Chapter 18. branding, what makes you stand out? What is branding brands are a distinctive symbol that identifies your independent hotel resort in or bed and breakfast and is used in business, marketing and advertising. Successful branding is the key to outdoing the competition and creating guest loyalty. And it's not something that should be taken lightly. It requires careful consideration of your mission, creative thinking, and what compels someone to want to speak with you and to do business with you. It is more than the look and feel of your site or your website.
It's a statement of who you are and how you can add value to your guests. Branding is about getting your potential customers to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem. The objectives a good brand will include delivers the message clearly confirms your Integrity connects your target guests emotionally motivates them to choose your property solidifies your guests loyalty. To succeed in branding, you must understand the needs and the wants of your customers and potential customers. And this can be invaluable as the struggle for customers increases in a tighter economy. It's important to spend time investing in research, defining and building your brand.
Then integrating your brand strategies through your company and at every point of public contact. You might have a brand that you're very happy with. Does it fulfill the objectives I mentioned? Don't trust your own opinion on this. Ask around. Ask your employees, guests, friends, and business associates.
Your branding might be perfect for your property or it might need a little tweaking or it might be time to start from scratch. If you wish to tweak a bit or start over, where should you begin? You have to ask yourself, What qualities, values and experiences Am I offering my customers. In order for your branding to seem dependable, and be successful, you need to project a truthful image of what your property is attempting to provide. But before you can do that, you have to express your company's mission so that you know what makes you unique from your competitors. Think about the following questions.
Why did you start this business? What goals do you want to achieve? Who are the guests you want to attract? What makes your company different from other properties? Do any of these questions sound familiar? These questions were from exercises in series one, your hospitality, property organizational structure and you should have the answers.
If not, it's a good idea to review the series. decide how you want your country To see you aim for your customers to think about your brand your property, almost like a living, breathing person they can trust. They need to feel comfortable with the idea of choosing your property when they have so many other options available. At this point, you should have a mission in place. So you have to decide how you would like to project your mission. You can do this by offering your customers a reliable, completely trustworthy, and safe choice that will never let them down.
This is the time for you to do your research. Analyze your competition. Find out what other properties are offering and decide how your property can differentiate yourself from them. In addition, you ought to know your rivals Forte's and failings, your property may benefit from knowing this information and using it to distinguish your property from the competition. identify your strengths. Now that you recognize your competition's, Forte's and features If you're able to center on your property strengths, perform a target market analysis, learn from it and utilize it to your advantage.
This is a valuable tool to confirm that your company's strengths are in fact crucial to your target market. Once you've recognized your Forte's and what strengths are significant to customers, you'll be able to think about ways to involve them in your branding campaign and successfully market them to the world. Talk to your customers. It is essential you talk to your guests. You want to hear feedback, if your brand is clear, and if necessary, how the message could be improved. Think Like a customer.
When you're choosing a hospitality property to stay. What do you look for? How do you feel when you're staying at another property? Think about what your customers want to feel and design your brand to help them feel that way. So they want to feel safe. Smart Unique, powerful, responsible.
When choosing the feelings your customers want, you need to develop your brand to arouse these feelings in all the design, marketing and copy. This can be done using language colors and design your brand. Make your property truly represent what your brand identifies with you. For instance, if one of the traits of your brand identifies your company with its politeness, be polite. This means every employee from the receptionist all the way up to the CEO has to live your brand. Now it's time to choose a design plan.
Think about your target guests. How does your competition brand themselves? Your brand needs a look that stays consistent with your brand mission and language. You have to decide Are you progressive and sleek, fun and vibrant, conventional and classic Next you have to determine your customers demographics. Create a memorable tagline or slogan, choose your brand's colors, design or upgrade your logo. I'll talk more about this in upcoming chapters.
Involve your employees in your branding. Make sure your employees know the importance of your brand as well as how and why you have chosen the brand. They have to be on board with your branding to be effective. Ask for their feedback on any new uniform design. How they believe your property is looked at by guests. Take your opinion seriously.
From here on everything your business does will be linked to your brand. Okay, all is well and good. You have a new tagline, new logo, new signage, new uniforms is that if you have to backup your brand with a great product, if your branding message sounds incredible, but you're not able to deliver on your promises. Your guests will come twice. The first and the last time. If you have a great product and deliver on it consistently, you will quickly gain your customers trust.
In time, the word will be spreading about the quality of your service, and your brand's name will soon speak for itself. For your brand to work, you have to have consistency and to have consistency. You have to have a working organizational structure in place and excellent employees. A couple of things to keep in mind if you're tweaking or rebranding. If you have a box of old brochures, don't put stickers on them, recycle them and get new ones. think if I received these from someone, but I'd be impressed.
Avoid jargon if possible. Some of these terms might be familiar to you, but not familiar to your clients. Focus on niche market. You can't be all things to all people. So don't even try a thought. Be patient with your brand, be consistent and put people first.
Most people prefer working with businesses that are people oriented and care about their customers and employees.