Marketing strategy for culinary art course of citysmart hotel management company

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to Citysmart Hotel Management forenabling me to complete this report on “Marketing Strategy for Culinary Art course ofCitysmart Hote

This internship was successful due to the cooperation and support coming from anumber of people, by which have allowed me to gain much more than what the educationalaspect of the program could have offered

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to Citysmart Hotel Management forenabling me to complete this report on “Marketing Strategy for Culinary Art course ofCitysmart Hotel Management Company”

I wish to acknowledge my company supervisor, Ms Shania Bui, the manager ofMarketing Department and the entire Marketing team for enthusiastically sharing with metheir experiences I am grateful to them for all of the support and guidance that they haveprovided me throughout the entire internship

I also wish to extend my gratitude toward my academic supervisors, Mr NguyenHoang, Mr La Tien Dung, and Prof Corinne Montoya, for assisting me with tremendousopportunities and necessary resources required during the internship

Lastly, I would like to give my warmest thanks to all who helped me in anyway during

my internship

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1

SUMMARY 2

I COMPANY BACKGROUND 4

II COMPANY LOGO 4

III COMPANY INTRODUCTION 4

1 Business Type 4

2 Company Mission 4

3 Company Vision 5

4 Human Resources 5

5 Company Products 5

6 Company goals and strategies 7

IV COMPANY ANALYSIS 9

V SWOT ANALYSIS 14

1 Strengths 14

2 Weaknesses 14

3 Opportunities 14

4 Threats 14

VI DESCRIPTION OF THE TASKS GIVEN DURING THE PERIOD OF THE INTERNSHIP 17

1 Market segment 17

2 Market research 20

3 Direct marketing 22

4 Event marketing 23

VII SOME RECOMMENDATION OF SOLUTIONS TO INCREASE MARKETING OF CHM COMPANY 30

1 New type of content on social media solution 30

2 Human Resources solution 32

3 Compensation and benefits 33

4 Infrastructure and technology solutions 33

VIII EVALUATION ON THE REPORT 34

1 Achievements of the reports 34

2 Difficulties encountered on the process of completing the internship 34

3 Experience gained during the period of internship and solutions to overcome difficulties 35

CONCLUSION 36

I COMPANY BACKGROUND

Citysmart Hotel Management (CHM) Company

Business name Citysmart Education Company

II COMPANY LOGO

III COMPANY INTRODUCTION

1 Business Type

Citysmart Hotel Management (CHM) is an international company under of theownership of Citysmart Group It was founded in 2012 by Thomas Chan, who is now theGeneral Director He is the owner of CitySmart Corporation, of which includes other systems:Study abroad consultant, Project Consultant, International Kindergarten, CHM InternationalSchool CitySmart Group has more than 15 years of operation in Vietnam

2 Company Mission

CHM provides an elite educational experience that offers internationally recognized qualifications, combining with theoretical and practical training career-focusing programs.They prepare our students with the necessary skills to become future leaders within the aspect

of global Hospitality and Culinary Arts Industry CHM’s mission is to increase the quality ofhuman resources, and to supply graduates, who already possess the required skills, withopportunities to FasTrack their hospitality careers

3 Company Vision

Their vision is to become the leader in hospitality education in Vietnam Their highlyqualified, experienced and dedicated team of lecturers, chefs, and supporting staffs arecommitted to ensure the success of all students Their superb facilities enable them to providethe highest-quality education in an environment that facilitates learning They have creatednot only the most hands-on educational experience in Vietnam, but through our talented anddedicated staffs, a tight-knit community has been widely facilitated which is determined tosupport students as they reach their highest potential

4 Human Resources

Currently, the company has nearly 40 employees, the average age is from 21 to 40 years old

- General Director: operates and manages all activities of the company

- General Manager: obtains profit contribution by managing staff; establishes andaccomplishes business objectives

- The company has 6 departments:

1 Human Resources: evaluates, coordinates, and recruits employees in the company

2 Sales and Marketing Department: manages sales and marketing

3 Accounting: oversees the company's facilities, provides capital for production,calculates the company's finances and pays salaries to all employees

4 Technology: administers information technology, engineering and design models,and production process proposal

5 Lecturer: teaches and guides in Hospitality Management and Culinary Art’s students

6 Student Services: supports students

5 Company Products

CHM has only two main products which are known as “Hospitality Management” and

“Culinary Art” courses Both have short-term courses and long-term courses from 6 months to2,5 years

• Provide certificate for the completion of the course

• Help students to develop practical skills for future career

• Create opportunities to students to work and develop in the hotel major,

or to study further to have honor degree on Hotel Management or other related majors

• Create opportunities for students to develop skills, techniques, and personal features necessary for the career

