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UK hotel industry brand equity : Its meaning and uses for brand management. BAILEY, Rob. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19302/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19302/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. 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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 UK HOTEL INDUSTRY BRAND EQUITY: ITS MEANING AND USES FOR BRAND MANAGEMENT Rob BAILEY A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2007 Collaborating Organisation: Thistle Hotels ^ \h c k A d. ABSTRACT Brand equity has been put forward as an important concept in contemporary brand management. However, it suffers from a lack of agreement over its meaning and uses. A particular lack of clarity exists within the context of the hotel industry. Against this backdrop, the research presented in this thesis sought to explore and evaluate critically the meaning and uses of the brand equity concept in UK hotel industry brand management. The literature review identified a variety of different definitions and operationalisations of brand equity. Even though there are multiple definitions of brand equity (which has led to much confusion), an overriding principle appears to be that brands, through the benefits they offer, can provide value to consumers. If brands provide value to consumers, loyalty will be created and consumers may be willing to pay a price premium for the brand. Brand equity has been viewed from both the consumer perspective (e.g., perceptions that consumers have of brands, and how this influences behaviour), and from the company viewpoint (e.g., the financial value created by the brand). Whilst the hotel industry branding and brand equity literature is limited to a small number of empirical research studies, the available evidence suggests a relationship between consumer-based brand equity and a brand’s financial performance. During the literature review, a conceptual framework was developed to illustrate proposed concepts and potential relationships between the stages integral to strategic brand management in the hotel industry. The framework also provided the direction and structure for the empirical research stages of the study. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the meanings and uses of hotel industry brand equity, two stages of empirical research were completed. The purpose of the empirical research was to investigate the interpretations which senior UK hotel industry practitioners gave in relation to different aspects of branding and brand equity management and measurement. The research focused on meanings attributed to the concepts, potential uses and operational challenges. The first stage of empirical research involved an open-ended questionnaire completed by a sample of 11 senior hotel industry management consultants. The second stage involved a qualitative case study which was used to explore, in some depth, the hotel industry brand equity concept. The subject of the case study was Thistle Hotels; one of the UK’s largest brand-owning hotel companies. Multiple methods were utilised during the case study, including in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 of Thistle’s senior managers, and reviews of relevant corporate documents. This study’s findings indicate that brand equity can be a useful concept for UK hotel industry brand management, although there is evidence to suggest that the concept has yet to be commonly-accepted in the UK hotel industry. This study forged a new multi-faceted definition and operationalisation of brand equity that can be used by hotel companies to build and manage the performance of their brands. The study posits that hotel brand value can be measured using a range of attitudinal and behavioural measures that seek to investigate consumer perceptions and behaviour towards hotel brands, and measures intended to capture operational and financial performance. This study makes an original contribution to knowledge in a number of areas including the following: it has created new definitions of the hotel brand equity concept and the core hotel brand concept; and a Hotel Industry Brand Equity Management Framework has been developed to assist hotel companies better manage the equity of their brands. This framework also provides an agenda for necessary future research that will further develop the findings and conclusions from this study and enhance the development of hotel brand equity theory. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people I must acknowledge who have helped me greatly during the completion of this thesis. First, I express my gratitude for the ongoing support and guidance provided by my supervisors Professor Stephen Ball and Dr. Kevin Nield. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to research under their experienced and friendly supervision. Thanks should also go to Dr. Tim Knowles for supervising me during the early part of the research programme, as well as John Swarbrooke for acting as a supervisor for an interim period. I also thank my company KPMG for funding my study thereby actually enabling me to embark on this research journey in the first place. Thanks must also go to the staff of Thistle Hotels who participated in this study. I am extremely grateful for the time they took out of their busy schedules to give to my research in terms of the interviews and subsequent telephone conversations and email correspondence. I would like to register my thanks to Professor David Aaker, Professor Kevin Lane Keller, Professor Howard Schultz and Professor Leslie de Chematony, four of the world’s leading branding and brand equity luminaries. I am extremely grateful for their helpful responses to my emailed questions and requests for information at various points during my research. Guidance and support has been provided throughout my research programme by my brother, Professor Richard Bailey. As always, my mother and father have provided ongoing support and encouragement. Finally, this thesis would not have been possible without the understanding and support of my wife Mikaela. This thesis is dedicated to Mikaela, and our children Morgan and Madeleine. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 9 1.1 Background 9 1.2 Focus of the research study 9 1.3 The research problem 13 1.4 Study aim and objectives 14 1.5 Justification for the research study 17 1.6 The researcher’s positionality 22 1.7 Thesis structure 23 1.8 Research outputs 24 1.9 Chapter summary 25 2 BRANDING IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY 26 2.1 Introduction 26 2.2 Size and structure of the UK hotel industry 26 2.3 Industry terminology 29 2.4 Hotel industry operational challenges 35 2.5 The concent of the hotel brand.. 42 2.6 Development of hotel industry branding 47 2.7 The prevalence of hotel branding 51 2.8 UK hotel industry branding 58 2.9 Reasons for hotel industry branding 61 2.10 Hotel industry branding strategies 67 2.11 Criticisms of the hotel industry brand concept 73 2.12 Chapter summary 74 2.13 Research proposition 76 3 THE BRAND EQUITY LITERATURE 78 3.1 Introduction 78 3.2 Branding 79 3.3 Brand equity 87 3.4 Contemporary interpretations of brand equity 92 3.5 Brand equity management and measurement 109 3.6 Criticisms of the brand equity concept 122 3.7 Hotel industry brand equity research 127 3.8 Chapter summary 137 3.9 Research proposition 142 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 151 4.1 Introduction 151 4.2 Theoretical framework 151 4.3 Research design 155 4.4 Data analysis methods 172 4.5 Credibility of the research findings 175 4.6 Ethical considerations 177 4.7 Research delimitations 178 4.8 Chapter summary 178 4 5 MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT RESEARCH FINDINGS 180 5.1 Introduction 180 5.2 Presentation of the research findings 180 5.3 ^Definition of hotel brand^ 181 5.4 Why hotel companies brand their hotels 185 5.5 f Benefits of hotel brands to consumers 189 5.6 ^Benefits of hotel brands to hotel companies 191 5.7 {Definition of a successful hotel brand 194 5.8 Measures of success 196 5.9 Challenges in trying to develop and manage successful hotel brands 198 5.10 Awareness and definition of the brand equity concept 202 5.11 Uses of the brand

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