Description
It describes about Industry Trends in tourism and leisure industry, PEST Analysis of tourism Industry, Competitor Analysis, SWOT analysis, Company Description, General Information about the Club Mahindra, it's Finance performance, SWOT analysis of Club Mahindra and Various Strategies employed by Club Mahindra holidays.
Company Analysis – Club Mahindra Holidays Industry – Tourism and Leisure Industry Analysis Trends in the Tourism & Leisure Industry India?s tourism and Leisure Industry is growing rapidly since the last decade. Tourism & Leisure sector contributed around 6.2% of the total GDP of the country. According to Ministry of Tourism, FTAs or Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India during 2011 was around 6.29 million. The FEE or Foreign Exchange Earnings during 2011 were US$16564 million with a growth if 16.7% as compared to 2011. From a global perspective, The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates a 4.5% per annum increase in the total tourism activity between 2002 and 2012. Reasons cited for it are rise in global wealth, liberalization of international airspace, cheaper flights and the usage of the Internet as a travel tool. The earnings from tourism have made it one of the world?s largest industries and the fastest growing sectors of global trade. International tourism flows are expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2020 and revenue estimated to cross $2000 billion according to The World Travel and Tourism Council. Today, only 3.5% of the world population travels internationally but the number of Asian, particularly Chinese, tourists is predicted to grow enormously as the region becomes more integrated with global economy. In Asia, China has emerged as a leading tourist destination and is predicted to be the world?s biggest tourist destination by 2020. According to WTTC, India is one of the world?s topmost contenders in growth of tourism. India receives the largest number of overseas tourists from the United Kingdom, which is its largest source market, followed by the United States, Sri Lanka, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore. Other Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai and the Maldives will remain attractive destinations. The top tourist destinations of 2011 were Paris- France, Las Vegas- Nevada, Rome- Italy, New York City- New York, London- England, Florence- Italy, Tokyo- Japan, SydneyAustralia, San Francisco- California and Melbourne- Australia. In recent times, the falling of rupee has benefitted India as far as tourism is considered because foreign travellers found Indian hotels cheaper than before. There was a sudden increase in the travellers searching for Indian destinations on the web especially from Asia and London. Though the number of inbound travellers decreased, travellers from other countries helped the country earn from tourism. The number of outbound travellers also decreased due to the sudden surge in the prices of air tickets. India is in close talks with Mauritius in order to promote tourism and facilitating infrastructural development and development of other amenities. Since India allows 100%
FDI in tourism and since Mauritius is also a hot destination for travellers, strengthening of bilateral ties between these two countries could give a boost to tourism of both the countries. ‘Incredible India’, India?s international marketing campaign has been started in 2002 to promote tourism in India. The campaign projects India as an attractive tourist destination by showcasing different aspects of Indian culture and history like yoga, spirituality, etc. The creative partner of this campaign is Ogilvy & Mather, India. This was coupled with another campaign called ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ which brought to light the issue of harassment of travellers and spread the message of treating travellers as the guests of the country. After this, India has seen a phenomenal rise in the number of tourists visiting India, both inbound and foreign. „Incredible India? has attracted 4.32lakh foreigners in June this year as compared to 4.12lakh in same period last year registering a 4.8 per cent increase. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism also recorded a robust growth of 19.2% during this period as the exchequer earned Rs 64.85 billion compared to Rs 54.4 billion in the corresponding period last year, according to Tourism Ministry data. Altogether Rs 3.23 million foreign tourists visited the country during January-June 2012 against Rs 3.01 million during the same period last year. Due to the growing trend of social networking websites, the Ministry of Tourism has gone to the next level and plan to launch the Incredible India campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. This part of the campaign promises to be an aggressive one which will showcase the destinations of India, their infrastructure and facilities and the amenities provided. Subodh Kant Sahai, the tourism minister of India, recently said that he wants to double the number of visitors to India by 2016. Though, India has seen an average of 6 million visitors annually, the number of outbound travellers is 4 times more than the number of inbound travellers which is why India is targeting to increase this number to atleast double the present number. Sahai announced that a tourism promotion forum will be set up at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi which will have representation from the tourism industry. He said that around Rs 40,000 crore is needed to develop India's tourism industry. He added that a MoU will also be signed between India and the UAE to jointly promote tourism.
PEST Analysis of Tourism and Leisure Industry Political 1. There is a strong support by the Government of India to promote Tourism in the country. „Incredible India? is a campaign launched by the government to promote tourism. 2. The taxes that are charged on hotels due to their world class amenities are too high. A 10% luxury tax alongwith VAT and approximately 10% on food, beverages etc. provided in the hotels, altogether make the hotel business very costly. 3. Post Godhra riots there was a lull in the tourism of Gujarat. Very recently, the Gujarat government has revived the tourism of its state by roping in Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. 4. Due to the political scenario in states like Jammu & Kashmir and other North Eastern states being non conducive and unsafe, these states have suffered from lack of tourism despite the fact that they have a very high potential to increase the earnings of the exchequer. 5. Due to privatization of airports, India now has developed the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad to attract tourism. Economic 1. Growth in income levels in most developing nations and more idle cash with citizens of developed nations has increased tourism all over the world. 2. International tourists as well as domestic tourists have grown with time. 3. India has witnessed an amazing rise in the number of people travelling by air in the last decade. 4. With the recent fall in rupee, India has witnessed 4.32lakh foreign tourists in the month of June alone. Social 1. Due to improved infrastructure attracting foreign tourists, it benefits the local community as it helps in preserving the customs and traditions which have been in place since long. 2. Tourism also helps in raising global awareness of poverty or unemployment and a host of other problems of a particular place. 3. On the flip side, tourism can increase crowding and congestion at a place leading to drugs and alcohol abuse and increased crime levels. 4. Tourism can also affect the locals as there are cases of locals being driven away to make way for expansion of infrastructure to promote tourism.
