I just lately got here throughout this model pyramid chart. Whereas incomplete, I discover it’s fairly helpful to check the varied lodges of a number of teams of their classes.
—However, wait a minute, do you know that that is simply an excerpt from the entire e-newsletter that’s out there here? Despatched out as soon as per week, unique viewpoints, insights and attention-grabbing issues to learn.—
A 12 months in the past, I shared some ideas on how the hotel industry struggles to build genuine brands. I argued that the majority “manufacturers” in hospitality are manufactured identities with little depth or long-term funding behind them. Regardless of intelligent names and shiny brochures, lodges too usually lack the persistent narrative and constant execution that true brand-building requires.
Since then, I got here throughout the “Resort Manufacturers Pyramid” (introduced by the CEO of Leonardo lodges, to offer credit score the place credit score is due). This framework tries to place the manufacturers based on their place within the high quality and expertise spectrum. For customers, a minimum of, it brings a little bit of readability.
Now, as an alternative of squinting at a laundry checklist of unfamiliar resort sub-brands per “holding firm” and making an attempt to guess their defining traits, the pyramid helps us see the place every providing matches into the general market. It’s not excellent—some model nuances nonetheless really feel arbitrary—nevertheless it’s a step towards one thing tangible. In a world the place Marriott, Hilton, Accor, and IHG spawn new model identities at will, this easy, structured hierarchy is likely to be the closest factor we now have to significant differentiation.
Don’t get me fallacious: this doesn’t resolve the basic downside I highlighted final 12 months. Creating a real model nonetheless calls for a transparent narrative, relentless consistency, and fixed reinforcement—efforts the resort trade usually shies away from. The pyramid received’t magically rework a scattershot method right into a targeted model technique. But it surely does a minimum of assist us, as customers, navigate the chaos, making it a bit simpler to “get” what a Kimpton or a Sofitel would possibly imply within the grand scheme.
Ultimately, many resort manufacturers stay wrappers for funding autos, reasonably than deeply constructed, consumer-centric identities. The Resort Manufacturers Pyramid doesn’t resolve that, nevertheless it’s a reminder that there are methods to deliver a measure of logic and comparability to a world the place model constructing continues to be too usually an afterthought. Possibly that’s a begin.
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