UUM COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

A182

BPMM3113 BRAND MANAGEMENT

GROUP B

The Park Hotels: Revitalizing an Iconic Indian Brand

CASE STUDY

Prepared by;

NAME MATRIC NUMBER

Athirah Binti Norman 246953
Sharifah Nur Ain Syuhada Husnah bt Syed Fadzil Hussain 247393
Nurul Fathihah bt Mohd Zawawi 247356
Nurdalilah bt Mohd Dom 255642
Nur Arina Izni binti Abdul Jalil 256662

Prepared for;

Dr. Norzieiriani bt. Ahmad

Date submitted;

11th April 2019

QUESTION 1

Priya Paul is grappling with whether to unify all of The Park Hotel Properties under one brand or
whether to allow each property the autonomy to continue to do its own thing. Should she strive for
a consistent brand experience across the properties or continue to allow local customization via the
boutique hotel?

I would say that Priya Paul should unify all the Park Hotel properties under one brand. The
keys of profitable growth was to attract the right kinds of guests to The Park properties, guests who
would themselves embody the brand.

The Park needs to concern on three areas. First, found that the boutique hotel model no longer
provided the differentiation it once had. A visual audit of competition illuminated the need to move
beyond boutique to maintain competitive differentiation. The boutique concept had become a point of
parity in the industry. Secondly, the consumers were deeming a ‘tired product’ with ‘outdated design’.
The Park needed to leverage the excitement, glamour, and chic of its nightclubs to draw customers
into its hotel. Third, the decentralized nature of The Park should be worried because it can prevented
it from building a focused brand identity. Each property almost a separate brand itself, which against
the desire to build one strong brand and leverage its strength for the benefit of the business.

Next, Priya Paul should strive for a consistent brand experience across the properties because
guests certainly looking for unique experience, but they value a simple promise that consistently
delivered throughout the hotel experience at all properties. Consistency does not have to be boring or
bland. A powerful story of the brand repeatedly played out through the experience is what will drive
The Park brand to be success in the new market environment.

QUESTION 2

How should Paul brand the restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, and restaurants housed in her hotel
properties? Should they bear The Park Hotel name? Why or why not?

Paul should bear The Park Hotel name for branding the restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, and
restaurants housed in her hotel properties in order to make them seen and heard against crowd. Many
of the customers drawn to The Park’s restaurants and nightclubs did not patronize its hotel room.
Often The Park’s sub-brands such as “Someplace Else” nightclub and “i-Italia” restaurant were better
known and popular than the hotels themselves. This is because the brand awareness of The Park was
low. The Park, in all of its various incarnations, was “consistently inconsistent”, according to the
report. Paul need to build one strong brand under only one name and leverage its strength for the
benefit of the business and to create brand awareness of The Park brand.
 The Park name is taken from the iconic Park Street, a fashionable street housing, that also was
known as the “street that never sleeps.” This shows that The Park name have a strong brand meaning
and value.

Paul need to retain The Park brand name because its nearly 50 years of leadership in the
Indian hospitality market. Customers will remind of The Park’s pioneering boutique approach to the
Indian hospitality market. She need to unify the sub-brands of the restaurants and nightclubs so that
each bore The Park name. Even though many of the sub-brands had generated strong levels of brand
equity in their own right, Paul need to think about what was right for the brand in the long run. It is
about creating something exciting and innovative that motivate Paul in her career. She would rather
do one hotel that is interesting than have 100 properties done without thought and attention.

QUESTION 3

Which off the three value proposition options should Paul choose? Why? Which one is best given
The Park’s past history, present circumstances, and future prospects?

Among the three value proposition options that Paul has, The Culture Curator is quite fit to be
chosen as the new brand proposition. It is because The Culture Curator captured a key interest of the
creative class of young Indian professionals and combined themes of “India Reborn”, culturally
enriching experiences, creatively inclined people and a lively atmosphere.

The Park’s past history had garnered a reputation for offering guests a boutique hotel
experience that exuded style and sophistication with Indian flair. Over the years, The Park is found to
be the boutique hotel model that no longer provided the differentiation it once had. The consumers
also were considering The Park Hotels as a “tired product” with “outdated design”. Furthermore,
many of the customers drawn to the Park restaurants and nightclubs did not patronize its hotel rooms.
Hence, The Park need to leverage the excitement, glamour and chic of its nightclubs as atmosphere is
very important to draw customers into its hotels.

