| |
Back to basics
 The
list shown on the right is from the Four Seasons Hotel website,
proudly flaunting the exhaustive range of amenities in their rooms.
Wow. The list shown on the Hilton website is similar as you might
imagine and, not surprisingly, so are the lists for most of the
other comparative hotel chains.
What has become obvious by its omission is the bed. Yeah, remember
the bed? When the first entrepreneur came up with the idea of
'a place to sleep away from home', I just bet he put a bed in
a room and assumed he had the customer's needs covered. Along
comes competition and somewhere between then (probably Biblical
times) and today, the bed has all but been forgotten. Now, every
major hotel chain is differentiating with their extras - which
can't be easy with cost pressures and eroding margins. How much
can you continue to throw in?
The smart folks at Westin, however, likely while trying to figure
out what new amenity to add to their room, happened on the bed.
I can almost imagine the scene… with little space left in
the room for the next 'extra', somebody on the creative team suggests
getting rid of the bed to create some of the needed space. That's
when the lightning strikes from above…
Oh my God - the bed! We had forgotten the bed. And so was introduced
to us The Westin Heavenly Bed®. Now the cornerstone of their
differentiation and marketing thrust, the initiative has been
so successful that you can buy all the bedding components on the
Westin website. And Nordstroms, that pearly-gated retailer, sells
the linens in their stores with the Westin Heavenly Bed® name.
That's all good branding.
What would the brand coach suggest?
Old friends are a brand's worst enemies. The very people who are
entrusted to care for the brand are always anxious to bring something
new and fresh to the equation - mistakenly thinking that everybody
else is as bored with the status quo as they are. Next, add to this
boredom the fact that they're way too close to see the obvious,
and you have the makings of a hotel without beds.
Stay in touch with your basics. Revisit your brand foundation regularly.
Somewhere back in the founding of the organization, embedded in
the Core Purpose, is the essence of the business, of the brand -
use it to guide your decisions. It's human nature to wander, it's
good branding to stay focused.
P.S. Hey Tim Hortons, remember that you were about not just a fresh,
but also a quick cup of coffee? If you add one more extra onto your
meal menu, we'll never get to the counter. You're not Wendy's. They
just own you.
Download
Adobe Acrobat
|
