Brand Management Assignment 2/3

By, Mayur Kasera, FMS/MBA/2017-19/075 (working remotely)

Case: Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces

I want to answer the question in this order:

1. Was the company right in creating four brands?

What’s needed? (As a marketer)

Yes, for the long terms it is. As mentioned in the case “Internally, there was growing
recognition that the Taj umbrella branding was diluting the image of the Taj brand because,
although the different hotels were positioned and categorized differently, consumers still
expected the high quality of Taj from all its properties” the positioning dilemma will expand
more in upcoming year due to competitive landscape.

 The categories also caters the needs of the different types of customers. As mentioned
in the case “Luxury market was expected to increase substantially from its current
share of less than 2% of total global market spending.” Which means there is a need
to cater each segment very clearly. It was also mentioned that the paying capacity of
in India is increasing
 It was also mentioned in the case that there is a price and expectation dilemma in
the customer. The people supposed to associate every hotel of Taj as ‘luxury’.
Although, there are many other challenges at ground but this could be the right
solution to propose the brand value rightly in customer mind.
 There are others reasons too, the price war in future will become more extreme if
they go the same way they are going as. As per observation through case they do not
know how Gateway and Ginger would fare for the year forward. This will also create
more difficulties in future analysis and forecast of prices.
 Adding on, from the perspective of branding the image and essence of ‘Taj’ is going
missing. When there is a large scope of catering to the International. About 27% of its
revenue was from international operations. International (i.e., non-Indian-domiciled)
customers comprised 55% of its domestic business and 95% of its international
business and most of the internationals are unknown with the structure of brand.
But yes it is lightly okay in case of Indian customer.

Talking Practicality:

Now coming to the practicality of proposed solution and implementation. Although the
nature of the industry is emerging and competitive so all this solution is highly difficult to
implement at once and would also supposed to create loses in upcoming terms.
It is also mentioned in the case that “Large number of competition from outside India, about
37 international brands had announced their plans for entry into India.” So the need to fight
the battle at the same time working on future plans is required.

If not effectively strategize and implemented they can also create more problems for the
brand. According to the general standard the crossing of 3 brand will not considered to be
good in terms of its operations and services and as also mentioned by Mishra that it would
be difficult to manage this transformation.

But as the ‘Taj’ setup is very old, good experienced and renowned in industry, so they are
supposed to manage this well.

What I Recommend:

Is to implement the 4 brand structure plan without a drastic transformation will be the
best. They should work brand by brand means taking one or two brands at the time and at the
priority.

2. Should he signal a go-ahead for its launch, postpone the launch indefinitely, or
withdraw completely?

Ans: Since, as mentioned in case “A terror attack nine days ago at several locations in
Mumbai, including at its flagship property, Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, had left the hotel
as well as the city and country struggling to restore their image. Although affected financially
by the global recession, THRP nonetheless had to go all out to restore the brand and
consumer confidence.”

During the time when there were other more immediate battles to be fought and with not
knowing how Gateway and Ginger would fare this year, the Taj should postpone the launch
indefinitely. There are reasons for it:

 As there is already need of the transformation in the brand structure they should take
more clear decision and work according to their future plans.
 Neutralising negativity would be the other challenge as it the customer confidence is
already shaken after attack.

3. If he did decide to postpone the launch, should he name the three properties that
were ready—in Goa, Bengaluru, and the Maldives—“Vivanta by Taj” or some
interim name until the brand was formally launched?

Since they are already prepared with their future plans and branding strategy, they should
align each activity with the same that means no more names. After sometime they’re going to
have the brand launch formally.