VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
***

GRADUATE INTERNSHIP REPORT

INTERNSHIP COMPANY/INSTITUTION: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel
Address: 57 Tue Tinh str., Nha Trang City, Viet Nam

Supervisor: PhD. Nham Phong Tuan
Student’s full name: Nguyen Ngoc An
Student’s ID: 11071055
Major: International Business
Class: IB2012B

Hanoi, March 2016


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“Vietnam – Timeless charm” is the slogan of Vietnam tourism, which is
easily seen in every travelling destination of Vietnam. The booming of tourism of
both foreigners and local people promotes the remarkable growth of not only
worldwide tourism, but also Vietnam travelling. The natural resources in Vietnam
determine the potential of tourism and make that industry become a key role of

Vietnamese economic development.
In tourism industry, one of the most important factors is hospitality. Hotel
business activities provide huge benefits to Vietnam tourism and increase the value
of tourist products. The appearance of hotel is inevitable due to tourism
development. It leads to the fierce competition among hotels to attract customers.
Therefore, the success of a hotel depends considerably on the effectiveness of
marketing programs implemented for the hotel services.
During six-week internship in Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel in term of
marketing, I got experiences and lessons, which helps me complete my tactics of
marketing needed for my future career. The report is written to describe my
internship process and results. Also, it includes my suggestion for direct marketing
strategy of organizational customers for the hotel.
The content of report consists of 3 parts:
Chapter 1: Overview of Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel.
Chapter 2: Marketing activities of Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel.
Chapter 3: Direct marketing strategy for organizational customers for Stella
Maris Nha Trang Hotel.
I would like to show my appreciation to the enthusiastic support of PhD.
Nham Phong Tuan for helping me complete the internship report; the hotel
employees for giving me good conditions in a whole internship period.
Nguyen Ngoc An

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel organizational structure
Figure 2: Buying process in business market

Figure 3: Structure of Sales – Marketing Department
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Revenue of hotel rooms 2014-2015
Table 2: Arrivals by nationalities in 2015
Table 3: Hotel room prices

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Table of Contents

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF STELLA MARIS NHA TRANG HOTEL
1. History and development
1.1 Company name and location
Name: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel
Address: 57 Tue Tinh str., Nha Trang City, Viet Nam
Tel: (+84-58) 3528 518
Email:
Website:
1.2 History and development
Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel is a four-star hotel, which is located in the heart
of the coastal city of Nha Trang. They always commit to bring differentiation and
satisfaction to customers with high quality and various services in order to make

their customers’ vacation memorable.
Although it has been established for not a long time, Stella Maris Nha Trang
Hotel has approved itself to be a high-end hotel with professional and proactive
employees; modern facilities and innovative management style. Therefore, it is
obvious that Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel has achieved impressive results for its
first period of operation.
Being a new comer of hotel market in Nha Trang has caused many challenges
for Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel. However, the hotel has gained customer
awareness and royal customers thanks to the effective management of general
managers and professional employees. These are reasons why the quantity of
customers coming to the hotel has grown recently.
Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel is next to shopping and lively nightlife area and is
just one block from beautiful beach. Also, it offers international standard 4 star with
98 various types of rooms to meet all needs of customers; 2 restaurants which are
able to accommodate over 200 guests; an outdoor pool bar that brings customers a
views across the city and the beautiful coastline of Nha Trang; conference rooms,
gym with modern equipment, the Spa, tour desk combined with transportation.
These help the hotel to be considered as an ideal place for customers to have a
wonderful Nha Trang vacation.
2. Organizational structure and Management
2.1 Organizational structure
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Structure of an organization is a coordinating and interactive form of all
facilities and employees to ensure that all resources are utilized effectively to reach
the target. Like other hotels, Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel chooses a model that
divides the hotel into different departments with certain job assignment.


