some major strengths that give it a competitive advantage over

its rivals.

1. Strong Financial Performance:

On 31st march, 2010, ITC’s market cap was Rs. 114000 crores with a Gross income

of Rs. 26,863 crores and Profit after tax of Rs. 4061 crores. The company continues

its impressive record of financial performance.

2. Products Portfolio:

ITC’s portfolio of products and services is represented by over 50 energetic Brands in

a range of more than 650 stock keeping units (SKUs).

3. Distribution Network:

ITC’S products are available in over 6 million retail outlets in the country. Its

formidable Distribution organization directly services more than 2 million of these

retail outlets. It used its experience of transporting and distributing tobacco products

to remote and distant parts of India to the advantage of its FMCG products.

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4. Environmental Friendly:

ITC has a status of being ‘Water Positive’ for the 8th consecutive year, ‘Carbon

Positive’ for the 5th year in succession and ‘solid waste recycling positive’ for 3 years

in a row. ITC is the only enterprise in the world of its size to have achieved and

sustained these three global environmental distinctions. As consumers and investors

become more environment friendly, these considerations will provide the organization

an opportunity to create USP’s and stronger brand loyalty and brand equity.

5. Research & Development:

ITC recognizes that cutting edge R&D can foster breakthrough innovation and create

powerful sources of sustainable competitive advantage. This vision has led to the

establishment of a state of the art R&D centre at Bengaluru with over 50 world- class

scientists. Its R&D program will create new game changing business opportunities.

6. Socially Responsibility:

ITC’s initiatives to build social capital through extensive community engagement

have led to the creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities for over 5 million

people. ITC has helped create more than 20,000 rural women entrepreneurs. ITC’s

supplementary education initiative has reached out to over 200000 school children in

rural areas. ITC’s value chain supports over 5 million livelihoods.

7. Brand Equity:

ITC is one of the best known brands in India.

The above factors definitely make the company a strong corporate organization.

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WEAKNESSES:

In spite of several strengths, there remain some areas of weakness and concern for the

organization.

1. Dependency on the tobacco business:

To fund its cash guzzling FMCG start-up, the company is still dependent upon its

tobacco revenue. Cigarettes account for 47% of the company’s turnover and for 80%

of its profits. So there is an argument that ITC’s move into FMCG is being subsidized

by its tobacco operations.

2. Not present in many important sectors:

Although ITC is a diversified company trading in a number of business sectors such

as cigarettes, hotels, paper, agriculture, packaged foods and confectionary, branded

apparel, personal care and other FMCG products, greeting cards, Information

Technology, safety matches, incense sticks and stationery etc. Yet, it does not have

presence in many important sectors such as insurance, infrastructure, banking and

financial services, BPO, telecom, automotive etc. and thus becomes comparatively

weak when compared with other conglomerates like the Bharti group, the Tata group

and the Ambani groups.

3. Local Company:

ITC is a local company. It does not have a large portfolio of exports in either products

or services. This makes the company comparatively weak in terms of being able to

leverage global opportunities, talent & financing.

The above represent some of the major weaknesses the company has.

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OPPORTUNITIES

What does the future have as areas of opportunities for the company?

1. Leveraging its brand equity

ITC’s products & services are of high quality. If ITC enter into any business or launch

any product, consumer know its ITC’s product, consumers shall trust these to be of

good quality. ITC’s brand equity would make ITC successful in most sectors.

2. Right size at the right time:

A corporate must have the right organizational and investment capability and this

must coincide with a growth stage in the economy in which it operates. This seems to

be a perfect setting for ITC. Given the consumption of most products and services in

India at a level far below the global standards and that the Indian economy is on a roll

make it a perfect platform for a company like ITC which already is at a fairly strong

stage in its own growth with the necessary organizational and financial muscle. For

example, the FMCG sector is expected to triple in size to over Rs. 355000 crores by

2018. ITC is a major player in this sector. ITC has investment opportunity of up to Rs.

8000 crores over the next 7 to 10 years to drive growth in this sector.

For example, in Personal Care Products, Per capita consumption in India is among the

lowest in the world offering an opportunity for ITC’s soaps, shampoos and fragrances.

Similarly, India’s consumption of Paper, Paperboard & Packaging is one of the lowest

in the world at around 5 kg. per year compared to nearly 300 Kgs in US, 200 Kgs in

UK and 45 Kgs in China. With spread of education and economic growth, demand is

expected to grow. ITC has an investment opportunity of up to Rs. 6000 crores for

growth.

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Further, ITC’s Hotels are at the vanguard of service excellence and are an

embodiment of "Responsible Luxury". International arrivals in India are only 5

million a year, compared to around 80 million in France, 58 million in US and 55

million in China. At conservative estimates, India needs 50000 rooms in next 2 to 3

years. This sector too carries an investment opportunity for ITC of up to Rs.9000

crores in the next 7 to 10 years to fuel its growth.

ITC FMCG brands such as Aashirvaad, Mint-o, Bingo, Sun feast and others operate in

such high growth segments that given ITC’s strengths in market development, product

development and marketing penetration, the company can script its own growth

targets and achieve it.

