Adopting east asian cultures and themes in hotel branding a study of the m mandarin

Mandarin Justin Matthew Pang To cite this article: Justin Matthew Pang 2020: Adopting “East Asian” cultures and themes in hotel branding: a study of the M.. It has employed “East Asian-n

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Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research

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Adopting “East Asian” cultures and themes in hotel branding: a study of the M Mandarin

Justin Matthew Pang

To cite this article: Justin Matthew Pang (2020): Adopting “East Asian” cultures and themes

in hotel branding: a study of the M Mandarin, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, DOI: 10.1080/10941665.2020.1773881

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2020.1773881

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Adopting “East Asian” cultures and themes in hotel branding: a study of the M Mandarin

Justin Matthew Pang

School of Business and Management, RMIT University, Hanoi, Vietnam

ABSTRACT

The M Mandarin hotel has capitalised on a“East Asian” theme to differentiate itself in

the Singapore hotel scene It has employed “East Asian-ness” in its service-scape,

through its supporting product, facilitating product, information, implicit and

explicit services The hotel has also adopted induction processes by which staff are

orientated into its“East Asian” organisational culture This case-study allows readers

and students to assess to what extent an Asian hotel should exemplify its Asian

roots and traditions, that would be most beneficial to the establishment

KEYWORDS

Hotels; marketing; Asian-ness; East Asia; culture; Singapore; reconceptualise; values; hybrid; eclectic

Introduction

This case-study highlights a perennial issue that many

local Singapore-based hotels are faced with The issue

at hand would be the adoption of predominant“East

Asian” themes, for example, Chinese, Korean,

Japa-nese, etc., into its service-scape This adoption, in the

past, had granted many hotels to capitalise on their

Asian locations, by adapting its heritage, roots,

culture and thus differentiated themselves from their

Western counterpart hotels The definition of “East

Asian-ness” would be the greater tangibility in

hospi-tality characteristics, warmth and graciousness, as

compared to Western cultures (Wan & Chon, 2010)

Examples of such “East Asian-ness” are highlighted

in this case study However, many such hotels have

lessened their use of the “East Asian” theme in

recent years Hotels in developed cosmopolitan

Asian cities such as Singapore have seen many local

establishments, such as the Shangri-La and Mandarin

Oriental placing less emphasis on their origins,

taking on a quasi-western cum“East Asian” theme in

recent years

Therefore, this case-study presents a local

pseu-donymous hotel, M Mandarin which has leveraged

on its “East Asian” roots It has taken this cultural

aspect and infused it into all aspects of its product,

service offering and human capital However, in view

of the recent changes made by other hotels, it has begun to question whether it has taken this “East Asian” theme to the extreme

Statement of teaching objectives

This case-study invites readers and students alike to review the M Mandarin hotel’s adoption of its “East Asia” theme and to validate whether they should maintain their current position as a “unique,

diver-sified East Asian” themed hotel or to conform with similar competitor hotels and offer a hybrid concept

By analysing this case-study, students will be able to:

1 discuss the importance of thematic marketing to target markets,

2 apply various degrees of cultural and heritage adoptions to accentuate distinctiveness and uniqueness in hospitality and tourism products,

3 apply different philosophies of eastern and/or western styled management vis-à-vis to the guest target market,

4 critique the importance of the service-scape of a hotel vis-à-vis the guest residential experience, and

5 evaluate an establishment’s holistic marketing

effort vis-à-vis the guest selection and acceptance

of the product

© 2020 Asia Pacific Tourism Association

CONTACT Justin Matthew Pang justin.pang@rmit.edu.vn RMIT University, 521 Kim Ma, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Vietnam

