Sofitel ___________________________________________________________ 1.

Introduction After the tough economic phase of the 2009, the Hotel industry is witnessing an upward curve and growth in the Indian Hotel industry is going through revitaliza tion. Sofitel is a renowned and well established luxury hospitality organization in In dia and is one of the leading hotel groups in the country. The company is popula r among its clientele and has a creative blend of luxury services and a responsi ve and seasoned staff that has assisted it till now to create a strong foothold in the Indian hospitality market. Sofitel follows a general and widespread practice in the hospitality sector by o ffering its clientele exquisite luxury services range and industry levels of cus tomer services. In the Hospitality and hotel industry of India, there already ex ists and also surfaced numerous large and small scale companies that are facilit ating similar services to their clientele. These organizations have upped the le vel of competition in the sector and renowned organizations like Sofitel are fac ed with increased threat of losing market share. To continue its competitive pos ition in these conditions and continuously increase and retain its clientele, th e company requires formulating a strategy through which it can penetrate the Ind ian hospitality sector. However, with the increasing number of competitors in the sectors, the market sh are has declined and thus the traditional services and creativity in offerings i s not enough to retain and increase market share. Therefore this consultancy report is essential, since it provides the company wi th a marketing strategy that will provide the organization with competitive adva ntage over its current competitors and will assist to penetrate the Indian hotel market. According to Kotler, marketing understands the social needs and desires. Marketi ng is the method that designs the end results of any product or services by cons idering the following parameters - Pricing, promotion, Distribution and awarenes s of services or products and customer satisfaction. Further marketing is focuse d more on satisfying the customer rather than attaining profit. Customer satisfa ction should always be the foremost priority of any corporation in the hospitali ty sector. Hence, Sofitel has to select those strategies through which it can compete with its rivals on these parameters. The scope of the report extends to look into them and marketing strategy of Sofi tel Hotel and select the activities that will be help it to penetrate the Indian market. Further, it will also analyze how these marketing activities will help the company. The consultancy report will use the theoretical underpinning of fou r Ps of marketing. The consultancy research will divide the four Ps into specifi c categories. Then the market penetration from the various sources will be discu ssed and the one which is most suited will be used. 1.1 Objectives of the report Objectives of the present consultancy research can be specifically listed as: ? To determine the present level of marketing process in the company ? To recognize marketing process that exist within the present competitors ? To analyze the useful marketing process models ? To analyze marketing process models to achieve the desired market penetr ation ? To devise a new marketing strategy so that company can effectively penet rate the market 1.2 Research Questions The research work aims to answer the following questions: ? What is level of marketing process presently carried out in the company? ? What kind of marketing initiatives are being carried out by the major co mpetitors?

What marketing models can help the company to achieve the desired market penetration?

2. Literature Review The present section of the report will discuss the past literature on the topic. The chapter will begin with defining the key marketing concepts and then will p roceed to explain the marketing Ps. 2.1 Definition of Marketing Marketing is to be take care of individual s social wants and desires. Nonetheless marketing fashions the association between a product and its consumption (Kotle r 2006). Marketing is a technique that assembles the outcome of a product into actuality by considering the following aspects -price, promotion, generation of new ideas and communicating them, products, and services for satisfying the customer. In a ddition marketing requires customer satisfaction more than revenue. Customer sat isfaction ought to be the main concern for any business. Present day marketing focuses on creating a friendly association between the cor poration and their clientele by being perceptive of customer satisfaction. The g oal and objective of marketing is to maintain the current consumer base for ince ssant growth at the same time as seeking for new clientele to buy their offering s (Kotler, 2004) There are worldwide marketing cycle actions that comprise of the marketing proce dure. These processes are additionally desirable in daily marketing process and the way people s requirements, desires and stipulations are catered to, on the bas is of their utilization. The core marketing concepts are illustrated in the following figure 1. Figure 1. Marketing process cycle Needs The needs are material entities such as provisions, garments, and kindness and s ecurity. All these material entities are part of an individual s everyday actions. In addition those entities are stated to be as material needs are individual ne eds that are already known to them; and these entities are not created by the ma rketers. They are a constituent of decision making process of any individual. (K otler, 2004) Wants Wants are formulated by populace based on their society. Nevertheless, the wants are linked to human being s preference for choosing the arrangement that suits th em and reasonably priced for utilization. Demand Demand is requirements and desires that are beneficial for human utilization; fu rthermore it is within the means to the individual paying for them. For instance , a person may require a mobile handset only for the function of receiving and t exting. Whereas they are not much concerned regarding other purposes or attribut es of the phone as long as the phone can fulfill their basic need. Products and Services Products and services are entities that are offered in the market to fulfill the demand. And their core aim is to satisfy the people who need them (Kotler, 2004 ) Product are a huge assortment of tangible entities that can be exhibited in th e marketplace for consumption by those who need them. While services are intangi ble entities that provide solution to any problem of the customer and makes thei r lives easier (Mc- Graw 2006) Value and satisfaction The value of any product or service is defined based on the ability to satisfy t he need and anticipation of the customer. Customer satisfaction and the value ge nerated by any goods and service are the primary motive for designing them and t hey are reason for which a customer buys them (Kotler, 2004) Market Market is the association between the purchaser and the product. Moreover market s are structured as per chief needs and requirements of the consumer that are pa

