2 Ramon Silva is a Spanish property developer, who has made a considerable fortune from th

Question

2 Ramon Silva is a Spanish property developer, who has made a considerable fortune from the increasing numbers of

Europeans looking to buy new homes and apartments in the coastal regions of Mediterranean Spain. His frequent

contact with property buyers has made him aware of their need for low cost hotel accommodation during the lengthy

period between finding a property to buy and when they actually move into their new home. These would-be property

owners are looking for inexpensive hotels in the same locations as tourists looking for cheap holiday accommodation.

Closer investigation of the market for inexpensive or budget hotel accommodation has convinced Ramon of the

opportunity to offer something really different to his potential customers. He has the advantage of having no

preconceived idea of what his chain of hotels might look like. The overall picture for the budget hotel industry is not

encouraging with the industry suffering from low growth and consequent overcapacity. There are two distinct market

segments in the budget hotel industry; firstly, no-star and one-star hotels, whose average price per room is between

30 and 45 euros. Customers are simply attracted by the low price. The second segment is the service provided by

two-star hotels with an average price of 100 euros a night. These more expensive hotels attract customers by offering

a better sleeping environment than the no-star and one-star hotels. Customers therefore have to choose between low

prices and getting a poor night’s sleep owing to noise and inferior beds or paying more for an untroubled night’s sleep.

Ramon quickly deduced that a hotel chain that can offer a better price/quality combination could be a winner.

The two-star hotels typically offer a full range of services including restaurants, bars and lounges, all of which are

costly to operate. The low price budget hotels offer simple overnight accommodation with cheaply furnished rooms

and staffed by part-time receptionists. Ramon is convinced that considerable cost savings are available through better

room design, construction and furniture and a more effective use of hotel staff. He feels that through offering hotel

franchises under the ‘La Familia Amable’ (‘The Friendly Family’) group name, he could recruit husband and wife teams

to own and operate them. The couples, with suitable training, could offer most of the services provided in a two-star

hotel, and create a friendly, family atmosphere – hence the company name. He is sure he can offer the customer twostar

hotel value at budget prices. He is confident that the value-for-money option he offers would need little marketing

promotion to launch it and achieve rapid growth.

Required:

(a) Provide Ramon with a brief report, using strategic models where appropriate, showing where his proposed

hotel service can add value to the customer’s experience. (12 marks)

Answer 1

正确答案：
(a) To: Ramon Silva
From:
Value innovation in La Familia Amable hotel chain
In strategic terms you are looking to create a competitive advantage over existing hotels based on a cost focus strategy. The
success of this niche marketing strategy will depend on your ability to attract customers from the existing providers but there
does seem a gap to exploit. In many ways you have an advantage in that you are not constrained by previous experience in
the hotel industry and this has enabled you to look to deliver a significantly different value proposition to your customers and
not simply look to marginally improve on what currently is on offer. One particular study on innovation drew attention to five
dimensions of strategy where innovators can significantly outperform. existing companies. This is important, as the industry
does not look particularly attractive with low growth and overcapacity – a recipe for low profitability.
Industry assumptions – here existing companies take the competitive conditions as given whereas innovators are looking to
influence and change those conditions.
Strategic focus – simply benchmarking against the current hotel providers may not create any real advantage, innovators are
seeking to provide a step change in the experience given to the customer.
Customers – the route to success may not be through ever increasing segmentation and customisation but by actually looking
to focus on the shared attributes of the service that customers value – a good night’s sleep for a low price being a prime
example.
Assets and capabilities – rather than looking to leverage existing assets and capabilities the innovator looks to ask what would
we do if we were starting a new business.
Product and service offering – existing competitors may again be constrained in their thinking by the existing boundaries of
the industry and the innovator by identifying new customers and services that take them outside this boundary may offer a
‘total solution’ that transforms the industry. The ‘no frills’, low cost budget airlines are a good example of such thinking.
In the hotel business ‘location, location, location’ is argued to be at the heart of a successful strategy. Clearly this will be your
choice and is affected by the customer groups you are looking to attract. Establishing a brand name and reputation is an
important marketing strategy and this will be facilitated by growing the chain rapidly and giving customers easy access to
your hotels. In value chain terms the company infrastructure looks to be lean with a reliance on trained husband and wife
teams to deliver the service. Franchising would also seem to be a route to grow the business that will place reduced strain
on company headquarters. The creation of a chain should lend itself to significant buying and procurement advantages, right
from the design of the hotels which will focus on the core value you are providing – namely quiet and cost. One French hotel
chain was able to cut in half the average cost of building a room, its ‘no frills’ service cut staff costs from between 25% and
35% of sales – the industry average – to between 20% and 23%.
Good design will therefore affect the quality of service that the operations side of the value chain delivers to the customer.
This may be a simpler service to that provided by its competitors – simpler, more basic rooms, no expensive restaurants or
lounge areas all impact on the cost of operations and consequently the price charged. Marketing, as previously referred to
above, is much more effectively done through satisfied customers’ recommendations than by expensive advertising. Many
hotel chains have used technology to create customer loyalty schemes of questionable benefit to the customer. You will
certainly have to seriously consider the value of such an after sales service. The established competitors often make
assumptions as to what a customer wants and typically this is offering more and more services that are expensive to provide.
Your entry into a ‘mature’ industry such as this, allows you to really challenge these assumptions and deliver a price/value
combination that is hard to beat.
Yours,