Brand Architecture in the Hospitality Industry RAJNISH TULI │APRIL 2015

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Multiple factors (macro and micro) influence Brand’s Success in a dynamic environment.

What Drives &

BRAND?

Differentiates my

With robust understanding of levers of choice in hospitality business, marketers can identify differentiating factors to deliver excellence and competitive advantage.

Business Questions Answered

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1

Which survey metric (KPI) is best reflection of in market performance of brand?

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Which is the best path to follow so that we drive preference for our hotels?

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How do we consolidate and find common grounds for regional brand strategy?

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Which Digital Touch points are more effective for driving specific levers of preference?

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What are the key levers to drive preference for our hotels?

Key Question Explored

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To find consumers’ PATH TO PREFERENCE across AMEA region for the Luxury Hotel Chain

MIDDLE EAST

INDIA

JAPAN

AUSTRALIA

SEA

The Approach

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What is Brand

Context?

UNDERSTANDING

BRAND CONTEXT 1

Understanding brand

context – Competition,

Target Audience, Growth

objective of the Hotel

chain.

What KPI metric is the best reflection of sales in Hospitality

industry?

MARKET SUCCESS

INDICATOR 2

Identify the KPI metric

from our research that is

most reflective of sales.

What are the different Positioning

dimensions?

DIMENSION

IDENTIFICATION 3

Factor analysis used to

group brand imageries

into relevant dimensions.

What positioning platforms should the

hotel use to drive consumer

preference?

PATH

MODELLING 4

Path modeling used to

define path to preference

via positioning platforms.

Identifying common levers for brand across the region

REGIONAL

INTEGRATION 5

Consolidating and finding

common grounds for

regional brand strategy

01 Understanding the Brand Context

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Establishing a relevant hypothesis was crucial in determining the path that the hotel brand should be communicating in the future.

• Understand and identify the hotel brand’s current aims and status.

• This streamlining process helped build a concise model that was effective in answering the business questions.

Hotel Brand Preference Ladder

WHERE DOES MY BRAND STAND?

AM I A BIG OR SMALL PLAYER?

WHO IS MY TARGET AUDIENCE?

WHERE DO I WANT TO GROW?

WHO ARE MY COMPETITORS?

How do I move up?

Awareness

Total Consideration

Preference

Enthusiasm

Familiarity

Serious Consideration

UNDERSTANDING

BRAND CONTEXT

02 Identifying the Market Success Indicator in Hospitality Industry

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Hotel Preference was the consistent measure showing a strong relationship with Revenue data, hence it was used for further modelling exercise.

• Correlations analysis conducted on brand tracking data with Hotel’s Revenue data to identify the best KPI to measure in the

hospitality industry

CORRELATIONS

Preference

Revenue

Correlations of Revenue with Preference (r=0.52)

MARKET SUCCESS

INDICATOR

03 Defining the Positioning Dimensions

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Factor Analysis used to group the image attributes of a great luxury hotel across AMEA into 17 Positioning platforms.

Communication Dimensions From Consumers’ Perspective

29 Attributes That Can Drive Preference

Factor Analysis

EMOTIONAL CONNECT • Meet my needs

• I love the brand

• I will recommend the brand

• I completely trust the brand

• Fits my personality

LUXURIOUS • I can experience luxury

COSMOPOLITAN • Have up class toiletries

• Are cosmopolitan

ESSENTIALS • Offer good wi-fi service throughout the hotel

• Excellent food

• Are knowledgeable about the local area

• Have professional staff that make the effort to

understand your individual needs

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

DIMENSION

IDENTIFICATION

04 Path Modelling

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Path Modelling tells us the best route of communication to drive our strategic business needs. It LINKS measures together in

sequence – allowing us to represent hypothesized causal relationships

It involves several ITERATIONS of STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING until the best fit path is found. We can

estimate the direct effect and indirect effect of each variable in the model.

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

LUXURIOUS

COSMOPOLITAN

ESSENTIALS

The areas most closely associated with Preference

Often marketing outcomes

Drives the Primary level

Often more actionable than primary levers

Drives, and is closely related to, the secondary lever

Often the most actionable level, but will not be

enough alone to drive preference

PRIMARY LEVER

SECONDARY LEVER

TERTIARY LEVER

FACTOR 1

FACTOR 2

FACTOR 3

PREFERENCE

PATH

MODELLING

05 Performance Analysis to identify brand building opportunities

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In order to understand what attributes truly differentiate the brand we ran an analysis called BRAND IMAGE PERCEPTION.

It helped us to understand what are the strengths and weaknesses of our luxury hotel brand vs. competition. We layered it with

path model to recommend the best path.

