Hotel De Glace

Video Case 12: Hotel de Glace

Question 1: What is the “real product” that Hotel de Glace is marketing to potential customers?

Hotel de Glace is a service provider who markets their services to potential users. The "real product" that they are marketing is the incredibly unique experience of staying in or visiting a hotel made completely of ice and snow. They are able to play up the uniqueness of this hotel and service as there is no similar service in Canada.

Consumers today want unique experiences and that is what Hotel de Glace offers. Constructed out of 500 tonnes of ice and 15,000 tonnes of snow, the Hotel de Glace offers something for everyone. The hotel is built every year from ice and snow in about six week’s time to be used for four months of winter.

Question 2: How does marketing Hotel de Glace differ from marketing a traditional consumer product such as breakfast cereal?

A product such as breakfast cereal is tangible and it allows for live demos and sample products that can help popularize it. People can see, touch, feel and taste breakfast cereal.

Marketing a service is much different than marketing a product. Marketing a pure service requires the marketer to reach the potential consumer, convince them to embrace the idea and purchase the service. To be successful, the marketer must highlight the quality of the experience, winning the consumer over to the idea that their service is superior to other service providers. It is important to have good, memorable service providers as consumers typically rate the quality of a service based upon their impression of the provider and not on what they actually received (the service). Hotel de Glace provides both a good and a service.

Question 3: Using the 7 Ps of service marketing discussed in this chapter, outline the basic elements of the Hotel de Glace’s services marketing mix?