Chiến lược marketing cung cấp dịch vụ khách sạn hạng sang cho doanh nhân trung quốc

CHIẾN LƯỢC MARKETING: CUNG CẤP DỊCH VỤ KHÁCH SẠN HẠNG
SANG CHO DOANH NHÂN TRUNG QUỐC
Marketing Strategy
Providing Chinese Entrepreneurs Services with Luxury Hotels
Abstract
This project focuses on the topic of building marketing strategies for Vietnamese hotel &
luxurious resort services which are towards Chinese customers. The purpose of this
assignment is to attract wealthy Chinese customers by building a marketing strategy for a
five-star hotel in Vietnam. In this assignment, the writer would like to offer a look, both
in detail and in general on the importance of cultural, multicultural issues, similarities and
differences among cultures, and their influence on a hotel’s or a resort’s success or failure
particularly, and on businesses operating in multi-cultural environments generally.
The project outline is structured based on a marketing strategy, stage by stage, from the
general context of reality; the direction of building a new strategy to keep pace with
environmental changes; to the step of analysing the environment and the market in hotel
industry, building strategies for each divisions of a consolidated strategy and its
implementation and management. Marketing theories, cultural management, marketing
management will be appropriately applied to the every stage of the project as the
foundation for the analysis of factors affecting hotel & luxurious resort services
throughout the project. In addition, the project uses CAGE model to guide the analysises
of differences of culture, administration, geography, and economy between Vietnam and
China, through which the results obtained will allow an effective marketing strategy to be
built, facilitating the company’s success in the future.
Keywords: Marketing, CAGE model, Hotel, Resort, China, Vietnam, Halong Bay,
Strategy, Nha Trang, Hongkong, the Distance Model, Culture, Geography, Economy,
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Administration, ASEAN, Integrated marketing communication, Marketing mix,
marketing, distribution, services, tourism, price

I. Introduction
Hotel service in the market segments for upper customers is always implied great
potential benefits in the world’s tourism industry. Hotel and tourism services, especially
luxurious hotels, are the product type which is elastic at the highest levels, to absolutely
meet different needs and demands of its customers. Currently, all of us are integrating
with the world deeply and widely. This process creates the constant stream of people
moving from countries to countries, with different purposes. A recent report by the World
Tourism Organisation (in Jan 2011) revealed that as of 2010, the number of people visit
other countries in the world reaches 935 million people, almost double the figure of 528
million people in 1995. These are impressive numbers for the hotel industry where the
market grow fast and steadily in the past years.
However, the increase of customers from many countries requires hotels to have
managers who can make changes in their strategic activities so as to satisfy the foreign
guests. Vietnam and China are known neighboring countries, sharing their borders both
on the sea and sky. The booming Chinese economy in recent decades has transformed this
country the one with the second highest GDP in the world, only after the United States.
The rich and middle class in this country are also enlarged. In addition, since Vietnam
and China are close together, the total import and export amount between the two
countries in the first six months in 2011 reached $15.699 million. The economic, cultural,
and social exchanges are very deep. Therefore, the hotel sector should have appropriate
strategies in using marketing tools to attract a large number of these customers. Then to
be most effective, there’s a need to know about these existing differences between the
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two countries, to have clear plans to make them faded. Marketing strategies for the
service of luxurious hotel, which are set in this context to be developed and adjusted so
that they are suitable for different functions of a hotel business, is the main topic to be
discussed in the next sections.
The building of a business strategy on the new market, in the new culture – China – needs

to be based on the analysis of the differences between the two countries. Therefore, the
hotel senior management team has employed CAGE model as an analytical tool in steps
of creating the marketing strategy, including analysis step, selection and plan construction
step, plan implementation and management step, and the final step of evaluating the plan
implementation and forecasting future opportunities and challenges for the hotel.
II. Overview of Tourism and Hotel Services
As an internationally traded service, inbound tourism has become one of the world’s
major trade categories. The overall export income generated by inbound tourism,
including passenger transport, exceeded US$ 1 trillion in 2010, or close to US$ 3 billion
a day. Tourism exports account for as much as 30% of the world’s exports of commercial
services and 6% of overall exports of goods and services. Globally, as an export category,
tourism ranks fourth after fuels, chemicals and automotive products. For many
developing countries it is one of the main sources of foreign exchange income and the
number one export category, creating much needed employment and opportunities for
development.
In 2010, world tourism recovered more strongly than expected from the shock it suffered
in late 2008 and 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis and economic recession.
Worldwide, international tourist arrivals reached 940 million in 2010, up 6.6% over the
previous year. The vast majority of destinations reported positive and often double-digit
increases, sufficient to offset losses or bring them close to this target. Recovery came at

