The Result from Branding and Theming in the Hospitality Industry - Case Study Example

Branding and Theming in Hospitality Industry Number Branding and Theming in Hospitality Industry In today’s business world, every industry is striving to cope with the dynamism of the competitive world. Businesses are faced with the challenge of attracting and retaining their customers. Competition and present economic standards have completely changed the entire concept of business transactions, consumer behavior and customers expectations. Previously, customers used to buy the needed products and services to meet the functionality utility only. However, this has since changed because the end users have had superior expectations than before. The customers today find it necessary to gain some memorable and pleasant experiences connected to the items bought or services used (Mittal & Kamakura, 2000). This has resulted to individuals developing a choosy attitude towards their preferences in both the goods and services businesses. One of the industries that have been experiencing these changes is the hospitality industry. Customers have created different perceptions with respect to the hotels they visit with regard to the quality of services extended to them. The main objective of this report is to explore the changes that result from branding and theming in the hospitality industry. Branding The success of any product or service in the business world is based on being unique in terms of appearance, utility and recognition. Many successful goods and services are known across the globe due to the ability to stick into the customers minds. This ultimately makes such a product a market leader. These products have positively differentiated themselves from the rest of the competition in the market. Branding is constructing that entity niche in the customers mind and owning it. Therefore, branding is the complete effect that creates an unforgettable identity of a product. A brand is defined as a name, term or symbol or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services on an organization that differentiate them from those of their competitors. Therefore, a brand can be seen as a source of promise to a customer that promises relevant differentiated benefits and confidence that provide a road map during a confusing variety of choices in the markets (Clifton et. al, 2009). The 7 Days Group Holdings Limited is a brand to reckon with. It represents a very fast growing brand of national economy hotel chain across the world. The hotel has over nine hundred and forty four hotels in operation. The brand is known to be one of the most successful single brand hotel chains with the highest number of new affiliate hotels within the last two years. Due to its first class services offered to its customers, there has been an ever growing numbers of loyal customers to the brand. Branding in the hospitality industry is crucial since it aims at generating influence and control of perception and associations from their target customers minds in order to carry out more activities and perform better in the competitive world. This is enhanced by the creation of brands that present the hospitality industry as distinctive, trusted, reliable, and exciting. However, the absolute control over these brands is not possible due to the dynamic business environment that presents external influences. Furthermore, other factors such as intelligent use of interior design, advertising, marketing, service proposition and individual’s culture also affect the branding process of these hospitality industries (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). As part of the hospitality industry, hotels are businesses that associate their success to branding. A triumphant hotel branding program is based on distinguishing a hotel as unique. The effectual branding of a hotel forms a perception that there is no any other hotel quite like this particular one. At this point, the distinction is not limited to the prestige, services or location but the customers’ belief that what is being offered is exceptional. Therefore, the hotel industry has firmly embraced and accepted the value of branding as a crucial component of its marketing strategy. This is due to the broad hotel brand segmentation in the industry. This has led to the creation of multiple brands by the hotel companies in order to serve multiple market segments (Bailey& Ball, 2006). The premise behind the segmentation strategy lies on the fact that a brand name is part of the procedure of giving tangibility to the intangible by providing the customers with fundamental information about the products and services provided. In this regard, hotels consider the brand value to be based on potential visitors, the brand awareness, the customers’ perception of the quality provided and the overall customer satisfaction. In the recent years, there has been a notable growth of hotel branding that leads to adding value to the companies too (Clifton et. al, 2009). This is because well-managed hotel brands are inclined to gain growing market share. Moreover, there are various strategies used by companies to manage their brands. In this case, parent hotel companies may choose to take varied advances to manage individual brand identity. Some hotel companies choose to comprise of its corporate name in most of its brands. On the other hand, some parent companies choose to have individual brand names for each subsidiary hotel. Therefore, each hotel stands on its own without including the parent company name (Healey, 2008). In other cases, various chains of hotels take different approaches to logos and classify information for their hotel brands. Some of the well known hotels in the world use similar consistent sign designs for their comfort inns, suites, and other brands. The family approach to the designs distinguishes the brands from each other. They also assist in identifying the brand families as all being part of a unified organization in addition to differentiating them from all the other competitors. To be effective, the brand should always portray consistency. For the inveterate brand names of hotels persist in business after being reinvented. A hotel should also seek to create