The Marketing Strategy Of Vietnam

The merchandising scheme Of VietnamTourism industry worldwide is wholeness of the largest sectors which devote spacio drug user contribution in the growth of economy. It is obvious that interferenceist from one continent travel to other continents. Southeast Asian countries perk up become ecumenic destination for European tourists and the government in each respective country from Southeast Asia putting strong efforts to suck the tourists across the world. However due to scotch recession there was a record downfall of tourists from Europe in the region. In this view this assignment report discusses the market scheme of Vietnam to attract clients from European countries including the market, segmentation, muging and view strategy (Akaah and Korgaonkar, 1988).2. Target Country of Tourist DestinationThe number of tourists from Italy has seen a significant downfall to visit Vietnam in the tourism statistics during the past quartet months however the total in run for of the tourists in the country has been outgrowth by 103% as per the tourism statistics issued by Vietnam tourism government. Among other European countries the flow of tourists from Italy was match and in last four months this figure has been decreasing continuously (Berthon, Lane, Pittand Watson, 1998). According to the tourism government in Vietnam, the tourist flow from Italy was 11,243 in declination 2009 which has been reduced to 5796. There is great potential of tourist in Italy since during Easter most of the population in Italy go for outbound vacations and Southeast Asian countries they prep be attractive place to visit due to heritage, culture and monuments. Based on these observations I have chosen Italy as a target market to attract tourist from Italy.(Source http//www.vietnamtourism.gov.vn/)3. Resorts on Facilities and ServicesWindsor inwardness Hotel is one of the preferred choices for tourists to get accommodation as the hotel has branches across the country. The h otel is located at heart of the capital urban center of Vietnam Ho Chi Minch City which is situated in the mid way of historic china town district and business district. The hotel issues world class basketball team star services with a combination of luxury and hospitality services. Windsor plaza provides superior hospitality services to both the business travelers and leisure travelers (Bocij, Chaffey, Greasley, and Hickie, 1999). There ar the set up of professional services offered by Windsor plaza where the travelers can pick out the choices among shopping, entertainment, meeting and dining facilities. In addition to this the tourists can have the great experience of perfect gifts, boutique, shopping and discotheque which has been built with the inspired theme of American style discos. The luxurious service described above has become the extraordinary choices and needs of travelers from Italy and these be the USP of hotel to attract tourist across the world countries (Agra wal, Arjona and Lemmens, 2001). Tourists from Italy travel outbound to get relax from work, entertainment and make whoopiement. Therefore in this view they evermore seek for the place where they can have the experience of all luxuries, sources of entertainment and facilities under one roof. Windsor plaza provides the accurate services as per the need of European tourists. In addition to this the hotel provides multi-cuisine food with the specialization of each European country, so that the tourists from Europe should not miss their choice of food. Another advantage provided by Windsor topographic point is the low rates than the other hotels. The hotel offers best possible low rates where the customers can negotiate and much cheaper than the booking rates directly. All the rates are finalized after consent of the customer and no hidden charges applied into the service hotels. Along with the low rate benefit, the hotel provides first hand information that meets the expectation of t he tourists (Business Wire, 2002).4. Marketing StrategyIn order to attract the tourists from Italy, the country requires robust marketing plan which should cover every aspect of market strategies to target the tourists. This section provides the segmentation, targeting and situation analysis for Vietnam .4.1 Target MarketTarget country in Europe bequeath be Italy as it is the most preferred destination for Vietnam where a significant share of tourists flow exists among other destinations. The major destinations from European countries include France, UK, Germ any(prenominal), Italy and Spain where the majority of tourists visit the Southeast Asian countries specifically for leisure purpose. Each of these countries have equal tourists flow however it has been assessed that due to economic recession tourists visit from Italy has been reduced tan the previous year visits (Cohen, 2002). Therefore it should be essential for Vietnam to develop a strategy to capture the lost share of tou rist from Italy. Most of the population in Italy usually goes for outbound travel in vacation time much(prenominal) as Easter, Christmas and summer holidays. Southeast Asian region is the preferred destinations for these tourists (Festervand, Snyder and Tsalikis, 1986).4.2 SegmentationBefore targeting the tourist it is essential to segment them establish in their demographics, psychographic, behavioral and geographic federal agents. Below is given the segmentation analysis for tourists in Italy.4.2.1 Demographic SegmentationThe demographic segmentation refers to the gender, age, income level and education level of the target segment found on which a trafficker defines the profile of its target customer. The target profile of tourist allow be population with age more than 18 days who are graduates with monthly income more than Euro 3,500 and good equal proportion of male and female (Hoffman and Novak, 1996).4.2.2 Geographic SegmentationGeographic segmentation is based on the jam of the target segment where is resides. The target location go out be major cities in Italy since majority of population in Italy resides in urban areas and reach of the communion channel is higher among the urban areas. apart from this the target customers identified at the outskirts of urban areas since a good proportion of