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Figure 1: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel organizational structure
(Source: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel)
2.2 Department function
General Manager: They are owners of the hotel. They create the hotel’s mission

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statement and vision.
Deputy General Manager: They manage the hotel operation. General Manager hires
them. They are responsible for the business volume, creating business strategy that
is based on the vision statement set by General Manager.
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Sale & Marketing: They make market research that is used to conduct effective
business strategy and advertisement in order to attract many kinds of customers.
Also, they cooperate with other hotels and tourist agents in both domestic and
foreign market by signing contract with them. Consulting business strategy and
business operation with Deputy General Manager to maximize all capabilities and

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minimize the weaknesses.

Public relation: This department maintains the good relationship with customers to

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create loyal customers for the hotel.
Human resources: They manage and analyze the workforce; recruit employees; pay

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salary; ensure the quantity of staff enough to operate business.
Accounting & Finance: This department includes cashier in the reception,
restaurant, coffee lounge and bar; accountants for receivables or expenses; auditors;
and so on. They are accountable for managing capitals; invoices, cash inflow and

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cash outflow carefully.
Front office: They manage booking and payment of accommodation for customers.
Also, they cooperate with other departments to examine the available room
condition, booking profile of customers; solve problems related to services from

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customers; provide information required by customers.
House keeping: They are responsible for the room cleanliness that is required to
meet the hotel standard in a certain period. They have to examine the properties that
customers used or lost in the room when they check out in order to address to the

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front office. They also clean the work office and public locations in the hotel.
Fitness center: They provide spa and gym services to customers.
Food & Beverage department: They cooperate with other departments such as front
office, sale & marketing to understand the taste of customers for food and drink so

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as to serve them well.
Purchasing: They buy materials for the hotel and ensure all inputs are high quality

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and sufficient.
Security: They protect the properties of the hotel as well as ensure the safety of

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customers and employees.
Engineering: They are skilled workers who are able to fix quickly any problems

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happened with the facilities and do the maintenance for them.
Kitchen: They are accountable for the quality of food and drinks.
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Services
Provide accommodation for customers with 5 main types of rooms: Superior,

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Deluxe, Executive, Suite, and President Suite.
Serve meeting conferences, wedding parties and other events with rooms equipped

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with state-of-the-art audio-visual facilities and a professional event team.
Hold Nha Trang tour for guests. The tour desk is located in the ground floor.

3.

Customers are served by professional staff who provides detailed information
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related to the tour and solve any enquiries from guests.
Serve food and drinks via bars and restaurants, which provide various kinds of
dishes and beverages.
Offer gym & spa services with fully equipped rooms and skilled employees.
4. Business capabilities
4.1 Employees
Because hotel services have specific characteristics, the workforce requires to
operate the hotel is huge and must work 24/7. Therefore, there are characteristics of

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hotel staff as the following:
The proportion of female employees is high due to services products.
High job specialization makes the hotel difficult to replace employees.
Working time depend on the consumption of customers.
Power of work is fluctuated and seasonal; various and complicated.
Front-stage employees are young, good-looking and professional.
Stable salary is paid for employees.
Working time is divided mainly into 3 shifts.
The recruitment process of the hotel is made carefully so as to employ good
staff for the hotel. After the profile is examined, the candidates whose selected
resumes are called for interview. The language in the interview depends on the
departments and positions. Board of examiners includes human resources
department, head of the department that the candidates want to work for. Selected
candidates join internship before becoming the official employees of the hotel.
The staff of Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel is able to speak foreign languages
fluently such as English, Chinese, Japanese, and so on. They have to take the annual
language tests and specification exams. Also, the hotel holds an annual individual
meeting in which the employees can suggest their ideas to the managers and give
feedbacks from them. There is a New Year Party, which is held annually for all
employees as the recognition of the General Manager to their hard working.
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4.2 Facilities
• Swimming Pool

There is a outdoor swimming pool which is located on the 10 th floor of the


hotel. It has a unique and modern design, which makes customers not only enjoy
fresh water and panoramic view of Nha Trang Bay, but also refresh yourselves with
light snacks and cocktails offered by the bar in the same location. This place is
perfect for all social and business meeting.
• Gym & Spa
It is located in the 3rd floor of the hotel. The gym center opens daily at 6.30 in
the morning and closes at 10 in the evening. The gym room is furnished with
modern facilities. There is also coach in the gym. However, the spa provides
services from 9 a.m to 10 p.m every day. It serves customers with various kinds of

