Marketing Management Case Study

"indiOne: The Indian ‘Premium’ Hotel for the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’"

OR

Abstract:
Tata group’s Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), India's largest luxury hotel chain launched its first ‘no-frill’ hotel named indiOne in Bangalore. indiOne, a stand-alone brand created without the Taj-tag, aimed to provide a comfortable, clean, and safe stay at an affordable price for the middle-class traveler. The hotel provided single and double rooms just for INR 900 and INR 950 ($19.45 and $20.54) respectively. This was considered to be a landmark innovation in the traditional Indian hospitality industry that had been over the years targeting foreign tourists and had ignored the huge potential of its domestic tourists, who were predominately from the middle-class segment. Moreover, the industry faced the brunt of low occupancies and declining average room rates (ARRs) as Indian tourism went through a bad phase due to September 11 terrorist attacks, the attack on the Indian Parliament House and escalating tension in the Indo-Pak relations. So when the majority of the luxury hotels were trying to boost their occupancy rates and ARRs by introducing discount schemes and loyalty programmes, IHCL launched a budget hotel, which was affordable to the Indian middle-class traveler.

Pedagogical Objective:

• To discuss how IHCL has positioned itself in the budget category without diluting the image of its flagship Taj brand
• To discuss the potential opportunities that companies have in serving the population at ‘the bottom of the pyramid’.

Keywords : indiOne; Tata group; Hospitality industry; Indian hotel industry; Luxury hotels; Corporate Strategies Case Study; Cost efficiencies; Branding; no-frill model hotel; India's middle class; Domestic traveler; Roots Corporation Limited; Services marketing; characteristics of service; international services marketing; Idea marketing; Service life cycle, Marketing Management; Marketing Mix; Market Segmentation; Product Life Cycle; New Product Development; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Case Studies; MBA; Marketing Course for MBA Marketing Course Case Map; Course Case Map; Case Map