Paul should choose The Culture Curator as she believed that one of the keys to a profitable
growth was to attract the right kinds of guests to the hotel. The management team has identified a
growing and profitable segment of Indian consumers which are younger, urban entrepreneurs,
upwardly mobile, style-conscious and culturally engaged. Other potential customers in the market
included domestic business travelers who enjoyed luxury, fine food and drink, and entertainment.
This type of prospect is capable to be the loyal guests over the long term. Also, there are foreign
travelers that are a bit younger, equally upscale and upwardly mobile and they are traveling for either
business or leisure. This type of prospect is likely to seek out social encounters and local color during
their trips to India.
 By choosing The Culture Curator as the value proposition, it will help The Park to be the
trend-setting concept designed to satisfy cultural palate with authentic, inspiring experiences. Art,
design, music and literature find new expression and unusual ways of engaging the business and
luxury traveler who seeks a hospitality experience beyond mere service and efficiency. The culture at
The Park is a collection of sensations in exotic combinations. It designs The Park décor and
transforms the guests’ stay into a beautiful journey. It embellishes the food and transports the
customers’ taste buds to distant lands. It fills the customers’ night at The Park’s clubs and bars with
mystery and romance.

QUESTION 4

Given your choice of a value proposition, which logo and service experiences would you choose to
implement? Why?

I would choose second logo option to be implemented. The option that featured a stylized “P”
that invoked traditional Indian orthography above “THE PARK” in capital letter. The logo will
portray the special qualities of The Park, to remind customer of the Park’s pioneering boutique
approach to the Indian hospitality market and could emphasize that there was only one rand with the
history of The Park and the commitment to providing extraordinary hotel experience for its guests.
The logo can describe the face of a company because it is invoked traditional Indian orthography
under The Park. The first thing that a potential customer will notice about the business and a logo is
much more than just an image. It is a point of recognition for customers and an important foundation
for the branding of the company. The logo is a well-designed logo and it is an easy way to convey to
potential customers that the business is professional, trustworthy, and provides quality goods or
services. The “P” logo is simple and easy to recognize, a good logo is memorable and makes a great
first impression.

Besides, the service experience that I would choose to be implement are crossover lounge, fun
at work and mobile app. The crossover lounge is a multi-purpose space for relaxing at all hours. The
lounge will have a contemporary look, resulting in a sophisticated, inviting and warm space for
business travellers and families. Offering authentic hospitality, the lounge needed to provide
innovative products and services to the guests. Customer usually will enjoy their time efficiently at
the lounge which provides comfortable seating and a wide range of food and beverages. Designed to
meet and exceed the different requirements of travellers, the lounge could be available with the
varieties of amenities and services such as clean toilet, food and beverage, Wi-Fi and internet section,
television, newspaper and magazines to the guest for a memorable experience.

Moreover, the second service experience needed to implement is fun at work which
encourage employees to have fun while doing their jobs to make hotel culture more fun. Happy
employees mean happy customers. It sounds too simplistic to be true, but there is hard scientific
proof to back it up. Happy employees do really make happy customers and happy customers spend
more money at your hotel. In fact, several studies have uncovered that up to 80 percent of customer
satisfaction is determined by individual customer-employee interactions.

Lastly, the other service experience to the customer is mobile app, to enable guest access all
the hotel’s services on their smart phone. In todays’s digital world, everyone owns a smartphone and
has access to the internet. To reach out to maximum number of people, hotel mobile app can help
them. The mobile app can create a communication with the guest and at the same time can build a
long term loyalty. Hotel mobile app will increase the hotel’ revenue by offering new opportunities.
This mobile app also would list all the hotel’s services that can easier the guest to access.

QUESTION 5

How well positioned is The Park for the future? How would you assess their likelihood of reaching
their growth goals?

In our opinion for positioned The park in the future, we think The park can stay long in the
market because they try hard to make sure their brand position in the market. This is because The Park
Hotel has some effort to change and to make sure their brand always in the market. This is elements
that make The Park Hotel take action to change:

First, The park Hotel know who their competition. The Park hotel in the five-star segment and
have the main competitor with is The Taj and The Oberai. But when hotel development in India
increases, it makes The Park Hotel must compete with another competitor that provides luxury
segment to the customer. Paul had to decide where to site the seven new hotels that would be
launched. Paul must find new ideas and have a good plan to make sure his hotel is different from their
competitor. They can minimize competitors disadvantage and adds up to competitive advantage.
Mean that they must see more advantage from their competitor that can give an advantage to them.
The Park Hotel must find what their competitor not have can make them have ideas to provide in their
system. For example, If their competitor not provided online banking to their customer, The Park
Hotel take this opportunities to provide it. It is because we want we have some uniqueness that makes
customer can differentiate with our competitor.

