Professor Chekitan S. Dev explains branding for hospitality firms, and the growing importance of building an emotional bond with customers. A brand is a powerful thing. For the hotel industry, this is particularly true, as many of its customers make their purchasing decision well in advance of interacting with the product. Potential guests do not typically visit a property, eat in the restaurant, or lay in the bed before making a reservation. In past years, a hotel’s brand image was one of the only things under the hotel’s control that influenced consumers’ decision-making process. But of course, today this is not quite as true as it used to be. In fact, today’s consumers can access a wealth of objective and subjective information about a property before committing to a reservation, thanks (of course) to the internet. Price is also a major consideration for some buyers, as is location, neither of which is truly a function of brand. Many aspects of branding, though, are well within a hotel’s control, and can be crucial to driving sales and maintaining a high average daily rate (ADR). So if branding is so important, why aren’t more hotels emulating branding superstars like Apple? First off, branding is indeed a high priority for many hotels, most visibly the major chains. Maintaining the Hilton or Hyatt brand is the responsibility of a small army of high caliber marketing executives, and these chains expend significant resources to keep their brands strong. Many independent hotels don’t have the resources or the time to dedicate to that level of brand development but that doesn’t mean that branding should be ignored altogether.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:19:29 +0000
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