Brand management strategy In 2001 the world's top 300 hotel groups ranked fifth boutique international hotel company (Choice Hotels International) is a typical mainly rely on the brand management strategy to grow up rapidly hotel group. It has realized rapid expansion of its global market scale and increasing brand value through brand franchising, multi-product brand combination, brand marketing and other brand management strategies in a short period of more than 20 years. As of September 2004, Boutique International with 8 brands has opened more than 5,000 hotels in 43 countries around the world, with more than 440,000 guest rooms; its business scope ranges from economic consumption, medium consumption to high-grade luxury consumption, with a wide range of services; its service targets include business travelers, vacation travelers, mass travelers, family travelers, freelancers and other social strata. The service targets include business travelers, vacation travelers, family travelers, freelancers and other social classes. The Northwest Commercial Travelers Association of Canada has awarded it "Best Hotel Chain of the Year" for three consecutive years, and in 1998, Consumer Reports named its Sleep Inn brand the best budget hotel in the United States, while Success Magazine named its other two brands--Comfort and Quality--Comfort and Quality Inn the best budget hotels in the United States. -Success Magazine named two other brands - Comfort and Quality - among the best brand operators. The great success of Boutique International in branding shows that branding has become one of the most important tools for competition in the hotel market. Brand is a kind of name, term, logo, design or their combined application, its purpose is to identify a certain seller or seller's products or services, and make it different from competitors' products and services; brand management refers to the enterprise for the basic situation of the market demand, to the core of the enterprise concept, with the brand as a means, through the brand marketing, brand promotion, brand asset management and other business methods to achieve the ultimate goal of maximizing the interests of the enterprise. Achieve the ultimate goal of maximizing the interests of enterprises. Advantages of brand management to enhance customer loyalty, the formation of differentiated competitive advantage of the hotel product is to provide intangible services to guests with the help of certain facilities, it does not have the physical product tangible characteristics, and the guests of the hotel product consumption is an experience of the service process, which has a diversity of characteristics. Due to the characteristics of hotel products and the existence of market information asymmetry phenomenon caused by the customer in the choice of hotel products at random, which is an unfavorable factor for the hotel to occupy the target market, expanding the market share. The hotel group's brand can set up a good corporate and product image in the minds of consumers, enhance their awareness of intangible products of the hotel, and promote the customer's preference for its purchase; and once the customer recognizes the brand of a hotel product, the next time the customer chooses a hotel product out of the reduction of purchasing costs and risk considerations will be chosen by the same hotel brand, and the multiple consumption experience will form habitual consumption, so that it will eventually become a loyal customer of this brand. Eventually become a loyal customer of this brand. The improvement of customer loyalty will help the hotel group to attract repeat customers and increase market share. The brand reflects the differences and characteristics of the hotel service products, a brand embodies the service personality value if the identity, emotions, preferences with the customer groups agree, then its loyalty to the brand will be irreplaceable. Therefore, personalized brand will help the hotel group to form a differentiated comparative competitive advantage, so as to occupy different market segments more effectively. Accelerate the expansion of the group, the formation of industrial convergence advantages brand management is one of the important and effective means to accelerate the expansion of the hotel group, it can make the hotel group to get rid of geographical restrictions, to brand to expand the development of space, expand the market scale, expand the market coverage, so as to promote the hotel group to embark on the scale of operation, the rapid expansion of the road. Its main form is franchising, hotel groups through the management model, business philosophy, trademarks, brands and other intangible assets of the transfer and franchise to use this way to rapidly realize the group's expansion. The expansion of the group's scale and strength will enable it to compete in the market in an advantageous position, on the one hand, it can accelerate the expansion of the group, on the other hand, it can attract more business partners to establish a good relationship with its market risk resistance, thus embarking on a virtuous circle of the development of the road. Promote the extension of the industry, the formation of diversified business advantages brand management has the advantage of brand value deferral. Hotel groups can borrow the successful brand image in the minds of