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different speeds – much faster in most emerging economies (+8%) and slower in most
advanced ones (+5%)
Asia and the Pacific (+13%) was the first region to recover and among the strongest
growing regions in 2010. Africa maintained growth (+7%) and the Middle East returned
to double digit growth (+14%). While the Americas rebounded (+6%) from the decline in
2009, Europe’s (+3%) recovery was slower than in other regions.

Most travel by air and for the purpose of leisure
In 2010, travel for leisure, recreation and holidays accounted for just over half of all
international tourist arrivals (51% or 480 million arrivals). Some 15% of international
tourists reported travelling for business and professional purposes and another 27%
travelled for other purposes, such as visiting friends and relatives (VFR), religious
reasons and pilgrimages, health treatment, etc. The purpose of visit for the remaining 7%
of arrivals was not specified.
Slightly over half of travellers arrived at their destination by air transport (51%) in 2010,
while the remainder travelled over the surface (49%) – whether by road (41%), rail (2%),

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or over water (6%). Over time, the trend has been for air transport to grow at a faster pace
than surface transport, so the share of air transport is gradually increasing.

For hotel service industry, economic recession means serious problem. Hotel services live
on the people travelling. Only people who are way from their homes for a certain time
need a hotel. Meanwhile, the economic recession tend to restrict movement of people.
Obviously, when their income decreases, the more they travel, the more quickly their
money goes away in this hard time. Hotel services can not be the exception for a sad
ending. However, the senior travelers market is not affected much by these factors. Many
reseach results have shown that the luxury travel market follows the trends of other
luxury items. Not only luxury travel is distinguished by the unique, brand reputation,
along with unreasonably high prices, the basic characteristics of the luxury products, but
all of them are affected by the same trends. In summary, the economic downturn may
cause a loss of billions of billionaires overnight, but it doesn’t mean that he will not buy
luxury products. Thus, luxury travel is expected to still develop, especifically, the number
of wealthy customers in the newly emerging economies such as China or India will

increase.
2. The Trends of International Tourism Market
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Key trends 2010:
• Worldwide, international tourism rebounded strongly, with international tourist arrivals
up 6.6% over 2009, to 940 million.
• The increase more than offset the decline caused by the economic downturn, with an
additional 23 million arrivals over the former peak yearof 2008.
• In 2010, international tourism receipts are estimated to have reached US$ 919 billion
worldwide (693 billion euros), up from US$ 851 billion (610 billion euros) in 2009,
corresponding to an increase in real terms of 4.7%.
• As a reflection of the economic conditions, recovery was particularly strong in
emerging economies, where arrivals grew faster (+8%) than in advanced ones (+5%).
Current developments and outlook:
• According to the April 2011 Interim Update of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer,
International tourist arrivals grew by close to 5% during the first two months of 2011,
consolidating the rebound registered in 2010.
• According to the forecast prepared by UNWTO at the beginning of the year,
international tourist arrivals are projected to increase in 2011 by 4% to 5%. The impact of
developments in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the devastating earthquake
and tsunami that hit Japan in March, are not expected to substantially affect this overall
forecast.
Long-term trend:
• Over the past six decades, tourism has experienced continued expansion and
diversification becoming one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the
world. Many new destinations have emerged alongside the traditional ones of Europe and
North America.
• In spite of occasional shocks, international tourist arrivals have shown virtually

uninterrupted growth: from 25 million in 1950, to 277 million in 1980, to 435 million in
1990, to 675 million in 2000, and the current 940 million.
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• As growth has been particularly fast in the world’s emerging regions, the share in
international tourist arrivals received by emerging and developing economies has steadily
risen, from 31% in 1990 to 47% in 2010.

