Overview

Amari, one of Thailand's largest locally owned hospitality brands, has maintained a successful history of operating hotels and resorts in the Thai market for more than four decades, earning solid financial achievement and upward growth. Its portfolio spans the country in attractive mountain, city and beach locations, including both thriving tourist destinations such as Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Pattaya, and emerging destinations such as Koh Chang.

Amari's strength has always been in its management expertise and keen financial acumen, which enables the company to generate sizable returns for its business partners. However, with the changing global hospitality landscape, Amari's management decided to refocus the company's strategy; rather than positioning itself as a hospitality investment and management company in Thailand, Amari sought to positions itself as one of Asia's leading hospitality brands.

The Challenge

With a focus on investments and financial returns for its partners and providing a down-to-earth Thai brand of hospitality to its guests, the Amari brand came to be characterized by its functionality and practicality. The hotel products, both Amari-branded and non-branded, also varied in terms of physical appearance, ownership and service quality. Although well-known as a reliable company amongst its business partners and investors, the brand experience for the consumer market was often found to be inconsistent, leading to low brand recall. While the Amari product was a safe bet that could be counted on, the brand itself was not as successful in forging a lasting connection to its guests.

In order to stay on top of its market, as well as to provide a platform upon which the brand could expand internationally, Amari needed to create more than just a refreshed visual identity - it needed to build a strong brand culture which would be drilled down into every aspect of the network's operation and guest experience.

Solution

Keen's process envisions the new brand as its own culture, with distinct language and customs, to create an experience that will allow Amari to engage with its target at a deeper, more lasting level.

After analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the old Amari brand from a series of workshops and market research, Keen identified the company's roots in the tradition of warm Asian hospitality and its approachable, down-to-earth character as the core values that would form the essence of the new brand identity. Keen also sought to introduce a stronger element of desire to the brand culture so that the new Amari would be wanted - not simply needed - by its guests.

Built around the brand essence of celebrating the colours and rhythms of modern Asian hospitality, the new Amari identity repositions the brand as a resolutely modern Asian experience, imbued with vibrancy, Asian flair and dynamism, while staying true to the company's 40-year heritage.

Keen distilled the brand culture into a bold new visual identity for the brand, introducing a new logo featuring warm ochre tones and the new brand's signature parasol, a universally recognized Asian motif of hospitality. The brand signature 'Colours and Rhythms' was chosen to replace 'Hotels and Resorts' to emphasise the brand's broadened focus on experience rather than product, and a new colour palette, tone of voice and communication guidelines were developed. The new identity was then rolled out a full corporate identity, advertising concepts for both trade and consumer markets, a new website (www.amari.com), public relations strategy, brand video and other branded communications tools and collaterals that bring the new brand to life across the entire spectrum of properties and at the corporate level.

Keen has also guided the Amari team in embracing the new brand culture at the operational level. From human resources trainings to ensure that every employee lives the brand experience, and a gradual roll-out of new dining concepts, interior design and destination experiences, every aspect of Amari's operations will be derived directly from the new brand culture.

The new identity began its roll-out with a launch to the media on 14 October 2009 and will continue over the next six months, with a targeted completion date of March 2010, at which point the new brand will be fully implemented across the brand's 11 properties in Thailand.