The main driver for the Marriott brands is their
relationships with the customers.
"Strong brands build relationships with customers based
on a set of values," said Belinda Pote, regional vice
president, brand marketing for the Asia Pacific &
Australia region of Marriott International.
"Brands create customer loyalty and therefore greater
revenue. "Strong brands also contribute to a company's
share value and therefore enables the company to invest in
more opportunities leading to growth in distribution which
for Marriott means we can increases our customer base and
preference over time," said Pote.
Its loyalty programme, the Marriott Rewards, brings
across to the market the brands it represents. "It enables
us to showcase our portfolio of brands and demonstrate the
benefit to the consumer of having the range of products to
earn and burn points us," she said.
With the proliferation of chain brands, Marriott said it
has made its mark with its culture, the Marriott
Experience.
It means doing "whatever it takes to provide our
associates with the utmost opportunities, and our
customers, with superior service".
Having a wide range of brands helps in no small way for
Marriott to meet the challenge of wooing new customers as
well as meeting old ones' changing preferences. "We
position our brands differently to cater for different
customer segments," she said.
"There is something for everyone, for instance a
Renaissance versus a Marriott."
Marriott, founded in 1927, has 17 brands. In all, the
chain has 2,500 lodging properties in the US and 69 other
countries and territories.
Pote explained they face the challenges of globalisation
by maintaining consistency in its standards and product
delivery, being able to make their brands relevant at local
level from market to market whilst retaining the overall
brand integrity for each brand.
Marriott is also moving into new markets where their
brands are not as well known and where they need to start
to build awareness.
Extensive distribution channels and marketing networks
give Marriott the advantage over the independent and
smaller chains, it said. Its advantage over boutiques
hotels, it said, is its much broader range of service and
features.
"Boutiques cannot provide the level of service and
functionality that the international chain hotels can
deliver," Pote said. "They are great in design but they
don't always meet the expectations of the business
traveller, for example."