A rotten recession makes business leaders super-sensitive about where they book their big meetings and conferences. Especially when it comes to the “R” word – no, not “recession,” but “Resort.”
A number of luxury hotels are dropping the word “Resort” from their names. Turns out, it’s not the brand name itself – Loews, Renaissance, Westin – that causes anxiety. It’s that 6-letter word at the back end of the name.
“We had a couple of clients say it was going to be written into their travel policies that they cannot meet at resorts,” the president of a hotel chain told The Wall Street Journal.
Executives at Loews hotels realized that several properties weren’t being considered by conference-site planners, because of the R-word. “We didn’t even have an opportunity to bid,” grumbled Loews’ global sales VP.
Call it the AIG Effect. The recipient of $180 billion in taxpayer assistance, the insurance giant faced scorching criticism over a half-million-dollar sales retreat it planned in late 2008 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in southern California. AIG canceled the event.
The hotel industry took notice, as companies and government agencies revised travel policies to discourage or prohibit staying at “resorts.”
Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort became, simply, Loews Lake Las Vegas. (Likewise, other Loews properties knocked “resort” out of their names.)
Ballantyne Resort in Charlotte, NC, became Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge.
Westin Stonebriar Hotel & Resort, outside Dallas, morphed into Westin Stonebriar.
Renaissance Orlando Resort at Sea World slimmed down to Renaissance Orlando at Sea World.
“It doesn’t change who we are,” said the sales director at the Renaissance property. “But there’s no reason to put roadblocks in the way of getting conference business.”
The general manager at the Loews property in Las Vegas says the name change could mean a 10% swing in business.
There’s a larger lesson here for marketers of all stripes.
1. In the real world, your brand name itself never operates in a vacuum. It is surrounded by many other factors that influence how people think of or interpret the brand.
2. As the banished word “Resorts” demonstrates, the back end of your name may communicate as strongly as the front end.
3. Pay more attention to your “specifier” or “signifier” (a terms linguists favor). Should it be: South County Hospital … or South County Medical Center? Bank … or Financial Center? Technologies … or Sciences? The words matter.