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massages such as Shiatsu massage of Japanese, Vietnamese traditional massage.
• Bar & Restaurant
There are 2 bars and 2 restaurants in the hotel.
Lobby lounge: It is located in the lobby area in the ground floor. The Lobby Bar is
an ideal venue for travelers and business people to meet, socialize and relax in a

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modern atmosphere. It opens from 7 in the morning to 10 in the evening.
Sky Pool Bar: It is located on the 10 th floor. Customers can enjoy snacks and drinks

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as well as see the view of Nha Trang Bay. Live music is performed at the weekends.
Octopus: The restaurant is located on the 2nd floor. It serves buffet for breakfast
from 6 a.m to 9 a.m. European, Asian and À la carte menu is provided for lunch
from 11 a.m to 2 p.m; for dinner from 6.30 p.m to 10.30 p.m. Its capacity is 250


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guests.
VIP room: This room is used up to 50 guests with theatre design style. It is suitable

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for family events and birthday party.
Conference hall
Liberty: The hall is served only for meeting conferences, wedding parties and
review ceremonies. It is located on the 10 th floor. The operation time depends on
customers’ request and its capacity is 200 guests.
• Accommodation
Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel has 201 rooms, which is divided into 5 types of
rooms: Superior, Deluxe, Executive, Suite and President Suite.

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Superior rooms: Each room is 28 m2 and is fully equipped with modern facilities
that meet the 4-star international standard. Customers can feel a warm and

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welcoming glow as soon as they enter.
Deluxe rooms: Room size is from 40 m 2. Each room is elegantly styled with dark

wood furnishing. Features flat-screen TV, minibar & safe, individually controlled
air-conditioned system. All Junior Deluxe Rooms have windows and exude an

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atmosphere of relaxed elegance.
Executive rooms: They are located on high floors. The 45sqm Executive rooms
bring convenience and comfort to guests entering the private balcony. With highspeed in-room Internet access as well as the oversized writing desk, and multifunction phone with two IDD phone lines, Executive is an ideal business

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accommodation.
Suite rooms: They are elegant in 65 m 2 to cater both business and leisure travelers.
Guests can enjoy king-sized bed amidst our luxury and stylist décor. All of Suite
rooms offer private balcony where customers can delight in splendid scenic views

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of Nha Trang.
President Suite: It provides guests with luxury and comforts in space of 90 m 2.
Featuring a separate lounge area and spacious bedrooms where you can work or
meet your partners while travelling. Besides, there is one kitchen with dining table
that offers customers to cook their own delicious creations for their beloved ones,

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sipping wine and relaxing.
Amenities in all rooms:
Air Conditioning
Internet access (ADSL & WiFi)

IDD Telephone
Kettle
Hair Dryer
Bath Tub
Shower
Bathroom Amenities
LCD Cable Television
Mini Bar
Mineral water
Coffee & Tea
Flower & Fruit Daily
Private Safety Deposit Box
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Electronic Door Lock
Slipper
5. Business results
YEAR
*Arrivals
(Inbound)
*Occupancy
*Staying dates
(Inbound)
*Revenue


2014
19,108
9,247
9,768
90,423
69,651

2014/ 2013
76.56%
72.29%
78.27%
85.77%
87.47%

45,352,558,926

89.37%

2013
24,959
12,792
12,480
105,422
79,629
50,749,112,
017

Table 1: Revenue of hotel rooms 2014-2015
(Source: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel)
According to the table, it is obvious that the business result of accommodation

in 2015 is lower than the revenue in 2014. It might be caused by the depression of
economy, which makes customers save more money instead of spending. However,
the business performance of the hotel in 2015 is still more than 50%. In particular,
the 2015 revenue accounts for nearly 90% of 2014 results, which means the
business activities of the hotel are excellent during poor economic period.
ORD
.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