a brand personality. The brand personality should be salient. This would enable it to be more concrete in the minds of end users and thus reduce the extent of intangibility associated with the hotel brand. The creation of the personality for the intangible entity relates to the consumer emotions. This affects the consumer behavior since a brand, as mentioned earlier, involves a customer’s mind and emotions towards a business. The success of the 7 Days hotels can be attributed to the high number of occupancy rates in their hotels. This is due to the reputation of high levels of customer satisfaction. In addition, hotel brands are also supposed to be extreme and vibrant in order to remind customers of the pleasant experiences they had. In totality, a hotel brand represents a relationship with the visitors. This kind of relationship is made as the customers get to know a brand. There are various ways through which a customer can get to know a brand of a hotel. For instance, the customer may have chosen the hotel at random and sought its services. Furthermore, he or she may be used to utilizing the facility provided. The relationship between the customer and the hotels brand grows stronger as the visitor continues to use their services. In an event that a hotel hosts many guests, their main objective turns out to be providing memorable experiences to them in addition to selling their services. This provides whole new experiences to visitors who choose to stay in the hotels. Moreover, the hotel brands are also attached to some value with respect to the hotels. This is because a brand affects a hotel’s occupancy. Some brands have superior net operating incomes than others. However, the effects caused by brand names are only significant to the middle level categories of hotels. It does not affect the luxury class or the bottom category of these hotels. In addition, the brand affiliation affects hotel revenue. This is because customers use the brand name as a cue for quality. Therefore, the customers are usually ready to pay high prices for brands they perceive as of high quality. Many successful hotels across the world record increases in their value of going-concern due to brand affiliation, the recognition of their brand names and the reputation of high quality services. Furthermore, a well-managed hotel brand can easily discourage competition thus enhancing the market share and dominance. The brands are also known to create value in different ways. This depends on the consumer-based brand equity that consists of brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality and brand image. The hotels benefit from brand awareness and image. The creation of the brand equity results from marketing efficiency and improved performances associated with the brand. The brand equity also allows a chain to expand the brand in diverse markets. Therefore, well-entrenched brands are intangible assets possessed by hotels and serve as a source of strategic advantage that creates monetary value due to their capacity to create cash flows. These cash flows are normally experienced as a result of customer loyalty, brand extension and enhanced marketing for the services offered (Jevons & Gabbott, 2000). Brand loyalty Brand loyalty is the vital goal a business sets for its branded products. It is important for any business to take the necessary steps in order to create and maintain brand loyalty among its customers. This is equally important to the hotel industry as a business. Brand loyalty is a customer’s partiality to purchase a specific brand in a given product category. This happens whenever a customer perceives that a particular brand offers the right product features, a high level of quality and at the right price. In the hotel industry, creating brand loyalty ensures regular visits that translate to good business and increased profits. A customer’s perception towards a hotel may lead to a complete change in his or her buying habits. Under normal circumstances, the customers tend to make trial purchases of services from a given hotel (Harris, 2003). The customer gauges the services provided and their respective prices. If such a customer becomes satisfied with the experience, he or she forms a habit that leads to repeated visits to the place. This is because this customer feels that he/she is familiar with the product. Whenever an individual becomes loyal to a given brand, they acquire a given mindset that assures them of their commitment to the brand. In addition, the customers feel that they would be willing to pay high prices for this particular brand over other available brands in the market. This may also lead to the same customers recommending the brand to other people around. In the same note, brand loyalty is important to a hotel since it ensures high occupancy and visitations that translate to higher sales volume for the services provided. This assures the growth and expansion of such a hotel. Moreover, brand loyalty helps a hotel to possess the premium pricing ability. This is because the brand loyalty makes the customers less concerned with any price changes. In this case, most of these loyal customers would willingly pay more for the same services they receive. This results from the perception that the particular brand they are loyal to always provide unique value as compared to the other providers in the market. Hotels that create and maintain loyal customers have the advantage of minimizing costs related to advertising, marketing and promotions. This is because such customers are less concerned with the competitors promotions meant to sway their opinions with regard to these hotels. Furthermore, the costs associated with attracting new customers are minimized since the hotels easily retain the existing loyal ones (East, Malcom & Vanhuele, 2008). On the other hand, hotels go through different processes to create brand loyalty. However, having a favorable brand attitudes are the main determinants of brand loyalty. This means that customers must like the products offered by a business in order to develop the much needed loyalty. This entails converting occasional purchasers into brand loyalists. That is, the buyer habits are changed and made regular. Therefore, the hotels