This week, let’s dive deep into product development and branding within the hosp

This week, let’s dive deep into product development and branding within the hospitality industry, focusing on how they influence customer experiences and satisfaction. The branding conversation often begins with visual identifiers, like logos. However, in the world of hospitality, branding transcends visual imagery and infiltrates the essence of customer experiences. Think smells, service, evoked feelings. With the surge in the experience economy, the industry’s traditional paradigms—focused on tangible products and services—are continually being challenged and redefined.
Consider the Las Vegas market as an example. The ubiquity of offerings across nearly all integrated resorts — from rooms and restaurants to entertainment and gaming — poses a crucial question: How can a brand innovatively develop and market new products that offer differentiation while aligning with property identity and enhancing customer retention and satisfaction?
With this in mind, let’s try something new with the following exercise:
Identify a brand within the hospitality industry that you have personally experienced. Without overanalyzing, jot down the first three to five things that come to mind about the brand. It could be a logo, a memory of an experience, a sensory response, an advertisement, a descriptor, positive, negative – whatever your natural reaction is to that brand.
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Think about all of your touchpoints with this brand. Where do you see it advertised, and how? Is their presence consistent through all platforms (out-of-home, digital marketing, TV/Internet advertisements, activations, sponsorships, promotions, etc)?
Take some time to reflect on question one – why did you feel this way? What experiences did you have that led you to this response? Have you had a singular experience with this brand or visited regularly? Were your answers based primarily on your first interaction with the brand, or did subsequent visits or interactions with various brand touchpoints change your perspective?
Compare this brand to a parallel brand from a competitor. What products could this company offer to reinforce brand identity while further differentiating the brand from its direct competition?
Here are a couple of additional sources should you want to dive deeper:
Hunt, L., & Johns, N. (2013). Image, place and nostalgia in hospitality branding and marketing. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 5(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.1108/17554211311292411
Utama, I. P. (2019). The role of traditional product development in building relationship quality and its impact on resort hotel brand loyalty. GLOBAL BUSINESS FINANCE REVIEW, 24(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.17549/gbfr.2019.24.1.44