customers, reputation, the original brand name for a new product line or enter a new industry, consumers and the public out of the trust and preference for successful brands will extend this brand loyalty to new products, increasing the chance of market success of the new products, thus promoting the rapid formation of the hotel group product diversification or industrial diversification pattern of operation. For example, the Accor Group is targeting at luxury and medium-sized hotels. For example, Accor Group has extended Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis and other brands under the Accor brand for different hotel segments such as luxury, mid-range, economy, etc., so as to achieve the purpose of clear product positioning to effectively occupy different segments of the market. The basic mode of brand management single brand management mode single brand management mode is the hotel group to its production and operation of all hotel products are using the same brand name, its advantage is to be able to focus on the enterprise financial and material resources to shape a single brand, is conducive to accurately convey the unified corporate philosophy and business philosophy; its disadvantage lies in the unfavorable and a variety of grades of hotel products compatible, resulting in a fuzzy image of the product. Foreign hotel groups in the use of single-brand business model mainly use the company brand, that is, directly using the hotel group's company name as the product brand name. This mode is mainly applicable to the implementation of target-aggregation strategy of the hotel group, for example, Canada's Four Seasons Hotel Group will be the target market positioning for the global high-end hotel consumer groups, so the use of corporate branding strategy clearly reflects the product positioning of the luxury hotels, so that its luxury hotels in the global market to obtain a high market share. Multi-brand combination business model Multi-brand combination business model is the hotel group in **** the same company mission, business philosophy, under the guidance of its production and operation of different segments of the market products with different brand names. It mainly has the following three types: 1. Independent product brand combination Independent product brand combination refers to the hotel group for its operation of each hotel products are crowned with their own independent brand, each brand for a specific market segment personality "tailor-made", so as to achieve a clear product level and functional differences; its shortcomings lie in the lack of a unified corporate image, too many brands. The disadvantage of this is the lack of a unified corporate image and the dispersion of marketing resources caused by too many brands, which is not conducive to the formation of famous brands. In this regard, the world's leading hotel group --- Sundart Hotel Group is a successful model, it is for luxury, mid-range, economy and other different grades of hotel market segments targeted at the launch of the Hawthorne brand, Knights Inn brand, every day inn brand and other independent product brands, accurate product The accurate positioning of product image makes it maintain a high market share in various market segments.2. Classification brand combination Classification brand combination refers to the hotel group's operation of various hotel products according to a certain standard classification, each category of products with their own independent brand. The advantage of this combination is not only to overcome the single-brand combination of business models caused by the shortcomings of fuzzy brand positioning, but also to overcome the independent brand combination of high marketing costs, not easy to manage and other shortcomings. For example, St. Dart Hotel Group's Howard Johnson brand (Howard Johnson) by the Howard Johnson Express Inns (Howard Johnson Express Inns), Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel (HowardJohnson Plaza-Hotels), Howard Johnson Hotels (Howard Johnson Hotels), Howard Johnson Inns (Howard Johnson Inns) four. Howard Johnson Inns) four different brands of the same type. 3. Mother-child brand combination Mother-child brand combination refers to the hotel group's operation of the hotel products with two brands, namely, "mother brand + sub-brand", the mother brand on behalf of the group's overall image, to convey the company's business philosophy, to provide credibility for the sub-brand; sub-brand of the mother brand to play a role in the mother brand to guarantee; sub-brand of the mother brand. The mother brand represents the overall image of the group, conveys the company's business philosophy, and provides credibility for the sub-brand; the sub-brand adds personality and vitality to the mother brand, enriches the connotation, and enhances the value of the support. Hyatt hotel group is a typical representative of the use of this brand combination, hotel mother brand "Hyatt" to show customers the overall image of the group's high-quality products, sub-brands (such as GrandHotels, ParkHotels, RegencyHotels) from the hotel grade, service features, etc. to provide customers with different personalized services. Sub-brands (e.g. GrandHotels, ParkHotels, RegencyHotels) provide customers with different personalized services and value experiences in terms of hotel class, service features, etc., which