rt of the market. Moreover, market size is the size of the population that is pr esent to purchase the product or service. 2.1.1 Services Marketing Mix Process Services marketing mix process is the action plan that influences the end result or sales of any company. Sales can be seen as the outcome of the marketing mix process was as marketing plan can be seen as a long term plan. The marketing mix of services is the tool that decides the outcomes of the sales and marketing endeavors. Services marketing mix process is utilized to recogniz e the increase in profitability for any specific market. Generally marketing mix decided for any particular service offerings spans for a 3 year time period (Mi lton, 2006). Services marketing mix comprises of each component that affects the sales. These components are elements of the marketing processes and they create demand for t he product or services. There are essentially four elements of the marketing mix , namely: ? Product ? Price ? Place and ? Promotion Each of the individual elements is explained in the subsequent sections in detai l with respect to their relation to the objectives of the research. Fig 2: The 4 Marketing Mix Ps (source: Pat, 2007) Product / Services Sofitel Hotel group does not cater any tangible product to its clientele, but is it a service provider. Hence, the present consultancy report will deal with the ir services. Services can be defined as operations and activities that comprise of interactio n between customer and the service provider. Whereas some services come under th e category of personal services that do not encompass actual interaction between the service provider and the user Majority of customer related services are also provided along with physical prod uct so as to provide satisfaction to the purchaser or the product and is also a means to gain competitive advantage. Services an assortment of intangible entities that provide solution to the needs of the customer and provide value to them in any industry environment. Majority of services provided by hotels are hospitality services and they typically cate r to travelers, leisure, business meetings, outings and food and beverage servic es. Attributes of Services Brand Name A brand name is the identity of any product or service. It is the trademark or m ark of distinction through which the company s product or services are recognized in the market place. Brand names are often symbolized by means of a specific nam e along with a tag line and symbol. Further brand name also indicated the type o f service provided by the company. According to Kotler (2004), brand name can be effectively used to distinguish the product or services form others in the mark et place and describe the USP of the product in a compact and easiest way. In the present day brand name is getting high importance in the market with rega rds to services recognition in the marketplace and it is almost impossible to fi nd any product or services without a brand name. Moreover, brand name is also the legal name of the service providing company and protects the company from other organizations from copying the attributes of an y specific service r product In the hotel industry brand names are often associated with luxury associated wi th the hotel or it is related to the location of the Hotel or the type of unique experience that the hotel intends to provide to its customers. It can be used a s an advantage by hotel to distinguish its services form others (Peter, 2006).

