KMBA713: Strategic Marketing Plan for Brennia Resort, Maldives

This report presents a comprehensive strategic marketing plan for Brennia Resort, a 5-star resort in the Maldives. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, followed by a detailed marketing audit including external and internal analyses. The external audit examines market size, growth, and profitability, along with a PESTEL analysis, competition analysis, and marketing practices. The internal audit assesses the current offerings, competitive positioning, SWOT analysis, key success factors, and critical issues. The plan then outlines marketing objectives, strategies for segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and a proposed marketing mix including product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. Implementation and control measures, including a key milestone plan, indicative budget, and recommendations, are also provided. The report emphasizes the challenges and opportunities in the Maldives tourism market and offers insights into attracting international tourists and leveraging technology for marketing.

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Strategic Marketing Plan for Brennia

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Executive Summary
The strategic marketing plan is carried out for evaluating the external and internal market
situation of Brennia that operates as a 5 Star Resort based in Maldives. The external audit is
carried out to highlight on the macro and micro environmental situation of the resort company
with also evaluation of the competitors and the distribution and marketing methods that are being
undertaken by Brennia in the tourism market. Further, the internal audit is also carried out in the
report focusing on the brand and product/service positioning of Brennia with also the
introduction of the change to be divulged in the product platform. Further analysis is also carried
out regarding the stakeholders’ position to the brand and to the present nature of
product/services. The internal audit also focuses on carrying out a SWOT analysis with
identification of Key Success Factors and other critical issues that need to be administered. The
purpose of the plan is to thereby focus with designing effective marketing strategies and
designing 7Ps strategy for designing of the ‘InNature’ brand.
Maldives as a nation offers potential challenges owing to political unrest for the carrying out of
tourism activities and also owing to the entry of foreign hospitality firms in the region. Potential
opportunities are identified in terms of growth of international tourists and also the use of
technology for marketing and promoting of tourism plans and activities.
Effective recommendations are focused in terms of designing both online and offline surveys for
understanding consumer viewpoints and also designing of 360 degree performance appraisals.
Further, the design of loyalty schemes with also the implementation of the CCTV circuits inside
the resort and the nature theme park are also needed to be taken into account by Brennia’s
management.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................6
Overview of Brennia....................................................................................................................6
Mission Statement.......................................................................................................................6
Corporate Objectives...................................................................................................................6
Marketing Audit...............................................................................................................................7
External Audit..............................................................................................................................7
Market Analysis.......................................................................................................................7
Competition Analysis..............................................................................................................9
Marketing Practices Analysis................................................................................................12
Internal Audit.............................................................................................................................12
Current Offering....................................................................................................................12
Competitive Positioning........................................................................................................12
SWOT Analysis.....................................................................................................................13
Key Success Factors..............................................................................................................13
Critical Issues.........................................................................................................................14
Marketing Objectives.....................................................................................................................14
Marketing Strategies......................................................................................................................16
Segmentation Strategy...............................................................................................................16
Targeting Strategy.....................................................................................................................18

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Positioning Strategy...................................................................................................................21
Marketing Mix Proposal................................................................................................................22
Product.......................................................................................................................................22
Price...........................................................................................................................................23
Place...........................................................................................................................................23
Promotion..................................................................................................................................24
People........................................................................................................................................25
Process.......................................................................................................................................25
Physical Evidence......................................................................................................................26
Implementation and Control..........................................................................................................26
Key Milestone Plan....................................................................................................................26
Indicative Budget.......................................................................................................................28
Measurement and Control..........................................................................................................29
Key Recommendations..................................................................................................................29
References......................................................................................................................................31
Appendices....................................................................................................................................35
Appendix 1: Brennia..................................................................................................................35
Appendix 2: The Nautilus..........................................................................................................36
Appendix 3: The Kandima.........................................................................................................37

