The Key Strengths of Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club - Case Study Example

Case Study: Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club Name: University: Course Title: Instructor: Date of Submission: Executive Summary This report seeks to provide a case study on Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club in Hampshire, England. Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club operates in the hospitality, travel and tourism industry with special emphasis on luxury market segment. The hotelier is recognised as one of the finest of its kind in the UK and Europe in general. The spa at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club offers exclusive and professional services some of which include fitness facilities, beauty treatments and therapeutic healing. This component of the hotelier’s service is not an add-on service, but rather an integral component of the hotelier’s competitive offerings. Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club emphasize physical and psychological health and wellbeing of its guests. The purpose of this report is to examine provision of spa services at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club. 1.0 Discuss how you would classify the industry sector that the Spa at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club operates in Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club has a spa component owned and located within the hotel and that provides professional spa services, physical fitness and wellness, as well as a wide variety of spa cuisine services. As such, the spa component provided by Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club is not an add-on element of the experience provided by the hotelier, but it is an integral element of the overall services and experience provided by Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club for its customers to enjoy. Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club operates in the hospitality, travel and tourism industry (Hoffman and Bateson, 2010, p. 417 to 422; Chewton Glen, 2011). This is because the hotelier provides all the three components of the services of the hospitality, travel and tourism industry. With regard to hospitality, Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club provides accommodation services, pool bar and lounge, health enhancing foods and drinks and sleep rooms for unwinding. The travel component of Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club provides a variety of travel experiences. A significant service in this component is the Smugglers Trail which leads to the seafront which the hotelier’s customers can take. The tourism component is the most revolutionary for the spa at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club. This component of the hospitality, travel and tourism industry began in 1990 when the hotelier built a health club emphasizing the health and wellbeing of its guests. In 2005, Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club partnered with Moulton and Brown, a luxurious brand to establish a state-of-art treatment and therapy facility (Hoffman and Bateson, 2010, p. 417 to 422). The spa tourism component at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club emphasize physical and psychological lifestyle changes through providing fitness facilities, beauty treatments and therapeutic healing for its customers (Medlik, 2003, p.213). 2.0 What are the key strength’s of Chewton Glen Hotel, Spa and Country Club? What types of service compete with it? The hotelier draws its strengths from highly professional and well trained employees including fitness instructors and therapists. The employees have the ability to employ both modern and ancient techniques in navigating and relaxing the minds, bodies and spirits of the hotelier’s guests. The hotel also draws its strength from the state-of-art treatment facility and high tech life fitness facilities provided by the spa at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club. Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club is a strong brand in the UK’s hospitality, travel and tourism industry. This provides the hotelier with significant competitive advantage in the marketplace. Branding as a business marketing strategy enables business organization in realizing their targeted performance. Research indicates that brands are increasingly becoming significant components of culture, as well as the economy (Datta 1996, p.799). The rich history and tales associated with Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club are another set of strengths which significantly contribute to the legacy, charm and competitiveness of the hotelier in attracting and retaining guests. Finally, the location of the spa at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club provides a perfect relaxation and unwinding environment for guests who would wish to get away from the hustle and bustle of the towns and cities (Robinson, 2012, p.95). The Spa at Chewton Glen is located in the countryside. According to Ireland and Hitt (2005, p.68), organizations strengths are internal resources and capabilities and regarded as an organization’s core competencies. It is these strengths that enable Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club to create and maintain competitive advantage against competitors in the hospitality, travel and tourism market place. The modern day consumers want the characteristics, superiority, quality, and brand image of products, services and companies which raise their experience (Grundey, 2008, p.145). The services competing those of Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club include detoxification service provided by some spas; towns and cities-based spas such as Urban Retreat; services provided by environment/ecology-conscious spas such as Dundee’s Apex City Quay Hotel and Spa; exclusive male grooming service provided by spas such as Mayfair’s Gentlemen’s Tonic and London’s Wholeman; and clinically-oriented spa services provided by spas like Nickel Spa. 3.0 What brand extensions would Chewton Glen Hotel, Spa and Country Club consider in its portfolio? According to American Marketing Association, a “brand” other than being a trademark or a name can also refer to a term, symbol, design, or a sign or a combination of them which identifies, products or services of one company or group of companies and differentiate them from those of competitors (Ghani, 2012, p.147). The “differentiation” component of a brand is used by companies and organizations to provide their products and services with equity and added value for strength and competitiveness. It is this “differentiation” in a brand that enables the spa at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club to provide spa services which effectively satisfy the needs and preferences of the customers in a given segment of the spa tourism component of the hospitality, travel and tourism industry. Brands with strength and equity retain market power thus become significantly successful. Depending on the current trends in the hospitality, travel and tourism industry, Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club should consider a various brand extensions in its portfolio. First on the list is luxury detox. In the contemporary world, human behaviour can be described as gluttonous and this significantly jeopardizes health and wellness. Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club should consider providing detoxification program for its guest in the future. Secondly, the current trend in the UK’s spa tourism depicts that stronger brands such as Champney’s are becoming more focused on exploring the urban market segment by bring their spa services to towns and cities (Porter and Prince, 2007, p.15; Lonely Planet, 2010, p.294). It would be advantageous for Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club to consider expanding its portfolio to the urban market segment by establishing stores and spas in major urban areas in the UK alongside its countryside hotel and club. Third, the prices at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club are considerably exorbitant to the lower-end market segment. As such, Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club should consider expanding their services to the lower-end market segment to increase their marketplace presence. Finally, Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club should consider in their portfolio increasing their contribution to environmental/ecological sustainability. The hotelier should establish “green” spas to calm the minds, souls and bodies of their guests absent their activities costing the environment (Hoffman and Bateson, 2010, p. 417 to 422). 4.0 Which of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs does Chewton Glen Hotel, Spa and Country Club satisfy? How does the Chewton Glen Hotel Spa and Country Club satisfy those needs and for whom? Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club satisfies the growth needs which include both esteem needs and self-actualization needs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, human beings have innate desire to satisfy some given set of needs which are arranged in a hierarchy of importance (Huitt, 2007). The most basic of these needs are at the foundation of this hierarchy. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is categorised into two. First, deficiency needs involving psychological needs, security needs and belongingness needs. These must be satisfied in order for an individual to achieved fundamental comfort. The second set is the growth needs which include esteem and self-actualization needs focusing on individual/personal growth and development (Griffin and Moorehead, 2012, p.93). See appendix 1 on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The hospitality, travel and spa tourism service provided by Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club satisfies the growth needs which include both esteem needs and self-actualization needs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of their guests. Mind, soul and body relaxation, therapeutic treatment, and physical fitness provided by the spa at Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club significantly enable guest of the hotelier satisfy the esteem and self-actualization needs. These guests include those who need to relax, unwind and take it easy after satisfying their deficiency needs involving psychological needs, security needs and belongingness needs (Chewton Glen, 2011). 5.0 Segmentation, targeting and planning are key elements for all businesses. Which segments do you think Chewton Glen Hotel, Spa and Country Club is targeting and why? Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club is targeting the high-end economy or rather the high class luxury market segment and the countryside market segment. This is because the nature of facilities and services provided by the hotelier are relatively expensive and sophisticated as compared to those of other competitors such as London’s Bethnal Green and Urban Retreat. Additionally, Chewton Glen Hotel and Country Club has not made significant ventures into the urban areas such as towns and cities. McDonald (2007, p.370) notes that segmentation is the process through which companies subdivide the market into various distinct groups of customers who need different marketing mixes and is a significant source of competitiveness. Targeting is selecting the market segment(s) to venture into while planning is concerned with implementing the value proposition via differentiation or positioning (see appendix 2 on a framework for segmentation, targeting and planning). Companies segment markets by targeting specific needs and preferences of consumers via providing products/services with higher margins, but lower volume, and tailored to the needs and preferences of customer in the various market segments. 6.0 Bibliography Chewton Glen, 2011, Chewton Glen Luxury Spa Hotel in Hampshire, England, [Accessed June 14, 2013], available from: http://www.chewtonglen.com/hotel/ Datta, Y. 1996, “Market Segmentation: an Integrated Framework”, Long Range Planning, 29(6): pp. 797-811. Ghani, N.H. 2012, “Relationship marketing in Branding: The Automobile Authorized Independent Dealers in Malaysia”, International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(5), pp. 144-154. Griffin, R.W. and Moorehead, G. 2012, Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations, Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning. Grundey, D. 2008, “Experiental Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing: Creating Rational and Emotional Liaisons with Consumers”, The Romanian Economic Journal, 11(29): pp. 133-151. Hoffman, D. & Bateson, J.E.G. 2010, Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies & Cases, Asia-Pacific Edition, Cengage Learning Australia. Huitt, W. 2007, “Maslow's hierarchy of needs”, Educational Psychology Interactive, Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University, [Accessed June 14, 2013], available from: http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/conation/maslow.html Ireland, R.D. and Hitt, M.A. 2005, “Achieving and maintaining strategic competitiveness in the 21st century: The role of strategic leadership”. Academy of Management Executive, 19 (4): pp. 63-77. Lonely Planet, 2010, England, London: Lonely Planet England. McDonald, M. 2007, Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them, Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier. Medlik, S. 2003, Dictionary of Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Porter, D. and Prince, D. 2007, Frommer’s England 2008, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley publishing, Inc. Robinson, P. 2012, Tourism: The Key Concepts, Abingdon: Routledge. 7.0 Appendix Appendix 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Source: Griffin and Moorehead, 2012, p.93. Appendix 2: Framework market segmentation, targeting and positioning Read More