enriches and enhances the image of the parent brand. Each of the above brand management modes has different advantages and disadvantages, and hotel groups should choose the brand management mode that meets their own actual situation according to the different missions and business strategies of their respective companies. Capital operation strategy capital operation as a successful business model of foreign hotel industry has been introduced into China for more than 20 years, which has played a positive role in the rapid development of China's hotel industry as a "catalyst". China's hotel industry in the capital operation of the road has gone through a single form of joint venture characterized by the budding stage and a small number of hotel enterprises to try to use a variety of capital operation mode of the initial stage, but has not yet been in the industry as a whole to implement this business model on a large scale. After joining the WTO, the series of challenges brought by the entry of international capital and the overall hotel industry in China are in the state of micro-profit or even loss in the background, learning the successful mode of capital operation of foreign hotel groups is of great significance to improve the overall business performance and international competitiveness of China's hotel industry. With the strengthening of the trend of global economic integration, the world's hotel groups in order to compete for the global market as the core of the new round of mergers and acquisitions intensified. Throughout the development of the world's leading hotel groups, they are generally mergers, acquisitions, reorganization and other capital operation means to achieve the group's rapid cross-regional expansion. For example, in 1953, the founder of the Holiday Inn Group, Kemmons Wilson, started the hotel group "franchise" first, to 1957 sold 18 franchises, realized the franchise in the hotel group's initial success in the expansion, and then Hilton, Sheraton, etc., the introduction of this approach to quickly realize the group's low-cost, high-profit Expansion; Hilton Hotel Group in the 60s, the first "management contract" mode of operation, successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1964, becoming the world's first publicly traded group of companies in the hotel industry, in 1998, in its annual financial report formally put forward "the company is focused on the operation of the hotel industry, the company's business, the company's business, the hotel industry, the hotel industry, the company's business, the company's business, the company's business. Through mergers, purchases, chain operations and other ways to expand the number of hotels owned by the group"; Ford Hotel Group in the United Kingdom in order to enter the world's luxury hotel market, the acquisition of the Meridian Hotel Group (Le Meridien) in 1994, and rapidly accelerated the pace of its global expansion in 1995 in order to focus on operating the Meridian brand and the sale of the Travelers Inn Associates in the United States. In 1995, in order to focus on the Meridian brand, it sold 490 hotels in the United States. The above examples illustrate a fact: capital operation is one of the important management methods for hotel groups to optimize the allocation of corporate resources to maximize profits or capital appreciation. Capital refers to the value that can continuously increase in value in the movement, and this value is expressed in the currency advanced by the hotel to carry out service operation activities. Hotel capital operation refers to the hotel to the pursuit of maximum profit or maximum capital appreciation for the purpose of value management as a characteristic, depending on the hotel has all the tangible and intangible social resources and factors of production for the value of the capital can be operated, through economies of scale to save money. Over the past few years, the supply side of the hotel industry has gained an advantage in the supply-demand relationship in the luxury and upscale segments of the market. Starwood Hotel has thus gained a lot of circulation, acquisition, merger, restructuring, equity participation, holding, trading, transfer, leasing and other ways of optimizing the allocation of hotel capital and factors of production and dynamic adjustment of the industrial structure to achieve capital appreciation of a mode of operation and management. The ultimate business goal of a hotel group is to maximize profits and cash flow. In order to achieve this goal, Starwood has taken measures to: increase the profitability of existing hotels and casinos; selectively buy new hotels; and increase the number of the group's hotel operating contracts and franchise agreements. In order to increase revenues, the Starwood Group has expanded its source markets and other resources through a balanced and efficient allocation of its assets worldwide and, through earnings, has significantly increased its average daily rate (ADR), which has been accomplished primarily by replacing products offering discounts with higher-priced products and by selectively increasing room rates. The following is a brief description of the Group's specific operating and management strategies.1. Internal development opportunities ITT and the joining of Starwood's traditional hotel business by oneworld's assets and operating methods have provided