III. Analysis of Internal and External Hotel - Resort Environment
1. The Internal Environment
Analysing TRH internal environment is to help managers have a more complete
perspective on its operation strengths and weaknesses, through which they are enable to
take appropriate operation methods. The strengths and weaknesses may be intangible or
tangible elements that may affect TRH operation and be listed in the table below.

Tangible:
-

The strengths and weaknesses of TRH
Strengths
Weaknesses
Tangible:

Located on a prime location - an

-

Far away from the airport, the

island in the middle of Halong Bay.

nearest international airport is Noi

-

Located in the area bordering China.

Bai, 150 kms

-

Provides 4-star hotel and villas.

-

Spa services, Chinese restaurants, bars

-

Theme parks: beaches, aqua dance

-

the level of luxury

stages, ghost house, animal circus
club, golf courses, 18-hole golf
course (on project).
-

Port of passenger ships, Tuan Chau Cat Ba ferries, cruises

-

Facilities (4 stars) has not reached

Park with models of the world’s
wonders
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Intangible:
-

Intangible:

Good at foreign language, especially

-

Chinese
-

Human resources are at the level of
intermediate

Located at Ha Long Bay, one of the

-

world’s new 7 wonders of natures

There are no specific programs to
develop existing human resources as
well as the future supply.

2. External Environment
2.1 Political Envirornment
From 1975 till now, except for the time of diplomatic isolation and economic embargo
because of the issue with Cambodia, Vietnamese social generally quite stable and
peaceful. Difficult issues like religion, race, or sovereignty sometimes rose (The Thuong
in Tay Nguyen, Catholism, territorial disputes with several countries in the region) are all
small in size and have not yet affected Vietnamese society. Today, Vietnam society is
considered peaceful and stable, and in good relationships with many great nations in the
region and globally.
In addition, political relations between Vietnam and China could also be considered
stable when the two authorities share a common ideology. However, there are now two
main problems in the relationship between the two countries which can strongly affect its
future. Firstly, it is the South China Sea disputes between some countries in the area, in
which Vietnam and China are the two main forces. Secondly, the matter of the Tonkin
Gulf demarcation, which is located just outside the Ha Long Bay, has not yet been
resolved. Both of the factors are very sensitive and complicated. If not resolved, their
consequences will not only affect the tourism industry but also the entire political
economy of Vietnam.
2.2 Economical Environment
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In the two recent decades, Vietnam and China are Asian countries with the fastest growth.

Income per capita of Vietnam is over $1000 in 2010, which makes the country become
one of the countries with incomes at average international level (source: IMF website).
Meanwhile, the year 2010 also marked China’s rapid development when it overtook
Japan to become the world’s second largest economy with the total GDP of $5,878.207
billion ($4,382.136 per capital) counted by the current price (source: IMF website).
The economic relation between the two countries develops rapidly but disproportionately
and has bad effect on Vietnam. As of the first half in 2011, Vietnam get a $6.25 billion
trade deficit from China.
In the coming years, Vietnam economy will be restructured towards macroeconomic
stability and sustainable development, its mechanisms will be transformed, trade
commitments will also be implemented under the frame of the World Trade Organization
which this country has

been a member since 2007, and Vietnam to become an

industrialized country in 2020.
2.3 Cultural and Social Environment
Vietnam culture in general is quite diverse with 54 ethnic groups living together
peacefully, scattering across 64 provinces in the country. The Kinh is the majority,
accounting for more than 90% Vietnamese population. In terms of administrative
information, the majority of Vietnam does not follow any religion, is probably derived
from the Communist Party’s policy of the atheism. In fact, the main religion of the
Vietnam majority as Tam Giao Dong Nguyen, which means a cultural religion is
constituted by the harmonious blend over nearly two millennia of Buddhism (Indian
origin), Confucianism and Taoism (Chinese origin). As a result, there are many
similarities that shared between Vietnamese and Chinese cultures. However, still remain
major differences in customs, life style, stereotypes, values, etc.
2.4 Technological Environment
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Currently, internet and communications systems are quickly developed in Vietnam, which
creates favorable conditions for exchange of information and connections between people
of different regions and countries. Tourists can easily access the internet everywhere for
contacting their family or for many other purposes.
2.5 Natural Environment
Vietnam is located in the heart of Southeast Asia, in the eastern of the Indochina, with a
long coastline of 3.260 kms and land border of 4.510 km. Vietnam climate is tropical
climate and divided into four distinct seasons. About three quarters of its territory is
mountainous and tropical rainforest. Due to these features, Vietnam is very favorable for
the development of tourism.
2.6 Legal Environment
In term of legal, the status of insecurity and inorder at tourist destinations in Vietnam is
very common as Vietnam has not had particular law to overcome this. This make
Vietnam tourism image to be no longer appreciated in the eyes of international tourists.
Given the analysis on the six factors, we can come to below conclusions about the
opportunities and challenges for Vietnam’s tourism industry.
Opportunities
Challenges
- Located in the centre of the region with - Potential risk of territory China
several important airlines and international - Current problems of eco-environmental
shippinglines.