3. Synergies across businesses and leveraging domain expertise for growth in

other sectors:

ITC’s fast growing Information Technology subsidiary is founded on a strong base of

domain knowledge derived from ITC’s multiple businesses. It will continue to add

significant value to ITC’s business by providing solution and by enabling them to

leverage Information Technology as a source of superior competitive advantage.

Similarly, ITC’s agri-business with its deep rural linkage is well poised as a supply

chain partner to create value for ITC’s Food and Tobacco businesses. Its large

presence in rural India, with the unique e-choupal infrastructure, will be progressively

leveraged to widen ITC’s FMCG distribution network. ITC uses the network to

source and create the raw material from the farmers.

4. The unique reach and distribution network of E-choupal:

E-choupal is a community of practice that links rural Indian farmers using the

internet. It is also an ambitious project that has a goal of reaching 10 million farmers

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in 100000 villages. It has already benefited 4 million farmers in 40000 villages. This

platform provides ITC an opportunity, virtually unmatchable, to ride the rural growth

that India in witnessing for the current sets of products and services and additional

ones that can be offered from the same network.

The above opportunities beckon the organization as it gets into its second century of

operations.

THREATS

Are there any threats the company needs to be watchful about?

1. Competition:

The obvious threat is from competition, both domestic and international. The law of

economies dictate that if competitors see that there is a solid profit to be made in an

emerging economy, more and new products and services will be made available.

Global companies will see India as an exciting opportunity for themselves to find new

market segment for their own offerings. This will put ITC under constant and

sustained competitive pressure from international offerings with deep pockets for a

long battle.

2. Pressure groups and Government Policy:

Tobacco and allied product businesses, a major cash cow for ITC, will remain under

public, anti-tobacco, health lobbies and governments through higher excise duties,

advertising restrictions, and packaging guidelines, point of sale restrictions, cancer

and TB campaigns with even a remote possibility of complete ban.

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3. General threats:

Wide income disparities leading to social tensions, terror acts, political risks,

legislation changes, tiffs with taxation and excise authorities and public outrage from

negative impacts of products d services remain general treats for the company.

The above, though few, could be potent threats to the company.

In summary, ITC will need to overcome its weaknesses, leverage the opportunities

through its multiple strengths and be wary of the threats to march into another 100

years of its glorious journey.

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 CHAPTER:-6

ITC AIMS FOR

THE TOP SLOT

IN HOTELS

BUSINESS

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ITC AIMS FOR THE TOP SLOT IN HOTELS BUSINESS

ITC, India’s top cigarette maker, aims to become its biggest hospitality company too.

“Hotels business, with its globally benchmarked levels of product and service

excellence and customer centricity, represented by its four brands, is well-positioned

to sustain its leadership status in the industry and poised to emerge as the largest hotel

chain in the country over the next few years,” the company has said in its annual

report, released on Tuesday.

That’s a direct warning to Indian Hotels Company, the market leader, which runs 112

hotels under the Taj Hotels and Palaces brand (excluding Ginger properties) with

13,606 rooms across 55 locations within and outside the country, and plans to

increase this inventory to 15,843 rooms across 130 hotels by end-2012-13.

ITC’s hotels business has 94 properties at 67 locations in India operating under four

brands — ITC Hotel at the luxury end, WelcomHotel in the 5-star segment, Fortune in

the mid-market and WelcomHeritage catering to the heritage leisure segments. It also

has licensing and franchising agreements for two brands: The Luxury Collection and

Sheraton with the Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Interestingly, ITC’s latest goal comes at a time when the global economic turbulence

and slowdown at home have dented its hospitality business. For the quarter ended

March, it reported a 5% decline in net revenue from hotels.

The company still derives its biggest share of revenues from cigarettes (at over 57%

of the total last fiscal). But that could change.

“In view of the positive long-term outlook for the Indian hotel industry, ITC continues

to sustain its investment-led growth strategy,” the report said.

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Among others, construction of a new super luxury property, ITC Grand Chola at

Chennai, with 522 rooms and 78 service apartments, is complete and slated to open in

early 2012-13.

Work on two new luxury properties at Kolkata and at Classic Golf Resort near

Gurgaon is progressing, ITC noted. “In addition, several new projects, including joint

ventures and management contracts, are on the anvil to rapidly scale up the business

across all brands.”

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 FMCG

It is ITC's strategic intent to secure long-term growth by synergizing and blending the

diverse pool of competencies residing in its various businesses to exploit emerging

opportunities in the FMCG sector.

The Company's institutional strengths - deep understanding of the Indian consumer,

strong trademarks, deep and wide distribution network, agri-sourcing skills,

packaging know-how and cuisine expertise - continue to be effectively leveraged to

rapidly grow the new FMCG businesses.

ITC has rapidly scaled up presence in its newer FMCG businesses comprising

Branded Packaged Foods, Lifestyle Retailing, Education and Stationery products,

Personal Care products, Safety Matches and Incense Sticks (Agarbatti), at an

impressive pace over the last several years, crossing Rs. 7000 crore mark in 2013.

