Taj | The Gateway Hotels | Marketing - PART 2 2Ps covered here - PROMOTION and PLACE Promotional Mix for Hotel Industry Promotional Mix for TAJ GATEWAY Weakness and Areas of Improvement - PROMOTION Analyzing PLACE for TAJ GATEWAY Weakness and Areas of Improvement - PLACE

1. By Nirvik Mitter
Marketing Assignment/Project (NCP)
On
My TOPIC/Product (Service) Chosen –
- Part 2
Nirvik Mitter
11BSPHH010542
MBA ‘B’ section
Seat No. # 44

2. By Nirvik Mitter
Contents
1. Analyzing the Promotional Mix for Hotel Industry 1
1.1. The Target Audience--------------------------------------------------1
1.2. Identifying the critical touch point in the decision making process
Decision making process-------------------------------------------2
1.3. Kotler’s promotion mix model in the context of the Hotel Industry
----------------3
2. Analyzing the Promotional Mix for Taj Gateway----4
2.1. Advertising 4
2.2. Sales Promotion 5
2.3. PR and publicity 5
2.4. Personal Selling 5
2.5. Direct Marketing 5
3. Weakness and Areas of Improvement for GATEWAY -
Promotion - Three Broad clusters ---------------------------------6
3.1. Advertising on travel websites/travel review websites---------6
3.2. Effective participation in managing hotel reviews--------------6
3.3. Search Engine optimization------------------------------------------6
4. Analyzing Place for Taj Gateway------------------------7
5. Weakness and Areas of Improvement for
GATEWAY – Place-----------------------------------------8
References-----------------------------------------------------8

3. P a g e | 1
By Nirvik Mitter
- By Taj Hotels and Resorts
1. Analyzing the Promotional Mix for Hotel Industry
Before analyzing the promotional strategy for Taj Gateway, it’s important to
identify and establish the critical communication channels that influence
purchase decision in the tourism industry in today’s environment
1.1 The Target Audience - The Gateway targets the “new-generation” business traveler, who is
well travelled. Demographically they are 25-40 year olds, predominantly foreign tourists travelling on
business. There is an increasing % of domestic Indian business tourists, who are becoming part of the
clientele, however being global citizens; they are close to their foreign counterparts.
1.2 Identifying the critical touch point in the decision making process - While
there are several touch points for the above mentioned target audience, when it comes to choosing
product s in the hospitality industry, it can be broadly classified into the following model (Chart 1)
DECISION MAKING IN HOTEL INDUSTRY
Actual ordering
Whether they're trying
to book on website / in
person?
Reordering/Review
How the actual
experience impacts
retention/reviews
How they
first heard
of the hotel?
Awareness Knowledge search
Where they
searched for more
information?
33 % 21%
Review sites
(tripadvisor)
8% 5%
Article/TV
/Travel
Magazine
3%
Facebook
63%
Search engine
7%
28%12%
Travel
Guides
35%
Travel agent
Friends
and
Colleagues
Travel sites
(Yatra, Makemy
trip etc)
15%
25%
27%
Hotel
website
Hotel
website
Travel agent
Source: % based on survey of 1000 consumers, released by Asian Hotel Survey, 2010

4. P a g e | 2
By Nirvik Mitter
For the global business traveler, in identifying the critical promotional
channels, it’s important to go through the decision making process:
Awareness
i) Friends and Colleagues( 38%), ii) Travel sites (27%), iii) Review sites like TripAdvisor(21%).
iv)Travel agents who classically used to be the biggest source of awareness have slowly lost importance
in the decision making with only (8%) of the business travellers information seeking from them. Also the
travel agents in turn evaluate and look for information on travel and review sites. This highlights the
importance of the associated travel sites and review sites in deciding promotional channels for a
hotel
Knowledge Search
The importance of online on the travel shopper’s search for information continues to grow.
i) 63% of consumers look through search engines for farther information on the hotel while ii) 15% of
them look at the hotel website to evaluate the product and pricing on offer. This highlights the
importance to have a hotel website that minimizes bounce rate for the online consumer and maximizes the
conversion
Actual ordering
Even here we notice the shift in media from traditional travel agent led booking to direct booking on the
hotel website or through web based services
i) 35% of consumers book on the hotel website, ii) 25% through other associated travel websites and
it’s only this channel where iii) travel agents still have an important 28% share of the revenue (This is
mostly on account of trust issues with online shopping and with advanced security for online payments,
we expect to see this going down as well)
Reordering and Reviews
This step is critical in the hotel decision making process. Once the target consumer has experienced the
hotel, this goes to create loyalty and retention and feeds the stimulus, social media, friends and family,
online reviews on travel review sites etc. In short, this is the key to generating new and getting repeat
customers.
Source: % based on survey of 1000 consumers, released by Asian Hotel Survey, 2010

