white paper Understanding Luxury in the Hospitality Business
SUMMARY
• What is luxury, and how it is experienced
Marketers of high end and upscale hotel brands are gradually coming to grips with the fact that there is a difference between “traditional luxury” and “modern luxury.” This difference is can be understood and leveraged by understanding the nature of the luxury experience.
• Why traditional approaches to delivering luxury are becoming irrelevant to younger travelers
A quick look at hotel brand advertise-
More importantly, they find themselves
ments in any business publication cer-
unable to differentiate their brands in
tainly gives the impression that hotel
relevant and sustainable ways.
• The difference between “modern luxury” and “traditional luxury” • Advertising luxury
brand managers have a pathological need to see themselves and their brand
Asking the Question
in the “luxury” category. The exceptions
In developing the brand essence for a
to the rule are a few mass brand compa-
well known chain of deluxe boutique ho-
nies that understand, like Motel 6, that
tel properties, we realised we needed to
it’s not a bad thing to be the Wal-Mart of
understand the underpinnings of luxury:
the hospitality industry. Of course, Holi-
what it is, how it is perceived and what
day Inns first understood the importance
are the attributes or triggers that make
of customer focused positioning, and led
luxury work. We also wanted to under-
the way in developing a hierarchy of
stand whether the experience of luxury
clearly positioned brands.
is changing, and whether we should be
Luxury brands, however, are still mired in their own worlds of “what we do” rather than “what you experience,” and as a result, many of these companies,
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looking at a different kind of luxury for travellers entering the marketplace now, as opposed to the more traditional luxury buyers.
find themselves playing a game of
To answer these questions, we devised a
“brand catch-up,” demonstrated by the
qualitative study that would explore the
business need to moderate rate struc-
underpinnings of luxury at an emotional
tures, develop two or even three tier
and experiential level. Interactive con-
pricing systems and suppress margins.
sumer response workshops were held in