Brand Management In The Hospitality Industry Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

While working the last seven month for the Park Inn by Radisson I had the unique possibility to see and follow all the steps that are necessary to establish an International Brand in a suburb. Due the fact that I am a member of the Community itself it is very interesting for me to track what the people within the community think about the brand and its positioning. Reading through the diverse articles and the various literatures it is very interesting and fascinating to see what the different stakeholders are and what the impact of the shareholders in the hotel industry can be. A closer look will be taken on the concept of brands, branding in the Hotel Industry itself and on different trends perspectives (consumer and supplier trends). Based on the literature I also took out the term community which I think is one of the most important members of the stakeholders a Hotel in a suburb such as the Park Inn is located can have. I will focus on consulting the people in the community by providing them a questionnaire with different questions about the brand and the awareness of the recently opened hotel in Klosterneuburg. The quantitative work I use will consider at least 50 persons participating in answering the questionnaire and the qualitative work will be covered in form of the literature review. The purpose of this Bachelor Thesis is to find out what the economic factor of the hotel within the community is and how the hotel is seen as a workplace provider and training center. Is it actually is seen as such, and why do people therefore choose the Brand Park Inn? In connection to that it is also very important to find out how much the people in the community are aware of the brand and how they associate the brand with the community.

The Brand Park Inn by Radisson in Central Europe

Brand Management in the Hospitality Industry

The Concept of Brands

The enormous competition between companies characterizes today's economy more than sufficient. The huge variety of products on the market makes it very difficult for the consumers to select the right products for them which fulfill their specific wants and needs. Ongoing globalization and the incredible high advertising efforts of the various companies do their best to make it almost impossible to see through. Obviously the results are struggling companies for existence and perplexed customers.

Therefore Brands have a very important role in the game of organizing the market. Brands help customers to make their decisions. They make the customer understand the product and in the same time they help the product to be conspicuous. A significant numbers of new names have been developed in the last decades and companies have realized the importance and the possible impact of brands. The first chapter will give an introduction of the complexity of brad management. By defining what a brand is and showing the benefits for customers and organizations the reader will get an insight into the stages of brand management (Keller, D.L. 2003).

Definitions

Brand

The practice of branding and brand management is an old one. In the past brands were used as a punishment to mark criminals and in medieval times farmers traditionally used brands for identification reasons and for establishing ownership of their animals. So obviously the original usage of a brand was the correct and easy identification of the various goods. Implementing the concept of branding in business management was revolutionary even though it was nothing new. It opened company's new doors towards the ability to distinguish their products from others. In general it can be said that a brand is the opposite of a generic good. As soon as a company decides to introduce a new product the managers have to share the same opinion I terms of offering the product. They ether introduce it as a brand or anonymously. These examples of the common characterization do unfortunately not show the whole complexity that a brand can imply. There is a huge variety of literature that offers at least the same number of definitions for what a brand is. Regarding to the American Marketing Association a brand can be a sign, a name, a symbol, a design, a term, or a combination of them, with the intention to identify together belonging goods or services of one producer or seller and to differentiate them from the goods or services of competitors. Other definitions characterize the term brand as much more than only names or logos. Brands have a personality; it is a way of doing business. Those different definitions show that brands are far more than only a product or a service. Brands represent what the company actually does and what it really is. Brands are the combined experience including the product and the feeling it creates for the customer (Keller, D.L. 2003).

"A brand is product enriched with a unique identity in order to create a meaningful pint of differentiation from competing products that are designed to satisfy the same need. It mirrors the company`s values, mission, and vision, and uses verbal and graphic tools for representation and facilitation of identification" (Salver, J. 2005).

Branding

Branding of course deducts from the word "brand" and it describes the actual process of marking a product. Branding has at least three purposes; it should show the customer who the product is, what the product does, and why the customer should care about it. Branding does not only provide consumers with better knowledge about the product but it also helps the consumer in his decision making process. It gives goods important differentiating qualities to help the consumer with his decisions. Those qualities are rational or irrational, but it would be perfect if it is a mixture of both (Barlow and Stewart, 2004).

Brand Equity

The reason that gives purpose to branding is what the concept of brand equity tries to describe. Brand equity is the outcomes that occur to a product with its brand name compared with those that would occur if the same product would not have the brand name. Trying to turn a product into a brand is the desired outcome distinguishing it. One definition of brand equity was given by the Marketing Science Institute. " The set of associations an behaviors on the part of the brand's customers, channel members, and parent corporations that permits the brand to earn greater volume or greater margins than it could without the brand and that gives the brand a strong, sustainable, and differentiated advantage over competitors" (Salver, J. 2005).

