|Title : The Current State Of Marketing And The Analysis Of Marketing Strategies In A

Successful Business Environment

Student Name : Daniel Morais

Student ID : AA-DIHTM-013
Date : 14th October 2022
Unit Title : Introduction to Marketing
Lecturer : Mr. Dimuth Rubesinghe

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................3
1.1– Introduction.......................................................................................................4
2.1 –Applied Marketing And Its Evolution...............................................................5
3.1- Current State Of Marketing In The Litreature ..................................................6
3.2 Chracteristics Of Modern Marketing ……………...……………………….7

4.1- Uga Chena Huts.................................................................................................8

5.1–Application Of Marketing At Chena Huts ........................................................9
6.1 –Future Value Of Marketing In Chena Huts ....................................................10
6.2 – SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................10
6.3 - PESTLE Analysis …… ………………………………………...….11
6.4 - Response to Market Evolution………………...……..................……….11

7.1 -Conclusion …………………………………………………………………...12

Reference List.....................................................................................................13,14

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Executive Summary

Many businesses hit rock-bottom, due to owners typically not having proper marketing knowledge which
is necessary for advancement. Ergo this report attempts to explore marketing strategies used by a
successful hotel business, after analyzing the current state of marketing in the literature. The Hotel
analyzed is UGA-Chena Huts, situated in Yala, Sri-Lanka, analyzing the hotel with data collected from,
personal experience and publicly available information. Thereby findings include providing premium
products; use of social media for advertisement and branding; strategic pricing and a unique ability to
understand its targeted customer. Additionally various external and internal factors can change, adapting
to the change by making strategic decisions to course correct will result in Chena Huts Continuing to
succeed.

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1.1 Introduction

This report is written to identify the modern thinking toward marketing literature, subsequently to
understand effective marketing procedures in a globalized world, that have the potential to brings success
to businesses. Ultimately the author of this report attempts to explore the marketing strategies used by a
successful hotel business namely Uga- Chena Huts, by reviewing the current state of marketing literature,
identifying its application within the hotel, the value of marketing and Moreover the future value of
marketing and adapting to changes in marketing trends within this report

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2.1 Applied Marketing and Its Evolution

From the Bata system, involving the exchange of goods and services, the production era was first step in
marketing evolution, where companies focused on identifying and efficiently utilizing faster methods of
manufacturing Kaur (2020). The sales era followed, where success was believed to be obtained by the
ability to outsell competition (MMC Learning, 2022).
Marketing presently, to create value for customer needs and wants. Marketing presently can be defined as
“The process by which companies engage customers, build strong customer relationships and create
customer value in order to capture value from customers in return” (Armstrong, Kotler and Opresnik,
2020), became the constant in 1970 (Ocreative, 2018), and the manufacturer’s goal became secondary to
catering to customer requirements. As a result of globalization, marketing must consistently evolve with
the trends (Horng et al., 2022), in order to continue making profit. It is a fact that a large number of new
businesses and product launches fail every year, although the exact percentage is hard to come by as
stated by professor Clayton Christensen (2019), over 95% fail within the first 5 years (Guthrie, 2021).
The principal reason for failure is believed to be a concept termed by Levitt (1960), “Marketing Myopia”,
where the business executives or owner have a “short sighted approach to a business to ‘sell’ products and
services, ignoring and/or excluding customer needs (Cipolla, 2022)

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3.1 Current State Of Marketing In The Literature
Without consumer trust, there is no market (Kotler, Pfoertsch and Sponholz, 2020) and marketing
attempts to create a meaningful relationship with the customer to build that trust. Marketing concepts
valid in the modern world are vast, starting off with considering the internal and external environments of
a company; internal environment referring to internal factors, while external environment referring to
exogenous influences, that can affect the effectiveness and profitability of an organization. Secondly a
conceptual framework known as the marketing mix or the 4P’s i.e., Product, Price, Place, Promotion is to
be implemented, that a business may use it as a tool to reach its goal of creating value for the customer.
Segmenting the market based on Market research data such as demographic and psychographic data
allows a business to target a certain consumer group with common interests or needs. It is important to
understand that it is highly inefficient and mostly unsuccessful for a single business to cater to the entire
market and therefore it is important to target a certain consumer group and effectively deliver to their
demands (Kotler, Pfoertsch and Sponholz, 2020). Finally, the next aspect to effective marketing is
differentiation where businesses aim to distinguish and elevate themselves from competition.