Technological 1. Nowadays, all travel itineraries are done using the web. So the travel companies have to increase their visibility on the web. 2. In order to promote a place, its features, maps, plan of travel, modes of travel etc. have to be updated on the web. 3. Tourists visiting the places need mobile network preferably with internet connection or a Wi-Fi. So, a boost in these technological aspects also boosts the tourism of the country.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS Currently, Country Club India Ltd. is one of the biggest competitors of Club Mahindra though the margin of difference is huge. While Country Club has an annual profit of 4,614lakhs, Club Mahindra boasts an annual profit of a whopping 10,276lakh as on 31st March, 2012. Country Club India Ltd. Is the fastest growing leisure conglomerate which introduced the concept of family clubbing in India. Club Mahindra owned all the resorts initially but today it has 91 authorized franchisees. Country Club India not only owns the clubs but also allows franchisee and affiliation. Both Club Mahindra and Country Club cater to the High Income group and an average salary earning person cannot afford the membership that they quote. Pricing Club Mahindra charges a one-time membership fee which is valid for 25 years and an annual subscription fees depending on the category chosen by the individual. The category depends on the type of season and the type of room chosen. Seasons are classified as Blue, White and Red, Red being the premier and rooms are classified as Studio, 1 Bedroom and 2 Bedroom, 2 Bedroom being the premier. The cost of one time membership ranges from 1.6 lakhs (Blue + Studio) to 8.8 lakhs (Red + 2 Bedroom). Country Club has a similar structure with respect to rooms and seasons but the membership fee need not be of 25 years. They also provide membership for 5 years and so on. The price is lesser for 5 years and since paying a huge sum as in the case of Club Mahindra is generally not possible for medium income groups, Country Club is generally preferred by this category of people. However, Country Club Membership fee is different for different cities suiting the lifestyle and purchasing power of the people in that city. It also provides the facility of transferability of membership from one city to another, where the members just need to pay the differential membership fee, in case the membership fee at the city to which transfer is
sought is higher. Country Club has also offered plot of land at discounted prices to interested people in order to attract members. Quality Club Mahindra boasts of world class leisure and hospitality with 42 beautiful resorts and some of the most exotic places in India as well as abroad at Goa, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Mashobra (near Shimla), Munnar, Corbett or Manali as well as undiscovered and unspoilt locales like Ashtamudi on the backwaters in Kerala, Naukuchiatal in Uttarakhand, Dharamshala in the foothills of the Himalayas and Kumbhalgarh in the heart of regal Rajasthan, Thailand, Austria, Malaysia among many more. Floating cottages in Ashtamudi, log huts in Binsar and luxurious tents in Kumbhalgarh are some of their distinguishing points. In addition to this, multi cuisine restaurants, Svaastha spa, swimming pools and recreation centers that provide indoor and outdoor activities for children and adults are also provided for entire family to have a fun filled vacation. Country Club India Ltd claims to be a pioneer in the concept of family clubbing in the country. Besides this, they also have around 600 Corporate Members, including Microsoft, Brooke Bond Lipton (India) Ltd, CMC Ltd and Dr. Reddy's Labs. Country Club India Ltd provides a state-of-the-art Health Club, multi-cuisine restaurants, business centre, swimming pool and other facilities. Country Club India Ltd a powerhouse of entertainment organizes shows including beauty pageants, Holi, Navarathri, Dasara, Diwali, Christmas, Lodi and New Year regularly and invite celebrities. Country Club (India) Ltd has entered into Strategic Alliances with all the major banks in the market, wherein all these banks Credit Cardholders will be entitled to the 0% interest free installments starting from 6 months to 36 months to avail Country Club membership. Partnership While Country Club India not only owns the clubs but also allows franchisee and affiliation, Club Mahindra owned all the resorts initially but today it has 91 authorized franchisees. Country Club India has established 205 properties of which over 55 are owned and 175 are franchised properties and RCI affiliation of 4000 resorts for its esteemed members. Besides this, they also have around 600 Corporate Members, including Microsoft, Brooke Bond Lipton (India) Ltd, CMC Ltd and Dr. Reddy's Labs. Country Club India Ltd. Country Club (India) Ltd has entered into Strategic Alliances with all the major banks in the market, wherein all these banks Credit Cardholders will be entitled to the 0% interest free instalments starting from 6 months to 36 months to avail Country Club membership.
SWOT Analysis Strengths 1. India's geographical location which is a blend of deserts, forests, mountains, and beaches. 2. Diversity of culture i.e. a blend of various civilizations and their traditions. Such diversity helps in selling niche areas of tourism like culture tourism, food tourism, herbal tourism, eco tourism, spiritual tourism, wildlife tourism and adventure tourism. 3. A huge number of archaeological sites and historical monuments which attract tourists as well as historians from different parts of the world. Weaknesses 1. Lack of adequate infrastructure. For example, the road condition in India is very bad. 2. India has one of the highest fatal road accidents in the world. 3. A xenophobic attitude among certain sections of people in India who show hatred towards foreigners. 4. No proper marketing of India's tourism abroad. 5. There are many places where the image of India is one of poverty, superstition and diseases. 6. Ill treatment of foreigners by locals garnering criticism. Opportunities 1. Improving infrastructure and basic amenities can attract more tourists. 2. Promoting domestic tourism. 3. Allowing more multinational companies to enter India which will give a global perspective to the country which in turn can promote tourism. 4. Framing of better policies by the Government of India. Threats 1. Threat of terrorist attacks like the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks that killed many foreign tourists. 2. Aggressive strategies adopted by other countries like Australia, Singapore etc. to promote their tourism.
Company Analysis Company Description Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. (MHRIL) is a part of the USD 15.4 billion multinational Mahindra Group, one of India?s leading industrial houses. The group has employed 112 thousand employees in 79 countries across the globe and is amongst India?s top ten Industrial Houses. The Group has interests in aerospace, aftermarket, agribusiness, automotive, components, consulting services, defence, energy, farm equipment, finance, insurance, industrial equipment, information technology, leisure and hospitality, logistics, real estate, retail, and two wheelers automobiles. Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL), popularly known under its flagship brand 'Club Mahindra Holidays’ provide holidays on a timeshare basis. It is one of the leading leisure hospitality providers in India, offering quality family holidays with a range of services designed to meet the diverse holiday needs and interests of a family. Its headquarters is located at Chennai. MHRIL was formally incorporated on 20th September 1996. The company started its operations with a single resort in Munnar in 1997. Presently, the company has over 42 resorts in India and abroad. Club Mahindra Holidays today has a fastest growing customer base of over 143000 thousand members and 42 resorts across hill stations, beaches, backwaters, wildlife, forts and heritage, as well as international destinations. The ability of the company to understand the needs of an increasingly affluent set of consumers in India who desire to have vacation experiences with a difference, coupled with innovative business systems and marketing processes gave company the overwhelming success. Within a span of fifteen years, Club Mahindra has become the market leader in its niche of timeshare holidays in India. The Company had only 28,491 vacation owners at the end of 2004-05. However on 31st March 2011, the membership of the Company stood at 125,169, achieving 25 per cent compound annual growth rate. As the demand for vacation holidaying and recreation in India is growing the company has set its eyes on tapping and enchasing this opportunity by offering new, innovative, attractive and complete holiday experiences to its customers.
The company came up with a public offer of 9.265 million equity shares of Rs.10 each with premium of Rs.300 per equity share of face value Rs.10 in 2009. The public offer had received an overwhelming response and was oversubscribed by over 9 times. The equity shares of the company are listed on both Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) Mumbai.
