Enhancing marketing mix at spring flower hotel

V U N G O C M I N H D O N G NATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL BUSINESS SCHOOL  E B B A B ENHANCING MARKETING MIX AT SPRING FLOWER HOTEL Bachelor of Business Administration in English (E-BBA) Thesis  H A N O i Student: Vu Ngoc Minh Dong Class: E-BBA 4B Supervisor: MSc Nguyen Thi Thu Trang HANOI, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, this thesis and the internship period are integral requirements for graduating the Bachelor of Business Administration in English program (EBBA), Business School, the National Economics University Furthermore, they are remarkable proofs indicating my entire knowledge and experience that I have been taught by professors and learned by myself, and also demonstrates that I have enough skills and ability to work in reality Through all the subjects of the course for nearly years, I have gained a lot of knowledge about the business administration and the economy which is totally helpful for my career in the future, especially in marketing field Therefore, I would like express my sincere thanks to all lecturers of NEU Business School; especially to my prime supervisor, MSc Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, who not only taught me many necessary lessons about marketing art but also did gave me many helpful advices and guidance during my internship period to complete this thesis Last but not least, I also highly appreciate the contribution of my family and so my classmates who always stay beside me and have made my university life become unforgettable TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS .3 LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES .5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale: 1.2 Research objectives: 1.3 Research questions: 10 1.4 Research methodology: 10 1.4.1 Research process 10 1.4.2 Data collecting method 10 1.4.3 Data analyzing method 11 1.5 Research scope: 11 1.6 Research structure: 11 CHAPTER Theoretical framework of Marketing Mix 12 2.1 Definition of marketing 12 2.1.1 General definition of marketing .12 2.1.2 Definition of tourism marketing .13 2.1.3 Definition of hotel marketing 14 2.2 Marketing Mix and its components 15 2.2.1 Definition of Marketing Mix and its importance 15 2.2.2 Components of Marketing Mix 18 CHAPTER 3: Analyzing the marketing mix of Spring Flower Hotel .26 3.1 Company overview .26 3.1.1 History and general description .26 3.1.2 Organizational structure 27 3.1.3 Activities 30 3.1.4 Business performance 31 3.2 Environmental analysis .33 3.2.1 Macro environment 33 3.2.2 Analyzing competitors 33 3.2.3 SWOT analysis 37 3.3 Marketing mix at Spring Flower Hotel 38 3.3.1 Product 39 3.3.2 Price .42 3.3.3 Place .45 3.3.4 Promotion 49 3.3.5 People 50 3.3.6 Process 54 3.3.7 Physical evidence 57 3.4 Achievements and shortcomings of Marketing Mix at Spring Flower Hotel 58 3.4.1 Achievements 58 3.4.2 Shortcomings 59 CHAPTER 4: Recommendations and solutions to improve Marketing Mix for Spring Flower Hotel 61 4.1 Development strategy of Spring Flower Hotel 61 4.1.1 General objectives 61 4.1.2 Marketing objectives of SFH (2016-2020) .61 4.2 Solutions to improve marketing mix for SFH 62 4.2.1 Product 62 4.2.2 Price .63 4.2.3 Place .64 4.2.4 Promotion 65 4.2.5 People 66 4.2.6 Process 67 4.2.7 Physical evidence 67 CONCLUSION 69 REFERENCES 70 APPENDIX 71 ABBREVIATIONS Spring Flower Hotel: SFH LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Elements of Marketing Mix 16 Table 3.1 Traveler’s rating by Agoda between SFH and main competitors 31 Table 3.2 Business performance of SFH from 2014 to 2015 32 Table 3.3 Residential products of SFH 40 Table 3.4 Average rate of customers’ satisfaction about the residential product 41 Table 3.5 SFH’s room price in November, 2015 (high season) .44 Table 3.6 Distribution channel in number .47 Table 3.7 Customers’ assessment about physical evidence’s factors .57 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Research process 10 Figure 2.1 Marketing System 13 Figure 2.2 Concept of Marketing Mix for service 17 Figure 2.3 Product Life Cycle .19 Figure 3.1 Hotel’s organizational structure 28 Figure 3.2 Essence Hanoi Hotel’s room 34 Figure 3.3 Angel Palace Hotel’s room 35 Figure 3.4 MK Boutique Hotel’s room 36 Figure 3.5 Spring Flower Hotel’s room 37 Figure 3.6 Spring Flower Hotel’s customer sources in (2014-2015) .39 Figure 3.7 Factors influencing SFH’s price policy 43 Figure 3.8 Customer’s assessment about product’s price 45 Figure 3.9 Distribution channel of SFH 46 Figure 3.10 Proportion of resources providing customer in 2015 48 Figure 3.11 Customer’s assessment about the distribution channel .48 Figure 3.12 Average score rated by customers