ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY DUMAGUETE

TAJ HOTEL

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Case Study Presented to

Dr. Gregorio E. Baccay III ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY DUMAGUETE

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In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for

MARKETING MANAGEMENT 116

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BY

MA. CARMEN C. SAMEON

GERALYN M. YOSORES

CHERRY L. CABASAG

FATIMA B. GRAMAY

March 2012

ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY DUMAGUETE

APPROVAL SHEET

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for Marketing Management

116, this case study entitled:

CASE: TAJ HOTEL

have been prepared and submitted by Ma. Carmen C. Sameon, Geralyn M.

Yosores, Cherry L. Cabasag and Fatima B. Gramay.

Approved by Dr. Gregorio E. Baccay III with the grades of ________.

DR. GREGORIO E. BACCAY III

Instructor

Date of Submission:

March 2012

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CASE PROPER

TAJ HOTEL

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INTRODUCTION

The Indian Hotels Company (IHC) is the parent company of Taj Hotels

Resorts and Palaces. It was founded by Jamsetji N. Tata on December 16,

1903. Currently the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces comprise 57 hotels at 40

locations across India. Additional 18 hotels are also being operated around the

globe. During fiscal year 2006, the total number of hotels owned or managed by

the Company was 75.

The Taj hotels are categorized as luxury, leisure and business hotels. The

Taj Luxury Hotels offer a wide range of luxurious suites with modern fitness

centers, rejuvenating spas, and well-equipped banquet and meeting facilities.

The Taj Leisure Hotels offer a complete holiday package that can be enjoyed

with the whole family. It provides exciting activities ranging from sports, culture,

environment, adventure, music, and entertainment.

The Taj Business Hotels provide the finest standards of hospitality, which

helps the business trips to be productive. They offer well-appointed rooms,

telecommunication facilities, efficient service, specialty restaurants and lively

bars, well-equipped business centers, and other conference facilities.

However, Taj was confronted with a fragmented distribution environment

based on diverse non-interactive systems, which made it difficult to set uniform

standards, posed challenges for a uniform channel management and for

corporate reporting and revenue management and made it difficult to recognize

valued guests, companies and travel agents on a chain-wide level. With the aim

to achieve a new integrated and centralized solution that would combine best-of-

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breed technology and deliver a completely new reservation, distribution and CRM

platform, Taj chose the integration provided by the PLC in cooperation with Trust

International and Serenata IntraWare.

(Source: Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces by Mukesh Kr. Pandey)

IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES

A scattered system landscape at Taj Hotels and Resorts posed a number of

challenges for the prestigious hotel group:

• A fragmented distribution environment prevented channel connectivity and

consistent channel management. Isolated non-interactive systems hampered the

planning of marketing initiatives and the realization of rate parity across all

channels.

• The missing deduce and cleansing functionality of central profiles lead to

multiple central profiles of the same customer.

• The missing Sales Force Automation system entailed time-consuming

processes for accumulating the required data for business volume accounts.

• Scalability issues: Incorporating new hotels into the chain involved complex and

time-consuming processes.

(Source: Serenata IntraWare GmbH, info@serenata.com, www.serenata.com)

BENEFITS:

- The new platform consolidates all Taj properties, the distribution, reservation,

and channel management and so ensures rate parity, allows for the quick

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implementation of marketing campaigns and the changing of contents from a

single point of entry.

- Ensure true guest recognition across all channels and equip the central

reservation office with quality information on guests, companies and agents.

- Complete two-way profile distribution improves data quality on all levels of

contacts and allows Taj Hotels to get in touch with their preferred guests at

reduced cost.

- Marketing campaigns and sales initiatives are based on real PMS production and

stay data uploaded from all linked properties. The complete 360-degree picture

on guests allows a unique and powerful perspective on the guest’s stay pattern

and allows proper follow ups and marketing targeting.

- New properties can quickly be added to the platform and provided with the Taj

standard. The existing customer base is immediately available to new hotels.

(Source: Serenata IntraWare GmbH, info@serenata.com, www.serenata.com)

KEY LESSONS:

Serenata’s integrated Sales Force Automation solution has provided Taj

Hotels, Resorts and Palaces with a truly integrated central platform that

streamlines all reservation, distribution and customer relationship management

processes. The central reporting module provides key performance indicators

and business analysis capabilities for all areas of the hotel group. The new

Campaign Management module will support Taj’s ongoing endeavour to win new

customers and to encourage return business based on targeted campaigns to

the existing customer base.

(Source: Serenata IntraWare GmbH, info@serenata.com, www.serenata.com)

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ANALYSIS OF THE CASE

TAJ HOTEL

CENTRAL PROBLEM

Inadequate Marketing Research and fragmented distribution environment

based on diverse non-interactive systems which made it difficult to set uniform

standards and resulted to the failure of Taj Hotel operations.

POINT OF VIEW

Managing Director

OBJECTIVES

To provide a good communication system for the company.

To assist the company in formulating a permissible marketing

research.

