Role of Branding on Hotel Culture-Chapter 1 Introduction

Role of Branding on Hotel Culture and its Effects on Orientation and Coaching Process in the Hotel Industry, Empirical Study of Five Star Hotel in Northern Cyprus.

Dissertation-Chapter 1 Introduction

Introduction

The function of branding on hotel culture relies on the service operation and strategies by its extent meaning. Consequently, Orientation and coaching process are two tools used by management to constitute the interface between the brand’s external and hotel internal environment that can have a great outcome on how employees perceive the brand in their organization (MR, 2013), when employees work as the pillar for the organization. In the highly competitive hotel industry, many hotels have started to shift from its own culture to brand, these transforming pass through orientation and coaching process. This new involvement and commitment enable every organization to remain competitive in the market. Branding can also be hindered by hotel culture particularly when delivering service, then orientation plans and building a stronger coaching process shall take place to improve employee’s performance in accordance with the new situation.

Quality orientation and coaching processes that result from branding in hotel culture can help the organization in delivering better services. It also increases the satisfaction of employees. Therefore, employee’s orientation on hotel management leads to the employment of individuals dedicated to improving client services and the tendency to exert effort that aims at benefiting its clients.

For many hotels, the branding of organizational culture forms the strength of its brands that rests on the values along with behaviors of its employees and managers. Continuing cases of the ever-shrinking external budget that influences the hotel operations; employees remain to be the essential part of the strategy used for branding (Lee, 2011). The luxury branding on hotel culture uses the hard data on the employee as well as the engagement of customers to generate its image with ambience as the hotel measurable outcome during their operations. Branding of hotel culture on coaching and orientation processes enables every employee to understand that the drain out guest could apply for the little aid (Monlapak Thespol & Ngugi, 2015). Besides, the hotel with the global catalog can be able to keep track of their esteemed customers. The idea assists the hotel in being certain that each worker can notice, acts, and thinks when serving the customer.

Recently, most of tourists classifying North Cyprus as a contemporary arena for tourism activities, This ancient beautiful island includes a variety of tourism products, this diversity attracts most of the tourists who are looking for quenching their needs and wants such resting and discovering a stunning cultural tourism experience. Moreover, recent modern touristic developments in tourism uniquely affect related architecture in Northern Cyprus; increased investments are occurred in the complexes of hotel-casino since gambling was forbidden in Turkey in 1998, (Besin, 2010). This development in a accommodation establishments sector in North Cyprus as a significant tourism destination attracted many of global investing projects from all over the world to create a various level of hotels.

Problem statement

The hotel has to consider the ideas of educating its employees on how to operate during the branding. Therefore, the idea is a complicated thing during the operation of the hotel. Hotel managers need to understand the main factors that influence the behavior of work organization together with the nature of the individuals. According to (Nash 2013), it is vital to recognize the role played by the hotel management as the integrating activity for the organization to work efficiently. The implementation of branding process around the hotels forces the hotel management to determine the style of data to collect and approaches of collecting it before it ascertains to the use of branding of culture in the hotel (MR, 2013). The hotel must ensure that they do not only have great companies, but they make sure that they have a sustainable organization.

The function of branding on hotel customs relies on the service evaluation experience by its customers is paramount. Orientation and coaching constitute the interface between the brand’s external and internal environment that can have a great outcome on how consumers perceive the brand and services offered by an organization (MR, 2013). Therefore, branding works as the pillar for the organization. The focus has shifted to the hotel culture, branding effects on orientation and coaching process because they are the greatest resource a hotel can have, and it is through their involvement and commitment that every organization can remain competitive in the market. Branding on hotel culture is able o deliver better orientation plan and builds a stronger coaching process that leads to increased customer satisfaction, building stronger, and long-lasting relationship with its esteem clients in the marketplaces (Monpapak & Ngugi, 20154). The objective of this research proposal is to examine the role of branding on hotel culture and its effects on orientation together with the coaching process.