Therefore brand equity can be explained as the added value to a product which is provoked by mental and behavioral changes caused by branding. In that sense it typifies a combination of assets created by the brand (Keller, D.L. 2003).

There are four major brand asset categories:

Brand awareness

Brand associations

Perceived quality

Brand loyalty

It can be said that an important asset of a brand is loyalty and therefore an important factor of brand strength and value. How branding a product can influence customer loyalty will be explained later in under the point company's benefits.

Brand Functions

The definition of brand equity has shown that the value of a branded product increases. This upcoming section will discuss the functions of a brand and will show company and consumer benefits. Brand functions can be split up into benefits for the companies and into those for the consumer. The advantages of brands for companies and consumers are:

For Clients

For Companies

Product identification

Distinguishing from competitors

Quality indication

Market segmentation

Product recognition

Customer dissatisfaction avoidance

Responsibility to producer

Increases staff and customer loyalty

Possible risk reducer

Possible competitive advantage

Reduces searching costs

More financial return

Client Benefits

There are a couple of benefits the consumer has from a branded product. A branded product helps the consumer to identify goods easily and it provides the information needed. It is also a quality indication because people normally know something about the brand and so they believe that the quality standards remained the same. People tend to buy a product from the same brand if they had a good experience with the previous product. If the consumers know were the product comes from or to which brand it belongs it gives them the feeling of being on the save side because he makes the connection with a prior experience. As already mentioned brands are a sign of quality and so the feeling of security increases. Brands stay for a promise of the producer what customers can expect from the product they buy. Clients can trust this promise very easy because there are certain characteristics in each product that have to be same to guarantee the quality. Therefore a branded product helps the consumer to lower the risk in his decision making process. Branded products reduce the risks of making wrong decisions and being disappointed in the end. There are six common risks that buyers have to take in consideration when making their buying decision for a product:

Functional risk: the performance of the product does not satisfy the client

Physical risk: the product affects the clients well being

Financial risk: low price or bad quality

Social risk: the product does not find acceptance by others

Psychological risk: the product affects the client's well being

Time risk: the client has opportunity costs because of a product failure

A consumer sees the brand of a product as an enormous risk reducer if the product has a special type, a certain price and if it has a unique relevance for the buyer. Of course there are some types of goods which are much more difficult to differentiate than others. In those cases the brand of a product often helps the customer to decide which one to choose. Imagine you have to decide between two four star hotels with the same rate in a city, the first one is a hotel you never heard about and the second one is a world wide well known hotel group. In most cases you would choose the well known company because it reminds you of a positive experience you had in the past. Or you simply choose it because you trust in the name. Consumers have an already defined amount of expectations towards a brand. Normally consumers have some knowledge about a brand which means that they do not have to seek additional information about it.

Some people want to show their own style, individuality or belonging to a certain group of users by purchasing special brands. Brands are used by those users as personality statements towards other people or even to themselves. Brands have the power to let people express their personal freedom. The best examples in that case are Harley Davidson drivers. Most of the people belonging to that particular group are definitely not driving a Harley Davidson because they like the quality of the motor. No, they love driving those motorcycles because they give them feeling of being independent and tough. But that is exactly what the power of brand functions are about. They do not only provide you a perfect working product, they also sell you feelings and belongings (Pringle, H. and Gordon, W. 2001).

Companies Benefits

Brands do not only provide benefits for clients but of course also for companies. Most people will agree that one of the most important benefits if not the most important benefit for a company is that the brand helps to distinguish the product from the once of the competitors. The important point to mention is that even if two products have the same size, the same design, and even the same functions the brand can make the difference why people buy one instead of the other. That allows companies to create a better market segmentation and therefore attract more shares in a target market creating particular customer needs. In some cases it ca be said that a branded good can help the company to avoid any kind of client dissatisfaction because the client associates the brand with a special type of quality and problems handling. That implies that the clients already have an idea of what they can expect from e.g. the hotel they are going to visit and therefore they are less likely to be disappointed. Brands also provide in addition a positive identification within the company. If the company defines the characteristics of their brand it makes it much easier for the employees to understand the purpose that the brand serves. Branding a product creates clear performance outlines for employees which allow them to enhance their job performance. That of course results in more motivation and satisfaction among the staff. This finally leads to more productivity in the company and that leads to more revenue at the end of the day. It is very important to make the employees understand what their purpose in the company is because the more they understand that the more likely they are to develop feelings of belonging to the company. Through those feelings of belonging the commitment towards the employer rises. Satisfied and loyal employees can lead to more satisfied and loyal clients but that depends on how much and often they have contact (Liljander, V. 2000).