https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2020.1773881

Students who will best benefit from this case-study

are the ones in their sophomore year with an

under-standing of marketing, tourism and/or heritage

culture This case-study would best be utilised in

modules that has an Asian cultural curriculum slant

in its teaching of hospitality marketing and

manage-ment It would also allow readers and students to

apply the use of heritage and culture into any

hospital-ity and tourism establishments so that the learning

can be extrapolated

The M Mandarin and the dilemma of the

general manager

Matthias Ling was no stranger to the concepts of

mar-keting and general management-ship of hotels in the

Asian region The 53-year old veteran studied hotel

management in a Swiss hotel school and rose

through the ranks of the marketing departments of

several flagship Asian-based hotels, such as the

Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental, ANA hotel and the

Dusit-Thani hotel chains in the South-East Asia region

His experience and ability to understand and infuse

culture into an establishment’s marketing and

oper-ations have placed him as the choice candidate to

take on the stewardship of the M Mandarin Currently,

Matthias has held the role of the General Manager of

the property for the last 2 years

During Matthias’ tenure, the M Mandarin has

con-tinued to maintain its good standing among the

hotels in the Marina Square Bay Front area The

hotel’s 575 guest rooms, 3 restaurants, a bar-lounge

and over 20,000 square feet of meeting space,

com-prising of 2 ballrooms and several function rooms

have always been a selling point for overseas and

local guests One of the unique features of the hotel

that has awed visitors is the airborne Asian flower

sculpture hung in the middle of its 21-storey atrium

Recently, Matthias was informed by the

M Mandarin Hotels Group’s Chief Executive Officer

(CEO) that the chain’s “East Asian” image could be

per-ceived as being too traditional and “old-fashioned,”

from the surveys they have conducted especially

among their younger clientele The CEO’s intention

is to revamp the entire chain of hotels to portray a

more modern theme and the M Mandarin hotel has

been chosen as the experimental pilot site for this

new concept, adapting its processes and the objecti

fi-cation of its hotel products and services to a hybrid

Western cum “East Asia” concept If successful, this

project would be rolled out for the rest of the hotels

within the chain While Matthias understood that this new concept could be the way forward for the

M Mandarin, he was uncertain whether this approach would dilute and erode the image, product and service that the hotel has consistently stood for On the other hand, he was also aware that many hotel chains have continued to personify a pseudo “East Asian” image, having done away with many “East Asian” practices and processes and chosen a Western-inclined concept and philosophy in manage-ment and operations Examples of such hotels having taken an eclectic approach in their theme and concept were the Shangri-La, Singapore and the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore Having worked in these hotels back in his formative years, Matthias recalled that these hotels originally adopted similar thematic prac-tices like the M Mandarin, but later de-emphasised their“East-Asian” themes, taking on a more western-styled approach and obtained global success in the process Matthias felt that the “East Asian” theme which the M Mandarin has so closely been associated with could have a detrimental effect on his hotel’s future success and perhaps it would be a good oppor-tunity for a change of its product, service and manage-ment offering so as to foster both Asian values and modernity to create a new successful hybrid product

Thefive dimensions of a hotel product

Gathering his Executive Team, comprising of the hotel’s heads of departments at their weekly meeting, Matthias invited them on board the project

of adopting an eclectic approach for the

M Mandarin hotel He shared with them pictures of the Shangri-La, Singapore and the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore on their adoption of themes that were con-sidered less“East Asian” and more western-inclined, as shown inFigures 1–8 The receptions and lobbies of the mentioned hotels were more contemporary and modern, which were accentuated by the use of natural and mood-lighting Guest rooms hardly fea-tured any Asian themes or aesthetics Toiletries in the guest rooms were supplied from commercial cor-porate brands, with minimal “East Asian” brandings and staff uniforms were generally influenced by Euro-pean dressing styles, emphasising typical western hotel form and function

After his sharing on these hotels, Matthias gave an overview of thefive dimensions of the hotel product, which has a direct impact on a guest’s choice of stay and his residential experience Thesefive dimensions

were the supporting facility, the facilitating products,

information from the establishment, the implicit

service and explicit service, all driven by the hotel’s

standards and practices.1 He defined each of these

dimensions and gave a clear description of each

aspect as detailed below

The supporting facility element comprised of the

tangible aspects of service, including features such as

the architecture, structure, furnishings of the hotel The facilitating product element referred to the ame-nities or items that would be consumed by the consu-mer in the process of extending this service The information element referred to the data that was col-lected by the establishment, so that the service pro-vided could be of a higher quality and to increase operational effectiveness and efficiency This infor-mation also included the messages that were conveyed

to the guest using signage, be it direct or through a subtle and indirect form Services were categorised into two distinct areas, that is explicit and implicit Expli-cit services were services that can be perceived by the guest These were usually attuned to his/her five senses Implicit services were the ones that are indirectly perceived by the guest, and these could be attributed to the environment (atmospherics) or aesthetics and could have a psychological effect on a guest’s well-being.2