STAYING
NATIONALITIES ARRIVALS
VIETNAM
9,861
RUSSIAN
5,428
USA

1,089
FRANCE
488
AUSTRALIA
422
JAPAN
376
CHINA
289
KOREA SOUTH
141
CANADA
131
DENMARK
120
ENGLAND
84
GERMANY
68
THAILAND
55
SWITZERLAND
46
UCRAINE
37
12

DATES
20,772
60,697

2,540
833
1,057
818
542
286
284
295
178
252
132
100
238

AVR. STAYING
DATES
2.11
11.18
2.33
1.71
2.50
2.18
1.88
2.03
2.17
2.46
2.12
3.71
2.40
2.17

6.43


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16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

ISRAEL
SINGAPORE
INDIA
NEW ZEALAND
INDONESIA
KOREA NORTH
IRELAND
MALAYSIA
PHILIPPINES
SWEDEN
NETHERLANDS
NORWAY
BELGIUM
CAMBODIA
AUSTRIA
FINLAND
LAOS
ARGENTINA
MONGOLIA

ITALIA
HONGKONG
ICELAND
HUNGARY
PORTUGAL
OTHER NATION
POLAND
ROMANIA
IRAN
MEXICO
SAUDI ARABIA
BULGARIA
PAKISTAN
SLOVAKIA
TAIWAN
OTHERS
Grand Total

34
30
29
27
24
23
22
22
22
21
18
17

15
14
12
11
10
7
6
6
6
5
4
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
94
19,134

66
65
59
55
61

37
53
39
25
90
64
30
24
32
23
84
16
74
22
16
6
12
12
11
5
4
6
2
4
3
2
1
1
1
394

90,423

1.94
2.17
2.03
2.04
2.54
1.61
2.41
1.77
1.14
4.29
3.56
1.76
1.60
2.29
1.92
7.64
1.60
10.57
3.67
2.67
1.00
2.40
3.00
2.75
1.67
1.33
3.00
1.00

4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
4.19
4.73

Table 2: Arrivals by nationalities in 2015
(Source: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel)
The table shows that there are many international customers staying in the
hotel. Local visitors are still the biggest customers of the hotel and it is followed by
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a huge amount of Russian visitors. Although the number of Vietnamese people
staying in the hotel is higher than Russian’s one, the staying dates and the average
days of staying of Russian is considerably longer than Vietnamese figure. In
particular, it is 3 times higher and average figure is nearly 5 times longer. These are
things that the hotel needs to consider to adjust its business strategy appropriately.
6. Strengths and weaknesses
6.1 Strengths
- Employees are skilled and professional. They are enthusiastic in working and
6.2
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willing to learn new things.

Elegant design of hotel rooms with modern facilities.
Ideal location of the hotel with Nha Trang panoramic view.
Weaknesses
Brand awareness of the hotel is not high so that it is difficult to attract customers.
Relationship with tourist agents and other suppliers are not close.

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CHAPTER 2: ACTIVITIES OF SALES – MARKETING DEPARTMENT IN
STELLA MARIS NHA TRANG HOTEL
1. Literature review
1.1 Definition and function of Marketing in tourism
2. Definition
According to Morrison, A. M. (2013), tourism marketing is “a continuous,
sequential process through which management in tourism plans, researches,
implements, controls, and evaluates activities designed to satisfy both customers’
needs and wants and their own organization’s objectives. To be effective, marketing
requires the efforts of everyone in an organization and can be made more or less
effective by the actions of complementary organizations”.
There is also another definition by Ray Freeman & Kelley Glazer. It is defined
that “Marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry requires an understanding of
the differences between marketing goods and marketing services. To be successful
in tourism marketing, organizations need to understand the unique characteristics of
their tourism experiences, the motivations and behaviors of travelling consumers,
and the fundamental differences between marketing goods and services”.
Therefore, it might be summarized that marketing tourism is a branch of
marketing. It is applied specifically for tourism agencies.

