Session

The Big B & its impact on S&M

As the hotel industry is going through a high, hotel companies are also choosing their brands and positioning very diligently. Moderating the session Devyani Raman, CEO, Leading Brands of the World and Luxury Marketing Council - India asked each panelist a set of questions. Starting with the Taj Group, she questioned on the group's strategic move to meet the scenario of increasing branded luxury hotels competing on the home turf. Deepa Misra Harris, VP - Marketing, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces said, "The strategy revolves around meeting and exceeding brand promise we offer as a group." According to her, the Tata family brand name plays a crucial role in taking Taj to a distance for brand marketing and positioning strategy. Though she added, "Taj vis-à-vis other Tata brands makes it clear that there is a very clear brand positioning."

Tata as a brand name has a very positive implication on Taj hotels. "The Tatas were very clear in making Taj exist as an individual brand/entity. It is the brand philosophy of the mother brand Tata that each and every brand is defined and known for its own proposition," Harris remarked.

On question about challenges, she explained that the specific marketing challenges in this global environment, is very similar to any regional brand going global from India. "There were a few challenges in terms of managing popular brands, which were acquired by us in US and how to integrate certain iconic hotels within the Taj brand, whether we need to brand them Taj or leave them with the own identity," she said.

On the WORLDHOTELS, Roland Jegge, its VP Asia Pacific said, "Quality control, right hotels, pre-audits before signing a deal are given top most priorities to make hotels a member of this organisation. It is vital for us to know their orientation in the region, as we look forward to have hotels that offer rich experiences to customers." An internationally acclaimed company does audit for the same, he said.

WORLDHOTELS involve the accounts department to understand the specifics related to its members and offer training on a series of programmes. "We try to be very transparent in our entire process and get regular feedbacks by our clients and customers through website," Jegge informed. Internationally, people would like to pick Indian hotels and compare before they come here and therefore, our platform gives them an opportunity to assess the standard of the hotel here - its reputation, what it would look like etc. And thus customers get a more secured approach in choosing hotel stay in India.

Talking about the ITC culture, B Hariharan, VP - S&M, ITC Hotels elaborated on brand positioning and thereby its marketing strategy. He said, "We have marketing and franchise strategies and with brands like Luxury Collection, which are very exclusive hotels and different from the Sheraton brand, ITC boasts of a strong reputation."

According to him, the group had a very good relationship with the Starwood Hotels for 30 year and continues to grow even further with the Luxury Collection alliance. "Considering ITC Hotel's age, we are young and one of the fastest growing chains in the country. So the challenge is to live up to the brand promise and objectives that have been set out for us," he remarked. In the 1990s, the group started co-branding itself. He added, "Then, we started defining our brand architecture with competition growing through price points, breaking the identity into relevant brand groups." So, we have a presence in five major categories defining our core structure. This also enables us to define ourselves sharply in the desired segments, he averred.

Keeping it short, John Kuruvilla, EVP - Marketing, Oberoi Hotels talked about the group's slow paced approach. He said, "We have been restrictive because our chairman wanted to be the best. He did not believe in numbers." Nonetheless, he said, we have the Trident brand, which has an association with Hilton and is known for its unique identity.

Towards the close of the session, the panel discussed on understanding the customer profile and how hotels increasingly needs to set their profile right to project its core entity. Some key questions came from the audience on various fronts like technology training, future growth path and their expectation from the Indian market.