CASE STUDY
ITC HOTELS
CRAFTED A BRAND STORY ROOTED TO EACH HOTEL'S INSPIRATION. BRAND ENJOYED A COMPETITIVE EDGE OVER YEARS.
BRAND RE-POSITIONING | BRAND STORY CRAFTED
Brand Overview
ITC Hotel is one of the top 3 leading hotel and resorts chain of India. The brand has 100+ hotels catering different Customer Price point and Experiences. ITC has developed over 8+ hotels branded as ‘ITC Luxury Collection’ Hotels. The Luxury Collection includes the Grand Central – Mumbai, Maratha – Mumbai, Maurya – New Delhi, Mughal – Agra, Windsor – Bengaluru, Gardenia – Bengaluru, Kakatiya – Hyderabad and Sonar – Kolkata. Today, the brand has redefined Luxury and Hotel business in India.
A typical hotel creative outlook given to a vision driven hotel chain.
When I approached the hotel; ITC Luxury Collection Hotels were being managed by India’s Top 2 advertising agencies. Unfortunately, the brand with such great inspiring stories hidden within the Vision and its property’s personality had no Brand Story to connect with its guests. The Brand Communication Creative looked like a typical Hotel Creative Template pasted to the client. The brand ended up reflecting an undesirable personality loosing to its competition.
Crafting the Brand Story: 'Inspiring India' by unfolding the hidden inspirational stories of each ITC Luxury Collection hotel.
It was the vision of Major Habib Rehman (ITC Hotels, Chairman) which truly created the marvelous ITC Luxury Collection hotels. Each hotel was build with the vision to Reflect the heritage values and stories of the soil it stood upon.
It was story I had to unfold and narrate to the world. It took us nearly one year of Research and Study to document the heritage values hidden within the hotel’s vision. I crafted the ‘Inspiring India’ pitch for these inspiring hotels. Post this, the vision got translated to individual property’s inspirational stories. The story got translated to eight hotels across India.
ITC GRAND CENTRAL narrated the story of real British Era ‘Bombay’ and the story was titled ‘REMEMBERING BOMBAY’.
ITC MARATHA celebrated the Stories and Culture of the Soil of Maharashtra. We narrated stories of Maratha Clad, Peshwas, the caves of Ajanta Ellora and the art of Warli. We used every customer touch point within the hotel to share the story with our guests.
Similar stories of each Eight Luxury Collection hotels rooted to the soil it stands upon was narrated to the world.
'Luxury' marketing is more about selling Experiences and Stories, its not about selling a 'product'.
ITC Hotel’s now enjoys a ‘Brand Love Story’ rooted to its vision and personality. The hotel’s new positioning became the biggest Marketing and Sales Strategy to differentiate its Product and Experience from its Competition. The new preposition became the biggest advantage to the hotel; enabling them to command premium pricing while offering an Unforgettable Living Experience for its guests. The hotel which was in the phase of rising to success, now had a platform to claim its True Leadership.
Luxury selling is not a ‘Science’ its an ‘Art’ few marketers have mastered. I would like to thank the leaders of ITC Hotels – Major Rehman, Mr. Nakul Anand and Mr. Dipak Haksar for the trust bestowed upon me for this inspiring Brand transformation.
STRATEGY TRANSLATION
Experience Speaks
ITC Hotels - Luxury Collection owes its Brand Positioning and its Brand Love Story to Mr. Nadeem Khan and his team. He is responsible to strategies and unfold the hidden Stories of each ITC Hotel including the ITC Grand Central and ITC Maratha.
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