about staff performance .53 Figure 3.13 Service process of SFH 54 Figure 3.14 Customers’ opinion about the process’s steps 56 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Hanoi, which is the capital of Vietnam, is one the most favorable places with many potential resources such as sightseeings, historical culture to attract not only domestic tourists but also foreign ones This advantages have opened up the chances for many enterprises running service business, especially hotel business Spring Flower Hotel is a new hotel established in 2014, which has many strong points such as location, human resources to become a successful enterprise in Hanoi However, as there are more and more competitions that the hotel has to face, SFH has to find a more rational way to improve and reinforce the hotel’s operation and marketing activities In fact, though marketing mix plays an important role in a business, the hotel has not still considered carefully about it Therefore, there are a lot of shortcomings that need to be resolved and improved in the hotel’s marketing mix The objective of the thesis is to study about marketing mix at Spring Flower Hotel to propose some critical suggestions for a better marketing mix  To understand the theoretical framework of marketing mix  To analysis the current marketing mix of SFH  To propose solutions and recommendations for the hotel to improve the current marketing mix Of the thesis conducting process, secondary data from books, internet will be collected Annual reports from the company also are collected Partly from those ones, primary data in form of survey from the hotel’s targeted guests and the indepth interview’s questionares are collected Then, analysis made from current situation is combined with data to propose suitable solutions for the marketing mix at Spring Flower Hotel Besides that, thesis will analyze the current situation of marketing mix at Spring Flower Hotel by assessing the hotel’s factors: Product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence In addition, product and people would be considered as the most important elements deciding the success or failure of the hotel’s marketing mix Then, the author will indicate the achievements and shortcomings that the currnet marketing mix has brought to SFH In the last chapter, the author will recommend the overall goals in the future and also some solutions for each element of the marketing mix: product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence to enhance and improve Spring Flower Hotel’s marketing mix CHAPTER Introduction 1.1 Rationale: Along with the rapid increase of the economy’s development, living standards of people also improve and enhance Tourism gradually becomes an indispensable need of a significant part of the population Furthermore, it becomes an important economic industry for potential locals having tourism resources Hanoi, which is the capital of Vietnam, is one the most favorable places with many potential resources such as sightseeings, historical culture to attract not only domestic tourists but also foreign ones Thanks to these strengths, in recent years, Hanoi has made great progress The hotel and restaurant systems are increasing constantly in their scale and quality of service Therefore, the revenue derived from the business also increases remarkably On one hand, this benefit brings development opportunities for tourism businesses; but on the other hand, it has made the market competition in the supply of products, traveling services become more aggressive Spring Flower Hotel is located on the center of the Old Quarter (the heart of Hanoi) with 27 rooms and complete service support system accompanied For many years, Spring Flower Hotel is proud to be considered as a truly reliable destination, offering high quality of accommodation services for luxury travelers all over the world to Hanoi However, this hotel always has to face the factors threatening its business: the number of tourists to Hanoi fluctuates wildly, highly seasonal tourism, length of stay of tourists in Hanoi is too short compared to other provinces Meanwhile, the competition becomes more and more intensive as many premium hotel projects have been invested and put into operation in recent times having the same or better quality of infrastructure and competitive rate such as MK Boutique Hotel, Hanoi Angel Palace Hotel, Essence Palace Hotel,… The marketing mix is a critical component in the development of marketing plans and strategies for hotel business The marketing mix encompasses all of the elements impacting an organization’s ability to successfully take its product and services to market which are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and