Marketing department management practices at Ritz Carlton Hong Kong

Ritz Carlton Hong Kong is a part of the Ritz Carlton hotel. The Ritz Carlton hotel is a five star hotel established in 1983. The company starts from one hotel to 76 hotels scattered worldwide in 25 countries. As part of the global expansion, Ritz Carlton hotel is making further expansion in Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, and South America. Since the formation of Ritz Carlton, the company has won several awards in more than two decades in luxury hospitality. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is operated under the division of Marriott International.

Ritz Carlton Hong Kong was established in 2009. The hotel dominates the city of Hong Kong with 490 metres high. The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong makes a significant magnificent contribution to the city of Hong Kong because the hotel is the world tallest hotel. From 102nd floor to the 118th floor provides the unrivalled views Victoria Harbour. Ritz Carlton is the only hotel that has won the quality award twice because the hotel recognizes the outstanding customers services. Synonymous with the service of Ritz Carlton is the high quality services that customers receive. (Ritz-Carlton, 2000). Ritz Carlton has different departments for the day-to-day administration of the hotel, among the departments of the Ritz Carlton is a Marketing department.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the marketing department of Ritz Carlton hotel in Hong Kong.

To enhance greater understanding on the analysis of marketing department of the Ritz Carlton hotel in Hong Kong, the paper examines the management goals.

Management Goal

Ritz Carlton management goal is to make

"Ritz Carlton Hotel a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission. We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambiance. The Ritz-Carlton experiences enliven the senses, instill well-being, and fulfill even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests." (Ritz-Carlton, 2000 P. 9).

The Rite Carlton's goals are to provide the superior service to customers through gold standard approach. The gold standard approach is to empower employee with training and development to provide exceptional service to customers. Among the management goals is to make Ritz Hotel a place where the customers will found genuine care and comfort. Management aims to provide the finest personal service and facilities for the guests in order to enjoy warm, relaxed and ambience services. Planning is very critical to achieve organizational goals. Through planning, management is able to achieve its aims and objectives.

Planning

Within the marketing department at Ritz Carlton hotel, the senior management implements strategic planning to make quality decision and set direction for business excellence. To achieve marketing objective, Ritz Carton focuses on customers and markets, which is by concentrating in hotel development. In the planning process, the marketing department implements market research to identify potential customers. Identification of customers assists Ritz Carlton to make the strategic plan in order to reach customers through press release, internet advertising, radio advertising, TV adverts, newspaper and magazine adverts, However, the major challenges facing the marketing department is the method to reach all customers since it is known that Ritz Carlton offers the most unique service in Hong Kong. Part of the planning process of the marketing department is to position its strategic planning and provide the unique message to make customers differentiate the service of the Ritz Carlton hotel from the competitors. Differentiation is very critical in the hotel business. Through differentiation strategy, the Ritz Carlton is able to provide the unique service within the country, and this has made the Ritz Carlton to be ranked as the best hotel in Hong Kong.

As a part of the strategic planning, the Ritz Carlton engages new employee to take part in the cultural orientation before starting their roles in the department. The Ritz philosophy is that no one is left in the dark. With the learning process, the company has been able to mandate all employees in the department to work towards improving the financial outcome of the organization. To achieve the competitive market advantages, Ritz Carlton uses senior leaders in the planning process. The planning approach lies on the passion for excellence, basic empowerment process and seven-pyramid decision. The main objective of the marketing department is by focusing on customers and overall market within the country. Ritz Carlton uses market research to explore techniques to enhance quality to achieve customers satisfaction. The Ritz Carlton approach plan is to use senior leaders within the department for the passion and excellence. To achieve organizational excellence, the hotel provides the senor leaders essential data to implement strategic planning for the organization.

To function effectively, Rite Carlton set seven-approach plan to make the marketing department to achieve business excellence. The seven-approach plan is:

10-year vision

5-year mission

3 years objective

1-year tactics

Strategy

Methods

Foundation

As part of the planning process, Ritz focuses on value and quality of life. To achieve this aim, the marketing department puts the right employee at the right position to work closely with customers, and making customers happy. The aim is to ensure that customers truly enjoy their stay at the hotel. As part of the planning process, the hotel believes that happy employees have ability to make the customers happy. Ritz Carlton is committed to the welfare of its guests. The company selects its employee with the extraordinary care to satisfy the customers. At the Ritz-Carlton hotel, are the most important resources that the hotel employs to commit the guests and the management applies the principles of trust, respect, honesty, and integrity to maximize corporate excellence?

