Pop quiz: What lodging company owns the Park Hyatt brand? Too easy? Ok, let’s try another. What lodging company owns Thompson Hotels? Give up? It’s kind of a trick question because the lodging company that owns Park Hyatt is the same company that owns Thompson: Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
One more. Who owns Gain detergent? You may have guessed it, but the answer is Procter & Gamble, which, among its 80 total brands, also owns Tide, Era, Rindex, Downey, Cheer and Ariel. I’ve never heard anyone say: “That P&G owns too many laundry detergent brands!”
Dear reader, this was not an exercise to shame or demean your knowledge of hotel brands; rather, it was to illustrate that there is some confusion in the hotel space due to the breadth of brands (new and old) and constant consolidation that sees brands switching teams faster than a proven starting pitcher at the trade deadline.
A lodging industry conference isn’t complete until an executive is asked if there are too many hotel brands. The typical response is some variation on “no” and how there are gaps and segments to fill that fit customer need and blah… blah… blah.
Look, we all know that there is a surfeit of hotel brands (Accor has more than 50, for instance) and no one truly understands the nuanced distinctions between one mid-market brand and the next. That is precisely why I’ve given up trying. Yes, there are too many brands, but who cares? Does it really matter? To borrow from Dr. Strangelove: “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brands.”
I’ve given in and let the brand tides sweep me away. It’s easier this way. But it’s also practical. You need a PhD to discern the 50 shades of brands out there. So, I turned to one, Dr. Chekitan S. Dev of Cornell University, a hotel brand guru, who said there is empirical data to support my point but allowing that there is differentiation between goods and service brands.
In one piece of research, Dev wrote: “The best brands will not attempt to be all things to all people—thereby avoiding becoming everyone’s second choice. Instead, they will authentically be something to some people.” It’s a sensible sentiment: Too many brands don’t matter because only one matters, the one that someone identifies with, has an affinity for and gravitates toward.
They say there is someone for everyone. There is a brand for everyone. Whether it’s a shoe, a car, a shampoo or, yes, a hotel brand. My advice is to stop worrying about the glut of hotel brands on the market. Embrace them all and you’ll find your own.