The net sales of MHRIL as on 31st March 2012 were Rs. 57382.98lakhs and revenue turnover was of Rs. 62,155.72lakhs. The company earned a profit after tax of Rs. 10464.05lakhs and earnings per share of Rs. 12.49 in the same year. The paid up equity share capital of the company as on 31st March 2012 was Rs. 8384.56lakhs. The shareholding pattern of MHRIL indicates that majority of the shares are held by the promoters i.e. Mahindra Group. They hold 82.69% of the paid up shares with the remaining 17.31% being contributed by the public at large. SWOT Analysis of Club Mahindra Holidays Strengths 1. Pioneer in Tourism and Leisure Industry and boasts of world class leisure and hospitality. 2. World class facilities and amenities like multi cuisine restaurants, Svaastha spa, swimming pools and recreation centres that provide indoor and outdoor activities for children and adults. 3. A huge customer base of 143,000 members. 4. Beautiful resorts at 42 different places in India and abroad. 5. Categorization of accommodation on the basis of types of rooms and seasons to suit the needs and affordability of people.
Weaknesses 1. The total number of rooms for accommodation is too less as compared to the customer base of 143,000 members. 2. The membership fee promises to be a lifetime membership but has a validity of only 25 years. So, if a person aged 25 years would want to be a member of Club Mahindra holidays, he can enjoy the benefits only till the age of 50. Thereafter, he would have to renew is subscription. 3. Since the subscription is for 25 years, the membership fee ranges from 1.6lakhs to 8.5lakhs which can’t be afforded by the middle class people. 4. An annual fee has to be paid every year which is termed as non-inflationary but the rates do increase every year. 5. Lot of complaints about unavailability of rooms and other issues are registered against Club Mahindra holidays and the grievance redressal is also questioned. Opportunities 1. Increasing and expanding the infrastructure to accommodate more tourists. 2. Decreasing the membership fee by offering membership for a lesser duration like 5 years or 10 years. 3. Allowing more tie ups with other companies which will give a better perspective to the company which in turn can promote tourism.
4. Catering to the middle income group which is in majority in India.
Threats 1. Increase in competitors like Country Club which offers membership for a lesser duration. 2. Foreign holiday resort companies like Cox?s and King?s setting up base in India
Company Strategies MHRIL is into the business of providing leisure hospitality in India primarily through vacation ownership memberships. It offers quality family holidays with a range of services designed to meet the diverse holiday needs and interests of a family. The company operates with floating week or floating resort model where the member gets the flexibility of choosing a different resort and the time to holiday every year. The company also provides its members a fixed price structure vacation holiday package, which it believes to be consumer friendly. MHRIL also provide easy financing options for the membership price to its prospective members. The company generates its revenues by charging membership fees which is paid at or around the time of enrolment as a member. The amount of fees charged depends upon the payment plan selected by the member. The company also charges an annual subscription fee which is payable annually throughout the membership period for the annual servicing and the maintenance of the resorts. The member also pays for use of various facilities and services at the resort, including food and beverages, spa facilities and services and certain holiday activities. Club Mahindra Holiday membership currently entitles members the choice of holidaying at any of its 42 resorts, for seven days each year, in a season and apartment type of their choice for 25 years in India. It also gives access to its members to over 6,000 resorts across 90 countries by paying a simple nominal exchange fee in Indian rupees and get holiday accommodation for the entire family. The members of the company gets the right to use furnished accommodation, such as apartments and cottages, and an experience through resort specific amenities and facilities, such as restaurants, ayurvedic spas, kids clubs and a variety of holiday activities. The range of activities span adventure sports, water sports, camping, treks, indoor family games and hobby programs for children and adults. Apart from those above, specific recreational facilities include fully equipped gyms, swimming pools, „Swasthya Harmony? spas etc. The members also get the option of choosing to holiday outside their season and apartment of their entitlement by using company?s exchange program. The company also gives flexibility to its time share members to carry forward their annual entitlement, subject to certain conditions and get a choice to access a range of resorts globally through its RCI affiliation.
Marketing Campaigns Initially, the campaign for MHRIL was tag lined as ‘fun family forever’. This was taken to be cold by target segment because the holiday spirit was not reflected in it. The company observed that the tagline was not serving the purpose of creating fun and vacation spirit. The message on its web site was “The happiest family holidays” but many people felt that it was written in plain words and the feeling was missing in it. To overcome the short coming of existing marketing communication, the company decided to launch a new promotional campaign using the integrated marketing communication approach to re-position the brand. For this, the company decided to add two words „Jiyo Life? to existing brand logo. With this a new tag line „Jiyo Life? or „Live Life? for the brand with an objective to connect the brand with the people was created. The „Jiyo Life? message was an invitation to the prospective consumers to live life to the fullest, to the happiest, in the most balanced and responsible way. Not just for a day or a week, but for a whole lifetime. To create an immediate and sensational top of the mind awareness and impact, the company advertised on television across different channels and in print media with different advertisement messages targeted towards different members of the family. A new jingle of Jiyo Life was also developed. Social Media Marketing The company integrated Facebook and other social media in its new brand promotion campaign and used it as the main interactive media channel along with television and print media to have a synergetic effect amongst all the media. In India, Facebook is one of the most popular social sites and a host of users that range from government officers, business executives, students, public figures and institutions and has more than 25 million active users as on August 2011. The company also used other social media like LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube as secondary channels. Due to such a huge usage of Facebook and other websites in India and abroad, chances of converting these prospects into customers were higher. The company used many applications of Facebook and hosted several contests on it. The company observed that with the right message, focus and approach on Facebook, it could reach out to a large audience at a fraction of a cost which would otherwise cost more on other media?s. The company used Twitter for giving updates, tips and quick information to its followers. The company used YouTube to upload videos about the locations where they are spread out and the resorts they have in these locations along with the world class amenities they provide. The company also realized that customers these days are getting more vocal, frank and honest and therefore if social media and internet used effectively, it can get lot of in-depth business intelligence, insights and can also be used to improve the product offerings. Social Media Strategy To begin with, company created a separate profile of Club Mahindra and Jiyo Life community on Facebook with a login address ofhttp://www.facebook.com/clubmahindra
and www.facebook.com/jiyolife. It was named as Jiyo Life Community. Currently there are more than 460605 people as registered members of this community on Facebook. The company created different links on its community page like reviews, discussions, happy family stories, live contests, top fans, jiyolife.com just to name a few. The content of all these links was regularly updated. The company also regularly created high quality admin posts on the Facebook to increase the consistency of interactions of fan page users. The admin posts were made very interesting so that the users will share it with their friends. Activities like polls, contests, fan photo of the week etc. were regularly conducted on the fan page. The company encouraged its target groups through its several promotional messages across different medias to log on to www.facebook.com/jiyolife, spare time and participate in creating and sharing moments of their lives that allowed them to live life fully. The company created an opportunity for all the users of Facebook to flash out their daily stress and start living with the smaller joys of their daily life. It also wanted all the user of this media to share the blissful moments of their lives with likeminded people of this community. It was the call given by the company to its members to live life to the fullest and finest „Jiyo Life?. The company also encouraged the Facebook users to visit the Jiyo Life website through social media activities. Jiyo Life today is one of the largest and most interactive fan pages among Indian brands on Facebook. The company also used Twitter with log in address ofhttp://www.twitter.com/jiyolife. Club Mahindra has also uploaded many videos of its television commercials and full videos of its Varca Beach Goa, Thekkady, Fort Kumbhalgarh, Lakeview Resort at Munnar, Kodagu Valley, Coorg, Club Mahindra back water retreat at Ashtamudi, Kerala, Manali and Bhavnagar Club Mahindra Holidays and many more on YouTube. MHRIL has made significant investments in information technology systems to streamline its operations and processes to have smooth, quick and efficient management of its substantial member base. A link of Jiyo Life website is given on Facebook fan page. On clicking the jiyolife.com link another interactive, vibrant, beautiful, colourful and aesthetically designed website opens up. The Jiyo Life website contains other interesting menus like magazine, happiness recipe, my Jiyo Life meter and downloads. All these menus further contain other interesting sub menus. The magazine menu contains options like travel, food, health, family, knowledge and contests. The „My Jiyo Life Meter? contains sub menus like Jiyo Life Moments; Make a Wish and My Jiyo Life Persona. On clicking the „My Jiyo Life Persona? menu the Jiyo Life community members are asked to find out the type of his/her Jiyo Life Persona. The Jiyo Life community member can have the persona of a Dreamer, Conqueror, Philosopher or Entertainer. Putting the cursor on any of the four persona a popup menu opens up and describes each persona features. Other menus include Contest and Poll. Customer Relationship Management System A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is also implemented at MHRIL. The CRM system is utilized as vital tool to track important member information and preferences, thus providing the ability to greatly enhance the total holiday experience to its customers.