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3.2 Characteristics Of Modern Marketing

Contemporary marketing calls for understanding exactly what the customer needs and effectively
delivering to those needs i.e., Market research, segmenting, targeting and 4ps. Also, businesses will need
to differentiate themselves to face competition successfully. Further a business will need to perform a
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to understand its internal environment
(Peterdy, 2022), and similarly preforming a PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal and
environmental) analysis to analyze its external environment (Hall, 2020) to continue to course correct.
Therefore, the concepts discussed under the current state of marketing can be easily divided into 5 main
sub tools that combine the literature into a more effective tool for businesses to understand and preform
its marketing goals.

1. Marketing Concept
The goal of developing a product and developing a marketing plan to attract a select group of
potential customers to satisfy their requirements and fulfill their wants. By prioritizing the
demands of the customer, a company may become the preferred option among competition.

2. Production Concept
It contends that things that are readily available and affordable will be preferred by people Bhasin
(2021),. This requires a business to strive for great production efficiency, cheap prices, and mass
distribution. It is an understanding that customers are primarily concerned about product
availability and affordable pricing

3. Product Concept
This concept states that buyers will prefer items with the highest quality, performance, or unique
features (Tatum, 2022). This is associated with creating outstanding goods and improving them
over time, as consumers appreciate well-made items and can assess quality and functionality

4. Sales Concept
 This concept asserts that consumers will not buy enough of products offered when left alone. As
a result, the company must engage in aggressive marketing and promotions. This concept also
suggests that customers must be persuaded to buy and also implies that the company has a a slew
of successful marketing and promotional techniques at its disposal.

5. The Intelligent Consumption Concept

The concept encourages companies to consider the general welfare of the customer and society as
a whole (Iednote, 2022). An illustration of this may be a company thinking about producing its
goods in sustainable/eco-friendly methods to decrease carbon emissions, cutdown on plastic
usage, etc.

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4.1 Uga Chena Huts

Chena Huts is an all-inclusive hotel that emphasizes on exclusivity. It is a 7-acre property with only
fourteen luxury cabins. Its exteriors depict architectural ideas from colloquial architecture that are meant
to blend in with their natural surroundings, while the interiors gently accentuate safari elements, with log
furniture and African-style rustic decorations that contradict the ultra-modern amenities provided.
Spacious living spaces, large bedrooms, en suite private bathrooms with free-standing bathtubs and
double vanity controls, and covered outside terraces with built-in private 5m plunge pools are all included
in these well-appointed cabins. These opulent accommodations also have variable-intensity central
lighting (Chena huts, 2018)

Other services include the Basses restaurant an urban fine dining experience in the middle of the forest.
Additionally, the hotels offer a variety of luxurious spa services and therapies and moreover, the property
is in close proximity to many nearby animal and cultural adventures; that can be witnessed by day trips to
the Yala National Park that include game drives.

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5.1 Application Of Marketing At Uga Chena Huts