5. P a g e | 3
By Nirvik Mitter
1.3 Kotler’s promotion mix model in the context of the Hotel Industry - (Having
analyzed the decision making process, we can classify the following as critical)
Advertising
PR and Publicity
Personal Selling
Direct
Marketing
• Advertising in Travel sites
• Advertising in review sites like trip advisor
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Travel magazines (low weightage)
• Hotel’s own website
• Advertising on TV, Radio
1) A variety of offers, that incentivise consumers to
actually place order
a. Lowest prices on packages
b. Temporary price off s
2) Cross Promotion with other needs of the consumer
like car reantals, air travel etc
1) Hotel reviews on reviews sites like tripadvisor
and relative position of Gateway vs others in the
same market segment
2) Active management of negative hotel reviews
3) Creating user generated content on review sites
and social networking sites
1) Face to face interaction withtravel agents – Given
the importance of travel agents in the decisionmaking
process in reducing this is not as critical
2) Face to face interactionof hotel sales forcewith
corporates –This helps in awareness , but helps
little in conversion to actual sales, as this is across
all players in market-Needs to have special
customisedoffers
1) Importance for loyalty programmes on an
ongoing basis, with existingcustomers and
constant communication as a reminder
2) Can be used foreffective communication with the
right target audience( travel sites are arich
source of such information and can be used for
targeted marketing)
Sales
Promotion
High Importance
Medium Importance
Low importance

6. P a g e | 4
By Nirvik Mitter
2. Analyzing the Promotional Mix for Taj Gateway
Based on the above, we analyzed where Taj gateway today participates and the potential
areas of improvement, based on the importance of that stage (indicated by )
2.1 Advertising
1) Advertising on travel sites/review sites - The brand currently does not advertise on
any of the travel sites like Yatra, make my trip – (Fortune Hotels as well as Holiday Inn
dominated the Indian travel sites on pay per click advertising). We have seen the
importance , given this the dominat interface currently for Awareness as well as information
search, leading to a subsequent purchase. However Taj Gateway is listed on most travel sites, in
list of hotels- however with no paid partnership , it tends to feature lower on the order of
prominent hotels vs other paid partners
2) Search Engine Optimization- This is critical , as 63% information seekers online go
through this channel - ( based on Chart 1 )The top result on a search gets clicked 42% of the
times, the top 5 results gets 88% of clicks and only 3% of searchers go beyond the first page.
Currently Taj Gateway does not have an effective search optimization strategy as part
of its digital investment
3) Taj Gateway’s own website
- This channel accounts for 15%
of knowledge search and 35% of
bookings- Taj Gateway has a
well-managed website, which is
being managed optimally and
constantly upgraded by
monitoring:
a) Bounce rates of pages,
b) Sales conversion rates,
c) Navigation through pages
The website has the following positives-
1) The booking module is prominent and upfront on the home page,
2) The navigation through the pages is fairly simple and simplified
The website has the following negatives
1) Has limited pictures of the properties,
2) Lacks in visual appeal vs. websites of Courtyard Marriott, Holiday Inn, Lemon Tree etc.
4) Print advertisement- The brand currently advertises in high end travel magazines as
well as on business magazines like Business Today, The Time etc. This is targeted at the right target
audience and helps build salience. However given the limited influence of print media on actual
conversion to sales, this is a low ROI (Return on Investment) media.

7. P a g e | 5
By Nirvik Mitter
City
Taj
Gateway
Ranking
Total no of
hotels
reviewed
Bangalore 28 500
Agra 12 65
Ahmedabad 25 110
Jaipur 31 165
Ernakulam 13 25
Vijaywada 7 51
2.2 Sales Promotion
1) Price offs – Taj Gateway is competitively priced and offers the travelers a host of options of
lowering their spending’s, through flexible pricing on pre booking, extended stay etc. This is quite
competitive and is a constant feature which is prominently displayed on the hotel website.
2) Special promotional packages- offers the following promotions:
a) Weekend specials/ Extended Stay to entice the business travellers to stay on and get
higher occupancy on usually lower occupancy weekends, by offering lower rates
b) Early bird – offers attractive rates for early bookings,
c) Last Minute –allows for lower cancellation and refundable rates, which is common in
business travel
2.3 PR and publicity
1) Hotel Reviews on travel review websites – Taj Gateway,
despite coming with the heritage of Taj group of hotels, fails to
feature in the top reviewed hotels in any of its destination. Taj
Gateway does not have a strategy of actively managing hotel
reviews, and this shows in its current average ranking being lower
than competitors in the same price segment. This has significant
impact for new users who use the review sites 21% of times for
finding about new hotels, and almost 12% of times to get more
information on chosen hotels.
Negative reviews are left unaddressed; the comparatively low ranking also seems to indicate
lack of an effective policy to generate positive user reviews.
2.4 Personal Selling
1) Dedicated Sales Team – Taj Gateway has a dedicated sales team, which effectively interfaces
with corporates in India, for promoting their hotels, through effective selling as well as customized
offers. However this is currently limited to Indian corporates, while most of the business travellers
into India are global
2.5 Direct Marketing
1) Taj “Inner Circle” – Taj Gateway is a part of the award winning Taj Inner circle privilege
programme- This loyalty programme allows the business travelers to accumulate privilege points
while staying at any Taj property, It also has a tie up with Jet Airways privilege programme –This
definitely is positive and helps in retention of loyal customers- Taj Gateway sends constant
communication on its offers to all members of the privilege programme.