The advantages planning process within the marketing department is that the department has been able to build corporate image by differentiating the service of the Ritz-Carlton as unique in Hong Kong. However, the disadvantages remarked in the planning process within the marketing department is that the department has not been able to promote the image of the company to win a single award in Hong Kong despite that the hotel is the tallest hotel in the world.

Couple with the planning process within the marketing department, the Ritz Carlton hotel also organizes different approach to provide excellent service to customers.

Leading

The marketing department of the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong uses the brand awareness to be at the top. In Hong Kong, Ritz Carlton is the leading brand in the luxury lodging. To maintain the top position, the company has rigorously adheres to its own standard. To ensure that the Ritz Carlton maintains the leading position, the company creates the leadership centre that builds employees towards the leading position. The company uses leadership training to equip the employee to attain the leading position within the organization. The major reason for building leadership training for employee is to drive up the business excellence in both the operations and a goal achievement. Since Ritz Carlton has built passion for excellence, the company builds approach for senior leaders to lead the organization effectively. As the method to enhance leading style within the organization, the hotel implements Gold standard to reinforce senior executive. The technique includes:

Providing a unique orientation standard for the senior executive

Developmental training

Daily line up meeting

Positive and negative Reinforcement

Peer pressure

Internal meeting

The Ritz Carlton makes the approach plan to develop senior leaders to increase the satisfaction of the guests. Apart of the leading strategy, the Ladies and Gentlemen are well informed on what are they are supposed to do in order to improve the services of the organization. Using the brand awareness, the hotel has been able to stay at the top in Hong Kong. However, the Ritz Carlton has not been able to build transformation leaders within the hotel business in the country.

Controlling is also part of the strategy that the marketing department implements to promote the image of the Ritz Carlton.

Controlling

Controlling is one of the managerial functions of the marketing department at Ritz Carlton. Controlling involves planning, organizing, and directing and staffing to meet the organizational goals. The management within the marketing department controls the department to ensure that the department meets the organizational goals. As part of the controlling technique, Ritz Carlton uses quality leadership to seek high level of customer service. Record is kept to analyze the customer preference. ( Evans and Lindsay, 1999). Ritz-Carlton has created service philosophy where employee is prepared to fulfil their obligations. The marketing department has been able to implement controlling technique to achieve organizational objective. Through controlling technique, the hotel has been able direct employees in the right direction to meet organizational goals. However, the marketing department is still ineffective to promote the service of the Ritz Carlton hotel in Hong Kong compare to international standard.

Ritz-Carlton is the tallest hotel in Hong Kong. As a part of the Ritz Carlton hotel group, Ritz Carlton provides unique service for its guest. To offer t unique service for its customers, the Ritz Carlton makes use of the marketing department to promote the image of the hotel. Ritz Carlton employs motto "Ladies and Gentlemen" as the unique resources that the hotel uses to offer business excellence. The paper analyzes the marketing department of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Hong Kong. The paper discusses s planning, controlling, directing, and leading as the strategies that the hotel uses to satisfy the needs of customers. Despite the services provided by the marketing department to build corporate image, the paper identifies that the marketing department has not been effective enough to provide similar service compared to Ritz Carlton hotel in the U.S.

The paper recommends that Ritz Carlton hotel in Hong Kong should to adopt the marketing style that the Ritz Carlton in U.S. uses to win multiple awards.

List of References

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Feigenbaum, A.V. (2005). Total Quality Control. New York: McGraw- Hill.

Ivanovic, S. Galicic, V. & Susnjar, N. (2010). Leading Effective Meeting in a Hospitability Organization. UTMS Journal of Economics, 1(1): ,13-18.

Peters, T., & Austin, N. (1985). A passion for excellence: The leadership difference. New York: Random House.

Ritz-Carlton, (2000).1999 Application Summary. Ritz-Carlton Company LLC