When you think of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Canyon Ranch Spa or Blackberry Farm Resort, you immediately know what they’re all about. Though each one is unique, these hospitality icons are similar in that they’ve created a successful brand for themselves, To achieve this level of branding took hours upon hours of thoughtful planning and years of consistent reputation building. But how do you achieve brand status? Check out the suggestions below of where to start and how to proceed from our hospitality branding agency.
5 Ways to Build a Lodging or Venue Brand
1. Create Your Mission Statement
Let people know who you are with a well crafted overview of the business. What are your goals? What is your purpose? Why are you doing all of this? Your mission statement should easily answer these questions with succinct clarity.
2. Define Your Values
Decide what you believe in and what you stand for. People can see right through a business that’s just in it for the money. To have a true soul to the brand, you need to have solid legs to stand on.
3. Craft Your Visuals
This is where the vision starts to come to life! Work with professionals to create all visual and tactile parts of the business. From logo creation and corporate color choices, to signage and décor, you should find companies who have examples that you connect with when building your hospitality brand.
4. Practice What You Preach
Now that you have told the world who you are and what you’re all about, make sure you follow through. Ensure that all of your staff is on board and that they understand they are an extension of you. We also suggest creating a style guide which contains all of the above information. It is a great way to make sure your image and message maintains consistency. Whether it’s for your employee handbook, for local relationships, or for published pieces, it will always be a place you can return to in order to keep your hotel brand on track.
5. Promote Yourself with Purpose
After your dream business is created, you need to maintain that level of enthusiasm to keep the positive forward motion. Continue to promote your business in a variety of ways that works with your brand. A few must-dos include; maintain impeccable customer service, follow up with proper reputation management, keep up with customer communication via social and email marketing, and align yourself with a cause or charity you believe in.
It’s Not a Race, Enjoy the Journey!
Feel overwhelmed? Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this all overnight, or all at once. You can certainly start small and tackle the process in manageable phases. This is exactly what our client Stoney Creek Farm chose to do. The owners started with a piece of property and a dream. Their seed of an idea was fueled by their desire to create a place to honor the land itself, but allow guests and the community the opportunity to relax, refresh and renew. So far, White Stone has assisted the owners with their mission statement and values, provided insight on the logo design, created a style guide, and crafted an interim website with a project overview and the ability to collect email addresses for future marketing. In the future, we plan to develop a full website as the project progresses. We invite you to follow along with their progress at stoneycreekfarm.com!
Let White Stone Marketing Help Guide You From Business Idea to Brand Status
Having been marketers for the independent lodging and wedding industries for over 25 years, our expert team has had their hands in every type of hospitality property. We know what works and what doesn’t, and we can cull that knowledge to assist you with all aspects of your hotel branding. From the beginning stages of curating a mission statement and logo creation, to continuing support with blog and email creations, and on into the future with reputation management, we will be your partner in success! Contact us today to get started.