Client:
A world class five star luxury hotel with everything working in their favour. They have an extremely strong brand presence built worldwide. A good clientèle and great business.
The problem:
Food & Beverages. A hotel of this repute was not attracting numbers as much as its counterparts. The pub and restaurant were doing bad. The room revenue was at par with its competitors but low profits in F&B can hit hard. With no way out, it was assumed to be a lack-of-advertising problem.
The real problem:
Lack of advertising as a problem seemed unreal. Louis Vuitton does not require mass advertising regularly. Unnecessary spend will dilute the brand image. So, I put this hotel through the litmus test.
Litmus test 1: The product
The food was cooked to perfection. The spread was huge and served well. It was absolutely clean. Ingredients can be customised. Cuisine was never boring as it ran on daily themes. The price was at par with the competitors and in fact priced a little lower too. Put together, it was a great deal.
Litmus test 2: Serviscape
You enter the restaurant, take your seat and are handed a menu that is filled with delicacies. They have taken care of all your needs. The time taken to cook your meal after you order can be spent by reading books, listening to the live band or just enjoy the beautiful ambience of the lake.
This is one place you would want to bring your VIP clients for any important business opportunities and your family for a special meal. It just cant go wrong.
Litmus test 3: Brand experience
The difference between serviscape and brand experience is very similar to the smile that is evident on the lips and never reaches the eye. This client had a problem with the brand experience. The guidelines followed are in line with the International standards and yet there seems to be a problem. We have all the requirements, but there is something missing that can be felt.
- The books to read while the meal is being cooked were there. But the topics listed do not match the up-scale taste. I would love to read a P.G. Wodehouse in a 5 star hotel, definitely not an Archie comic.
- The live band plays exquisite music, but not according to the theme. Listening to country on an Arabian night feels wrong.
- Menu is good. Menu cards are not. Design appeal was missing.
The Brand Experience
There is a brand vision. The brand experience needs to be consistent with the vision. If you are upscale and believe in “world-class service”, every little thing including curtain cloth will matter. The customer comes in contact with many moments-of-truth during his experience. Even a slight variation from the vision will result in low overall experience value. This can hamper the image.
The Starbucks Experience brings this out very well. They offer not just coffee. They offer an experience. Today, the product can be duplicated, experiences cannot. In fact, aligning it to the brand core is mandatory and probably the most important task.
Nice read. Well, I have one question in mind. How do you get the breakdown of low profit making sections in a hotel and compare the same among the industry levels(including competitors)?
I don’t have much info on this industry, but love to solve the problems
So brand experience is like an old friend, whom I would love to speak volumes to, but when I meet him all I need to do is just sit quietly next to him… and walk away knowing that you had the best conversation ever. “It is the unsaid things!”
Brand experience comes from the fact that you need to position yourself where no one has done it prior to you. For example the Deccan airlines – Once there positioned themselves as a common mans airline. Every touch point reinforced the brand.
When it comes to food, people have preference and love to stick by it. So it is kind of tricky