The Kingsbury Hotel: Market Segments, Marketing Mix, and Critical Success Factors

In this report we will discuss about the kingsbury hotel and below are the summaries point:- The Kingsbury is a five-star hotel in Colombo with a focus on the wedding and special occasion market segment. Key success factors include their ocean view rooms and Sky Lounge. Recommendations for the marketing mix include innovating new food and beverages, introducing seasonal pricing strategies, and sending private messages to customers.

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The Kingsbury hotel

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Executive summary
The Kingsbury is one of the top rated five-stars hotels located in the heart of Colombo city-
Galle face green. Chairmen Mr. A. M. Pandithage has been leading the hotel to win local and
international awards such as, “Best Large Hotel Sri Lanka award and Best City Hotel Asia
Pacific award”. The main intention of this report is to provide a fair knowledge about the market
segments, marketing mix and the critical success factors of hotel Kingsbury and hotel industry.
As a business, Kingsbury is focusing on four market segmentations namely, geographic,
demographic, physiographic and behavioural but their target market segment is “Couples who
are willing to immortalize their weddings and to celebrate special occasions”.
The Kingsbury hotel has a wonderful view unique to them. The customers of Kingsbury can
experience a view of the ocean from every room. Sky lounge is another critical success factor of
the Kingsbury because customers can experience tropical sunset while having foods.
A Hotel is a combination of service and product. In fact, Kingsbury has to consider seven
elements of the marketing mix that are product, price, place, promotions, people, and physical
evident and process. The author has given recommendations to develop the marketing mix
which are
• Innovating new food and beverages unique to Kingsbury.
• Introduce new pricing strategies that differ from season to season.
• Sending private messages to their existing and potential customers regarding their latest
offers and facilities.
• Telecast new television commercials.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary .................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Overview and key market segments ....................................................................................................... 5
Key critical success factors ....................................................................................................................... 6
Components of marketing mix (7Ps) ....................................................................................................... 7
Future decisions on the marketing mix ................................................................................................... 8
Perceptual map........................................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 10
References ................................................................................................................................................ 11

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Introduction
The purpose of this report is to give a proper understanding of market segment, marketing mix
and critical success factors of the Kingsbury hotel. This report has clearly stated full market
segmentation as well as a target market segment of the Kingsbury hotel. Also, this report has
stated key elements of the marketing mix and the author has described the marketing mix
related to the Kingsbury hotel. This report has stated the unique factors which help towards the
success. Finally, the author has stated suggestions for the future decisions of the marketing mix
and graphical comparison with competitors.

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Overview and key market segments
The Kingsbury hotel is the youngest five-star hotel located in Colombo city-commercial capital of
Sri Lanka. It was launched in December 2012. Within last five years, A. M. Pandithage, L. T.
Samarawickrama and other executive and non-executives conducted the business towards
success. As a result, the Kingsbury has been able to win local and international awards such as
Best City Hotel Sri Lanka, Best Large Hotel Sri Lanka, Best City Hotel Asia Pacific, Highly
Commended Classic/Heritage Hotel Sri Lanka for excellence in accommodation, fine dining and
service standards. (The Kingsbury plc., 2016)
The market segment is a group of consumers who have similar needs and spending ability.
(Vault, 2017) In the business world, marketing segments can be mainly categorised in to four
groups which are geographical, demographical, physiographical and behavioural. (Kotler,
Bowen & Makens, 2003)
Figure 1: categories of the market segments
Geographic Demographic Physiographic Behavioural
Based on
geographical location,
such as international,
national, regional.
Based on different
variables such as
age, gender, income,
race etc.
Based on social
class, lifestyle,
personality.
Based on occasions,
benefits, user status,
usage rate etc.
Source: Author’s work based on (Kotler, Bowen & Makens, 2003)
As a hotel, the Kingsbury consider the all the above four categories.
Geographic segmentation of the Kingsbury is the local and international businessmen who are
willing to stay in Colombo city and the customers who don’t like to go out of the Colombo city. In
the demographic segmentation, the Kingsbury is focused on the customers who pursue a luxury
lifestyle. Their target market segment is couples who are willing to immortalize their weddings
and to celebrate their special occasions such as wedding anniversaries. For them, the
Kingsbury has a special ballroom with the most romantic setting which called ‘Balmoral’. (Anon,
2012) Physiographic segmentation of the Kingsbury is the customers who need to set their
status high by having food in the five-star hotel. Potential and the existing customers are
included in the behavioural segmentation.

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Key critical success factors
For a hotel, the location is the most essential element to attract the customers. Kingsbury is
situated in a unique and wonderful location. It’s located on the banks of the Indian Ocean and
centred in the business and entertainment centres such as world trade centre, Central Bank,
shopping malls, clubs, pubs and famous restaurants. The view of the ocean is unique to them
because the customers can experience stunning ocean views from every room. (The Kingsbury
plc., 2016)
Sky lounge is another main facility which is distinctive to the Kingsbury. It has nice views of the
sea, Colombo port and the city of Colombo. Also, the customers can have a wonderful
experience of tropical sunsets. Most of the customers are attracted to Kingsbury because of the
sky lounge. For an example, the sky lounge was able to catch the hearts of the couples as it has
enabled them to spend an evening with the view of sunset this has made the sky lounge as a
romantic place. Also, it attracts the group of people who would like to have a chat while having
liquor. (The Kingsbury plc., 2016; Kinita, 2016)
Source: (The Kingsbury plc., 2016)

