MGT201 Marketing Operations: Quality & Customer Service Strategies

This report analyzes how an event management company, Harridge Events, can deliver quality services using value proposition and customer service strategies. It identifies Harridge Events' target market, focusing on corporate clients, individuals, and families seeking professional meetings, weddings, and Christmas parties. The report details the company's value proposition, emphasizing unique ideas, location advantages, service quality, and price differentiation. Furthermore, it formulates service encounter strategies for various event types, including Christmas packages, professional meetings, incentive travel, conferences, and wedding packages, outlining specific steps to capture value and ensure client satisfaction. The report concludes that Harridge Events is committed to providing better services and establishing a strong presence in the international event management market. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running Head: MARKETING OPERATIONS 0
MARKETING OPERATIONS

MARKETING OPERATIONS 1
Executive Summary
This report outlines a question that how an event management company gives quality
services to their clients with the help of value proposition and customer service strategies. For
this purpose, Harridge Events is chosen as an event management company which was
established in 1983 under Harridge Groups. The company is specialised in many services
related to event like planning or corporate meetings, weddings, exhibitions and Christmas
packages.
The services of Harridge is also beings mapped out and respective strategies has been
formulated so that to capture value from them and maintain a long-term relation with the
clients.

MARKETING OPERATIONS 2
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Value Proposition.......................................................................................................................3
Service Encounter and Strategy Formulation............................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................8

MARKETING OPERATIONS 3
Introduction
Harridge Events is an event management company serving their clients expectations
from 35 years. It was established in 1983 under the Harridge Groups which also consists of
three business units including Harridge Business Travel and Harridge Luxury. The main
focus of the company is always on the quality aspects and so they always provide
personalised service to each project raised by clients. Each project of the company is value
for money and challenged to provide more creativity within the client budget. The company
also provides various levels of assistance for the events like marketing and promotion,
designing and branding, travel accommodations and gifting.
The target market consists of the corporate clients, individuals and families with
different requirements like creative and professionals meetings, conferences and exhibitions,
weddings, Christmas parties and honeymoons. The company can launch respective events
both in the UK and international countries. The expectations will also differ in each case of
service. For example, in professional meetings, the client will expect a peaceful boardroom
where all clients can relay their messages effectively and the venue should be spacious with
lots of light (Henderson, 2011). The expectations of their clients also lie in the competencies
and capabilities of the business like professionalism (working according to the contract and
client satisfaction), innovation (to serve the customer in an innovative way by optimum
utilization of the resources) and pricing of the service (effective packages for the non-
corporate clients).
Value Proposition
It is a promise of the value and benefit to be delivered to the customer or client from
the purchase of any respective product or service. A significant goal of value proposition is
also to convince the customer or client that he or she will get more benefits than he is being
asked to pay for (Barnes, Blake & Howard, 2017).
A strong value proposition builds trust in the client and customers and enables them to
set the deals with full confidence. Harridge Events provides unique value propositions with
high quality service and this makes the customer feel delighted. The company also plan in
advance for each benefit and features lies in the value proposition needed to be delivered to
the customer.

MARKETING OPERATIONS 4
 Unique and creative ideas – The Company always stands on unique and creative
ideas so that to satisfy clients taste. Every event of the Harridge is unique in terms of
design, ambience and services.
 Location – Harridge Events provides international services in the events planning
which leads to differentiation from the other event management company. The
company do provide service in London and in international world as per the clients’
requirements. The event is also differentiated in terms of a local place like an event in
golf resort or airport hotels.
 Service – This includes the supportive services to the event like better phone support,
airport transfers and free drinks (Gil-Gómez, Oltra-Badenes & Adarme-Jaimes, 2014).
Harridge Events also provides various supportive services in their events like
marketing and promotion, designing and branding, travel accommodations and
gifting. This generates a more positive value proposition.
 Price Differentiation – Generally, the requirement of every client are different and
sometimes is does not mean that the company need to race to the bottom as
sometimes it may require that you need to be 100% more expensive so that you can
provide 500% superior service with unique and exclusive content. That is why the
first priority of Harridge Events is to target luxury market.
The planning in this aspect of the value proposition is done by professionals managers
and designers who make focus on every single activity of the event management (Ashton
& Morton, 2005). These plans include getting of supplier database, venue database,
resource manuals and client database (Emery, 2010).
Service Encounter and Strategy Formulation
Harridge Events take care of every single element of any professional project given
by the clients. They also promise to their clients that they will get an unforgettable experience
after the accomplishment of the agreement. For each of their services, they provide a different
option as standards so that the client can be guaranteed for a better event.
The company promise to deliver 200+ delegates for the full settlement of the event so
that the client can be stress free from the activities of the events.