Starwood Hotels with significant opportunities to increase the combined company's overall market share, reputation, and scale, thereby enhancing the operating efficiency of the company's hotels and casinos. The following are internal development opportunities that could increase the group's operating efficiency and profitability. (1) Revise the market positioning of the Group's brands, thereby further increasing their visibility. By replacing the brands of some of the hotels that are owned by the Group under Sheraton, Oneworld, Four Points or the new St. Regis, Starwood hotels further expand the prestige and market share of their brands, thereby increasing the average revenue from saleable rooms and improving operating efficiency. (2) Expand Starwood Hotels' scope in acting as a third-party manager of hotels, which would extend the reach and market strength of the Starwood Hotels brand and allow for more cash volume with less investment. (3) Franchise the brands of Sheraton, St. Regis, Oneworld and Four Points to selected third-party operators, thereby expanding the market share of the Group's hotels and increasing the visibility of its hotel brands, and the franchise fees also enable the Company to generate more revenue. (4) Integrate hotels owned, managed and franchised by the Group into a single, multi-branded reservation system, coordinate global sales departments to increase revenues and profits and improve service quality by increasing the Group's Internet presence, reach and sales capacity. (5) Implementation of the Group's Frequent Flyer Program, which the Group believes will help hotels increase room occupancy rates and benefit both hotel and casino guests. on February 3, 1999, Starwood Hotels & Resorts launched the Group's "Frequent Flyer Program," called Starwood Preferred Guest. Frequent flyer programs are nothing new in the travel industry. The airline industry first introduced frequent flyer programs about 20 years ago to reward loyal business travelers. But Starwood's Frequent Flyer Program was presented in a significantly different format than other hotel programs, with the tagline "Unmatched Competitive Advantage Frequent Flyer Program," and the ambition to outcompete other frequent flyer rewards programs. Business travelers who participate in the program can earn points and redeem rewards for stays at the group's 550 hotels and resorts in 60 countries. Existing "hotel frequent flyer program" is often too cumbersome, many guests appetite, Starwood's new program to learn from the lessons, the implementation of the simplification, the guest in the hotel to spend a dollar, you can earn two points. As for the rewards, guests have two choices, either a free night or converted miles - Starwood partners with 20 airlines, so two points can be converted into a mile. Hotel rewards also include anytime stays with no restrictions, including the hotel's high season. The program has been a big success right out of the gate, with check-ins and registrations at oneworld and Sheraton hotels increasing four-fold in April compared to the same month last year. It bagged a number of awards in its first year of launch, winning five of the nine top honors. It was named Best Hotel Frequent Flyer Program of 1999 by the Freddie Awards, and was also honored for "Best Customer Service," "Best Web Site," "Best Upper-Level Customer Program," and "Best Achievement in Rewards Programs." In addition, Starwood's "Starwood Guest" program has been recognized as the best hotel rewards program by "USA Today" (USA Today). (6) Enhance marketing efforts by consolidating and organizing all of the Group's own guest databases to promote additional products to existing customers, increase room occupancy, and create new marketing opportunities. (7) Optimize the Group's use of its real estate holdings to increase ancillary revenues, such as those derived from the operation of restaurants, bars and parking lots in the Group's hotels and casinos. (8) Creation of a new "W" brand of hotels to cater to business guests who require an upscale level of service and other guests in key source markets who are in need of small, full-service hotels. The first W Hotel was established in New York in December 1998, and there are plans to build more W Hotels in San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and New Orleans. 2. Seek external development opportunities. Starwood hotels are constantly looking for opportunities to expand outward and diversify the group's hotel and casino portfolio. The primary means of doing so is through small investments in, or selective acquisitions of, properties within and outside the United States that meet all or some of the Group's required standards. The criteria for Starwood hotels are as follows: (1) Luxury, upscale, full-service hotels located in major metropolitan or commercial centers. (2) Major tourist hotels, resorts or convention centers that also meet the following criteria: well-developed source markets, significant industry barriers in the market in which they are located, or located in areas where there is a strong demand for guest rooms, such as office or retail complexes, airports, tourist attractions, or university districts. (3) Hotels with untapped potential that can be fully developed by rebranding under the Group's own hotel brands, introducing more specialized and efficient management techniques and methods, and/or investing in the renovation, expansion or repositioning of the hotel. (4) A cluster or group of hotels that meets some or all of the above criteria. The premise is that purchasing several hotels at one time will allow Starwood to obtain a more favorable price or acquire attractive properties not otherwise available.