1.1.2 Function
Because marketing in the tourism is a part of marketing as a whole, it has four
main functions. However, each function is determined specifically for a tourism
company.
• Adaptation
To ensure the products and services of the company to be caught up with the
customer demands, market trends, marketing activities need to complete tasks as the
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following:
Build an information system to supply immediately needed data about the changes
of customer behaviors in terms of tourism products and services in the market, the
supply chain of that tourism products and their future development in order to make
the company and its services adaptable to the market.

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Orient the customer behaviors and expenses proportion of the consumers based on

the global consuming trends by researches and new products.
• Distribution
This function is to assure the tourism products and services to be delivered to
final consumers. Because of tourism and hospitality characteristics, distribution
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function is shown as the following:
The distribution of tourism services or in other word, the authority to use these
services is performed mainly by exclusive agencies, tourist companies and
intermediaries. They are typical firms in the tourism industry to ensure tourism

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services to be delivered to customers.
In tourism, short distribution channels are used and the services are perishable.

•
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There is not the services movement as tangible products.
Selling
It includes all marketing activities related to transactions between company and
customer in the market. They are performed with price elasticity identification,

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discount program, payment criteria for customers.
• Support
Marketing chooses communications channels to advertise services of the company

as well as increases brand awareness for customers about their services offerings.
2.1 Characteristics of tourism marketing
There are certain differences of marketing activities between tangible products
and intangible ones because of the characteristics of tourism and its products. They
are the following:
• Paying attention on making tourism products more tangible

The origin of tourism products is services or intangible. Customers are not able
to see, touch and try before they decide to use these products. However, customers
can see tangible factors related to tourism services. Thus, the buying decision is
relied on these elements as well as they affect the quality and suitability of products
in the view of customers. Tourism marketing needs to focus on these factors. They
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are mentioned as the following:
Physical evidences: It consists of design, facilities, decorations, logo and so on.
They are used to affect the selection, expectation, satisfaction and consuming
behaviors of customers.

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Price: It may create trust of customers on the products or services. It also increases
or decreases the expectations of buyers these offerings. For instance, the perceived
values of the hotel services decrease on the customers’ perspectives due to low
price. Nevertheless, if the hotel charges them high price, it will be considered as an
offensive behavior from the hotel because they think that they are not treated well

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and it may lead to the brand switching from customers.
Communications: This factor in tourism and hospitality industry is considered as a
promise of the services company and a source of increasing perceived values from

customers. Thus, the messages and communications channels selected must
encourage positive words of mouth about the services of that company as well as
reduce the abstraction of advertising and increase the belief of customers as they

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watch them.
Customers: Current consumers of the company will give signals for potential
customers. The quantity, appearance and behaviors of current customers will affect

the recognition and imagination of services that will be offered for them.
• People considered as the fifth P of marketing mix of services companies
- Services are performed by coordination among people, which affects considerably
the quality of services offered to customers. Thus, apart from 4Ps appeared
normally on marketing mix of tangible products, services marketers have to focus
on employees, especially front stage staff who directly encounter customers.
• Focusing on word of mouth and emotional messages
- Intangible characteristic of services creates difficulties for both companies and
customers. For buyers, they cannot see, touch or try before purchasing, which
makes them feel risky. As the result, the buying decision of customers is based on
the review of people who used before as well as their emotion when they go
shopping is an influence on their purchasing process. For enterprises, this
characteristic of services challenges them to execute successful advertising
campaign. These explain why word of mouth and emotional messages created for
the services play an important role of conducting effective marketing and
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advertising plans.
Augmented activities performed in off-peak season