pollution in Ha Long Bay

- Political stability and social peace

- Vietnam is one of the countries which are

- Building diplomatic relationhips with 178 most affected by climate change

countries and territories in the world -

The

governmental
stability

policy
and

of

(www.mofa.gov.vn)

macroeconomic

- Rapid economic growth

control during the coming years may

- The four season climate is favorable for restrain the TRH financial ability
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inflation


developing many types of tourism

- Far away from the International Airport

- Rich and diverse regional culture is - Weak in the issues of security and safety
attractive to tourists

for tourists.

- Ha Long Bay was voted to be one of the
world’s new seven wonders of the natures

V. Market Analysis
1. The Market of Providing Hotel – Luxury Resort Service in Vietnam
The statistics of General Administration of Tourism shows that as of May 9, 2011, there
are around 12,500 hotel and motel supplyng about 250,000 rooms across Vietnam as
below.
Total
Number
of hotels

Number

5-star Hotel
Number Number

4-star Hotel
Number Number

3-star Hotel
Number Number

of

of hotels

of hotels

of hotels

of

of

of

Rooms
Rooms
Rooms
Rooms
12,500
250,000 53
12,121
127
15,517
271
18,855
(Sorce: Vietnamese Tourism Organization Website />The main connection channel between the Vietnam tourism hotel services with both
domestic and foreign tourists is about 987 companies or organizations operating in the
industry.

Total

State-own

Jointstock

Jointventure Limited

Private

Others

Enterprise Enterprise Enterprise
Enterprise Enterprise
987
15
313
16
596
3
44
(Source: Vietnamese Tourism Organization Website />There are 36 three- to five-star hotels in Quang Ninh province, with three 5-star (all are
hotels yachts), 15 four-star hotels and 17 three-star hotel. Among those hotels is Royal
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Casino Hotel which is at same market segment with TRH resort. Thus, TRH may be
considered a market leader in this sector and its competitive pressures is not large enough
to jeopardize its operations.
2. The Market of International Tourists
In recent years, the number of international tourists visiting Vietnam has increased from
over 4 million in 2007 to over 5 million customers in 2010, in which Chinese customers
has always accounted for the largest number.

The number of International Visitors to Vietnam
Year
2007
2008
2009
2010
Total
4,171,564
4,253,740
3,772,359
5,049,855
Counted by the means of coming
Airlines
3,261,941
3,283,237
3,025,625
4,061,712
Seaways
224,389
157,198
65,934
50,500
Carriageways
685,234
813,305
680,800
937,643
Counted by the purpose
Travel, relax
2,569,150

2,631,943
2,226,440
3,110,415
Job
643,611
844,777
783,193
1,023,615
Visiting relatives 603,847
509,627
517,703
574,082
Others
354,956
267,393
245,077
341,743
The country with largest number of tourists to Vietnam
China
558,719
650,055
527,601
905,360
(Source: Vietnamese Tourism Organization Website />It can be seen that more than a half of the international visitors to Vietnam with the
purpose of travel and relax. About one fifth of the total comes for business purposes. The
most common means used is by air (80%).
The graph below describes the rise and fall of the number of tourists from 2008-2011
(months)

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(Source: Vietnamese Tourism Organization Website />It is clear that the number of international tourists to Vietnam seems to reach yearly peak
at the end of the year and the beginning of the next year, and then go down in the midyear.
3. The trends of Chinese tourists
- Destinations: Depends on the factors like cultures, Chinese government’s economic
policies, the destination chosen by Chinese visistors is often in the Asia Pacific region,
especially North Asia and Southeast Asia. About 70% of the tourists arrive at Hong Kong
or Macau.
- Place of departure: Most of them are from big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou,
and some major economic zones.

