Case Study on "Management of Marketing Department in Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong"

/>"Ritz Carlton Hotel a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission. We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambiance. The Ritz-Carlton experiences enliven the senses, instill well-being, and fulfill even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests." (Ritz-Carlton, 2000 P. 9).

The Rite Carlton's goals are to provide the superior service to customers through gold standard approach. The gold standard approach is to empower employee with training and development to provide exceptional service to customers. Among the management goals is to make Ritz Hotel a place where the customers will found genuine care and comfort. Management aims to provide the finest personal service and facilities for the guests in order to enjoy warm, relaxed and ambience services. Planning is very critical to achieve organizational goals. Through planning, management is able to achieve its aims and objectives.

Planning

Within the marketing department at Ritz Carlton hotel, the senior management implements strategic planning to make quality decision and set direction for business excellence. To achieve marketing objective, Ritz Carton focuses on customers and markets, which is by concentrating in hotel development. In the planning process, the marketing department implements market research to identify potential customers. Identification of customers assists Ritz Carlton to make the strategic plan in order to reach customers through press release, internet advertising, radio advertising, TV adverts, newspaper and magazine adverts, However, the major challenges facing the marketing department is the method to reach all customers since it is known that Ritz Carlton offers the most unique service in Hong Kong. Part of the planning process of the marketing department is to position its strategic planning and provide the unique message to make customers differentiate the service of the Ritz Carlton hotel from the competitors. Differentiation is very critical in the hotel business. Through differentiation strategy, the Ritz Carlton is able to provide the unique service within the country, and this has made the Ritz Carlton to be ranked as the best hotel in Hong Kong.

As a part of the strategic planning, the Ritz Carlton engages new employee to take part in the cultural orientation before starting their roles in the department. The Ritz philosophy is that no one is left in the dark. With the learning process, the company has been able to mandate all employees in the department to work towards improving the financial outcome of the organization. To achieve the competitive market advantages, Ritz Carlton uses senior leaders in the planning process. The planning approach lies on the passion for excellence, basic empowerment process and seven-pyramid decision. The main objective of the marketing department is by focusing on customers and overall market within the country. Ritz Carlton uses market research to explore techniques to enhance quality to achieve customers satisfaction. The Ritz Carlton approach plan is to use senior leaders within the department for the passion and excellence. To achieve organizational excellence, the hotel provides the senor leaders essential data to implement strategic planning for the organization.

To function effectively, Rite Carlton set seven-approach plan to make the marketing department to achieve business excellence. The seven-approach plan is:

10-year vision

5-year mission

3 years objective

1-year tactics

Strategy

Methods

Foundation

As part of the planning process, Ritz focuses on value and quality of life. To achieve this aim, the marketing department puts the right employee at the right position to work closely with customers, and making customers happy. The aim is to ensure that customers truly enjoy their stay at the hotel. As part of the planning process, the hotel believes that happy employees have ability to make the customers happy. Ritz Carlton is committed to the welfare of its guests. The company selects its employee with the extraordinary care to satisfy the customers. At the Ritz-Carlton hotel, are the most important resources that the hotel employs to commit the guests and the management applies the principles of trust, respect, honesty, and integrity to maximize corporate excellence?

The advantages planning process within the marketing department is that the department has been able to build corporate image by differentiating the service of the Ritz-Carlton as unique in Hong Kong. However, the disadvantages remarked in the planning process within the marketing department is that the department has not been able to promote the image of the company to win a single award in Hong Kong despite that the hotel is the tallest hotel in the world.

Couple with the planning process within the marketing department, the Ritz Carlton hotel also organizes different approach to provide excellent service to customers.

Organizing

Organizing is the process of configuring the resources to implement organizational plans effectively and efficiently. Ritz Carlton uses the top management within the marketing department for organizing the business process of the hotel. The top management makes use of employees as the major resources within the marketing department. Employees are considered as assets at Ritz Carlton. Thus, the company empowers employees to apply the principle of Ladies and Gentlemen. Applying this principle, the employee is committed to the guests. Ritz believes in the value of training and development. As a part of the strategy to organize the marketing department, the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong provides 310 hours training for the employees in the first year of their service to ensure that employees deliver value for the company by providing satisfaction for the guests. Ritz has been able to built learning organization to build strong legacy for itself. Ritz-Carlton concentrates on product service excellence, customer engagement, and employee engagement. As part of the business priority, the staff observes whether they are meeting the target of the organization and they try to make the changes if needed.

Ritz also implements "The Ritz Mystique" to promote the brand image of the hotel. Typically, the hotel uses the concept mystique to deliver extremely high performance above its competitors. Part of the organizing technique of the Ritz Carlton hotel is by using the employees for the customer engagement. Customer engagement by using employees has strong linkage to the profit outcome. The customer engagement has outstanding results because the system has made the Ritz to become selective in the market. Part of the system that the marketing department employs to promote the image of the company is by implementing human sigma that such as managing customers and employee separately, and the system make the company to deliver 70% positive outcome in the market and financial performances. (Peters, & Austin, 1985).

Typically, the customer relation engagement is part of the technique that the hotel employs in achieving the financial performances. Using this technique, the organization has been able to use customer relation management to boost sales performances. (Ivanovic, Galicic & Susnjar, 2010). With the effectiveness of marketing department, the Ritz-Carlton has been able to boosting sales; however, the marketing department has not been able to deliver the unique service compared to the services delivered by other Ritz-Carton in USA.

Leading

The marketing department of the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong uses the brand awareness to be at the top. In Hong Kong, Ritz Carlton is the leading brand in the luxury lodging. To maintain the top position, the company has rigorously adheres to its own standard. To ensure that the Ritz Carlton maintains the leading position, the company creates the leadership centre that builds employees towards the leading position. The… READ MORE