Co-creating consistent brand identity with employees in the hotel industry

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how brand identity is co-created, with a specific focus on how employees contributed to the process in a five-star hotel setting. The focus of this study is on understanding how two hotels planned and executed their brand identity strategy simultaneously, differentiating one from the other and how employees actively participated in this process. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal case study approach was adopted, centred on building the identity of two luxury hotels owned by a single company in Seoul, Korea. Various organizational documents were collected and analyzed to understand the brand identity of the hotels and how brand co-creation has been implemented. In addition, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 42 employees to understand the brand co-creation process from their perspective. Findings The brand co-creation process of the hotels was conducted simultaneously and evolved over the following four phases, with employees’ roles varying in each phase, namely, establishing a clear brand identity strategy; designing and selecting sensory identity; aligning organizational identity; and delivering brand identity through external communication. Employees that participated in brand co-creation enhanced their brand knowledge, developed emotional bonds with the brand and were motivated to deliver the brand identity. Furthermore, those that immersed themselves in the new brand identities were able to enable positive guest perceptions towards the brand image, which consequently enhanced employees’ pride in their work. Research limitations/implications This research advances the brand management literature in defining branding and brand identity elements, as well as emphasizing the importance of consistent branding. In addition, the current study expands the scope of internal branding, highlighting the process of brand co-creation and the role of employees as active participants. Moreover, it reveals that employees’ participation enhances not only their brand knowledge but also their emotional bonds with the brand. The proposed conceptual framework demonstrates the flow of branding elements, brand identity elements and the “infinite loop” of employee participation in brand co-creation. Originality/value The case study approach adopted here enables an in-depth investigation of employee participation in brand co-creation, including their different roles and activities in the process; a phenomenon that has not been adequately explored in previous research.

Addressing the COVID-19 challenges by SMEs in the hotel industry – a Czech sustainability message for emerging economies

“…Therefore, well-established and reported link between CSR and total quality management from hotel industry in other jurisdictions (Jalilvand et al , 2018) is not confirmed by this Czech case study. Further, this study indicates that the potential of sustainable brand co-creation is much less developed in Czech hotel industry than in other jurisdictions, see highly developed and digitalized Asian countries (Chung and Byrom, 2020). Finally, these consequences are rather determined by the situation caused by the COVID-19, i.e.…”

“…These challenges and their addressing involve basically each and every internal stakeholder. Especially the role of employees and their (un)readiness to reconcile the brand co-creation with these challenges (Chung and Byrom, 2020) and to go even more vigorously for mutually supported CSR and total quality management in the hotel industry is pivotal (Jalilvand et al , 2018). As well the growing role of the impact of social enterprises, including those from the hotel industry, on the economy in the Czech Republic needs to be appreciated (Tausl Prochazkova and Noskova, 2020).…”

Models for brand relationships

“…The brand meaning building process involves the identification of the components of the brand identity and the signalling to external audiences to create images (Veloutsou and Delgado-Ballester, 2018). The brand support team uses this internally shared set of symbols and associations (brand identity) as a basis of all decisions about the brand, using primarily marketing tactics, signalling to the market what the brand ideally means to its producer (Chung and Byrom, 2021). Signals originating not only from the brand team but also from other uncontrolled sources that refer to or are associated with the brand are received and processed by consumers who form specific views about the brand (brand image) related with a particular encounter or mention of the brand.…”

Tourism co-creation in place branding: the role of local community

“…The involvement of local communities (Daldanise, 2020), particularly local residents (Braun et al, 2013;Casais and Monteiro, 2019;Rebelo et al, 2020) or employees from the local hospitality industry (Chung and Byrom, 2021) engaged in transferring their collective experiences, feelings and aspirations to the place brand (Ind et al, 2020), activates these stakeholders as ambassadors of the place marketing process (Golestaneh et al, 2021).…”

“…This applies equally to tourism destination and place branding (Giannopoulos et al , 2021; Jain et al , 2021), considering the relevant outcome in brand equity (Buhalis and Park, 2021; Mohammadi et al , 2021). The involvement of local communities (Daldanise, 2020), particularly local residents (Braun et al , 2013; Casais and Monteiro, 2019; Rebelo et al , 2020) or employees from the local hospitality industry (Chung and Byrom, 2021) engaged in transferring their collective experiences, feelings and aspirations to the place brand (Ind et al , 2020), activates these stakeholders as ambassadors of the place marketing process (Golestaneh et al , 2021). There are examples of co-creation practices that have been able to effectively integrate key stakeholders through bottom-up approaches in place branding (Pryor and Grossbart, 2007; Hudson et al , 2017), allowing public participation in the process of identifying place identity and brand design (Kavaratzis and Hatch, 2013).…”