Influencing customer behavior is another function of a brand. Every time there is a critical point of decision making a brand can help to decide. Brands add this emotional factor to the clients mind and keep him back from choosing rational. The reason for that was made up far before the decision by advertising, word of mouth, or prior experiences that the client had with the product. Obviously successful brands improve the reputation a company has and enlarges the numbers of customers. As a result the companies overall performance will increase and in additionally a higher price can be realized because customers have money and they are willing to pay much more for known or leading brand than for other ones. Not only the economic value but also the organization as a whole will be reinforced by this customer behavior. To sum up the function of a brand it could be said that a brand is an important source for the competitive advantage of an enterprise (Bruhn, M. 2004).

Hotel Industry and Branding

This chapter will focus on how the concept of branding can be applied in the industry of hotel services. There are some characteristics of hotel services that can make branding much more difficult than in the industry of physical goods. Luckily there are also some conditions arising which help branding to be a bit easier. Of course there are a large number of efforts that have to be managed in order to build a hotel brand. Creating and managing a hotel brand is definitely not one of the easiest things. Maybe this is exactly what makes the whole issue so interesting and worthy for members involved. Projects which are clear and without any apparent obstacles from the beginning might not be that challenging as creating a hotel brand.

Hotel Services Industry

The hotel industry is part of the service industry and is also named the tertiary economic sector. Over the decades this sector has grown very fast and become the most important economic segment in a large number of countries all over the world. By expanding incredibly fast it will not take long and it will have the number one position in the economy worldwide. Apart from the incredible economic importance of services the industry has a lag of 20 years of professional management and marketing in comparison to the manufacturing industry. In order to provide services with the right amount of attention in the future it is important open up the eyes and look forward. But it should not be forgotten to focus on professional management and marketing (Morrison, A.M. 2002).

According to Scharf, A. & Schubert, B. services are defined as actions which are provided by one party to another party and they can be divided into personal and non-personal. Teaching, every kind of medical service, and hospitality service are personal services. The great level of diversity is a characteristic of the hotel industry. It has car rentals, tour operators, travel agencies, lodging services, and different food and beverage services.

Trends in the Industry

The hotel industry is characterized by ongoing changes. The numbers of trends in supply and demand on which companies have to react are very high. It is not only the fastest growing industry but also one of the fastest changing once in the matter of trends. The major trends can be named as follows:

Customer Trends

Supplier Trends

Increasing flexibility in demand

Greater competition

Expect higher quality

More concentrated market

Risk avoidance

Ongoing globalization

Increased concern for price/quality ratio

Increasing segmentation of services

Increasing differentiation of demand

Trends of Customers

The growing demand for shorter holidays and later bookings makes the increasing flexibility in demand the number one and therefore most important customer trend. Out of the reason that the average number of nights per stay went down it can be seen that people tend to travel to more. Nowadays it is nothing new anymore that people fly to Paris or Rome over the weekend and if hotels want keep track with those trends they have take this guest behavior into consideration while planning. A couple of years ago it was much easier for hotels to calculate and plan their forecast because people booked their rooms more in advance. Today hotels have to calculate and plan on last years figures which do not make the whole thing easier. Therefore the increasing flexibility on demand results in a higher risk.

Customers have never been as demanding as they are today. Clients' level of quality expectations is very high. Enjoying is not only enjoying anymore but it is an expression of identity and personal values. The sentence "You are what you buy" expresses this new human attitude best. The times were the normal satisfaction of needs was considered as the primary driver for decision making is over. What today's customers also take into consideration is the image of a product and what other people think about it. To specify that for the hotel industry it means that more and more upscale facilities are expected in the luxury segment. The fact that travelers have become more experienced is a very important driver of the trend that they become so demanding. The fast growing developments in the telecommunication industry allows the tourists to gain their amount of information about any kind of product. Just think about national geographic or living & travel channels on TV. Those programs added information on top of the expectations or experiences the traveler had before or after travelling. The internet of course also did its best to push this trend. Airlines made it possible by offering low price flights all over the world for almost everyone to fly wherever and whenever he wants. The trend of rising demand for quality goes together with the risk avoiding behavior when making the buying decision. So therefore travelers prefer hotel chains which have known names rather than individually managed businesses in order to keep risks low and quality high. Nevertheless a different trend has arisen were customers become more value-conscious. People have extremely high quality expectations but at the same time they expect the price to be worthy. In other words customers are likely to pay the amount of money the hotel charges, but if they feel that the quality and the facilities they expect are ensured. There is also another trend which shows that there are people who look especially at the price. So the problem that comes up for hotels with that trend is that they face on one side the guests who want the best price and on the other side the guests who want high quality. Hotels have to fulfill the wishes of those two different clients at the same time. Therefore one hotel can offer different standards or services at the same time. Out of the reason that guests have very particular wishes this growing differentiation of customer demand has opened the doors for new products such as business hotels or boutique hotels. Nevertheless today's fast changes of customer behavior make it very difficult or almost impossible for a company to rely on its guest's continuous behavior (Karp, J. 2004).

