The importance of brand purity is something that came to my attention during Hotelier’s interview with The Rezidor Hotel Group president and CEO Kurt Ritter. Brand purification is an issue Ritter holds dear, following some valuable advice from “an old American”.

He said “if you can’t describe it, you can’t sell it”, recalls Ritter. A very good thesis he believes — and as a hotelier known to test hotel exhibitors on the distinctions between their different brands, a theory he has found to be true.

“If you have someone on a stand who cannot tell you the differences between their brands, then there is something wrong,” asserts Ritter.

No doubt your company has a presence at one or more of the major hotel industry events looming on the horizon — The Gulf Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM), Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC), Arabian Travel Market (ATM), HOTEC and The Hotel Show.

With Ritter’s point in mind, how confident are you that everyone representing your company knows the differences between each of your brands?

And if they can’t define your brands, is this down to their lack of knowledge, which can be addressed, or worryingly, to compromises over time that have blurred the boundaries between your brands?

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What distinguishes an ‘upper-upscale’ brand from a ‘deluxe four-star’? Or a “premium economy’ from a ‘mid-range’ hotel?

The definitions are important for several audiences — investors, potential staff and consumers — and valuable when both differentiating your own brands and standing out in competitive sets.

After all, if hotel brand standards are strictly adhered to, surely you can control the perceptions of these audiences?

This is not easy to achieve, but with more brands being introduced — no doubt there will be some new names at the aforementioned shows — hoteliers must be certain each one is distinct and memorable.
But as brand purist Ritter admits, “brands are never as pure as you think they are”.

While convinced of the purity of Rezidor’s brands today, he continues, “when I say we don’t compromise that’s also a little lie because I’m sure down the line we have compromised somewhere”.

“Little lies” aside, the brands — Radisson Blu and Park Inn — are now strong with properties “well worth the name,” says Ritter.

This, along with the almost exclusive targeting of emerging markets, has surely played a major role in the growth of Rezidor’s hotels.

Would your brands stand up to the “old American’s” tests?