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- Purposes: Touring and eye opening are their main purpuses as most of them are
traveling abroad for the first time. They, therefore, tend to visit different places in a trip.
- Types: Due to Chinese rules limiting them from going abroad, Chinese tourists are often
difficult to travel individually. They often have to take tours organized and managed by
tour operators.
- As they have not much information of the destinations, the Chinese tend to visit a lot of
famous places in the same trip.

VI. Market Segmentation
1. Market Segmenting
Segmentation is a detailed process to define the overall market into smaller structures
(so-called segment) where people have characteristic parameters and different buying
behaviors. However, people within the same segment have those that are similar.
Corporates can use marketing - mix effectively in each target market segment.
The purpose of segmentation is to help hotels to better define customer groups who have

similar needs, then it can choose the groups which it can satisfy their needs at the highest
level.
To meet all the above four requirements, the selection of criteria for segmentation is
extremely important. Market segmentation criteria are plentiful, among them are the
following six criteria which are usually used by hospitality businesses:
-

Segmentation by geography.
Segmentation by socioeconomic and demographic.
Segment by psychological therapy.
Segment by behavior of customers groups.
Segmentation for the purpose of the trip.
Segmentation by products.

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In the case of TRH which aims to service wealthy Chinese customers, TRH need to
segment Chinese customers into three groups:
-

Segmentation by geography: The wealthy Chinese consumers tend to live in big
cities or exclusive economic zones such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hongkong,
Guangzhou, etc.

-

Segmentation by customers behavior: Customers behaviours depend on many

-

factors like their power, wealth level, social status, education, culture, etc.
Segmentation by purpose of the trip: Visitors coming for the purpose of leisure
travel or doing business.

2. Market Targeting
The segmentation show opportunities in each market segment before businesses. After
analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each segment, the company must decide how
many segments to target at, which segments, which one is the best, which one is the the
most appropriate. This is the matter of key markets selection.
TRH targets at the segments of the area, customer’s status, and their purpose of travel of
the guests. Therefore, it is necessary to have distinct and focused marketing methods on
each group. It can be illustrated as follows:
Chiến lược marketing 1

Khách hàng phân theo
vị trí địa lý

Chiến lược marketing 2

Khách hàng phân theo
địa vị xã hội

Chiến lược marketing 3

Khách hàng phân theo
mục đích chuyến đi

3. Market Positioning
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Once decided which are in the market to enter, the enterprise must decide its position in
the regional market. The position of a service product is the level of service seen by
customers in comparison with those of competitors. Successfully locating will make
customers easily recognize the differences and make them see what they’re looking for.
Moreover, it also allows businesses to identify opportunities in the market the most
closely. Marketing professionals can take some of the following positioning strategies:
+ Locate the product on its specific features.
+ Identify the position based on customer needs and interests.
+ Identify the position for the specific case of using.
+ Identify the position for groups of customers.
+ Locate the counterweight to other products.
+ Determine the product position by differentiation.

VII. Marketing Strategy
A strategy can be understood as a set of interactive activities occurs orderly, aiming to
achieve a target output. Marketing strategy, according to this, can be defined as
propaganda activities to communicate new message about the product to a group of
potential customers in the most effective way.
To effectively implement a marketing strategy, firstly, we need to know that marketing is
one among functions linking together to form the complete enterprise framework. So, in
order for business strategy to be effective, marketing strategy must be formulated and
executed synchronously with the operation of other business functions such as finance,
production, management, supply, etc. Secondly, to build and implement a marketing
strategy on a market of other cultures, we have to consider difference elements between
the original market and the new markets the most important factors affecting the success
of the two strategies.
1. Strategy of Services
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Product, in marketing point of view, closely associated with the respose to customer
needs. So it should be considered both physically and non-physically. The product of the
hotel is basically services. It is characterized as tangible (visible) and intangable
(invisible). In other words, a hotel service product is created by combining a series of
intangible and tangible factors in order to satisfy customers at the highest level. For
example, a perfect hotel product for wealthy visitors from China may include the hotel’s
favorable position, surrrounding landscape, luxurious cars, many types of rooms for
choosing, the unique cuisine, the friendly and courtesy hotel staff who can communicate
in Chinese, a full set of services such as spa, swimming pools, bars, local tours,
convenient traffic, near the airport, near commercial center, etc. Therefore, there’s a need
to build a chain of services that can meet different customers needs.
In fact, customers do not buy goods or services, they are buying specific values and
benefits from goods and services. Service product of TRH can be divided into for levels
as the following:
-

