Question

What potential problems do you foresee bringing banyan tree to the americas, europe, and the middle east. how could banyan tree address those issues?

Answer 1

Americas and EuropeThe challenges of bringing Banyan Tree to Americas or Europe almost thesame, the living cost is higher than Asia, which makes the cost of investmentand operations higher, and competing with fabulous and other luxury hotelsmight be a tough experiment especially in the Europe market.Middle EastThe main challenge for Banyan Tree in Middle East is the environment, whichis not similar to the tropical rainforests and it is more to desert, so Banyan Treecannot bring their marketing tagline “a senses of place” to reflect and enhancethe culture and heritage of the destination. Also, the local laws and policies aredifferent compared to Asia.From the above discussion, it is clear that the challenges for the three differentregions mostly the same, the marketing team should think about the strategies thatbrought Banyan Tree into success and decide if they are workable in differentregions. Banyan Tree should be brands’ focus and to be careful so that it will notdilute the brands.To overtake the cost challenges, and since Banyan Tree focuses on consumersfrom developed countries such as Americas and Europe, it is possible to build theresorts in places that are few hours away form major cities in Europe andAmerica, and yet locate the resorts in attractive, exciting, and exotic places, forexample, Latin America countries like Mexico, North Africa such as Moroccowhere low and labour is relatively inexpensive compared to the developedcountries.Concerns to address in expanding operationsMarket research is vital to address the challenges and issues that might arisefor the global expansion and to settle it down, for example, the low-coststructure that Banyan Tree is currently familiar with, might not possible to beavailable in other locations.Competing with other competitors needs to show the quality of the product,differentiate product from the local luxury resort and hotel, attract thecustomers by sticking with the brand equity and CSR, studying the market andthe existing competitors, and to make sure that Banyan Tree marketing taglineis still the main focus and careful not to dilute the brand.Launching Banyan Tree in the temperate countries might not be aligned withthe tropical forests environment offered in Asia, so launching a new brand thatreflects the different holiday experience in thus temperate countries might be abetter solution. Also, the experience is based on Asian hospitality settings andAsian therapies and remedies, so providing the same service type in othercountries is suspect especially with different settings, culture, heritage, andnorms.