Relevant Brand Management?

August 2nd, 2011

The following thirteen new brands were introduced in the past month. This now adds up to an astounding 92 new hotel brand announcements in the past 12 months.

Dusit D2 Pasadena Hotel
Amalfi Hotel Chicago
Eastin Easy Hotel
U Hotels & Resorts
Eaton Smart New Delhi Airport Transit Hotel
Castelfalfi Resort in Tuscany
Centara Grand Nusa Dua Resort & Villas
Hemingway Hotels and Resorts
Concierge Hotel
Hotel Diva
The Nolitan
Z New York Hotel
New Hotel by the Greek Yes! Hotel Group

Meanwhile, at a recent Cornell Brand Roundtable (June 8, 2011), a dozen participants were invited to lead eight different sessions to discuss key insights for successfully measuring and managing brands. Professor Chekitan Dev of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration said “Managing brands successfully has become the key priority for hospitality business leaders and we wanted to present the science and art that supports excellent brand management, which includes every aspect of the brand…. We discovered that brand value currently accounts for a significant portion of market capitalization, and maximizing the value of this “asset” must be a key priority for the leadership of every organization. We learned that brands must be relevant, authentic and differentiated to earn a premium.

Impertinent Question: How many of the 92 newly-announced brands are relevant, authentic and differentiated?

Stanley Turkel

Stanley Turkel is a Virginia-based hotel consultant specializing in hotel-related expert witness cases and asset management. He was designated as the 2014 and 2015 Historian of the Year by Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. To order his books go to www.stanleyturkel.com and click on “books”:

-“Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry”
-“Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York”
-“Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi”
-“Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf”
-“Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry”
-“Built To Last: 100+ Year Old Hotels West of the Mississippi”
-“Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher"

Comments

August 2, 2011 - 17:17pm

Answer

Stan asks: "Impertinent Question: How many of the 92 newly-announced brands are relevant, authentic and differentiated?"

Un, none.

August 3, 2011 - 13:45pm

Mike is right. All a new opening shows is that market research

supports a new unit investment. Managing the new unit is maybe not the same as managing the brand, but they are interdependent.

Personally, I like the idea that big investors think high end hotels and resorts have a good present tense prospect. That kind of entrepreneurial optimism will lead to more jobs and the re election of President Obama. What on earth would have come of us if we had a "moment" like we are just living through and the President was a George Bush or Mitt Romney who had no clue what to do about anything because they never ever had to deal with doing anything in real life?

Unless of course this was all just a manufactured scare to try to slow down recovery in the hope of somehow defeating President Obama in his re election year. Nah. The Republcans wouldn't do that to us, would they?