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The seasonal characteristic of tourism and hospitality industry is also an obstacle for
companies. Travelling is non-essential demand because of some various reasons.
Therefore, the hotel operation time is divided into 2 seasons; peak period and offpeak one. The peak season prefers to the number of customers is high and the used
capacity is usually higher than 70 percent or may be overloaded. However, the rate
is dramatically low in off-peak season. The hotel cannot store their offerings or stop
its operation, which means marketing campaigns of both tourism companies and
hotels assure enough customers to reduce overloading in peak period and increase

using capacity of the hotel in off-peak season.
• Paying attention on intermediaries
- Instead of physical distributions, intermediaries including travel agencies can
cooperate with tourism companies to offer lump-sum tours. These tours provide
services of picking up customers from their home to the travel destinations, helping
guests enjoy the trips and bringing them back home. Besides, the intangibility of
tourism services makes customer difficult to determine prices and quality. So,
intermediaries play an important role in purchasing decision of customers. Tourism
marketers must consider tourism intermediaries as a crucial part of the marketing
strategy.
• Appreciating the cooperation in tourism marketing
- Tourism products are combination of many industries. To provide completed
services requiring a tight cooperation among companies in both each stage of
production and launching products to the market. An effective marketing
cooperation brings benefits not only for enterprises but also customers.

2.2 Direct marketing in hotel business activities
2.2.1 Definition
According to Phillip Kotler, direct marketing is an interactive marketing system
that uses one or more advertising media to affect a measurable response and/or
transaction at any location. (Marketing Management, 13th Edition, Philip Kotler and
Kevin Lane Keller).
2.2.2 Advantages
Using direct marketing makes both companies and customers beneficial.
• For customers
- Being more convenient and less troublesome for customers.
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- Saving time for customers.
- Making customers active to choose products with catalogue, advertising letters
• For companies
- Selecting more potential customers.
- Product information delivered to interested customers.
- Allowing tests of various media plans and messages to find the best ones.
- Assuring the privacy of the company’s marketing campaigns because competitors
are not able to see the details of that strategy.
- Marketers are capable of measuring the effectiveness of campaign through results
of responses.
1.4 Characteristics of organizational customers in hotel business activities
1.4.1 Definition
According to marketing perception, market is defined as a combination of
current and potential buyers. There are different criteria for classifying
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segmentation. Market is divided into two kinds on the basis of transactions.
Consumer market: It consists of people buying products and services to satisfy their
needs and the family’s ones.
Industrial market: It includes two minor classifications as the following:
+ Reseller market: individuals and organizations purchase goods and services
on the purpose of reselling to the third parties in order to get profits.
+ Producer market: individuals and organizations purchase goods and services
on the purpose of producing other goods so as to supply or resell to the third parties.
+ Government market: customers purchase goods and services to support
governance and public services.
In tourism industry, its market is a combination of current and potential buyers
purchasing tourism products.
- Reseller market: It includes tourism companies, tourism agencies, etc. They buy
products from tour services enterprises, hotels, restaurants, logistics firms to
provide single or full-packed services.
- Producer market: Tourist services companies are in that market. They buy single
products from accommodation providers, restaurants, and entertainment companies.
Then, they coordinate these things into a completed tour and offer to tourism
companies and customers.
- Government market: It consists of organizations purchasing tourism products
from travel agencies for different using purposes.

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In summary, market of tourism is various and abundant. Characteristics and
purposes are parts of criteria of market classification. However, it still helps

managers find potential segmentation that is appropriate for organizational structure
and marketing activities success.
1.4.2 Characteristics of organizational customers
The characteristics of tourism and hospitality differentiate purchasing behavior
of not only organizational customers and consuming ones in that industry, but also
industrial ones of tourism and those of other industries.
- In hotel business activities, organizational customers are various. They might be
travel agencies, event holders, state-owned companies or organizations and so on.
Their needs are accommodation for the holiday. Because of tourism characteristics,
the services are not moved so that organizational customers of popular places can be
both domestic people and foreign ones.
- The number of customers is small, but their purchasing capability is huge. The
quantity of rooms booked by organizational customers is normally big and it is even
higher than the hotel capacity. For travel agencies and event holders, it is not always
true because their demand is high and stable for hotels that are located in wellknown travel destination.
- Industrial customers are professional buyers. It is shown on the way they choose
their suppliers, transaction methods and signing contract. They consider carefully
the services quality, contract terms and compensations due to the intangibility and
perishability of tourism products.
- The seasonality of tourism services and hospitality makes the demand of
organizational customers inelastic, but strong fluctuated. In peak season, prebooking rooms is high, but it is low when there are events affecting the rate or in
off-peak season. In order to assure the full capacity of hotel to be used, hotels
usually offer high commissions for travel agencies or intermediaries in off-peak
period.
1.4.3 Purchasing process of organizational customers
According to Kotler (1997) and Vitale et al. (2010), the process is divided into 4
stages including 8 steps as the following.

