Services Marketing Product and Branding

Question: Discuss about the Services Marketing for Product and Branding. Answer: Introduction: Presently Marriot Hotels and Resorts is a well-known brand of full service hotels and resorts. The head office of the company is based on Washington DC and the company operates in more than 60 countries. The Marriot hotels and restaurants is a brand of service proving industry and it has gained an excellence in service staff (Nickson 2013). The company has also gained a reputation that has made the company one of the best in its genre. In this report the Marriot Hotel, Brisbane will be considered and the interaction between the customers and the hotels management will be the sole focus of this report. Marriotts being a successful leader in the industry of hospitality is very successful in maintaining an extraordinary relationship between its staffs and the customers (Kim and Sturman 2012). Service encounter and its managerial impacts: In order to understand the service encounter it is necessary to gain a broader overview about the service blueprint of the organization. This will help to understand the concept of service encounter in an efficient manner. The majority of processes that takes place in the Marriot hotel are driven by the encounter between the guests (Kim and Sturman 2012) and the employee of the organization. Therefore, it can be said that the organization has successfully established a culture and structure that helps it to continue with the service driven model. These processes in the Marriot hotel can be represented with the help of a service blueprint. Customer Actions, Visible contact actions by the employees, Invisible contact actions of the employees, support process and physical evidence are the main components of a service blueprint. These factors include a wide range of factors such as the actions and steps taken by the customers, their behavior, the way the staffs of the organization handles the customers. These also include the back stage and front stage processes undertaken within the organization (Kim and Sturman 2012). The market place for the service sector is becoming more competitive day by day it is becoming more and more important for the physical goods or the services to become good enough so that it can provide competitive advantage. The creation of competitive advantage is leaded by the development of each and every element in the customer relationship process. This especially includes service encounters. The term service encounter is defined as the process by which the customer directly interacts with any kind of services provided by the organization (Kim and Sturman 2012). Therefore, the managerial implication of the service encounter is that, the management should enhance the strategic framework of the organization in such a way so that in the process of a value generating system service encounter should be more focused so that the business can remain prosperous. Now the front stage and back stage operations of Marriot Hotels and Resorts will be described in this report, Any service providing organization can be divided into two different components namely the front stage components and the back stage components. The front stage component of the company is constituted by the actions or steps which are used to communicate and interrelate with the guests (Sampson 2012). Hence, the employees working at the front stage services should be well versed about the types of services provided by the organization and they should necessarily possess the inevitable skills in order to ensure the service delivery model of the organization is flawless. On the other hand, the employees of back stage operations are responsible for dealing with the services that are not directly associated with the customers. These employees are equipped with the specific skills to control how the front stage services are rendered. Therefore, for a company to become successful in the service industry should possess a proper harmony between the front stage and the back stage operations ( Shulman 2016). Figure: Flow chart depicting the front stage and back stage operations (Source: Hewitt and Hellier 2015) Font stage functions: The flowchart above depicts the main stages of service encounter between the clients and the management of the hotel. The chart portrays both the front stage as well as the back stage functions. In the case of front stage functions it covers the maximum part of the service delivery process (Haksever and Render 2013). In Marriot the service delivery process is typically identical with that of a hotel. The front stage functions start with the behavior of the customers and the actions taken by the employees of the organization. The front stage operation includes greeting the customers while having a positive attitude, help them to check in, handling their personal information, handling the enquiries and arranging baggage transport for them etc. Each of this process will definitely possess physical evident that the customers may or will use for the purpose to influence their own perception (Fisk et al. 2013). In the case of front stage operations the employees must possess certain empowe rment as they have to amend their delivery of services in accordance with the need of the customers. This front stage operations are co0nsidered as more work intensive as the employees operating at the front stage are required to manage the guests, their needs, other employees and the management of the organization as well. Back stage operations: The back stage operations are simply the operations undertaken by the supporting departments. These operations are the proper predecessor of the front stage functions in the cycle of service delivery mechanism. Customers or the guests cannot visualize these activities. Employees who are operating at the back stage will not communicate or interact with the guests directly in a normal situation (Lfgren 2015). In Marriot hotels and resorts the back stage operations will include management of sales and marketing, human resource management, kitchen maintenance, financial management and hotel security etc. Though the customers do not face these services on a face to face level, these services are essential for the success of the front stage services. In order to summarize it can be said that, to establish a proper service system network the collaboration between front stage operation and the back stage operations are essential. This will ensure the success of the service industry. In the context of the managerial implication, the success of the management lies within bridging the gap between these two stages of operations. The successful bridging of the gap will lead the organization towards prosperity. Reference List: Fisk, R.P., Grove, S.J. and John, J., 2013.Services marketing interactive approach. Cengage Learning. Haksever, C. and Render, B., 2013.Service Management: An Integrated Approach to Supply Chain Management and Operations. FT Press. Hewitt, P. and Hellier, J., 2015.Steve Marriott: All Too Beautiful. Dean Street Press. Kim, D. and Sturman, M.C., 2012. HR Branding: How Human Resources Can Learn from Product and Service Branding to Improve Attraction, Selection, and Retention. Lfgren, O., 2015. Staying in Hotels.Popular Culture as Everyday Life, p.275. Nickson, D., 2013.Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge. Sampson, S.E., 2012. Visualizing service operations.Journal of Service Research, p.1094670511435541. Shulman, D., 2016.The Presentation of Self in Contemporary Social Life. SAGE Publications.