Matthias challenged his Executive Team to assess the hotel’s theme of “East Asian-ness” based on the five dimensions of the hotel product in the weeks to come He hoped that by analysing these dimensions within the scope of the M Mandarin product, the Executive Team would be able to evaluate their impact on their customers and bring about changes

in the hotel and other properties within the hotel group in the future

“East Asian-ness” in the M Mandarin’s product

After several weeks of compilation, categorisation and evaluation, Matthias was presented with the infor-mation on the hotel’s “East Asian-ness” theme based

on the five distinctive dimensions of its hotel product, as mentioned earlier These findings were highlighted below

Supporting facility

Firstly, in terms of the supporting facility dimension, the M Mandarin is decorated with distinctive tra-ditional Chinese furniture Chinese “long bed” sofas are used instead of contemporary sofas as highlighted

inFigure 9 The hotel also displays traditional Chinese art pieces to highlight the rich Chinese heritage of the hotel, as depicted inFigure 10 To ensure that guests are able to relate specifically to the Chinese element, two statues depicting revered ancient Chinese scho-lars, Li-Bai and Confucius have been placed at the main entrance of the lobby, as shown inFigures 11 and 12 Adding to the “East Asian-ness” feel, the

Figure 2 Reception of Mandarin Oriental, Singapore.

Figure 1 Lobby of Shangri-La, Singapore.

Figure 3 Shangri-La, Singapore Hotel Room.

hotel’s designers have ensured that Chinese arts forms

also subtly displayed not only on furnishings but

carved on the superstructure of the hotel.Figure 13

displayed Chinese motifs imprinted on the pillars of

the hotel

Symbol association also plays an important role in

the conveyance of ideas, belief, and actions.3People

who identify strongly with symbols usually manifest

these feelings in traits such as interest, values and

loyalty vis-à-vis to the symbol.4 In the case of the

M Mandarin, they have used two logos– a stylised

“M” and a Chinese scholar’s hat as depicted inFigure

14 This former symbol resonates with “East

Asian-ness” like an Oriental motif Moreover, the rounded

symbol looks like a traditional Chinese seal of

auth-ority used by Chinese scholars and traditional imperial

ministers The latter symbol resembling a Chinese

scholar’s hat denotes “East Asian-ness” and translates

the value of merit (or worthiness of the hotel) The

parent company of the hotel, whose name is stylised

by the alphabet“M” is derived from the word “Merit.”

The orchid is Singapore’s national flower and in Chinese culture, it symbolises nobility and integrity Leveraging on the symbolism, the M Mandarin dis-plays an airborne static sculpture of an orchid, aptly named “Orchidia.” This art-piece further denotes an

“East Asian” feel as the orchid is a flower that is highly revered in the East Moreover, this sculpture

“successfully blends Asian service with a dramatic international design.”5 The suspended sculpture is shown onFigure 15

The uniform worn by the staff is also differentiated from most conventional hotels Most hotels adopt western business uniforms for their staff However, in the case of the M Mandarin, the hotel has adopted the Chinese “cheongsam,” as depicted in Figure 16 This garment enables“the iconic M Mandarin ambas-sador cuts a graceful silhouette in her red cheongsam,

as the embodiment of the revered tradition of Asian hospitality.”6 Other variants are also used for other departments of the hotel as shown in Figure 17 In consistence with their female service counterpart and the“East Asian” feel, male front line staff wear a male “sam-foo,” a gentleman’s outfit worn in tra-ditional China, as depicted inFigure 18

Figure 4 Mandarin Oriental, Singapore Hotel Room.

Figure 5 Toiletries of Shangri-La, Singapore.

Figure 6 Toiletries of Mandarin Oriental, Singapore.