Quality orientation and coaching process that result from branding on hotel culture can help the organization in delivering better services. It also increases the satisfaction of consumers. Therefore, customer orientation on hotel management leads to the employment of individuals dedicated to improving client services and the tendency to exert effort that aims at benefiting its clients. Many personality tests are unreliable leading to limitation of the effectiveness of recruiting based on certain personality traits during the process of branding on hotel culture (Turner, 2013). Branding on hotel management tends to cover anything the management does, what the surrounding orientation focuses on, and the effect the workplace has on its employees. Besides, the research into the potential cultural differences in hotel management is not only required from the practical standpoint, but it is also looked at from a theoretical viewpoint.

Significance of the study

For many hotels, the branding of organizational culture forms the strength of its brands that rests on the values along with behaviors of its employees and managers. Continuing cases of the ever-shrinking external budget that influences the hotel operations; employees remain to be the essential part of the strategy used for branding (Lee, 2011). The luxury branding on hotel culture uses the hard data on the employee as well as the engagement of customers to generate its image with ambience as the hotel measurable outcome during their operations. Branding of hotel culture on coaching and orientation processes enables every employee to understand that the drain out guest could apply for the little aid (Monlapak Thespol & Ngugi, 2015). Besides, the hotel with the global catalog can be able to keep track of their esteemed customers. The idea assists the hotel in being certain that each worker can notice, acts, and thinks when serving the customer.

Objectives of the study

The fundamental idea of this study is to determine the role of branding effects on orientation and coaching process. The study gives the hotel management a view on how to improve their organizational culture and style of leadership with the intention that focuses on the creation and keeping the commitment workforce. Using the theory basis, the research focuses on the mediating role of hotel culture between the branding and orientation and coaching process. Therefore, this study also tries to apply the utilization of the framework to analyze the branding effects on orientation and coaching process on the hotel culture. The study will introduce processes involved in branding on hotel culture (Lee, 2011). To accomplish this aims, the study will try to achieve the following objectives

• Develop a conceptual framework for investigating the role of branding on hotel culture.
• Define branding system and how they affect hotel culture.
• Explore the mediating role of hotel culture on the orientation and coaching processes in five stars hotels at Northern Cyprus.
• Suggest valuable recommendations for hotel management level that could help them to improve the practices of orientation and coaching processes in the five stars in Northern Cyprus.
• Provide literature, which is related to the subject of this study, and to clarify the limitations and at the same time their suggestion for later studies.

Research Questions

This study will try to provide answers for the following questions:

1. What are the effects of the branding of hotel culture on orientation & coaching process in the five stars hotels in North Cyprus?
2. Dose the branding on hotel culture contributes in improving the quality of orientation & coaching programs in the five stars hotels in North Cyprus?
3. Dose the orientation and coaching programs adds value on the performance of employees and help them to increase their satisfaction and loyalty in the five stars hotels in North Cyprus?

Theoretical Background

The study relies on the comprehensive overview of literatures in building the model to conduct the impact of the branding on hotel culture in Five-Star hotels in North Cyprus. Branding is an essential part of service delivery as they offer the customers the ultimate unique experience. According to (King 2010), the hotel industry relies on the willingness and ability of the employees to be committed to branding as it results in better service delivery. In most case customers purchasing products or services from branded organizations interact with the employees as opposed to the management. Moreover,

Therefore, the need to build a branding culture in the hotel industry through coaching and other training strategies as it increases customer satisfaction. Moreover, So and King (2005) cite the benefits of branding in the hotel industry to be customer behavior that breeds purchasing power and once the employees have driven towards service orientation then the image of the hotel industry is improved.

On the other hand, King (2010) and Ottenbacher (2007) assert that improving the ability of the employees to be service oriented towards service delivery through coaching is not enough. The knowledge of branding should be strengthened to ensure the hotel industry reaps its benefits by establishing a culture that allows employees to understand the level of performance and how it is associated to service orientation. Overall, Kimpakorn and Tocquer (2010) insist that employees can only form a special relationship with their organization the moment they share in the price of their brand. Furthermore, employees are psychologically driven to support a brand through passage of its benefits to customers during service delivery and I presence of commitment.

Conceptual Framework

The model will test the relationships between independent and dependent variables. Orientation and Coaching Processes are the dependent variables, and. Branding is the independent variable. Furthermore, the study will observe the role of mediating variable of hotel culture to examine the relationship between the branding and orientation process, and the relationship between the branding and coaching process.

Hypotheses

H1: There is a relationship of branding on hotel culture.

H2: There is a relationship of branding on hotel’s employees orientation.