8. P a g e | 6
By Nirvik Mitter
3. Weakness and Areas of Improvement for
GATEWAY - Promotion - Three Broad clusters
3.1 Advertising on travel websites/travel review websites - As
highlighted in Chart 1, this medium currently accounts for bulk of information and
knowledge search among the target traveler of Taj Gateway. Given its high correlation to
conversion to sales, Gateway needs to divert its budget from traditional print medium to
effective advertising on these websites
3.2 Effective participation in managing hotel reviews - This is the most
effective form of PR and needs to be managed efficiently. The hotel ranking on most
websites is based on user generated reviews. Gateway scores low on this account. The
critical steps are i) actively promoting positive reviews by engaging with opinion formers
and ensuring they have the right experience at Gateway properties, ii) leveraging positive
reviews , by effectively encouraging guests to share their experience, iii) prompt response
on any negative reviews posted
3.3 Search Engine optimization - This is a popular tool used globally by all
leading hotel industry chains, while still underdeveloped in India. Taj Gateways could
have an advantage by doing a tie up on Google and yahoo search etc.

9. P a g e | 7
By Nirvik Mitter
Mumbai
23%
Delhi
22%
Chennai
6%
Hyderabad
5%
Other cities
26%
Bangalore
10%
Ahmedabad
2%
Kolkata
4%
Pune
2%
Business Centre
Leisure
Destinations
Bangalore Coonoor
Ahmedabad Gir Forest
Calicut Jaipur
Ernakulam Jaiselmer
Madurai Jodhpur
Mangalore Chikmagalur
Nashik Varanasi
Vijaywada
Vizag
Varkala
Surat
Vadodara
4. Analyzing Place for Taj Gateway
Location in line with number of business travellers
To maximize revenue, Gateway should be at places, which has the highest % of business travellers.
While the group strategy is to focus beyond the Top 2 metros it currently seems to be absent in most
of the important business travel destinations.
Conspicuous by its absence in important business centers like
Hyderabad, Chennai as well as Pune etc.
Also, quite a few of the Gateway properties are in places of
leisure, which is not in line with the stated strategy of focusing
on the growing trend of business travellers.
% of business travellers in India by cities
Source: Indian HVS Industry report- 2008-2009

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By Nirvik Mitter
5. Weakness and Areas of Improvement for
GATEWAY - Place
5.1 Future expansion plans should be to cover the gap cities –
Hyderabad, Chennai And Pune.
References
1. Principles Of Marketing: A South Asian Perspective, Philip Kotler
2. http://bangaloreonline.in/Profile/Data/
3. http://www.indiastat.com/default.aspx
4. www.hvs.com/article/263/hotels-in-india-trends-and-opportunities/
5. http://www.itopc.org/travel-requisite/inbound-tourism-statistics.html
6. CIA Factbook. (2010). South Asia- India-The World Factbook:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html
7. Euromonitor International (2010). India, Country factfile. Retrieved March 14, 2010
from http://www.euromonitor.com/factfile.aspx?country=IN
8. Incredible India. (2008). Tourism Statistics at a Glance: 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2010,
from Incredible India: http://incredibleindia.org/Tourism_Stastics2008.pdf
9. Kotler P., Bowen, J. & Makens J. (2007). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism (3rd).
Delhi, India: Pearson Education Inc.
10. www.hvs.com/article/263/hotels-in-india-trends-and-opportunities/
11. http://www.itopc.org/travel-requisite/inbound-tourism-statistics.html
12. http://www.ibef.org/download/tourism.pdf
13. http://www.gatewayhotels.com
14. http://www.thegatewayhotels.com/index.htm?page=location
15. www.tripadvisor.com
16. www.yatra.com