INTRODUCTION

Business is one of the most successful fields nowadays. In one way or

another, it has been a great factor in helping improve our economy as well as

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alleviate the lifestyle of the people. As time goes by, the taste and preferences of

the people changes that goes along with the innovation of the technology. The

complexity of the present generation’s needs and wants would also require a

higher delivery of customer satisfaction. It is then very important for a certain

business in order to be successful to be able to utilize and apply the different

business strategies in improving products and services along with modernization.

One concrete example of a business that must surpass the standards of

the level of customer satisfaction in today’s generation is the hotel businesses.

Hotel owners should not be contented on how well their operations have been at

the present time, whether small or five star hotels, must be equipped with some

backup plans for the future. They must continually seek opportunities of

overpowering their competitors in the long run, increase their profits and deliver

the best services to their customers.

This study attempts to entail the different significance and benefits of

formulating a sound marketing research which plays an important role in a

company’s success. It will also stress the effects of an effective communication

within a company or any organizations in the dissemination of some important

information. Lastly, this study will provide some important points on how to

achieve an efficient market positioning through the use of different Medias and

aid in determining the right target market and potential customers.

AREAS OF CONSIDERATION

This case will explore and investigate the important issues affecting the

operations of the Taj Hotel specifically:

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1. Eliminate barriers within the communication channels.

2. The need of formulating a marketing research to identify and respond

different and changing customer needs and wants.

Engaging in business is a risky endeavour. It requires a lot of guts and

efforts in maintaining a spot within the competition and retaining customer loyalty.

A need for adjustments and improvements of products and services is also a key

factor for a successful business. It is undeniable that customer’s lifestyles are

improving a lot and brand loyalty nowadays is being disregarded because of the

availability of choices. Therefore, being on top of the competition is not an

assurance of a permanent success in business. It is MUST for every company to

continually perform a good marketing research to prepare for future

discrepancies.

This case will be presented based on the point of view of the Managing

Director of Taj Hotel. Being in a position with a close contact to the hotel

operations is one of his challenging tasks. The main point of discussion for this

case is the problem on the non-interactive environment and lack of marketing

research of the hotel executives which spoils the business operations.

This case will examine on the impact of a company or business

organization having no uniform standards and marketing research and how this

affects the business, the people in the organization and the society as a whole.

Strong emphasis will be placed on the procedure of improving the

communication channels of the organization.

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ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION

“There is a need to upgrade their communication systems from file-based

to a database system.”

For hotel suppliers and partners it is often very tedious and costly to

identify, further research and identify the necessary project data themselves.

Access to this valuable b2b-data set and consequent market knowledge is of

prime importance to a) estimate market potential and b) work on true sales leads

to win new customers. Detailed information on key decision makers of

international hotel chains facilitate your Key Account Management and support

your b2b project sales. You save time and notably improve your sales success

rate as you are always up to date knowing “what is happening when where by

whom.” (Source: http://www.tophotelprojects.com/en/what-are-definite-benefits-using-online-

database)

Advantages Disadvantages

1. Uniform information dissemination. 1. Personal information from guests

may be compromised.

2. Single-image inventory for all

reservations will be achieved.

2. Adjustments to the new system by

the staffs are likely possible.

Advantage 1

In order for the company to achieve a uniform standard of information,

they must be able to build a communication system means that would configure

the information dissemination in a unified manner. It would be a great help to the

management as well as the employees because it reduces

communication response time, or in other words perceived speed, which often is

essential in decision making and acting upon instructions. It optimizes business

processes and enhances human communications by reducing latency, managing

flows, and eliminating device and media dependencies. Unified communications

integrates all systems a user might already use, and helps those systems work

together in real time. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_communications)

Advantage 2

When there is the availability of an online directory, it would be very

helpful on the part of the hotel’s management to achieve a single-image

inventory for all their reservations. Major hotel chains are rushing to offer

customers a single source of inventory, rate and availability information, whether

they access the data through global distribution, central reservation and onsite

hotel property systems and the Internet. Growing accustomed to getting

complete and accurate information quickly over the Internet, travel buyers are

less accepting of outdated or incomplete information--especially when that

results in their travellers were being closed out of a hotel date or being offered

non-preferred rate information. (Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/transportation-

communications/transportation-services/4141365-1.html)

Disadvantage 1

Many customers expect that a company they interact with in the physical

world will also have an online presence.  What consumers may not be aware of

is how all of these purposes interact.  When a business meets your need of

having a Web site with store hours and directions, it may also meet its need of

determining how many customers may want to go to a particular store branch.

Sometimes companies and organizations collect information for use in

marketing, fundraising, and other activities. It's possible for someone to create a

Web site that looks like it's from a reputable company but really is not. (Source:

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm)

Disadvantage 2

The organization might not be ready yet for this especially the employees.

An incorrect dataset might be used, or the information system can get stuck,

because of a lack of experience and start up problems. Also an incapable fall-

back method can be a risk in implementing a new system. Some discrepancies

may include extensive conversion costs in moving form a file-based system to a

database system and the initial training required for all programmers and users.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang_adoption)

RECOMMENDATION

At the end of this project, we recommend the following ideas to help

improve the Taj Hotel operations:

1. Create an online database to allow data sharing and achieve uniform

and interactive standards in the communication system.

2. Emphasize the importance of marketing research and technology

advancement in the business environment as the key factors in

determining the changes in the customer taste and preferences.