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Components of marketing mix (7Ps)
The marketing mix is a set of controllable marketing tools which is used to review and define
key issues of product and service marketing. Organisations have used the traditional 4Ps model
which is product, price, place and promotion in the product marketing, but in the service
marketing organisations have used additional three approaches which are people, physical
evidence and process to satisfy the needs of customers. (Ivy, 2008; Hanlon, 2017)
Products/Services: Kingsbury is not providing a pure product or a pure service which means
it’s a combination of product and service. For an example, it provides food as well as services
such as ballrooms, swimming pool, accommodations and bar. The hotel invested 1.8mn to
develop the service area and they maintain food safety standards to assure the safety of foods.
e.g. HACCP standard (The Kingsbury plc., 2016)
Prices: Closely monitor the trends and competitors’ activities and strategies in the industry.
Then change the prices and develop plans and promotions to get the competitive advantage.
(The Kingsbury plc., 2016)
Place (distribution): Service of the hotel cannot distribute. Customers should travel to the
hotel. The Kingsbury is using both direct and indirect methods such as online banner
advertisement through google ads, travel agents and online travel agents (Expeida,
booking.com, Agoda etc.) to attract potential customers to the hotel. (Anon, n.d.)
Promotion: Kingsbury does promotions through social media and their own website. They
maintain a very attractive website and they maintain their own Facebook page, Instagram page
and YouTube channel. (The Kingsbury, n.d.)
People: Kingsbury invested 1.8 million for training and development. They are mainly focused
on the areas of customer care and service, orientation and product knowledge, supervisory
skills training, technical training, etc. Yearly they distribute12891 training hours among the 3555
employees. Also, the hotel provides low rate loans for their employees. (The Kingsbury plc.,
2016)
Physical Evidence: Every employee is wearing a uniform differs from department to
department. e.g. front officers, receptionists and chiefs. It ensures that the employees who wear
the same uniform provide the same service. Also, the sky lounge is a physical evidence for the
Kingsbury.
Process: process for the hotel is the services which are supporting to its core service.
Kingsbury uses supporting services such as the bar, swimming pool, friendly staff, room
services etc.

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Future decisions on the marketing mix
Products/Services: The author is suggesting that the Kingsbury can come up with new food
and drinks that are unique to the hotel. From that, Kingsbury can attract people who like to enjoy
new food and beverages. Also, they can reserve a specific area for the couples with romantic
decoration and music.
Prices: Kingsbury can come up with a new pricing strategy that differs from the season to
season. For an example, they can set high prices for peak season and low prices for the off
season and a middle price for the shoulder season. Also, they can offer discounted prices for
weddings and honeymoon rooms.
Place (distribution): Kingsbury can personally send messages to their existing and potential
customers in regards their latest offers and facilities. Also, they can display, printed banners in
the main cities.
Promotion: Kingsbury can telecast new television commercials regarding their facilities and
offers. Also, they can start new official twitter page as well because most of the foreign people
are using twitter.
Physical Evidence: it is essential that the hotel figures out a way to clear its surrounding. The
customer reviews show that most of the customers are unsatisfied due to the constructions and
the dust and the loud noises that are coming from the constructions of the port city.
People: In order to make sure that their employees are accountable and attentive, Kingsbury
can use their audit software to keep in touch with their employees. They can inform their
employees in an absence or negligence of their work through a simple text message or through
an email.
Process: they can use their hotel databases and audit software’s to collect and centralizes data
from all locations in-real time, and presents the results in visual analytics that provide a clear picture
of performance which will help to smooth their operations.

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Perceptual map
Source: (booking.com)
According to the perceptual map, the Kingsbury has been able to get a high rank for the user’s
review, but their rates are in the middle of the map. Cinnamon lake, Galle face hotel, hotel
Ramada and hotel Galadari are the main competitors in the existing market. When the
Kingsbury grows up, Hilton and Taj Samudra will be their main competitors.

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Conclusion
Kingsbury is a one of the biggest hotels in the Colombo city. It is young but within last five years
its’ been able to give a good competition in the market. Their location and the unique factors
such as the sky lounge and view of the ocean had been assisted them to attract their
customers. Always they are trying to provide best quality and efficient service to their
customers. They have already developed facilities such as ‘Balmoral’ ballroom and sky lounge
to get the attraction of their target market. According to the perceptual map, the Kingsbury has
been able to get a high rank in the user review which is 8.4 out of 10.

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References
The Kingsbury plc. (2016) Annual Report 2015/ 16.
Vault, G. (2017) Target Market Segmentation in Travel and Hospitality. Available from:
https://www.thebalance.com/target-market-segmentation-in-travel-and-hospitality-2297028
[Accessed 21 April 2017].
Kotler, P., Bowen, J. & Makens, J. (2003) Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.
Anon (2012) Kingsbury To Redefine Colombo’s Hospitality Offering: Pandithage | The Sunday
Leader. Available from: http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/12/22/kingsbury-to-redefine-
colombos-hospitality-offering-pandithage/ [Accessed 21 April 2017].
Kinita (2016) Sky Lounge (Kingsbury). Available from: https://www.yamu.lk/place/sky-lounge-
kingsbury/review-78032#full [Accessed 22 April 2017].
Ivy, J. (2008) A new higher education marketing mix: the 7Ps for MBA marketing. International
Journal of Educational Management. 22 (4), pp. 288-299.
Hanlon, A. (2017) How to use the 7Ps Marketing Mix? - Smart Insights. Available from:
http://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/how-to-use-the-7ps-
marketing-mix/ [Accessed 23 April 2017].
The Kingsbury (n.d.) Available from: https://www.thekingsburyhotel.com/ [Accessed 20 April
2017].
Anon (n.d.) Marketing Mix - Hotels | Resorts | Restaurants. Available from:
http://setupmyhotel.com/train-my-hotel-staff/sales-and-marketing/285-marketing-mix.html
[Accessed 22 April 2017].