Charlestowne Hotels, which has been in the independent hotel management space for four decades, considers each of its independent properties as its own brand. For both new-builds and existing hotels in need of a refresh, the in-house marketing and design team will create a brand identity unique to that property.
“Since our inception, our goal has always been to focus on each hotel’s brand identity and never speak about Charlestowne Hotels directly to a consumer,” said Michael Cady, chief marketing officer, Charlestowne Hotels. “You’ll never see our flag anywhere because we operate in an altruistic way, meaning each individual hotel is the star, and Charlestowne Hotels is in the background just holding the spotlight.”
The company manages nearly 50 independent hotels, including two soft-branded properties. Cady said Charlestowne would like to manage more soft-branded hotels.
“We love it because we’re able to infuse the brand identity of that particular hotel and put all of our creative resources and our graphic design and make it truly its own, but it has the distribution system and management power system of a brand, so it’s like the best of both worlds,” said Cady. “We have The Memphian in Memphis, which is a Tribute Portfolio hotel. We also have Hotel Marcel in New Haven, CT, which is a Tapestry Collection by Hilton product.”
Charlestowne’s brand-building process works on new-builds and existing properties in need of a refresh or repositioning. The company has a group of creatives, strategic marketers and content writers to work on the project.
“The process starts with an all-day kickoff with the appropriate parties, including the hotel owners, the architect or interior design firms. From our side, our COO and director of operations assigned to that property, the creative team and marketing manager also attend,” said Cady. “We really focus on three big buckets.”
The first is brand strategy. “It’s brand positioning, brand pillars, personality, brand copy, tone of voice, etc.,” he said. “It’s the overall content and narrative of what the property is supposed to be and trying to figure out how to differentiate it from others. We focus on brand essence, mission, vision, guiding principles and unique point of difference.”
The second is creative strategy. “That’s logo development, the style guide, creation patterns, textures, brand concepts—the look and feel of it,” he noted.
The final bucket is developing and executing. “It’s website, collateral, OS&E activations, programming, music and scent choices, social media, etc.,” he said.
He added, “From start to finish, it’s super collaborative, and each phase builds off the phase before. The brand process is far more than just a logo and some colors and fonts.”
Ultimately, the management company creates a brand book, which contains all of the materials an owner, developer, architect and designer need to create that brand vision.
“A finalized brand book is priceless to an architect or an interior design because they’ll take that book and infuse the branding within their deliverables and their touchpoints,” said Cady. “It also helps our operations team because, when we hand the book over, it gives them a baseline to take the brand and infuse it, and then they take it to a better level with activations, programming and guest touchpoints. They are the ones that really make it happen.”
He said that owners appreciate the work the company has done in making their property’s identity unique to others.
“It’s really cool to see how much these projects mean to the owners, because our branding process really digs deep, and we obtain some pretty fascinating information as to why the owners are even building, developing or repositioning a hotel,” said Cady. “We try to pull a ton of insights out of the owner, which makes the hotel identity more special. The more emotion-infused strategy that comes from the branding, the more succinct the brand story is.”
This year alone, the company refreshed the brand identity of 10 hotels in the current portfolio. Among them were the aforementioned The Memphian; The Collector Luxury Inn & Gardens in St Augustine, FL; Deer Path Inn in Lake Forest, IL; and the French Quarter Inn in Charleston, SC.
“We’ve also developed three new brands from scratch this year,” said Cady. “One is in Charleston. Another is in Santa Fe, NM, which we’re opening next year. The other is in Aspen, CO, which we are refreshing and relaunching next year, as well.”
When asked about the company’s pipeline, Cady said, “Currently, we’re working on three hotel developments, and all of those projects are in the branding phase. We’re also repositioning and relaunching the hotel I mentioned in Aspen. Hopefully, we’ll get a takeover or two at the end of this year or early 2025. We feel good about our calculated, organic growth, which has served us well for decades.”
