Mar 19, 2009 0
Times might be tough but don’t kill your brand image with the wrong message
Recently I read Chris Brogan’s post about Sending the Wrong Message and found it very interesting and a good catalyst to think about brands and their messages. I have kept these ideas in the back of my mind when walking around Shanghai and have seen some good messages and some wrong messages. Some messages that I may think are personally wrong sometimes just cultural differences as a westerner in Shanghai. However, today I think I saw a perfect example of when a message stood out as very wrong. I was coming back from Pudong to Jingan Temple and travelling up the escalator where there are often people handing out travel services cards or hawking goods, which I often ignore. However, today I took interest as I saw a young guy handing out highly polished brochures not the standard cheap one page or card pamphlet. To my absolute surprise it was a well know worldwide luxury 5 star hotel brand.
Now, at the moment I know times are tough in Shanghai and hotel occupancy rates are low. However, no matter how tough times get a 5 star luxury hotel shouldn’t need to hand out brochures at the top of subway station escalators. Especially when it’s usually the practice of hawkers pushing plane ticket services, copy bags and books. The brochure was something I would expect to receive in the mail as a hotel group customer or be given when checking in as it had some discount coupons for dinners and the gym. Maybe it was a brainwave one morning by the hotel manager to hand out some brochures; I hope for the brand that this is isn’t a regular occurrence as it seems a practice below the standard of a 5 star hotel. My question is if this is the message I get outside the hotel what type of message will I receive when I enter or check-in to the hotel?
