Innovation Club Med
Club Méditerranée
Club Méditerranée or Club Med, is an originally French corporation of vacation resorts found in more than 80 countries of the world. Its resorts do their job under the Valtur, Club Med, Club Med Affaires (developed for business travellers), and Club Aquarius. At the same time it operates two cruise liners: Club Med 1 sails the Pacific and Club Med 2 - Mediterranee and Caribbean’s clients. Club Med’s history begins from 1930x, when Gerald Blitz, a Belgian athlete and fighter, decided to visit Olympique’s village based in Corsica. The tent impressed him that he made a decision to establish Club med as non-profit organization with a main purpose to popularize open air life and sport education. The goal population was oriented on youth and young adults. At that time the vacation was usually local and when people wanted to have a rest they just do picnics at the gardens or going to relatives for a while, where all families came together. But Club Med idea was to establish resorts in exotic locations, which was absolutely innovative for that time. The innovation of Club Med combines three elements: - cash free system - where guests can buy extra services without taking cash all the time, just special card, which every guests receives after registration in the resort.
- “all-inclusive” concept, which still doesn’t mean that everything is free on the resort territory, but basically such services like food and drinks, transportation and entertainment are free of charge. This innovation provides 20% guest return every year and 83% guest return every three years. Inside resorts of Club Med there are special nicknames for the staff - “GO” (Gentle Organizers) for the guests - “GM” (Gentle Members), and for the employees - GE (Gentle Employees). Because of no competitors and loyal guests who wanted to make a prepayment for their vacation, Club Med scaled very fast. In 80x chain’s management decided
Club Méditerranée or Club Med, is an originally French corporation of vacation resorts found in more than 80 countries of the world. Its resorts do their job under the Valtur, Club Med, Club Med Affaires (developed for business travellers), and Club Aquarius. At the same time it operates two cruise liners: Club Med 1 sails the Pacific and Club Med 2 - Mediterranee and Caribbean’s clients. Club Med’s history begins from 1930x, when Gerald Blitz, a Belgian athlete and fighter, decided to visit Olympique’s village based in Corsica. The tent impressed him that he made a decision to establish Club med as non-profit organization with a main purpose to popularize open air life and sport education. The goal population was oriented on youth and young adults. At that time the vacation was usually local and when people wanted to have a rest they just do picnics at the gardens or going to relatives for a while, where all families came together. But Club Med idea was to establish resorts in exotic locations, which was absolutely innovative for that time. The innovation of Club Med combines three elements: - cash free system - where guests can buy extra services without taking cash all the time, just special card, which every guests receives after registration in the resort.
- “all-inclusive” concept, which still doesn’t mean that everything is free on the resort territory, but basically such services like food and drinks, transportation and entertainment are free of charge. This innovation provides 20% guest return every year and 83% guest return every three years. Inside resorts of Club Med there are special nicknames for the staff - “GO” (Gentle Organizers) for the guests - “GM” (Gentle Members), and for the employees - GE (Gentle Employees). Because of no competitors and loyal guests who wanted to make a prepayment for their vacation, Club Med scaled very fast. In 80x chain’s management decided
References: 1. Annual Financial Report, 2012 http://www.clubmed-corporate.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2012-Annual-Report_Club-Med_ENG.pdf 2. Club Med goes upscale, http://globalmarketingtoday.wordpress.com/the-real-world/club-med-goes-upscale/ 3. Official website of Club Med http://www.clubmed.com/cm/jsp/clubmed_welcome.jsp 4. Case study, Club Med: The party is over, http://www.wiley.com/college/mar/kotabe372897/pdf/case01.pdf