Through the observation of the author where the author was within the property observing operational
procedures for 31 days, the hotel specifically targets the foreign tourist consumer base who come to Sri-
Lanka to experience its hospitality and wildlife, additionally service offered to guests are personalized
after conducting ethical background research and customized according to their preferences. Chena huts
only consists of 14 luxury rooms, thereby making it easier to cater to consumers more efficiently,
reducing property upkeep and maintenance, additionally since the hotel focuses on promoting game
drives to the park, guest use of premium all-inclusive amenities reduces allowing the hotel to reduce the
price. Furthermore, with wildlife and beaches being one of the main reasons bringing tourists to Sri Lanka
(SLTDA annual report, 2019) the product offered by the hotel combines the best of both, achieved by
both the location of the hotel with its unique incorporation of cultural heritage and Sri Lankan hospitality
within its product offering, to appeal to potential consumers. Chena Huts offers high end products and
services, and therefore is priced comparatively higher that surrounding competition, the product is niche
in the local market but however is attractive to a broad foreign market. The hotel has a large focus on
sales by the use of digital marketing; large amounts of google ads and social media pages and inviting
local and foreign social media influencers to promote the hotel. Moreover, Foreign sales representatives
and travel agents who arrive on familiarization visits further promote the hotel. The company also takes
part in a lot of global trade shows such as the ITB (Internationale Tourismus Börse) in Berlin. Finally
looking at consumer welfare, Chena huts has received the Travel life gold sustainability award, a
prestigious award only obtainable by the best sustainability practices in the tourism industry, by doing so
they appeal to the eco-friendly consumer.

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6.1 Future Value Of Marketing In Chena Huts

Through the current marketing strategies applied at the hotel, the author observed that Chena Huts has
high amounts of consumer demand with rooms generally fully booked. However, as the World is
constantly changing and evolving, marketing strategies at chena huts will also have to adapt to the
changing trends. This is possible by monitoring and controlling the internal and external environments
and adjusting to changes to remain meaningful within the market, to understand the micro and macro
environments a SWOT and PESTLE analysis has been done.

5.2 SWOT analysis

Strengths Weaknesses

 Established brand name  High price factor makes it harder to

 Closest property to the Yala National appeal to local customers
Park (Bordering)  The operation is small and its unable to
 Largest hotel rooms in the region scale to accommodate large numbers of
(1130 sq-ft with Plunge Pools) customers
 Provides a similar experience to private
Game Lodge hotels in Africa
 Ability to cater to the luxury market
 Goodwill and hotel reputation is high due
to numerous global awards.

Opportunities Threats

 Customers in the Targeted Segment is to  Upcoming New Hotels, that are

increase in the future attempting to maintain similar service
 Start camping excursions inside Yala standards
National Park  Rare chance of guest injury due to
 Offering New dining Experiences for e.g., unfavorable animal interactions
Jungle Dining, Tree House Dining etc.  Difficulty to maintain experienced staff
due to the ongoing and future economic
recession.

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6.3 PESTLE analysis

Political
 Continued Import Restrictions
 Reduced tourist arrivals due to Political Unrest
Economic
 Economic crisis makes it harder to purchase essential supplies needed to run the hotel
Social
 Civil unrest makes it harder for guests to travel to the region
 Poor attitude of village safari drivers causes arguments with foreign park rangers employed by
the hotel
Technological
 Introduction of contactless hotel check-in
 Introduction of QR codes to show information such as guest details, restaurant menus etc.
Legal
 Approval for licenses is time consuming and governed by many institutes e.g., Property
expansion
Environmental
 Failure to maintain the park and wildlife can seriously affect guests visiting.
 Changing Weather Patterns can affect the guest experience

6.4 Response To Market Evolution

In response to continued import restrictions, the hotel can start promoting more local sourced products
providing an “unique Sri-Lankan experience.” Further due to the change in target market, reduced prices
and providing discounts to the local consumers may allow the business to remain functional.
Additionally, hotels in the Yala region, who will be similarly affected by ill effects to the wildlife park,
can collaborate to maintain or influence the maintenance of the park. Continuing to update and course
correcting according to market evolution is important for the business to continue to succeed.

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7.1 Conclusion

Marketing has become the idea of selling after creating value for the customer, and by using
contemporary marketing strategies it is possible to run an effective and efficient business. Uga Chena
Huts is a good example for the effective use these marketing strategies as they are the highest rated hotel
in the region and has won numerous global awards for the product they offer. However, as trends change
it is crucial that businesses adapt to the change, which will guarantee future business success.

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