Advanced Marketing

 Case studies are an important learning strategy in business classes as they provide an opportunity for you to critically analyze events that have taken place in real-life businesses. This develops your critical thinking and research skills as you research the competition and industry in which your business resides with an end goal of formulating a recommendation for the challenges faced by the company.

 Option 3: The Ritz-Carlton (pp. 424–425) 

1. Using segmentation strategies, what are the target market(s) for The Ritz-Carlton? How does this relate to their brand management strategies? 

2. Who are the top three competitors of The Ritz-Carlton, and what are their advantages/disadvantages with respect to their competitive product/service strategies.

 3. How does The Ritz-Carlton match up to competing hotels? What are its key differences?

 4. Discuss the importance of the “wow stories” in maintaining top quality customer service for a luxury hotel like The Ritz-Carlton. 

In formatting your case analysis, do not use the question-and-answer format; instead, use an essay format with subheadings. Your APA-formatted case study should be a minimum of 500 words in length (not counting the title and reference pages). You are required to use a minimum of three peer-reviewed, academic sources that are no more than 5 years old (one may be your textbook). All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased material must have accompanying in-text citations. Information about accessing the grading rubric for this assignment is provided below.