MARKETING OPERATIONS 5
 Christmas Packages – Harridge Christmas packages are designed with busy
professionals in mind (Berkshire, 2017). The client imagination can be feed
effectively and efficiently irrespective of their requirements.
 The effective strategy to capture value includes a planned process,
which starts with the setting of dates, as Christmas is a busy period.
 Next step will be the budget allocation to every element of the group
and some amount of money also need to be kept aside so as to backup
unexpected costs.
 Establishing the type of business party as it is also related to the budget
planning. It needs to decide that the event is a daytime or evening
event and bespoke or packaged Christmas party.
 In this step, there is a need to identify suitable venues within the
budgets. In addition, the theme of the event also needed to be
integrated with every element of the venue.
 For capturing positive value, other planning includes filling of bellies
(food), music entertainment, transport facilities organization and guest
invite checklist.
 Therefore, every activity will be put together a full itinerary and the
event management need to be done.
 Creative and Professional Meetings – Harridge Events have a long time
experience in organising simple corporate meetings of all kinds of businesses.
It does not create any differentiation for the company as for whether the
content or element of the meeting aimed at clients, team members or any
potential investors, their professional event management team are expertise in
handling all types of possible events effectively (Louhiala-Salminen &
Kankaanranta, 2011).
 The effective strategy to capture value includes a planned process,
which starts with the setting up of location by choosing beautiful space
with a lot of lights.
 The quality of food needs to be kept well and an unexpected speaker
also needs to be introduced.
 The company also needs to offer branded pens and stationary rather
those of the items provided in the venue itself.

MARKETING OPERATIONS 6
 There is a service of unlimited coffee to the guests and the
management of the event company also gather the prior information
about the dietaries of guests in advance so that the option of last
minute gluten free option will not come.
 Considering extra benefits, the company may offer unexpected ordered
wine with lunch rather than the beverages provided in the packages of
delegates (Nelson, Slavit, Perkins & Hathorn, 2008).
 Worldwide Incentive Travel and Teambuilding Specialist – Harridge
Events make promises to their clients about the fully planned event. They
provide many supportive services to the event under the required budget of
their clients.
 The effective strategy to capture value includes a planned process,
which starts with analysing the innovative ways to make the event
more fun and worthwhile.
 It also includes booking of all travel and transfers associated with the
event.
 Organization of daytime and evening activities related to the event and
also books all accommodations.
 Searching for the right suppliers to make your trip once in a lifetime.
 Finding local guides in the chosen city or destination and also provide
an on-site event consultant so that to oversee every special aspect of
the event.
 For capturing value with the help of future clients, the company can
make full report and review of the success of the event so that next
year of the company will be even more popular.
 Stress-free conferences and exhibitions – Harridge Events make promises to
their clients about the fully planned event. They provide many supportive
services to the event under the required budget of their clients.
 The effective strategy to capture value includes a planned process,
which starts with analysing the innovative ways to make the event
more fun and worthwhile.

MARKETING OPERATIONS 7
 It also includes booking of all travel and transfers associated with the
event.
 Organization of daytime and evening activities related to the event and
also books all accommodations.
 Searching for the right suppliers to make your trip once in a lifetime.
 Finding local guides in the chosen city or destination and also provide
an on-site event consultant so that to oversee every special aspect of
the event.
 For capturing value with the help of future clients, the company can
make full report and review of the success of the event so that next
year of the company will be even more popular and successful (Siu,
N., Wan, P. & Dong, 2012).
 Full Weddings Packages – In Harridge events, weddings are always a joyous
and memorable occasion and each couple has their own unique story to tell.
The wedding planner at Harridge events has a collection of experienced team
and they work with budgets from £40,000 to make the weeding unique and
imaginative.
 For capturing a positive value, they are specialised in on-site event
management with Mood boards and concept generation.
 They are also experienced in finding various services related to the
venue or supplier.
 As a part of their service, they can give their clients undivided
attention to building relationships as this helps in understanding their
exact requirements (Daniels, Lee & Cohen, 2012).
 For this purpose, they provide face to face consultation which can go
through all the ideas of the client.

MARKETING OPERATIONS 8
Conclusion
It has been evident from all the factual presentation of this report that Harridge events are a
committed and developing organization for defining a positive value proposition in the
business operations.
The visionaries of the company are much acknowledgeable about the organization that it will
provide better services to their customers and also establish an effective network of event
management business in the international market.

MARKETING OPERATIONS 9
References
Ashton, C., & Morton, L. (2005). Managing talent for competitive advantage: Taking a
systemic approach to talent management. Strategic HR review, 4(5), 28-31.
Barnes, C., Blake, H. & Howard, T. (2017). Selling Your Value Proposition: How to
Transform Your Business into a Selling Organization. United States: Kogan Page.
Berkshire. (2017). Shared Christmas Parties 2017. Retrieved from
https://www.harridgeevents.com/shared-christmas-parties-2017.
Daniels, M. J., Lee, S., & Cohen, T. (2012). The attributes influencing wedding reception
venue selection. Event Management, 16(3), 245-258.
Emery, P. (2010). Past, present, future major sport event management practice: The
practitioner perspective. Sport management review, 13(2), 158-170.
Gil-Gómez, H., Oltra-Badenes, R., & Adarme-Jaimes, W. (2014). Service quality
management based on the application of the ITIL standard. Dyna, 81(186), 51-56.
Henderson, S. (2011). The development of competitive advantage through sustainable event
management. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 3(3), 245-257.
Louhiala-Salminen, L., & Kankaanranta, A. (2011). Professional communication in a global
business context: The notion of global communicative competence. IEEE
Transactions on professional communication, 54(3), 244-262.
Nelson, T. H., Slavit, D., Perkins, M., & Hathorn, T. (2008). A culture of collaborative
inquiry: Learning to develop and support professional learning
communities. Teachers College Record, 110(6), 1269-1303.
Siu, N. Y. M., Wan, P. Y. K., & Dong, P. (2012). The impact of the servicescape on the
desire to stay in convention and exhibition centers: The case of Macao. International
Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(1), 236-246.