BRAND MANAGEMENT

TERM 5 END TERM EXAM

Prof. Avinash Kapoor

Rahul Samaddar
19P104
SECTION: B

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 1. How is the Park Hotel properties brand story embodied in its products, stores, employees,
and marketing and advertising? How strong is the brand story? What are the core brand
associations and meaning narratives associated with the brand? Should Priya Paul strive for a
consistent brand experience across the properties or continue to allow local customization via
the boutique model?
Answer
Let us look at how the Park Hotel properties brand story embodied in its products,
stores, employees, and marketing and advertising
Products and stores: The Park’s brand story was about being the cool and hip place for
people to go-to post the economic liberation in India in the early 1990s when people had the
ability to spend but suffered from lack of options to go to.
The hotels featured trendy, gourmet restaurants with unique design motifs, and vibrant, popular
nightclubs featuring live music.
Marketing and Advertising: By offering creative architectural features and a more informal,
welcoming approach to guest interactions, Paul distinguished The Park's properties. They also
introduced fun places to hang out including lounges, pubs, and chic restaurants that were a little
more adventurous in terms of food, cool music and fashion events organized.
Employees and service: They concentrated on providing their guests with a relaxed, intimate,
and friendly experience and therefore had a smaller number of rooms than a typical hotel.
Boutique hotels were initially packed with individualistic, eclectic, and spirited guests drawn to
their non-traditional atmosphere and eccentric service.

How strong is the brand story?

When The Park began in 1980s, there weren’t many players in the boutique hotel industry. They
capitalized on this first mover advantage and ensured they positioned their brand as such, with
each hotel having its own one-of-a-kind, individual character.
Not only were they places for travelers to rest their heads, but they were also meeting places in
the town they are in. Travelers felt like they were involved in a local hub if they were a guest at
The Park's hotels.
Core brand associations and meaning narratives associated with the brand
The Park followed a sub-branding approach with different hotels in different cities drawing from
their local heritage and culture:
Kolkata: This was the first of all the Park Hotels in the country and The Park, Kolkata leveraged
its expanded restaurant and nightlife offerings thus becoming a social magnet. In addition, Zen,
it’s Pan-Asian restaurant, also became a trendy destination.

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 Bangalore: In 2000, The Park Bangalore incorporated the illustrious past of the Indian silk
industry into its design with each floor being designed to represent a distinct facet of the city’s
urban landscape and thus created a niche of its own.
Navi Mumbai: The Park, Navi Mumbai embraced the city’s history of cultural fusion by adopting
a theme of East-meets-West.
Hyderabad: The Park, Hyderabad design elements represented the striking Nizam jewels, the
largest and richest collection of jewels in India, and also the state’s distinctive textiles.
Chennai: The Park, Chennai, incorporated Bollywood film industry cinematic themes to enliven
the Indian movie capital and came to life in the renovated Gemini Film Studio Building.
New Delhi: The Park, New Delhi leveraged the five elements of the science of Vastu Shastra

Consistent Brand Experience vs Local Customization via the Boutique Model

As The Park continues to scale up and attract visitors it becomes imperative to have a strong
brand recall and a more consistent image. The following factors help in deciding for a more
consistent experience moving forward because that would allow:

• Demand side benefits of higher brand awareness

• Brand building is focused/Concentrated
• Supply side economics (Cost efficiency)
• Concentrates brand reputation risk
• Brand dilution risk

The Landor audit found that the boutique hotel model no longer offered the distinction it once
had and that the main features of the model were already permeating the market and, given
their creation of boutique brands in other markets, global rivals coming in were likely to duplicate
them. In addition, the boutique had become a point of parity in the market and thus no longer
provided competitive differentiation.

The audit also found that the brand was ‘‘consistently inconsistent,’’ such that ‘‘each property
was almost like a separate brand in itself, which went against the aim of building one strong
brand and leveraging its strength for the benefit of the business.
Thus, keeping the above factors in mind, it became imperative to have a more consistent brand
experience.

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 2. Can sub brands generate strong brand equity? Is brand equity increasing, decreasing, or
holding steady over time? Asses and discuss the Park Hotel’s brand equity, using consumer
perceptual, brand performance and brand financial aspects
Answer
Sub branding refers to the introduction of a subordinate brand that categorizes part of a product
line within the whole brand system. Sub-brands help to formulate and structure offerings and to
modify, because sub-brands can change associations.
For example, it can ease access to particular associations of the parent brand and allow the
generation of more product-specific brand beliefs and associations. Sub-brands are thus a new
dimension below the parent brand, developed in order to change and improve the brand’s
meaning.
The below diagram illustrates the different types of brand architecture models that are being
followed by the leading brands of the world. It is evident that for The Park the Branded House
approach was being followed since the all the hotels used The Park as the master brand
and customized its offerings based on its location.

Now whether sub brands can be leveraged to increase brand equity is very subjective to the
brand architecture model that brands choose for themselves. While for some organizations the
House of Brands can result in increased brand equity for the overall brand but for others it might

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 actually lessen the brand equity of the master brand if the sub-brand creates a unique niche for
itself.
One of Landor’s findings was that decentralized nature of The Park Hotels prevented them
from building a strong, focused brand identity thereby limiting its brand equity. Raghavan
told Paul that each property was almost a separate brand in itself, which went against
their desire to build one strong brand and leverage its strength for the benefit of the
business.
Even though Landor realized that the differences across the portfolio were part and parcel of the
boutique hotel model but, on the other hand, the lack of consistency was causing problems for
the brand.
Hence it can be concluded that for The Park their sub-brands approach can be modified and
consistency across the facilities with a powerful brand story can increase the brand equity of the
brand to a large extent.