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Introduction
Overview of Brennia
Brennia is designed as a 5 Star Resort designed by a Maldives based entrepreneur. The resort is
designed to actively compete with other global resort firms that are intending to expand over to
the Maldives region. Brennia focuses on gaining consumers from different international regions
like China, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. The resort management aims in
attracting customers based on the presentation of diverse offerings and thereby to compete with
regional and foreign resort firms (Brennia, 2019). The image of Brennia Resort is reflected in
Appendix 1.
Mission Statement
Brennia Maldives focuses on becoming the most demanded resort in Maldives amongst other
hotels and resorts and also aims to be recommended by tourists for its unique and personalised
services and packages. Further, the management of Brennia also focuses on both creating and
enhancing the value for its different stakeholders like owners, staffs and investors. The
management also aims in generating and sustaining an environment of trust and loyalty inside
the organisation and in encouraging a sense of team work and empathy (Brennia, 2019).
Corporate Objectives
-To focus on enhancing the productivity of the resort staffs and making them responsive in
nature in that the same helps in enhancing the level of customer satisfaction.

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-To focus on the generation of increased awareness about the resort brand and the facilities and
services rendered to target customers both along national and international sphere.
-To focus on driving business profits and revenue margins and augmenting the level of market
share in the hospitality market of Maldives.
-To focus on generating services and packages in a differentiated and customised fashion and in
promoting growth based on responding to market opportunities both along the regional and
international sector.
Marketing Audit
External Audit
Market Analysis
Market Size and Growth and Profitability
Tourism market in Maldives recorded a growth by around 9 percent during 2017 to reach a value
of $2.7 billion. During 2016, tourism contributed to around 22.7 percent to the GDP of Maldives
(Maldives Insider , 2018).
Geographic Market Concentration
Maldives is comprised of 1190 coral islands grouped under 19 atolls that comprise a total area of
90,000 square kilometres (Maldives Tourism, 2018).

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PESTEL Analysis
Political Factors
The imposition of emergency by Abdulla Yemen, the President of Maldives in terms of refusing
the order given by Supreme Court regarding freeing of opposition leaders has created political
unrest in Maldives. The event potentially affected the tourism industry in the region leading to
around 40 percent cancellations of hotel rooms on an average daily basis (Financial Tribune ,
2018).
Economic Factors
Maldives reflects a robust economic position in terms of a per-capita based GDP of around
$11,151 during 2017. The sectors like fishing, construction, transport and communications and
also tourism contributed in enhancing the growth of real GDP by around 6.3 percent during a
five year term. During the initial quarters of the 2018 period the economic growth was recorded
to be around 9.1 percent in which tourism contributed around 2.2 percentage points (The World
Bank , 2019).
Social Factors
The Maldivians are known in the international landscape as hospitable people that entertain the
flow of guests and tourists in their country. The total population of Maldives recorded as on 2017
amounts to around 341,256 out of which 60,000 people are identified as foreigners. The
Maldivian people are observed to share the same type of cultural, historical and religious lineage
that accounts for growth of harmony and unity amongst them (Maldives , 2017).

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Technological Factors
The management of the hotels and the resorts based in Maldives increasingly focus on the use of
social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram amongst others in promoting
their offerings to a wider audience in the international market (Jalaluddin et al., 2017). The social
media activities are carried out with a focus on generating customer engagement through the
generation of a maximum of four posts involving the right quality and quantity of contents in a
timely and informative fashion. Further, along with the production of videos along platforms like
YouTube and Facebook the hotel and resort management also focus on the use of Artificial
Intelligence in the form of Chatbots to drive customer engagement (Semeraro, 2018).
Environmental Factors
The government of Maldives is focusing on the growth of ecotourism in the region through the
promotion of eco-friendly hotels and resorts. The eco-friendly tourist accommodations are built
in such fashion that they are self sustained regarding generation of electricity and water and
thereby attract large number of regional and international tourists (Domroes, 1985). Money
obtained from tourist reservations in these hotels are used for the sustenance and development of
wildlife and other natural habitats in the region. A plethora of adventure games like scuba diving,
swimming, fishing and also surfing are organised in the region for attracting tourists to
sustainable tourism avenues (Maafushi Maldives, 2019).
Legal Factors
In a recent move, the former President of Maldives, Abdulla Yemen Abdul Gayoom was arrested
by the police along with two other cabinet ministers for money laundering issues of about $1
million that was to be employed for the development of public islands in the region (Steinmetz,
2019).