The company has also implemented touch screen solution at all its resorts to record online feedback from members/customers while they are still on holiday. This solution enables the company to ensure and deliver consistent standards of service. Products and Brands The MHRIL has adopted a two pronged strategy of rapidly increasing its bouquet of resorts to provide more variety in holidaying options and enhancing its service levels to its members to provide delight at every point of interaction. It provides professional and highly personalized services in all of its resorts by providing choice of food, holiday activities and individual attention in dealing with guests. The company has put online banner of all the brands on its website clubmahindra.com. On clicking the logo of each brand a separate web link opens up giving detailed information of that particular brand and its product. The resorts of the company are located across hill stations, beaches, backwaters, wildlife, forts and heritage, as well as international destinations. The vacation ownership holiday product offers family holidays and is targeted towards people in age bracket of 30 to 55 years. The other product of the company is Zest which caters to the holiday needs of younger urban people in the age group of 25 to 40. Another brand is Corporate Fundays which offers rewards and recognition solutions and targets corporate memberships from companies that want to offer holidays as an incentive to their executives. Club Mahindra Travel offers one stop shop for family holidays and travel services using ECommerce website with a dedicated call centre. In addition, Mahindra Homestays provides the experiences of authentic India by guests living in carefully crafted Indian homes ranging from palaces and heritage properties, to plantations as well as rural and farm homes. Terra is a newly launched product which is targeted towards the urban family and offers the new camping and adventure holiday experience. The tented campsite in this product is designed especially for enjoying nature and gives the most amazing outdoor experience, with a range of activities conducted by team of experts of the company. Thus each product of Club Mahindra provides differentiated offerings for different customer segments. Sales & Marketing Channels Club Mahindra sells its memberships through multiple sales channels. It has established a nationwide reach with a network of 19 branch offices across the country and one in the Middle East. The entire sales and marketing channels network is serviced by a well trained and dedicated team of more than 300 marketing and support executives of the company. The company has also established a network of 149 franchisees and 61 retail outlets called ‘Holiday World’ which is located in malls and shopping complexes of different cities and towns in the country. It has also developed 7 Club Mahindra „Holiday World? at its resort sites. According to company estimates, about 35% of its new members from smaller tier, two and tier three cities of the country are enrolled through franchisees. The sales and marketing team of the
company along with its channel partners on an average reach out to 100 thousands prospective customers every month. The company has adopted the non-intrusive, permission marketing approach and therefore none of its sales people make cold calls. The sales teams make a sales pitch only after the prospective customer extends his/her consent. Internet Marketing Club Mahindra is associated with family holiday packages and use internet as personal medium to reach out to new audiences. The online marketing communications of the company are also targeted at youngsters, with a view that they will have a family tomorrow. The company use search marketing strategies and optimizes its websites for search engines. Through its search marketing strategies, company is targeting people, who may or may not be Club Mahindra members but are looking for cost-effective holidays. The company has bought thousands of keywords based on the terms that travellers look for, such as „family vacation?, „holiday in Goa?, and so on. Club Mahindra put up Search Ads and banners with a dual strategy of creating brand awareness and generating sales. The company partners with leading portals to develop content so as to create microsites and in turn displays its own content. The company spends almost 10% of its advertisement budget on the internet marketing and intends to increase it further. It has also created an informal blog, clubmahindra.wordpress.com and a formal blog, clubmahindrablog.com. The company interacts with its customers through the blog and answers their queries. It has developed a new website which has been integrated with the reservation system to enable online bookings. According to Indian Social Media Report, December 2010, the company?s entire digital exercise was so fined tuned and creatively crafted that every user of Facebook fan page on an average had visited the Jiyo Life page at least 3 times. The Jiyo Life Facebook page made it to the Top 5 organic search results within a couple of days of the launch of campaign. After having 50,000 Facebook fans, the company introduced offline events to offer more engaging activities to the users called the „Jiyo Life Zone’. The „Jiyo Life Zone? was a fun zone held on weekends across major cities of India. The Jiyo Life Zones of the company received tremendous response with large number of footfalls across the cities. In terms of customer engagement, company had observed that a large number of friendships blossomed amongst the users of the page. A strong bond had been created amongst Facebook fan page user. The company could acquire fans at very low cost because of its constant monitoring of ad performance and accurate targeting. The company could build huge fans through optimum use of Facebook advertisement and brand building. The Facebook ads had given Jiyo Life ads more than 100 million impressions and every admin post received more than 75,000 impressions and received over 100 interactions within a day. More than 65,000 people visited Jiyo Life website.
Now, company intends to build larger user base by providing quality interactions and posts by admin and users. The company wants to make the Jiyo Life movement one of the biggest online communities and expects to infuse Jiyo Life as a conversational term for the users. Awards & Recognitions The company has won several awards and recognitions for its leading performance across its entire business value chain. The Member Relationship Centre of Club Mahindra has set a global benchmark and is the first company in the world to receive COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) certification. The Lakeview Munnar property of the company has won the „TEN YEAR Award’ for consistent recognition as a RCI Gold Crown Resort from 2000 – 2009. Brand Council of India has conferred Club Mahindra with a “Business Superbrand 2008 and 2009-10”. Club Mahindra Snowpeaks has been awarded the best socially responsible resort in Manali in the year 2009. The company has been ranked at 150 in Business Today BT Top 500 in the year 2009. The company has also received Food Hygiene Certification of International Standard from „Branch Hygiene Code? of Netherlands and ISO: 9001 certification to the Member Relations Department of Club Mahindra.