With due course of time new competitors both in the traditional hospitality industry as well
as in the boutique hotel industry were entering the market and The Park was losing its
niche slowly. Hence their sub-branding approach was diminishing their brand equity gradually
and they needed to adopt changes with respect to that.

Park Hotel’s Brand Equity:

Consumer Perception: As per Landor’s report consumers were deeming The Park Hotels a
‘‘tired product’’ with ‘‘outdated design.’’ The properties were seen by consumers as
delivering a notch below luxury. Even though the night clubs had a lot of footfall but many of
them did not translate to overnight stays. Landor’s research with consumers showed that the
product experience at many of The Park’s properties did not match consumers’ expectations of
the brand.

Brand Performance: Referring to exhibit 3, we can conclude that even though demand was
expected to pick up in 2012 but the growth for The Park hotels were negative for 5 out of the 7
locations were negative. Apart from Kolkata and Vizag, other major sites like New Delhi,
Hyderabad were not performing up to their potential.
Even though the demand has increased ~10% YOY (exhibit 4) in spite of the global recession,
the Park’s share has not increased by such a margin.
Exhibit 8 also hints at the fact that the brand’s performance was not up to the mark as most of
the locations were showing negative growth with respect to Occupancy rates, average
room rent and RevPAR.

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 So, in conclusion it can be said that there was this dire need of brand revitalization which is a
combination of the OLD and the NEW, retaining key elements of existing branding and adding in
important new components to increase the brand equity.

The 7 Steps to Brand Revitalization as applied by The Park Hotels is as below

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 3. Which of the three value proposition options should Paul choose? Why? which one is best
given the park’s past history, present circumstances, and future prospects? Given your choice
of a value propositions, which logo and service experience and RTBs would you choose to
implement? Why?

Answer:
Assessing the new positioning options:

Comparative Analysis of consumer segments

Creative Class Domestic Executives Foreign Travelers

Younger, urban.
entrepreneurial
Indians, movers, in Younger, upscale.
Customer fashion/film, upwardly Upscale Indian upwardly mobile.
Persona mobile, open-minded, executives Married traveling for business
hip, in touch with or leisure
global aesthetics and
trends, savvy
Enjoy luxury. fine food
Seeking out social
and drink,
encounters Wants -
Adventure. style- entertainment
local color Loves good
conscious, cultural Comfortable. modem
Needs deals Wants
engagement global luxury Wants
recognition and
aesthetics recognition and
pampering Wants
individualized
seamless connectivity
attention

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 More price sensitive More price sensitive?
due to age and Brand-building word-
Volume Recurring
profession. Higher of-mouth Global brand
revenue from frequent
Customer frequency due to high awareness Trip
travel (2x/month)
Lifetime Value likelihood of Indian Advisor
Loyalty Brand
travel. Future potential recommendations
ambassador
due to upwardly Little recurring
mobile status revenue
More luxury and
strong amenities
Less interested in (restaurants. dubs,
Wants to meet locals
Indian history/culture, lounges. nightclubs)
Value Proposition Desires Indian
more interested in Location near
must contain immersion
global trends. Less business is critical
experiences
luxury, more hip-ness Eccentric service will
be perceived
negatively
The Culture Curator Existing Park
Favored Value The Culture Curator
Traditional Luxury Boutique Social
Proposition Anti-Ordinary
Hotels Catalyst

The Park was truly different from the usual. It was unconventional and bold in its hospitality
practices, and even more so in what it wanted to be. It needed to differentiate itself by better
telling its story in an authentic voice. As they were growing in size, they realized the need for a
fresh brand experience. The Park is known for its creativity and innovation that is ingrained in
their collective DNA. They have always been known to design unique experiences and wanted a
fresh design language that reflects contemporary India.
It is a place where unusual experiences are possible, and one whose story begins with how it
treats its guests. The Anything but ordinary best fits their identity and it will come to life at The
Park’s high-impact service touchpoints.

Paul wanted the logo to portray the special qualities of The Park, to remind customers of The
Park’s pioneering boutique approach to the Indian hospitality market, and to emphasize that
there was only brand with the history of The Park and the commitment to providing
extraordinary hotel experiences for its guests

Based on the chosen value proposition the next task was to choose the new logo to be used.
Out of all the available logo options given in the case the fourth one with the highlighted ‘THE’
should be the go-to option as shown below because

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104

 Logo 1 Logo 2 Logo 3 Logo 4
Comprehensible
Impactful
Meaningful
Unique
Flexible

The Park Hotels should take inspiration from its design-driven heritage and its status as one of
India’s most hip and happening hospitality brands. In homage to The Park being the place to be
and be seen, the visual focus should be on “THE.” The revitalized design is also a tip of the hat
to The Park’s position as the original Park hotel in India. The identity’s simple but singular black-
and-white wordmark helps bring the colorful richness of The Park’s environments to the fore,
further helping it stand out in a crowd.

Armed with this new and compelling design, The Park Hotels can then hope to accelerate a
reappraisal of its brand, increase loyalty amongst its existing guests, attract new customers, and
command a premium for its brand and the unique experience it offers.

With respect to service experience the heritage of The Park group of hotels cannot be thrown
away by opting for a one size fits all approach. Local flavour and its amalgamation with the
atmosphere is everything that The Park had always promised and it shouldn’t shy away from
doing that. However, it is important to bring in strict levels of consistency with regards to
customer satisfaction of quality, service and that unique experience which is unmatched by its
competitors.

Subject: BRM Faculty: Prof. Avinash Kapoor Roll No: 19P104