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Competition Analysis
Major Competitors
The major competitors of Brennia in Maldives are Nautilus Maldives and Kandima. The resorts,
Nautilus and Kandima are reflected in Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 respectively.
Key Strategic Groups
The key strategic groups in the hospitality industry in Maldives essentially encompass the hotels
and resort companies along with the tour and travel operators. The key strategies of the
constituent partners relate to the production of 360 degree, virtual and also 3D videos that would
help the target audience gain an actual feel of the attractions and other services provided by the
hotels and resorts. The members of the strategic group also focus on the development of apps for
Smartphones that would enable booking and reservations to be carried out in a convenient
fashion. Influential marketing in the form of content creation reflecting the culture and history of
Maldives and other tourist attractions along with involvement of celebrities and storytelling
activities are also focused on being undertaken for attracting tourists (Manik, 2018).
Porter’s Five Forces
Buyer Power
The consumer power in the tourism industry of Maldives is considerably great owing to the
employment of websites and other social networking platforms for promoting the tourism
services and in rendering needed awareness regarding the tourism services rendered by the hotels
and resorts to the larger audiences. Consumers focus on using the websites for viewing, sorting,
selecting and also comparing between the different types of available services and the pricing

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options before deciding on booking of reservations regarding hotel rooms and other added
services.
Supplier Power
The travel agents and operators tend to command a principal position regarding supplying of
potential tourists to Maldives. The hotels and resorts operating in Maldives are thereby required
to get associated with international travel agents operating in the region such that the same would
help them gain an effective flow of tourists around the year (Maldives.com, 2019).
Threat of Substitutes
Mabul located near Borneo acts as a potential substitute to Maldives in that it serves as a cost
effective option for tourists compared to that of the Maldives based resorts. It was estimated that
a stay in one of the luxury resorts in Mabul tends to cost at around $300 inclusive of meals
compared to a starting price of around $500 in the overwater hotels and resorts based in
Maldives. The tourists are encouraged to enjoy attractions like starfish gazing and deepwater
diving in Mabul (Kocharekar, 2017).
Threat of New Entrants
The tourism potential of the Maldives region faces threats owing to the government’s intention
of selling around 19 coral islands to a Saudi tourism developing group for around $10 billion.
The move taken by the government is protested by the opposition party reflecting the same as
that which encourages the growth of colonialism in the region (Cooke, 2017).
Competitive Rivalry
The level of competitive rivalry in the tourism sector of Maldives is quite high owing to the
growth of large numbers of hotels and resorts and also owing to the entry of large scale

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international luxury hotel brands in the region. Promotion of Maldives based on the use of social
media has accounted for populating around 200 islands of total 1200 by 2017 (Lawson, 2018).
Porter’s Sixth Force
The sixth force that influences the competitive advantage of a firm and the related industry
concerns the availability of complementors. The complementors are identified to be firms that
sell such products and services that contribute in enhancing the value of the customer offerings
made by the principal organisation or industry. The complementors to hotels and resorts in
Maldives contribute in supplying materials like pillow and linen, stationary items, glasses,
candles and other electronic gadgets for servicing the needs of customers. Other complementors
service consumer needs based on supplying alcohol and beverage products and other raw food
supplies (Vellas, 2016).
Marketing Practices Analysis
Main Distribution Methods
Brennia in Maldives focuses on integrating its website and other online travel agents or OTAs
for carrying out bookings and reservations of its accommodations and attractions (Brennia,
2019).
Commonly used Marketing Methods
Digital marketing tools like the development of an attractive website and also a social
networking medium, Facebook are employed by Brennia for interacting and communicating with
the target customers about its diverse offerings.