Trends of Suppliers

Some of the supplier trends are results of the changing customer demands and behavior. As the figure below shows we can see that there is an increasing arrivals rate worldwide with Europe on the first place. Taking into consideration that we had an economic crisis and an increased unemployment rate worldwide we still have a growing arrivals rate. That means that the hotel industry still has an increasing growth rate. At this point it must be said that the hotel industry has a decrease of almost 100% in some parts of the world at the moment which is the result of the latest incidents in some of the Arabic and Asian countries.

 

The biggest problem that the hotel industry faces at the moment is that the capacities available are rising but the demand is decreasing. The hotel market has turned into a buyer's market because supply exceeds demand. The possibilities for the guest to choose from so many different establishments have never as high as it is currently and those establishments are extremely competing for market share. They are not only competing for market share but most of them are competing to survive. There are enough examples of hotels which recently and open and now have to close their doors again. One of those hotels is the Park Inn Vienna Klosterneuburg but this will be discussed later on.

Viewing the whole situation from a hotel's point of view there is an increasing competition within the industry. This trend developed because some hotels started operating across target markets. That means that they started to take other hotels market shares away by simply offering the same services the others did. Business hotels for example which only had business people started to cater leisure individuals or groups in order gain their market shares. This fact makes it for leisure hotels more difficult to hold their market share because they now also have to compete against business hotels beside their normal competitors.

The growing numbers of mergers other kinds of partnerships are another trend which of course results from the existing market conditions. The big losers in that game are the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's). it is very obvious that SME's do not have the necessary resources and power to survive on the market against the bigger ones, at least not in the long run. The only possibilities they have are either to close down business or to sell and be swallowed by the big chains.

Hotel chains increase their market power by buying small enterprises. The result of this ongoing process is obviously, the number of hotel chains increases and the national and international competition as well. The international competition is hardly supported by the steadily increasing air travel. The problem Austria and other industrialized nations in Europe are facing is that they have much higher prices for hotel services than other regions in the world which can offer much lower prices.

The growing segmentation of services is a significant development in the lodging industry. Many hotels provide special services and amenities for their guests such as W-LAN connection in the whole establishment or a spa and recreation area that ca be used by the guests in order to have an unforgettable experience. The range of different types of properties has increased in the last decades. The market offers at moment all-suite hotels, family hotels, business hotels, style hotels, and many more. Those changes in the hotel industry are the supplier's answers to the discussed differentiation of demand (Morrison, A.M. 2002).

Branding as a Need of the Lodging Industry

It is unquestioned that branding is one the most frequent business tools. It is very important to understand that branding is not only possible on physical goods but of course also o services such as hotels provide. The best examples are the existing names of brands like Radisson, Marriott, Intercontinental, and all the others well known establishment. The term brand does not only include tangible goods but also intangible ones such as services are. Only companies which have at least two hotels or more at one or more locations in a country can be named hotel brands. It is very important to brand hotels due their unique characteristics of services. As mentioned before hotel services are intangible and can therefore not be evaluated like physical products. Out of the reason that it is very hard to estimate service attributes and quality there is always a risk in booking a hotel room. Therefore brands can reduce the risk of making the wrong buying decision. It is surely not a guarantor but it definitely can help to reduce risks. Brands stand for a certain quality and special service characteristics. Benefits of a brand are normally known on the market and if not it is the easiest thing to find out which is again a result of their brand images and their brand communication. That explains why branding is so important in the hotel industry. In comparison to the physical good sector hotels benefit more from risk-reducing functions. Another positive outcome of the intangibility of services is that guests forget their experience they had in a hotel pretty quickly. Pictures they might have shot can remind them of their stay but they have nothing else tangible that remains. This could be positive for the hotel if the experience for the guest was bad, but it definitely can be something negative because hotels normally want their guests to come back and stay as an extraordinary experience in the travelers mind. To enjoy hotel services people have to come to the establishment to experience them. The services just remain in the guests mind after leaving the hotel and not using the services provided anymore. So the most important thing for every hotel is to have advertising in a repeating kind of manner. Otherwise they can not stay in the guests or possible clients mind. The advantage in that point belongs to hotel brands which have a greater presence on the market. Non branded establishments have to do more if they want to catch this train.

