Application of a Differentiation Strategy in an Organization

Differentiation strategy is generally reserved for companies with a clear competitive advantage. Companies such as Mercedes and Apple employ this strategy. Differentiation strategy is demonstrated when a company provides value to customers through unique unique features and characteristics of a company's products rather than by the lowest price (Open Learning World 2010).

Marriott is renowned for its elegant and comfortable hotels and resorts. The company caters to a targeted customer base, ranging from the frequent corporate business traveler to the family enjoying their occasional weekend get-away. Marriott has continued its rise in the lodging, contract services, and restaurant industries. The company continuously strives to meet the needs and wants of its customers while strategically maneuvering the rigors of today’s competitive and ever-evolving market of glamorous destinations and convenient services. In order to remain relevant in a highly-competitive environment, Marriott must strike that successful balance of minimizing costs, and gaining and effectively

Differentiation strategies refer to the strategies that are adopted by businesses in a bid to gain competitive advantage in a given industry and over their competitors. Through differentiation, the company’s products or services stand out among other products that are offered by their competitors. Therefore, differentiation in essence refers to a scenario whereby, a company offers products or services which are unique or have features which are unique and which makes them stand out among its competitors. The airline industry is termed as an industry that experiences rapid and volatile changes amidst growing competition among many competitors in the globe. With this in mind, different airlines have to adopt different strategies that are to differentiate them among the many competing airlines in the world. This paper will focus on Southwest Airlines in the discussion of the differentiation strategies that it has adopted. Also, recommendations will be made will be done in reference to Southwest Airlines.

Delicate consideration of factors pertaining to the internal and external environment, are a necessity in executing Hyatt’s ultimate goal of “being the preferred brand”. Internal and external environments are factors that may be within or beyond the control of the firm. Theses factors influence the direction, action, structure, and internal process of an organization. The operating, industry, and remote environments are sub-environments that are associated to a firm’s environment (Pearce and Robinson, 2013). Its associates, guests, and owners through its presence in each community it is located in impact Hyatt’s environments.

The corporate branding strategy will create a sort of umbrella under which all the properties of the company will fall, thus sharing the same quality level in the customer’s perception. Moreover a strong corporate brand will ease the company identification and potentially increase the number of new guests through word of mouth, thus enabling the company to gain a bigger market share. Nevertheless the implementation of such a strategy will necessarily involve big costs and a structural change in the organization. Its culture, the way in which advertising is done, the facilities and supplies in each resorts, the way in which management operates will have to be adapted to the new branding strategy. Furthermore undertaking this action may let down some valuable customers who are particularly affectionate to a resort and may be afraid that it will lose its unique and individual features. Plus it might also disappoint some skilled hotel managers which may feel threatened in their autonomy and potentially leave the company. Retraining the whole body of employees to adapt to the new strategy may be expensive and time consuming as well.

In differentiation strategies, the emphasis is on creating value through sustainable uniqueness. This can be achieved through product innovations, superior quality, or superior service, which is then sustained and leveraged through creative advertising; brand-building and strong supply chain relationships. Another requirement for a successful differentiation strategy is that customers must be willing to pay more for the uniqueness of a product or service than the firm paid to create it. A differentiation strategy will lead to higher firm performance only if buyers value the attributes that make a product or service unique enough to pay a higher price for it or if they choose to buy from that firm preferentially. If

With this information a key question to ask when conducting a strategic analysis of Maverick Lodging can be formulated. Does the current balanced scorecard completely parallel the overall objectives and strategic goals of the organization? The answer is no. Maximum differentiation will not be produced. As a result, growth will not be maximized. This represents the main issue with the case discovered by this strategic analysis. The following issues are all responsible for the failure of the balanced scorecard to reach the company’s strategic targets.

