The Power of Building a World-Class Experiential Hospitality Brand
By Isaac French
Last week we talked about the art of hospitality and how making people feel great is the greatest value you can create in your business, even if you're not in traditional hospitality.
Today, I want to continue that thought and how it translates to creating a world-class brand.
What exactly does brand even mean? And how important is it?
Everything.
And completely.
Let me put it this way: The brand is the business. Not something attached to it. Brand is the totality of all customer experiences with the business.
Everything a customer sees and touches shapes the brand. If you're a brick and mortar business (like hospitality), this includes everything from cleanliness of bathrooms to store (or property) layout. From team members (and even their apparel) to print marketing material.
If you're a landscape or boutique hotel, this includes first impressions of the property, messaging, housekeeping and maintenance staff, welcome gift, and on and on...
Every customer touchpoint shapes the brand, and it either adds value or takes it away.
Remember, we talked about creating those magical moments for your guests, and the emotional connections that are built when you successfully pull it off. These are critical elements of the brand you want to build. Because remember, it's all about how you make guests feel.
Yes, you can certainly contribute to this with a stellar, meticulously designed landscape, structure and furnishings. But remember, this is hospitality, and the heart and soul of hospitality is human connection.
We discussed the importance of giving your staff the exact same hospitality and experience you want your guests to have.
Team culture is the fertile soil that helps grow a brand. Strong, clear and understood culture sets up growth of a great brand. And vice versa: culture that is unsure of its emotional vision and values will never yield an enduring brand.
Here's a one-liner worth memorizing: Endearing brands are also enduring brands. This is why it's so important to create that personal connection, which can be baked into every guest interaction, be it the personalized automated messages or face-to-face encounters with the onsite staff.
It’s ok to systematize this, to a degree.
The hearts of employees are the most powerful branding tool ever. Investing in building an inspired, cared-for team that is emotionally engaged and empathetic to guests will yield massively more successful results than any high-budget, media-weighted marketing campaign.
(Plus, a brand that tells its own story is just less powerful than when customers or members of the media tell those stories. There's a certain kind of authenticity that just doesn’t happen through advertising.)
So how do you build a world-class brand?
Brick by brick. Guest experience by guest experience. By creating a property like no other, and then delighting each and every guest with small but thoughtful surprises.
The result? Well, somebody else already said it best: "RAVING FANS."
Now the inspiration for this topic came mostly from a book I recently read called "Covert Cows and Chic-fil-A" written by their retired CMO, Steve Robinson. Great read.
They ran this playbook to build a brand that revolutionized the fast-food industry and led to massively outsized returns + unprecedented customer loyalty.
Standard Chick-fil-A drive-thru lines
Whether you're selling fried chicken sandwiches, or exclusive, experiential accommodations, you have the opportunity to create lifelong relationships and word-of-mouth evangelists for your brand.
Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful marketing ever. Period.
To earn it, you've got to do things worth talking about.
Chick-fil-A found lots of out-of-the-ordinary ways to do this (the cows campaign, "my pleasure," free food for first 50 customers, and so many other great examples from the book).
And so did Eleven Madison Park, the restaurant ranked #1 in the world which we discussed last week.
This is all pretty basic stuff, honestly, and yet so few companies truly understand the opportunity here. We had guests return 4 times in a 12 month period at Live Oak Lake, and each time they brought new friends / family!
Why?
The Live Oak Lake brand.
That's also how we were able to exit for $1M/key.
All those intangible efforts spent designing every detail of the property, showcasing it on social, carefully crafting every touchpoint, and assembling and training the perfect team paid off handsomely (and was also deeply rewarding in a personal way).
So go out there and build a hospitality brand worth talking about. Just genuinely care for others. It's genuinely noble (and highly lucrative).
Alright, enough rambling:)
I'd love to hear what you're thinking, so hit that reply button and LMK.
Have a great week!
—Isaac