There are several new trends in the hotel industry which all lead to unfavorable market conditions. Those unfavorable market conditions for hotels and their management have created a national and international competition. This international competition among the various hotels does not cause only high concentration on the market but has also put the consumer into an extremely strong position. There are two possible competitive strategies that hotels can track to survive. The first but not very advisable option is to engage into a price competition with the respective competitors, but it has to be mentioned that this option will fail in the long run because it is very destructive. The other possible track which ca be followed is the strategy of quality. The idea is to catch the customer by focusing on his preferences of quality. Before creating preferences it is important to have a product differentiation which can only be provided by unique attributes that the product has in comparison to others. The product has to be meaningful and it has to satisfy a guest's need that other products do not. With the rising number of competitors the number of offers on the market increased. Not only that the offers are more and more hotels try to imitate other hotels with provided the same services. As it is not possible to protect a employee's smile or the atmosphere in a hotel by law branding helps establishments to differentiate themselves. Branding can help to create customer preferences and it therefore becomes a very important tool in the hospitality industry.

The client trend of being extremely demanding has made branding even more important nowadays. Due to the fact that more and more international chains enter the domestic hotel market it is very important to brand services. By branding services hotels found a way to react on this international competition and to even draw benefit out of this development. Hotels which do not react on this development will sooner or later become victims of this concentration process. In order to provide best service hotels position themselves in the correct market segment. That means that they focus on customer needs and wants very quickly. This ability of fast changing and reacting makes the difference between a branded hotel and a non branded one. They focus on one specific group of people and provide the best service they can at a certain price and a certain quality level.

The brand name can act as a purchase stimulus if the brand achieves good reputation in its market segment for the services provided. To be on the save side and reduce risks and searching costs clients are likely to choose well established brands rather than generic ones. With the increasing air travel popularity and the worldwide growing travel trends hotel brands seem to experience a profitable future. When customers have to travel to another city there might be the risk for them to be disappointed when choosing a hotel room, but concerning the fact that hotel brands have at least two buildings in one city the customer has the possibility to repeat his profit out the risk reducing function of services which are branded. Hotels which are individually managed have to use their good reputation and the quality promised at their location. Hotel brands differentiate themselves by providing the same services on different places. So those hotels have to gain their advantage by an image transfer. Properties belonging together within a brand have to maintain their image by providing the same service without exception. If they manage to do so they will stay successful and travelers will continue to visit them. Operating at the same level of service in different countries with the same quality is the key factor of internationally know brands and their success. It is a no go for those companies to not offer exactly the same services with exactly the same quality all over the world (Henschel, U.K. 2001).

How to Create a Hotel Brand

What building a brand really needs is first of all an extended period of time with an absolute consistency. Otherwise it will never or only hardly reach the level of a brand. Of course brand elements have to chosen in an early stage of developing, but only the unique identity makes the brand be an established one. This idea has to be seen by hotel itself as well as by the most important part of the game which is the guest. A certain guest reputation has to be created in order to reduce customer's risks. Creating brand identity is a very important and essential step in branding. Many other elements have to added to present a brand and furthermore to communicate its identity (Ries, A. and Ries, L. 2000).

Six main steps are essential for creating a hotel brand:

Guide strategic brand analysis

Build brand identity

Choose brand name

Create brand symbol

The brand in words

Employee as a brand element

Brand Analysis

In order to detect the right plan brands must primarily be build in mind. A strategic brand analysis must be conducted. This analysis contains in depth investigations about the external as well as the internal environment of the future brand. This investigation is essential for understanding the competitors, the brand itself and most important the customer the organization wants serve. A strategic brand analysis includes a customer analysis, competitor analysis, and a self-analysis.

