Branding: 5 Steps to Unique
The iconic swoosh, the golden arches and the bitten apple are three of the topmost recognizable logos in the world. I did not even give you the company behind them and you already know I am referencing Nike, McDonalds, and Apple. While a logo is a part of an identity as a brand, it is simply a graphic symbol that represents that brand. A brand is more than a picture, it is the story of who you want to be, where you want to go, and how you want to be remembered. In the hotel space, we often think of branding belonging to the brands themselves; but every hotel has a unique story to tell. So even if you are under a major flag, do not discredit the value your story can bring to attracting and retaining customers, building loyalty, and ultimately commanding a premium price.
If you have had a chance to read my first insight article “Revenue Management is Dead”, you will remember my little beach front hotel with too many sales managers looking for group business. Through data, we learned we are missing opportunities in leisure transient business. We decided to remove one of the sales positions and focus on digital marketing to attract new business, but what does this mean? We can spend money on all the standard metrics like paid advertising, SEO, email marketing. Or go big and hire influencers, a public relations firm, and start a podcast. All these ideas are great, except for one thing…these are all tactics. You need to start with who you are before you can try to sell your story.
When I purchased my beach front hotel, in one of the storage rooms we found boxes of charts and maps of the ocean floor. After some quick research, we learned that the original owner of the land where the hotel was built had a hobby of collecting maps of the ocean floor. He was always hopeful of finding an anomaly that would lead him to a great discovery. This story gives us a fun and unique way to position the property apart from other hotels. Even though we have a prominent flag attached to our hotel, our history and story can set us apart for that traveler looking for an experience. Now when we deploy our tactics of content updates, SEO, and paid advertising; we need to center it around this experience of finding discovery. That discovery could be as easy as self-healing through meditation or as exotic as finding buried treasure. Whatever direction we decide to go, it needs to pull that story through.
I can hear you now, beachfront with a quirky past is easy and you are right, it is. Let’s look at a few different verticals of hotels and see if we can strategize branding. Here are 5 key questions you can ask in your next strategy meeting to start the conversation about branding:
What vertical is my hotel positioned in? There are several different types of hotels, from corporate, to leisure to group, and then from luxury, to independent, to economy. One of the first steps is to identify where you fit.
Where is my hotel located? Are you in the middle of a major city, next to a beach, or a roadside extended stay hotel? You need to identify where you are located and own it. You do not have to have a sexy beach front hotel to have brand awareness.
Are there any unique factors or history about my location? Was your hotel converted from an old hospital? Does your city have a unique selling feature like an amusement park, are you the only hotel for the next 100 miles? All of these are considered unique selling points that you can adapt into your brand.
What are the core values of the hotel? Although fourth on the list, I find this one to be the biggest. What does the hotel care about and how do you want to convey the message to create a memorable experience. Your flagship brand may have values that you can pull through or perhaps your management company has some core values that you want to build on, but here your hotel needs to ensure it has one or two of its own values that they see as important that they want to share with their guests.
What story do you want to tell? Here is where you get to be creative. You know what your hotels is, where it is, and who it is now. Remember that you want to use this to engage with your guests to create memorable experiences
Armed with these 5 questions, you can now begin to build out your brand. Start to write out your story, it can be 3 or 4 sentences. Do not be ashamed to let AI help you with this. Pick your favorite platform and put in the key elements from your answer to the five questions. You may be surprised to see what it can generate. Then keep this close at hand with your mission statement, they should work together. Spending a strategy call on branding is essential for success. Knowing who you are and where you want to go will keep you focused on rolling out successful tactics to execute your brand and mission statement. If you get stuck, reach out. I would love to connect with you for 30 minutes and see how I can help!
**Bonus Leadership Tip**
Branding does not just work in business; personal branding is just as important to who you are and where you want to go in life and your career. You can use these same five questions to ask yourself what your personal brand is and how you want the world to see you. Having a strong personal brand will help you to get recognition, get a raise, get promoted, or finally land that amazing job you have always wanted. It is something you should always be building on and ensure that you protect. For personal branding, here are the same five questions but revised to help you get started:
Who am I?
Where am I at in life and where do I want to go?
What makes me unique?
What are my core values that I refuse to compromise?
What story do I want to tell?
Once you have the answers to these questions, you can build a personal vision statement and a value proposition. Knowing who you are and what you can offer will help you to make sound decisions about your career and personal life without feeling like you are making compromises. Below I have included an example of my personal mission statement and a value proposition statement.