Functionality Functionality is the link between the service and its use. Furthermore, creating a service comprises of various departments inside the corporation ranging from human resource department, operations management to customer care department tha t collectively create the service that is consummated by customer (John & Son, 2 007). Quality Quality is the aspect that motivates a seller to provide straightforward data re garding the service s ability to serve the customer. The decision to take services of any particular organization by the customer dep ends on the quality of the services that are being offered with respect to its p rice. Furthermore, quality of the service is evaluated by the consumer also in t he terms of what was promised by the organization and what is being offered to t hem. Safety Safety is the chances of being protected and safeguarded against any type of phy sical or mental harm that may arise by using any product or service. In case of hotel industry, external safety is considered as protection from climate changes and physical invasion and internal safety is the quality and healthiness of the food provided, safety from home appliances and safety from risks of unhygienic conditions. Generally companies put forwards a guarantee agreement to ensure customers of th eir safety if they decide to use their product or service. A guarantee agreement is a clause that states that the company takes full responsibility to certain k inds of damages or harms arising due to usage of services by the customer and wi ll take responsibility for any loss incurred by the customer. Price Price is what we pay for an exchange of a product or services rendered for consu mption. It s the aggregate money that is charged for services. Price is the amount paid in form of currency of the local region or its equivale nt in exchange of the services acquired. It is the money that is demanded by the company in exchange of its services. However, price of a service is a much comp lex element and is often the deciding aspect for success of any product or servi ces. According to Kotler, Price is actually seen by the consumer as the money pa id not merely for the service but also for the value and satisfaction that attai ns by using the service. Thus price can be seen as one of the most crucial facto r regarding the decision making process of customers. Moreover, price is the component that creates actual cash for the company. Furth ermore its nature is flexible and can be altered based on various factors rangin g from profit margins to external business environment (Kotler, 2006) Furthermore Price is the aspect that the customer foremost considers while makin g his decision to buy any service or product. Pricing Strategy Pricing strategy are frequently implemented by organizations as the service move s through its life cycle and event of constituting a new pricing strategy takes place generally when a new service is launched. The most common aspect for decid ing the pricing strategy is interest and demand for the service and external env ironmental conditions. They take into account various pricing approach that can be used with regards to overall organizational objective and corporate strategy. Two most prominent typ es of pricing strategies are Market Skimming pricing strategy and the Market pen etration pricing strategy. Market Skimming Pricing Strategy It is strategy to set a very high price for any service or product so as to gene rate high margins of profit and is based on the profile of the consumers who are considered to be willing to pay the asked price. This kind of strategy is used when the company decides to cater to some exclusive set of consumers and provide a limited set of services that are very rare and exclusive. Thus the company in tends to create high profit by providing lesser amount of services of high value

. Market penetration pricing strategy It is the strategy of setting a low price on the services so as to attain more m arket share by attracting higher population of customers. The intention of marke t penetration is to create a huge market for the service or product. Generally c ompanies entering new segments or new markets use this strategy attain a large s hare of customers. Seasonal Pricing Seasonal pricing is looked upon as price that is to be compensated for a service s based on the phase or circumstances prevailing in the region at that time. in addition, this recurrent pricing frequently is experiences at times of festive s easons in the surroundings or nation. Furthermore a number of corporation or hotels tender discounted price throughout the seasonal phase. However a number of corporations or business take benefits of the marketplace circumstances by deciding if the price is to be discounted or greater than before so as to construct a little extra income. (Kotler, 2004) Price Flexibility Price flexibility is an unbalanced sum that can be compensated for the a a servi ce by two clients or it can be described as the modifiable cost for different c lients for the same service based on the client rapport with the organization. ( Keyes, 2010) Price flexibility is considered as a worth of service to different clients beari ng in mind the purchasing power in the setting where the service is being sold. In addition the environmental settings decide the demand for a product in the lo cation. Furthermore a corporation also employs price flexibility to deal rival i n the marketplace (Kotler 2008 ) Price flexibility may have an effect on a servi ce in the marketplace and might directly be linked to scarcity or excess supply of services in the marketplace. This price flexibility can result in transforma tions in worker remuneration. In addition, this price flexibility may be augmented or reduced based on the cos t incurred in providing the service. 2.3 Place Place is considered as the site or location where a service can be found for use , Moreover place can be explained as geographical location of accessibility of p roducts or services. This accessibility implies the frequency of the service ava ilable is more in the specific place or where the service is situated in the mar ketplace. 2.3.1. Marketing Coverage Marketing coverage comprises of two main procedures namely awareness and coverag e, awareness is the media awareness of a product or service in a specific locati on that engage newspapers and TV exhibit of a product or services, whereas cover age is considered as sufficient information and promptness about services to a c ustomer is supplied in a continuous manner (Ogenyi, 2009). References ? Kotler, P. Armstrong, G. (2006). Marketing an Introduction. Pearson Educ ation, Inc. New Jersey ? Kotler, P. Armstrong, G. (2004). Principles of marketing. Pearson Educat ion, Inc. New Jersey ? Mc Graw Hill. (2006). Services Management and marketing (integration cust omer focus across the films) Asia ? Ogenyi, O. (2009). International Marketing. London ? Milton, A. (2006). Convention Sales and Services (Seventh Edition) Las V egas ? Pat, G. (2008). Convention Sales, Services and Operation ? Peter, M. (2006). Services Marketing Management (Third Edition) USA ? John & Son. (2007). Measuring marketing (103 key metrics every marketer needs). New York