seeking to create brand loyalty always remind the potential consumers of the value of their visits and purchases. They also encourage these customers to continue visiting their hotels in future. In order to encourage repeat purchases, then advertisements should be done prior to and after the sale of any services (Solomon, 2010). There are various forms of loyalty that exist. One of the types of loyalty is the emotional propensity towards a product or service. This refers to the regular tendency to fulfill the like or dislike that influences the options of the available products. Therefore, the customer possesses a value-expressive approach that causes impact to the available options. Secondly, there is the evaluative propensity to a brand. In this case, a purchaser has positive partiality towards merchandise that is defined by its usefulness. The usefulness may be in terms of performance, resilience or prestige. This form is simply determined by the approach and prospects. The third type is the behavioral propensity towards a brand. The purchaser of a service has a bias on a product with respect to the buy and use activities. This involves the physical activities like selecting a product, the searching and real paying of the merchandise. Therefore, this is chiefly determined by the trade experiences of the end user of the brand (Helmsley, 2000). Theming in hospitality industry Customers make purchase decisions rationally. However, they also involve emotions where an individual would with to feel satisfied for any products or services paid for. Whenever a customer is searching for a hotel, he or she is bound to pick the option that provides quality services at reasonable prices. The feelings are normally determined by what the individuals see and feel. Therefore, most visitors of hotels have raised their expectations towards various themes that are being used to enhance emotional satisfaction (Engel, Blackwell & Kollat, 2008). In addition, there is need for both implicit and explicit themes that encourages customers to become loyal to a hotel. The process through which these hotels are representing customers’ needs and wants through symbols and cultural representations is referred to as theming. Theming represents the most obvious dimension taken by big hotels in order to ensure customer satisfaction. The themed hotels use well known cultural themes to attract customers and make them feel satisfied with the environment that identifies with him or her. The hotels have used various aspects of human life to theme their hotel receptions, guest rooms and suites among other compartments. These themes entail the use of rocks, diverse music genres, sports and other artifacts. Research has proven that most themed hotels have high occupancy as compared to the ones that are not themed. Therefore, theming has become the new challenge facing the existing restaurants. A consistent theme should collect all the components of the expected experience the customers seek and provide them with an efficient manner to captivate their minds (Dube & Renaghan, 2000). The implementation of good themes leads to a change in customers’ sense of reality and affects the emotional reasoning portrayed by the customers. All the themes portrayed by today’s hotels are meant to attract more business for them. For instance, there are successful hotels that theme their environment with the children in mind. These themes attract the kids while providing attractive colors and posters that provide good play items to them. According to a recent research, themed hotels easily retain over 75% of their customer base for a long time (Stephen, 2005). The way forward for our company is the maintenance and improvements in the several sectors of its operations. For instance, due to the high numbers of the customers making online bookings and reservations, the hotel should increase the number or the reservation channels provided to the potential and existing customers. The hotels should also work best to maintain the customer base and keep the competitors at bay. This can be done through the continued provision of the excellent services the hotel has while focusing on the visitors’ core needs and giving them the value for their money. Conclusion There exists a relationship between hotel brands and their market values. Branding of a hotel has significant effects on hotel values and the ways the business is conducted. Hotels may choose individualized or combined branding of their subsidiary hotels as part of marketing strategy. From the above study, we can also learn that hotel owners are required to pay particular attention to branding. This is because the brand name in hotel market value is beneficial for positioning in the vast dynamic market with numerous competitors (Keller & Lehman, 2003). It is also important for the management of such hotels to manage and retain the popularity of their brand names in order to maintain their market share. Therefore, the management should concentrate more on the long-term value of the brand value. Moreover, brand loyalty is a crucial aspect of business the hotels should always put into consideration. Brand loyalty means that the hotels would always have customers who are regular to their services. It is entirely on the hotels and their services to create their brand loyalists (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). The creation of such customers depends on the quality of the services and consumer satisfaction achieved whenever a visitor tries out the services. In a bid to encourage repeated visits by particular customers, the hotels are required to be unique in all aspects of the services provided and the environment. This calls for theming. This is where the hotels always use symbols to represent various impressions to their customers. Themed hotels help the customers to identify with the place. References Bailey, R. & Ball, S 2006, An Exploration of The Meanings of Hotel Brand Equity. The Service Industries Journal, Vol 26 No. 1 pp 15-38 Chaudhuri, A. & Holbrook, M 2001, “The Chain Effects from Brand Trust and Brand Affect to Brand Performance: The Role of Brand Loyaty”, Journal of Marketing, 65(2): 81-94 Clifton et. 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