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It describes about Industry Trends in tourism and leisure industry, PEST Analysis of tourism Industry, Competitor Analysis, SWOT analysis, Company Description, General Information about the Club Mahindra, it's Finance performance, SWOT analysis of Club Mahindra and Various Strategies employed by Club Mahindra holidays.
Company Analysis – Club Mahindra Holidays Industry – Tourism and Leisure Industry Analysis Trends in the Tourism & Leisure Industry India?s tourism and Leisure Industry is growing rapidly since the last decade. Tourism & Leisure sector contributed around 6.2% of the total GDP of the country. According to Ministry of Tourism, FTAs or Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India during 2011 was around 6.29 million. The FEE or Foreign Exchange Earnings during 2011 were US$16564 million with a growth if 16.7% as compared to 2011. From a global perspective, The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates a 4.5% per annum increase in the total tourism activity between 2002 and 2012. Reasons cited for it are rise in global wealth, liberalization of international airspace, cheaper flights and the usage of the Internet as a travel tool. The earnings from tourism have made it one of the world?s largest industries and the fastest growing sectors of global trade. International tourism flows are expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2020 and revenue estimated to cross $2000 billion according to The World Travel and Tourism Council. Today, only 3.5% of the world population travels internationally but the number of Asian, particularly Chinese, tourists is predicted to grow enormously as the region becomes more integrated with global economy. In Asia, China has emerged as a leading tourist destination and is predicted to be the world?s biggest tourist destination by 2020. According to WTTC, India is one of the world?s topmost contenders in growth of tourism. India receives the largest number of overseas tourists from the United Kingdom, which is its largest source market, followed by the United States, Sri Lanka, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore. Other Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai and the Maldives will remain attractive destinations. The top tourist destinations of 2011 were Paris- France, Las Vegas- Nevada, Rome- Italy, New York City- New York, London- England, Florence- Italy, Tokyo- Japan, SydneyAustralia, San Francisco- California and Melbourne- Australia. In recent times, the falling of rupee has benefitted India as far as tourism is considered because foreign travellers found Indian hotels cheaper than before. There was a sudden increase in the travellers searching for Indian destinations on the web especially from Asia and London. Though the number of inbound travellers decreased, travellers from other countries helped the country earn from tourism. The number of outbound travellers also decreased due to the sudden surge in the prices of air tickets. India is in close talks with Mauritius in order to promote tourism and facilitating infrastructural development and development of other amenities. Since India allows 100%
FDI in tourism and since Mauritius is also a hot destination for travellers, strengthening of bilateral ties between these two countries could give a boost to tourism of both the countries. ‘Incredible India’, India?s international marketing campaign has been started in 2002 to promote tourism in India. The campaign projects India as an attractive tourist destination by showcasing different aspects of Indian culture and history like yoga, spirituality, etc. The creative partner of this campaign is Ogilvy & Mather, India. This was coupled with another campaign called ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ which brought to light the issue of harassment of travellers and spread the message of treating travellers as the guests of the country. After this, India has seen a phenomenal rise in the number of tourists visiting India, both inbound and foreign. „Incredible India? has attracted 4.32lakh foreigners in June this year as compared to 4.12lakh in same period last year registering a 4.8 per cent increase. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism also recorded a robust growth of 19.2% during this period as the exchequer earned Rs 64.85 billion compared to Rs 54.4 billion in the corresponding period last year, according to Tourism Ministry data. Altogether Rs 3.23 million foreign tourists visited the country during January-June 2012 against Rs 3.01 million during the same period last year. Due to the growing trend of social networking websites, the Ministry of Tourism has gone to the next level and plan to launch the Incredible India campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. This part of the campaign promises to be an aggressive one which will showcase the destinations of India, their infrastructure and facilities and the amenities provided. Subodh Kant Sahai, the tourism minister of India, recently said that he wants to double the number of visitors to India by 2016. Though, India has seen an average of 6 million visitors annually, the number of outbound travellers is 4 times more than the number of inbound travellers which is why India is targeting to increase this number to atleast double the present number. Sahai announced that a tourism promotion forum will be set up at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi which will have representation from the tourism industry. He said that around Rs 40,000 crore is needed to develop India's tourism industry. He added that a MoU will also be signed between India and the UAE to jointly promote tourism.
PEST Analysis of Tourism and Leisure Industry Political 1. There is a strong support by the Government of India to promote Tourism in the country. „Incredible India? is a campaign launched by the government to promote tourism. 2. The taxes that are charged on hotels due to their world class amenities are too high. A 10% luxury tax alongwith VAT and approximately 10% on food, beverages etc. provided in the hotels, altogether make the hotel business very costly. 3. Post Godhra riots there was a lull in the tourism of Gujarat. Very recently, the Gujarat government has revived the tourism of its state by roping in Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. 4. Due to the political scenario in states like Jammu & Kashmir and other North Eastern states being non conducive and unsafe, these states have suffered from lack of tourism despite the fact that they have a very high potential to increase the earnings of the exchequer. 5. Due to privatization of airports, India now has developed the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad to attract tourism. Economic 1. Growth in income levels in most developing nations and more idle cash with citizens of developed nations has increased tourism all over the world. 2. International tourists as well as domestic tourists have grown with time. 3. India has witnessed an amazing rise in the number of people travelling by air in the last decade. 4. With the recent fall in rupee, India has witnessed 4.32lakh foreign tourists in the month of June alone. Social 1. Due to improved infrastructure attracting foreign tourists, it benefits the local community as it helps in preserving the customs and traditions which have been in place since long. 2. Tourism also helps in raising global awareness of poverty or unemployment and a host of other problems of a particular place. 3. On the flip side, tourism can increase crowding and congestion at a place leading to drugs and alcohol abuse and increased crime levels. 4. Tourism can also affect the locals as there are cases of locals being driven away to make way for expansion of infrastructure to promote tourism.