population also resides in such(prenominal) areas due to low cost of index (Jasper and Ouellete, 1994).4.2.3 Behavioral SegmentationBehavioral segmentation is based on the consumer behavior, culture, values and beliefs. Consumers in Italy are reserved in nature and very price sensitive. They have the cultural values to spread happiness with enjoyment and entertainment. The purpose behind leisure traveling is to enjoy the vacations without any stress and with full of comfort. Tourism government in Vietnam is making efforts to fulfill the basic tourism needs of the tourists (Kehoe, Pitkow, Sutton, Aggarwal and Rogers, 1998). The core focus of the governmen t is emphasizing on developing and renovating the tourist sites in the country with old heritage monuments and all facilities with latest technology in the hospitality sector. Beaches in Vietnam are very popular. In this way the marketer lead target the tourists in Italy who are seeking place for their comfort and likely to enjoy the beaches (Machlis, 1998).4.2.4 Psychographic SegmentationPsychographic segmentation is based on the lifestyle, mind set and thinking of the consumers for availing the particular product and services. Marketer will target tourist in Italy who visit the tourists destination for reliving from the stress from their lock in life. In addition to this the mind set of the tourist towards leisure purpose to pass the vacation with full of enjoyment and luxury. They feel that visiting tourists place will provide the experience of new learning and entertainment (Oberndorf, 1999).4.3 TargetingThe target profile of the tourist will be divided into two segments such as those tourists who have already visited Vietnam and those who will visit Vietnam first time. The aim of targeting first segment of tourist will be the add on benefit to the marketer as it will be easy to capture this segment and require less efforts to attract the tourists again to visit Vietnam (Millman, 1998). Moreover they are potential customer as they are well aware about the tourist place in Vietnam which enables to plan their visit easily. On the other hand aim of targeting the fresh tourists is to increase the market share and provide the expedience of this segment with enjoyable life and comfort by the attraction of tourism in Vietnam. The profile of target customer will be population of age 18 to 25 years, 26 to 35 years and 35 to 55 years who are likely to enjoy their vacations in comfortable place. Various holiday bundles will be levyd among the target segment to promote the tourism in Vietnam. The core target segment will be consumers of age group 26 to 35 since t hey are the decision makers in the households and level of income and spending power is higher of this segment (Lewis, 2000).4.4 Positioning StrategyThe positioning strategy includes the advertising and communication to the target segment. A marketer must choose the advertising and communication channel with high reach among the target segment. Online advertising is the optimal method of promoting the tourism in Vietnam. A marketer can select the social networking popular in Italy to advertise the tourism in Vietnam (Quelch and Harding, 2009). The marketer can also select the netmail marketing, web blogs and RSS feeds to promote the tourism among Italian tourists. Under the promotion strategy the Windsor can offer family package or group package by highlighting the major facilities, services and popular destinations in Vietnam (Oliver, 1999). The marketer at Windsor can also select approximately choice of discount package with visual presentation of popular tourist sites to attrac t the customers. In addition to this a differential and low cost strategy will work to promote the tourism in Vietnam. isolated form this the Tourism government in Vietnam should upgrade the website by installing the virtual tour of popular tourist destinations so that the tourists can have the view of tourists places and tourism in Vietnam virtually. Events should be promoted on the website in order to attract the tourists. The promotional action will be implemented by engaging the local travel agents and travel companies in Italy (Porter, 2000).5. Marketing MixMarketing mix is the critical factor which enables the marketer to deploy the marketing strategy in optimal way and also provides the growth and expansion of an organization. Until the sound marketing mix is developed a company can have several challenges in the market place to promote its products and services. In this way the seven Ps of marketing mix of Windsor Plaza are defined below (Shankar, Rangaswamy and Pusateri, 1999).5.1 Product (Services)In case of hotel the product will be services which are intangible in nature. Therefore based on the service offerings the Hotel can forecast its sales to be generated and the margins of the Hotel will be estimated in the coming years (Reda, 2000). Windsor can offer varieties in its hospitality services such as house saloon service, multi cuisine food specifically all verities of European cuisine. In order to promote the services, Windsor will engage with the local travel agencies in order to make the tourist aware about the available services and related facilities for tourism in Vietnam. The incentives and commission will be provided to the travel agents and travel companies based on the revenue generated and recommending the tourist about the hotel (Van den Poel and Leunis, 1999). The services will be included all the new-fashioned facilities so that the tourists get fascinated hotel services. at the same time the hotel will realize where there servic e are lacking and using this opportunity the marketer can boost up their sales (Riedman, 1999).5.2 PlacePlace has of its primary importance in marketing mix, the marketing and sales bus should understand the divert market in Italy to promote the hotel service along with the tourism in Vietnam. Before implementing the marketing plan the marketing manager should study about the general demographics about Italy for example moot of population in Italy resides in metro areas and tourists came from the outskirts of the metro cities and urban areas. In the internet era, most of tourists in Italy do not visit the travel agencies and book their tourist plan online. Therefore