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Definition stage
Problem recognition
Product sepcification

Selection stage
Supplier source/search
Proposal Solicitation
Supplier selection

Delevering solution stage
Decide/ buy ( make final choice and order routine)

Endgame
Actual use
Post-purchase evaluation

Figure 2: Buying process in business market
(Source: Vitale et al., 2010, p. 58-60.)
For any organizational customers, they always go through 8 stages
aforementioned. However, it is not obligated for all circumstances for some
accepted reasons. The purpose of buying products, the relationship between
suppliers and customers may be caused to leave some steps in the process.
Therefore, it is crucial for marketers to identify who their customers are, what the
customers’ purchasing purposes are, where their customers are in the buying
decision process in order to be successful with the marketing campaigns.
1.4.4 Factors affecting purchasing decisions of organizational customers.
• Economics

This element is always considered first by industrial customers. Apart from
government, non – profit organizations, other remaining customer groups are
influenced directly on their buying decisions with new economic regulations, politic
situations and competitions.
• Organization
Each organization always has its own objectives, strategies, regulations and
systems. Different associations, which have dissimilar characteristics, make buying
decisions differently. Thus, marketers need to understand these differences by
answering questions such as how many people involving buying decision of a
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company, who they are, what their standard is and what the company strategy and
limitations are.
• Individuals
Many people discuss the purchasing decision of an organization with different
involving level. Each person has different acknowledgment and preferences, which
are based on their sex, interests and age. So, it is obvious that the purchasing
decision of an organization affected with not only two aforementioned factors, but
also individuals and their relationships (buying decision makers of the firm; the
relationship between suppliers and customers). People that are responsible for
buying products and services, usually purchase those from providers making them
feel friendly. They also choose suppliers who have the same characteristics as them
and help them complete some tasks. They are sensitive to offensive behaviors that
are both real and imagined by them as well as refuse suppliers who react to them
slowly.
3. Activities of Sale – Marketing Department in Stella Maris Nha Trang
Hotel

2.1 Department structure

Director of Sales –
Marketing

Sales Manager

Marketing
Manager

2.2.1
-

Figure 3: Structure of Sales – Marketing Department
(Source: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel)
2.2 Position functions
Director of Sales – Marketing
Conduct marketing plans for the hotel.
Create budget plan that is submitted to Deputy General Manager to be officially

-

accepted; take responsibility for all expenses reported.
Make and execute marketing strategy that is based on the objectives set by the
hotel.
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-

Support Deputy General Manager in term of sale – marketing activities of the hotel

-

and ensure all resources to be utilized.
Build and manage Research & Development projects; train and apply information

-

technology in business activities.
Cooperate with Deputy General Manager to create specific plans for customers of

-

the hotel; maintain good customer relationship and customer services.
Identify customers’ needs and serve them; make sure that all members of the hotel

-

update new information of customers’ wants in terms of hotel products and services.
Make monthly report about the current business activities to Deputy General
Manager; inform Deputy General Manager as soon as possible any problems so as

-

to avoid delaying processes and losses.
Make annual report to General Manager
Cooperate with Deputy General Manager to control effectively business units and


-

employees; ensure all members to follow the objectives of the hotel.
Take responsibility for all marketing activities and manage employees in the

2.2.2
-

department.
Perform tasks of Deputy General Manager as being delegated.
Sales Manager
Conduct and execute business plans; report business volume of the hotel.
Ensure the business results to reach the goal; assign business volume to employees.
Research, consult and implement solutions for improving business results of the

-

hotel.
Manage and supervise the employees of Sale department.
Cooperate with Human resources department to recruit and train employees for Sale

-

department.
Find out potential partners and customers for the hotel.
Sign business contracts with partners.
Other tasks assigned by Sale – Marketing Director.
2.2.3 Marketing Manager
Execute marketing plans, advertising and promotion events; supervise working


-

process and make report.
Identify marketing opportunities by researching customer and market data.
Protect the value of organization by keeping secret about marketing information of

-

the hotel.
Improve marketing profession by applying training courses; expand networks by

-

joining marketing associations.
Maintain close relationship with customers to make them loyal to the hotel.