Technological 1. Nowadays, all travel itineraries are done using the web. So the travel companies have to increase their visibility on the web. 2. In order to promote a place, its features, maps, plan of travel, modes of travel etc. have to be updated on the web. 3. Tourists visiting the places need mobile network preferably with internet connection or a Wi-Fi. So, a boost in these technological aspects also boosts the tourism of the country.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS Currently, Country Club India Ltd. is one of the biggest competitors of Club Mahindra though the margin of difference is huge. While Country Club has an annual profit of 4,614lakhs, Club Mahindra boasts an annual profit of a whopping 10,276lakh as on 31st March, 2012. Country Club India Ltd. Is the fastest growing leisure conglomerate which introduced the concept of family clubbing in India. Club Mahindra owned all the resorts initially but today it has 91 authorized franchisees. Country Club India not only owns the clubs but also allows franchisee and affiliation. Both Club Mahindra and Country Club cater to the High Income group and an average salary earning person cannot afford the membership that they quote. Pricing Club Mahindra charges a one-time membership fee which is valid for 25 years and an annual subscription fees depending on the category chosen by the individual. The category depends on the type of season and the type of room chosen. Seasons are classified as Blue, White and Red, Red being the premier and rooms are classified as Studio, 1 Bedroom and 2 Bedroom, 2 Bedroom being the premier. The cost of one time membership ranges from 1.6 lakhs (Blue + Studio) to 8.8 lakhs (Red + 2 Bedroom). Country Club has a similar structure with respect to rooms and seasons but the membership fee need not be of 25 years. They also provide membership for 5 years and so on. The price is lesser for 5 years and since paying a huge sum as in the case of Club Mahindra is generally not possible for medium income groups, Country Club is generally preferred by this category of people. However, Country Club Membership fee is different for different cities suiting the lifestyle and purchasing power of the people in that city. It also provides the facility of transferability of membership from one city to another, where the members just need to pay the differential membership fee, in case the membership fee at the city to which transfer is
sought is higher. Country Club has also offered plot of land at discounted prices to interested people in order to attract members. Quality Club Mahindra boasts of world class leisure and hospitality with 42 beautiful resorts and some of the most exotic places in India as well as abroad at Goa, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Mashobra (near Shimla), Munnar, Corbett or Manali as well as undiscovered and unspoilt locales like Ashtamudi on the backwaters in Kerala, Naukuchiatal in Uttarakhand, Dharamshala in the foothills of the Himalayas and Kumbhalgarh in the heart of regal Rajasthan, Thailand, Austria, Malaysia among many more. Floating cottages in Ashtamudi, log huts in Binsar and luxurious tents in Kumbhalgarh are some of their distinguishing points. In addition to this, multi cuisine restaurants, Svaastha spa, swimming pools and recreation centers that provide indoor and outdoor activities for children and adults are also provided for entire family to have a fun filled vacation. Country Club India Ltd claims to be a pioneer in the concept of family clubbing in the country. Besides this, they also have around 600 Corporate Members, including Microsoft, Brooke Bond Lipton (India) Ltd, CMC Ltd and Dr. Reddy's Labs. Country Club India Ltd provides a state-of-the-art Health Club, multi-cuisine restaurants, business centre, swimming pool and other facilities. Country Club India Ltd a powerhouse of entertainment organizes shows including beauty pageants, Holi, Navarathri, Dasara, Diwali, Christmas, Lodi and New Year regularly and invite celebrities. Country Club (India) Ltd has entered into Strategic Alliances with all the major banks in the market, wherein all these banks Credit Cardholders will be entitled to the 0% interest free installments starting from 6 months to 36 months to avail Country Club membership. Partnership While Country Club India not only owns the clubs but also allows franchisee and affiliation, Club Mahindra owned all the resorts initially but today it has 91 authorized franchisees. Country Club India has established 205 properties of which over 55 are owned and 175 are franchised properties and RCI affiliation of 4000 resorts for its esteemed members. Besides this, they also have around 600 Corporate Members, including Microsoft, Brooke Bond Lipton (India) Ltd, CMC Ltd and Dr. Reddy's Labs. Country Club India Ltd. Country Club (India) Ltd has entered into Strategic Alliances with all the major banks in the market, wherein all these banks Credit Cardholders will be entitled to the 0% interest free instalments starting from 6 months to 36 months to avail Country Club membership.
SWOT Analysis Strengths 1. India's geographical location which is a blend of deserts, forests, mountains, and beaches. 2. Diversity of culture i.e. a blend of various civilizations and their traditions. Such diversity helps in selling niche areas of tourism like culture tourism, food tourism, herbal tourism, eco tourism, spiritual tourism, wildlife tourism and adventure tourism. 3. A huge number of archaeological sites and historical monuments which attract tourists as well as historians from different parts of the world. Weaknesses 1. Lack of adequate infrastructure. For example, the road condition in India is very bad. 2. India has one of the highest fatal road accidents in the world. 3. A xenophobic attitude among certain sections of people in India who show hatred towards foreigners. 4. No proper marketing of India's tourism abroad. 5. There are many places where the image of India is one of poverty, superstition and diseases. 6. Ill treatment of foreigners by locals garnering criticism. Opportunities 1. Improving infrastructure and basic amenities can attract more tourists. 2. Promoting domestic tourism. 3. Allowing more multinational companies to enter India which will give a global perspective to the country which in turn can promote tourism. 4. Framing of better policies by the Government of India. Threats 1. Threat of terrorist attacks like the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks that killed many foreign tourists. 2. Aggressive strategies adopted by other countries like Australia, Singapore etc. to promote their tourism.
Company Analysis Company Description Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. (MHRIL) is a part of the USD 15.4 billion multinational Mahindra Group, one of India?s leading industrial houses. The group has employed 112 thousand employees in 79 countries across the globe and is amongst India?s top ten Industrial Houses. The Group has interests in aerospace, aftermarket, agribusiness, automotive, components, consulting services, defence, energy, farm equipment, finance, insurance, industrial equipment, information technology, leisure and hospitality, logistics, real estate, retail, and two wheelers automobiles. Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL), popularly known under its flagship brand 'Club Mahindra Holidays’ provide holidays on a timeshare basis. It is one of the leading leisure hospitality providers in India, offering quality family holidays with a range of services designed to meet the diverse holiday needs and interests of a family. Its headquarters is located at Chennai. MHRIL was formally incorporated on 20th September 1996. The company started its operations with a single resort in Munnar in 1997. Presently, the company has over 42 resorts in India and abroad. Club Mahindra Holidays today has a fastest growing customer base of over 143000 thousand members and 42 resorts across hill stations, beaches, backwaters, wildlife, forts and heritage, as well as international destinations. The ability of the company to understand the needs of an increasingly affluent set of consumers in India who desire to have vacation experiences with a difference, coupled with innovative business systems and marketing processes gave company the overwhelming success. Within a span of fifteen years, Club Mahindra has become the market leader in its niche of timeshare holidays in India. The Company had only 28,491 vacation owners at the end of 2004-05. However on 31st March 2011, the membership of the Company stood at 125,169, achieving 25 per cent compound annual growth rate. As the demand for vacation holidaying and recreation in India is growing the company has set its eyes on tapping and enchasing this opportunity by offering new, innovative, attractive and complete holiday experiences to its customers.
The company came up with a public offer of 9.265 million equity shares of Rs.10 each with premium of Rs.300 per equity share of face value Rs.10 in 2009. The public offer had received an overwhelming response and was oversubscribed by over 9 times. The equity shares of the company are listed on both Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) Mumbai.