Marriott International envisions itself to be the world’s lodging leader. Its mission is to provide the best possible lodging services experience to customers who vary in backgrounds, language, tradition, religion and cultures all around the world. Marriot is committed to environmental preservation through using environment-friendly technology and engages in social responsibility and community engagement.  We value our shareholder’s so we will only take steps that will ensure our growth. Most importantly, through our “spirit to serve”, we emphasize the importance of Marriott’s people and recognize the value they bring to the organization’s growth and success. It aims to increase revenues by 9% every year, to increase

Providing an exceptional product or experience to the client which gives an added value may be termed as Differentiation Strategy. Differentiation does not just mean the way the final product shows up or the features it gives, but advancement and imagination may be integrated in everything the organization does from the raw materials to post-sales assistance in a manner that the clients may derive value from it. Considering Theme Restaurants as an example, at present the theme restaurant brand which leads the Restaurant industry with its competitive advantage is Hard Rock Cafe on the grounds that they offer a “Dining Experience” which is found nowhere else and is remarkable in every aspect (Heizer & Render, 2013, pp. 72).

Having been in the hospitality business for more than 25 years, the Kimpton Hotels Corporation is a national and global company, which had been widely recognized all over as an industry leader in the boutique brand hotel with a tradition of innovative hospitality. According to the Kimpton Hotel Corporation, “Our mission is to be the best-loved hotel and restaurant company by our employees, guests, owners, and communities and to genuinely support our co-workers, provide heartfelt care and comfort for our guests, and deliver superior financial returns to our investors.” Being immensely focused on this mission, the hotel’s primary goal is to be the most preferred boutique hotel brand in the industry.

As mentioned earlier in Chapter 1, China Lodging Group is a multi-brand hotel group which as per now manages seven hotels with each having a specific target of customers. These Hotels are Hi Inn, Han Ting Hotel, Elan Hotel, Star-way Hotel, JI Hotel, Manxin Hotel, and Joya Hotel. Its mission statement is to create great brands of hotels that guests love. The group predicts to be owning over a quarter of the hotel market share in the next five years to come. The two major objectives that the company has set for the next five years to ensure that they attain their goal is to build one large five-star hotel in the heart of China Capital’s serene outskirts and to ensure that they hire enough

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company operates within the upscale & luxury hotel industry. While it could be argued that Ritz-Carlton operates in the more broad and inclusive lodging industry, they offer a highly differentiated product and service and therefore find themselves operating in an exclusive industry alongside very few direct competitors, such as Four Seasons Hotels, HongKong and Shanghai Hotels, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Therefore when analyzing this industry I will not be including cheap hotels, motels, lodges, or inns, unless to offer potential substitutes to luxury hotels. In order to assess the attractiveness of the upscale & luxury hotel industry, an analysis of the general environment surrounding the industry must be

Essentially, the marketing manager will seek to understand how a competitive advantage may be gained over other competitors (Lemon et al 2002). Figure 1 shows that Hilton Hotel Corporation is one of the leading hotels in the world. Nevertheless, as a newer hotel in Melbourne, Hilton is facing some serious challenges from competitors such as Grand Hyatt Melbourne and Sheraton Melbourne. Grand Hyatt Melbourne has completed its four year refurbishment project. Meanwhile, Sheraton Melbourne Hotel will launch a new full service as part of a 2013 development, combining hotel services with up-market residences and boutique retail (Melbourne Planner’s Guide 2011-2012, 2011). It is critical for Melbourne Hilton Hotel to understand visitors’ wants in order to satisfy visitors. In addition, Melbourne Hilton Hotel needs to have a good understanding of the competition in

The organization has explicitly kept this advantageous environment over other organizations by improving its service capacity. Additionally, the organization ensures that it stays ahead of its rivals by engaging in research and development that focuses on luxury products and markets analysis. The Ritz-Carlton hotel uses data from its research to predict the future of the industry; therefore able to dictate what and how the market will trend in the foreseeable future. Another factor that keeps the organization’s advantage over its rivals is that while rivals tend to become a hotel brand in the industry, Ritz-Carlton has rather position itself to be a leader and lifestyle brand that constantly develop new properties and ensure that customers live the culture of the hotel. The final factor that has kept the advantage of the organization intact is the culture of trust that exists between the management and employees. The leadership of the hotel lives and communicates the organization’s value to its employees who in turn satisfy customers in a way that they often anticipate a return visit. These are some of the reasons that the Ritz-Carlton hotel continued advantageous environment over its rivals has persisted in the hotel and resort industry (Reiss,

• Product differentiation: BTH has successfully differentiated itself from the competitors by offering unique experiences for their guests in their innovative ideas & creative designs in their hospitality industry. Travellers will be able to experience prestige and excellent services in their business operations.