Figure 7 Sta ff uniform of Shangri-La, Singapore.

It has been noted that most guests spend up to

80 percent of their time at the hotel in their

rooms.7 Therefore, the rooms need to be equipped

with the necessary products that will convey a

sense of “East Asian-ness” as well In the rooms,

bed sheets and bed runners are adorned with

Asian symbols, depicted in Figure 19 Furnishings

also have Chinese carvings and paintings are

placed in the rooms to accentuate the “East Asian”

feel, as shown in Figure 20 Furthermore, as the

hotel is situated in an Asian country, guests’

welcome fruits are tropical Asian fruits, such as

ram-butans and mangosteens The hotel even provides

pictorial classifications highlighting the different

cat-egories of the fruits and their places of origins within

Asia Lastly, as welcome gifts for the visiting

digni-taries, the hotel endeavours to retain its oriental

feel, by giving Chinese chopsticks, tins of Chinese

tea or compact disc of Chinese music pieces,

unlike western hotels that present more generic

gifts such as standard pens and stationery

Facilitating products

The facilitating products are items that are used and consumed in the production of the service These are often referred to as amenities There are many amenities which support the M Mandarin in its 5-star service; however certain facilitating products accentuate its“East Asian-ness.” Examples of such pro-ducts would be its range of toiletries as depicted in Figure 21 These products employ the use of the

M Mandarin symbol on its packaging Moreover,

Figure 8 Sta ff uniform of Mandarin Oriental, Singapore.

Figure 9 Long bed.

Figure 10 Lobby paintings.

Figure 11 Li Bai sculpture.

these products are obtained from China, so that it is

aligned to its core offering Washing products, such

as shower gels and soaps highlight aromas associated

with Chinese culture, such as lotus flowers and

bamboo

Asia is known for its plethora of food offerings and each region within Asia is often recognised by its specific and unique food-types.8 Using this concept, the M Mandarin sells “Asian-ness” through its food

offerings Breakfast, unlike western hotels includes a line-up of“East Asian” Chinese food, such as Chinese

“siew-mai” (meat dumplings) and congee The hotel has even created its own cocktail, known as the

“Oriental Warmth.” The hotel also highlights its Haina-nese Chicken Rice dish as a form of this of“East Asian-ness.” This dish has traditional links to Hainan Island,

off the southern coast of China, and is synonymous with Singapore’s Chinese ethnic food culture

Information

As for the third element of service, information, the

M Mandarin predominantly sells itself as an “East Asian” hospitality establishment Information refers

Figure 12 Confucius sculpture.

Figure 13 Superstructure Asian motif.

Figure 14 Symbols.

Figure 15 “Orchidia” sculpture.

to the message and image that is conveyed to the

guest Moreover, information can be separated into

explicit and tacit information.9Explicit information is

information that is articulated, codified and stored in

media This form of information can be easily

commu-nicated Tacit information, on the other hand, is harder

to communicate For the explicit form of information, the M Mandarin uses signs in multiple languages to depict its “Asian-ness,” as highlighted in Figure 22 The hotel business cards are also printed using Man-darin on one side, and in English characters on the other English and Mandarin collateral, such as bro-chures, are used in the selling of the hotel In terms

of its alliances and affiliations, the M Mandarin used

to be part of the now-defunct Asian Hotel Alliance The Asian Hotel Alliance used to consist offive Asian

Figure 16 Main (female) uniform.

Figure 17 Variant (female) uniform.

Figure 18 Main (male) uniform.

Figure 19 Bed-runner.

chains, which are Dusit Hotels and Resorts, Landis

Hotels and Resorts, Marco Polo Hotels, New Otani

Hotels Group and M Mandarin Hotels, had more

than with more than 50 properties under its umbrella

These chains supported each other in term of

reser-vations referral till its merger with Global Hotel

Alli-ance in 2006 M Mandarin was a founding member

in the alliance since its inception in 2002, when it

decided to associate itself with the group to espouse

a shared philosophy of “East Asian” hospitality

service In terms of tacit information, the hotel

implicitly uses softer “touches” to sell its Asian

values This can be seen in the hotel’s corporate

website design The touch of“Asian-ness” is consistent

throughout the construct of the website and it has the

option of changing the web-hosting language, from

English to other Asian languages, such as traditional

Mandarin, simplified Mandarin, Japanese etc

Explicit service

The service element can be divided into explicit and implicit aspects.10These respects of service are also known as tangibility and intangibility respectively Tangibility refers to the services being physically experienced by the guest through the five senses, hence explicit; whereas intangibility or implicit would be that where services are not“felt” in a phys-ical sense.11 An explicit service element which is

