Marketing Strategy in Enhancing Competitive Advantage at Mercure Chamonix Center Hotel, France

The purpose of research was to develop a marketing strategy that can be applied to Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel, France in enhancing the competitive advantage. This research is qualitative research through direct observation, interviews, and the study of literature. Data analysis performed by Internal External Factors, IE matrix analysis, SWOT analysis and QSPM. The result of analysis showed the position of Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel, France in IE Matrix is in the fifth Cell with the total weight score for internal factor is 2.989 and the external factor with the score of 2.856. the position is on Growth (Concentration Through Horizontal Integration) or stability (there is no change). In SWOT Matrix, it can be defined to 5 strategies: SO (1. Add products, especially foods according to the origin of guest 2. Improving promotion techniques), WO (Adjust prices with competitors on similar products according to the perception of guest through social media), ST (Increase promotion by adding media channels) and WT (Improve employee performance on all lines through regular training).QSPM analysis shows that the strategy should be prioritized: (1) SO1 with the total TAS 6.61: (2) SO2 with the total TAS 5.73; (3) ST1 with the total TAS 4.26; (4) WO1 with the total TAS 4.60; (5) with the total TAS 4.20. Based on QSPM analysis it can be suggested the appropriate new marketing strategy for Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel is Add products, especially foods according to the origin of guest.


INTRODUCTION
Hotels achieve and maintain competitive advantage and have great attention to competitive perspective (Porter, 1985 in Zhou, Brown andDave, 2009) and the resourcebased view (RBV) (Zhou, Brown, and Dave, 2009). In enhancing the competitive advantage, the marketer has to maintain its marketing. Marketing is a tool to meet customer satisfaction as well as to get profits for the company. Besides that, marketing plays a big role in creating customer values and managing profitable customer relationships or in other words as marketing is tool to satisfy customer needs (Kotler, et al. 2015). Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large (Wilkie, 2007) this is in agreement with Kotler's (2012) opinion that marketing must be able to change the image of unpopular products and try to smooth out irregular demand. Marketing is managing profitable customer relationships to create value for the customer and capture value from customers in return (Kotler and Keller, 2003). In the marketing process, the customer must get value and the company must get the value from the customer in the form of profit (Chumaidiyah, 2014) because marketing is increasing woven into the fabric of every part of the business (West, Ford, and Ibrahim, 2015). By maintain the marketing of the company can maintain the strategy of marketing.
Marketing strategy is a marketing activity that combines all elements of the marketing mix so that the company's internal and external environment becomes harmonious (Kotler, et al. 2015). Marketing strategy is a combination of product, price, distribution, and promotion that is most suitable for certain customer groups (Peter, Olson and Grunet, 1999). With a marketing strategy, the company can create customer value and achieve profitable customer relationships (Kotler, et al. 2015: 70) and achieve company goals (Varadarajan, 2015). through marketing strategies, the company can adjust to market needs and requirements.
Marketing mix 4 Ps (product, Place, Price, and Promotion) has grown to 7 Ps with the addition of 3 Ps namely people, process and physical evidence and even 10 Ps is relevant to hotel service companies, tourism organizations, and other travel-related companies (Bojanic, 2016). The marketing mix element as an internal capability is an important factor resource to influence competitive advantage (Kotler, et. al. 2015). Salman, et. al. (2017) have conducted research and developed a new marketing model and the marketing mix component. Salman Model uses the total of 12 P with 9 P's for internal environment (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, policy, physical evidence, programming) and 6 Ps for external environment (promotion, perception, people, policy, partnership, purse string). The marketing mix model by Salman (2017) can applied in tourism industry to gain the competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage is the company's position in a market that is superior to competitors from the company's ability to utilize internal strengths and respond to external environmental opportunities while avoiding external threats and internal weaknesses (Porter, 1985). The relationship between marketing mix and competitive advantage if the company can do something that cannot be done by a competitor it can be said as a competitive advantage.
To develop strategies, Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis can be used as a tool to analyse the strategic position of the business and its environment in order to create a business model of the company (Lupu et. al, 2016;Piercy & Giles,1989;Ayub, et. al, 2013). To analyse the external environment, a company or organization must be able to identify all the opportunities and threats that potentially interfere with the company or organization (Rangkuti, 2018). But it still needs more analysing to define the appropriate strategy can be applied in the company by combining SWOT and Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) (David, David & David, 2009).
In a total of 23 four-star hotel, the rating of Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel 82 (excellent). Among the excellent rating, Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel is in the number 11 from 15 fours-star hotel (luxury hotels guides, 2019). When viewed from its position Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel needs to make breakthroughs and innovations to have a competitive advantage or be superior to its competitors. To win the competitiveness Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel have to evaluate its strategy. Based on the background described above, the research questions are: What are the internal and external factors affecting Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel in Enhancing the Competitive Advantage and What is the appropriate new marketing strategy that can be applied at Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel in Gaining Competitive Advantage.

