Mr. Giglio

Executive Leadership

The Creation and Development of a Brand -The Five Essential Components

By Gianluca Giglio, Managing Director, Ragosta Hotels Collection

The hospitality industry is undergoing revolutionary changes. Long gone are the days of opening the doors of a boutique hotel in a desirable locale and waiting for your guests to arrive. In order to be successful in today’s marketplace, hoteliers must first identify a potential brand opportunity to successfully create and implement a unique hotel branding strategy that allows their properties to compete in a global marketplace. In addition to identifying and developing that strategy, there are many other key factors that affect the overall success of the hotel including concept development, ownership philosophies, management styles, and guests’ needs and expectations.

As the managing director of Italy’s luxury hotel group, Ragosta Hotels Collection, we have worked to create one of the country’s cutting-edge hospitality groups in just over two years. Our organization is comprised of the critically-acclaimed Hotel Raito, located in Vietri sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast, Relais Paradiso on the Amalfi Coast and the soon-to-open La Plage Resort in Taormina, Sicily (opening in May 2010). The Collection is also planning to open a fourth property in Rome, Italy, late 2010. The Ragosta brand is known for creating hospitality experiences that truly reflects the lifestyles of its guests in some of Italy’s most spectacular settings.

With experience that expands nearly two decades focusing on hotel operations, finance, sales, marketing, yield management, reservations and branding, we have developed key elements in creating a hospitality brand suited to the ever-evolving patterns of travel.

Five Essential Components in Creating and Marketing a Successful Hotel Brand:

• Be a visionary-recognize a marketplace need

This is the first ingredient and, in most cases, the most important. The first step in developing a brand is identifying a need in the marketplace and developing a concept that will successfully fulfill that need. For example, in developing the marketing concept behind Ragosta Hotels Collection, the organization recognized the growing market segment of high-end, yet younger, travelers who were seeking hotel offerings that mirror their everyday life.

In its current state, the Italian hospitality industry had very little to offer this jet-set market. Ragosta Hotels developed a unique design concept and offerings (atypical from marketplace competitors) that would be standardized at all properties to satisfy the needs and demands of this emerging market. The hotels feature innovative architecture and design that embrace their natural surroundings, idyllic locations, customized amenities and services, complete wellness programs, and environmentally-friendly leisure activities - Arte di vivere –celebration of local culture and cuisine

• Do your homework

To ensure your property doesn’t mirror your competitor next story, you must be innovative. It is crucial to conduct an in-depth study your target demographic. What is it they are seeking from a hospitality experience, what makes them select one property over another and how can you meet and exceed their expectations, while still meeting your (and the guests’) bottom line?

At Ragosta Hotels Collection, we studied these questions to create a strategy that delivers a complex but truly unique product offering. Each property under the brand Ragosta brand is located in one of Italy’s most popular tourism regions (oftentimes a saturated market), so, again, we focused in on what travelers in our target demographic were specifically seeking and built offerings around that demand. For example, we treated the properties as if they were a luxury fashion good, adding unique highlights (high-end, modern furnishing and decor, cutting-edge F&B outlets, customized concierge services, hotel programs and services) throughout the property that allowed for us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.

In addition, we also incorporated a mass communication campaign to increase awareness for the hotel, offered exceptional value for the amount of money and truly personalized service that allowed guests to feel that they were part of something that was very exclusive.

In conjunction with our mass communications outreach, we studied new trends in the “social networking.” Given the current market, it has quickly become a need to employ these tactics. In the past, an unhappy client used to tell five others of their experience. Now, they can tell 5 million. As an executive in the industry, I suggest employing social networking tools to “tweet” messages around the globe in a matter of minutes, review internet sites to get immediate feedback from your clients while “networking” with them and measure your performance in real time. As an added bonus these components are effective sales & marketing tools and are all free of charge.

In the end, we found that our guests viewed our hotels as not just a place to sleep, but a rather place to be, which is exactly what our target demographic was demanding in their travel experiences.

• Be dynamic and adjust your management style to the modern hoteliers

In a perfect world, a limitless budget to create a new brand is standard; however, this is not, nor will it ever be, the case. In today’s hospitality market, most hotel owners around the globe are oftentimes real estate operators or investment companies who are rightly demanding an immediate ROI. As a brand developer, you must be prepared to learn and utilize a different style of business language and direction that meets the owners’ wishes while still developing a successful brand strategy. We have found that an executive in the hospitality business who has an open mind and a drive to deliver the right product to the shareholders and customers is much more successful.

• Incorporate inspiration and incentive to build a cohesive team

Again, in studying our target demographic of our key finding was that our audience, along with most other market segments, demand service excellence for their hospitality experiences. Although it can oftentimes be a challenging feat, it is crucial to create an outstanding team of players. It is important that the entire team shares the same vision and all efforts are aligned. On that note, the team must be property educated and trained so they are equipped with the essential components of the brand concept.

It is also important to recognize that not only does the organization’s full-time, in-house staff need to have a full understanding of the brand strategy, but outside contractors must be possess this key information. We have found that combining the efforts of hotel staff components such as architects, designers, developers, global contractors, PR agencies, photographers, owners, hotel executives and other suppliers can be incredibly difficult if they do not share the same core vision and are, therefore, unable to successfully work together to achieve the same overall goal.

• Exceeding your stakeholder’s expectations

This point it is undoubtedly the most vital aspect of the branding strategy. It is fundamentally important to deliver on all aspects of what you promised to stakeholders including owners, developers, regional officials, hotel staff members and last, but certainly not least, your guests. By exceeding your stakeholders’ expectations you will, in turn, effectively meet your financial parameters and achieve overall welfare and satisfaction of your key associates.

Gianluca Giglio is managing director of Ragosta Hotels Collection headquartered on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. Mr. Giglio began his hospitality career in 1989 at the U.K.-based De Vere Hotels and Resorts. In 2000, he served as the executive director of the Giglio Group Hotels, which features four and five-star hotels located throughout Italy. While at Giglio Group he held several operations and management positions eventually overseeing hotel operations including food and beverage and revenue management. In addition, Mr. Giglio oversaw operations and held management positions at properties at luxury properties throughout Europe and Italy. Mr. Giglio can be contacted at gianluca@hotelierlife.com Extended Bio...

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