offered by the M Mandarin, would be that of the serving of welcome tea This “East Asian” practice is

a unique ritual that is given to visiting dignitaries The customer is presented with a cup of welcome tea, unlike in conventional hotels where a fruit punch or a cocktail is served instead Tea-originated from Yunnan, China12 – is regarded as a Chinese national drink under the rule of Emperor Qin-Shi-Huang-Di, circa 221–210 BC

Another Asian practice that is uniquely carried out

in the M Mandarin would be that of their telephone greetings Unlike conventional hotels, the hotel employs Chinese greetings Opening phrases such as

“Good morning” are always said in Mandarin, prior

to using English as a form of communication medium

Implicit service

For implicit service, the M Mandarin employs subtle ambience techniques to bring about an inclined-Asian feel One of the methods used is that of its smell Chinese furnishings have always been associ-ated with rosewood and teak scents As such, the hotel has contracted scent experts to create a rose-wood fragrance This fragrance is pumped into their air-vents to further create an Asian atmosphere throughout the establishment

Figure 20 Decorative Chinese plates in the rooms.

Figure 21 Toiletries.

Figure 22 Signages.

Music is also an important aspect in the creation of

ambience During the weekends, the hotel employs a

Chinese string quartet to play the“erhu” (two-stringed

spikefiddle) to create a Chinese environment, similar to

the ancient Oriental Imperial courts

One of the unique implicit services that are used

would be that of the employment of Chinese

song-birds, as shown in Figure 23 These songbirds are

placed around lobby during the day The birds’

singing and chirping adds an“East Asian-feel” to the

environment

Therefore, from the above practices, rituals and

symbols, it can be observed that the M Mandarin

strongly attempts to create an all-rounded approach

to creating an atmosphere where guests will be able

to better appreciate the graciousness and warmth of

“East Asian” hospitality

An“East Asian-ness” orientation among the

staff

While thefive dimensions of the hotel product

exem-plifies the core theme of the hotel, Matthias was also

aware the staff training and orientation are important

in accentuating the “East Asian” concept to guests

Therefore, for the M Mandarin to espouse Asian

con-cepts and values to their staff, new employees are

put through an“East Asian-ness” induction programme

as part of their orientation This programme entails

using philosophy books on Asian values, as part of

the training These books depict training and service

scenarios, with an“East Asian” slant The books come

in bilingual Chinese format, where new staff are able

to learn better with the direct translation of the

Chinese words used During orientation programmes,

staff are introduced to the hotel’s core values detailed

in its mission statement, vision and values that are aligned to “Asian-ness.” A copy of this credo, as shown inFigure 24, is given to the staff in the form of

a pocket-card, stating these values Moreover, during the induction programme over a period of six months, they will be taught basic mandarin words on how to properly greet guests Furthermore, as part of

a continuous effort to increase their oriental approach, both English and Mandarin language classes are made available to staff to upgrade their linguistic abilities

Understanding Eastern and Western philosophies in hospitality management and operations

With the completion of the assessment, Matthias wanted his Executive Team to understand how culture not only affected the product and service of the hotel but also the management styles, so that this team could execute the revamp Given his western education and experience working at both international hotel chains and destinations, Matthias highlighted to his staff the differences in Western and Eastern styles of hotel management, so that they could infuse the best practices of each philos-ophy into the revamped M Mandarin, giving it the right organisational capabilities and management which would bring about future financial success (Lam et al.,2015)

Western philosophies in hospitality management and operations

Matthias highlighted that the western hospitality management was centred on developing quality and

Figure 23 Chinese songbirds Figure 24 Copy of employee values pocket card.