Talking about customers the company has to understand customer's needs, wants, and their motivation to act. Therefore seeking information about the customer is highly important for them. Without that information collecting procedure the whole analysis does not make sense. As needs and wants differ from individual to individual it is essential for managers to segment the customers into groups. People's beliefs, values and lifestyle should be taken into consideration for the segmentation. Bes practice has shown that this method has better outcomes than traditional segmentation. Furthermore trends and changes in consumer behavior are very important to look at, because those are things which are continuously changing. A result of that could be to find out new wants and needs which can be taken into consideration by the brand in future. To prevent misunderstandings it has to be clear that this analysis has to include existing guests of the hotel as well as potential clients. By including potential visitors the hotel might investigate the reason why those people do not count to their already existing guests. Those new facts could definitely help the hotel to improve its present performance and hopefully increase its number of guests.

In addition to the customer analysis a competitor analysis has to be conducted in order to find out what they offer, how their performance is and what strategy they follow. To get an insight of the existing market situation it is necessary to look at the advertising messages and customer types the existing brands have. Those things and the images the brands have show in which direction the hotel industry is going at the moment. A SWOT analysis of the direct competitors is an essential point in order to create a brand. This analysis helps to better understand what is working on the market and is worthy to provide and what not. It is important to concentrate on the primary competitors rather than on the others, but that might be difficult sometimes if they are not in the same city or even not in the same country.

Not only the external analysis is as mentioned before is important but also the internal one. Obtaining hidden information from competitors and customers are the difficulties of external research. The internal difficulties are not obtaining information but to be honest about the strength and weaknesses of the company. The organization's reputation on the market has to be clarified and managers have to analyze their services considering what they offer and how it is delivered. For that it is more than important to understand how the customer observes the services in case it differs from the company's point of view. Customer's and company's perception has to be the same in order to create a brand. Company's heritage and value are very important for the internal analysis to create a brand and essential for the next step which is the brand identity (Morrison, A.M. 2002).

Building Brand Identity

To understand a brands identity it might be helpful to imagine a human being. Every human being has its core essence, a physical body, a personality, and normally a basic vocabulary which helps to communicate with other human beings. While people get older their identity matures as well and the same can be said for hotel brands. When starting to create a hotel brand the different characteristics have to be added to ensure its unique shape. A special set of brand elements have to be added to brand to establish its identity. Coming up with this special identity is a very crucial step in building a brand because from then on this is how people will perceive the brand. Once the identity is defined and established it must be clear for everyone involved that it will follow the hotel until its very last day o the market. Therefore this decision has to be done very carefully. To build up customer relationships managers have to create a unique brand identity for their hotel. If they manage to create this unique identity they manage to imply certain brand awareness in the customers mind. Only by being conscious of the brand's identity guests are in the position to differentiate and understand what their advantages of booking a particular hotel instead of another one are.

According to Aaker brand identity has three components:

Core identity

Brand essence

Extended identity

The core identity is the center of a brand which never changes. Containing a hotel's values and beliefs, what it stands for, and its unique competencies. Market trends should not be a reason to change the core identity.

The brand essence can be seen as the soul of a brand. The extended identity on the other side can be seen as the more variable part in comparison to core identity because it contains the brand's slogan for example which can be changed if needed.

Choosing a Brand's Name

The key element of a hotel brand is its name. There is no other hotel in the world using the same name for its establishment. The name is a communication tool and allows the company to tell something about the brand and it enables the guest to recognize a known product. The brand name is the most difficult element of a brand to change. So deciding which name to choose for the upcoming hotel brand is one the most important and fundamental decisions. A brand name should have some qualities like being unique and being easy to pronounce in its possession. It should be avoided to choose a name which is similar to one of the competitors. Confusion should be reduced at all. Nothing worse could happen than being confused with other brands. The whole idea of creating an unforgettable experience would be gone immediately. Furthermore such similarities could end in legal problems due to existing trademarks. Avoidance of similarities by all means should be the device concerning brand names. Finding the right name for a hotel brand is might not be the easiest thing nowadays concerning the number of new brands that are entering the market daily. A brand name has to fulfill three main things. It should be easy to pronounce, everyone should recognize the name, and it should be easy to remember. Especially big hotel chains which operate worldwide are facing the issue of fulfilling all three characters in the various countries they have properties. What has to be considered in foreign countries is the fact of avoiding negative meanings of the brand's name. Not respecting that could result in a rejection of the hotel in some countries. Hotel brands should raise positive association in people's mind.

Creating a Brand's Symbol

The Brand in Words

Employee as a Brand Element