-

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-

Conduct forecast of customer behavior trends.
Reach the desired objectives set in marketing strategy; ensure all marketing
activities to follow the mission statement and vision of the hotel.
Make report related to marketing performances to Director of Sales – Marketing.

2.3 Marketing activities of Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel.
When the hotel was established, board of director has focused on marketing
activities. The purpose is to position the brand and services; create competitive
advantages for the hotel. The following is marketing strategy that has been
implemented recently.
- Product strategy: Apart from accommodation, the hotel offers recreation services
such as restaurants, conference and event services, bars and so on. However, the
hotel does not have an effective strategy to utilize its state-of-the-art facilities
because the quantity of customers using these extra services is not high.
- Pricing strategy: The price that charges for each kind of room is the below:
Types of room
Single (VND)
Superior
2,150,000
Deluxe
2,400,000
List of rooms
Executive
3,200,000
Suite
4,500,000
President Suite
15,000,000

Double (VND)
2,350,000
2,600,000
3,400,000
4,700,000
15,000,000


Extra bed
525,000
525,000
525,000
No offering
525,000

Table 3: Hotel room prices
(Source: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel)
The price is flexible in some circumstances. For group blocking from travel
agents, the hotel offers discounts that are determined before between the hotel and
the tourist firm. For walk-in or individuals, the price shown on the hotel website is
to help them make price comparison. Actually, managers conduct careful pricing
analyses before setting the price of hotel services to compete in the industry.
Nevertheless, this price may be changed because of occupancies and business goals.
- Distribution strategy: Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel cooperates with travel agents
to assure the services to deliver to customers effectively. The selection of
intermediaries is based on the matching of both parties in term of target customers,
close relationships and the reputation of the travel agents.
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Promotion strategy: The hotel attempts to refresh its image on media channels

such as catalogue, brochure and website. Advertisement of the hotel is shown on the

tourism newspapers and magazines also. Hotel website usually updates its
information to help customers easily get hotel promotion events. Besides, the hotel
tries to maintain customer relationships and sign more contracts with other hotels
and travel agents to increase the effectiveness of business activities.
2.4 Role of organizational customers in Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel
During operation time, it is obvious that the number of walk-in booking rooms
in the hotel is not high because Stella Maris Nha Trang is just a newcomer. The
brand awareness is not strong enough to make customers decide to book among
many four-star hotel choices in Nha Trang. This is a challenge for marketing
department to position the Stella Maris Nha Trang in the mind of customers.
However, there are positive points of the hotel. The number of customers
booking halls for meeting and other events has increased recently. Almost
customers using that service are organizational ones. The reason is that it is one of
the main services of the hotel: providing halls for meeting, conferences, wedding
parties and holding banquets, events. It is obviously the strength of Stella Maris
Nha Trang Hotel because of panoramic city view, state-of-the-art facilities, modern
and elegant design and professional event teams. Also, the price of rooms that are
four – star standard is slightly lower than other four-star hotels in Nha Trang. This is
a competitive advantage of the hotel to attract more customers, especially
organizational ones to choose that service from Stella Maris Nha Trang Hotel.
Furthermore, organizational customers are stable even in off-peak time.
Because of seasonal characteristic of tourism as well as hospitality, the hotel always
offers high commission for tourist agencies in order to ensure their capacity to be
used as much as possible. Therefore, organizational customers play an important
role in business volume of the hotel and they might become target customers of the
hotel in the future.

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