The net sales of MHRIL as on 31st March 2012 were Rs. 57382.98lakhs and revenue turnover was of Rs. 62,155.72lakhs. The company earned a profit after tax of Rs. 10464.05lakhs and earnings per share of Rs. 12.49 in the same year. The paid up equity share capital of the company as on 31st March 2012 was Rs. 8384.56lakhs. The shareholding pattern of MHRIL indicates that majority of the shares are held by the promoters i.e. Mahindra Group. They hold 82.69% of the paid up shares with the remaining 17.31% being contributed by the public at large. SWOT Analysis of Club Mahindra Holidays Strengths 1. Pioneer in Tourism and Leisure Industry and boasts of world class leisure and hospitality. 2. World class facilities and amenities like multi cuisine restaurants, Svaastha spa, swimming pools and recreation centres that provide indoor and outdoor activities for children and adults. 3. A huge customer base of 143,000 members. 4. Beautiful resorts at 42 different places in India and abroad. 5. Categorization of accommodation on the basis of types of rooms and seasons to suit the needs and affordability of people.
Weaknesses 1. The total number of rooms for accommodation is too less as compared to the customer base of 143,000 members. 2. The membership fee promises to be a lifetime membership but has a validity of only 25 years. So, if a person aged 25 years would want to be a member of Club Mahindra holidays, he can enjoy the benefits only till the age of 50. Thereafter, he would have to renew is subscription. 3. Since the subscription is for 25 years, the membership fee ranges from 1.6lakhs to 8.5lakhs which can’t be afforded by the middle class people. 4. An annual fee has to be paid every year which is termed as non-inflationary but the rates do increase every year. 5. Lot of complaints about unavailability of rooms and other issues are registered against Club Mahindra holidays and the grievance redressal is also questioned. Opportunities 1. Increasing and expanding the infrastructure to accommodate more tourists. 2. Decreasing the membership fee by offering membership for a lesser duration like 5 years or 10 years. 3. Allowing more tie ups with other companies which will give a better perspective to the company which in turn can promote tourism.
4. Catering to the middle income group which is in majority in India.
Threats 1. Increase in competitors like Country Club which offers membership for a lesser duration. 2. Foreign holiday resort companies like Cox?s and King?s setting up base in India
Company Strategies MHRIL is into the business of providing leisure hospitality in India primarily through vacation ownership memberships. It offers quality family holidays with a range of services designed to meet the diverse holiday needs and interests of a family. The company operates with floating week or floating resort model where the member gets the flexibility of choosing a different resort and the time to holiday every year. The company also provides its members a fixed price structure vacation holiday package, which it believes to be consumer friendly. MHRIL also provide easy financing options for the membership price to its prospective members. The company generates its revenues by charging membership fees which is paid at or around the time of enrolment as a member. The amount of fees charged depends upon the payment plan selected by the member. The company also charges an annual subscription fee which is payable annually throughout the membership period for the annual servicing and the maintenance of the resorts. The member also pays for use of various facilities and services at the resort, including food and beverages, spa facilities and services and certain holiday activities. Club Mahindra Holiday membership currently entitles members the choice of holidaying at any of its 42 resorts, for seven days each year, in a season and apartment type of their choice for 25 years in India. It also gives access to its members to over 6,000 resorts across 90 countries by paying a simple nominal exchange fee in Indian rupees and get holiday accommodation for the entire family. The members of the company gets the right to use furnished accommodation, such as apartments and cottages, and an experience through resort specific amenities and facilities, such as restaurants, ayurvedic spas, kids clubs and a variety of holiday activities. The range of activities span adventure sports, water sports, camping, treks, indoor family games and hobby programs for children and adults. Apart from those above, specific recreational facilities include fully equipped gyms, swimming pools, „Swasthya Harmony? spas etc. The members also get the option of choosing to holiday outside their season and apartment of their entitlement by using company?s exchange program. The company also gives flexibility to its time share members to carry forward their annual entitlement, subject to certain conditions and get a choice to access a range of resorts globally through its RCI affiliation.
Marketing Campaigns Initially, the campaign for MHRIL was tag lined as ‘fun family forever’. This was taken to be cold by target segment because the holiday spirit was not reflected in it. The company observed that the tagline was not serving the purpose of creating fun and vacation spirit. The message on its web site was “The happiest family holidays” but many people felt that it was written in plain words and the feeling was missing in it. To overcome the short coming of existing marketing communication, the company decided to launch a new promotional campaign using the integrated marketing communication approach to re-position the brand. For this, the company decided to add two words „Jiyo Life? to existing brand logo. With this a new tag line „Jiyo Life? or „Live Life? for the brand with an objective to connect the brand with the people was created. The „Jiyo Life? message was an invitation to the prospective consumers to live life to the fullest, to the happiest, in the most balanced and responsible way. Not just for a day or a week, but for a whole lifetime. To create an immediate and sensational top of the mind awareness and impact, the company advertised on television across different channels and in print media with different advertisement messages targeted towards different members of the family. A new jingle of Jiyo Life was also developed. Social Media Marketing The company integrated Facebook and other social media in its new brand promotion campaign and used it as the main interactive media channel along with television and print media to have a synergetic effect amongst all the media. In India, Facebook is one of the most popular social sites and a host of users that range from government officers, business executives, students, public figures and institutions and has more than 25 million active users as on August 2011. The company also used other social media like LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube as secondary channels. Due to such a huge usage of Facebook and other websites in India and abroad, chances of converting these prospects into customers were higher. The company used many applications of Facebook and hosted several contests on it. The company observed that with the right message, focus and approach on Facebook, it could reach out to a large audience at a fraction of a cost which would otherwise cost more on other media?s. The company used Twitter for giving updates, tips and quick information to its followers. The company used YouTube to upload videos about the locations where they are spread out and the resorts they have in these locations along with the world class amenities they provide. The company also realized that customers these days are getting more vocal, frank and honest and therefore if social media and internet used effectively, it can get lot of in-depth business intelligence, insights and can also be used to improve the product offerings. Social Media Strategy To begin with, company created a separate profile of Club Mahindra and Jiyo Life community on Facebook with a login address ofhttp://www.facebook.com/clubmahindra
and www.facebook.com/jiyolife. It was named as Jiyo Life Community. Currently there are more than 460605 people as registered members of this community on Facebook. The company created different links on its community page like reviews, discussions, happy family stories, live contests, top fans, jiyolife.com just to name a few. The content of all these links was regularly updated. The company also regularly created high quality admin posts on the Facebook to increase the consistency of interactions of fan page users. The admin posts were made very interesting so that the users will share it with their friends. Activities like polls, contests, fan photo of the week etc. were regularly conducted on the fan page. The company encouraged its target groups through its several promotional messages across different medias to log on to www.facebook.com/jiyolife, spare time and participate in creating and sharing moments of their lives that allowed them to live life fully. The company created an opportunity for all the users of Facebook to flash out their daily stress and start living with the smaller joys of their daily life. It also wanted all the user of this media to share the blissful moments of their lives with likeminded people of this community. It was the call given by the company to its members to live life to the fullest and finest „Jiyo Life?. The company also encouraged the Facebook users to visit the Jiyo Life website through social media activities. Jiyo Life today is one of the largest and most interactive fan pages among Indian brands on Facebook. The company also used Twitter with log in address ofhttp://www.twitter.com/jiyolife. Club Mahindra has also uploaded many videos of its television commercials and full videos of its Varca Beach Goa, Thekkady, Fort Kumbhalgarh, Lakeview Resort at Munnar, Kodagu Valley, Coorg, Club Mahindra back water retreat at Ashtamudi, Kerala, Manali and Bhavnagar Club Mahindra Holidays and many more on YouTube. MHRIL has made significant investments in information technology systems to streamline its operations and processes to have smooth, quick and efficient management of its substantial member base. A link of Jiyo Life website is given on Facebook fan page. On clicking the jiyolife.com link another interactive, vibrant, beautiful, colourful and aesthetically designed website opens up. The Jiyo Life website contains other interesting menus like magazine, happiness recipe, my Jiyo Life meter and downloads. All these menus further contain other interesting sub menus. The magazine menu contains options like travel, food, health, family, knowledge and contests. The „My Jiyo Life Meter? contains sub menus like Jiyo Life Moments; Make a Wish and My Jiyo Life Persona. On clicking the „My Jiyo Life Persona? menu the Jiyo Life community members are asked to find out the type of his/her Jiyo Life Persona. The Jiyo Life community member can have the persona of a Dreamer, Conqueror, Philosopher or Entertainer. Putting the cursor on any of the four persona a popup menu opens up and describes each persona features. Other menus include Contest and Poll. Customer Relationship Management System A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is also implemented at MHRIL. The CRM system is utilized as vital tool to track important member information and preferences, thus providing the ability to greatly enhance the total holiday experience to its customers.