MR BIG

MR SMALL

BRAND A BRAND B

Worth what you pay

Do you love

Family friendly

30

- 6

14

12

- 3

26

- 3

- 3 Hotels that are well-maintained

FACTOR STATUS

PRIMARY

LEVERS

Emotional Connect

Worth What I Pay

SECONDARY

LEVERS

Popular

Thoughtful Service

Consistency

Luxurious

TERTIARY

LEVERS

Cosmopolitan

Meeting Excellence

Essentials

Owned By Competitors Shared Open Owned By Us

The Findings

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Path to Preference for this luxury hotel chain revolves around providing Thoughtful Service that will create a Connection and demonstrate Premium

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PREFERENCE

WORTH WHAT I PAY

CONSISTENCY

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

LUXURIOUS

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

FREQUENT GUEST

PROGRAM ESSENTIALS CONCIERGE

COSMOPOLITAN MEETING EXCELLENCE

POPULAR

19% 22%

18% 28%

19% 21% 11% 19% 11% 19% 13%

17% 26%

27% 23% 14% 10% 14%

Primary Lever Secondary Lever Tertiary Lever

Working on Thoughtful service ties into both Primary Levers of Preference

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PREFERENCE

WORTH WHAT I PAY

CONSISTENCY

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

LUXURIOUS

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

FREQUENT GUEST

PROGRAM ESSENTIALS CONCIERGE

COSMOPOLITAN MEETING EXCELLENCE

POPULAR

19% 22%

18% 28%

19% 21% 11% 19% 11% 19% 13%

17% 26%

27% 23% 14% 10% 14%

Owned By Competitors Shared Open Owned By Us

Building Popularity spans into Luxury and has a direct impact on Primary levers of Preference

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PREFERENCE

WORTH WHAT I PAY

CONSISTENCY

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

LUXURIOUS

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

FREQUENT GUEST

PROGRAM ESSENTIALS CONCIERGE

COSMOPOLITAN MEETING EXCELLENCE

19% 22%

18% 28%

19% 21% 11% 19% 13%

17% 26%

27% 23% 14% 10% 14%

Owned By Competitors Shared Open Owned By Us

11% 19%

POPULAR

Working on Luxury, ties into both of our Primary Levers of Preference

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PREFERENCE

WORTH WHAT I PAY

CONSISTENCY

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

FREQUENT GUEST

PROGRAM ESSENTIALS CONCIERGE

COSMOPOLITAN MEETING EXCELLENCE

POPULAR

19% 22%

18% 28%

19% 21% 11% 19% 11% 19% 13%

17% 26%

27% 23% 14% 10% 14%

Owned By Competitors Shared Open Owned By Us

LUXURIOUS

FREQUENT GUEST PROGRAM

Identifying Common levers of Preference for the hotel across AMEA region

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WORTH WHAT I PAY

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

LUXURIOUS

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

ESSENTIALS

COSMOPOLITAN

POPULAR

MEETING EXCELLENCE

REGIONAL INTEGRATION

4%

7%

7%

7%

12%

12%

14%

17%

20%

2%

7%

8%

2%

10%

5%

19%

17%

16%

9%

8%

1%

15%

2%

19%

22%

Primary Lever Secondary Lever Tertiary Lever

Defend strengths, seize opportunities, and communicate Thoughtful Service & Luxury to drive Preference for the hotel across AMEA region

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REGIONAL INTEGRATION

Owned By Competitors Shared Open Owned By Us

WORTH WHAT I PAY

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

LUXURIOUS

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

ESSENTIALS

COSMOPOLITAN

MEETING EXCELLENCE

POPULAR

Tying the Communication Touch points with Key Preference levers

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Tourism Board Sites

Email from Brand

Entertainment & Sports Site

Yahoo / Google

Blog

FB / Twitter

FB Page by the Brand

BBC

Email from Friends / Family

Chatroom / Message

What to communicate through each touch point?

WORTH WHAT I PAY

EMOTIONAL CONNECT

LUXURIOUS

THOUGHTFUL SERVICE

ESSENTIALS

COSMOPOLITAN

MEETING EXCELLENCE

POPULAR

Primary Lever Secondary Lever Tertiary Lever

0.191 0.191 0.173

0.215 0.182

0.218 0.197

0.279 0.271 0.212

0.168 0.155 0.149

0.281 0.251

0.246 0.233

0.269 0.237

0.231

0.162

0.215

0.221

0.232

How to make it Possible ?

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• Do I need Brand Architecture for my Brand ?

• What kind of data is required?

• Is it very resource intensive?

• How frequently I need to carry this analysis?

• Is it possible for local or national brand?

MB help clients to address a broad range of business questions concerning their brand, media, and communication strategies

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Our Clients…

RAJNISH TULI │APRIL 2015

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Brand Architecture in the Hospitality Industry