RESEARCH METHOD
The study was conducted at Mercure Chamonix Center Hotel located in the city of Chamonix, precisely 39 Rue des Allobroges, 74400 Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. This research is qualitative with the company's internal and external factor of the marketing mix model by Salman (2017) as follows: (1) Internal environment Factor of 9 Ps are: Programming, physical Evidence, Policy, process, people, promotions, price, place, and product; (2) External environment factor of 6 Ps are: Purse string, partnership, policy, people, perception, promotion.
Data collection was carried out on all hotel managers at the Mercure Chamonix Center hotel through interviews and questionnaires. The analysis phase used SWOT and QSPM.

Internal Factor Analysis
The IFE matrix is used to find out the influence the Mercure Chamonix Center Hotel internal factors have. Internal environment analysis is done through identifying the hotel's internal factors to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel. After it is identified the next step is giving weight and rating for each variable, then reanalysis has been conducted after the IFE Matrix to give a more details and clear result. The IFE Matrix is to base on result of weight and rating using matrix IFE, the result of Matrix IFE can be seen in Table 1.  Table 1 showed that the calculation results of total weights and rating for the internal factors is 2.989, above the average or in a very strong position of the overall strategic position in an effort to utilize its strengths and cover its weaknesses.

External Factors Analysis
Matrix External Factor Analysis Summary (EFAS). After calculating the weight and rating then the next step is scoring each indicator to determine the total score. The EFE matrix is used to find out how much influence the Mercure Chamonix Center Hotel external factors have.
The total value weighted in this matrix is the sum of the total multiplications of weights and ratings of each external strategic factor. In Table 2 can be seen that the results of multiplication of weights and rating for the external factors is 2.847, which is above the average of the overall strategies used.

The Position of Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel Internal -External Matrix
The average value of IFE is 2,986 and the average EFE is 2.847. This value shows the position of quadrant V which shows the strategy needed for the company today is Hold and Maintain strategy. IE matrix can be seen in Figure 1.

2.847
Expansion of the target market that is controlled by the Mercure Chamonix Center Hotel thus maximizing its marketing. For summer is more controlled Asian especially china it can be expanded with other Asian countries such as Japan Thailand Vietnam. Winter is more dominated by people who wish to ski, they mostly come from US, UK, Switzerland, Germany and it can be expended to other country such as: Italy, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentine.

The Position of Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel in SWOT Matrix
The SWOT matrix produces several alternative strategies obtained from internal and external variables in accordance with the position of Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel, France in the IE matrix, which is Grow and build strategies as shown in Table 3.

STRATEGI ST
Increase promotion by adding media channels.

STRATEGI WT
Improve employee performance on all lines through regular training The alternative strategies generated from the analysis of SWOT analysis, while taking into account the vision, mission, goals, and objectives of Mercure Chamonix Centre Hotel are as follows: 1.
Add product, especially food according to the origin of guest. This strategy has a goal for guest who do not like European food, especially French food. They can choose the food they normally consume. this is usually intended for individuals because it is easier to manage, whereas for groups it is more difficult to manage if you have different choices. with products from the origin of guests, they will feel more comfortable at least with food that can satisfy them.

2.
Improving the promotion technique, choosing media channels, and creating new product variations. improve techniques in promotion, by designing more attractive than before so that it can attract more guests than before.

3.
Increase promotion by adding media channels. Add other media to expand the promotional area, France areas that may come to visit Chamonix but have not gotten information or areas outside of France.

4.
Adjust prices with competitors on similar products according to the perception of guest through social media. This strategy aims to make guest have the perception of hotel products at least have the same quality as competitors.

5.
Improve employee performance on all lines through regular training. By providing training, especially service, employee performance will increase significantly. Training will improve skills in service and also when dealing with guests. Their experience will increase and they will be trained to deal with a problem.

Center Hotel in Gaining Competitive Advantage
Based on data processed it can be summarized the result of the QSPM as shown in Table 4.