ROSEWOOD’S CORPORATE

BRANDING STRATEGY

Case Study Presentation By

Ushma Mehta
Shirali Patel
Rohit Shiva
Ankita Shreeram
Amrita Shinde
 Overview

 Rosewood is group of different hotels with each hotel being a

brand on its own
 12 properties in different countries
 Highly regarded and individualized properties
 Each property so distinctive that it could thrive on its won
 “Sense of Place” - Each Hotel exhibits local character, culture and
design
 Known for the ability to enhance a property’s value by creating
uniqueness, one of a kind property that differentiates it from
regular chain like competitors
 Nightly rate ranged from $120 for one of the Saudi Arabian
properties to $9000 for a Canadian lodge
 Competition

Corporate branded properties:

 Ritz-Carlton
 Four Seasons
 St. Regis
 One&Only
 Mandarin Oriental

Individually branded properties:

 Auberge,
 RockResorts
 Orient Express
Should Rosewood move from a house of
brands to a branded house?
 Advantages of individual branding
 The company became known for its ability to enhance a property’s
value by creating unique, one of a kind properties with a small ultra-
luxury residential style that differentiated it from other chain-like
luxury competitors.

 “Sense of Place” philosophy- each hotel has a local character and

culture of the given location.   Architecture and history in
implemented in each individual hotel which is very different
approach than chain-like competitors.   This was a power tool that
Rosewood had!
 Negatives of individual branding
 Guests were seeking a unique Rosewood property experience and are
not making the connection between Rosewood properties and were
increasingly indentifying with other strong hotel brands.

 Competition in the luxury hotel segment was intense and it was

becoming difficult to position Rosewood’s collections of properties in
an increasing crowded field of luxury operations.

 Current brand positioning substantially limited Rosewood’s market.

 Guests had a very low brand awareness of Rosewoods Hotels and

Resorts.
Weighing the pros and cons of
corporate branding…
 Advantages of corporate branding
 Better customer life time value
 Collective experience and status symbol
 Consistent service – in all aspects
 Encourage guests to use more than one property
 Better brand recognition and awareness
 High customer loyalty
 As per the survey, Individual brand or collection hotels had 5%
to 10% cross selling rates while corporate branded hotels
enjoyed 10% to 15% cross property usage rates
 Increase in number of guests
 Globalizes the brand
 Global data warehouse
 Brand-wide performance standards
Issues in Corporate Brand Promotion
 Internal resistance : Few Hotel Managers were inclined to
promote their own Hotel, others feared losing their autonomy
 Possibility of alienating old guests
 Less connected to the individual aspect of the hotels
 High amount of marketing expense
 Service standards and flexibility decreases
 Two fold collection growth strategy will not be followed
 Requires investment of USD 1 million/year
 We recommend…
BRAND
AWARENESS
BRAND LOYALTY
BRAND
EQUITY
QUALITY
BRAND BRAND
ASSOCIATION
• ADVERTISMENT • TRAVEL
• TARGET TV & MAGZINES. PACKAGES
• E-MARKETING • JOINT EVENTS

BRAND
LOYALTY
AWARENESS
BRAND

BRAND
QUALITY
ASSOCIATION
BRAND

• UNIQUENESS. • DESIGNER
• “SENSE OF PLACE” LOGO.
• H/L PROFILE
AMENITIES
 Build a Rosewood brand

 Build a brand now, before other chains picks up too fast

 Trade is in favor. They know the brand and educate clients
too
 Brand has been diluted in few years. Past guests knows the
brand well
 Difficult to compete with other Luxury Hotel Groups as vast
majority of market was focused on corporate branded vision
 Brands like Four Seasons have better recognition
 To fight competition in future
 Easy global expansion
 Suggestions

 Don’t dilute individual brand persona

 Subtly add Rosewood to it
 Get internal teams confidence
 Show them a bigger picture
 Incentivize trade and ask them to push a brand
 PR can do wonders
 Build a Rosewood membership plan
 Tie up with travel agencies/tour operators etc
 Basis for recommendation
Untapped potential: Building brand equity
Multi-property
5%

Retention
Retention 95%
40%

Non-retention
60%