the service will marketed through major internet portal (Woolley, 1998). Apart from this the metro city malls will be targeted first to promote the tourism.5.3 PromotionAs already discussed, the hotel will use the differentiation and low cost strategy to develop the competitive advantage under the promotion strategy. Online marketing channel will be used to promote the hotel service and tourism. Some of the communication channel includes, social networking sites, website, email marketing, RSS feed and Blog. Advertising will be utilized through various websites which are most often visited by the tourists in Italy (Warner, 2000). In order to promote the services, Windsor will engage with the local travel agencies in order to make the tourist aware about the available services and related facilities for tourism in Vietnam. The incentives and commission will be provided to the travel agents and travel companies (Warner, 2000).5.4 PriceUnder the promotional strategy the hotel will use the low cost strategy in which the hotel will offer discount and best possible low price for its services in the industry. Since the tourists in Italy are more prices sensitive and it should have the price as per the offerings. Pricing will be offered by covering the all the hotels expenses and kept the margin at lowe r side. The hotel can indeed make the hoi polloi based profits and utilize it in the long term (Wingfield, 2001).6. Extended PsThe extended Ps of marketing will be used to reinforcing the positioning strategy of the hotel as described below (Ansoff, 1957).6.1 ProcessIn service industry process is the key marketing mix since the customer feels happy if they aline the service process is easy and services of the company can be accessible in the easiest possible manner. The marketer will pace self make process in the hotel with signage to get the access of each service easily. In addition to this the hotel will use intercom facility to by just dialing one number and the hotel staff will provide the instant service within maximum of 10 minutes. It will be highlighted in during the hotel promotion (Baker, 1998). The hotel will provide the below services for its touristsExecutive lounge Business centerMeeting facilities Recreational facilitiesKids playroomTour deskAirport pick-up serv ice USD18/way/4seats and vehicles for rent removed swimming poolMulti-lingual guest service staffLaundry and dry-leaning serviceModern elevator and baggage storageSouvenir/Gift shop and air in hotelDoctor/Nurse on callForeign currency exchangeTravel tour arrangementBusiness Center with ADSL Internet and emailBeauty salon and beauty treatment centerGymnasium and fitness centerMassage, Spa, Sauna, Steam-bath and JacuzziShopping center, Games and Casino roomNgan Dinh RestaurantCaf CentraAmerica DiscothequeAn dingdong shopping plaza(Source http//www.vietnam-hotels.net/hotels/Windsor-Plaza-Hotel)6.2 PeopleThe hotel will employ best of industry experience in order to provide highly acclaimed services to the tourist. People are the first face in the service industry and they are like the tangible asset of the company. In hospitality business, people are only the recount where the customer feels the experience of services. indeed the hotel will employ the hotel management professionals with minimum 3 years of experience of the industry to provide betters service to the tourist (Agrawal, Arjona and Lemmens, 2001).6.3 personal EvidencePhysical evidence includes the proper display of the services which are visible during the hotel visit. In this way the hotel will use the signage merchandizing where the each facility will be marked with proper sign. The interior of the hotel will be designed by the architect and interior designer. During the positioning, a virtual tour of hotel will be created and displayed on the communication channel such as websites and internet portal (Berthon, Lane, Pitt and Watson, 1998).7. Budgetary RequirementSince the Windsor plaza is already an established chain in Vietnam, therefore the hotel requires the renovation in its hotel and promotion expenses. Since the hotel will use the digital marketing concept to promote the service and incentive commission to be provided to the travel agents and companies. Hence the forecasted budget is pro vided in the below table for the period of six monthsMonthEstimated Expenses1st monthUSD 55,0002nd monthUSD 40,0003rd monthUSD 25,0004th monthUSD 25,0005th monthUSD 15,0006th monthUSD 7,000The progress will be monitored through weekly sales sheet in which the company will make the comparison of actual revenue generated with the target revenue and based on the figures the target for subsequent months will be assigned to each sales manager (Festervand, Snyder and Tsalikis, 1986). In addition to this the company will prepare expense ratio chart every month to monitor the cost over revenue generated. Apart from this the number of visits on the web portal and networking sites will be recorded to monitor the progress of advertising and promotion. The marketer can also check the user review to monitor the impact of its marketing campaign (Cohen, 2002).8. RecommendationIn order to gain the long term advantage and global marketing benefits the marketing manager should perform different marke ting activities which will enable the hotel to gain the competitive advantage for minimum of five year period. form 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5Focus in Marketing CampaignFlexibility of Rates OnlineConsidering the Channel vigilance ProductsInvestment in the WebsiteOptimization of WebsiteE-mail marketingProtection of Online brandingMonitoring the Users Review Online and Accordingly devise the marketing strategyOffering a analytical packageResponding to the market conditionLewis (2000) suggested that the company should optimize those key steps which enable to understand its advertising and promotion. Since Windsor Plaza will use digital marketing therefore user review will provide the necessary information to the marketing manager to understand what the hotel can best offer to the tourists. Apart from the protection of online branding is essential as it will enable the marketer to protect other websites to advertise companys image in the negative way such as low rate hotel.