Client Context
A rising luxury hotel brand sought to define a clear, future‑focused brand strategy as it expanded across diverse global markets with varying levels of luxury maturity.
The Business Challenge
As the brand looked ahead to the next phase of growth, it lacked a clear view of how luxury traveler expectations were likely to evolve across key geographies over the next five years. Customer definitions of luxury were shifting, influenced by cultural, economic, and experiential factors that varied significantly by market. The client needed to understand these regional nuances in order to build an integrated strategy that acknowledged these differences while delivering a cohesive guest experience.
Capabilities Applied
- Qualitative Research
- Competitive Landscape Assessment
Approach
A series of on-property in-depth interviews and mini–focus groups were conducted with luxury travelers in six cities around the world. Sessions took place in both the client’s properties and key competitive hotels to evaluate expectations, preferences, and emerging definitions of luxury across markets.
Impact
Insights informed a forward-looking view of how the luxury traveler landscape was likely to evolve, leading to the creation of three key pillars of the refreshed brand strategy. These pillars were designed to capitalize on the brand’s heritage and “Reason for Being” while also reflecting a more modern, relevant interpretation of luxury. The pillars were then tailored by geography, aligned to differing levels of luxury market maturity, and translated into a roadmap for implementation that could be followed as markets matured over time.