H3: There is a relationship of branding on hotel’s employees coaching.

H4: There is a relationship of hotel culture on hotel’s employees orientation.

H5: There is a relationship of hotel culture on hotel’s employees coaching.

H6: There is a relationship of hotel culture moderate between branding and orientation.

H7: There is a relationship of hotel culture moderate between branding and coaching.

Key Concept Definition

• Brand: “The Company’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, services, and experiences consistently to the buyers. (Kotler, 2005).
• Brand Image: is the current view of the customers about a brand. It can be defined as a unique bundle of associations within the minds of target customers. It signifies what the brand presently stands for. It is a set of beliefs held about a specific brand. (Management study guide, MSG 2013).
• Brand identity: “Brand identity is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members.” (Aaker 1996 p. 68).
• Branding: is endowing products and services with the power of a brand” (Kotler & Keller, 2015)
• Hotel Branding System: It is the central element as well as the power device of the active strategy used by the hotel industry in the marketing of its products along with services (Koutra & Ngugi, 2015).
•  Organizational Culture: The dominant culture or personality of the organization. (Woods, 2012).
• Human resource management: is defined as a system of activities and strategies that focus on successfully managing employees at all levels of an organization to achieve organizational goals (Byars & Rue, 2006).
• Training: A planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through a learning experience to achieve effective performance in any activity or range of activities. Its purpose, in the work situation, is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy current and future manpower needs of the organization. (Manpower Services Commission (MSC), U.K., 1981: 62).
• Orientation: The process of introducing new employees to their work and the environment in which their work is completed. (Woods, 2012).
• Coaching: is the process by which individuals gain the skills, abilities, and knowledge they need to develop themselves professionally and become more effective in their jobs. (Stone, 2007).

Northern Cyprus as a Research Context

Northern Cyprus remains to be the independent state consisting of the northeastern part of Cyprus Island. Cyprus Island continues to be the 3^rd biggest island found in Mediterranean Sea by wrapping the section of approximately three thousand five hundred miles. Just like any other little economies of island, Cyprus has inadequate natural assets as well as tiny interior marketplace for hotel operations (Fregonese & Ramadan, 2015). The tourism industry in the area remains to be one of the significant ingredients of income. Besides, Northern Cyprus has one hundred and twenty establishments of accommodation such as motels, hotels, with villages for holiday having bed size of more than ten thousand beds (Besim et al., 2010). Hotel business within North Cyprus continues to face severe problems for several years. Some of these problems that the industry had been suffering consist of seasonality, high prices, and low rates of occupancy, transportation difficulties, shortage of experienced and qualified staffs, poor quality services, and insufficient supplementary services together with facilities (Lee, 2011). Therefore, such advancement has made it possible to investigate the role of hotel culture along with its influences on orientation and process of coaching in hotel industry within five stars hotels found within North Cyprus.

Five-star hotels in Northern Cyprus always associate with small, elegant, as well as designing of the orientation of hotels that do not contain more than one hundred rooms. These hotels in the area are associated with the provision of services with the very exclusive experience of trend values to the upscale heights. The Five Star Hotels in Northern Cyprus have evolved over an extended time to associate with the global lifestyle of the international community (Lee et al., 2016). Ideas of understanding external trends and measures in the tourism industry remain to be the essential challenge for hotel management due to their effects on the tourism marketplace.  It is evident that five-star hotels in Northern Cyprus suffer different problems such as the relatively small internal market, economic isolation, limited resources capacity, and political isolation. Despite all these challenges, the government of Northern Cyprus has focused on improving hotel branding system by enforcing different strategies that tend to enhance the marketability of the region as the competitive destination for tourists (Grover & Furnham, 2016). Various factors that aim at improving hotel branding in the area focus on beliefs, ideas, as well as impressions that individuals have concerning the five-star hotels.

