Brand experiences are made up of a million dynamic, complex puzzle pieces, each with its own unique shape that connect to create a whole. For one international hotel chain, which had grown into hundreds of properties and multiple brands, the puzzle pieces of the overall experience weren’t quite connecting. The company knew it wasn’t realizing its fullest potential—the organizational structure was no longer ideal, resulting in varying guest experiences across properties. They weren’t doing the best they could do and it was having an impact on the brand as a whole.
We defined a few guiding principles, built from tenets of each ideal experience, that were then used to create a full brand experience definition.
The client came to Continuum requesting a revised brand experience; a tool that could be shared with every franchise to empower local management to elevate the guest experience while tailoring services to each individual market. More importantly, we determined the need for a comprehensive brand strategy.
Through extensive ethnographic research across multiple continents, Continuum worked to develop a deep understanding of the wants and needs of actual hotel guests and translate them into specific experiential journeys that accounted for multiple guest desires.
We defined a few guiding principles, built from tenets of each ideal experience, that were then used to create a full brand experience definition and to reshape the brand’s overall customer service experience.
To communicate the brand experience definition as well as the guiding principles to stakeholders, Continuum developed an interactive online tool that guides and trains the global staff. Called the Brand Compass the interactive site offers actionable, insight-driven strategies while enabling all properties to maintain a cohesive brand presence.
The Brand Compass is a rich and dynamic way to identify guest experiences and now acts as a lens through which many brand decisions, large and small, are made. Since 2004, Continuum and the client have leveraged the tool to create a proposition for a ground-up property, design new brand hallmarks and develop unique opportunities to engage and delight guests across all of its properties.
