Angelo King Marketing

Background

1. Case Background

Angelo King founded a motor-hotel (motel) in 1970’s built on service, quality, world class facilities and state of the art housekeeping.  In 1986, Angelo King retired and began his humanitarian works; this prompted the family to assess their business model as well. Upon his retirement, his son, Archie King, led the expansion of the business into various locales in Metro Manila and pioneered the transformation of Victoria’s Court with the help of Karl Velhagen.

There is a big difference between the management’s transformation strategy and the perception of its staff and its target consumers.  This poses a challenge to reposition Victoria Court from fully operating as a drive-in hotel.

Various face-lifting efforts have been established to accelerate the transformation of Victoria Court as a service driven drive-in hotel:

1. It has altered its existing rooms into a variety of themed rooms designed to cater to couples, families, travelers and companies who are after a more affordable alternative for hotels but with satisfactory amenities, exclusivities and experience good quality service. A far cry from the perception on motels, which primarily hinged on private conversations, clandestine romance, and personalized services.
2. It has launched its people development initiatives, which included trainings and dialogues, to equip them with the new skills set needed to support the business direction.

Armed with fabulous amenities that would highly be priced by the popular hotels in the metro, Victoria Court aims to introduce and promote a unique hospitality company to groups and individuals (couples, families, officemates, travelers) searching for far less than the industry standard 24-hour stay and cheaper than any other hotel. Its communication efforts though appeared to be futile and without much success in changing the consumers’ mind.

1. Problem Statement

• How can Victoria Court reposition its place in the industry category and improve its brand image from being a motel to a quality service drive-in hotel?

1. Environmental Scanning

To affect the branding transformation of Victoria Court, it is important to understand how the consumers perceive image of the business.

[pic 1]

1. Analysis of the Case

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• Pioneer in the category
• Strong brand equity for quality and efficient service, and good amenities
• Caters to couples, groups and individuals who are after quality service, safety and affordable rates.
• Affordable price versus hotels, and yet offers the same quality of service and amenities.
• Well trained staff.

Weaknesses

• Brand image associated to motel services
• Locations of the drive in hotels are situated on scandalous areas
• Limited number of rooms per place and area

Opportunities

• Wider market opportunity for non users: companies, families, groups
• Growing number of parties/activities and the increasing need for venues that are accessible and affordable

Threats

• Existing motels and lodging establishments within the vicinity of Victoria Court hotels which offer cheap rates and lousy service
• Increasing number of hotels with world class service and amenities
• Target customers are privy on their reputation.

1. Alternative Courses of Action

• In each of the Courses of Action, it is presumed that the following would be an intrinsic part of the strategy and execution:

• Personal / Non Personal Channels of Communication
• Continued Training & Development for its staff and managers

1. Market Penetration: Use positively appealing tactics through personal channels to penetrate non users

Going after new markets (families, companies, groups) using positively appealing tactics to persuade them to try and stay at Victoria Court. The brand could leverage on its strong brand equity on quality and efficient services.

A more personal channel communication is suggested, reinforced by non personal channel. Marketing promotions need to be focused on direct interaction with targeted market, such as events, use of Testimonials (from satisfied customer/s), and flyering.