In present competitive business markets, hotel management among five stars hotels found within Northern Cyprus has realized that they have to concentrate on ideas that deal with exceptional quality of services to their targeted clients. The control of these hotels has also learned to focus on ideas that deal with retention of a pool of profitable esteem clients for their success and survival in the competitive marketplaces (Nash, 2013). Besides, the use of frontline hotel employees by hotel managers of five stars in North Cyprus continues to be the essential link in the process of managing hotel activities. In most cases, hotel managers of five stars hotels found within North Cyprus are facing with challenging duties of attaining effective ways focusing on ensuring that the behaviors, as well as attitudes of frontline workers, remain congruent with the expectations of the customers and management. In most cases, hotel management of five stars hotels found within North Cyprus focuses on paying attention to well-being of their frontline workers (Susskind et al., 2011). The capacity of branding culture of hotel depends on the administration task and techniques by its degree meaning. Introduction and instructing process are two devices utilized by hotel administration to constitute the interface between the brand’s external as well as hotel internal condition that have an extraordinary result on how hotel employees perceive the brand in their association when they work as the column for the corporation.

Branding system in Hotel Industry in Northern Cyprus has seen many hotels to focus on shifting from their culture to brand. The idea of branding helps these five-star hotels in the region to transform and pass through the process of orientation along with the coaching of their workers (Goulandris, 2015). The advance commitment brought about by branding process allows every five-star hotel to continue to be competitive in the marketplace. However, the system of branding in the hotel industry in Northern Cyprus receives hindrances by the culture of hotel individually when delivering services, then orientation plans and creating the fast process of coaching occur with the motive of improving the performance of workers as per the new circumstance (Bhatt, 2017). Moreover, the process of orientation along with the coaching of workers that come about because of branding on the culture of five-star hotels tend to help the corporations in conveying ideal services to their targeted clients. Conversely, the orientation of hotel employees on ideas to do with the management of activities of the hotel leads to the employment of people devoted to enhancing the process of customer services and the tendency to apply effort that goes for profit clients.

Currently, most developing nations have shown great interest in attracting tourists, and more so through improving their economic growth, which has paved the way for investment in the sector. As a result of the investment in the tourism industry, the returns achieved are within a shorter period when compared to other sectors of the economy. Moreover, the promotion of successful campaigns in the industry has provided a more significant opportunity for foreign exchange earnings, employment and income to the hotel employees, which has increased income growth. The investment in the hotel industry has increased the number of tourists and promoted economic development in developing countries such as Turkey.

The tourism developments in the economic sectors in Northern Cyprus is a sizeable financial contributor that has gained its status within five years. Currently, the region boasts of over 2 million visitors annually (as shown in the graph below), and this has attracted recognition from the global partners with awards such as the Top 10 Global Destinations, Totem Tourism and Green Destination (Atun, Nafa & Türker, 2018). This credit is as a result of its famous beaches, which have received several flags for their outstanding coastline. The economic developments in North Cyprus have led to the adoption of the “sun and the sea” concept with the aim of generating seasonality in the hospitality industry (Statistical Yearbook of Tourism, 2017). In this case, the North Cyprus season lasts for six months from May to October making it the ultimate summer destination.

Figure 2: Number of arrivals in tourists’ accommodation in Cyprus from 2006 to 2016.

The government is on the forefront in promoting tourism and seeks to extend its seasonality to capture the period December to March which is considered the golf season and given its resorts, the stakeholders have received incentives to construct more golf courses. Other than increasing its seasonality to take advantage of winter and summer seasons, the country has adopted an “open skies policy” which seeks to improve the aircraft operators and the number of airports (Statistical Yearbook of Tourism, 2017). In this case, the country’s investment is not just targeted at increasing developments but also boosting its returns on investments. The outcome has visibly improved the number of tourists from 2013 with the highest record in 2016.

The number of bed capacity in Northern Cyprus has increased due to government investments in the hotel industry. Whereas the accommodation facilities in 2012 were 145, there has been a progressive increase in bed capacities due to the rise in demand over the years. The most notable regions with the highest bed capacity include Nicosia with 4%, Morphou has 1%, Pier has 18%, Famagusta 7%, and Kyrenia which has the highest with 70% (Statistical Yearbook of Tourism, 2017). While the number of tourists has increased, the tourists are more interested in the favorable rates and length of stay. Therefore, the increase in accommodation facilities is reflected in the five-star, four-star, three-star, two-star, and one-star hotels which have generated the highest number of tourists. According to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the number of tourists in 2016 was the highest in the history of the hospitality industry, which has contributed to an increase in bed capacity and general accommodation facilities in the region (Farmaki, Altinay & Yasarata, 2016).