• Help students to understand about the background of hotel services in both local and global areas; while provide students with a permanent view on the global development in the international career path

• Help students to achieve certificate and degree globally-recognized after finishing the course

• Create career promotional opportunities relating to Hotel Management for the student, with the purpose of being internationally recognized

• Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in each specific sphere of career

• Provide opportunities for students to develop their career in Hotel Management, or continue to study to earn a master’s degree in Hotel Management or in any relevant field

• Students will earn knowledge and update contact information in order to ensure their chance of securing a career after graduation

• Understand about the differences in cultures and prepare for career in managing hotel services major

• Maximize studying potential of students by learning with case-study, consulting practical project, researching on business organizations related to recently-opened hotel services, and designing effective marketing strategies

CTH Level 2 Award in

Culinary Skills

• Provide students with necessary skills in professional cookery

• Enhance personal skills and increase chances of finding a job

• Support personal skills and increase chances of finding a job

CTH Level 3 Certificate

in Professional Cookery

• Provide students with necessary skills to work in professional cookery

• Develop cooking skills

• Enhance the ability to combine various skills to accomplish different dishes

• Develop the ability to assess the quality of any dish

• Develop time-management skills, food health and security, and personal hygiene as a professional cook must have

Pearson BTEC Level 4

and 5 Higher Nationals

in Culinary Arts

Management

• Provide interesting, engaging and challenging learning experiences in the course of Culinary Arts with specialized knowledge and practice experience

• Provide skills and knowledge about Culinary Arts to necessarily achieve good results in the environment of global restaurant and hotel services

• Give authority to students through topics about management, leadership, creativity and start-up to maximize the chance of a secured career

• Create opportunities to students to work and develop in the cookery major, or to study further to have honor degree in Culinary Arts or other related majors

• Create opportunities for students to develop skills, techniques, and personal features necessary for the career

• Help students to understand about the background of culinary arts in both local and global areas; while provide students with a permanent view on the global development in the international career path

• Help students to achieve certificate and degree globally-recognized after finishing the course

• Create career promotional opportunities relating to Culinary Arts for the student, with the purpose of being internationally recognized

6 Company goals and strategies

- Diversity the range of products, provides more course for customer to choose.

- Increases partner commitment to a common vision

IV COMPANY ANALYSIS

1 Market environment analysis

 Macro environment:

• Economic:

The economic situation has a great effect on the purchasing power and the shoppinghabit of people that invest on education The economic factors include: development rate,inflation, economic downturn, income, consumer price index, …

According to World Bank, over the past 25 years, Vietnam has enjoyed a strongeconomic growth with remarkable development records The economy of Vietnam continued

to strengthen in 2016, with an estimated GDP growth rate of 6.7 percent Vietnam’s economicactivity moderated in the first half of 2016, with GDP expanding by 5.5 percent, compared to6.3 percent over the same period in 2016 This slow-down is considered as a result of servedrought-affecting agricultural production and slower industrial growth Vietnam has alsoposted its international economic integration as it has signed a number of free tradeagreements, including with the Eurasian Economic Union, the European Union, South Korea,and the Trans-Pacific Partnership While global integration has advanced well with Vietnamembedding itself in global value chains, the benefits are constrained by the absence oflinkages with domestic firms

The income of Vietnamese people is also increasing, with the largest group has theincrease up to $500-$1000/month Besides, the total house hold consumption rate ofVietnamese are considers the highest in the South East Asia for about 70% per month

• Ecological:

Vietnam is highly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, posing significantrisk to develop gains and further progress Already, Vietnam is experiencing risingtemperatures and sea levels, stronger storms, floods, and droughts

• Social:

Human factors play an important role in the market They include: genders, population,density, ethnics, religions, careers, education standards, etc The Vietnamese population isbetter educated and today has a higher life expectancy than most countries with similar percapita income However, the poverty agenda still vulnerable, living close to the poverty line(one third of population - equivalent to about 30 million people - fall into the ‘poor’ or ‘nearpoor’’ groups) The poor and extreme poor are concentrated among ethnic minority groups.While representing only 15 percent of the population, half of the nation’s poor belong toethnic minorities Furthermore, these groups are highly vulnerable to shocks from climatechange, natural disasters, as weak as economic and health shocks

According to a draft national urban development program-me proposed by the Ministry

of Construction, Vietnam is expected to achieve an urbanization rate of 38% with 870 urbanareas by 2016 This is expected to increase to 45% with nearly 940 areas by 2020

• Political:

This factor consists of the policies, regulation, and the procedure of the Government.Vietnam is one of those countries with stable political foundation This is considered as anadvantage for the domestic companies, since they can attract many foreign investors to themarket In addition to that, the Government of Vietnam has showed determination forreforms Vietnam’s 2011 - 2020 Socio-Economic Development Strategy (SEDS) givesattention to structural reforms, environment sustainability, social equity and emerging issues

of macroeconomic stability

Despite of the control over retailing, this sector has now been more liberalized under theconditions of Vietnam’s membership under WTO law and other trade agreements.Nevertheless, any given change in the regulation and policies of the government with regard

to the retail sector will bring both opportunities and challenges to retailers Here are a fewexamples of some policies Vietnam has participated in that related to retailing

Other regional Free Trade Agreement (FTAs):

Vietnam has participated in a number of FTAs such as the ASEAN - China Free TradeAgreement, ASEAN - Korea Free Trade Agreement, ASEAN - Japan ComprehensiveEconomic Partners, ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, and Vietnam -Japan Economic Partner Agreement, which may impact the Vietnam retail market due to tariffcommitments For example, when companies are allowed to take advantages of lower or zerotariff rates, this arrangement allows companies to manufacture goods in Vietnam and toexport them to neighboring countries where manufacturing cost would have been higher

• Technological:

Long gone are the days when Vietnam was an underdeveloped country with limitedaccess to Internet and little technology developments The technology of Vietnam has beengrowing especially fast lately and has shown sign of stopping

In 2016, the Internet users of Vietnam are estimated at about 36,140,967, which is 39%ahead of Thailand and just behind China Vietnamese are spending far more than ever before

on entertainment, high-tech consumer goods, and health and beauty products, also education.These trends, among others, follow the major societal and economic transformations that havetaken place in Vietnam in the last 10 years

• Population:

The Vietnamese population of approximately 90 million is the main driver of growth inthe retail market 70% of the population is currently aged between 15 and 64 years, and this isprojected to continue to increase This will spur the demand for greater choice in products,brands, and product categories

Younger population will also provide more opportunities for the retail sector becauseyoung people tend to spend more money on education as they care very much about career-choice developments

a Micro environment:

• Company and customer:

The main customer of CHM is the population that lives in the North and South ofVietnam Mainly, those, mostly students and adults, who have great passions with Hospitalityand Culinary Arts And now, the number of customers in this group has been increasingdrastically

According to the research of CHM’s Marketing Department as I have collected, wehave the customer structure of CHM as:

+ 55% customers with high income (> 20,000,000 VND/month)

+ 28% customers with stable income (10,000,000 VND/month - 20,000,000VND/month)

+ 17% customers with middle income (< 10,000,000 VND/month)

The target customer of CHM is concerned about course quality, fee, duration, jobopportunities after graduation The Vietnamese consumer is prudent, preferring to save ratherspend However, in education, parents are willing to pay a lot of money for children to go toschool In recent years, more and more international schools have been operating such as Vinschool, TH school, RMIT… The total expenditure on Vietnamese education accounts for 47%

of total household expenditures It can be said that the Vietnamese spend money almostlimitless on education because many Vietnamese people believe that education is the key tohelp them and their families to solve the difficulties of the economy

Vietnamese parents, especially old generations, still prefer to invest for their children tostudy in traditional university in Vietnam However, with the increasing incomes and livingstandards, they have become more concerned about the school which can provide modernfacilities, adequate teaching and learning facilities, quality teachers at the request ofinternational organizations provide educational programs and above all the knowledge, skills

as well as output qualification

• Partner:

The rapid development of the global hospitality industry has led to the growing demandfor professional hotels and tourism managements In order to be guaranteed with a good jobright after graduation, students studying at CHM are not only equipped with theoretical andpractical knowledge at the school, but also received paid internship at the hotel system, both

in internationally and domestically As a result, it is not only easy for students to get a jobright where they are from, but also to receive many invitations from other major hotels CHM

is constantly developing its network of career partners to provide the best job opportunitiesfor all of our students

Partnership:

• Competitors:

In recent years, the hospitality industry is growing at a fast pace and offers many careeropportunities The foreign investors investing in Vietnam's tourism industry has developedrapidly in the past decade and has the potential and prospects to go further In line with thegrowth of the tourism industry, operators in the hospitality industry, including travel industry,hotel restaurants, catering services, are recruiting youngster resources Hence, a lot ofvocational schools are established Hereunder are a few notable competitors with CHM:

Huong nghiep A Au: is a vocational school and established

in 2011 They have 12 branches and school in nationwide fromNorthern to Southern of Vietnam They have Hospitality such asFront Office course, Food and Beverage course andhousekeeping course and Culinary Arts such as Asian course,Baking course, European course, Bartender course and manyshort term and long-term course suits students

Nestspace: is a vocational school and established in 2010.