The Company's unwavering focus on quality, innovation and differentiation backed

by deep consumer insights, world-class R&D and an efficient and responsive supply

chain will further strengthen its leadership position in the Indian FMCG industry.

CIGARETTES & CIGARS

ITC is the market leader in cigarettes in India. With its wide range of invaluable

brands, ITC has a leadership position in every segment of the market. ITC's highly

popular portfolio of brands includes Insignia, India Kings, Lucky Strike, Classic,

Gold Flake, Navy Cut, Players, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, Flake, Silk Cut,

Duke & Royal.

The Company has been able to consolidate its leadership position with single minded

focus on continuous value creation for consumers through significant investments in

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creating & bringing to market innovative product designs, maintaining consistent &

superior quality, state-of-the-art manufacturing technology, & superior marketing and

distribution. With consumers & consumer insights driving strategy, ITC has been able

to fortify market standing in the long-term, by developing & delivering contemporary

offers relevant to the changing attitudes & aspirations of the constantly evolving

consumer.

ITC's pursuit of international competitiveness is reflected in its initiatives in overseas

markets. In the extremely competitive US market, ITC offers high-quality, value-

priced cigarettes and Roll-your-own solutions. In West Asia, ITC has become a key

player in the GCC markets through its export operations.

ITC's cigarettes are manufactured in state-of-the-art factories at Bengaluru, Munger,

Saharanpur, Kolkata and Pune, with cutting-edge technology & excellent work

practices benchmarked to the best globally. An efficient supply-chain & distribution

network reaches India's popular brands across the length & breadth of the country.

Awards

ITC's Cigarettes business has been winning numerous awards for its quality,

environmental management systems and product excellence:

 'Best Manufacturer of Cigarettes' for the year 2008 & 2007 and Best Exporter

of Cigarettes for 2008 by the Tobacco Board based on previous three years'

performance.

 Occupational Health and Safety Award 2007 for Excellence in Safety

Management to the Bengaluru, Saharanpur and Kolkata factories from the

Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), U.K.

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  5 Star Health and Safety Rating in 2007 from the British Safety Council to the

Bengaluru, Munger, Kolkata and Saharanpur factories and the "Sword of

Honour" for Bengaluru & Saharanpur factories in 2006.

FOODS

ITC's Branded Packaged Foods business is one of the fastest growing foods

businesses in India, driven by the market standing and consumer franchise of its seven

popular brands - Aashirvaad, Sunfeast, Bingo!, Kitchens of India, mint-o, Candyman

and Yippee! The Foods business is today represented in 4 categories in the market -

Staples, Snack Foods, Ready To Eat Foods and Confectionery.

ITC's uncompromising commitment to the health and safety of its consumers ensures

adherence to the highest levels of quality, safety and hygiene standards in

manufacturing processes and in the supply chain. All ITC-owned manufacturing units

are Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certified. The quality

performance of all manufacturing units is monitored continuously online. Going

beyond process control, ITC ensures that quality standards are scrupulously adhered

to while choosing ingredients that go into the preparation of its food products. (Know

more about ITC's Food Policy)

ITC's Foods brands delight millions of households with a wide range of differentiated,

value-added products developed by leveraging ITC's in-house R&D capabilities,

relevant consumer insights, a deep understanding of the Indian palate gained from its

Hotels business, its agri-sourcing & packaging strengths, exciting, innovative

communication and an unmatched distribution network.

The business continues to invest in every aspect of manufacturing, distribution and

marketing to ensure that it can leverage emerging opportunities and fulfill its

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aspiration of being the most trusted provider of Branded Packaged Foods in the

country. ITC's Foods business also exports its products to the key geographies of

North America, Africa, Middle East and Australia.

LIFESTYLE RETAILING

ITC's Lifestyle Retailing Business Division has established a nationwide retailing

presence through Wills Lifestyle & John Players.

Synonymous with elegance and style that is effortless and chic, Wills Lifestyle

presents a premium fashion wardrobe for men and women. Offering a tempting

choice of Wills Classic formal wear, Wills Sport relaxed wear, Wills Club life

evening wear and Wills Signature designer wear, Wills Lifestyle offers a truly

delightful shopping experience for the discerning customer.

John Players embodies the spirit of the modern youth that is playful, fashionable and

cool. John Players presents a complete wardrobe of meticulously crafted smart

formals, trendy casuals, dazzling party wear, edgy denims & accessories

incorporating the most contemporary trends in an exciting mix of colours, styling and

fits.

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CONCLUSION

75
CONCLUSION

It is a clear fact that so far ITC Ltd holds a good reputation in the market and a well

slandered position. Even though there is an un-related diversification of ITC, the

powerful and the good management help the smooth flow of business which is a

successful key factor to survive in the market. Though ITC Ltd has some weak

industrial sector, it keeps an overall slandered position in the market even in the

recession period where lots of organizations are thrown out of the market. With the

level of present status, there is a bright fortune for ITC Ltd after this dark recession

which is very near and crystal clear.

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REFERENCES

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