Second, The Park Hotel redefine The Park brand identity. This is because to ensure that it
been strongly communicating the value and experiences. What Paul does to make sure The Park Hotel
have identity is to conduct a rigorous audit of The Park Hotel brand and review of every facet of The
Park Hotel operation and those of its competitors. The Landor audit identified 3 areas of concern with
is found that the boutique hotel model no longer provided the differentiation, a consumer was
deeming The Park Hotel a tired product with outdated design and lastly The park properties did not
match consumer expectations of the brand. The Park Hotel is clear of strategic vision and a sharper
focus on goals and objectives. Park Hotel would have a new strategy that more creative and different
from other competitors. It is because we want customer interesting and easier to attract them when
having own uniqueness. The Park Hotel also change their product or design to be more attractive
because we don’t want our customer to feel boring with our brand because not suitable for them and
no attraction to them. The Park Hotel must make sure that their customer has high expectation for
their brand. For example, The Park Hotel gives a good service or add a new service that their
customer no expects they can provide to their customer. It is very important because we want the
customer to have a good relationship with us to make sure they can achieve the goals.

Besides that, The Park Hotel also moving their target. This is because they believe when their
identify their target customer, it is the one key to profitable growth to attract the right kinds of guests
to The Park properties, guests who would themselves embody the brand. The Park Hotel felt confident
that the brand after getting their identity brand. They have strong potential to introduce again their
brand in the market. Why they have a high strength to facing these issues because of the brand be
repositioned and revitalized t appeal to this consumer segment. The Park Hotel must know who their
target customer to make them easier to get a new customer. If they cannot find their customer follow
what they have planned, it makes troublesome to them because they cannot realize their customer
correctly. For example, the can divide their customer follow their age, sex, salary, psychology and
emotional to help them can easier identify who their customer.

Finally, The Park Hotel repositioning the brand. Landor team developed 3 options for
repositioning The first one for an option for repositioning is the culture curator with is The Park trend-
setting concept designed to satiate your cultural palate with authentic, inspiring experiences. Second is
Anti-ordinary with an as exciting canvas of ideas, themes and designs which surprise customer
expectation and but not the least social catalyst. A social catalyst is surrounded by people, things, and
experiences that refresh our everyday existence. The Park use elements or themes of ‘Indian Reborn’
because of more culturally enriching experiences, creatively inclined people, and a lively atmosphere.
This is because, to attract people come to their hotel, they must provide their cultural to make sure
their customer can know their culture and at the same time to make sure the design can help The Park
Hotel to be more attractive. Other than that, it one of the way to get a new customer because they
repositioning to be more interested and have some elements to make sure their customer can stay with
them. Moreover, the customer can be happier and not boring when they enjoy in their hotel.
QUESTION 6

In which cities/states should Paul site her new hotels? Why?

Cities or states should Paul choose her new hotels is Kashmir Indian. This is because Kashmir
is a famous tourist in India. Their many travelers come to Kashmir because of this place very
beautiful and have many facilities such as electricity, water and also many transportation in there.
Why we choose Kashmir because Kashmir have Nanga Parbat with ninth highest mountain was
famous for tourists. So, Paul can take this opportunity to launch a new branch because Kashmir has
many interesting places that can make tourists come and want to see how beautiful Kashmir.

Besides that, Kashmir is a city that easier to get an employee. This is because they have many
employees that have the skill and good communication I serve and help a customer if Paul wants to be
launched at Kashmir. So, it makes Paul easier to get an employee in any sector. This is because
residents here may have to deal with travelers and they have the experience to use when they work in
new branches. Other than, they maybe have a good skill such as good communication in English so
Paul cannot be a worry to train them to speak In English. Some of them also can be a tour guide for
the traveler, so they know which palaces that more beautiful that make tourists want to see. Paul only
focuses on management because they get employee talented.

Finally, Kashmir is a good strategic place that makes Paul can open new branches. This is
because easier to do advertising because Kashmir is one of the places that have many tourists. So they
can do advertising using mass media, digital media or printed media, it easily customer come to them.
Advertising can help Paul to find many customers. It because the customer now has a new hotel at
Kashmir. So they cannot be a worry to travel Kashmir because of having the place to live. Paul must
take this chance to make customer know them with is give good service to them to make sure a
customer can help them to do promotion to their friends or their family. As we know, Kashmir is the
tourism center. So easier to do advertising to a new customer to make sure they can get their new
customer.