They have 7 branches in many big cities in Vietnam such as HoChi Minh, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Hanoi… Netspace only hasculinary art training course with many diversity cuisine such as:European cuisine, Vietnamese cuisine, Chinese cuisine,Japanese cuisine, Vegetarian cuisine, Baking course, Bartendercourse…

Pegasus: is an International College which established in

2011, as a part of Kinder World Education Group They onlyhave 2 campus in Hanoi and Danang Pegasus provides 2 maincourse is hospitality management and culinary arts They onlyhave short term course under 6 months

- CHM has only 2 branches located in Hanoi and Nha Trang city And so, lots ofstudents in other cities have found it very difficult to enroll into either of the two branches.

- CHM does not have a dormitory for students, thus many of them are concerned aboutrenting a house or apartment near the company as the course fee of accommodation isincreasingly higher

3 Opportunities

- Tourism and Hospitality industry is increasing in its own potentials Many hotels andrestaurants are opening recently

- Hanoi and Nha Trang are famous tourist cities in Vietnam

- Not many companies have training programs in the professional cookery

- People living standard is much higher, and parents want to support their children ineducation by providing all the necessary and available resources to help them advancing onthe labor market

 SO: The company can take advantage of the sources of capital to focus on theresearch and development of new courses Thanks to the higher living standards as well asparents are always available to support their children in education in recent years, thecompany receives more opportunities and finds it easier to reach out to everyone Thedevelopment of hospitality industry is also the factor that attracts potential customers.

 ST: Although many big competitors are entering Hospitality and Culinary Arttraining and causing increasing pressure, CHM can still totally compete with these rivals asthey are capable of coming up with appropriate strategies as well as innovative measures forthemselves to adapt the rising needs of customer and the growth of the industry Moreover,CHM is the only company provides international certificate and diploma accredited byConfederation of Tourism and Hospitality Today, the majority of new students comes fromthe recommendation of old students of CHM Thus, the company needs to keep in touch withthose students as well as to maintain the student services for new students

 WT: The challenge lies in the threat of occupying the market of big competitors asthe numbers of hotel and restaurant are increasing This forces the company to adopt newbusiness strategies in order to develop all of its potential, strength and growth within theservice system

 WO: CHM can organize the trainings for employees in the company, especially forthe student service department and sales department to enhance their levels of expertise aswell as to acquire more knowledge in service, teaching, short-term trainings abroad forlecturers and managers CHM should also consider expanding its branches to other cities such

as Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang… and building up dormitories for students of each branch

Conclusion of SWOT analysis in CHM

SWOT

S

- Provide international certificate in Hospitality industry

- International lecturers with lots of experience

- Partnership with 5-star hotel

- Guarantee job placement for students after

graduation

W

- Course fee is high

- Do not have dormitory forstudents

- Lack a sufficient number

of branches

O

- Hospitality is increasing

- Hanoi and Nha Trang are

famous tourist cities

- Do not have a lot of

- Higher living standard help the company to penetrate customers easier

- The needs of hospitality are increasing as well as the growth of its

- Build up dormitory for students

T

- Despite of less

competitor, the

competitors are strong

- The needs of the hotel

recruiter are changing

constantly

ST

- Provide international certificate as well as accredited by confederation of tourism and hospitality

- Adapt to the needs of customer and the growth

of the industry

WT

- More and more competitors provide the same courses with more competitive prices

VI DESCRIPTION OF THE TASKS GIVEN DURING THE PERIOD OF THE INTERNSHIP

In order to improve the efficiency of marketing, we did a prior research on the marketincluding the area and demography (gender, age, career choice, household income,consumer’s preference and investment on education)

1 Market segment

Participants mainly involve construction side investors or supervisors

Questionnaire and interview are implemented to collect data through directcommunication with CHM’s customers

+ Highly level of accuracy in analyzing data

+ Validity for a small - medium group of participants

 Disadvantages:

+ Interviews need to guarantee a sufficient number of interviewees

+ The interviewees can hesitate to give honest answers about their business

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Full name:………

Gender:………

Address:

Phone number:

Email (if any):

General Customer Information: Question 1: Would you please tell us your age? A 18 to 30 years

B From 30 to 40 years old

C Over 40 years old Question 2: What is your current industry? A Student C Government employees B Business D Other Question 3: What is your or your parents monthly income? A Under 5 million C Between 10 and 15 million B Between 5 and 10 million D 15 million or more Questionnaire about the company and the hospitality industry : Question 4: Are you interested in Hotel management and Culinary arts? A Yes B No Question 5: Which one do you prefer? A Hotel Management B Culinary Arts

Question 6: Which is the most important factor lead to your decision when you register a course?

A Fee C Quality

B Career after graduation D Facility