The company has also implemented touch screen solution at all its resorts to record online feedback from members/customers while they are still on holiday. This solution enables the company to ensure and deliver consistent standards of service. Products and Brands The MHRIL has adopted a two pronged strategy of rapidly increasing its bouquet of resorts to provide more variety in holidaying options and enhancing its service levels to its members to provide delight at every point of interaction. It provides professional and highly personalized services in all of its resorts by providing choice of food, holiday activities and individual attention in dealing with guests. The company has put online banner of all the brands on its website clubmahindra.com. On clicking the logo of each brand a separate web link opens up giving detailed information of that particular brand and its product. The resorts of the company are located across hill stations, beaches, backwaters, wildlife, forts and heritage, as well as international destinations. The vacation ownership holiday product offers family holidays and is targeted towards people in age bracket of 30 to 55 years. The other product of the company is Zest which caters to the holiday needs of younger urban people in the age group of 25 to 40. Another brand is Corporate Fundays which offers rewards and recognition solutions and targets corporate memberships from companies that want to offer holidays as an incentive to their executives. Club Mahindra Travel offers one stop shop for family holidays and travel services using ECommerce website with a dedicated call centre. In addition, Mahindra Homestays provides the experiences of authentic India by guests living in carefully crafted Indian homes ranging from palaces and heritage properties, to plantations as well as rural and farm homes. Terra is a newly launched product which is targeted towards the urban family and offers the new camping and adventure holiday experience. The tented campsite in this product is designed especially for enjoying nature and gives the most amazing outdoor experience, with a range of activities conducted by team of experts of the company. Thus each product of Club Mahindra provides differentiated offerings for different customer segments. Sales & Marketing Channels Club Mahindra sells its memberships through multiple sales channels. It has established a nationwide reach with a network of 19 branch offices across the country and one in the Middle East. The entire sales and marketing channels network is serviced by a well trained and dedicated team of more than 300 marketing and support executives of the company. The company has also established a network of 149 franchisees and 61 retail outlets called ‘Holiday World’ which is located in malls and shopping complexes of different cities and towns in the country. It has also developed 7 Club Mahindra „Holiday World? at its resort sites. According to company estimates, about 35% of its new members from smaller tier, two and tier three cities of the country are enrolled through franchisees. The sales and marketing team of the
company along with its channel partners on an average reach out to 100 thousands prospective customers every month. The company has adopted the non-intrusive, permission marketing approach and therefore none of its sales people make cold calls. The sales teams make a sales pitch only after the prospective customer extends his/her consent. Internet Marketing Club Mahindra is associated with family holiday packages and use internet as personal medium to reach out to new audiences. The online marketing communications of the company are also targeted at youngsters, with a view that they will have a family tomorrow. The company use search marketing strategies and optimizes its websites for search engines. Through its search marketing strategies, company is targeting people, who may or may not be Club Mahindra members but are looking for cost-effective holidays. The company has bought thousands of keywords based on the terms that travellers look for, such as „family vacation?, „holiday in Goa?, and so on. Club Mahindra put up Search Ads and banners with a dual strategy of creating brand awareness and generating sales. The company partners with leading portals to develop content so as to create microsites and in turn displays its own content. The company spends almost 10% of its advertisement budget on the internet marketing and intends to increase it further. It has also created an informal blog, clubmahindra.wordpress.com and a formal blog, clubmahindrablog.com. The company interacts with its customers through the blog and answers their queries. It has developed a new website which has been integrated with the reservation system to enable online bookings. According to Indian Social Media Report, December 2010, the company?s entire digital exercise was so fined tuned and creatively crafted that every user of Facebook fan page on an average had visited the Jiyo Life page at least 3 times. The Jiyo Life Facebook page made it to the Top 5 organic search results within a couple of days of the launch of campaign. After having 50,000 Facebook fans, the company introduced offline events to offer more engaging activities to the users called the „Jiyo Life Zone’. The „Jiyo Life Zone? was a fun zone held on weekends across major cities of India. The Jiyo Life Zones of the company received tremendous response with large number of footfalls across the cities. In terms of customer engagement, company had observed that a large number of friendships blossomed amongst the users of the page. A strong bond had been created amongst Facebook fan page user. The company could acquire fans at very low cost because of its constant monitoring of ad performance and accurate targeting. The company could build huge fans through optimum use of Facebook advertisement and brand building. The Facebook ads had given Jiyo Life ads more than 100 million impressions and every admin post received more than 75,000 impressions and received over 100 interactions within a day. More than 65,000 people visited Jiyo Life website.
Now, company intends to build larger user base by providing quality interactions and posts by admin and users. The company wants to make the Jiyo Life movement one of the biggest online communities and expects to infuse Jiyo Life as a conversational term for the users. Awards & Recognitions The company has won several awards and recognitions for its leading performance across its entire business value chain. The Member Relationship Centre of Club Mahindra has set a global benchmark and is the first company in the world to receive COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) certification. The Lakeview Munnar property of the company has won the „TEN YEAR Award’ for consistent recognition as a RCI Gold Crown Resort from 2000 – 2009. Brand Council of India has conferred Club Mahindra with a “Business Superbrand 2008 and 2009-10”. Club Mahindra Snowpeaks has been awarded the best socially responsible resort in Manali in the year 2009. The company has been ranked at 150 in Business Today BT Top 500 in the year 2009. The company has also received Food Hygiene Certification of International Standard from „Branch Hygiene Code? of Netherlands and ISO: 9001 certification to the Member Relations Department of Club Mahindra.
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