In addition, Starwood is expanding its casino business by expanding the Caesars brand around the world and selectively developing and building valuable hotels and casinos to help the group meet its strategic goals. Starwood Hotels & Resorts International signed 112 management and licensing agreements in 1999 and has exceeded its planned targets by 12 percentage points. Starwood won a competitive bidding process to manage several hotels under construction in the Boston Convention Center, including a 1,120-room Sheraton Hotel; a newly constructed W Hotel in the GUARDIAN LIFE building in New York City's Union Square; and an international W Hotel in Sydney, Australia. In addition, many of the world's leading hotels have joined Starwood's portfolio, including the former ESSEX HOUSE Hotel in New York City, which has been renamed the Huan Ding Hotel, and the former President Hotel Wessex in Geneva, Switzerland, which has been renamed the Premier Selection Hotel. In addition to the 112 new agreements, 30 other management contracts, some of which have expired or have been transferred to third parties, have been renewed by Starwood. In this way, Starwood retained its three most iconic hotels, the oneworld Century Plaza in Los Angeles; the Sheraton Park Castle in London and the Sheraton Frankfurt in Germany. Through the process of global expansion in 1999, Starwood signed 53 new contracts in North America; 28 in Africa, India and the Middle East; 13 in Europe; and 12 in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.3. Integration as well as innovation in the way hotels are operated. The combination of the Group's current traditional business practices with those of the Oneworld and ITT Groups has created many opportunities for the Group to realize long-term cost savings. For example, economies of scale to feed expenses in procurement and insurance, and to eliminate unnecessary duplication in routine services and management. The convergence of approaches also creates opportunities for the Group to adopt a fully integrated frequent guest program and reservation system, and to improve operational efficiencies by replicating the approach of a particular brand of hotels across the Group, for example, by extending the "best practices" of oneworld, Sheraton or other Group hotels across the Group. At the same time, Starwood has continued to adopt bold, innovative management concepts and to explore new markets. This is reflected in the use of the Internet and the introduction of new management and service concepts across all hotel brands. The use of the Internet in business started in 1995 and has grown rapidly in recent years. The use of the Internet in the hotel industry has become increasingly common. However, the most common phenomenon for online retailers is that they are still operating at a loss. However, many hotel groups are now beginning to profit from this, Starwood being one example. As early as July 1996, Starwood Group set up its own Web site, has entered the profit stage. 1996 online room bookings amounted to $ 1 million, in 1997 to industry continues to climb: in 1997 for 10 million, in 1998 25 million, and in 1999 about $ 100 million. This success is largely due to Starwood's constant adaptation of the site to the changing needs of actual and potential users, making it easier for users to use the system to make travel inquiries about destinations. Users who were looking for information about the hotel are now looking for a more authentic feel for the hotel's surroundings and its destination. Starwood's site has a lot of real-life images and offers visitors a virtual reality tour of the hotel to give them a more realistic experience. Starwood has redesigned its homepage to better serve travelers for whom destination is a priority. Upon logging on to the site, users are presented with a world map, and by clicking on their favorite destination, they can find Starwood hotels built in that area. Also, in keeping with the standard branding strategy, the lower portion of the homepage features distinctive logos for each Starwood hotel brand, which can be accessed by clicking directly on them, making it easier for loyal guest rooms that are keen to participate in the Brand Loyalty Program brands. Expanding the width of the network, organizing and categorizing videos of hotels and destinations, and providing ancillary services all involve increased costs, which are doubling every year. So in order to reduce costs, Starwood puts a lot of emphasis on working with specialized web companies, limiting itself to what it specializes in and what it has to control. This keeps the cost of online booking at the same level as other booking methods and the cost of online booking is decreasing every year. The Sheraton's approach to hotel operations and human resource management is continually recognized as a best practice by the Cornell Hotel Institute.Each year the Sheraton Elk Grove implements a new practice to improve financial viability and customer and employee satisfaction. The hotel's Hospitality Committee seeks out, identifies