In conclusion, Northern Cyprus has achieved economic developments through significant investment from the government and the private sector. From a region that was least known to the world, it has become a place to reckon with in the hospitality industry through investments. As a result, the area has attracted significant investments in the accommodation and bed capacity, and with more significant strides in the achievement of an all-year-round seasonality, the region is more likely to achieve greater strides that it has in the last year.

Click here to read chapter 2

References

Aaker, D 1996, Building Strong Brands, 2010 edition, London, Pocket Books.

Atun, R. A., Nafa, H., & Türker, Ö. O. (2018). Envisaging sustainable rural development through ‘context-dependent tourism’: case of Northern Cyprus. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 1-30.

BESİM, D. Y., Kiessel, M., &Kiessel, A. T. (2010). Postmodernist Hotel-Casino Complexes in Northern Cyprus. METU JFA, 1, 103.

Byars, A., & Rue, E. (2006). Human resource management: contemporary issues, challenges and opportunities. New Jersey: IAP.

Chun-Chieh, M., & Hsiao-Ping, C. (2013). Training transfer in the taiwanese hotel industry: factors and outcomes. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 41(5), 761-776. doi:10.2224/sbp.2013.41.5.761.

Farmaki, A. N. N. A., Altinay, L., & Yasarata, M. (2016). Rhetoric versus the realities of sustainable tourism: The case of Cyprus. Sustainable island tourism: Seasonality, competitiveness, and quality-of-life, 35-50.

Fregonese, S., & Ramadan, A. (2015). Hotel Geopolitics: A Research Agenda. Geopolitics, 20(4), 793-813. doi:10.1080/14650045.2015.1062755.

Keller, K. L., & Kotler, P. T. (2015). Framework for marketing management. Pearson.

King C (2010) ‘‘One size doesn’t fit all’’ tourism and hospitality employees’ response to internal brand management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

22: 517–534.

Kimpakorn N and Tocquer G (2010) Service brand equity and employee brand commitment. Journal of Service Marketing 24: 378–388.

Kotler, P & Armstrong, G 2005, Principles of Marketing, 4th European edition, Essex, Pearson Education Limited

Koutra, C., Thespol, M., & Ngugi, I. K. (2015). The role of branding, promotion and sub-culture in the consumption of breakfast cereals in Thailand. Journal of Hotel Business Management, 4(1), 1-7.

Lee, T. (2011). Role of hotel design in enhancing destination branding. Annals Of Tourism Research, 38(2), 708-711. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.10.006

Management study guide, MSG 2013, Brand image. [21 July 2018] Available on the Internet: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/brand-image.htm

Manpower Services Commission (1981) Glossary of Training Terms. London: HMSO

Marland, A., Lewis, J. P., & Flanagan, T. (2017). Governance in the Age of Digital Media and Branding. Governance, 30(1), 125-141. doi:10.1111/gove.12194

Monlapak Thespol, C. & Ngugi, I. (2015). The Role of Branding, Promotion and Sub-culture in the Consumption of Breakfast Cereals in Thailand. Journal Of Hotel & Business Management, 04(01). http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2169-0286.1000113

Official website of Washington times newspaper,

Ottenbacher MC (2007) Innovation management in the hospitality industry: Different strategies   for achieving success. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research 31: 431–454.

So, KKF. and King, C. (2010) “What experience matters’’: Building and measuring hotel brand   equity the customers’ perspective. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 22: 589–608.

Statistical Yearbook of Tourism. (2017). Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Ministry of Tourism and Environment Tourism Planning Office

Stefan, M., Andreiana, V., & Panagoret, I. (2017). The role of social networks in the evolution of online sales – study case. Journal Of Science & Arts, 17(4), 731-744.

Stone, F. (2007). Coaching, counseling and mentoring: How to choose and use the right technique to boost employee performance. Amacom.

Sumaco, F. T., Imrie, B. C., &Hussain, K. (2014). The consequence of Malaysian national culture values on hotel branding. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 144, 91-101.

TEKIN, O. A. (2017). The Relationship Between Service Orientation and Five Factor Personality Traits: A Study on Hotel Employees. Journal Of Yasar University, 12(48), 272-283.

Woods, R. H., Johanson, M. M., Sciarini, M. P. (2012). Managing hospitality human resources. Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association.