The first level is the core product or basic service: This is the most basic level

-

manifesting the fundamental benefits that customers are actually buying.
The second level is a category product: Give the customer the benefit of

-

categories, customers can find products and services best suited them.
The third level is the expected product: It is represented by the attributes and

-

conditions buyers expect, usually those accompanying the core product.
The fourth level is additional products: It is represented by the additional
services and benefits.

This is the factor to differentiate services from

competitors’ same type of products and services.
For instant, we can divide TRH products and services into four following levels:
-

The first group is its core products or basic services: A relaxing place for
tourists.

-

The second group is product and service category: There are three types, hotel
rooms, villas, and yachts.

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-

The third group is the expected product: TRH provide customer services such
as Chinese restaurants, spa, animal circus entertainment area, parks, aqua

-

dance stage, sightseeing tours on the Bay, etc.
The fourth group is additional products: TRH provides its customers’ with free
services such as airport shuttle, mean of transport (tandem bike), wifi, etc.

Based on the key segments, the hotel will connect each of its services to suit each interest
of customer groups.
To achieve the above requirements and stablize and increase the sales of service products
in order to gain maximum profits, businesses can choose or combine the three following
strategies: Strategy of product improvement and development, strategy of category
innovation, and strategy of game set (expand, restrict, or separate category).
-

The strategy of product improvement and development: In the case that the
product has got the proper length, and then it is possible to adjust partially or
change a full range of game, combined with customers’ feedback about this

-

innovation.
The strategy of category innovation: This is a very important direction to
ensure the enterprise to have product strategy which is always adapt to the

-

market.
Strategy of establishing products and services game: A products and services
game is understood as a combination of length with the harmonization of
different services that form the system of services appropriate with the desire
of target customers. So this strategy has to decide whether to maintain, remove,
or add a name or some new products and services in the existing products and

services game. Categories may either be limited (if too long) or expanded (if
too short) in one or both directions, or fill into a new category in the existing
service product group.

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2. Strategy of Pricing:
Price is known as a tool of marketing - mix which companies use to achieve their
marketing goals. The decision on cost must be associated with the decisions on products
and services, apportion of shareholders to form a consistent and effective marketing
program. Prices for the hospitality and tourism products are determined on different
markets, depending on the quality, uniqueness, and the seasonality, and its space. On the
other hand, prices for tourism hotel products also need to have the distinction of two
custeomer groups (origin, income level, and consuming time). Pricing strategies are
tailored to the sales process and can be broken down as follows:
+ Low price strategy.
+ Market valuation strategy.
+ High price strategy.
Any strategy among the three strategies is aimed at selling the products and services.
However, the sales have specific different objectives. Sepcific objectives for pricing
strategy can be listed in two following main directions:
-

Firstly, in term of profits: To create maximum profit or to maintain the
achieved profit. Profit is an indicator influenced by three factors: cost, price,
and consumed quantity. Effective strategy of price, therefore, can increase sales

-

volume and may lead to a reduction in the cost price.
Secondly, in term of the hotel position in the market, a company set out the
correct pricing strategy to be able to get a certain position in the competitive
market.

Therefore, the assessment of business is a very complex work, it no longer requires a
company to pay attention to their own interests, but to the consumers interests on the
basis of the current rules. When formulating strategy of price, following main terms
should be counted:

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-

Firstly, the prices must be based on laws and governmental policies and
management.

-

Secondly, pricing strategy should be based on general costs and product unit
costs.

-

Thirdly, the pricing strategy must be formulated on the basis of estimated total
demand for goods and services. However, the price is also attractive because of
the product itself and the level of acceptance by consumer for it.

-

Fourthly, a product strategy should be focused to a provide a price frame to
determine prices’ labor scope and to guide the development of specific prices
in specific periods.

