GINGER- THE NANO TAJ by Shruti Kamble MMS-I

  Ginger Hotels revolutionized hospitality industry by bringing in the 3 star hotels and concentrating on “smart basics and no unnecessary frills”. The NANO TAJ- Ginger Hotels, is the new name of IndiOne, the hotel chain from Roots Corporation, a subsidiary of Indian Hotels group. It is a perfect example of strategy driven by customer insights and right marketing mix thus creating customer value. The target market for Ginger Hotels is budget conscious yet comfort seeking youth who do not relate the cheap rates with the poor standards.

The 4 P’s of Ginger explicitly shows that it follows the systems and process strategy diligently.

Product – Each property has about 100-200 rooms which have basic amenities such as electronic locks, mini-fridge and tea / coffee maker. Guest facilities include a meeting room, gymnasium facilities, a cyber café, an ATM as well as Wi-Fi connectivity by Tata Indicom in the public areas and individual rooms. They also have a room specially designed for physically challenged group. It clearly depicts simplicity combined with modernity with no compromise on comfort.

Price – Single room costs around Rs. 999/- only. It manages to keep costs low by cutting down on travel agents cost by online selling of rooms, cut

GINGER- THE NANO TAJ

Feb  2011

 

short room service and increasing the occupancy rate. Their USP is standard low price and value for money which differentiates it from other hotels of Indian hotel group like 5 STAR Taj hotels and 4 STAR Vivanta.

Promotions – Social media and word of mouth publicity arising out of high degree of customer satisfaction remains the key promotional strategy which helps in increasing the bottom line by eliminating irrelevant elements of marketing mix.

Place – Taking into consideration the fact that in a service industry a room or seat remaining vacant is an opportunity wasted, its geographical segmentation includes business centres and popular pilgrimages. It makes great sense to have presence at such places because they have year long traffic of visitors increasing the occupancy rate which is very important for a buget hotel like Ginger. The upcoming hotels in Airoli - Mumbai, Noida, Hyderabad and Tirupur indicate that it is saving on land cost by making its presence in suburbs. A penny saved is penny earned.

CoMarketing -Tie up with Cafe Coffee Day for a 24 hour outlet which will provide cheap and hygienic food will help Ginger save its cost on Food and Beverages segment which earns only 15% of its revenue. The money can be deployed for leveraging other services. It will also “ginger up” the youth quotient of Ginger hotels as tagline of CCD says, “a lot can happen over a coffee”.

Another such innovation is Public Private Partnership with Indian Railways, converting Rail Yatri Niwas to ginger hotels at Delhi. It will pull in the budget conscious crowd, small and medium business entrepreneurs coming to Delhi. They are also planning to build up their hotels on top floors of malls. One such hotel is constructed in Ludhiana. So the next time you are travelling make sure to keep an eye out for the Ginger colours to chase your travelling blues away.

Coming soon !

We know what marketing at a FMCG Company is.


We know how Auto companies market their product.


And we are also aware of how the print industry markets its publications.


Ever thought of how things go about marketing in financial sector???


Well, watch this space for more !

Starbucks changes its logo

When you first think of Starbucks, you invariably form the image of the mermaid logo with the words "Starbucks" and "Coffee" above and below it. 


Now, get prepared to see only the mermaid peeping at you without the mention of those two very critical words! Yes, Starbucks have gone ahead with a bold move to alter their logo, by removing "Starbucks" and "Coffee" and making it a "only picture" logo, on the lines of Apple or Nike. 


Changing the identity of a brand that has become so embedded in popular culture and in people’s daily lives naturally creates a very emotional response.
This move has received mixed reactions as to whether such a bold strategy is good in the long run or not. 


Experts on one side of  the fence feel that this move is  indeed positive, to make people think about Starbucks with the mermaid logo, and this change will align well with the rationale of building a corporate identity on a symbol alone. 


However, on the other side of the fence, experts feel that a well established identity like Starbucks cannot afford to sell their brand minus the critical words "Starbucks" and "Coffee" as the symbol of mermaid in itself is not as strong as the symbol of a  Nike or an Apple. 
The mermaid is a complex design and while most loyal customers will recognize this symbol as the coffee formerly known as Starbucks, it bucks the very strategy of why they needed to evolve the logo in the first place.


Dropping the Starbucks name from their logo will only serve to confuse consumers who are not as familiar with the company and thus the target of a company trying to broaden its product line.


Views on which side of the fence will hold true in the long run, would be an interesting thing to watch!!