and implements a new, broad-based business program. Each member of the Hospitality Committee is responsible for the implementation of one of the program's key processes. The Sheraton-Denver West's innovation in people management is to have two sales managers in the same full-time position. The advantage of this is that the cost of hiring one staff member to explore the management talents of two staff members and make full use of their energy and skills. In practice, the employees' managerial talents are identified and they are given a 90-day probationary period to demonstrate their talents. During this period, employees are paid on an hourly basis. Starwood also spared no expense in improving customer satisfaction. A study of 600 business travelers by Guideline Research, commissioned by Huan Ding Hotel, concluded that the best service a hotel can provide is a good night's sleep. Based on this information, Starwood spent a year to study the design of a new bed, to all the hotels are set up this new bed, the total **** cost of 30 million dollars. Starwood's managerial and supervisory staff from 35 hotels in the United States to select 50 kinds of beds in the lobby for comparative testing, the results of the use of the Huan Ding Hotel's "heavenly bed" (heavenly bed). As of August 1999, Hundreds of such beds have been installed in 7,400 rooms in 20 hotels, allowing its customers to enjoy a "heavenly" sleep. Holiday marketing at the end and beginning of the year, the food and beverage sales of major hotels have entered the golden period. Christmas, New Year, Spring Festival, Valentine's Day and other festivals become the best time for consumers to focus on consumption. The major hotels have developed a variety of marketing plans, make every effort to recruit customers, in order to take advantage of the year's last opportunity to enhance the benefits, and make a good start in 2005. An overview of the implementation of food and beverage marketing over the years, you can find that today's food and beverage marketing planning seems to have entered a kind of misunderstanding, that is: holiday marketing is to engage in activities, each family has launched activities, the prizes more and more bizarre, and even the development of tens of thousands of dollars of computers, travel, etc., these activities will undoubtedly receive a miraculous effect when held, the hotel for a time business is booming, full of friends, but the activities of the past, immediately and again! Become cold and quiet, a similar situation is very common everywhere. Here it is necessary to study the laws of the market, put forward in line with market demand for marketing planning, from the perspective of long-term development for the hotel next year's operation to lay a solid foundation. The following six aspects to explore the main strategies of holiday food and beverage marketing. First, according to the different composition of the source market, product integration, the introduction of product combinations in line with market demand catering marketing, in the final analysis, the marketing of the hotel's main products, that is, the hotel's dishes, drinks, services and intangible brand and culture. During the holidays, the hotel's main source of customers, whether it is a star-rated hotels, or roadside restaurants, socialized mass consumption will become the mainstream, family dining, friends and family gatherings are the main source of this stage of the composition. Then the hotel's products should be to meet the needs of such guests as the main dish requires light taste, both young and old, the amount of food, moderate price, and the timely introduction of various grades of banquets, interspersed with specialties, signature dishes, new dishes, etc., so that consumers can comprehensively understand the level of the hotel's chef, to promote the hotel's image of the establishment and promotion of the brand. This is the main purpose of holiday marketing, but also many catering activities in the theme of the project. Second, the requirements of marketing activities with prominent themes and distinctive cultural characteristics of the organization of marketing activities is the main performance of holiday marketing, but also to create a festive atmosphere of the main way. As the background of these holidays are different, the differences between the characteristics of Chinese and Western culture should be revealed in the process of marketing activities. For example, there should be differences in the layout of the restaurant, the design of the dining table, the printing of the menu, background music and lighting, and the content of the activities. In this regard, the practice of many hotels is worth advocating. During the Christmas season, including Christmas tree decoration, Santa Claus distributes gifts, children's choir performances and other activities; in the New Year and the Spring Festival, to the hanging of red lanterns, the word "blessed" stickers, the early hours of the clock countdown, the issuance of red envelopes and other activities; in the Valentine's Day, it is the roses, chocolates, candlelight dinners, violin accompanied by music and so on. On Valentine's Day, roses, chocolates, candlelight dinner, violin accompaniment, etc. are used as the main expression of marketing. In this series of activities, must grasp the "authentic", "original flavor" principle.