Based on the above points, TRH should develop pricing strategy to attract Chinese
tourists in the following factors:
- Customers’ affordability: the Chinese middle-class consumers, with their good
economic capability, can respond to the price of luxury hotel services. However, in many
cases, especially in the economic downturn, they will be more price-conscious. So TRH
is required to have a lot of prices for its basic services to offer them more choices that
best suits their capacity.
- The characteristics of services: TRH offers three basic services are hotel rooms, villas,
and yachts. Depending on the characteristics of them, TRH can arrange 3 different prices
for each type. For example, Villa will be the highest price since it creates isolation space
and more comfortable for a family or a small group of tourists. Yacht price will be the
second highest because of its distinction and luxury, and the lowest price will be set for
individuals.
- The current season: As indicated above, tourists tend to rise in the last months of the
year, so this will be the time for seting the highest prices. TRH should set right price to
attract new customers in the rest months.

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- Production costs: Shopping needs often increase at the end of the year, which lead to an
increase in prices at this time. This also proves that TRH should offer the right price to
balance costs and benefits.
3. Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy
In the today market mechanism, in addition to the three strategies mentioned above, the

promotional strategy plays an important role. It works during the history of the company
to inculcate the company image in customers mind, building customers a habit of
remembering the company’s product and service.
The objective of a promotional strategy is to promote sales, and to make current
consumers use the products more often. Stimulate and attract new customers to pay
attention to the company’s products and services, from which serve and satisfy
unsatisfied needs and creating new demand.
There are a lot of marketing methods, but to use them effectively, we should analysed the
market’s socio-cultural, political law characteristics. For the Chinese market, following
points should be noted:
Firstly, in term of culture, we agree with the view of Charlene M. Solomon and Michael
S. Schell that in order to approach for marketing your hotel, we should have a reference
from a faithful friend or a partner who can warrant the hotel. In the book Managing
Across Cultures, the authors have given specific examples on a special kind of
relationship called Guanxi (relationship), one of the strongest power in the Chinese
culture. Those who have Guanxi often act quickly to help their partners, grant each
others, and consider how deep the relationships are to support the partners’ family if
necessary. The mutual benefits of Guanxi and its following obligations are the reason
why the Chinese do not like going into a relationship with those who do not know.
Starting a new relationship with whom they don’t know may take them into a
disadvantageous position which is difficult to pull out. Moreover, they worry that those
who they have established a guanxi will not prove to be deserved and may make their
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reputation overshadowed. Besides, like in Vietnam, word of mouth is often a dramatically
effective marketing method. On hearing about a certain product or service from reliable
people/organizations, people seem to be opener to the information, and less skeptical
about the products and services. Therefore, we need to define through the
people/organizations familiar to the Chinese to promote our hotel’s image.

Firstly, we will attend trade fairs between the two countries China and Vietnam, with
regard to economic exchange, tourism. The trade fairs are held annually in large cities
where there are a lot of potential customers for the hotel.
In addition, it is also necessary for us to participate in Vietnam – China International
Travel Trade Fairs, an international trade fair held annually, alternating between Mong
Cai (Vietnam) and Dong Xing (China). With the aim to create conditions for enterprises
in the both countries to promote branded products, exchange goods, boost export and
import activities. The fair will be organized periodically for 2 years/period, by the Mong
Cai, Quang Ninh. This is considered one of the events promoting trade – tourism – major
investment and prestige of Quang Ninh (According to www.baoquangninh.com.vn)
We also promote the participation of China-Asean trade fair. Particularly, in the 8th trade
fair in Nanning, China, held by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency – Ministry of
Industry and Trade Vietnam have an delegation to participate in the 8th China – ASEAN
(CAEXPO 2011) in Nanning City, China (Source: www.quangninhtrade.gov.vn). In
addition to attending trade fairs and exhibitions, we also work closely with the Vietnam
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Young Business Association, Entrepreneur
Associations in the two countries. Take the VCCI as an example, one of its main
objectives is to promote economic cooperation, trade and science – technology between
Vietnam and other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefits. Therefore, the
VCCI has been organizing a lot of economic activities with other countries, including the
neighbor China.
We, besides, think the organization of seminars will also bring more results in marketing
for the hotel. Like the Vietnamese businessmen, Chinese entrepreneurs believe in official
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information sources, from government departments, the international events which are
held solemnly and prestigiously. Therefore, the conferences, professionally held at the
hotel, with the combination of the prestigious institutions of economic and trade
mentioned above and the presence of charismatic Chinese epresentatives will be one of

the effective ways of marketing the hotel. The hotel’s desired guest is Li Ka-shing – the
richest man in the Asia. His assets are centralized on the Cheung Kong Group and
Hutchison Whampoa. Through them, Li is the world’s largest container port operator, a
major power supply of Hong Kong, a provider of mobile services, a retailer and a
property developer. Another good choice is Mr. Wong Kwong-yu - the founder of Gome
Appliances, known for activities of home shopping aiming at the prosperous new middle
class in China; Stanley Ho, often called the king who developed the corporation Macau
Sociedade de Jogos; or Zhang Yin, who has built the paper recycling company Nine
Dragons Paper Co., the China’s largest cardboard producer for packaging purpose.
Before, during, and after each event is taken place, a series of hotel information will be
cleverly incorporated in all PR articles published widely via Chinese media. In addition,
inviting leading Chinese leisure and entertainment stars to visit Quang Ninh, Vietnam is
also a selected marketing plan. Some celebrities like Jackie Chan, who is the most
famous celebrities in China thanking to the international position of the star and his
popularity on media recently; and the famous Hong Kong amateur, the current husband
of Miss Malaysia Chu Thien Le; etc.
At the same time, we are considering whether the hotel joins the World Hotels system,
which has a sales network (Sales Office), the experiences of nearly 500 hotels around the
world with reservation systems, global distribution, specialized human resource.
Although these people proved to be effective in numbers, they must report their specific
work to prove their effect. A specialist will become “a pioneer leader” if he/she came
from the industry to develop his/her local market. Given these activity channels, we
expect the number of the hotel’s guests will sharply increase.

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So in an era of digital, is online marketing an effective solution to promote a hotel to its
potential customers? In terms of demographic, nearly three quarters the number of
Internet users in China (71.7%) are living in cities (impact on accessing speed?).

However, there is up to 72.4% of them (in both cities and rural areas) having an income
of below ¥2,000/month (equivalent to $290) while the income per capita of China is
$1,740/year. The number includes 31.7% students, 7.4% unemployed people, and only
12.4% are college graduates or higher. This reveals that, in terms of culture, people with
high incomes and education will not use the internet much, so we will not focus on the
development of online marketing. Newspapers are used more for our communication
campaigns instead. PR articles, advertisements on major economic, social and travel
newspaper in China will be considered. We are thinking of advertising the hotel image on
magazines and newspapers such as China International Business which has firmly sold
60,181 copies with over 264,796 readers in major cities and regions including Beijing ,
Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. In addition, the newspaper also has
some distribution in second-tier cities like Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Harbin, Hangzhou,
Xiamen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xian and Sanya. Journal Global Entrepreneur Press is
also an alternative choice. This is the leading business magazine in China with 150,000
copies, etc.
4. Strategy of Product Distribution
Strategy for products and services distribution is the way a company delivers products
and services to its customers in the target market. This includes a combination of
networks, the distribution channels. This is the consumers’ consolidated process or a
direct implementation or through a chain of stores. Sales are often done by companies,
while travel agents create the relationship between customers and servicepersons through
contract. Along with the development and diversification of products due to the
increasingly intensive social labor division, distribution channels of tourism products are
now widen and have many chains
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With the conditions and characteristics of TRH services, there are following appropriate
distribution channels:
-

Tour operators;

-

Transportation: airlines

-

Relationships with partners, customers inside China

-

Internet – Building and completing the online booking system

-

Phone - Recruiting communication consultants good at Chinese to receive any
phone calls from China

The distribution channels can be illustrated as below

Tuần Châu Resort Hạ Long

Website

Đối tác

Cty Lữ hành

Điện thoại

Hãng hàng không

Khách hàng

VIII. Conclusion
Through the analysis in the previous sections, it can be concluded that an effective
marketing strategy should be based on the understanding of the differences between
cultures as well as factors such as economic, political and geographical conditions. These
factors have significant impact on the market and those who are involved in. They also
affect the definition of individual needs and how they perceive and evaluate the products
and services. Therefore, understanding the gap between markets and customer groups is
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